that the natural insensibility of age increases upon me, as well as the disposition to censure and to augur ill. In common life one thinks many persons dying before they do die-yet they do die too. One is still more in the right, though perhaps not so soon as one expects to be, when one foretells that such a one will kill himself by his intemperance. Some will think that, as our doctors have given us over, there is a better chance of our recovering. It is true I have no opinion of our doctors -the Opposition; still I think the patient is in a most deplorable way, and, as in consumptions, he has no sense of his danger. Look you : all this may be speculation and vision; I do not trouble myself about the credit of my oracle. If I did, I could give two sides to my prophecy, and could tell you, that if things did not turn out very ill one way, they would another; and I could support my belief with an oath: but I am pretty indifferent about the matter when I cannot help it, and have no more notion of caring about what will happen ten years after I am dead, than about what will happen two hundred. We have been in an unnatural state, and swelled from a little island to an empire; but I doubt the island will not shrink just into its natural corpulency again; and there is a new field for speculation! But I am, luckily, at the end of my paper. LETTER CCLXV. Arlington Street, March, 5th, 1777. My last has already told you, I hope, that I am entirely recovered. You shall believe, if you please that a moment of bootikins weakened you; but allow me to be certain that above three years of experience has demonstrated that they do not weaken me; and as to all reasonings of the Italian physicians, why, they are still more ignorant than ours. I shall not argue with them or you, for I have no convert-making zeal. I content myself with my own judgment and experience for my own use, and it is not reasonable to expect that others should see truth with my eyes. It has rarely happened to me to think with the majority, and I have so much respect for the plural number as not to dispute with them. There never were more against me than in our present politics. I have kept my sentiments pretty much to myself, but nothing has made me change my opinion. At present, the aspect is not as if I had been totally in the wrong. The campaign in America has lost a great deal of its florid complexion, and General Washington is allowed by both sides not to be the worst general in the field. The Stocks are grown positive that we shall have a French war. That was so self-evident, that I should be ashamed of bragging I had always forseen it. A child might foretell many of the consequences. I leave it to those who would not foresee to excuse themselves as they can. The Gazettes will tell you as much as you are allowed to know or believe. If you do not understand them, you will not be singular. The time is coming, I doubt, when Truth will write a more legible hand. In one word, the retreat of the Americans seems to have been wise; you will find they will fight and have fought, and that, when we believed Philadelphia was gone, General Howe has been obliged to contract his quarters. I should think less than unlimited submission* would content us at present; and I leave you to judge whether France will be omitted in the negotiation, and whether she will enjoin the Congress to be very tractable. I hope there will be a little more wisdom in making the peace than there was in making the war; but they who make the one, do not always consider that they may not be equally masters to make the other. There is scarcely any thing of private news. Two old persons that you remember are dead, Sir Thomas Robinsont and Lady shadwell ;‡ she lived to ninety-six. The Duke of Norfolk, but two years younger, is recovered from a dangerous illness. Lady Chesterfield has had a stroke of palsy, but may linger some time longer. In short, my dear sir, you and I can only talk in common of a few Methusalems, cock and hen; for, as to the travelling boys that you get acquainted with en passant, I do not. I have done with the world, except parting with it in form; and chiefly pass my time with a few acquaintance or alone at Strawberry Hill, where I never want amusement. My old age is as agreeable as I desire it: oppressed with no misfortunes, disappointments, or infirmities,-for I am determined to consider the gout as a remedy that only makes my liberty more welcome; with a fortune as ample as I wish either for pleasing myself or for doing some kindnesses; indifferent to pleasures that would be ridiculous, and encumbered with no glory or vanity that would impose restraint or reserve on me. I enjoy the remnant with cheerfulness, and think I shall lay it down with no more regret than what must attend parting with what is not disagreeable. I am exceedingly thankful for the happiness of my lot, and own it has been far greater than I should have dared to ask. Can I, then, but be content when it shall terminate? This is the thirty-seventh *Lord George Germain declared in the House of Commons, when Secretary of State, that he would be content with nothing under the unlimited submission of America. Sir Thomas Robinson, of Rokeby in Yorkshire, who, on account of his stature, was commonly called "Long Sir Thomas," and also to distinguish him from the di plomatist, Sir Thomas Robinson, afterwards Lord Grantham. As he died without issue, the title devolved to his next brother. Two days after his death, his fourth brother, Dr. Richard Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh, was created Baron Rokeby of Armagh.-ED. Widow of Sir John Shadwell, the physician, with whom she had visited Florence, where they became acquainted with Sir Horace Mann, and also with Walpole. Sir John was a spectator of the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1737, and published an account of it in the Philosophical Transactions. He was the only son of Shadwell, the dramatic poet, and filled the situation of physician to Queen Anne, George I. and George II.; by the former of whom he was knighted.-ED. Edward Howard, ninth Duke of Norfolk. He died on the 20th of September, at the great age of ninety-two.-ED. Melusina Schulembourg, Countess of Walsingham, niece of the Duchess of Kendal, and widow of the celebrated Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield. She died in September, 1778. year of our correspondence: we are the Oretes and Pylades of letterwriters, yet I wish our meeting had left us less to boast! Adieu ! P.S. I must add a curious story, which I believe will surprise your Italian surgeons, as much as it has amazed the faculty here. A sailor, who had broken his leg, was advised to communicate his case to the Royal Society. The account he gave was, that, having fallen from the top of the mast and fractured his leg, he had dressed it with nothing but tar and oakum, and yet in three days was able to walk as well as before the accident. The story at first appeared quite incredible, as no such efficacious qualities were known in tar, and still less in oakum; nor was a poor sailor to be credited on his own bare assertion of so wonderful a cure. The society very reasonably demanded a fuller relation, and, I suppose, the corroboration of evidence. Many doubted whether the leg had been really broken. That part of the story had been amply verified. Still it was difficult to believe that the man had made use of no other applications than tar and oakum; and how they should cure a broken leg in three days, even if they could cure it at all, was a matter of the utmost wonder. Several letters passed between the society and the patient, who persevered in the most solemn asseverations of having used no other remedies, and it does appear beyond a doubt that the man speaks truth. It is a little uncharitable, but I fear there are surgeons who might not like this abbreviation of attendance and expense. But, on the other hand, you will be charmed with the plain honest simplicity of the sailor in a postscript to his last letter he added these words, "I forgot to tell your honours that the leg was a wooden one." Was there ever more humour? What would one have given to have been present, and seen the foolish faces of the wise assembly! I am an unworthy member of that learned body, and never attend their meetings, which I now regret; I should have been paid for many dull hours: but I never had patience for such solemn assemblies, and have neglected that of the Arts and Sciences, as well as the Royal. I shut myself entirely out of the Antiquarian Society and Parliament, the archiepiscopal seats of folly and knavery. LETTER CCLXVI. Strawberry Hill, April 3, 1777. I HAVE nothing very new to tell you on public affairs, especially as I can know nothing more than you see in the papers. It is my opinion that the King's affairs are in a very bad position in America. I do not say that his armies may not gain advantages again; though I believe there has been as much design as cowardice in the behaviour of the provincials, who seem to have been apprized that protraction of the war would be more certainly advantageous to them than heroism. Washington, the dictator, has shown himself both a Fabius and a Camillus. His march through our lines is allowed to have been a prodigy of generalship.* In one word, I look upon great part of America as lost to this country! It is not less deplorable, that between art and contention, such an inveteracy has been sown between the two countries as will probably outlast even the war! Supposing this unnatural enmity should not soon involve us in other wars, which would be extraordinary indeed, what a difference, in a future war with France and Spain, to have the Colonies in the opposite scale, instead of being in ours! What politicians are those who have preferred the empty name of sovereignty to that of alliance, and forced subsidies to the golden ocean of commerce! Alas! the trade of America is not all we shall lose! The ocean of commerce wafted us wealth at the return of regular tides: but we had acquired an empire too, in whose plains the beggars we sent out as labourers could reap sacks of gold in three or four harvests; and who with their sickles and reaping-hooks have robbed and cut the throats of those who sowed the grain. These rapacious foragers have fallen together by the ears; and our Indain affairs, I suppose, will soon be in as desperate a state as our American. Lord Pigot has been treacherously and violently imprisoned, and the Company here has voted his restoration. I know nothing of the merits of the cause on either side: I dare to say, both are very blameable. I look only to the consequences, which I do not doubt will precipitate the loss of our acquisitions there; the title to which I never admired, and the possession of which I always regarded as a transitory vision. If we could keep it, we should certainly plunder it, till the expense of maintaining would overbalance the returns; and, though it has rendered a little more than the holy city of Jerusalem, I look on such distant conquests as more destructive than beneficial; and, whether we are martyrs or banditti, whether we fight for the holy sepulchre or for lacks of rupees, I detest invasions of quiet kingdoms, both for their sakes and for our own; and it is happy for the former, that the latter are never permanently benefited. Though I have been drawn away from your letter by the subject of it and by political reflections, I must not forget to thank you for your solicitude and advice about my health: but pray be assured that I am * In December, when the cause of the Americans seemed hopeless, the English commander, having extended his cantonments to a prodigious length, Washington took advantage of that circumstance, crossed the Delaware in the night, surprised the left wing of the British army, and, attacking a body of Hessians nearly a thousand strong, surprised them so completely that they surrendered and were captured. Soon afterwards he gained an advantage, also in the dead of the night, over the British at Prince-town.-ED. Lord Pigot had been appointed Governor of Madras, with instructions to restore the Rajah of Tanjore, under certain conditions. In attempting to carry them into execution, he was seized, by the direction of certain members of his own council, and conveyed to a place called the Mount; where he was confined in the strictest manner. Impaired by age and an Indian climate, the constitution of Lord Pigot sank under the irritation to which he had been exposed and the restraint to which he was subjected; and he died shortly after, the prisoner of those over whom he had been appointed to preside.-ED. sufficiently attentive to it, and never stay long here in wet weather, which experience has told me is prejudicial. I am sorry for it, but I know London agrees with me better than the country. The latter suits my age and inclination; but my health is a more cogent reason, and governs me. I know my own constitution exactly, and have formed my way of life accordingly. No weather, nothing gives me cold; because, for these nine and thirty years, I have hardened myself so, by braving all weathers and taking no precautions against cold, that the extremest and most sudden changes do not affect me in that respect. Yet damp, without giving me cold, affects my nerves; and, the moment I feel it, I go to town. I am certainly better since my last fit of gout than ever I was after one: in short, perfectly well; that is, well enough for my age. In one word, I am very weak, but have no complaint; and as my constitution, frame, and health require no exercise, nothing but fatigue affects me: and therefore you, and all who are so good as to interest themselves about me and give advice, must excuse me if I take none. I am preached to about taking no care against catching cold and I am told I shall one day or other be caught -possibly: but I must die of something; and why should not what has done to sixty, be right? My regimen and practice have been formed on experience and success. Perhaps a practice that has suited the weakest of frames, would kill a Hercules. God forbid I should recommend it; for I never saw another human being that would not have died of my darings, especially in the gout. Yet I have always found benefit; because my nature is so feverish, that every thing cold inwardly or outwardly, suits me. Cold air and water are my specifics, and I shall die when I am not master enough of myself to employ them; or rather, as I said this winter, on comparing the iron. texture of my inside with the debility of my outside, "I believe I shall have nothing but my inside left!" Therefore, my dear sir, my regard for you will last as long as there is an atom of me remaining. LETTER CCXVII. Barton Mills, April 28, 1777. AFTER an interval of three years, in which my nephew remained as much in his senses as he was supposed to be before his declared phrenzy, he was seized a fortnight ago with a fever which soon brought out the colour of his blood. In two days he was furious. The low wretches by whom in his sensible hours he has always been surrounded, concealed the symptoms till they were terrifying. I received no notice till the sixth day, and then-by the stage-coach! directly for the hovel where he is-a pasnidge-house, as the proprietor called it to me, on the edge of the fens, which my lord out rend * One Ball, Minister of Eriswell, a jockey-parson. He having taken his doctor's degree in an interval of his correspondence with Mr. Walpole on Lord Orford's |