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"I understand from Lady Di, that Charles Beauclerk has not received your letters, and that he is very anxious to know whether, or not, you go to Italy. If you follow my advice you will; first, because I see no use in your being here till you are of age; secondly, because Italy is of all Europe the most worth seeing, and if you do not see it now you probably never will; and, thirdly, because if you do not go to Italy you never will learn thoroughly the Italian language, and for want of it be deprived of some of the greatest pleasure that you who love poetry can enjoy. If you go to Italy, as I suppose you will, and if affairs here turn out such as to make my absence of no consequence, I really believe that I shall go thither next spring. I take it for granted that you, as well as I, will wish to be here by the opening of the session of Parliament which follows next summer. A little new spirit on the right side here is very much wanting. Prosecutions intolerable, both here and in Scotland, are going on every day, and nobody seems to mind them. The very name of Liberty is scarce popular; but the failure of the war against France and the calamities which the war must bring on here, may make it so again. The most violent Tories here, and indeed all the world, except the Ministry and some hot friends of mine, are for peace; but I believe,

to Dunkirk; but the attempt was unsuccessful, and he raised the siege at the end of August.

*Topham Beauclerk, born in 1739, married, in 1768, Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of Charles, second Duke of Marlborough. Charles George Beauclerk was the son of this marriage. For an account of Topham Beauclerk, see" Boswell's Johnson."

at the same time, that they are inconsistent enough to be against all means of bringing about peace. What will happen here nobody knows; but I cannot help flattering myself that the marked incapacity of our present Ministers for war, will produce peace in some way or other. They appear to me to have been much more deficient in common sense than one ought reasonably to expect one's enemies to be. There is no room on the paper, so adieu, my dear Nephew."

SAME TO SAME.

"November 3rd, 1793.

SOON after I wrote to you last from Thetford, I was called home by a most severe fever which had attacked Mrs. Armitstead, but which lasted a very little time, and from which thank God she is perfectly recovered. I stayed with her a little more than a fortnight, and then returned to this country, to my shooting, of which I am I think fonder than ever. I delayed writing to you some time from being discouraged by your not receiving my letters, and to this moment I think it unaccountable, that in September you appeared not to have received one which I wrote you on the first of August. Your last letters acknowledging the receipt of mine, I have received since I came to this part of the world, and I have never found a moment's time to write, as the weather has been very good, and on Sundays, the only idle days, we have generally moved from place to place; I say we, for Uncle Dick (now General Fitz

patrick), has been with me till last Tuesday, when he went to London. He shoots most deliberately as you may suppose, and generally lets the bird go out of shot before he has adjusted his aim. You will have heard before this reaches you of the trial and execution of the poor Queen, which seems to have been attended with every circumstance that could contribute to make the act more disgusting and detestable than any other murder recorded in history.* Our affairs in Flanders seem to grow worse and worse,† and I suspect that they are not in a good state even at Toulon. The expedition to the West Indies is given up, and in short everything happens that ought to disgust everybody with the war, but whether some persons whom I most wish to be convinced are so, I much doubt; that the public in general wishes for peace I have no doubt; nor do I much fear that the Jesuitical proclamation of last week will reconcile them much to the war. It is a curious composition, and I hope you will read it carefully. The only thing clear in it is, that we are to fight till they adopt hereditary monarchy in France, disavowing at the same time any intention of prescribing either that or any other particular mode of government. One should

* The execution of Marie Antoinette took place in October, 1793. An English army, under the Duke of York, had landed at Ostend in April, 1793. In September his army retreated from before Dunkirk; and the campaign ended in November, without any decisive result.

Toulon had been surrendered by the Royalists to Admiral Lord Hood, in August, 1793. The Constitution of 1791 was proclaimed.

§ The proceedings against the French in the West Indies, in 1793, are described by Adolphus, vol. v. c. 84. Tobago, St. Pierre, and Miquelon were taken; but no expedition was sent from England.

think it impossible that the author of such a work could be a man of sense, and yet it is evidently Pitt's own."

"I hope when I hear next from you, to learn whether you go to Italy or not. I gave you my advice before, and I think Charles Beauclerk's being there will tempt you. In some of your letters you seemed rather impatient at my not writing to you. You were mistaken as you now know in supposing I had not written, but if I had not, you should make some allowance for habitual indolence about writing, and never allow yourself to think for a moment that I ever can be forgetful of you, or not feel interested concerning you. Indeed, if I were to accuse myself at all upon this head, it would be rather for loving you too much, than too little. I do not mean more than you deserve, but with regard to that proportion which one ought if possible to preserve in one's affections. The truth is, that all men when they are no longer young must look forwards to something they expect to last beyond themselves. My friends whom I love most are all about my own age, and consequently, one supposes they will go off the stage about the same time as oneself. So when I have a mind to

* The "proclamation" here referred to is the "declaration sent, by his Majesty's command, to the commanders of his Majesty's fleets and armies employed against France, and to his Majesty's Ministers residing at foreign courts, Oct. 19, 1793," printed in Ann. Reg., vol. xxxv., State-papers, p. 199. It was published in the London Gazette, for October 26—9, in French and English. Notwithstanding Mr. Fox's opinion, it seems more probable that this Declaration should have been composed by Lord Grenville, who was Foreign Secretary at the time, than that it should have been written by Mr. Pitt. It undoubtedly expressed the views of Mr. Pitt and of his Government in entering upon the war.

build castles, and to look forward to distant times with pride and pleasure, I must think of you and only you, and I feel myself quite sure that you will not disappoint me. Perhaps the natural disposition one has to love one's near relations, would be a more true account of the interest I take in you than all this philosophy. Be it as it may, you are in more danger of being teazed by my affection than of ever being hurt by my neglect, and of this perhaps these last two pages may shew the probability. I read this morning in the papers, that Lord Montague and Mr. Burdett are drowned in Switzerland; * for God's sake my dear boy take care of yourself, and do not run any unnecessary danger. Your Uncle Harry is, as you have heard before this, in Flanders. He was delighted with his appointment, and I was very sorry for it. Adieu, mi querido Sobrino."†

SAME TO SAME.

"EUSTON, Nov. 3rd.

"THE master of this house is quite right now in politics, but I fear he will come quite alone, without either of his sons."

The details of this unhappy occurrence may be seen in the "Annual Register" for 1793, Chron. p. 51. George Samuel, eighth Viscount Montague, and Sedley Burdett, Esq., second son of Francis Burdett, Esq., made a rash attempt, in spite of the remonstrances of the magistrates of the place, and of their own servant, to cross the Falls of Schaffhausen in a small flat-bottomed boat, and were both lost, in October, 1793.

+ My beloved nephew.

Augustus Henry, third Duke of Grafton, died in 1811. The two sons alluded to are probably George Henry, Lord Euston, afterwards fourth Duke, and Lord Charles Fitzroy.