several of the rioters are taken up. How wise in an unsuccessful Administration to have commenced accusation! You talk of skating on the Arno-it is hot enough here to bathe in the Thames. I was literally forced to throw off the quilt of my bed the night before last-the women are afraid of an earthquake. I will write again soon, for I think there will be matter. P.S. The mob entirely gutted Sir Hugh Palliser's house but the furniture had been removed. LETTER CCXCIX. Arlington Street, Feb. 18, 1779. I PROMISED you a sequel to my history of illuminations, and here it is. They were repeated on Friday night, the 12th; and were more universal than on the preceding evening, but without the least disorder or riot. The day before yesterday the Admiral himself arrived, as privately as he could; but at night all Westminster was again lighted up and part of the City, and guns and crackers were fired till morning, and yet no mischief done. The two houses have voted compliments to him,† and the City its freedom. Palliser has resigned, his seat at the Admiralty, and vacated that in Parliament for fear of being expelled. He has demanded a trial; but the Admiralty is accused of being less eager to order it than they were that of Keppel. The latter had not been at Court yesterday, nor in the House; but there have been motions in both Houses leading to the attack on Lord Sandwich. It is not known whether he will be removed or not. The town believes there have been negotiations with the Opposition, but that the terms offered were not satisfactory. I assert so little, that I shall certainly draw you into no rash credulity. Were you here, you might believe twenty false reports every hour. It is not always the case of persons at a distance to be the best informed; but you have a very cautious historian. I shall reserve the rest of my paper till to-morrow; for, though I send you nothing but facts, every day may produce some event at present. The times have a bag of eggs like a pullet. 19th. The Admiral was at the House yesterday, when the Speaker harangued him in a fine oration, they say; to which he made a very * Many gentlemen of rank took part in these rejoicings. Mr. Pitt is said to have assisted in breaking windows, and the young Duke of Ancaster was actually taken amongst the rioters, and passed the night in the watch-house.-ED. In the Lords, the vote of thanks was moved by the Marquis of Rockingham, and seconded by the Duke of Bolton; in the Commons by Colonel Barré, who was seconded by Sir George Savile.-ED. † Admiral Mann was appointed to fill the vacant situation.-ED. modest and pathetic answer.* To-morrow he is to be congratulated and banqueted by the City, on which, I hear, we are again to be illuminated; but I am tired of crackers, and shall go quietly to Strawberry. There was to be a motion in the Commons to-day for addressing the King to remove Palliser from his other posts of General of the Marines and Governor of Scarborough ;t but I shall know the result before the post is gone out, and must refer you to the newspapers. The French will not like the éclaircissement of the Court-martial, by which it is clear they were beaten and fled. The City, which does not haggle, has expressed this a little grossly in their address to Keppel.‡ I do not love exultation. There is no grace but in silent victory. Our insults to the Americans at the outset of the war were not in the character of this country; and double the shame on those who have certainly not been victorious over them! The authors of the war have made a woful figure from the beginning to this day! LETTER CCC. Feb. 25, 1779. YOUR veritable nephew brought me, yesterday, your letter of the 6th, which came by the courier, and he has just sent me a message that your servant is to set out on his return at three o'clock. It is now noon, and I am expecting a person on business, so that I shall have but a minute to write. My last letters have hinted at the disgraces Lord Sandwich's artifices have brought on the Court by the absurd persecution of Admiral Keppel. It was very nearly overturning the Administration; and the Chancellor, Lord Weymouth, and the Paymaster,§ (a little faction of themselves,) would have tumbled the rest down, could they have offered enough to content the Opposition. I think the present system will hold together something longer, though their credit is much shaken. The Opposition is not very able, the session is far advanced, and a little success has arrived to prop them. St. Lucia is taken, secures St. Vincent's, and, if Byron joins that expedition unhurt by D'Estaing, the West Indies will be saved. These are "Ifs;" but yet more than the Ministers have had for some time. The other expedition to Georgia has prospered too, but is too small, and with the winter *After making it, the Admiral was so overcome by that extreme sensibility that characterized him, that he immediately retired from the House.-ED. A motion was made on the following day, by Mr. Fox, for the dismissal of Sir Hugh Palliser from all his military employinents; but on his being informed, by Lord North, that Sir Hugh had resigned the above situations, and was to be tried by a court-martial, Mr. Fox consented to withdraw it.-ED. The Address stated, "that the spirit and intrepidity of our officers and seamen had conveyed terror to our enemies, and obliged them to seek shelter in their own ports by an ignominious flight."-Ed. Mr. Rigby. to struggle through, to be of much consequence: and you see we have not as yet sent a man to America of late, nor can get a thousand. In short, what I would not mention but by your own courier, nothing can be more deplorable than our prospect. It was but yesterday Lord North could tell the House he had got the money on the loan, and is happy to get it under eight per cent. Then the new taxes are to come, and new discontent; the ill-humour certainly rises very little in propor tion to the distresses; yet even that has a bad cause-the indifference and dissipation of the whole country. I fear it must be some great blow that will 'rouse us. I doubt whether the French will think of Minorca. Our greatest felicity is, that they seem to have thought as little as we. Is it credible that they should have attempted nothing? The war hitherto has been a war of privateering, in which France has suffered most. In one word, the backwardness of Spain has saved us. Their junction with France had given the finishing blow. This is but a sketch, and as much as I have time to tell you. I do not say so much, nor any thing to your nephew that might give him an impression that might recoil on you. Indeed, I do but look on and lament the fall of England. Easy I am so far, that the ill-success of the American war has saved us from slavery-in truth, I am content that liberty will exist any where, and amongst Englishmen, even 'cross the Atlantic. The Scots, who planned our chains, have, as formerly, given the Court some heart-aches, and would be the first to give more if the tide should turn. I think the King will support Sandwich still; though the load on him is heavy. Admiral Keppel has behaved with much decency, and more temper than could be expected. There was more riot on Saturday, when he dined in the City, and much fracture of windows; but it is generally believed that the Court hired the mob, to make the other side sick of rejoicing. The Admiral has declined another dinner, with the West India merchants, to prevent more tumult; and, now St. Lucia is taken, I believe they are glad to be rid of him. This is enough for a comment on my late letters. You know, I never shift my principles with times.† The times, alas! have shifted their principles; but I am interrupted, and must seal my letter, lest it be too late. "I cannot," said the Admiral, in his letter to the chairman of the West India Company, in which he declined this invitation, "but be proud of the demonstrations of joy so generally expressed; yet I should feel myself much reprehensible, if I af forded a pretence to any to say that I encouraged any excesses at a late hour of the night, which tend to alarm and disturb the quiet of the town; and I can truly say that I did all in my power to prevent the last instance of it.”—ED. "Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes, LETTER CCCI. Arlington Street, March 9th, 1779. THERE has been a moment in which the scales have been more equally balanced than for some years; but the fluctuation has not lasted a week. On Wednesday, the Opposition in the House of Commons mounted to 170, and the Majority sunk to 34. Yesterday, though the former mustered four more votes, the Administration rejected the motion by a majority of 72. The questions both days related to the Fleet. Yesterday Admiral Keppel and Lord Howe declared they could not serve under the present Ministers; yet I think the latter will stand their ground, even to Lord Sandwich, though the general opinion is that he will have the Seals, which Lord Suffolk's death has vacated.† He died at the Bath on Saturday, whither he was but just arrived in a desperate state. His death is no blow but to his family. Seldom was he able to do any business; and had no talents when he could. While I am writing to you, I am wishing for some member of the House of Commons to come in, to give me an account of your nephew; for one of the morning papers says he spoke yesterday for the Court; and, though I am persuaded well, I want to be told so; and, as I dine abroad, I am at least as eager to be able to tell you so, and am afraid of not knowing it in time. I did write to you by your courier, but believe he did not set out by some days so soon as I expected; however, he must arrive before this. We have, undoubtedly, made a great number of French prises; and D'Estaing, in particular, has made a woful figure. They say at Paris, that, if ever he is Marshal of France, "au moins son bâton ne sera pas du bois de Sainte Lucie." There do not seem to spring many heroes out of this war on either side. Fame has shut her temple, too, in Germany: yet I think both the Emperor and King of Prussia have some claim on history; the latter by clipping Cæsar's soaring wings, and Cesar by having kept so old and so able a professor at bay for a whole campaign. Still the professor has carried a great point by having linked his interests with those of the Empire. The gratitude of those princes might soon wear out; but it is their interest to maintain a great, though new, power, that can balance the House of Austria. We have no private news of any sort. As, by your desire, I write more frequently than formerly, you must be content with shorter letters; for distance and absence deprive us of the little incidents of com Both the motions were made by Mr. Fox. The first was a motion of censure on the Admiralty, in sending out Admiral Keppel with too small a force; the second related to the state of the navy on the breaking out of the war with France. The first division was a most unusual one on the side of the minority. During the debate, Lord North is said to have showed a degree of passion and vehemence not at all customary with him.-ED. The vacancy occasioned by the death of the Earl of Suffolk was not filled up till October; when Lord Stormont was appointed one of the principal Secretaries of State.-ED. mon correspondence. I am forced to write to you of such events only as one would write to posterity. One cannot say, "I dined with such a person yesterday," when the letter is to be a fortnight on the road; still less when you know nothing of my Lord or Mr. Such-anone, whom I should mention. Your nephew desired me to give him a list of pamphlets for you; I told him, as is true, that there is scarcely any such thing. The pamphleteers now vent themselves in quotidian letters in the newspapers. Formerly you know, there were only weekly essays in a Fog's Journal or Craftsman: at present every morning paper has one page of political invective at least, and so coarse, that they would be as sour as vinegar before they reached Florence: you would cross yourself at reading them. I asked you about a report of Lord Maynard's sudden death. We know it was false, and that his wife, who has always some fascinating power, has established herself at the Court of Naples, by dispensing James's. They say she is universally visited, except by those English prudes, the Countesses of Berkeley and Orford. I should not wonder if the former was to dethrone Lady Maynard by distributing Keyser's pills.* P.S. I kept my letter open to the last minute, and am now vexed to tell you that the Public Advertiser misled me. Your nephew did speak yesterday and very well; but not for the Administration. It surprises me much; for the last time I saw him, not a fortnight ago, his language was very different, as it was before Christmas; and I told you how much I encouraged him in those sentiments on your account; not that I think any man could be so unjust as to impute his deviations to you, who would be the last man upon earth to instil opposition into him. I hope he has no such intention, and that this sally will have no suite. It would be impossible for me, and so out of character that it would have no weight, to argue with him, when I have ever so totally condemned the American war, which has undone us; but I shall entreat him not to frequent the House, and to return to you, rather than to act a part that would be unpleasing to you. I think if, in your gentle way, you lamented yourself to him, his congenial nature would be more struck than even if he had not acted contrary to your wishes. I have not time to say a word more -but do not torment yourself. Trust to your own merit; and, if your modesty is too great for that, call in philosophy, that is a real comforter when coupled with the consciousness of having done our duty. *For the cure of a disgusting disease. Though Sir Horace Mann, the younger, had voted against Mr. Fox's motion on the third instant, for a censure on the conduct of the Admiralty, he said he felt him. self bound to give his full assent to an inquiry into the state of the Navy; seeing that the facts stated in the motion were matters of public notoriety, as well known without the house as within.-ED. |