I #

me? The last Gazette informed us that General Howe was but then going to open the campaign, having been in want of campaign equipage. I do not know that Lord Percy says any thing; for I have heard he is very circumspect. He certainly does not talk of pacification. He is said to say, that this campaign will finish the war. doubt his having said so, as the Ministers are not said to be of that opinion. In the mean time, American privateers infest our coasts; they keep Scotland in alarms, and even the harbour of Dublin has been newly strengthened with cannon. But there is a much bigger cloud a ready to burst. The open protection and countenance given by France to the Americans is come to a crying height. We complain: I know not what civil words they give, but they certainly give us no satisfaction. The general opinion is, that we are at the eve of a war with them. Should the Americans receive any blow, my own sentiments are, that France would openly espouse their quarrel, not being at all disposed to let them be crushed. You know that at the beginning of this contest I told you I thought it would be an affair of long duration. A French war would abridge it-but how? I will prophesy nothing on that head. I don't like to look into that book.

I have no events to send you. London, I suppose, is very empty at this season; but I have little dealings with it. The affairs of my family find me full employment, and it is the most suitable one at my time of life. Adieu!

LETTER CCLXXI.

Strawberry Hill, August 11, 1777.

I WRITE in a most anxious moment, and tremble lest you should know worse than we have heard yet. I had a letter from the Duchess on Tuesday, that raised our hopes. Yesterday brought one from Dr. Jebb to my brother, that dashed them down again. Sir Edward, who is truly very sagacious in physical cases, does not despond; and I, always disposed to expect what I wish, and who do not believe that it is so easy to die as is imagined, do not quite despair-yet that word quite would scarce turn a scale against a feather. I dare not look farther, nor figure the distress of the Duchess, if the dreadful misfortune should happen. Lord Cholmondeley* is gone to Trent, and will be of great use and comfort-but I will hope yet. Do not wonder, nor take it ill, that nobody thought of writing to you: think but of what the distress and confusion must be; and how little they could attend to any thing but writing to England. I, here, only contemplating in

*George-James, fourth Earl of Cholmondeley, great-nephew of Horace Walpole; and upon whose death he succeeded to the ancient Walpole estates at Houghton, &c. In 1782, he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Court of Berlin; and, in 1815, was advanced to the Earldom of Rocksavage and Marquisate of Cholmondeley. He died in April 1827.-ED.

melancholy tranquillity the misfortune hanging over my poor niece, should not write to many but you at such a moment. The Duke's family must be exhausted with fatigue and anxiety, and I fear barely able to go through their duty. You should pity them, not suspect them of neglect.

I can tell you nothing else that you will like much better. The conquest of America is put off to the millennium.* It is hoped, and thence supposed, that General Howe is gone to take some place, or beat some army, that is more practicable than dislodging Washington. Burgoyne has sent over a manifesto, that, if he was to overrun ten provinces, would appear too pompous;t and yet, let him achieve ever so little, it will be sure of not being depreciated; so great is the want of something to keep up the spirits of the people, who stare a little at being bullied on their own coasts, after being told that five thousand men would overrun all America. France sits by and laughs, receives our remonstrances, sends us an embassadress, and winks on Dr. Franklin that it is all the comfort she will give us.—I believe you will not wish me to expatiate on that chapter.

Lady Mary Churchill's eldest daughter is married to Lord Cadogan. She is very pretty, amiable, and eight-and-twenty; he, rich and fifty. It is a great mach for her, and in my opinion preferable to one with most of our youths, who dissipate enormous fortunes in a couple of years. I have not time to say more now, nor any event to tell you.

LETTER CCLXXII.

Strawberry Hill, Sept. 1, 1777. THE Duke is still struggling at Trent. Ten days ago the letters were suddenly and wonderfully mended, and we flattered ourselves the

* Gibbon, at that time in Paris, writing, on the 13th of August, to M. Holroyd, says, "What a wretched piece of work do we seem to be making of it in America! The greatest force which any European power ever ventured to transport into that country, is not strong enough even to attack the enemy; the naval strength of Great Britain is not sufficient to prevent the Americans (they have almost lost the appella tion of rebels) from receiving every assistance that they wanted; and, in the mean time, you are obliged to call out the militia to defend your own coasts against their privateers. Upon the whole, I find it much easier to defend the justice than the policy of our measures; but there are certain cases, where whatever is repugnant to sound policy ceases to be just."-Ed.

+ General Burgoyne had, in June, dispersed a manifesto calculated to spread terror among the contumacious, and particularly to revive in their minds every latent impression of fear, derived from knowledge or information of the cruel operations of the Indian savages. The pompous turgidity of style in which it was couched, excited the ridicule of the Americans, and procured for the General the sobriquet of Chrononhotonthologos.-ED.

Mr. Walpole's sister.

Charles Sloane Cadogan, third Lord Cadogan. In 1800, his lordship was advanced to the dignities of Viscount Chelsea and Earl Cadogan. Miss Churchill was his second wife.-ED.

danger was quite over. The next post brought a little relapse, and great complaint of the heats. Two days ago we were a little comforted again. He had had two exceedingly good nights; and having gained so much time, and the physicians no longer speaking despondingly, though they will not from prudence give too great hopes, we trust we shall again see his Royal Highness in England. The Duchess's distress has equalled any thing we could figure. For three weeks she did not write a syllable, nor even saw Mrs. Heywood.* She tells Lady Laura, her daughter, that she did nothing but pray and weep. She has still much to go through. It is well her constitution and courage are so firm. It will be the end of October at soonest before they can be at home. When the Duke is able to travel, I shall expect great things from motion and change of air. The King has sent him a kind message: it will do more than twenty physicians, and I believe produced the amendment, for his heart was broken.

:

General Burgoyne has taken Ticonderoga, and given a new complexion to the aspect of affairs, which was very wan indeed. General Howe is gone with a great force some whither, and the moment is very critical. I don't pretend to form any judgment. Eleven months ago I thought America subdued; and, a fortnight ago, it was as little likely to be subdued as ever. We, the people, know little of the truth.† One would think the more informed were not more settled in their opinions for General Howe's retreat, after advancing towards Washington, produced despair; the taking of one post has given confidence. So much fluctuation begets a thousand reports. It is now said at once, that we are to hire fifteen thousand Russians for next campaign, and that we are treating for peace by the mediation of France. If you ask me what I believe-nothing but what is past-and perhaps have not heard a quarter of that. In one thing alone all that come from America agree, that the alienation from this country is incredible and universal; so that, instead of obtaining a revenue thence, the pretence of the war, the conquest would only entail boundless expense to preserve it. The New World will at last be revenged on the Ol!.

* One of the Women of the Bed-chamber who attended the Duchess of Gloucester abroad.

The capture of Ticonderoga by General Burgoyne, in July, together with a hundred and twenty-eight pieces of cannon, occasioned great exultation with all who looked forward to the unconditional submission of the colonies, and an opinion generally prevailed that the war in effect was over.-ED.

The feelings, at this time, of the people of America towards this country, are thus set forth by Dr. Franklin, in a letter of the 14th of October, to David Hartley, the member for Kingston-upon-Hull:-"As to our submitting to the government of Great Britain, it is in vain to think of it. It is now impossible to persuade our people, as I long endeavoured, that the war was merely ministerial, and that the nation bore still a good-will to us. The infinite number of addresses printed in your gazettes, all encouraging our destruction by every means; the great majority in Parliament constantly manifesting the same sentiments; together with the recommendation of the same measures by even your celebrated moralists and divines in their writings and sermons-all join in convincing us that you are unfit and unworthy to govern us, as not being able to govern your own passions."

My poor nephew remains in the same undecided state; sometimes furious, sometimes sullen. I prophesy no more about him than about America; but, one way or other, he will be a source of vexation to me. But one speaks, or ought to speak, with more indifference about future events, when the clock is going to strike sixty. Visions, and hopes, and prospects, are pretty playthings for boys. It is folly to vex one's self for what cannot last very long. Indeed, what can, even when one is young? Corydon firmly believes he shall be wretched for ever, if he does not marry Phillis. That misery can but last till she has lost her bloom. His eternal wo would vanish, if her nose grew red. How often do our griefs become our comforts! I know what I wish to-day; not at all what I shall wish to-morrow. Sixty says, You did not wish for me, yet you would like to keep me. Sixty is in the right; and I have not a word more to say.

LETTER CCLXXIII.

Strawberry Hill, Sept. 18, 1777.

*I AM a little calm at present, and can tell what I say; which would not have been the case last week. The changes in the Duke of Gloucester's condition have been so frequent and so unexpected, that I have been buffeted with every opposite agitation. On Saturday was sevennight we heard that his Royal Highness was in a very fair way. On the next Monday we were advertized that he was not likely to last four hours. The next day the post was said to be arrived, and to have brought no letters from Trent. Fatal as this scemed, the arrival of no messenger left a gleam of hope; and next evening a favourable letter proved the mistake of the post having arrived sooner. Two more posts have brought more rapid accounts of amendment than one can scarce credit, if two circumstances did not solve the vast improbability. The humour had fallen on the lower parts, but with such violence as to bring on all the ordinary prognostics of immediate death; and the Duke swelled from his groin to his foot. This vent cleared the bowels, and, as the stamina are still more vigorous than the royal humour, they seem to have conquered. For the swiftness of the recovery, it is owing to a very different cause; to the removal of a malady which had co-operated with the disorder in the blood to bring on so violent and lasting an attack. In short, the King has sent his Royal Highness a most kind and brotherly letter, and the physicians are not to blame for not having prescribed a medicine that was not in their dispensary. You may judge to what a skeleton such a conflict of body and mind, in bed for thirteen weeks, and in so sultry a climate, must have reduced the Duke. They could hear the bones, they say, rattle in his skin. They speak of the Duchess's distraction, and the change in her person and beauty, with as much energy. Well! may we but see them here again! I will add no more; I have curbed myself to say so little. But

what a week, and what transitions! It would make a tragedy to paint, as I did to myself, the Duchess travelling with the body, which the Duke had exacted of her, and with two infants, one just old enough to lisp daggers, and arriving in a succession of inns to be stared at, when she would wish herself in her grave; and returning to her own country to encounter mortification, triumph in her fall, and total uncertainty of her own fate, and of that of her children! It had been Agrippina again at Brundusium. No King ever had an opportunity of dispelling more wo, and his Majesty must taste the satisfaction he has given. It is the reverse of the tinsel, glory.

I know nothing else, and you cannot wonder that I have had room for nothing else. For above three weeks we have been totally in the dark about America. To tell you any thing else would be repeating conjectures, which, though they fill up every cranny of the interstices of events, are most unsubstantial mortar, and rarely harden into part of the building.

You are too reasonable about your own lameness to want any exhortation to patience. I am very weak on my feet too; but always say, when asked, I am well enough. The absence of pain is the pleasure of age. I wish you a great-nephew, because one ought to cultivate visions: it is true disappointment is not quite so airy, nor vanishes like the fumes which conjured it up. Pray don't imagine I am a philosopher but when I am pretty much at ease. Last week would give me the lie soundly, if I affected airs of stoicism. I pretend to nothing but to having chalked out for myself and having pursued a plan of tranquillity; not because I had no passions, but because I knew the big ones, ambition and the chase of fortune, would produce more tempest in my passions than I could bear. The vexations my family have occasioned me were none of my seeking. I am neither so insensible as not to feel them, or not to try to remedy them. A little common sense is all the philosophy I possess; and when the business of others does not torment me, no body is more contented or can find more amusement than I. This place, my books and playthings, are empire enough for me; but, for amusing myself, I never was so totally debarred of that talent as this summer. I sigh to be my own master again; that is, idle. Adieu! P.S. 19th.-It is said that a victualling-ship has brought an account of the Howes having attempted to cross the Delaware, in order to attack Philadelphia, and of Washington having marched and prevented them; and that on this disappointment they were sailed to Boston. On the other hand, the provincials are said to have abandoned Fort Edward. Few days will ascertain or contradict these events, and the papers will let you know.

A strange accident has happened. Lord Harcourt was missing the other day at dinner-time at his own seat, and at last was found suffocated in a well with his head downwards, and his dog upon him.* It

* This very singular accident took place at Nuneham Park on the 16th of September, and was supposed to be occasioned by his lordship over-reaching, in order to save the life of a favourite dog, which was found in the well, standing on his lord