Books: Letters of Horace Walpole, V4

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I do not know yet what is settled about the spot of Lord
Chatham's interment. I am not more an enthusiast to his memory
than you. I knew his faults and his defects-yet one fact Cannot
Only not be controverted, but I doubt more remarkable every day--
I mean, that under him we attained not only our highest
elevation, but the most solid authority in Europe. When the
names of Marlborough and Chatham are still pronounced with awe in
France, our little cavils make a puny sound. Nations that are
beaten cannot be mistaken.

I have been looking out for your friend a set of my heads of
painters, and I find I want six or seven. I think I have some
odd ones in town; if I have not, I will have deficiencies
supplied from the plates, though I fear they will not be good, as
so many have been taken off. I should be very ungrateful for all
your kindnesses, if I neglected any opportunity of obliging you,
dear Sir. Indeed, our old
and unalterable friendship is creditable to us both, and very
uncommon between two persons who differ so much in their opinions
relative to church and state. I believe the reason is, that we
are both sincere, and never meant to take advantage of our
principles; which I allow is too common on both sides, and I own,
too, fairly more common on my side of the question than on yours.
There is a reason, too, for that; the honours and emoluments are
in the gift of the crown: the nation has no separate treasury to
reward its friends.

If Mr. Tyrwhit(303) has opened his eyes to Chatterton's
forgeries, there is an instance of conviction against strong
prejudice! I have drawn up an account of my transaction with
that marvellous young man; you shall see it one day or other, but
I do not intend to print it.(304) I have taken a thorough
dislike to being an author; and if it would not look like begging
you to Compliment me, by contradicting me, I would tell you, what
I am most seriously convinced of, that I find what small share of
parts I had, grown dulled--and when I perceive it myself, I may
well believe that others would not be less sharpsighted. It is
very natural; mine were spirits rather than parts; and as time
has abated the one, it must surely destroy their resemblance to
the other: pray don't say a syllable in reply on this head, or I
shall have done exactly what I said I would not do. Besides, as
you have always been too partial to me, I am on my guard, and
when I will not expose myself to my enemies, I must not listen to
the prejudices of my friends; and as nobody is more partial to me
than you, there is nobody I must trust less in that respect.
Yours most sincerely.

(302) Dr. Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane were publicly
received at the court of France, as ambassadors from America in
the preceding March-.E.

(303) Mr. Tyrwhit, the learned editor of Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales, considered one of the best edited books in the English
language, had, on the appearance of the Rowley Poems, believed
them genuine; but being afterwards convinced of the contrary, he
did not hesitate to avow his conviction.-E.

(304) It was entitled "A Letter to the Editor of the Miscellanies
of Thomas Chatterton," and will be found in the edition of
Walpole's works.-E.

Letter 137 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, June 10, 1778. (page 187)

I am as impatient and in as much hurry as you was, dear Sir, to
clear myself from the slightest intention of censuring your
politics. I know the sincerity and disinterested goodness of
your heart, and when I must be convinced how little certain we
are all of what is truth, it would be very presumptuous to
condemn the opinions of any good man, and still less an old and
unalterable friend, as I have ever found 'You, The destruction
that violent arbitrary principles have drawn on this blinded
country has moved my indignation. We never were a great and
happy country till the Revolution. The system of these days
tended to overturn, and has overturned, that establishment, and
brought on the disgraces that ever attended the foolish and
wicked Councils of the house of Stuart. If man is a rational
being, he has a right to make use of his reason, and to enjoy his
liberty. We, we alone almost had a constitution that every other
nation upon earth envied or ought to envy. This is all I contend
for. I will give you up whatever descriptions of men you please;
that is, the leaders of parties, not the principles. These
cannot change, those generally do, when power falls into the
hands of them or their party, because men are corruptible, which
truth is not. But the more the leaders of a party dedicated to
liberty are apt to change, the more I adore the principle,
because it shows that extent of power is not to be trusted even,
with those that are the most sensible of the value of liberty.
Man is a domineering animal; and it has not only been my
principle. but my practice, too. to quit every body at the gate
of the palace. I trust we shall not much differ on these
outlines, but we will bid adieu to the subject. It is never an
agreeable one to those who do not mean to make a trade of it.

I heartily wish you may not find the pontiff what I think the
order, and what I know him, if you mean the high priest of
Ely.(305) He is all I have been describing and worse; and I have
too good an opinion of you, to believe that he will ever serve
you.

What I said of disclaiming authorship by no means alluded to Mr.
Baker's life. It would be enough that you desire it, for me to
undertake it. Indeed, I am inclined to it because he was what
you and I are, a party-man from principle, not from interest: and
he, who was so candid, surely is entitled to the strictest
candour. You shall send me your papers whenever you please. If
I can succeed to your satisfaction, I shall be content: though I
assure you there was no affectation in my saying that I find my
small talent decline. I shall write the life to oblige you,
without any thoughts of publication, unless I am better pleased
than I expect to be, and even then not in my own life. I had
rather show that I am sensible of my own defects, and that I have
judgment enough not to hope praise for my writings: for surely
when they are not obnoxious, and one only leaves them behind one,
it is a mark that one is not very vain of them.

I have found the whole set of my Painters, and will send them the
first time I go to town: and I will have my papers on Chatterton
transcribed for you, though I am much chagrined at your giving me
no hope of seeing you again here. I will not say more of it;
for, while it is in my power, I will certainly make you a visit
now and then, if there is no other way of our meeting Mr.
Tyrwhit, I hear, has actually published an Appendix, in which he
gives up Mr. Rowley. I have not seen it, but will. Shall I beg
you to transcribe the passage in which Dr. Kippis abuses my
father and Me;(306) for I shall not buy the new edition, only to
purchase abuse on me and mine: I may be angry with liberties he
takes with Sir Robert, but not with myself; I shall rather take
it as a flattery to be ranked with him; though there can be
nothing worse said of my father than to place us together. Oh!
that great, that good man! Dr. Kippis may as well throw a stone
at the sun.

I am sorry you have lost poor Mr. Bentham. Will you say a civil
thing for me to his widow, if she is living, and you think it not
improper? I have not forgotten their kindness to me. Pray send
me your papers on Mr. Prior's generosity to Mr. Baker.(307) I am
sorry it was not so. Prior is much a favourite with me, though a
Tory, nor did I ever hear any thing ill of him. He left his
party, but not his friends, and seems to me to have been very
amiable. Do you know I pretend to be very impartial sometimes.
Mr. Hollis(308) wrote against me for not being Whig enough. I am
offended with Mrs. Macaulay(309) for being too much a Whig. In
short, we are all silly animals, and scarce ever more so than
when we affect sense. Yours ever.

(305) Dr. Edmund Keene-E.

(306) See ant`e, p. 155, letter 108.

(307) The Biograpbia Britannica had asserted, that Prior ceded to
Mr. Baker the profits of his fellowship after his expulsion.-E.

(308) Thomas Hollis, Esq. the editor of Toland's Life of Milton;
Algernon Sidney's Discourses on Government; Algernon Sidney's
Works, etc. He died in 1774.-E.

(309) The celebrated Catherine Macaulay, well known by her
"History of England."-E.

Letter 138 To The Countess Of Ailesbury.
Strawberry Hill, June 25, 1778. (page 189)

I am quite astonished, Madam, at not hearing of Mr. Conway's
being returned! What is he doing? Is he revolting and setting
up for himself, like our nabobs in India? or is he forming
Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark, into the united provinces
in the compass of a silver penny? I should not wonder if this
was to be the fate of our distracted empire, which we seem to
have made so large, only that it might afford to split into
separate kingdoms. I told Mr. C. I should not write any more,
concluding he would not stay a twinkling; and your ladyship's
last encouraged my expecting him. In truth, I had nothing to
tell him if he had written.

I have been in town but one single night this age, as I could not
bear to throw away this phoenix June. It has rained a good deal
this morning, but only made it more delightful. The flowers are
all Arabian. I have found but One inconvenience, which is the
hosts of cuckoos: one would not think one was in Doctors'
Commons. It is very disagreeable, that the nightingales should
sing but half a dozen songs, and the other beasts squall for two
months together.

Poor Mrs. Clive has been robbed again in her own lane, as she was
last year, and has got the jaundice, she thinks, with the fright.
I don't make a visit without a blunderbuss; so one might as well
be invaded by the French. Though I live in the centre of
ministers, I do not know a syllable of politics; and though
within hearing of Lady Greenwich, who is but two miles off, I
have not a word of news to send your ladyship. I live like
Berecynthia, surrounded by nephews and nieces; yet Park-place is
full as much in my mind, and I beg for its history. I am, Madam,
etc.

Letter 139 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, July 8, 1778. (page 189)

I have had some conversation with a ministerial person, on the
subject of pacification with France; and he dropped a hint, that
as 'we should not have Much chance of a good peace, the
Opposition would make great clamour on it. I said a few words on
the duty of ministers to do what they thought right, be the
consequence what it ,Would., But as honest men do not want such
lectures, and dishonest will not let them weigh, I waived that
theme, to dwell on what is more likely to be persuasive, and
which I am firmly persuaded is no less true than the former
maxim; and that was, that the ministers are still so strong, that
if they could get a peace that would save the nation, though not
a brilliant or glorious one, the nation in general would be
pleased with it, and the clamours of the Opposition be
insignificant. I added, what I think true, too, that no time is
to be lost in treating not only for preventing a blow, but from
the consequences the first misfortune would have. The nation is
not yet alienated from the court, but it is growing so; is grown
so enough, for any calamity to have violent effects. Any
internal disturbance would advance the hostile designs of France.
An insurrection from distress would be a double invitation to
invasion; and, I am sure, much more to be dreaded, even
personally, by the ministers, than the ill-humours of Opposition
for even an inglorious peace. To do the Opposition justice, it
is not composed of incendiaries. Parliamentary speeches raise no
tumults: but tumults would be a dreadful thorough bass to
speeches. The ministers do not know the strength they have left
(supposing they apply it in time), if they are afraid of making
any peace. They were too sanguine in making war; I hope they
will not be too timid of making peace.

What do you think of an idea of mine, of offering France a
neutrality? that is, to allow her to assist both us and the
Americans. I know she would assist only them: but were it not
better to connive at her assisting them, without attacking us,
than her doing both? A treaty with her would perhaps be followed
by one with America. We are sacrificing all the essentials we
can recover, for a few words and risking the independence of this
country, for the nominal supremacy over America. France seems to
leave us time for treating. She made no scruple of begging peace
of us in '63, that she might lie by and recover her advantages.
Was not that a wise precedent? Does not she now show that it was?
Is not policy the honour of nations? I mean, not morally, but
has Europe left itself any other honour? And since it has really
left itself no honour, and as little morality, does not the
morality of a nation consist in its preserving itself in as much
happiness as it can? The invasion of Portugal by Spain in the
last war, and the partition of Poland, have abrogated the law Of
nations. Kings have left no ties between one another. Their
duty to their people is still allowed. He is a good King that
preserves his people: and if temporizing answers that end, is it
not justifiable? You who are as moral as wise, answer my
questions. Grotius is obsolete. Dr. Joseph(310) and Dr.
Frederic(311) with four hundred thousand commentators, are
reading new lectures--and I should say, thank God, to One
another, if the four hundred thousand commentators were not in
worse danger than they.(312) Louis XVI. is grown a casuist
compared to those partitioners. Well, let US Simple individuals
keep our honesty, and bless our stars that we have not armies at
our command, lest we should divide kingdoms that are at our
biens`eance! What a dreadful thing it is for such a wicked
little imp as man to have absolute power!--But I have travelled
into Germany, when I meant to talk to you only of England; and it
is too late to recall My text. Good night!

(310) The Emperor of Germany.

(311) Frederic II. King of Prussia.

(312) The Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia having some
dispute about Bavaria, brought immense armies into the field, but
found their forces so nearly balanced, that neither ventured to
attack the other; and the Prussian monarch falling back upon
Silesia, the affair was, through the intervention of the Empress
of Russia, settled by negotiation, which ended in the peace of
Teschen.-E.

Letter 140 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
July 12, 1778. (page 191)

Mr. Lort has delivered your papers to me, dear Sir, and I have
already gone through them. I will try if I can make any thing of
them, but I fear I have not art enough, as I perceive there is
absolutely but one fact--the expulsion. You have certainly very
clearly proved that Mr. Baker was neither supported by Mr. Prior
nor Bishop Burnet; but these are mere negatives. So is the
question, whether he intended to compile an Athenae
Cantabrigienses or not; and on that you say but little, as you
have not seen his papers in the Museum. I will examine the
printed Catalogue, and try if I can discover the truth thence,
when I go to town. I will also borrow the new Biographia, as I
wish to know more of the expulsion. As it is our only fact, one
would not be too dry on it. Upon the whole, I think that it
would be preferable to draw up an ample character of Mr. Baker,
rather than a life. The one was most beautiful, amiable,
conscientious; the other totally barren of more than one event:
and though you have taken excellent pains to discover all that
was possible, yet there is an obscurity hangs over the
circumstances that even did attend him; as his connexion with
Bishop Crewe and his living. His own modesty comes out the
brighter, but then it composes a character, not a life.

As to Mr. Kippis and his censures, I am perfectly indifferent to
them. He betrays a pert malignity in hinting an intention of
being severe on my father, for the pleasure of exerting a right I
allowed, and do allow, to be a just One, though it is not just to
do it for that reason; however, let him say his pleasure. The
truth will not hurt my father; falsehood will recoil on the
author. His asserting, that my censure of Mr. Addison's
character of Lord Somers is not to be justified, is a silly ipse
dixit, as he does not, in truth cannot, show why it is not to be
justified. The passage I alluded to is the argument of an old
woman; and Mr. Addison's being a writer of true humour is not
justification of his reasoning like a superstitious gossip. In
the other passage you have sent me, Mr. Kippis is perfectly in
the right, and corrects me very justly. Had I seen Archbishop
Abbot's(313) Preface, with the outrageous flattery on, And lies
of James I., I should certainly never have said, "Honest Abbot
could not flatter!" I should have said, and do say, I never saw
grosser perversion of truth. One can almost excuse the faults of
James when his bishops were such base sycophants. What can a
king think of human nature, when it produces such wretches? I am
too impartial to prefer Puritans to clergymen, or vice versa,
when Whitgift and Abbot only ran a race of servility and
adulation: the result is, that priests of all religions are the
same. James and his Levites were worthy of each other; the
golden calf and the idolaters were well coupled, and it is Pity
they ever came out of the wilderness. I am very glad Mr. Tyson
has escaped death and disappointment: pray wish him joy 'of both
from me. Has not this Indian summer dispersed your complaints?
We are told we are to be invaded. Our Abbots and Whitgifts now
see with what successes and consequences their preaching up a
crusade against America has been crowned! Archbishop
Markham(314) may have an opportunity of exercising his martial
prowess. I doubt he would resemble Bishop Crewe more than good
Mr. Baker. Let us respect those only who are Israelites indeed.
I surrender Dr. Abbot to you. Church and presbytery are terms
for monopolies, Exalted notions of church matters are
contradictions in terms to the lowliness and humility of the
gospel. There is nothing sublime but the Divinity. Nothing is
sacred but as His work. A tree or a brute stone is more
respectable as such, than a mortal called an Archbishop, or an
edifice called a Church, which are the puny and perishable
productions of men. Calvin and Wesley had just the same views as
the Pope; power and wealth their objects. I abhor both, and
admire Mr. Baker.

P. S. I like Popery as well as you, and have shown I do. I like
it as I like chivalry and romance. They all furnish one with
ideas and visions, which presbyterianism does not. A Gothic
church or a convent fills one with romantic dreams-but for the
mysterious, the Church in the abstract, it is a jargon that means
nothing, or a great deal too much, and I reject it and its
apostles, from Athanasius to Bishop Keene.(315)

(313) Dr. George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, born at
Guildford, in Surrey, 1562. In 1604, when the translation of the
Scriptures now in use was commenced by direction of King James,
Dr. Abbot was the second of eight divines of Oxford to whom was
committed the care of translating the New Testament, with the
exception of the Epistles, He died at the palace at Croydon, in
1633.-E.

(314) Dr. William Markham, translated to the see of York from
Chester in 1776. He died in 1807.-E.

(315) Dr. Edmund Keene, Bishop of Ely.-E.

Letter 141 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Saturday, July 18, 1778. (page 192)

Yesterday evening the following notices were fixed up in Lloyd's
coffee-house:-That a merchant in the city had received an express
from France, that the Brest fleet, consisting, of twenty-eight
ships of the line, were sailed, with orders to burn, sink, and
destroy. That Admiral Keppel was at Plymouth, and had sent to
demand three more ships of the line to enable him to meet the
French. On these notices stocks sunk three-and-a-half per cent.
An account I have received this morning from a good hand says,
that on Thursday the Admiralty received a letter from Admiral
Keppel, who was off the Land's End, saying that the Worcester was
in sight; that the Peggy had joined him, and had seen the
Thunderer making sail for the fleet; that he was waiting for the
Centaur, Terrible, and Vigilant; and that having received advice
from Lord Shuldham that the Shrewsbury was to sail from Plymouth
on Thursday, he should likewise wait for her. His fleet will
then consist of thirty ships of the line; and he hoped to have an
opportunity of trying his strength with the French fleet on our
own coast: if not, he would seek them on theirs. The French
fleet sailed on the 7th, consisting of thirty-one ships of the
line, two fifty-gun ships, and eight frigates. This state is
probably more authentic than those at Lloyd's.

Thus you see how big the moment is! and, unless far more
favourable to us in its burst than good sense allows one to
promise, it must leave us greatly exposed. Can we expect to beat
with considerable loss?--and then, where have we another fleet?
I need not state the danger from a reverse. The Spanish
ambassador certainly arrived on Monday.

I shall go to town on Monday for a day or two; therefore, if you
write to-morrow, direct to Arlington-street. I add no more: for
words are unworthy of the situation; and to blame now, would be
childish. It is hard to be gamed for against one's consent; but
when one's country is at stake, one must throw oneself out of the
question. When one, is old and nobody, one must be whirled with
the current, and shake one's wings like a fly, if one lights on a
pebble. The prospect is so dark, that one shall rejoice at
whatever does not happen that may. Thus I have composed a sort
of philosophy for myself, that reserves every possible chance.
You want none of these Artificial aids to your resolution.
Invincible courage and immaculate integrity are not dependent on
the folly of ministers or on the events of war. Adieu!

Letter 142 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, July 24, 1778. (page 193)

Upon reviewing your papers, dear Sir, I think I can make more of
them than I at first conceived. I have even commenced the life,
and do not dislike my ideas for it, if the execution does but
answer, At present, I am interrupted by another task, which you,
too, have wished me to undertake. In a word, somebody has
published Chatterton's works, and charged me heavily for having
discountenanced him. He even calls for the indignation of the
public against me. It is somewhat singular, that I am to be
offered up as a victim at the altar of a notorious impostor! but
as Many saints have been impostors, so many innocent persons have
been sacrificed to them. However, I shall not be patient under
this attack, but shall publish an answer-the narrative I
mentioned to you. I would, as you know, have avoided entering
into this affair if I could; but as I do not despise public
esteem, it is necessary to show how groundless the accusation is.
Do not speak of my intention, as perhaps I shall not execute it
immediately.

I am not in the least acquainted with the Mr. Bridges you
mention, nor know that I ever saw him. The tomb for Mr. Gray is
actually erected, and at the generous expense of Mr. Mason, and
with an epitaph of four lines,(316) as you heard, and written by
him--but the scaffolds are not yet removed. I was in town
yesterday, and intended to visit it, but there is digging a vault
for the family of Northumberland, which obstructs the removal of
the boards.

I rejoice in your amendment, and reckon it among my obligations
to the fine weather, and hope it will be the most lasting of
them. Yours ever.

(316) "No more the Grecian Muse unrivall'd reigns;
To Britain let the nations homage pay:
She felt a Homer's fire in Milton's strains,
A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray."-E.

Letter 143 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, August 15, 1778. (page 194)

Your observation of Rowley not being mentioned by William of
Wyrcestre, is very strong, indeed, dear Sir, and I shall
certainly take notice of it. It has suggested to me that he is
not named by Bale or Pitts(317)--is he? Will you trouble
yourself to look? I conclude he is not, or we should have heard
of it. Rowley is the reverse of King Arthur, and all those
heroes that have been expected a second time; he is to come again
for the first time-I mean, as a great poet. My defence amounts
to thirty pages of the size of this paper: yet I believe I shall
not publish it. I abhor a controversy; and what is it to me
whether people believe in an impostor or not? Nay, shall I
convince every body of my innocence, though there is not the
shadow of reason for thinking I was to blame? If I met a beggar
in the street, and refused him sixpence, thinking him strong
enough to work, and two years afterwards he should die of
drinking, might not I be told I had deprived the world of a
capital rope-dancer? In short, to show one's self sensible to
such accusations, would only invite more; and since they accuse
me of contempt, I will have it for my accusers.