Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3

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We shall now repose for some time; at least I am sure I shall.
It has been hard service; and nothing but a Whig point of this
magnitude could easily have carried me to the House at all, of
which I have so long been sick. Wilkes will live, but is not
likely to be in a situation to come forth for some time. The
blasphemous book has fallen ten times heavier on Sandwich's own
head than on Wilkes's: it has brought forth such a catalogue of
anecdotes as is incredible! Lord Hardwicke fluctuates between
life and death. Lord Effingham is dead suddenly, and Lord
Cantelupe(377) has got his troop.

These are all our news; I am glad yours go on so smoothly. I
take care to do you justice at M. de Guerchy's for all the
justice you do to France, and particularly to the house of
Nivernois. D'Eon(378) is here still: I know nothing more of him
but that the honour of having a hand in the peace overset his
poor brain. This was evident on the fatal night(379) at Lord
Halifax's: when they told him his behaviour was a breach of the
peace, he was quite distracted, thinking it was the peace between
his country and this.

Our operas begin to-morrow. The Duchess of Grafton is come for a
fortnight only. My compliments to the ambassadress, and all your
court.

(366) There is reason to think that at this moment Mr. Grenville
and Lord Halifax were those to whom Mr. Walpole gave credit for
honest intentions and a disposition to moderate and conciliate.
This opinion, though probably correct, Walpole soon changed, as
to Mr. Grenville.-C.

(367) Randle Wilbraham, LL.D. a barrister, deputy steward of the
University of Oxford, and member for Newton, in Lancashire.-E.

(368) The question was, "That Privilege of Parliament does not
extend to the case of writing and publishing seditious libels,
nor ought to be allowed to obstruct the ordinary course of the
laws in the speedy and effectual prosecution of so heinous and
dangerous an offence."-C.

(369) Richard Hussey, member for St. Mawes. He was counsel to
the navy, as well as solicitor to the Queen, not, as Mr. Walpole
says, to the Princess. He was afterwards her majesty's
attorney-general.-C.

(370) Charles Yorke, second son of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. He
had been attorney-general, but resigned on the 31st of October.
He agreed with the ministry on the question of privilege, but
differed from them on general warrants. This last difference may
have accelerated his resignation; but the event itself had been
determined on, ever since the failure of a negotiation which took
place towards the end of the preceding August, through Mr. Pitt
and Lord Hardwicke, to form a new administration on a Whig
basis.-C.

(371) Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, afterwards Lord Camden.
He had discharged Wilkes out of confinement on the ground of
privilege.-E.

(372) Sir John Rushout, of Northwick, the fourth baronet. He had
sat in ten Parliaments; in the three first for Malmsbury, and in
the rest for Evesham. He had been a violent politician in Sir
Robert Walpole's administration. See vol. i. p. 222, letter
53.-E.

(373) The Right Hon. Richard Rigby, master of the rolls in
Ireland, afterwards paymaster of the forces; a statesman of the
second class, and a bon vivant of the first. Mr. Rigby was at one
time a chief friend and favourite of Mr. Walpole's, but became
involved in Mr. Walpole's dislike to the Duke of Bedford, to whom
Mr. Rigby was sincerely and constantly attached, and over whom he
was supposed to have great influence.-C.

(374) Fourth brother of Lord Temple and Mr. George Grenville;
father of Lord Glastonbury.-E.

(375) Lady Suffolk, in a letter to the Earl of Buckingham, of the
29th of November, says, "Jemmy Grenville and Mr. Rigby were
so violent against each other, one in his manner of treating
Lord Temple, who was in the House, and the brother in his
justification of his brother, that the House was obliged to
interfere to prevent mischief. Lord Temple comes to me; but
politics is the bane of friendship, and when personal resentments
join, the man becomes another creature."-E.

(376) As Mr. Walpole seems to impute Mr. Charles Townshend's
silence on the question of privilege to fickleness, or some worse
cause, it is but just to state that he never quite approved that
question. This will be seen from the following extract from some
of his confidential letters to Dr. Brocklesby, written two months
before Parliament met:--"You know I never approved of No. 45, or
engaged in any of the consequential measures. As to the question
of privilege, it is an intricate matter; The authorities are
contradictory, and the distinctions to be reasonably made on the
precedents are plausible and endless." Mr. Townshend gave a good
deal of further consideration to the subject, and his silence in
the debate only proves that his first impressions were confirmed.
Mr. Burke's beautiful, but, perhaps, too favourable character of
Charles Townshend will immortalize the writer and the subject.-C.

(377) John, afterwards second Earl of Delawarr, vice-chamberlain
to the Queen.-E.

(378) This singular person had been secretary to the Duke de
Nivernois's embassy, and in the interval between that
ambassador's departure and the arrival of M. de Guerchy, the
French mission to our court devolved upon him. This honour, as
Mr. Walpole intimates, seems to have turned his head, and he was
so absurdly exasperated at being superseded by M. de Guerchy,
that he refused to deliver his letters of recall, set his court
at defiance, and published a volume of libels on M. de Guerchy
and the French ministers. As he persisted in withholding the
letters of recall, the two courts were obliged to notify in the
London Gazette that his mission was at an end; and the French
government desired that he be given up to them. This, of course,
could not be done: but he was proceeded against by criminal
information, and finally convicted of the libels against M. de
Guerchy. D'Eon asserted, that the French ministry had a design
to carry him off privately; and it has been said that he was
apprised of this scheme by Louis XV. who, it seems, had
entertained some kind of secret and extra- official communication
with this adventurer. He afterwards continued in obscurity until
1777, when the public was astonished by the trial of an action
before Lord Mansfield, for money lost on
a wager respecting his sex. On that trial it seemed proved
beyond all doubt, that the person was a female. Proceedings in
the Parliament of Paris had a similar result, and the soldier and
the minister was condemned to wear woman's attire, which d'Eon
did for many years. He emigrated at the revolution, and died in
London in May, 1810. On examination, after death, the body
proved to be that of a male. This circumstance, attested by the
most respectable authorities, is so strongly it variance with all
the former evidence, that the French biographers have been
induced to doubt whether the original Chevalier D'Eon and the
person who died in 1810 were the same, and they even endeavour to
show that the real person, the Chevali`ere, as they term it, died
in 1790; but we cannot admit this solution of the difficulty, for
one, at least, of the surgeons who examined the body in 1810, had
known D'Eon in his habiliments, and he had for ten years lived
unquestioned under the name of D'Eon.-C.

(379) On the 26th of October, D'Eon, meeting M. de Guerchy and a
M. de Vergy at Lord Halifax's, in Great George-street, burst out
into such violence on some observation made by De Vergy, that it
became necessary to call in the guard. His whole behaviour in
this affair looks like insanity.-C.

Letter 182 To The Earl Of Hertford.
Arlington Street, Dec. 2, 1763. (page 254)

I have been expecting a letter all day, as Friday is the day I
have generally received a letter from you, but it is not yet
arrived and I begin mine without it. M. de Guerchy has given us
a prosperous account of my Lady Hertford's audience still I am
impatient to hear it from yourselves. I want to know, too, what
you say to your brother's being in the minority. I have already
told you that unless they use him ill, I do not think him likely
to take any warm part. With regard to dismission of officers, I
hear no more of it: such a violent step would but spread the
flames. which are already fierce enough. I will give you an
instance: last' Saturday, Lord Cornwallis(380) and Lord
Allen,(381) came drunk to the Opera: the former went up to Rigby
in the pit, and told him in direct words that Lord Sandwich was a
pickpocket. Then Lord Allen, with looks and gestures no less
expressive, advanced close to him, and repeating this again in
the passage, would have provoked a quarrel, if George West(382)
had not carried him away by force. Lord (Cornwallis, the next
morning in Hyde-park, made an apology to Rigby for his behaviour,
but the rest of the world is not so complaisant. His pride,
insolence, and over-bearingness, have made him so many enemies,
that they are glad to tear him to pieces for his attack on Lord
Temple, so unprovoked, and so poorly performed. It was well that
with his spirit and warmth he had the sense not to resent the
behaviour of those two drunken young fellows.

On Tuesday your Lordship's House sat till ten at night, on the
resolutions we had communicated to you; and you agreed to them by
114 to 35: a puny minority indeed, considering of what great
names it was composed! Even the Duke of Cumberland voted in it;
but Mr. Yorke's speech in our House, and Lord Mansfield's in
yours, for two hours, carried away many of the opposition,
particularly Lord Lyttelton, and the greater part of the Duke of
Newcastle's Bishops.(383) The Duke of Grafton is much commended.
The Duke of Portland commenced, but was too much frightened.
There was no warmth nor event; but Lord Shelburne, who they say
spoke well, and against the court, and as his friends had voted
in our House, has produced one, the great Mr. Calcraft(384) being
turned out yesterday, from some muster-mastership; I don't know
what. Lord Sandwich is canvassing to succeed Lord
Hardwicke, as High Steward of Cambridge; another egg of
animosity. We shall, however, I believe, be tolerably quiet till
after Christmas, as Mr. Wilkes Will not be able to act before the
holidays. I rejoice at it: I am heartily sick of all this folly,
and shall be glad to get to Strawberry again, and hear nothing of
it. The ministry have bought off Lord Clive(385) with a bribe
that would frighten the King of France himself: they have given
him back his 25,000 a year.
Walsh(386) has behaved nobly: he said he could not in conscience
vote with the administration, and would not Vote against Lord
Clive, who chose him: he has therefore offered to resign his
seat. Lady Augusta's(387) fortune was to be voted to-day and
Lord Strange talked of opposing it; but I had not the curiosity
to go down. This is all our politics, and indeed all our news;
we have none of any other kind. So far you will not regret
England. For my part, I wish myself with you. Being perfectly
indifferent who is minister and Who is not, and weary of
laughing(388) at both, I shall take hold of the first spring to
make you my visit.

Our operas do not succeed. Girardini, now become minister and
having no exchequer to buy an audience, is grown unpopular. The
Mingotti, whom he has forced upon the town, is as much disliked
as if he had insisted on her being first lord of the treasury.
The first man, though with sweet notes, has so weak a voice that
he might as well hold his tongue like Charles Townshend. The
figurantes are very pretty, but can dance no more than Tommy
Pelham.(389) The first man dancer is handsome, well made, and
strong enough to make his fortune any where: but you know,
fortunes made in private are seldom agreeable to the public.(390)
In short, it will not do; there was not a soul in the pit the
second night.

Lady Mary Coke has received her gown by the Prince de Masseran,
and is exceedingly obliged to you, though much disappointed; this
being a slight gown made up, and not the one she expected, which
is a fine one bought for her by Lady Holland,(391) and which you
must send somehow or other: if you cannot, you must despatch an
ambassador on purpose. I dined with the Prince de Masseran, at
Guerchy's, the day after his arrival; and if faces speak truth,
he will not be our ruin. Oh! but there is a ten times more
delightful man--the Austrian minister:(392) he is so stiff and
upright, that you would think all his mistress's diadems were
upon his head, and that he was afraid of their dropping off.

I know so little of Irish politics, that I am afraid of
misinforming you: but I hear that Hamilton, who has come off with
honour in a squabble with Lord Newton,(393) about the latter's
wife, speaks and votes with the opposition against the
Castle.(394) I don't know the meaning of it, nor, except it had
been to tell you, should I have remembered it.

Well! your letter will not come, and I must send away mine.
Remember, the holidays are coming, and that I shall be a good
deal out of town. I have been charming hitherto, but I cannot
make brick without straw. Encore, you are almost the only person
I ever write a line to. I grow so old and so indolent that I
hate the sight of a pen and ink.

(380) Charles, first Marquis of Cornwallis: born in 1738,
succeeded his father, the first Earl, in 1762, and died in India
in 1805.-E.

(381) Joshua, fifth Viscount Allen, of Ireland, born in 1738.-E.

(382) George, second son of the first Earl of Delawarr.-E.

(383) Bishops made during the Duke of Newcastle's administration,
and who were therefore supposed likely to be of his opinion. The
Duke of Newcastle after being nearly half a century in office,
was now in opposition.-C.

(384) John Calcraft, Esq. was deputy commissary-general of
musters: he was particularly attached to Mr. Fox; which is,
perhaps, one reason why Mr. Walpole, who had now quarrelled with
Mr. Fox, speaks so slightingly of Mr. Calcraft.-C.

(385) Robert Clive, who, for his extraordinary services and
success in India, was, at the age of thirty-five, created an
Irish peer. It was of him that Mr. Pitt said, that he was "a
heaven-born general, who without any experience in military
affairs, had surpassed all the officers of his time." The wealth
which this great man accumulated in India was, during his whole
subsequent life, a subject of popular jealousy and party
attack.-C.

(386) John Walsh, Esq. member for Worcester.-E.

(387) Princess Augusta, eldest sister of George III.; married in
January 1764 to the Duke of Brunswick, killed at Jena, in 1806.
Her Royal Highness died in London in 1810.-E.

(388) Mr. Walpole affected indifference to politics, but the tone
of his correspondence does not quite justify the expression of
laughing at either party; he was warmly interested in the one,
and bitterly hostile to the other, and for a considerable period
took a deep and active interest in political party.-C.

(389) Thomas Pelham, member for Sussex, afterwards comptroller of
the household, and first Earl of Chichester.-E.

(390) The reader will observe, in this description of the Opera,
an amusing allusion to public affairs; the last sentence refers,
no doubt, to Lord Bute.-C.

(391) Lady Georgina Caroline Lenox, eldest daughter of Charles,
second Duke of Richmond. She had been, in 1762, created Baroness
Holland in her own right.-C.

(392) Probably the Count de Seleirn, minister from the
Empress-Queen, Maria Theresa.

(393) Brinsley Lord Newton, afterwards second Earl of
Lanesborough, married Lady Jane Rochfort, eldest daughter of the
first Earl of Belvidere. In the affair here alluded to Lord
Newton exhibited at first an extreme jealousy, and subsequently
what was thought an extreme facility in admitting Mr. hamilton's
exculpatory assurances.-C.

(394) This is not quite true; but Mr. Hamilton was on very bad
terms with the Lord Lieutenant, and certainly did not take that
prominent part in the House of Commons of Ireland which his
station as chief secretary seemed to require,.-C.

Letter 183 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Arlington Street, Dec. 6, 1763. (page 256)

Dear sir,
According to custom I am excessively obliged to you: you are
continually giving me proofs of your kindness. I have now three
packets to thank you for, full of information, and have only
lamented the trouble you have given yourself.

I am glad for the tomb's sake and my own, that Sir Giles
Allington's monument is restored. The draught you have sent is
very perfect. The account of your ancestor Tuer(395) shall not
be forgotten in my next edition. The pedigree of Allington I had
from Collins before his death, but I think not as perfect as
yours. You have made one little slip in it: my mother was
granddaughter, not daughter of Sir John Shorter, and was not
heiress, having three brothers, who all died after her, and we
only quarter the arms of Shorter, which I fancy occasioned the
mistake, by their leaving no children. The verses by Sir Edward
Walpole, and the translation by Bland, are published in my
description of Houghton.

I am come late from the House of Lords, and am just going to the
Opera; so you will excuse me saying more than that I have a print
of Archbishop Hutton for you (it @is Dr. Ducarel's), and a
little plate of Strawberry; but I do not send them by the post,
as it would crease them: if you will tell me how to convey them
otherwise, I will. I repeat many thanks to you.

(395) Herbert Tuer, the painter. After the death of Charles 1.
he withdrew into Holland, and it is believed that he died at
Utrecht.-E.

Letter 184 To The Earl Of Hertford.
Friday, Dec. 9, 1763. (page 257)

Your brother has sent you such a full account of his transaction
with Mr. Grenville(396) that it is not necessary for me to add a
syllable, except, what your brother will not have said himself,
that he has acted as usual with the strictest honour and
firmness, and has turned this negotiation entirely to his own
credit. He has learned the ill wishes of his enemies, and what
is more, knows who they are: he has laughed at them, and found at
last that their malice was much bigger than their power. Mr.
Grenville, as you would wish, has proved how much he disliked the
violence of his associates, as I trust he will, whenever he has
an opportunity, and has at last contented himself with so little
or nothing, that I am sure you will feel yourself obliged to him.
For the measure itself, of turning out the officers in general
who oppose, it has been much pressed, and what is still sillier,
openly threatened by one set; but they dare not do it, and having
notified it without effect, are ridiculed by the whole town, as
well as by the persons threatened, particularly by Lord
Albermarle, who has treated their menaces with the utmost
contempt and spirit. This mighty storm, like another I shall
tell you of, has vented itself on Lord Shelburne and Colonel
Barr`e,(397) who were yesterday turned out; the first from
aide-de-camp to the King, the latter from adjutant-general and
governor of Stirling. Campbell,(398) to Whom it was promised
before, has got the last; Ned Harvey,(399) the
former. My present expectation is an oration from Barr`e(400 in
honour of Mr. Pitt; for those are scenes that make the world so
entertaining. After that, I shall demand a satire on Mr. Pitt,
from Mr. Wilkes; and I do not believe I shall be balked, for
Wilkes has already expressed his resentment on being given up by
Pitt, who, says Wilkes, ought to be expelled for an
impostor.(401) I do not know whether the Duke of Newcastle does
not expect a palinodia from me(402) T'other morning at the Duke's
lev`ee he embraced me,
and hoped I would come and eat a bit of Sussex mutton With him.
I had such difficulty to avoid laughing in his face that I got
from him as fast as I could. Do you think me very likely to
forget that I have been laughing at him these twenty years?

Well! but we have had a prodigious riot: are not you impatient to
know the particulars? It was so prodigious a tumult, that I
verily thought half the administration would have run away to
Harrowgate. The north Briton was ordered to be burned by the
hangman at Cheapside, on Saturday last. The mob rose; the
greatest mob, says Mr. Sheriff Blunt, that he has known in forty
years. They were armed with that most bloody instrument, the mud
out of the kennels: they hissed in the most murderous manner:
broke Mr. Sheriff Harley's coach-glass in the most frangent
manner; scratched his forehead, so that he is forced to wear a
little patch in the most becoming manner; and obliged the hangman
to burn the paper with a link, though fagots were prepared to
execute it in a more solemn manner. Numbers of gentlemen, from
windows and balconies, encouraged the mob, who, in about an hour
and a half, were so undutiful to the ministry, as to retire
without doing any mischief, or giving Mr. Carteret Webb(403) the
opportunity of a single information, except against an ignorant
lad, who had been in town but ten days.

This terrible uproar has employed us four days. The sheriffs
were called before your House on Monday, and made their
narrative. My brother Cholmondeley,(404) in the most pathetic
manner, and suitably to the occasion, recommended it to your
lordships, to search for precedents of what he believed never
happened since the world began. Lord Egmont,(405) who knows of a
plot, which he keeps to himself, though It has been carrying on
these twenty years, thought more vigorous measures ought to be
taken on such a crisis, and moved to summon the mistress of the
Union Coffee-house. The Duke of Bedford thought all this but
piddling, and at once attacked Lord Mayor, common council, and
charter of the city, whom, if he had been supported, I believe he
would have ordered to be all burned by the hangman next Saturday.
Unfortunately for such national justice, Lord Mansfield, who
delights in every opportunity of exposing and mortifying the Duke
of Bedford, and Sandwich, interposed for the magistracy of
London, and after much squabbling, saved them from immediate
execution. The Duke of Grafton, with infinite shrewdness and
coolness, drew from the witnesses that the whole mob was of one
mind; and the day ended in a vote of general
censure on the rioters. This was communicated to us at a
conference, and yesterday we acted the same farce; when Rigby
trying to revive the imputation on the Lord Mayor, etc. (who, by
the by, did sit most tranquilly at Guildhall during the whole
tumult) the ministry disavowed and abandoned him to a man,
vindicating the magistracy, and plainly discovering their own
fear and awe of the city, who feel the insult, and will from
hence feel their own strength. In short, to finish this foolish
story, I never saw a transaction in which appeared so little
parts, abilities, or conduct; nor do I think there can be any
thing weaker than the administration except it is the opposition:
but an opposition, bedrid and tonguetied, is a most ridiculous
body. Mr. Pitt is laid up with the gout; Lord Hardwicke, though
much relieved by a quack medicine, is still very ill; and Mr.
Charles Townshend is as silent as my Lord Abercorn(406--that they
too should ever be alike!

This is not all our political news; Wilkes is an inexhaustible
fund: on Monday was heard, in the common Pleas, his suit against
Mr. Wood,(407) when, after a trial of fourteen hours, the jury
gave him damages of one thousand pounds; but this was not the
heaviest part of the blow. The Solicitor-general(408) tried to
prove Wilkes author of the North Briton, and failed in the proof.
You may judge how much this miscarriage adds to the defeat.
Wilkes is not yet out of danger: they think there is still a
piece of coat or lining to come Out of the wound. The campaign
is over for the present, and the troops going into country
quarters. In the mean time, the house of Hamilton has supplied
us with new matter of talk. My lord was robbed about three
o'clock in the night between Saturday and Sunday, of money,
bills, watches, and snuff-boxes, to the amount of three thousand
pounds. Nothing is yet discovered, but that the
guard in the stable yard saw a man in a great coat and white
stockings come from thereabouts, at the time I have named. The
servants have all been examined over and over to no purpose.
Fielding(409) is all day in the house, and a guard of his at
night. The bureau in my lord's dressing-room (the little red
room where the pictures are) was forced open. I fear you can
guess who was at first suspected.(410)

I have received yours, my dear lord, of Nov. 30th, and am pleased
that my Lady Hertford is so well reconciled to her ministry. You
forgot to give me an account of her audience, but I have heard of
the Queen's good-natured attention to her.

The anecdotes about Lord Sandwich are numerous; but I do not
repeat them to you, because I know nothing how true they are, and
because he has, in several instances, been very obliging to me,
and I have no reason to abuse him. Lord Hardwicke's illness, I
think, is a rupture and consequences.