Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1

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(391) The name of Lord Chesterfield.

(392) On the subject of Sir Robert's alleged want of
partiality for his son, the following passage occurs in the
anecdotes prefixed to Lord Wharncliffe's edition of the works of
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu:-"Those ironical lines, where Pope says
that Sir Robert Had never made a friend in private life, And was,
besides, a tyrant to his wife,' are well
understood, as conveying a sly allusion to his good-humoured
unconcern about some things which more strait-laced husbands do
not take so coolly. In a word, Horace Walpole was
generally supposed to be the son of Carr Lord Hervey, and Sir
Robert not to be ignorant of it. One striking circumstance was
visible to the naked eye; no beings in human shape could resemble
each other less than the two passing for father and son; and
while their reverse of personal likeness provoked a malicious
whisper, Sir Robert's marked neglect of Horace in his infancy
tended to confirm it. Sir Robert took scarcely any notice of him
till his proficiency in Eton school, when a lad of some standing,
drew his attention, and proved that, whether he had or had not a
right to the name he went by, he was likely to do it Honour."
Vol. i. 1). 33.-E.

(393) General Charles Churchill. (Whose character has been so
inimitably sketched, at about the same period when this letter
was written, by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in his poem of',
Isabella, or the Morning:"-

"The General, one of those brave old commanders,
Who served through all our glorious wars in Flanders.
Frank and good-natur'd, of an honest heart,
Loving to act the steady friendly part;
None led through youth a gayer life than he,
Cheerful in converse, smart in repartee;
But with old age, its Vices Come along,
And in narration he's extremely long;
Exact in circumstance, and nice in dates,
He each minute particular relates.
If you name one of marlbro's ten campaigns,
He gives you its whole history for your pains,
And Blenheim's field becomes by his reciting,
As long in telling as it was in fighting.
His old desire to please is still express'd,
His hat's well cock'd, his periwig's well dress'd.
He rolls his stockings still, white gloves he wears,
And in the boxes with the beaux appears.
His eyes through wrinkled corners cast their rays,
Still he looks cheerful, still soft things he says,
And still remembering that he once was young,
He strains his crippled knees, and struts along."-D.)

(394) Vide an account of the erection of Lord Perceval and one
Edwin, in that Lord's History of the House of Ivery.

(395) Philip Yorke, Lord, and afterwards Earl of Hardwicke, for
twenty years Lord Chancellor of England.-D.

(396) William mathias Howard, Earl of Stafford.

(397) The Primate of Lorrain, eldest son of Prince Craon, was
famous for his wit and vices of all kinds.

(398) Lady Dorothy Boyle, eldest daughter of Lord Burlington;
Isabella, wife of Francis Lord Conway, and Caroline,
afterwards married to Lord Petersham, were the daughter-in-law
and daughters of Charles Fitzroy, Duke of grafton, lord
chamberlain.

(399) Lepel, eldest daughter of John Lord Hervey, afterwards
married to Mr. Phipps. (Constantine Phipps, in 1767 created Lord
Mulgrave.]

(400) The effeminacy of Lord Hervey formed a continual subject
for the satire of his opponents. Pope's bitter lines on him- are
well remembered. The old Duchess of Marlborough, too, in her
"Opinions," describes him as having "certainly parts and wit; but
he is the most wretched profligate man that ever was born,
besides ridiculous; a painted face, and not a tooth in his head."
on which the editor of that curious little book, Lord Hailes,
remarks, "Lord Hervey, having felt some attacks of the epilepsy,
entered upon and persisted in a very strict regimen, and thus
stopped the progress and prevented the
effects of that dreadful disease. His daily food was a small
quantity of asses' milk and a flour biscuit. Once a week he
indulged himself with eating an apple; he used emetics daily.
Mr. Pope and he were once friends; but they quarrelled, and
persecuted each other with virulent satire. Pope, knowing the
abstemious regimen which Lord Hervey observed, was so
ungenerous as to call him "mere cheese-curd of asses' milk!" Lord
Hervey used paint to soften his ghastly appearance. Mr. Pope
must have known this also; and therefore it was
unpardonable in him to introduce it into his "celebrated
portrait." It ought to be remembered, that Lord Hervey is very
differently described by Dr. Middleton; who, in his dedication to
him of "The History of the Life of Tully," praises him for his
strong good sense, patriotism, temperance, and
information.-E.

(401) Jane, only daughter of Francis, the first Lord Conway, by
his second wife, Mrs. Bodens. (She died unmarried, May 5,
1749.-D.)

(402) Author of some Love Elegies, and a favourite of Lord
Chesterfield. He died this year. [Hammond was equerry to the
Prince of Wales, and member for Truro. He died in June, 1742, at
Stowe, the seat of Lord Cobham, in his thirty.second year. Miss
Dashwood long survived him, and died unmarried in 1779. " The
character," says Johnson, "which her lover gave her was, indeed,
not likely to attract courtship."]

(402) Wife of William Clayton, Lord Sundon, woman of the
bedchamber and mistress of the robes to Queen Caroline. [She had
been the friend and correspondent of Sarah Duchess of'
Marlborough; who, on the accession of George I , through Baron
Bothmar's influence, procured for her friend the place of lady of
the bedchamber to the Princess with whom she grew as great a
favourite as her colleague, Mrs. Howard, with the Prince; and
eventually, on the Princess becoming Queen, exercised an
influence over her, of which even sir Robert Walpole was
jealous.]

(404) Queen Caroline, died November 1737.-D.

(405) This is now known to have been a rupture, with which the
Queen was afflicted, and which she had the weakness to wish, and
the courage to be able, to conceal.-E.

(406) The celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, oldest
daughter of Evelyn, first Duke of Kingston, and wife of
Wortley Montagu, Esq.-D.

(407) Marquis de Sabernego: he returned to Spain after the death
of Philip V.

(408) The Princess of Parma, second wife of Philip V. King of
Spain, and consequently stepmother to the Prince of Asturias,
son of that King, by his first wife, a princess of Savoy.-D.

(409) William Stanhope, created Lord Harrington in 1729, and Earl
of the same in 1741. He held various high offices, and was, at
the time this was written, secretary of
state.-D.

(410) Frances, youngest daughter of Lord Carteret, afterwards
married to the Marquis of Tweedale. (in 1748. The marquis was an
extraordinary lord of session, and the last person who held a
similar appointment.]

(411) Frederick Prince of Wales.-D.

(412) Brother to Lord Chesterfield. This bon mot was
occasioned by the numbers of Hamiltons which Lady Archibald
Hamilton, the Prince's mistress, had placed at that court.

(413) Nicholas Clagget, Bishop of St. David's, succeeded, on
Weston's death, to the see of Exeter.-Dr. Clagget was,
however, succeeded in the see of St. David's by Dr. Edward
Willes, Dean of Lincoln and decipherer to the King; and, in the
following year, translated to the bishopric of Bath and Wells.
The art of deciphering, for which Dr. Willes was so celebrated,
has been the subject of many learned and curious works by
Trithemius, Baptista Porta, the Duke Augustus of
Brunswick, and other more recent writers. The Gentleman's
Magazine for 1742, contains a very ingenious system of
deciphering: but the old modes of secret writing having been, for
the most part, superseded by the modern system of
cryptography, in which, according to a simple rule which may be
communicated verbally, and easily retained in the memory, the
signs for the letters can be changed continually; it is the
chiffre quarr`e or chiffre ind`echiffrable, used, if not
universally, yet by most courts. None of the old systems of
deciphering are any longer available.]

212 Letter 51
To Sir Horace Mann.
Friday, Jan. 22, 1742.

Don't wonder that I missed writing to you yesterday, my
constant day: you will pity me when you hear that I was shut up
in the House of Commons till one in the morning. I came away
more dead than alive, and was forced to leave Sir R. at supper
with my brothers: he was all alive and in spirits.(414) He says
he is younger than me, and indeed I think so, in spite of his
forty years more. My head aches to-night, but we rose early; and
if I don't write to-night when shall I find a
moment to spare? Now you want to know what we did last night;
stay, I will tell you presently in its place: it was well, and of
infinite consequence-so far I tell you now. Our recess finished
last Monday, and never at school did I enjoy holidays so
much-but, les voil`a finis jusqu'au printefps! Tuesday (for you
see I write you an absolute journal) we sat on a Scotch election,
a double return; their man was Hume Campbell,(415) Lord
Marchmont's brother, lately made solicitor to the Prince, for
being as troublesome, as violent, and almost as able as his
brother. They made a great point of it, and gained so many of
our votes, that at ten at night we were forced to give it up
without dividing. Sandys, who loves persecution, even unto the
death, moved to punish the sheriff; and as we dared not divide,
they ordered him into custody, where by this time, I suppose,
Sandys has eaten him.

On Wednesday, Sir Robert Godschall, the Lord Mayor, presented the
Merchant's petition, signed by three hundred of them, and drawn
up by Leonidas Glover.(416) This is to be heard next Wednesday.
This gold-chain came into parliament, cried up for his parts, but
proves so dull, one would think he chewed
opium. Earle says, "I have heard an oyster speak as well
twenty times."

Well, now I come to yesterday: we met, not expecting much
business. Five of our members were gone to the York election,
and the three Lord Beauclercs (417) to their mother's funeral at
Windsor; for that old beauty St. Albans (418) is dead at last.
On this they depended for getting the majority, and towards three
o'clock, when we thought of breaking up, poured in their most
violent questions: one was a motion for leave to bring in the
Place Bill to limit the number of placemen in the House. This
was not opposed, because, out of decency, it is generally
suffered to pass the Commons, and is thrown out by the Lords;
only Colonel Cholmondeley (419) desired to know if they designed
to limit the number of those that have promises of places, as
well as of those that have places now. I must tell you that we
are a very conclave; they buy votes with
reversions of places on the change of the ministry. Lord Gage
was giving an account in Tom's coffeehouse of the intended
alterations: that Mr. Pultney is to be chancellor of the
exchequer, and Chesterfield and Carteret secretaries of state.
Somebody asked who was to be paymaster? Numps Edwin,(420) who
stood by, replied, "We have not thought so low as that yet."
Lord Gage harangues every day at Tom's, and has read there a very
false account of the King'S message to the Prince.(421) The
Court, to show their contempt of Gage, have given their copy to
be read by Swinny.(422) This is the authentic copy, which they
have made the bishop write from the message which he carried, and
as he and Lord Cholmondeley agree it was
given.

On this Thursday, of which I was telling you, at three
o'clock, Mr. Pultney rose up, and moved for a secret committee of
twenty-one. This inquisition, this council of ten, was to sit
and examine whatever persons and papers they should
please, and to meet when and where they pleased. He protested
much on its not being intended against any person, but merely to
give the King advice, and on this foot they fought it till ten at
night, when Lord Perceval blundered out what they had been
cloaking with so @much art, and declared that he should vote for
it as a committee of accusation. Sir Robert
immediately rose, and protested that he should not have
spoken, but for what he had heard last; but that now, he must
take it to himself. He portrayed the malice of the
Opposition, who, for twenty years, had not been able to touch
him, and were now reduced to this infamous shift. He defied them
to accuse him, and only desired that if they should,
might be in an open and fair manner: desired no favour, but to be
acquainted with his accusation. He spoke of Mr.
Doddington, who had called his administration infamous, as of a
person of great self-mortification, who, for sixteen years, had
condescended to bear part of the odium. For Mr. Pultney, who had
just spoken a second time, Sir R. said, he had begun the debate
with great calmness, but give him his due, he had made amends for
it in the end. In short, never was innocence so triumphant.

There were several glorious speeches on both sides: Mr.
Pultney's two, W. Pitt's (423) and George Grenville's,(424) Sir
Robert's, Sir W. Yonge's, Harry Fox's, (425) Mr. Chute's, and the
Attorney-General's.(426) My friend Coke, for the
first time, spoke vastly well, and mentioned how great Sir
Robert's character is abroad. ' Sir Francis Dashwood replied,
that he had found quite the reverse from Mr. Coke, and that
foreigners always spoke with contempt of the Chevalier de
Walpole. That was going too far, and he was called to order, but
got off well enough, by saying, that he knew it was
contrary to rule to name any member, but that he only
mentioned it as spoken by an impertinent Frenchman.

But of all speeches, none ever was so full of wit as Mr.
Pultney's last. He said, "I have heard this committee
represented as a most dreadful spectre; it has been likened to
all terrible things; it has been likened to the King; to the
inquisition; it will be a committee of safety; it is a
committee of danger; I don't know what it is to be! One
gentleman, I think, called it a cloud! (this was the Attorney) a
cloud! I remember Hamlet takes Lord Polonius by the hand and
shows him a cloud, and then asks him if he does not think it is
like a whale." Well, in short, at eleven at night we divided, and
threw out this famous committee by 253 to
250, the greatest number that ever was in
the house, and the greatest number that ever lost a question.

It was a most shocking sight to see the sick and dead brought in
on both sides! Men on crutches, and Sir
William Gordon (427) from his bed, with a
blister on his head, and flannel hanging out from under
his wig. I could scarce pity him for his
ingratitude. The day before the Westminster petition, Sir
Charles Wager (428) gave his son a ship, and the next day the
father came down and voted against him. The son has since been
east away; but they concealed it from the father, that he might
not absent himself. However, as we have our
good-natured men too on our side, one of his own countrymen went
and told him of it in the House. The old man, who looked like
Lazarus at his resuscitation, bore it with great
resolution, and said, he knew why he was told of it, but when he
thought his country in danger, he would not go away. As he is so
near death, that it is indifferent to him whether he died two
thousand years ago or to-morrow, it is unlucky for him not to
have lived when such insensibility would have been a Roman
virtue. (429)

There are no arts, no menaces, which the Opposition do not
practise. They have threatened one gentleman to have a
reversion cut off from his son, unless he will vote with them.
To Totness there came a letter to the mayor from the Prince, and
signed by two of his lords, to recommend a candidate in
opposition to the solicitor-general. The mayor sent the
letter to Sir Robert. They have turned the
Scotch to the best account. There is a young Oswald
(430) who had engaged to Sir R. but has voted against us. Sir R.
sent a friend to reproach him: the moment the gentleman who had
engaged for him came into the room, Oswald said, "You had liked
to have led me into a fine error! did you not tell me that Sir R.
would have the majority?"

When the debate was over, Mr. Pultney owned that he had never
heard so fine a debate on our side; and said to Sir Robert,
"Well, nobody can do what you can!" "Yes," replied Sir R., "Yonge
did better." Mr. P. answered, "It was fine, but not of that
weight with what you said." They all allow it- and now their plan
is to persuade Sir Robert to retire with honour. All that
evening there was a report about the town, that he and my uncle
were to be sent to the Tower, and people hired windows in the
city to see them pass by-but for this time I believe we shall not
exhibit so historical a parade.

The night of the committee, my brother Walpole
(431) had got two or three invalids at his house,
designing to carry them into the House by his door, as they were
too ill to go round by Westminster hall: the patriots, who have
rather more contrivances than their predecessors of Grecian and
Roman memory, had taken the precaution of stopping the keyhole
with sand. How Livy's eloquence would have been hampered, if
there had been back-doors and keyholes to the Temple of Concord!

A few days ago there were lists of the officers at Port Mahon
laid before the House of Lords -. unfortunately, it appeared that
two-thirds of the regiment had been absent. The Duke of Argyll
said, "Such a list was a libel on the government;" and of all
men, the Duke of Newcastle was the man who rose up and agreed
with him: remember what I have told you once before of his union
with Carteret. We have
carried the York election by a majority of 956.

The other night the Bishop of Canterbury(432) was with Sir
'Robert, and on going away, said, "Sir, I have been lately
reading Thaunus; he mentions a minister, who having long been
persecuted by his enemies, at length vanquished them: the
reason he gives, quia se non
deseruit."

Sir Thomas Robinson is at last named to the government of
Barbadoes; he has long prevented its being asked for, by
declaring that he had the promise of it. Luckily for him, Lord
Lincoln liked his house, and procured him this government on
condition of hiring it.

I have mentioned Lord Perceval's speeches; he has a set who have
a rostrum at his house, and harangue there. A gentleman who came
thither one evening was refused, but insisting that he was
engaged to come, "Oh, Sir," said the porter, "what, are you one
of those who play at members of Parliament?"

I must tell you something, though Mr. Chute will see my
letter. Sir Robert brought home yesterday to dinner, a fat
comely gentleman, who came up to me, and said he believed I knew
his brother abroad. I asked his name; he replied, He is with Mr.
Whithed." I thought he said, It is Whithed." After I had
talked to him of Mr. Whithed, I said, There is a very
sensible man with Mr. Whithed,
one Mr. Chute." "Sir," said he, "my name is
Chute." "My dear
Mr. Chute, now I know both your brothers. You
will forgive my mistake."

With what little conscience I begin a third sheet! but it
shall be but half a one. I have received your vast packet of
music by the messenger, for which I thank you a thousand
times; and the political
sonnet, which is far from bad. Who
translated it? I like the translation.

I am obliged to you about the gladiator, etc.: the temptation of
having them at all is great, but too enormous. If I could have
the gladiator for about an hundred pounds, I would give it.

I enclose one of the bills of lading of the things that I sent
you by your secretary: he sets out tomorrow. By Oswald's
(433) folly, to whom I entrusted the putting them on board, they
are consigned to Goldsworthy, (434) but pray take care that he
does not open them. The captain mortifies me by
proposing to stay three weeks at Genoa. I have sent away
to-night a small additional box of steel wares, which I
received but to-day from Woodstock. As they are better than the
first, you will choose out some of them for Prince Craon, and
give away the rest as you please.

We have a new opera by Pescetti, but a very bad one; however, all
the town runs after it, for it ends with a charming
dance.(435) They have flung open the stage to a great length,
and made a perfect view of Venice, with the
Rialto, and numbers of gondolas that row about full of masks, who
land and dance. You would like it.

Well, I have done. Excuse me if I don't take the trouble to read
it all over again, for it is immense, as you will find. Good
night!

(414) Sir Robert Wilmot also, in a letter to the Duke of
Devonshire, written on the 12th,
Sir Robert was today observed to be more naturally gay and full
of spirits than he has been
for some time past."-E.

(415) HUme Campbell was twin brother of Hugh, third Earl of
Marchmont. They were sons of
Alexander, the second earl, who had quarrelled with Sir Robert
Walpole at the time of the excise
scheme in 1733. Sir Robert, in consequence, prevented him from
being reelected one of the sixteen
representative Scotch peers in 1734; in requital for which,
the old earl's two sons became the
bitterest opponents of the Minister. They were both
men of considerable talents; extremely similar in
their characters and dispositions, and
so much so in their outward
appearance that it was very difficult to know them apart.-D. The
estimation in which Lord Marchmont was held by his
contemporaries, maybe judged of by
the fact, that Lord Cobham gave his bust a place in the Temple of
Worthies, at Stowe, and the mention
of him in Pope's inscription in his grotto at
Twickenham;-

"Where British siglis from dying Wyndham stole,
And the bright flame was shot through Marchmont's soul."

We are told by Coxe, that Sir Robert Walpole "used frequently to
rally his sons, who were
praising the speeches of Pultney, Pitt, Lyttelton, and others, by
saying, "You may cry up their speeches if you please, but when I
have answered Sir John Barnard and
Lord Polwarth, I think I have concluded the debate."]

(416) Glover, a merchant, author of "Leonidas," a poem,
"Boadicea," a tragedy, etc.
[Glover's talent for public speaking, and information
concerning trade and Commerce,
naturally pointed him out to the merchants of London to
conduct their application to parliament on the neglect of
their trade.]

(417) Lord Vere, Lord Henry, and Lord Sidney Beauclerc, sons of
the Duchess Dowager of St. Albans, who is painted among the
beauties at Hampton Court.

(418) Lady Diana Vere, daughter, and at length sole heir, of
Aubrey de Vere, twentieth and last Earl of Oxford. She
married, in 1694, Charles, first Duke of St. Albans, natural son
of Charles II. by Nell Gwin. She died Jan. 15, 1742.

(419) Colonel James Cholmondeley, only brother of the Earl.
Afterwards distinguished himself at the battles of Fontenoy and
Falkirk, and died in 1775.-E.

(420) Charles Edwin, Admiral Vernon's unsuccessful colleague at
Westminster.-E.

(421) During the holidays, Sir R. W. had prevailed on the King to
send to the Prince of Wales, to offer to pay his debts and double
his allowance. This negotiation was intrusted to Lord
Cholmondeley on the King's, and to Secker, Bishop of Oxford, on
the Prince's side, but came to nothing, [The Prince, in his
answer, stated, that "he could not come to court while Sir Robert
Walpole presided in His Majesty's councils; that he looked on him
as the sole author of our grievances at home, and of our ill
success in the West Indies; and that the
disadvantageous figure we at present made in all the courts of
Europe was to be attributed alone to him."]

(422) Owen MacSwinny, a buffoon; formerly director of the
playhouse. [He had been a manager of Drury Lane Theatre, and was
the author of several dramatic pieces. He resided in
Italy for several years, and, on his return, was appointed keeper
of the King's Mews. He died in 1754, leaving his
fortune to the celebrated Mrs. Woffington.](

423) Afterwards the great Lord Chatham.-D.

(424) First minister in the early part of the reign of George
III.-D.

(425) Afterwards the first Lord Holland.-D.

(426) Sir Dudley Ryder.-D.

(427) Sir Robert Wilmot, in a letter to the Duke of
Devonshire, says:-,,Sir William Gordon was brought in like a
corpse. Some thought it had been an old woman in disguise,
having a white cloth round his head:
others,, who found him out, expected him to expire every moment.
Other incurables were introduced on their side. Mr. Hopton, for
Hereford, w, is carried in with crutches. Sir Robert Walpole
exceeded himself; Mr. Pelham, with the greatest decency, cut
Pultney into a thousand pieces. Sir Robert actually dissected
him, and laid his heart open to the view of the House."-E.