not have done so. I should prefer being forgotten, to putting the world in mind of me without effect. He should sleep on his laurels, and leave posterity to make the comparison between him and his successors; who certainly are not prolific of trophies. Lord Cornwallis has gained a puny advantage, and Governor Tryon has burnt a magazine, which is thought a great blow to the provincials; but the Howes are not in fashion. Lord Percy is come home disgusted by the younger; and the elder will be as much disgusted, at least his family declare so for him, at missing the Treasurership of the Navy. The Duke of Marlborough's* avarice has been a theme of much abuse of late. I do not think this age has a right to cast a stone at the preceding. France to us sends most fair words; to America, stores and officers. Spain has seized an island from the Portuguese Queen ;+ just as the powers of Europe treated the Empress-Queen on her father's death. I will not pity her Portuguese Majesty, lest some time

bate by ninety-nine against twenty-eight. His illustrious son, the future minister of the country, was present, and thus wrote, on the following day, to his mother:-" I cannot help expressing to you how happy, beyond description, I feel, in reflecting that my father was able to exert, in their full vigour, the sentiments and eloquence which have always distinguished him. His first speech took up half an hour, and was full of all his usual force and vivacity. He spoke a second time, in answer to Lord Weymouth, to explain the object of his motion, and his intention to follow it by one for the repeal of all the acts of parliament which form the system of chastisement. This he did in a flow of eloquence, and with a beauty of expression, animated and striking beyond conception."-Ed.

The great General of Queen Anne.

+ The Spanish fleet, under the conduct of the Marquis of Casa Tilly, had, in February, taken possession, almost without opposition, of the isle of St. Catherine's, on the coast of Brazil.-ED.

or other she should accede to a partition of Poland. I will never more judge of princes at their coronations, but at their burials.

One effect the American war has not had, that it ought to have had; it has not brought us to our senses. Silly dissipation rather increases, and without an object. The present folly is late hours. Everybody tries to be particular by being too late; and, as everybody tries it, nobody is so. It is the fashion now to go to Ranelagh two hours after it is over. You may not believe this, but it is literal. The music ends at ten;

Lord Derby's cook lately

the company go at twelve. gave him warning. The man owned he liked his place, but said he should be killed by dressing suppers at three in the morning. The Earl asked him coolly at how much he valued his life? That is, he would have paid him for killing him. You see we have brought the spirit of calculation to perfection! I do not regret being old, for I see nothing I envy. To live in a crowd, to arrive everywhere too late, and to sell annuities for forty times more than I can ever pay, are not such supreme joys as to make me wish myself young again : indeed, one might execute all these joys at four-score. I am glad the Emperor did not visit us. I hope he is gone home, thinking France the most trifling nation in Europe.

*

I am extremely glad that Lady Lucy is so much mended, and I trust she will live to reward your ne

Sir Horace Mann, the younger, had married, in April 1765, Lady Lucy, daughter of Baptist Noel, fourth Earl of Gainsborough.—ED.

phew's great merit towards her. I do believe, with your physicians, that warm weather will re-establish you. Patience I need not preach to you-it is part of you; but I will tell you what would expedite your recovery miraculously-the sea-air. Go to Leghorn, and drive on the shore; go out in a boat for a few hours you will walk well in half-a-dozen. I have experienced this in as short a time as I prescribe. You will be angry, perhaps,-I mean, as much as you can be,—but I am not sorry you have a little gout; it will be a great preservative.

LETTER CCLXX.

Strawberry Hill, July 17, 1777.

You are very kind, my dear sir, in your inquiries about the Duke of Gloucester. You will have heard, long before you receive this, how very ill his Royal Highness has been. I wish I could say I was yet quite easy about him. We are very impatient for to-morrow's letters. It is unfortunate that he did not pass the summer again at Castel Gondolfo. The heats and nauseous air of Venice immediately affected him deeply, and I fear his Royal Highness's mind was not in a situation to resist outward impressions. He fell away exceedingly, had a flux at Padua, and at Verona was so reduced, that he was persuaded to return to England. Before he could set out, he grew daily so much worse, that he was taken out of bed and put into a post-chaise, and made journeys for two days of twenty

six and thirty miles; at the end of which he slept eight hours, and mended a little. The Duchess, in the mean time, half distracted, sent a courier for Dr. Jebb and Adair; who, we hope, arrived last Saturday; for Dr. Jebb promised to post without pulling off his clothes. The Duke got to Trent, and found himself refreshed from the cool air of the mountains; but his dysentery returned with violent pains. He keeps his bed; but when the last letters came away, which was on the 4th of this month, his surgeon-page hoped the extremity of the danger was over. It is, indeed, impossible ever to be secure about so precarious a constitution; and, unless his Royal Highness's mind is set at peace about his family, I fear he has not strength to resist the anxiety that preys upon a state of health too obnoxious to every kind of attack. To add to the Duchess's misery, her little boy was in a bad way at the same moment.

You inquire about America, and what Lord Percy * says. I cannot give you information from any authority. I live here, and see nobody of either side that knows anything. The Duchess's three daughters + are,

* Eldest son of Hugh, first Duke of Northumberland. His lordship had distinguished himself greatly in the important action of Lexington, and the reduction of Fort Washington, &c. On the death of his father, in 1786, he succeeded to the family honours.-ED.

† The Ladies Laura, Maria, and Horatia Waldegrave, daughters of the Duchess of Gloucester by her first husband, James Earl of Waldegrave. [Lady Elizabeth-Laura married in 1782 to Lord Chewton, afterwards fourth Earl Waldegrave; Lady Charlotte-Maria married in 1784 to the Earl of Euston; and Lady Anna-Horatia married in 1786 to Lord Hugh Seymour.-ED.]

by his Royal Highness's goodness, lodged in Hampton Court Park; which is very near me, and take up most of my time. They are charming girls: I don't mean only their persons, but good, sweet-tempered, admirably brought up, and amiable in every respect. I try to amuse and improve them; though I have little to do on the latter head, and they are so reasonable and easily contented, even with the company of an old uncle, that the other is not difficult. But what is all this to America, except that it proves how little it occupies 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 anything; 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. I 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 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

VOL. III.-NEW SERIES.

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