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it was the effect of the times. I impute to that habit an expression, which though the effusion of your friendship and tenderness for me, I must reclaim against. You say, you love and adore me. Jesus! my dear sir! What an object of adoration! You put me in mind of what I have read in some traveller, who, viewing some Indian temple that blazed with gold and jewels, was at last introduced into the sanctum sanctorum, where behind the veil sat the object of worship-an old baboon! and, perhaps, poor pug's inside, as well as out, was fairer than mine.

8th.

I have no news to add: all eyes are now on Portsmouth, where the trial began yesterday. Prudence is not gone thither, nor had any hand in the business: but she has been out of fashion for some time; and her mimic, Cunning, does not act her part with success. Adieu !

LETTER CCXCVII.

Jan. 29, 1779.

SUSPENSE Still! The court martial continues, and every thing respectfully awaits its determination: even France and America seem to lie upon their oars till the oracle at Portsmouth has pronounced.* The response, however, is not likely to be ambiguous. There has been such juggling to warp the judgment of the priests of Neptune; and the frauds have been so openly detected, and salt water Flamens are so boisterous when they can see through an imposition; that Palliser and his accomplices, high and low, will probably rue the tempest they have brewed. I hinted in my last that there is a man,t whom you once knew well, that prefers cunning to prudence: he will not exult in the choice he has made. The Duke of Marlborough and Lord Pembroke declare against the First Lord of the Admiralty; the second is expected to be less out of humour with the Court-martial than with being denied the Mastership of the Horse; but, when a tide turns, it sweeps many along with it. I will say no more of politics; the horizon does not clear-but I have no events to tell you. I write only to amuse your impatience.

Garrick is dead; not a public loss, for he had quitted the stage.‡

* Gibbon, writing at this time to Mr. Holroyd, says, "Portsmouth is no longer an object of speculation. The whole stream of all men and all parties runs one way. Sir Hugh is disgraced, ruined, &c. In a night or two we shall be in a blaze of illumination, from the zeal of naval heroes, land patriots, and tallow-chandlers; the last are not the least sincere."-ED.

† Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty.

David Garrick died on the 20th of January, at his house on the Adelphi Terrace, in the sixty-third year of his age. His widow survived him forty-three years, and died in 1822, in her ninety-ninth year. Dr. Johnson pays the following high

He is to be buried on Monday in great ceremony in Westminster Abbey; but not having been so attentive to worldly riches as Lord Chatham, his family will not be provided for by Parliament. They had both great merit in their different walks, and were both good actors; but we are Athenians enough to be full as fond of the stage as of the State. Both, at present, are a little in want of a genius.

There is a report that the poor simple Lord Maynard+ has shot himself at Naples-is it true? The Duke of Dorset is almost in as bad a scrape as if he had married Lady Maynard. He is waiting for a Duchess till Lady Derbyt is divorced. He would not marry her before Lord Derby did, and now is forced to take her, when he himself has made her a very bad match. A quarter of our Peeresses will have been wives of half our living Peers.

You must be content with these brief letters, while I write for your satisfaction rather than for your information. I am recovered enough to go to a few places; but I do not, nor can expect to mend so fast as when younger.

tribute to the memory of the great actor, in the concluding passage of his Life of Edmund Smith, the Poet: "At this man's table I enjoyed many cheerful and instructive hours, with companions such as are not often found; with one who has lengthened, and one who has gladdened life; with Dr. James, whose skill in physic will be long remembered, and with David Garrick, whom I hoped to have gratified with this character of our common friend; but what are the hopes of man! I am disappointed by this stroke of death, which has eclipsed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasures."-ED.

*Hannah More, in a letter to her sister, gives the following striking account of Garrick's interment: "The bell of St. Martin's and the Abbey gave a sound that smote upon my very soul. We were put into a little gallery directly over the grave, where we could see and hear every thing as distinctly as if the Abbey had been a parlour. We were no sooner recovered from the first burst of grief, than I cast my eyes, the first thing on Handel's monument and read the scroll in his hand, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth.' Just at three the great doors burst open with a noise that shook the roof; the organ struck up, and the whole choir, in strains only less solemn than the archangel's trump,' began Handel's fine anthem. The whole choir advanced to the grave, in hoods and surplices, singing all the way; then Sheridan, as chief mourner; then the body, (alas! whose body?) with ten noblemen and gentlemen pall-bearers; then the rest of the friends and mourners; hardly a dry eye-the very players, bred to the trade of counterfeiting, shed genuine tears. As soon as the body was let down, the Bishop began the service, which he read in a low, but solemn and devout manner. Such an awful stillness reigned, that every word was audible. How I felt it! Judge if my heart did not assent to the wish, that the soul of our dear brother now departed was in peace. And this is all of Garrick! Yet a little while and he shall say to the worm, Thou art my brother;' and to corruption, Thou art my mother and my sister.' So passes away the fashion of this world."-Life, vol. i. p. 157.-ED.

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He had married the well-known Nancy Parsons, who had been kept by the Dukes of Grafton, Dorset, &c. ; but it was not true that he had killed himself. Lady Elizabeth Hamilton. The divorce did not take place.

LETTER CCXCVIII.

Arlington Street, Feb. 11, 1779. I AM only getting ready this letter for to-morrow, when it is to set out with the full triumph of Admiral Keppel, which is expected in town to-night from Portsmouth. The fronts of several houses are already decorated with lamps, and, as soon as the courier arrives, I suppose the whole town will be in a blaze-I hope, only of light; but, when a mob expresses its joy, one may always fear lest it should mistake mischief for merriment. The guards are ordered to be doubled: I fancy, a few of them will not be far from the Admiralty.*

The good people of Edinburgh have set but an ugly example. There has been a serious insurrection against the Papists, and two mass-houses were burnt; and the Provost quieted the tumult only by promising that the toleration of Popery should not be extended to Scotland. This will be agreeable news to the Americans, who did not expect to see the Administration reproved by Scots.

You will not be agitated by popular rumours. If I repeat them to you, it is, that if any thing should happen, you may not be surprised. In a word, some changes at least are expected, particularly in the Admiralty, the rudder of which, it is said, has been offered to Lord Howe, some say, and refused by him; others, that he objected to Lord George Germain; and others, that he demands an inquiry on himself and his brother. Lord Suffolk is certainly to retire on the plea of infirmity, which is a reason why he should not come into place; and Lord Buckingham is to quit Ireland, and, I believe, is allowed to say, at his own request too-he also might have had an earlier plea:-in short, difficulties at present are more plentiful than recources. Per contra, Spain is said to have offered us her mediation, and to have it accepted. Yesterday I heard that the Duke of Medina Sidonia had actually set out for Paris on that errand, but was dead on the road. The want of a successor will not be an impediment, if there is no other.

To

This minute I receive your tender letter of the 16th of last month: but pray, my dear sir, be easy about me; I am as much recovered as probably I shall be. I go out, and walk tolerably with a cane. be sure, another severe fit may confine me at home; but, as I do not indulge distant hopes, why should I disturb myself with future fears? I have patience and submission, and they are at least as potent as care. Of every thing I make the best I can. Immediate vexations one cannot easily divert; but gloomy thoughts that are resident, and return only when the mind is vacant, I remove by any amusement that offers. This is my case about my nephew and Houghton. I forget them as fast as possible, though I own they frequently return. It is very true, I did desire the pictures should be sold, as I preferred

* Lord Sandwich, Keppel's enemy, was First Lord of the Admiralty.

his paying his grandfather's and father's debts to false splendour; but that is not the case now. As he is not legally obliged, he doos not think of acquitting his father's debts; and, as he has compounded his grandfather's unsatisfied debts for fifteen thousand pounds, he does not want forty thousand. In short, I am persuaded that the villainous crew about him, knowing they could not make away clandestinely with the collection in case of his death, prefer money they can easily appropriate to themselves. Whether the price affixed is adequate, or too low, is difficult to say. Imaginary value depends on circumstances and times. I once should have thought forty thousand pounds a high price: the whole collection made by my father, of which there have already been three sales, cost but that sum. Five years ago, with the opulence and rage for virtù, they would have produced more. At present, not so much. Last night I heard the bargain is not concluded. Cipriani was desired to value them, and has called in West. To be sure, I should wish they were rather sold to the Crown of England than to that of Russia, where they will be burnt in a wooden palace on the first insurrection: here they would be still Sir Robert Walpole's collection. But my grief is that they are not to remain at Houghton, where he placed them, and wished them to remain. Pride and pity leave me but that desire.

At midnight.

I am this moment come in,. and may as well write to you as to go to bed; for it is impossible to sleep, from the noise of squibs and crackers. The sentence arrived at half-an-hour after nine, and in two hours the whole town was illuminated.* I drove with two la

* No sooner was it known that Admiral Keppel was fully and honourably acquitted, than a general illumination took place: Sir Joshua Reynolds, in a letter to the Admiral, says "They were universal, I believe, without the exception of a single house. Poor Sir Hugh's house in Pall Mall was entirely gutted, and its contents burnt in St. James's Square, in spite of a large party of horse and foot, who came to protect it. Lord North and Lord Bute had their windows broke. The Admiralty gates were unhinged. To-night, I hear, Sir Hugh is to be burnt in effigy before your door. I have taken the liberty to lend your picture to an engraver to make a large print from it." From the following passage in Mr. Burke's "Letter to a Noble Lord," it will be seen, that this picture had been presented to him by the Admiral at Portsmouth: "It was but the other day, that, in putting in order some things, I looked over a number of fine portraits, most of them of persons now dead, but whose society, in my better days, made this a proud and happy place. Amongst them was the picture of Lord Keppel. It was painted by an artist worthy of the subject, the excellent friend of that excellent man from their earliest youth, and a common friend of us both, with whom we lived for many years without a moment of coldness, of peevishness, of jealousy, or of jar, to the day of our final separation. I ever looked upon Lord Keppel as one of the greatest and best men of his age; and I loved and cultivated him accordingly. He was much in my heart, and I believe I was in his to the very last beat. It was at his trial at Portsmouth that he gave me this picture. With what zeal and anxious affection I attended him through his agony of glory; what part my son took in the early flush and enthusiasm of his virtue, and the pious passion with which he attached himself to all my connexions; with what prodigality we both squandered ourselves in courting almost every sort of enmity for his sake; I believe he felt, just as I should have felt, such friendship

dies from Grosvenor Square to Spring Garden, to wish old Lady Albemarle joy. She had just been blooded, for she is seventy-five, but you may imagine was in happy spirits; for the Sentence is as honourable as possible, and terms the accusation unfounded and malicious in every article. Palliser escaped from Portsmouth this morning at five, and arrived in a hired post-chaise at the Admiralty; but was known as he entered, and was pulled by the populace by the coat, but got in safe. We passed twice by his house in Pall Mall just now, and found a mob before it, but a strong guard of soldiers and constables. The people have not been riotous yet: but as they are flinging squibs, and the streets are full, there will be accidents, if no determined mischief. I hope to-morrow morning to hear that the night has passed quietly, which will be to the honour of the Opposition. The Opposition in my father's time were not of so harmless a complexion; but as he was guiltless, which is known and allowed now, malevolence could only keep up a spirit against him by clamour. But, good night! I will reserve the rest of my paper for to-mor

row.

Friday morn, 12th.

My servants who have been out this morning, tell me that about three o'clock the mob forced their way into Palliser's house, in spite of the guards, and demolished every thing in it; and that they broke the windows of Lord George Germain and of Lord North, and that

on such occasion."-It may not be improper to add, that the counsel employed by Admiral Keppel were, Mr. Dunning, Mr. Lee-and the Hon. Thomas Erskine; who finding neither the naval nor military service congenial to his taste, had, only in the Trinity term of the preceding year, been called to the bar. As a mark of the high sense he entertained of the zeal and indefatigable industry shown by Mr. Erskine upon this occasion, the Admiral enclosed him two bank-notes of five hundred pounds each. The future Lord Chancellor of England called in Audley Square, to acknowledge the receipt of them; but, not finding Admiral Keppel at home, he wrote a note in the porter's hall, which it would be an act of injustice to his memory not to subjoin:-" You must, no doubt, my dear Sir, have been very much surprised at receiving no answer to your most generous letter; but I trust you are well enough acquainted with my temper and feelings to find out the reason, and to pardon me. I was, indeed, altogether unable to answer it. I could not submit to do injustice to my gratitude and affection, and was therefore obliged to be silent till I could wait upon you in person; and, having missed you, must be silent still. I shall, therefore, only say, that the generous present you have sent me is out of all kind of bounds and measure, even if the occasion had afforded an opportunity of rendering them; how much the more when your own ability and the absurdity of the occasion wholly disappointed my zeal? At all events, the honour of attending Admiral Keppel would have been in itself a most ample reward; an honour which, whatever my future fortunes may be, I shall ever consider as the brightest and happiest in my life, and which my childrens' children will hereafter claim as an inheritance. I do most sincerely pray God that every blessing may attend you, and that you may be spared for the protection of a country which has proved itself worthy of protection. My heart must ever be with you." Lord Keppel's Life, vol. ii. p. 218.-ED.

Lady Anne Lennox, youngest daughter of Charles Lennox first Duke of Richmond, widow of William-Anne second Earl of Albemarle, mother of George third Earl, and of Admiral Augustus Keppel.

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