fortunate in her children, though there never was a better or more discreet mother. Lady Percy is very weak; and some time ago, when Lady Bute received some intimation on her conduct, she said, "Upon my word, I have not room in my head for that misfortune!"

Though I write this on the Saturday, it cannot depart till Tuesday. Probably, I shall have little to add. Next month will be more prolific of intelligence. Yet make no account of my auguries. I have lived too long, and have been too often mistaken in my calculations, to trust my own reason or that of others. Half our conjectures are built on Ignorance, and her sister Chance governs the rest. My mind is a little one, and apt to fluctuate. I answer for nothing but my principles, and never committed them to the guidance of events; so, though my letters may have been affected by the weather-glass, the sum total has been uniform. I have hoped or feared; but always in the same spirit the liberty and happiness of England. Arlington Street, 11th.

I must unsay a material passage in my letter: Lord Chatham died this morning!* I am of opinion that Lord Temple died at the same moment, or had better think he did. We shall have opportunities of seeing whether the mantle of the former is descended upon anybody! Lord Shelburne will probably pretend that it was a legacy to him; but, without Lord

* The Earl of Chatham died, at his seat at Hayes, on the 11th of April. He had not quite completed his seventieth year.-ED.

Chatham's fortune too, a cloak will be of little use. Well! with all his defects, Lord Chatham will be a capital historic figure.* France dreaded his crutch to this very moment; but I doubt she does not think that it has left a stick of the wood!-no offence to Mrs. Anne, who, I allow, has great parts, and not less ambition but Fortune did not treat her as a twin. Tuesday morning.

Last night the House of Commons voted a funeral and monument to Lord Chatham at the public expense, and the members are to walk at the burial.

LETTER CCLXXXV.

Strawberry Hill, May 31, 1778.

I AM forced to look at the dates I keep of my letters, to see what events I have or have not told you; for at this crisis something happens every day; though nothing very striking since the death of Lord Chatham, with which I closed my last. No?-yes, but there has. All England, which had abandoned him, found out, the moment his eyes were closed, that nothing but Lord Chatham could have preserved them. How lucky for him that the experiment cannot be made! Grief is

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* Mr. Burke, in his celebrated speech on American taxation, in alluding to Lord Chatham, describes him as a great and celebrated name; a name that keeps the name of this country respected in every part of the globe: it may be truly called

Clarum et venerabile nomen

Gentibus, et multum nostræ quod proderat urbi.”—Ed.

fond, and grief is generous. The Parliament will bury him; the City begs the honour of being his grave; and the important question is not yet decided, whether he is to lie at Westminster or in St. Paul's; on which it was well said, that it would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.* An annuity of four thousand pounds is settled on the title of Chatham, and twenty thousand pounds allotted to pay his debts. The Opposition and the Administration disputed zeal; and neither care a straw about him. He is already as much forgotten as John of Gaunt.

General Burgoyne has succeeded and been the topic, and for two days engrossed the attention of the House of Commons; and probably will be heard of no more. He was even forgotten for three hours while he was on the tapis, by a violent quarrel between Temple Luttrell, a brother of the Duchess of Cumberland, and Lord George Germain ;+ but the public has

* The House had voted, that the remains of Lord Chatham should be interred in the collegiate church of St. Peter's, Westminster; upon which, the Common Council petitioned that they might be deposited in St. Paul's, as a mark of their gratitude and veneration.-ED.

+ On General Burgoyne's return to England, on his parole, in May, the King refused to see him, and he in vain solicited a court-martial. Under these circumstances, he threw himself upon Parliament, and a motion was made in the House of Commons, on the 26th, for an inquiry into the Convention at Saratoga; which was got rid of by the previous question. Mr. Temple Luttrell, in the course of the debate, having made a personal attack on Lord George Germain, who replied, that "old as he was, he would meet that fighting gentleman and be revenged," the House interfered; and Mr. Luttrell was about to be taken into the custody of the Serjeant-at-arms, when the affair was got rid of by both parties making an apology to the House, and engaging that the dispute should go no further.—ED.

VOL. III.-NEW SERIES.

G

taken affection for neither them nor the General; being much more disposed at present to hate than to loveexcept the dead. It will be well if the ill-humour, which increases, does not break out into overt acts.

I know not what to say of war. The Toulon squadron was certainly blown back. That of Brest is supposed to be destined to invade some part of this country or Ireland; or rather, it is probable, will attempt our fleet. In my own opinion, there is no great alacrity in France -I mean, in the Court of France-for war; and, as we have had time for great preparations, their eagerness will not increase. We shall suffer as much as they can desire by the loss of America, without their risk, and in a few years shall be able to give them no umbrage; especially as our frenzy is still so strong, that, if France left us at quiet, I am persuaded we should totally exhaust ourselves in pursuing the vision of reconquest. Spain continues to disclaim hostility, as you told me. If the report is true of revolts in Mexico, they would be as good as a bond under his Catholic Majesty's hand.

We shall at least not doze, as we are used to do, in summer. The Parliament is to have only short adjournments; and our senators, instead of retiring to horse-races (their plough), are all turned soldiers, and disciplining militia. Camps everywhere, and the ladies in the uniform of their husbands! In short, if the dose is not too strong, a little adversity would not be quite unseasonable.-A little! you will cry; why what do you call the loss of America? Oh my dear sir, do you think a capital as enormous as London has

its nerves affected by what happens beyond the Atlantic? What has become of all your reading? There is nothing so unnatural as the feelings of a million of persons who live together in one city. They have not one conception like those in villages and in the country. They presume or despond from quite different motives. They have both more sense and less, than those who are not in contact with a multitude. Wisdom forms empires, but folly dissolves them; and a great capital, which dictates to the rest of the community, is always the last to perceive the decays of the whole, because it takes its own greatness for health.*

Lord Holdernesse + is dead; not quite so considerable a personage as he once expected to be, though Nature never intended him for anything that he was. The Chancellor, another child of Fortune, quits the Seals; and they are, or are to be, given to the Attorney-General, Thurlow, whom nobody will reproach with want of abilities.

As the Parliament will rise on Tuesday, you will not expect my letters so frequently as of late, especially if hostilities do not commence. In fact, our newspapers tell you everything faster than I can still I write,

* When Constantinople was taken by Mahomet II., the whole empire of the East had been long reduced to the capital itself.

+ Robert Darcy, last Earl of Holdernesse, had been Ambassador, Secretary of State, and Governor to George Prince of Wales. [Afterwards George IV.]

Lord Bathurst resigned his high office in the following month, and in November 1779 was appointed President of the Council. He died in 1794.-ED.