it; yesterday morning acquainted the Cabinet with his intention of retiring; notified that resolution to the rest of his adherents in the evening, and resigned his post this morning. In fact, it would have been difficult to maintain it against a House of Commons in which, he had lost the majority, and in which the supplies are not yet voted. Parliaments are not to be governed when they will not give money to govern them by. This Parliament, too, has gotten an ugly trick of turning out even those who did pay them handsomely; and yet some people in the country are so visionary as to imagine they could improve the constitution or construction of the House of Commons. I don't know what such folks would have, if they are not content with the demolition of two Administrations in one year!

As Lord Shelburne has been routed by the united forces of Lord North and Mr. Fox, it is supposed that these two chieftains will form a new Administration of their friends, though neither will be the no

existence to do the duties of my station with all the ability and address in my power, and with a fidelity and honour which should bear me up, and give me confidence, under every possible contingency. I can say with sincerity, that I never had a wish which did not terminate in the dearest interests of the nation. I will, at the same time, imitate the honourable gentleman's candour, and confess, that I too have my ambition. High situations and great influence are desirable objects to most men, and objects which I am not ashamed to pursue, but even solicitous to possess, whenever they can be acquired with honour and retained with dignity. I have ever been anxious to do my utmost for the interest of my country; it has been my sole concern to act an honest and upright part. On these principles alone I came into Parliament and into place; and I take the whole House to witness, that I have not been under the necessity of contradicting one public declaration I have ever made. I am, notwithstanding, at the disposal of the House; and with their decision, whatever it may be, I will cheerfully comply. It is impossible to deprive me of those feelings which must always result from the sincerity of my best endeavours to fulfil with integrity every official engagement. You may take from me the privileges and emoluments of place, but you cannot and shall not take from me those habitual and warm regards for the prosperity of Great Britain which constitute the honour, the happiness, and the pride of my life; and which, I trust, death alone can extinguish. And with this consolation, the loss of power and the loss of fortune, though I affect not to despise, I hope I shall soon be able to forget,

This speech drew forth the warmest applause from every part of the House. "When Mr. Pitt delivered it, I was," says his college preceptor and biographer, "in the gallery of the House, sitting next to a young man who was then a great admirer of Mr. Pitt, but was afterwards one of his most determined and powerful opponents as a member of the House. He did not know me, but we had entered into conversation during the debate; and, when Mr. Pitt quoted this passage from Horace, he turned to me and said with great eagerness, Why did he omit Et mea virtute me involvo? An omission generally considered as marking equally the modesty and good taste of Mr. Pitt." On the division the numbers were, for Lord John Cavendish's resolutions 207, against them 190: thereby leaving the Ministers in a minority of seventeen.-En..

*Lord North.

minal Premier; the first declaring against being the Minister again, and the Duke of Portland being the ostensible successor of Lord Rockingham. From this junction the new Administration is expected; but how it is to be transacted, or how arranged, I am totally ignorant.

The triumphant party declare for adherence to the Peace, though they condemn it. Indeed, I hope it will be inviolate. It is not within the compass of my knowledge to pronounce whether we could have had better terms or not.* They are better than for some years, I have thought we could obtain: and though I was far from admiring Lord Shelburne's conduct last spring,† and have been as far from applauding his behaviour since, which has been improper in every light, still I am glad that he did make peace; and I am not less persuaded, that, had the war continued, we should not only have suffered still more, but made a peace much worse at the end. Lord Shelburne's motives may not have been laudable; his management of the treaty injudicious and rash; still I prefer the peace, such as it is, to continuation of the war. I believe I differ from some of my best friends;

* Dr. Franklin, in a letter of the 17th of March to his friend Dr. Jonathan Shipley, Dean of St. Asaph, thus maintains that better terms could not have been obtained: "The clamour against the Peace in your Parliament would alarm me for its duration, if I were not of opinion with you, that the attack is rather against the Minister. I am confident that none of the Opposition would, have made a better peace for England, if they had been in Lord Shelburne's place; at least, I am sure that Lord Stormont, who seems loudest in railing at it, is not the man that could have mended it. They talk much of there being no reciprocity in our treaty. They think nothing then of our passing over in silence the atrocities committed by their troops, and demanding no satisfaction for their wanton burnings and devastations of our fair towns and countries. They have heretofore confessed the war to be unjust; and nothing is plainer in reasoning, than that the mischiefs done in an unjust war should be repaired. Can Englishmen be so partial to themselves as to imagine that they have a right to plunder and destroy as much as they please, and then without satisfying for the injuries they have done, to have peace on equal terms? Let us now forgive and forget. Let each country seek its advancement in its own internal advantages of arts and agriculture, not in retarding or preventing the prosperity of the other. America, with God's blessing, becomes a great and happy country; and England, if she has at length gained wisdom, will have gained something more valuable and more essential to her prosperity than all she has lost, and will still be a great and respectable nation." Works, vol. ix. p. 498.-ED.

When he negotiated with the King without concert with Lord Rockingham. [This was in March 1782, immediately after Lord North had signified to the House of Commons, that he was no longer Minister. Upon which event, the King is stated by Nicholls "to have sent for Lord Shelburne, arranged the Administration with him, sent the Earl to the Marquis of Rockingham, to inform him of the names of the noblemen and gentlemen who were to form the Cabinet, and of the different offices they were to fill." Mr. Wilberforce, in his Journals, thus alludes to this interview; In 1782, I first knew Fox well: he giving us dinners twice or thrice; very pleasant and unaffected. I was invited to attend at Tommy Townshend's during the formation of the Ministry, and can remember when the jealousy between the Rockingham and Shelburne parties was first betrayed by Fox's awkward manner, when he let out that the King had been seen by no one but Lord Shelburne."-ED.]

but I must be governed by my own feelings, and must speak the truth.

Your nephew tells me he intends to make you a visit next month: he makes no more of a journey to Florence than of going to York races; and, therefore, I am glad you will not only have the comfort of seeing him, but of hearing a thousand things expounded that cannot be detailed in a letter. The new system will probably be adjusted by that time. I shall desire him to carry you the detail of General Murray's trial which I myself shall never read. It was an incident that made no impression here. This great city is wonderfully curious, though exceedingly indifferent. The latter complexion occasions the former. Every body wants to hear something new every day, no matter whether good or bad. They forget it next day, and inquire again for news. At this moment every man's mouth and ear is open to learn the new Administration-none can tell yet; still dispositions of places are invented and circulated: yet, excepting interested politicians, nobody really cares who is to go in or out; and when the change is completed, it will be forgotten in a week. This was exactly the case in March and June last. Our levity is unlike that of the French: they turn every thing into a jest, an epigram, or a ballad; we are not pleasant, but violent, and yet remember nothing for a moment. This was not our character formerly. Perhaps the prostitution of patriotism, and the daily and indiscriminate publications of abuse on all the world, have, the former made virtue suspected, and the latter made discredit so general, that virtue is either not believed, or has no authority. Can the people be much attached to any man, if they think well of none? Can they hate any man superlatively, if they think ill of all? In my own opinion, we have no positive character at present at all. We are not so bad as most great nations have been when sinking. We have no excessive vices, no raging animosities. A most absurd and most disgraceful civil war produced no commotions. A peace far from glorious to be sure, and condemned, pleases many, seriously provokes very few. It will sink into silent contempt, as soon as the new Ministers are appointed. The peace of Paris, more ignominious as the termination of a most triumphant war, was scarce mentioned after the preliminaries had been approved in Parliament. If you find these features resembling those of former England, then I am wrong to think our national character altered.

There has been a deep snow, which has prevented my going out, or having seen anybody to-day; so, if there is anything new, I hope your nephew will write it. Adieu!

* Sir Horace Mann the younger not only voted with the majority on the last de bate, but made a strong attack upon the peace, which he said he execrated, "as it was in his opinion a heap of every thing that was disgraceful and degrading to his country." Parl. His. vol. xxiii. p. 513.-ED..

LETTER CCCXCVII.

March 10, 1783.

I BEGAN a letter to you yesterday sevennight, intending to send it away the next day: so I did on Friday, by which time I concluded a new Administration would be settled. That is not just the case yet; and therefore I have laid aside my commenced letter (which, however, you may get some time or other,) and begin another-just to stay your stomach till I can tell you something positive. To-day I shall not utter a word of politics, as they might be addled by to

morrow.

My old aunt, and your old acquaintance, Lady Walpole, died yesterday morning, at past eighty-seven.* She has been quite blind for some years; but so well, that, having a fever last year of which she recovered, she said it was the first money she had ever laid out with an apothecary for herself. I sat an hour with her three weeks ago, and never saw her look better, nor possess her senses more.

Another person you once knew, died at the same time in a more dismal way-à l'Anglaise. Mr. Skrine shot himself; they say, from distressed circumstances.

Tuesday, 11th.

My vow of not uttering a word of politics being confined in the literal sense to yesterday, I shall open my pen's mouth again so far as to tell you that the Interministerium still exists, as far as Nonentity is a Being. Do not imagine that we feel any inconvenience from the Administration wanting a Head. Every thing goes on more quietly for that defect. The Parliament sits-business is done without obstruction, for nobody can be opposed when there is nobody to be opposed; the inference, I doubt, is, that a Minister is opposed, not for what he does, but for what he is. In the fable of Æsop, the Head and Members were starved out when they would not feed the Belly here we now find, that if the Belly and Members are well crammed, they can jog on mighty comfortably without the head.

The newspapers will tell you, that tenders of the first place have been made to various persons, who have declined it, and that a veto has been put on the only person who is ready to accept. These reports I neither affirm nor deny; for I know nothing but town-talk. You would naturally ask me, "But what do you believe?" I reply, "Nothing!" When people are quite ignorant of what is doing, in

* In 1720, Horatio, first Lord Walpole of Wolterton, married Mary Magdalen, daughter and co-heiress of Peter Lombard, Esq., of Burnham Thorpe, in the county of Norfolk, with whom he obtained a considerable fortune. She survived her husband twenty-six years. Towards the latter part of her life, she lost her sight, a misfortune which she is said to have borne with extreme serenity.-ED.

The Duke of Portland. This long suspense was occasioned by the King's unwillingness to take the Duke of Portland and the old Whigs for Ministers.

stead of confessing their ignorance, they coin knowledge and invent something that others at least may believe. Thus I have been told positively for this last fortnight of so many premiers being appointed, that at last I have determined to disbelieve any thing I hear, but to believe nothing. In that suspense I leave you for the present. Ex cepting a million of lies, you know as much as the whole town of London does; and, if there are half a dozen of truths amid that inundation of falsehoods, my spectacles are not good enough to discri minate the precious stones from the counterfeits; and, as I am too old to wear jewels, it is pretty indifferent to me which are diamonds, and which Bristol-stones. I only take care not to send you bits of glass. Adieu !

LETTER CCCXCVIII.

Sunday, March 2, 1783. [THIS is the letter mentioned in the preceding to have been begun, but it was not sent away till March 18th.]

It is not quite new in this country, though not so frequent as in your neighbourhood, to see a sede vacante; here, I call it an Interministerium. There is this difference between the two vacuums; at Rome, the pretence is, that the Holy Ghost does not know its own mind till the majority fixes it. Here, the majority has decided; but inspiration has not yet given the fiat. As even what passes within the Conclave is known, or guessed, or reported falsely; so here people pretend to account for the present hiatus in government. I do not warrant what I am going to tell you; only send you the creed of the day.

Lord Shelburne resigned the Treasury last Monday, and the Duke of Portland was ready to take his place; being named thereto by the united factions of the Cardinals, Fox and North. The Holy Ghost is said to be highly displeased with that junction; and, instead of imposition of hands on the elect, offered the ministerial tiara to the juvenile Cardinal, William Pitt; who, after pondering in his heart so effulgent a Call, and not finding his vocation ratified by a majority of the Sacred College, humbly declined the splendid nomination on Thursday last.* Clouds and darkness have hung over the

*The consequence of the two divisions upon the Peace was, that Lord Shelburne and the rest of the Ministers resigned their offices, or declared themselves ready to do so, as soon as their successors should be fixed upon; and it became necessary that a new Administration should be formed. The King was very reluctant to ap ply to Lord North and Mr. Fox, the union between whom could not but be highly displeasing to his Majesty. He was therefore induced to propose to Mr. Pitt to succeed Lord Shelburne as First Lord of the Treasury. "This," says the Bishop of Winchester," was a most dazzling offer to so young a man, and demanded, both