The poor Caribs assisted them, and are revenged on us: I cannot blame them. How impolitic is injustice, when man cannot command fortune! I still cannot help conjecturing that France will prefer demolishing all our outworks to attempting invasion here, where we are so mightily prepared. We fear they will not engage Sir Charles Hardy, though superior in number; as he has at least thirty-eight such ships, and such able and tried captains in them, as they cannot match. By thus detaining all our force at home, distant quarters are half at their mercy. They themselves think America much disposed to return to us, and therefore will probably not hazard a defeat here, which would leave us time to treat with the Colonies. But I must not let my eye talk of politics. Good night!

LETTER CCCXI.

Strawberry Hill, Aug. 19, 1779. THE French and Spanish squadrons, of sixty sail, passed by Sir Charles Hardy without meeting; and on the 14th, chased three of our men-of-war, that were going to join him, into Plymouth. Today an account is come that the enemy's fleet of fifty-six sail, is anchored before that fleet. Whether hoping to burn it, or to wait for their transports I do not pretend to say, as there are different opinions. Hardy will undoubtedly attack them as soon as he can; but the easterly wind keeps him out at sea.

I would write to you, to mark my constant attention; but it is difficult for one so totally uninformed as I am to speak on such great events when pending, and as improper when the sea swarms with privateers, and my letter must pass through so many post-offices. You know me well enough to guess at my sentiments. You know me an unalterable Englishman, who loves his country and devoutly wishes its prosperity. Such I am, ardent for England, and ever shall be; it is all a useless old man can do, to pray for its lasting prosperity. The events of war must be accepted with constancy, good or bad. You, a minister of peace and at a distance, will be anxious for every post. Good news you shall have instantly: I hope I shall have nothing sinister to send you. I may not be at hand immediately to tell you every thing; I have female relations whose husbands may be in action, whose spirits I must keep up, and who are in different counties; but I shall never be long from home. Every man must do the utmost he can in his sphere when his country is concerned, and private duties must be attended to too. I have lived long enough to possess calmness enough for my use. It has long been my maxim, that most things are excusable in the passions of youth; but that an old man is bound to think of nothing but what is right, and to be serviceable to others. Virtues, if one has any, shine brightest when put to the trial; but ostentation may taint even them. My father is ever

before my eyes-not to attempt to imitate him, for I have none of his matchless wisdom, or unsullied virtues, or heroic firmness; but sixtytwo years have taught me to gaze on him with ten thousand times the reverence that I speak it with deep shame-I felt for him at twentytwo, when he stood before me! I must check this theme, it would carry me too far; and it is at midnight I am writing, and my letter must go to London at eight in the morning. Adieu! my dear sir: may I send you victories while we are at war; but being no military man, I may be allowed to wish I could send you peace!

LETTER CCCXII.

Strawberry Hill, Sep. 5, 1779.

IF I tell you nothing but truth, my letter will be wondrously short. Since my last, there have been no events but what in modern phrase, are called movements. The combined fleets appeared before Plymouth, and disappeared. Sir Charles Hardy was driven westward. The Ardent, mistaking enemies for friends, fell among them; but Captain Boteler was thrown so little off his guard, that it took four ships to master him, and his own sunk as soon as he and his men were received on board the victors. Monsieur D'Orvilliers, admiring his gallantry, applauded it. He modestly replied, " you will find every captain in our fleet behave in the same manner."* Un tel déportement donne à penser. At last we heard of Sir Charles Hardy off Plymouth, and yesterday at Portsmouth. Where the combined are, I know not precisely; but, that such extended lines should not have caught the eye of each other, is very surprising to us inexpert in winds and tides. On those I never allow myself to conjecture or reason; and thus I have told you all the little I know, disrobed of the reports and lies of each new day. Opinions, were I informed enough to frame them, would be stale ere they could reach you. I write rather to extract the small truth there is in newspapers and interested relations, than to swell your imagination. My letter must pass through so many inquisitions, that it is necessary it should be able to stand the test.

There is not a word of private news. All the world are politicians, or soldiers; or, rather, both. I hope they will improve more in the latter profession than they have done in the former. Even this little quiet village is grown a camp. Servants are learning to fire all day

*Captain Boteler had orders to join Sir Charles Hardy's fleet supposed to be cruising in Channel soundings. He had received no intimation that the enemy had put to sea, when he suddenly fell in with a fleet which made him the private sig nal. So little idea had he of its being the enemy, that he was occupied in reefing his topsails, when a frigate poured her broadside into him. At once engaged with four of the enemy's frigates, and a powerful force coming up to their support, he was compelled to strike, and for this—he was dismissed the service!"-Life of Keppel, vol. ii. p. 257.-Ed.

long, and I suppose soon will demand their wages le pistolet à la main. I could draw other reflections; but a man who in a month will enter on his grand climacteric, and should busy himself with visions of what may happen when he is in his grave, would resemble Hogarth's debtor, who, in prison, is writing a scheme for paying the debts of the nation.

I forgot to tell you, that the moment I received your letter to your nephew, I sent it to his house in town-where he was not; and the servant believed he was to set out the next morning, but would send it to him. I have not been able to learn since whether he is gone or not; for your sake I own I wish he may be.

LETTER CCCXIII.

Sep. 16, 1779.

I HAVE received your letter by Colonel Floyd, and shall be surprised indeed if Cæsar does not find his own purple a little rumpled, as well as his brother's mantle. But how astonished was I at finding that you did not mention the dreadful eruption of Vesuvius. Surely you had not heard of it! What are kings and their popguns to that wrath of Nature! How Sesostris, at the head of an army of nations, would have fallen prostrate to earth before a column of blazing embers cleven thousand feet high!* I am impatient to hear more, as you are of the little conflict of us pigmies. Three days after my last set out, we received accounts of D'Estaing's success against Byron and Barrington, and of the capture of Grenada. I do not love to send first reports, which are rarely authentic. The subsequent narrative of the engagement† is more favourable. It allows the victory to the enemy, but makes their loss of men much the more considerable. Of ships we lost but one, taken after the fight as going into port

* An eruption of Mount Vesuvius had taken place in August, which, for its extraordinary and terrible appearance, is considered the most remarkable of any recorded concerning this or any other volcano. An account of it was published in October by Sir William Hamilton, in a letter to Mr., afterwards Sir Joseph, Banks : -"In an instant," says Sir William, "a fountain of liquid transparent fire began to rise, and gradually increasing, arrived at so amazing a height as to strike every one who beheld it with the most awful astonishment. I shall scarcely be credited when I assure you, sir, that the height of this stupendous column of fire could not be less than three times that of Vesuvius itself, which, as you know, rises perpendicularly 37000 above the level of the sea!

'Se tu se' or, lettore, à creder lento

Còi ch' io dirò, non sarà maravigilia,

Che io, che 'l vidi, appena il mi consento.'"-ED.

The unsatisfactory engagement which took place on the 6th of July between Admirals Byron and Barrington, and Count D'Estaing; in which the latter, though considerably superior in force, eluded every effort which was made by the British commanders to bring on a close and decisive battle.-ED.

to refit. Sir Charles Hardy and D'Orvilliers have not met; the latter is at Brest, the former at Portsmouth. I never penetrated an inch into what is to be; and into some distant parts of our history, I mean the Eastern, I never liked to look. I believe it an infamous scene; you know I have always thought it so; and the Marattas are a nation of banditti very proper to scourge the heroes of Europe, who go so far to plunder and put themselves in their way. Nature gave to mankind a beautiful world, and larger than it could occupy, -for, as to the eruption of Goths and Vandals occasioned by excess of population, I very much doubt it; and mankind prefers deforming the ready Paradise, to improving and enjoying it. Ambition and mischief, which one should not think were natural appetites, seem almost as much so as the impulse to propagation; and those pious rogues, the clergy, preach against what Nature forces us to practice, (or she could not carry on her system,) and not twice in a century say a syllable against the Lust of Destruction! Oh! one is lost in moralizing, as one is in astronomy! In the ordinance and preservation of the great universal system one sees the Divine Artificer, but our intellects are too bounded to comprehend any thing

more.

Lord Temple is dead by accident.* I never had any esteem for his abilities or character. He had grown up in the bask of Lord Chatham's glory, and had the folly to mistake half the rays for his The world was not such a dupe; and his last years discovered to him, too, that no mortal regarded him but himself.

own.

The Lucans are in my neighbourhood, and talk with much affection of you. Adieu!

LETTER CCCXIV.

Strawberry Hill, Oct. 11, 1779.

It is very difficult to write at such a time as this, when there have been no events, are no good prospects, and when we have not abundance of friends in the post-offices abroad, through which one's letters are to pass. You must remember this position, and curb your impatience when you do not hear from me often.

Nothing has happened since my last, though near a month ago, but the surprisal of Stony Point by the Americans, where they made eight hundred prisoners. These events seem trifles to me, who look on America as totally lost, and do not take account of the modes by which we part with the ruins.

D'Orvilliers is certainly laid aside, though his disgrace is palliated. The combined fleets have as surely lost many thousands by the small

* The Earl was thrown from his phaton; by which melancholy accident his skull was fractured.-ED.

pox.* We are bidden at this very time to expect their re-appearance. The year is so far advanced that we must know soon, whether any blow will be attempted, or the campaign conclude. In my own opinion, the principal effort will be against Ireland; but I do not trust my guesses a yard out of my sight, and keep still closer guard upon my ears, for almost every body's mouth seems to have a design on one's senses. They tell one lies as solemnly as Swift related his voyages to Brobdignag and Lilliput.

Notions there are, or have been lately, that the two Empresses wish to mediate a peace. I do believe that on France notifying to the Emperor that she should send some troops to Flanders to impose neutrality on the Dutch, he replied, à la bonne heure; but, for every squadron, he would despatch two. It cannot be the interest of the rest of Europe that the Bourbons should be sole sovereigns of the ocean; nor should I think that, so excellent a milch-cow as England has been to Germany, the latter would like to see the pail demolished, though the cow has kicked it down herself, when it was out of reach of every body else. But adieu retrospect! it is as idle as prophecy, the characteristic of which is, never to be believed where alone it could be useful-i. e. in its own country.

I complained unjustly of your silence on Vesuvius, having since received the view of its terrors in the compass of a card, excellently done. I thank you much for it.

Of late-indeed, for the entire summer-I have been much out of order, and thought my constitution breaking fast; but it exerted its internal strength, and, when I was lowest, threw out the gout in several joints. In short, I have stamina of iron, in a case, as I used to call yours, of wet brown-paper. I am now taking the bark, and find great benefit from it: nay, I am removing into a new house in London, that I bought last winter, as if I believed I had several years to come. It is in Berkeley Square, whither for the future you must direct. It is a charming situation, and a better house than I wanted -in short, I would not change my two pretty mansions for any in England: but I do not shut my eyes on the transitory tenure of them; though, if mortals did not coin visions for themselves, they would sit with folded arms, and take no thought for the morrow! I hold visions to be wisdom; and would deny them only to ambition, which exists by destruction of the visions of every body else. Like Vesuvius, it overwhelms the fair face of the world, though to reign over cinders, and only lift its head above the desolation it has occasioned and cannot enjoy.

* Dreading the effects of the approaching equinoctial gales, D'Orvilliers withdrew his vast armament into Brest harbour, where it remained useless and inactive. On board the Spanish ships three thousand men were swept away by disease, and the mortality among the French is considered to have been still more formidable. Thus ended the expectations of the enemy, and the apprehensions of the people of England.-ED.

VOL. II.-11