to the former. I have had two very good nights, and the progress of the gout seems quite stopped; but I am exceedingly low and weak, and it will take me some time to recover: but I assure you, my dear sir, you may be easy. I have now a good opinion of myself, and I have spoken so plainly that you may believe me.

Adieu! You shall hear again soon, unless I see your nephew, whom I will desire to give you a more particular account.

LETTER CCCXCI..

Berkeley Square, Dec.. 17, 1782.

ON not seeing nor hearing any thing of your nephew, I sent to his house, and learnt, to my mortification, that he neither is in town nor is expected. This forces me, though little able, to say a few words to you myself. I have been extremely ill, though not dangerously, but am much mended within these two days; yet my breast is still so weak, that I must not dictate more than is absolutely necessary.

I have received and sent to Lord Orford your letter, the drawing, and the draught: on account of the last, I suppose he will forget all three; but I shall not, nor shall let him. I must obey Cavalier Mozzi, though to his own prejudice, if he insists upon it; still I hope Mr. Duane will be able to prevent great injustice; but Lord knows when we shall begin. I, at present, am utterly incapable; and, last Friday night, not only poor Mr. Duane, but Sharpe, too, were within an inch of losing every paper they had in the world, and all those in their custody. A great fire broke out in Lincoln's Inn at eleven at night, and consumed twelve sets of chambers; but, beginning in a garret, most people saved their papers, as both Duane and Sharpe did; though the latter at first absolutely lost his senses, and ran about distracted, not knowing what he said or did. I conclude that I shall be recovered before he will have put his papers into order again. These are untoward accidents for poor Mozzi, but unavoidable.

I have been so entirely shut up and incapable of seeing any body that I neither know any politics, nor have breath to relate them if I did. The Peace seems at a stand; I know not why.* We are pre

* On the 15th of December, Count de Vergennois had complained in a letter to Dr. Franklin that the preliminaries between England and America had been concluded without any communication with the French Cabinet. "I am at a loss, sir," says the Count, "to explain your conduct, and that of your colleagues, on this occasion. You have concluded your preliminary articles without any communication between us, although the instructions from Congress prescribe, that nothing shall be done without the participation of the King. You are about to hold out a certain hope of peace to America, without even informing yourself on the state of the negotiation on our part. You are wise and discreet, sir; you perfectly understand what is due to propriety; you have all your life performed your duties. I pray you to consider how you propose to fulfil those which are due to the King." To this remonstrance the Doctor replied: "Nothing has been agreed in the preli

pared for the attack on Jamaica, and Spanish bravadoes are sunk much below par. I must finish, for I have quite exhausted myself. Yours ever.

LETTER CCCXCII.

Jan. 7, 1783.

I KNOW not what to do about your complaint on your letters being produced against General Murray, though it is very well founded.* Your nephew is not, has not been in town. When he comes, I will speak to him. For myself, I never saw Murray, nor know who are his connexions. For Mr. Conway, as Commander-in-chief, it would be most improper for him to take the least part, the trial pending. I have not heard it named since I came to town, but that it would be finished last week; which, however, I believe it is not. As I have not been out of my house yet, but twice to take the air, and seen only the few that come to me, I can give you little account of the transactions or conversation of the world. for above three weeks I was too ill to see any body but my most intimate friends; and at present the town is deserted and will be till Saturday sevennight, the Birth-day. I do, as you see, write myself, yet my only motion is in my thumb and wrist. I can scarcely bend any other joint of my right hand, and believe never shall thence, writing being difficult and even painful, I very seldom attempt it, and generally employ a secretary.

The Peace is certainly not yet arrived. Armaments, and from them the Stocks, look inauspiciously; I know nothing more.

I told you Lord Mountstewart was leaving Turin. He came the day before yesterday; but my intelligence of Lord Northington's succeeding him was not equally authentic ; at least, he is not yet named.

From Mr. Duane not a word yet; nor have I been well enough to do business had he come to me: at sixty-five one does not recover in a moment from an attack in ten places, and with so weak a breast as mine. All the accounts I receive of my nephew speak him frantic ; you shall judge from one. One of his footmen was carried before

minaries contrary to the interests of France; and no peace is to take place between us and England, till you have concluded yours. Your observation is, however, ap. parently just, that, in not consulting you before they were signed, we have been guilty of neglecting a point of bienséance: but, as this was not from want of respect for the King, whom we all love and honour, we hope it will be excused, and that the great work, which has hitherto been so happily conducted, is so nearly brought to perfection, and is so glorious to his reign, will not be ruined by a single indiscretion of ours; and certainly the whole edifice sinks to the ground immedi ately, if you refuse on that account to give us any further assistance. The English, I just now learn, flatter themselves they have already divided us. I hope this little misunderstanding, therefore, will be kept a secret." Works, vol. ix. p. 449.-Ed. * Sir William Draper produced on the trial a letter of Sir Horace Mann, who had found fault with General Murray.

Lord Walpole for getting a bastard, and committed to prison, as usual. Lord Orford wrote a most angry letter to his cousin ; and told him, that when he himself was at Hull with his militia, his servants and soldiers got so many children, that the Mayor thanked him for such a bounteous propagation of the species. He himself believes he has contributed; a weeding girl, whom he took out of his garden and keeps, having lately made him a present of a daughter: but I believe the Mayor of Hull might thank one of the footmen. All this is mighty indifferent to me, who have done caring about him. Indeed, it would be hard to confine my nephew while Lord George Gordon is at large; who is daily trying mischiefs that do not tend to the propagation of the species, and is not so mad as to be excusable.* I must now repose my hand-my letter will not set out till Friday. As I have leisure enough, there is no occasion to fatigue myself: yet I must learn new matter if I add more.

Thursday, 9th.

General Murray's trial, it seems, has been finished some days; but, the report not having been yet made to the King, the event is not known, as courts-martial never disclose their sentence till ratified by Majesty. In general, it is not thought that Sir William Draper made out much.

The peace is out of order with an ague-the cold fit is on at present; but, as Mr. Townshend has not notified to the city that it is given over, I trust the doctors have still hopes.†

Lord George Gordon had, during the summer, been occupied in writing letters and dispersing hand-bills, in which he not unsuccessfully imitated the style of the Puritans of the preceding century. He represented Mr. Fox as a Papist, and said that the disturbances in Ireland were to be imputed to the toleration of Catholics.-ED.

A strong rumour at this time prevailed, that lord Shelburne had not only manifested a disposition, but had even consented with the approbation of the Cabinet, to cede Gibraltar to Spain, on certain conditions; and the more so, as young Mr. Henry Bankes, the member for Corfe Castle, who seconded the Address on the first day of the session, and was supposed to be in the confidence of Administration, made some pointed allusions to the cession. He represented the fort to be an empty honour, of little advantage to the country; and hinted, that by giving up to the Spaniards what they had so set their minds upon, and what seemed to have been the sole object of their ambition in the last wars, England would secure the permanency of peace. Mr. Fox, owned that peace was most desirable, yet thought too high a price might be paid for it. He would not say that it would not be expedient, in any possible situation of this country, to give up Gibraltar; but he would say, that, Great Britain and Ireland excepted, it was the last of his Majesty's dominions that ought to be ceded; that it was the most effectual instrument of war in our hands: to part with it was to resign the Mediterranean altogether into the hands of the House of Bourbon, to be theirs as completely and as absolutely as any lake or pool in their own dominions. Mr. Burke supported Mr. Fox with all the powers of his eloquence. He declared that Gibraltar was invaluable, because impregnable that the King of Spain had not an appendage to his Crown equal to it in importance. It was, therefore, something more than a post of pride, or a post of honour: it was a post of power, a post of connexion, and a post of commerce. Lord

Friday has produced nothing-the voice of the town is war; still, till the negotiation is declared to be broken off, I will believe and hope that it is yet going on and may end happily.

LETTER CCCXCIII.

Berkeley Square, Thursday, Jan. 23, 1783.

AFTER So long a suspense, which, I own, staggered my faith, the Preliminaries of Peace are signed, and the wounds of the groaning world may be closed. What the terms are, or how they will be approved or condemned, is no part of my consideration. I have long eagerly wished for peace, and scarce expected to live to see it. I shall look to no more æras!-the rest will be like the beginning of a new volume, of which I am only to see a few pages!

The Parliament met on Tuesday, but the definitive courier did not arrive till yesterday noon; so, on the first day, all the troops on every side lay on their arms, and not a shot was fired.

Friday.

You will find that my intelligence is not very good; for the courier did not arrive till yesterday evening. It is true, the French agent had got notice sooner; and Lord Clermont had a letter on Wednesday (whence the report) from the Duchess de Polignac,† saying the Preliminaries were signed. I doubt there was a little jockeyship in this, and that the French had contrived to retard the courier, that they might buy into our stocks before the rise. Madame de Pompadour made a vigorous job by such a manœuvre at the peace of Paris. Well! France, Spain, and America are at peace with us; but not Holland, which has only agreed yet to a suspension of arms. It looks as if they did not find themselves so much thought on as they expected a mighty new case, indeed, for little folks to be sacrificed by great! I don't tell you that this is so; it is only an il me semble: I know no secrets, nor trouble myself about them.

North, too, said he would not go so far as to assert, that in no possible case ought it to be ceded to Spain; such a sacrifice might be necessary; but its price should be large, and no Ministers would be justified in resigning a possession so honourable, so useful, and so dear to the country, unless for an equivalent of the highest importance. It was said at the time, that Charles the Third was so eager to re-annex Gibraltar to the Spanish monarchy, that he tendered in exchange for it the Canary Islands, together with Porto Rico in the West Indies. Dr. Franklin, in a letter of the 5th of December, to Mr. Livingston, said, "that Spain offered for Gibraltar to restore West Florida and the Bahamas."-ED.

William Henry Fortescue, Lord Clermont, an Irish Peer, who went frequently to Paris, where his wife was taken much notice of by the Queen of France. The principal favourite of the Queen of France.

On the 23rd of January, Lord Grantham notified to the Lord Mayor, that the

Your great Mediterranean object is safe, Gibraltar. Whatever questionable points there may be in the treaty, they cannot, be they what they will, occasion half the clamour that the rendition of RockElliot would have made.* There are many, I believe, who think it is in the parish of St. Martin's in the Fields (to talk in the language of acts of parliament,) and would as easily have relinquished the Isle of Wight, which French modesty once demanded.† His Catholic Magesty's obstinacy has had a dëmenti, for a royal mule may be restive in vain.

It had been pity to have died of my late fit of the gout, when peace, for which I had so long ardently sighed, was so near! I shall certainly not be one of the disapprovers. Nay, I shall certainly find it better than I expected (I know when‡) we should obtain. On that subject I shall not expatiate-nay, nor talk more of the peace, as I know so little of the matter.

The report on General Murray's case is not yet made; nor will be, they say, till Monday. The reading over the evidence took up many days. When I see your nephew, I will charge him with your apology to the General, if you have not.

This is a brief letter, but the matter will stand in lieu of length. As the second volume of winter is but begun, there will probably be no want of topics. It is Parliament that I call winter, begin and end when it will. The two Houses make the seasons, and produce storms more regularly than our elements. Adieu!

preliminary articles between Great Britain, France, and Spain were signed at Versailles on the 20th; and also, that the preliminaries with Holland were not signed, but a cessation of hostilities had been agreed upon.-ED.

* General Conway having moved, in the House of Commons, the thanks of the House to General Elliot, for his brave and gallant defence of Gibraltar, Sir George Howard proposed to insert, after the word, "Gibraltar," the words, "the most valuable and important fortress of any of our foreign possessions." The amendment was warmly approved of by Mr. Fox; but Sir George, finding he had unintentionally opened a great political question, would have withdrawn it; but this was objected to by Mr. Fox: "I do not credit," he said, "the reports that have gone abroad of an intended cession of that fortress, because I am convinced there is not a man in the Cabinet who would dare to give it up; the amendment, if carried, will satisfy the public that such reports are groundless." Mr. Burke also supported the amendment, which, he said, would give the Ministers a handle for obstinately resisting all demands for a cession. The amendment was withdrawn; but, according to Wraxall, a messenger was immediately despatched to our Minister at Paris with an account of what had passed in the House.-ED.

.land.

About 1781 or 1782, when some overtures of peace had been made from Eng.

In 1779, when the French fleet was off Plymouth.