Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3

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We sat all Monday hearing evidence against Mr. Wood,(482) that
dirty wretch Webb,(483) and the messengers, for their illegal
proceedings against Mr. Wilkes. At midnight, Mr. Grenville
offered us to adjourn or proceed. Mr. Pitt humbly begged not to
eat or sleep till so great a point should be decided. On a
division, in which though many said aye to adjourning, nobody
would go out for fear of losing their seats, it was carried by
379 to 31, for proceeding--and then--half the House went away.
The ministers representing the indecency of this, and Fitzherbert
saying that many were within call, Stanley observed, that after
voting against adjournment, a third part had adjourned
themselves, when, instead of being within call, they ought to
have been within hearing: this was unanswerable, and we
adjourned.

Yesterday we fell to again. It was one in the morning before the
evidence was closed. CarringTon, the messenger, was alone
examined for seven hours. This old man, the cleverest of all
ministerial terriers, was pleased with recounting his
achievements, yet guarded and betraying nothing. However, the
arcana imperia have been wofully laid open.

I have heard Garrick, and other players, give themselves airs of
fatigue after a long part--think of the Speaker, nay, think of
the clerks taking most correct minutes for sixteen hours, and
reading them over to every witness; and then let me hear of
fatigue! Do you know, not only my Lord Temple,(484)--who you may
swear never budged as spectator, but old Will Chetwynd,(485) now
past eighty, and who had walked to the House, did not stir a
single moment out of his place, from three in the afternoon till
the division at seven in the morning. Nay, we had patriotesses,
too, who stayed out the whole: Lady Rockingham and Lady Sondes
the first day; both again the second day, with Miss Mary Pelham,
Mrs. Fitzroy,(486) and the Duchess of Richmond, as patriot as any
of us. Lady Mary Coke, Mrs. George Pitt,(487) and Lady
Pembroke(488) came after the Opera, but I think did not stay
above seven or eight hours at most.

At one, Sir W. Meredith(489) moved a resolution of the illegality
of the warrant, and opened it well. He was seconded by old
Darlington's brother,(490) a convert to us. Mr. Wood, who had
shone the preceding day by great modesty, decency, and ingenuity,
forfeited these merits a good deal by starting up (according to a
ministerial plan,) and very arrogantly, and repeatedly in the
night, demanding justice and a previous acquittal, and telling
the House he scorned to accept being merely excused; to which Mr.
Pitt replied, that if he disdained to be excused, he would
deserve to be censured. Mr. Charles Yorke (who, with his family,
have come roundly to us for support against the Duke of Bedford
on the Marriage-bill(491)) proposed to adjourn. Grenville and
the Ministry would have agreed to adjourn the debate on the great
question itself, but declared they would push this acquittal.
This they announced haughtily enough--for as yet, they did not
doubt of their strength. Lord Frederick Campbell(492) was the
most impetuous of all, so little he foresaw how much wiser it
would be to follow your brother. Pitt made a short speech,
excellently argumentative, and not bombast, nor tedious. nor
deviating from the question. He was supported by your brother,
and Charles Townshend, and Lord George;(493) the two last of whom
are strangely firm, now they are got under the cannon of your
brother Charles, who, as he must be extraordinary, is now so in
romantic nicety of honour. His father,(494) who is dying, or
dead, at Bath, and from whom he hopes two thousand a year, has
sent for him. He has refused to go--lest his steadiness should
be questioned. At a quarter after four we divided. Our cry was
so loud, that both we and the ministers thought we had carried
it. It is not to be painted, the dismay of the latter--in good
truth not without reason, for we were 197, they but 207. Your
experience can tell you, that a majority of but ten is a defeat.
Amidst a great defection from them, was even a white staff, Lord
Charles Spencer(495)--now you know still more of what I told you
was preparing for them!

Crestfallen, the ministers then proposed simply to discharge the
complaint; but the plumes which they had dropped, Pitt soon
placed in his own beaver. He broke out on liberty, and, indeed,
on whatever he pleased, uninterrupted. Rigby sat feeling the
vice-treasurership slipping from under him. Nugent was now less
pensive--Lord Strange,(496) though not interested, did not like
it. Every body was too much taken up with his own concerns or
too much daunted, to give the least disturbance to the Pindaric.
Grenville, however, dropped a few words, which did but heighten
the flame. Pitt, with less modesty than ever he showed,
pronounced a panegyric, on his own administration, and from
thence broke out on the dismission of officers. This increased
the roar from us. Grenville replied, and very finely, very
pathetically, very animated. he painted Wilkes and faction, and,
with very little truth, denied the charge of menaces to officers.
At that moment, General A'Court(497) walked up the House --think
what an impression such an incident must make, when passions,
hopes, and fears, were all afloat--think, too, how your brother
and I, had we been ungenerous, could have added to these
sensations! There was a man not so delicate. Colonel Barr`e
rose--and this attended with a striking circumstance; Sir Edward
Deering, one of our noisy fools, called out, "Mr. Barr`e,"(498)
The latter seized the thought with admirable quickness, and said
to the Speaker, who, in pointing to him, had called him Colonel,
"I beg your pardon, Sir, you have pointed to me by a title I have
no right to," and then made a very artful and pathetic speech on
his own services and dismission; with nothing bad but an awkward
attempt towards an excuse to Mr. Pitt for his former behaviour.
Lord North, who will not lose his bellow, though he may lose his
place, endeavoured to roar up the courage of his comrades, but it
would not do--the House grew tired, and we again divided at seven
for adjournment; some of our people were gone, and we remained
but 184, they 208; however, you will allow our affairs are
mended, when we say, but 184. We then came away, and left the
ministers to satisfy Wood, Webb, and themselves, as well as they
could. It was eight in the morning before I was in bed; and
considering that this is no very short letter, Mr. Pitt bore the
fatigue with his usual spirit(499)--and even old Onslow, the late
Speaker, was sitting up, anxious for the event.

On Friday we are to have the great question, which would prevent
my writing; and to-morrow I dine with Guerchy, at the Duke of
Grafton's, besides twenty other engagements. To-day I have shut
myself up; for with writing this, and taking notes yesterday all
day, and all night, I have not an eye left to see out of--nay,
for once in my life, I shall go to bed at ten o'clock.

I am glad to be able to contradict two or three passages in my
last letter. The Prince and Princess of Brunswick are safely
landed, though they were in extreme danger. The Duc de Pecquigny
had not only been put in arrest late on the Sunday night, which I
did not know, but has retrieved his honour. Monsieur de Guerchy
sent him away, and at Dover Virette found him, and whispered him
to steal from D'Allonville(500) and fight. The Duc first begged
his pardon, owned himself in the wrong, and then fought him, and
was wounded, though slightly, in four places in the arm; and both
are returned to London with their honours as white as snow.

Sir Jacob Downing(501) is dead, and has left every shilling to
his wife; id est, not sixpence to my Lord Holland;(502) a mishap
which, being followed by a minority of 197, will not make a
pleasant week to him.

now would you believe how I feel and how I wish? I wish we may
continue the minority. The desires of some of my associates,
perhaps, may not be satisfied, but mine are. Here is an
opposition formidable enough to keep abler ministers than
Messieurs the present gentlemen in awe. They may pick pockets,
but they will pick no more locks. While we continue a minority,
we preserve our characters, and we have some too good to part
with. I hate to have a camp to plunder; at least, I am so Which
I am so whig, I hate spoils but the opima spolia. I think it,
too, much more creditable to control ministers, than to be
ministers--and much more creditable than to become mere ministers
ourselves. I have several other excellent reasons against our
success, though I could combat them with as many drawn from the
insufficience of the present folk, and the propriety of Mr. Pitt
being minister; but I am too tired, and very likely so are you,
my dear lord, by this time, and therefore good night!

Friday noon.

I had sealed my letter, and break it open again on receiving
yours of the 13th, by the messenger. Though I am very sorry you
had not then got mine from Monin, which would have prepared you
for much of what has happened, I do not fear its miscarriage, as
I think I can account for the delay. I had, for more security,
put it into the parcel with two more volumes of my Anecdotes of
Painting; which, I suppose, remained in M. Monin's baggage; and
he might not have taken it when he delivered the single letters.
If he has not yet sent you the parcel, you may ask for it, as the
same delicacy is not necessary as for a letter.

I thank Lord Beauchamp much for the paper, but should thank him
much more for a letter from himself. I am going this minute to
the House, where I have already been to prayers,(503) to take a
place. It was very near full then, so critical a day it is! I
expect we shall be beaten-but we shall not be so many times more.
Lord Granby(504) I hear, is to move the previous question--they
are reduced to their heavy cannon.

Sunday evening, 19th.

Happening to hear of a gentleman who sets out for Paris in two or
three days, I stopped my letter, both out of prudence (pray
admire me!) and from thinking that it was as well to send you at
once the complete history of our Great Week. By the time you
have read the preceding pages, you may, perhaps, expect to find a
change in the ministry in what I am going to say. You must have
a little patience; our parliamentary war, like the last war in
Germany, produces very considerable battles, that are not
decisive. Marshal Pitt has given another great blow to the
subsidiary army, but they remained masters of the field, and both
sides sing te Deum. I am not talking figuratively, when I assure
you that bells, bonfires, and an illumination from the Monument,
were prepared in the city, in case we had the majority. Lord
Temple was so indiscreet and indecent as to have fagots ready for
two bonfires, but was persuaded to lay aside the design, even
before it was abortive.

It is impossible to give you the detail of so long a debate as
Friday's. You will regret it the less when I tell you it was a
very dull one. I never knew a day of expectation answer. The
impromptus and the unexpected are ever the most shining. We love
to hear ourselves talk, and yet we must be formed of adamant to
be able to talk day and night on the same question for a week
together. If you had seen how ill we looked, you would not have
wondered we did not speak well. A company of colliers emerging
from damps and darkness could not have appeared more ghastly and
dirty than we did on Wednesday morning; and we had not recovered
much bloom on Friday. We spent two or three hours on corrections
of, and additions to, the question of pronouncing the warrant
illegal, till the ministry had contracted it to fit scarce any
thing but the individual case of Wilkes, Pitt not opposing the
amendments because Charles Yorke gave into them; for it is
wonderful(505) what deference is paid by both sides to that
house. The debate then began by Norton's moving to adjourn the
consideration of the question for four months, and holding out a
promise of a bill, which neither they mean nor, for my part,
should I like: I would not give prerogative so much as a
definition. You are a peer, and, therefore, perhaps, will hear
it with patience--but think how our ears must have tingled, when
he told us, that should we pass the resolution, and he were a
judge, he would mind it no more than the resolution of a drunken
porter! Had old Onslow been in the chair, I believe he would
have knocked him down with the mace. He did hear of it during
the debate, though not severely enough; but the town rings with
it. Charles Yorke replied, and was much admired. Me he did not
please; I require a little more than palliatives and sophistries.
He excused the part he has taken by pleading that he had never
seen the warrant, till after Wilkes was taken up--yet he then
pronounced the No. 45 a libel, and advised the commitment of
Wilkes to the Tower. If you advised me to knock a man down,
would you excuse yourself by saying you had never seen the stick
with which I gave the blow Other speeches we had without end, but
none good, except from Lord George Sackville, a short one from
Elliot, and one from Charles Townshend, so fine that it amazed,
even from him. Your brother had spoken with excellent sense
against the corrections, and began well again in the debate, but
with so much rapidity that he confounded himself first, and then
was seized with such a hoarseness that he could not proceed.
Pitt and George Grenville ran a match of silence, striving which
should reply to the other. At last, Pitt, who had three times in
the debate retired with pain,(506) rose about three in the
morning, but so languid, so exhausted, that, in his life, he
never made less figure. Grenville answered him; and at five in
the morning we divided. The Noes were so loud, as it admits a
deeper sound than Aye, that the Speaker, who has got a bit of
nose(507) since the opposition got numbers, gave it for us. They
went forth; and when I heard our side counted to the amount of
218, I did conclude we were victorious; but they returned 232.
It is true we were beaten by fourteen, but we were increased by
twenty-one; and no ministry could stand on so slight an
advantage, if we could continue above two hundred.(508)

We may, and probably shall, fall off: this was our strongest
question--but our troops will stand fast: their hopes and views
depend upon it, and their spirits are raised. But for the other
side it will not be the same. The lookers-on will be stayers
away, and their very subsidies will undo them. They bought two
single votes that day with two peerages;(509) Sir R.
Bampfylde(510) and Sir Charles Tynte(511)--and so are going to
light up the flame of two more county elections--and that in the
west, where surely nothing was wanting but a tinder-box!

You would have almost laughed to see the spectres produced by
both sides; one would have thought that they had sent a
search-warrant for members of parliament into every hospital.
Votes were brought down in flannels and blankets, till the floor
of the House looked like the pool of Bethesda. 'Tis wonderful
that half of us are not dead--I should not say us; Herculean I
have not suffered the least, except that from being a Hercules of
ten grains, I don't believe I now weigh above eight. I felt from
nothing so much as the noise, which made me as drunk as an owl-
-you may imagine the clamours of two parties so nearly matched,
and so impatient to come to a decision.

The Duchess of Richmond has got a fever with the attendance of
Tuesday--but on Friday we were forced to be unpolite. The
Amazons came down in such squadrons, that we were forced to be
denied. However, eight or nine of the patriotesses dined in one
of the Speaker's rooms, and stayed there till twelve--nay, worse,
while their dear country was at stake, I am afraid they were
playing at loo!

The Townshends, you perceive by this account, are returned; their
father not dead.(512) Lord Howe(513) and the Colonel voted with
us; so did Lord Newnham,(514) and is likely to be turned out of
doors for it. A warrant to take up Lord Charles Spenser was sent
to Blenheim from Bedford-house,(515) and signed by his brother,
and returned for him; so he went thither--not a very kind office
in the Duke of Marlborough to Lord Charles's character. Lord
Granby refused to make the motion, but spoke for it. Lord
Hardwicke is relapsed; but we do not now fear any consequences
from his death. The Yorkes, who abandoned a triumphant
administration, are not so tender as to return and comfort them
in their depression.

The chief business now, I suppose, will lie in souterreins and
intrigues. Lord Bute's panic will, probably, direct him to make
application to us. Sandwich will be manufacturing lies, and
Rigby, negotiations. Some change or other, whether partial or
extensive, must arrive. The best that can happen for the
ministers, is to be able to ward off the blow till the recess,
and they have time to treat at leisure; but in just the present
state it is impossible things should remain. The opposition is
too strong, and their leaders too able to make no impression.

Adieu! pray tell Mr. Hume that I am ashamed to be thus writing
the history of England, when he is with you!

P. S. The new baronies are contradicted, but may recover truth at
the end of the session.(516)

(473) the important debate on the question of General Warrants,
which is the subject of the following able and interesting
letter, has never been reported. There are, indeed, in the
parliamentary history, a letter from Sir George Yonge, and two
statements by Sir William Meredith and Charles Townshend, on the
subject, but they relate chiefly to their own motives and
reasonings, and give neither the names nor the arguments of the
debater,-, and fall very short indeed of the vigour and vivacity
of Mr. Walpole's animated sketch.-C.

(474) On the 22d December, 1741. This was one of the debates
that terminated Sir Robert Walpole's administration: the numbers
on the division were 220 against 216.-C.

(475) The proceedings of the 6th of February, 1751, against the
Honourable A. Murray, for impeding the Westminster election; but
Walpole, in his Memoires, states that the House adjourned at two
in the morning.-C.

(476) The disputes between Louis XV. and his parliaments, which
prepared the revolution, were at this period assuming a serious
appearance.-C.

(477) The King.

(478) The Princess Dowager.

(479) Lord Bute. Luton was his seat in Bedfordshire.

(480) Mr. Walpole was too sanguine: Sir Fletcher had not even
lost his boldness; for in the further progress of the adjourned
debate, we shall find that he told the House that he would regard
their resolution of no more value (in point of law, must be
understood) than the vociferations of so many drunken porters.-C.

(481) Lord Sandwich was an agreeable companion and an able
minister; but One whose moral character did not point him out as
exactly the fittest patron for a volume of sermons; and he was at
this moment so unpopular, that Mr. Walpole affects to think he
may have been intimidated to fly.-C.

(482) Robert Wood, Esq. under-secretary of state; against whom,
for his official share in the affair of the general warrants, Mr.
Wilkes's complaint was made.-C.

(483) Philip Carteret Webb, Esq. solicitor to the treasury,
complained on the same ground. Mr. Walpole probably applies
these injurious terms to Mr. Webb, on account of a supposed error
in his evidence on the trial in the Common Pleas, for which he
was afterwards indicted for perjury, but he was fully acquitted.
The point was of little importance --whether he had or had not a
key in his hand.-C.

(484) Lord Temple was, as every one knows, a very keen
politician, and took in all this matter a most prominent part;
indeed, he was the prime mover of the whole affair, and bore the
expense of all Wilkes's law proceedings out of his own pocket.-C.

(485) William Chetwynd, brother of Lord Chetwynd: at this time
master of the mint. He was in early life a friend of Lord
Bolingbroke, and called, from the darkness of his complexion,
Oroonoko Chetwynd: he sat out these debates with impunity, for he
survived to succeed his brother as Lord Chetwynd, in 1767, and
did not die for some years after.-C.

(486) Probably Anne, daughter of Admiral Sir Peter Warren;
married, in 1758, to Colonel Charles Fitzroy, afterwards first
Lord Southampton.-C.

(487) Penelope, daughter of Sir H. Atkins, married, in 1746, to
George Pitt, first Lord Rivers.-C.

(488) Elizabeth. daughter of Charles Spenser, first Duke of
Marlborough of the Spenser branch, married, in 1756, to Henry,
tenth Earl of Pembroke; she was celebrated for her beauty, which
had even, it was said, captivated George III. When General
Conway was dismissed for the vote of this very night, Lord
Pembroke succeeded to his regiment.-C.

(489) Sir William Meredith's motion was, "That a general warrant
for apprehending and securing the authors, printers, and
publishers of a seditious libel, together with their papers, is
not warranted by law." This proposition the administration did
not venture to deny, but they attached to it an exculpatory
amendment to the Following effect:--"although such warrant has
been issued according to the usage of office, and has been
frequently produced to, and never condemned by, courts of
justice."-C.

(490) Gilbert, youngest brother of henry, first Earl of
Darlington, who was so well known in Sir Robert Walpole's and Mr.
Pelham's time as " Harry Vane." Mr. Gilbert Vane was deputy
treasurer of Chelsea Hospital, but on this occasion abandoned the
ministerial side of the House, with which he had hitherto voted:
he died in 1772.-C.

(491) The Marriage act was not an original measure of Lord
Hardwicke; but as he, on the failure of one or two previous
attempts at a bill on that subject, was requested by the House of
Lords to prepare one, he, and of course his sons, must have
continued interested in its maintenance; but Mr. Walpole's
suspicion of a bargain and sale of sentiments between there and
the opposition is quite absurd. Even from Mr. Walpole's own
statement, it would seem, that, on the subject of general
warrants, mr. Charles Yorke acted with sincerity and
moderation,-anxious to have a great legal question properly
decided, and unwilling to prostitute its success to the purposes
of party.-C.

(492) Fourth son of John, third Duke of Argyle; afterwards keeper
of the privy seal in Scotland, secretary to the Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland, and finally, lord register of Scotland. As He was
the brother-in-law of General Conway, Mr. Walpole seems to have
expected him to have followed Conway's politics.-C.

(493) Lord George Sackville.

(494) Charles, third Lord Townshend, a peer, whose reputation is
lost between that of his father and his sons.-C.

(495) Second son of the Duke of Marlborough; his white staff was
that of comptroller of the household. He was, it seems, in Mr.
Walpole's sense of the word, wiser than Lord Frederick Campbell;
but we shall see presently, that this wisdom grew ashamed of
itself in a day or two, and in 1765, when the party which he had
this night assisted came into power, he was turned out.-C.

(496) James, eldest son of the Earl of Derby, born in 1717; he
died in 1771, before his father. I know not why Walpole says he
was not interested; he was a very respectable man, but he was
also chancellor of the duchy, and might naturally have felt as
much interested as the other placemen-C.

(497) Lately dismissed. See ant`e, p. 276, letter 188.-E.

(498) Colonel Barr`e had been dismissed from the office of
adjutant-general. See ant`e, p. 258, letter 184.-E.

(499) The Duke of Newcastle in a letter to Mr. Pitt of the 15th,
says, "Mr. West and honest George Onslow came to my bedside this
morning, to give me an account of the glorious day we had
yesterday, and of the great obligations which every true lover of
the liberties of his country and our present constitution owe to
you, for the superior ability, firmness, and resolution which you
showed during the longest attention that ever was known. God
forbid that your health should suffer by your zeal for your
country." Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 287.-E.

(500) Probably the gentleman in whose charge M. de Guerchy had
sent away the giddy Duke.-C.

(501) Sir Jacob Gerrard Downing, Bart., member for Dunwich: he
died the 6th of February, and left his estate, as Mr. Walpole
says, to his wife; but only for her life, and afterwards to build
and endow Downing College at Cambridge.(502) The grounds of any
expectation which Lord Holland may have entertained from Sir
Jacob Downing have not reached us; but it is right to say, that
Mr. Walpole had quarrelled with Lord Holland, and was glad on any
occasion, just or otherwise, to sneer at him.-C.

(503) It may be necessary to remark, that any member who attends
at the daily prayers of the House has a right, for that evening,
to the place he occupies at prayers. On nights of great
interest, when the House is expected to be crowded, there is
consequently a considerable attendance at prayers.-C.