voluntary act, much less a disgrace, but merely the effect of disagreement with some of his colleagues; consequently, I should think, would not produce much variation of measures, as Lord George certainly did not resist such as made his court best. That he was no unwelcome servant is plain, as he is to be a Viscount; and his nephew, the Duke of Dorset, succeeds Lord Falmouth, who is just dead, as Captain of the band of Pensioners.* Mr. Ellis is to be Secretary of State in the room of Lord George.t

If your nephew has written to you lately, you will have seen that I had no event to tell of any public notoriety. There have been some ineffectual efforts at opposition in both Houses, and not very remarkable. Nor do I imagine that the prosecution of Lord Sandwich in the House of Commons will have any serious termination. Lord Cornwallis is arrived, and that man of wretched fame Arnold.‡ There was something of humour mixed with the severity which the Americans meditated for him, had they taken him in his passage, as they attempted and were near doing. They intended to cut off his leg, which had been wounded in their service, and bury it with mili tary honours, and then hang the rest of his person.§ I think he cannot do better now than consort with General Paoli.

is Lord Walsingham, who was for some time Under-Secretary of State in my office, when Mr. De Grey; the second is Lord Loughborough, who has always been my lawyer; and the third is Lord Amherst, who, when page to my father, has often sat on the braces of the state-coach that conveyed him, as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, to the Parliament-house in Dublin.' The King smiled, adding, What you say is very reasonable; it shall be so.' This is one of the few peerages conferred by George the Third wholly independent of Ministerial intervention. Lord North had not the smallest share in the business." Historical Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 493.-ED. * Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard.-ED.

The Right Honourable Welbore Ellis, at that time Treasurer of the Navy, was appointed to fill the office of Colonial Secretary. The portrait of this gentleman is thus sketched by Wraxall; “In his figure, manner and deportment, the very essence of form, he regularly took his place on the Treasury Bench, dressed in all points as if he had been going to the drawing-room at St. James's. His eloquence was of the same description as himself, precise, grave, and constrained; unilluminated by taste, and calculated to convince more than to exhilarate or electrify his audience. The respect due his age, character, and employment, commonly secured him a patient hearing. Burke, after felicitating him on succeeding as heir to Lord George, at whose feet he had been brought up, and whose political opinions he implicitly adopted, compared him to a caterpillar, who having long remained in a torpid state within the silken folds of his lucrative employment as Treasurer of the Navy, now bursting his ligaments, fluttered forth the Secretary of the hour."-ED. Lord Cornwallis and Arnold," writes Sir Samuel Romilly on the 21st of January, "are both arrived at Plymouth; the latter is said to have brought with him a very great fortune." When the House of Commons went to St. James's, on the 4th of March, with their address against the further prosecution of the American war, the circumstance of the appearance of Arnold at Court, standing close to his Majesty's chair, made a deep impression on the public mind, which was construed into a development of the royal feelings towards his American subjects. The Earl of Surrey designated it, a few days after, in the House of Commons, a wanton and indecent insult offered by Ministers to the representatives of the people.—ED.

§ Dr. Franklin, in a letter from Paris of the 11th of May, 1781, thus writes to the Marquis de la Fayette: "I hope that, by this time, the ship which has the VOL. II.-19

There has been lately the most dreadful catastrophe in the City of which I ever heard or read. A stationer's wife, a very fond mother, went up, as she did constantly, to see her children in bed. She had seven, the eldest not nine years old. By some strange inadvertence, she left a candle near a curtain of one of the beds. It caught; the house was burnt, and every one of the poor babes! Lady Molesworth's tragedy was not so horrid, for she was so happy as to be consumed too.* These poor parents are both alive.

I think, when I wrote last, I was confined with the gout. It has proved the slightest fit I have had for many years, was only in my left hand and elbow, and did not last a month; yet both my hands are terribly afflicted with chalk-stones. However, it is plain that my bootikins, regimen, temperance, and perseverance in my cold system have prodigiously lessened my sufferings; and, if I live to a hundred, I suppose I shall be a very healthy young fellow. Still, I do not intend to cut my colt's-tooth till past ninety. So far from juvenile airs, I lead a most recluse life, and scarcely ever go into any public, indeed only to very private places, except, what I cannot avoid, the public nights at Gloucester-house, and they are not very numerous. I have been once to the Opera to hear the Allegranti, whom I like, and who is almost as much in fashion as Vestris the dancer was last year the applause to her is rather greater. Pacchierotti is much admired too, and the dancers are a capital set. So, you see we bear our disgraces with eminent philosophy. Pleasure does not seem to know that there is any want of money, or weight of taxes. I have not heard from you long. I expect you to tell me a great deal of the Pope's lamentations. To be sure the Great-Duke does not compliment him with a suppression of your carnival.

The inquiry on Lord Sandwich died suddenly this three o'clock, of a vote of approbation of 205 to 183.†

Friday, 8th. morning, at

honour of bearing your name is safely arrived. Your friends have heard of your being gone against the traitor Arnold, and are anxious to hear of your success, and that you have brought him to punishment. Enclosed is a copy of a letter from his agent in England, captured by some of our cruizers, and by which the price or reward he received for his treachery may be guessed at. Judas sold only one man, Arnold three millions. Judas got for his one man thirty pieces of silver, Arnold not a halfpenny a head. A miserable bargain! especially when one considers the quantity of infamy he has acquired to himself and entailed on his family." The intercepted letter here spoken of was from a banker in London to General Arnold, stating that he had received from him bills to the amount of five thousand pounds sterling, which the banker said he had invested it the stocks. See Franklin's Works, vol. ix. p. 29, Spark's edition, 1839.-ED.

* In May 1762 Lady, Molesworth's house in upper Brook Street was burned to the ground, and she herself, two of her daughters, her brother, and six servants, all perished. See Collective Edition, vol. iv. p. 272.-Ed.

Mr. Fox, on the 24th of January, had moved for a committee of inquiry into the causes of the want of success which had attended our naval forces during the war, and more particularly in the year 1781. The motion being agreed to, he followed it up, on the 7th of February, with a second, "that there had been gross misma

The Duke de Chartres* is going to Constantinople. It was asked, why? Answer,-pour apprendre à être grand seigneur.

We have a report, that Minorco is taken: had the news arrived a few hours sooner, it might have been thrown into the vote of appro bation.

LETTER CCCLXIX.

Berkeley Square, Feb. 25, 1782.

THERE are certain moments in politics which excite eager curiosity, but in which it is least easy to satisfy it. This means a crisis, in which the scales are so nicely balanced as to fluctuate, and consequently to puzzle the prophetic eye even of calculators. On Wednesday last, Mr. Fox renewed the attack on Lord Sandwich,† who was saved by a majority but of nineteen. On the next day but one, General Conway moved to address the King to take steps for peace with America. I believe the calculating prophets had been at work with their arithmetic, and had found that when a plurality of twenty

nagement in the administration of naval affairs during the year 1781." The motion was strongly supported by Admiral Keppel and Lord Howe, and the defence of the Earl of Sandwich was undertaken by Lord Mulgrave. After a debate which lasted till three in the morning, it was negatived by 205 to 183. Admiral Keppel, in a letter to Captain Jervis, written the morning after the debate, says: "The evidence was sufficient to condemn a far better character than Lord Sandwich. The proof against him was upon the table, in the face of his advocates. Lord North, I conceive, did not think well of the ground he was fighting upon, if I am to judge by the tenor and insufficiency of his arguments. Every thing was on our side but numbers; and in that particular, considering the ministry, management, and delay. ing the papers, we had enough, I believe, to stagger the First Lord. A little better management on our side, and less assiduity on theirs, and we should have carried our question clear." Life, vol. ii. p. 367.-ED.

*Louis-Philippe-Joseph, only son of the Duc d'Orleans, whom he succeeded in

1785.

On the 20th of February, Mr. Fox brought the same question before the House which he had already moved in a committee, relative to the mal-administration of naval affairs. Like the former, the debate was protracted to a late hour; in the course of which, Walpole's friend, Sir Horace Mann the younger, declared, that we were every where disgraced, and that it was the universal language on the Continent, that the affairs of our navy were badly conducted. Mr. William Pitt greatly distinguished himself upon this occasion. He pointed out in what particulars there had been neglect, and declared that he supported the motion from motives of a public nature, and from those motives alone. Mr. Dunning, in allusion to this speech, said, that almost all the sentiments he had collected in his own mind upon the subject had vanished away like a dream, on the bursting forth of a torrent of eloquence behind him, from the greatest prodigy that ever perhaps was seen in this or any other country-an honourable gentleman possessing the full vigour of youth, united with the experience and wisdom of the maturest age. the division, the numbers were, for the motion 217, against it 236. Thus the majority was decreased, although the number of members present was greater than upon the former occasion.-ED.

On

two was sunk to nineteen, it was a decreasing fund; and thence they contributed to make it so-for, at two in the morning the majority appeared to be fallen to a single figure. The question was rejected but by one voice.*

As I do not make use of any table of interest, I shall not pretend to prophesy what will happen. Formerly, a sinking Minister was soon gone; but as circumstances cannot always be the same, no more can times, which take their colour from them. One opinion I have, more fixed, which is, that the longer the Administration can maintain itself, the heavier will be its fall; for, as this success of the Opposition is less owing to their abilities than to the calamities of the war, I see no prospect of victories to mend the situation of the Ministers; and therefore, though they may divert their present danger, the temper of the nation, that is much soured, will not sweeten in their favour.

This is a brief sketch of the present aspect. I could not by a million of words tell you more yet. You will understand as much as is necessary, and I do not at all desire to be more intelligible to postmasters.

I have received two letters from you since my last; one the moment that was set out. Yours came by Mr. Grenville with the prints of the Medici, for which I give you many thanks. In your second, you say that the Emperor had consented to receive the Pope, from whom he has taken at least a third of his tiara. We had heard that

*The appointment of Mr. Welbore Ellis to the office of Secretary of State for the Plantation Department, and of Sir Guy Carleton to succeed the Commander-inchief of the forces in North America, having occasioned general alarm that there still existed a determination to prosecute the war, the Opposition resolved to make another attempt to bind up the hands of the Government. Accordingly, on the 22nd, General Conway moved an address to his Majesty, imploring him to take into his consideration the great calamities which had attended the unfortunate war on the continent of North America, and beseeching that it might no longer be pursued for the impracticable purpose of reducing the inhabitants of that country to obedi ence by force; and that the public tranquillity might be restored by a happy reconciliation with the revolted colonies. On this evening, the American war may be said to have virtually terminated. Sir Samuel Romilly, who was in the gallery, gives the following account of what passed upon this important occasion: "The Ministers opposed the motion with all their strength, and disclosed to the House their design for carrying on the war. They said they meant to keep the posts; and when it was asked what they meant by a war of posts? the Secretary at War said, they meant to keep the posts they had already, and to take more if they saw occasion. This expression produced a roar of Hear, hear!' from the Opposition. Fox siad, it was evident, from this and many similar expressions dropped inadvertently, that the plan of the war was changed only for the moment, and that the faintest glimmering of success would awaken all the vain projects of the Ministers. The argument which the Court party seemed to rely on most was this: the Opposition, they said, to act in a fair and manly manner, ought not to have made such a motion, but to have moved at once for a change of Ministers; for that was the effect which the resolution must directly have if it were carried. The motion was lost by a majority of only a single vote; the numbers being 193 for the resolution, and 194 against it. The House did not rise till three in the morning." Life, vol. i. p. 204.-ED.

*

pur

Cæsar added, that his Holiness's visit would be to no manner of pose. Perhaps the Monarch would not dislike to return the super aspidem et Basilicum calcabis,-yet he may find an aspic under his feet. There is more than metaphoric poison still left in the vipers of the Church.

Accustomed as you are to our newspapers, you will read in them with astonishment the detail of a late trial for adultery, between Sir Richard Worseley and his wife, sister of the Countess of Harrington. To save her last favourite, she summoned thirty-four young men of the first quality to depose to having received her favours; and one of them, a duke's son, to having bestowed an additional one on her. The number was reduced to twenty-seven, and but few of them were examined; and they blushed for her. A better defence for her was the connivance of the husband who was proved to have carried one of the troop on his back to the house-top, to view his fair spouse stark naked in the bath. The jury was so equitable as to give the plaintiff but one shilling damages.†

This trial happened on the very Friday of the drawn battle in the House of Commons. Sir Richard Worseley was missing; Lord North, inquiring for him, was told the cause of his absence, "Oh," replied the Minister pleasantly, "if all my cuckolds desert, I shall be beaten indeed."

Tuesday night, late..

At my niece, Lady Cadogan's, this evening, I met Mr. Langley, Lord Stormont's secretary; who gave me great pleasure, by telling me that you are made Minister Plenipotentiary. I am glad you are a little richer, when you must be at oxtraordinary expense; but I am much more delighted that your own merits and zeal have obtained this recompense, and that they are rewarded so speedily. It does honour to the Government too; yet I doubt you will not have the fuller satisfaction of seeing your labours terminated by the success. you wish. I feel for those brave unrescued men !§

Poor Mr. Morrice is not come to town, nor can he come, though he has had an urgent call. Old Lady Brown, who was formerly at Venice, is dead, and has left him for his life an estate of 15007. a

* This year Pius VI. paid a visit to Joseph II., to endeavour to dissuade him from the prosecution of the ecclesiastical reforms which he had set on foot. The Pontiff reached Vienna on the 23rd of March, and was received by the Emperor with great respect but returned to Rome without being able to effect the object of his journey.-ED.

The trial took place in the Court of King's Bench on the 22nd of February, before Lord Chief Justice Mansfield.

Sir Richard Worseley was at this time Member for Newport, Controller of the King's household, and Governor of the Isle of Wight; of which island, in the preceding year, he had published a History, in one quarto volume, with engravings of the principal views, seats, &c., by a jointure of 70,000l. reverted to his lady, who was the daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Fleming.-ED.

Besieged in Fort St. Philip at Minorca.

Margaret Cecil, widow of Sir Robert Brown, formerly a merchant of Venice.