and spreads like the rapid mischief of fire. In general I can assure you that the death of Prince Octavius has neither been imputed to inoculation, nor checked the practice. He was recovered of the small-pox, and died of a sudden illness; and the two other children are quite recovered, though they had been unhealthy before; and some of them were bathed in the sea for two years together, along with Prince Alfred, who died last year, and was not inoculated.

This is all the satisfaction I can give you. To make inquiry of the King's physicians would in me be highly blameable. Consider, in the first place, how I am connected; and in the next, should the physicians tell me, which is not probable they would, (and if they did not, what could I say?) that the child died of any other complaint, would it be decent for me to repeat it? would it not be trumpeted about till it would reach both London and Anspach? and, the more credit given to my report, the more I should be quoted. I choose therefore to remain in perfect ignorance of what the child died, only convinced that it was not killed by inoculation. You may tell the Great-Duke what is most true, that I am in the country, and not à portée to see the royal physicians: persuade him to wait, and he will hear that inoculation has not lost a grain of character; and do not let him deprive his children of such a blessing, because the Leyden Gazette is a fool and liar. Were the fact truth, is one child lost an argument against millions preserved? if the child was unhealthy before, would it be a reason for not inoculating children that are well?

I am very sorry that your nephew has any embarrassment in his family. Parents are much to be pitied! how difficult for fondness and prudence to be both satisfied, and to conduct their charges safely into port! At present, the incumbrance seems double. Sons can scarce avoid the contagion of gaming: daughters make unworthy choices-for how can they make good? If they marry titles and wealth, may they not be sent back to their parents in two or there years to be maintained-or even before they are married? Such rascals are some of our young fellows! Just such an instance has happened in Lord's family.

P.S. Since I wrote my letter, I have seen a person who tells me the young Prince was at the sixth day of the small pox in the most favourable manner, was seized with convulsions, and died—it is supposed, from a pock on the brain; which has sometimes happened, and may just as well happen in the natural way. This is a hors d'oeuvre, nor do I know a word of news.

side, that the Great-Duke opened letters; and therefore did not choose to speak

out.

LETTER CCCCIV.

Strawberry Hill, July 8, 1783. Two days ago, who should walk into my room but Sir Horace Mann, not the Sir Horace indeed that I could have most wished to see, and whom I have not seen in two and forty years; and whom, alas!-yet one 'I was very glad to see! I turned him round to look for his wings; for he certainly flies! He tells me charming miracles of your health and youth. I hope the Goddess of correspondence is proud of us, and intends we shall write to one another as long as Abraham and Methusalem would have done if they had learnt to write.

Your nephew had not unpacked his portmanteau; so I have not rereceived Cavalier Mozzi's or my own letters, but shall have them before this departs.

News I have none, or I should have written to you before now. We have had one or two qualms, which looked very much as if the new Ministers did not sit easy upon a certain stomach. They were very near discharged on the Establishment of the Heir; but all was compromised. The Parliament rises next week. If nothing happens then, the summer will probably conclude tranquilly.

My name-sake,† cousin, and nephew has got a son. As it will be the descendant of my father, as well as of my uncle, I hope it will be the heir of the family. One symptom looks as if it would be. Its father wrote to Lord Orford to ask him to be god father; he not only consented graciously, but invited the parents to Houghton, with this frantic though promising addition, " that though he had sold his collection of pictures, of which too many were by the same hands, [as if one could have too many Carlo Marattis, Rubens's, and Vandykes !] he hoped my cousin would be satisfied, as his Lordship had gotten two excellent Ciprianis !" This Cipriani would not have been worthy to paint the dogkennel, when the house possessed its original collec tion; Cipriani is to Guido, as his Lordship is to his grandfather.

*The Prince of Wales approaching the period of his majority, a separate establishment became necessary for him; and Carlton House, which had not been inhabited since the death of the Princess Dowager of Wales in 1772, was chosen for his future residence. The income proper for his Royal Highness's support produced great difference of opinion among members of the Administration. Mr. Fox thought a hundred thousand pounds would not be more than adequate to maintain his state; while Lord John Cavendish, in whose immediate department the business lay, considered a moiety of that sum sufficient, in the actual circumstances of the country, and the heavy incumbrances on the Civil List. The King being of the same opinion, Lord John Cavendish, on the 24th of June, acquainted the House with his Majesty's gracious determination not to call for any additional aid to the List, but to take on himself the present expense of the Heir Apparent, and limit his demand to sixty thousand pounds, as a temporary supply to the crown, and an outfit. A resolution to that effect was agreed to.-ED.

Horatio, eldest son of the second Lord Walpole, had married Sophia, youngest daughter of Charles Churchill, Esq., by Lady Maria Walpole, daughter of Sir Robert Walpole by his second wife, and half-sister of the writer of these Letters.

I have another nephew going to Florence-for I nave nephews enough to people the Promised Land. It is George Cholmondeley, son of Robert, consequently my great-nephew; for I have lived to count third and fourth generations. This George is a young man of sense and honourable principles, and among the best of my nepotism. He has claimed my recommendation to you, and I trust will deserve it better than some of my nephews have done: he has some humour, and some voice, and is musical; but he has not good health, nor always good spirits.

Berkeley Square, July 10.

I came to town yesterday on summons from Lucas, and this morning he and Sharpe and Mr. Duane were with me. Sharpe declared that he had advised Cavalier Mozzi to divide the ten thousand pounds with my Lord, but had received no answer. I said, I knew Cavalier Mozzi's disposition to agreement; but Mr. Duane and I could not act so summarily. In one word, I wish to save six or seven thousand pounds for Čavalier Mozzi, as I see how much pains Lucas has used to get more, whereas little have been employed on the other side. Sharpe said, too, that the Cavalier would have consented, if Lady Orford's woman had not dissuaded him. I proposed, and Mr. Duane seconded me, that Sharpe and Lucas should state what claims, and to what amount, each reciprocally allows of the other; and then it would be easier for us referees to split the difference. This has brought matters to a point, and I hope one more meeting may terminate the buisiness.

I have not yet heard again from your nephew, but conclude he has sent the letters to Strawberry, which my suddenly coming to town may have prevented my receiving.

Adieu! I am writing after midnight, and panting for breath; the weather is wonderfully sultry, and great mischief has been done by lightning in the counties. Were I not in town I should delight in such Florentine nights.

LETTER CCCCV.

Strawberry Hill, July 30, 1783.

I HAVE received yours of the 12th, and Cavalier Mozzi's from your nephew. To the latter's I can say nothing new at present. The last time we met, Mr. Duane and I desired Sharpe and Lucas to try how near they could come in adjusting the separate demands of Lady Or. ford and my Lord, after we had struck off the unfounded ones on either side. I have no doubt but the two lawyers could have agreed in an hour's time; that is, they would have agreed to give much ad

vantage to my Lord; but as they choose, I suppose to seem to deliberate, as physicians do who retire to consult in another room, and there talk news, Sharpe and Lucas have taken some weeks to consider. I hope Mr. Duane will see through their juggle; I shall be guided by him.

A thousand thanks to you for the Fatti Farnesiani; but you must tell me the prices, that I may pay your nephew. Do not imagine that I send to Italy for every thing I want at your expense; I cost you enough in trouble. It would truly be more kind of you if you said at once," I paid so much, or so much." As you did not, I insist on your naming the price in your next.

I shall not believe that when the Czarina has whetted her talons she will go to roost without scratching any body. They say the plague has cried hola! nay, that it is at Dantzick. Our gazette has rung out the bell. The summer is so sultry, that it would be formidable indeed!

I have not the honour of being acquainted with Lord and Lady Algernon Percy: both he and I go so little into public, that I never saw him above once in my life. She is generally commended.

Your nephew did not name his distress about his daughter, and therefore I certainly did not. I pity him; but what can his remonstrances do? passions are not to be allayed by words; love does not lie in the ear.

Thank you for dispensing with me about inoculation. It is most true that its virtues have not suffered in the smallest degree by the late accident; yet as there was no reason it should, I wonder it did not.

I have not a tittle of news for you, good or bad, public or private.. It is better that correspondence should suffer, than be supplied by wars and calamities.

We have swarms of French daily; but they come as if they had laid wagers that there is no such place as England, and only wanted to verify its existence, or that they had a mind to dance a minuet on English ground; for they turn on their heel the moment after landing. Three came to see this house last week, and walked through it literally while I wrote eight lines of a letter; for I heard them go

* Walpole, in a letter to the Earl of Stafford of the 24th of June, thus accounts for the briefuess of the visits made by our neighbours at this time: "For imports of French, I believe we shall have few more! They have not ruined us so totally by the war, much less enriched themselves so much by it, but that they who have been here complained so piteously of the expensiveness of England, that probably they will deter others from a similar jaunt; nor, such is their fickleness, are the French constant to any thing but admiration of themselves. Monsieur de Guigues and his daughters came to Strawberry Hill; but it was at eight o'clock at night, in the height of the deluge. You may be sure I was much flattered by such a visit! I was forced to light candles to show them any thing; and must have lighted the moon to show them the views. If this is their way of seeing England, they might as well look at it with an opera-glass from the shore of Calais." Collective Edition, vol. vi. p. 190.-Ed.

and was supported; but the men were given up in two days; and in two days more Powell cut his throat.*

This happened as if to convince the newly-arrived French, that selfmurder is a weekly event in this country. We have not only the Duc de Chartres, but three ladies of the Court, the Ducs de Coigny, Fitz-James, and Polignac, husband of the Queen's Favourite, and various others, and more coming. These wise men from the East, like those of ancient time, are led by a star to a stable; their great object was Newmarket: at least, the Royal Duke's horses and dogs are so much his taste, that he has a brace of them engraved on his buttons, in the most indecent attitudes; and, at the first dinner made for him, pointed out the particular representations to Lady As our newspapers take as great liberties as any Prince of the Blood, they have made due mention of such vulgar indelicacy; and, as it gave great offence, his Serene Highness has not exhibited his stud and kennel any more.

The papers say that the Imperial Freebooters, male and female, have remitted their invasion of Turkey, on having all their demands complied with; but, as they covet all, I should not think pusillanimity would abate appetites. Are vultures tamed by one belly-full?

Our lawyers flatter me, that one more session will complete the discussion of Cavalier Mozzi's affair. Without Mr. Duane I do not know what we should have done. He is patient, cool, attentive, and

*Two individuals, Powell and Bambridge, the one cashier, the other accountant of the Military Pay-Office, having been accused of malversation in the discharge of their functions, had been dismissed by Colonel Barré from their situations, while he was Paymaster of the Forces, under Lord Shelburne's Administration. One of the first acts of Mr. Burke, on coming again into that office, was to reinstate, with out previously consulting Mr. Fox, both these individuals. On Mr. Martin having said, in the House of Commons, that he looked upon their restoration as a gross and daring insult to the public, Mr. Burke rose in great heat, and exclaimed, "It is a gross and daring"-but, before he proceeded further, Mr. Sheridan pulled him down on his seat. This took place on the 2nd of May. On the 19th, Sir Cecil Wray having expressed his astonishment that the new Paymaster should have reinstated two persons suspected of so great a crime as the embezzlement of public money, Mr. Burke apologized for the violence he had displayed on the former evening; but said, that "nothing was farther from his intention than to offer an excuse for what he had done relating to the two unfortunate gentlemen; he felt such a sunshine of contempt within, that, if the act was undone, he was convinced he should do it again. He called Messrs. Powell and Bambridge two unfortunate men, and said they had been committed to his protection by Providence; one of them had been with him, and appeared almost distracted; he was absolutely afraid the poor man would lose his senses; this much he was sure of, that the sight of his gray hairs, and the condition in which he had seen him, had so affected and overcome him, that he was scarcely able to come down to the House." Several members expressed their strong disapprobation of Mr. Burke's conduct, and the business would have been agitated anew, had not Powell a few days after put an end to his existence with a razor, and Mr. Rigby announced that Bambridge was removed from his situ ation. In July, Bambridge was tried on an information filed against him in the Court of King's Bench, for conniving at the concealment of forty-eight thousand pounds, and found guilty; and, in November, he was sentenced to pay a fine of two thousand pounds, and be confined in the King's Bench prison for six months.--ED.