Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1

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If my Lady Walpole has a mind once in her life to speak truth,
or to foretell,-the latter of which has as seldom any thing to
do with truth as her ladyship has,-why she may now about the
Tesi's dog, for I shall certainly forget what it would be in
vain to remember. My dear Sir, how should one convey a dog to
Florence! There are no travelling Princes of Saxe Gotha or
Modena here at present, who would carry a little dog in a
nutshell. The poor Maltese cats, to the tune of how many!
never arrived here; and how should one little dog ever find
its way to Florence! But tell me, and, if it is possible, I
will send it. Was it to be a greyhound, or of King Charles's
breed? It was to have been the latter; but I think you told
me that she rather had a mind to the other sort, which, by the
way, I don't think I could get for her.

Thursday, eight o'clock at night.

I am just come from the House, and dined. Mr. Coke(877) moved
the address, seconded by Mr. Yorke, the lord chancellor's
son.(878) The Opposition divided 149 against 278; which gives
a better prospect of carrying on the winter easily. In the
lords' house there was no division. Mr. Pitt called Lord
Carteret the execrable author of our measures, and sole
minister.(879) Mr. Winnington replied, that he did not know
of any sole minister; but if my Lord Carteret was so, the
gentlemen of the other side had contributed more to make him
so than he had.

I am much pleased with the prospect you show me of the
Correggio. My lord is so satisfied with the Dominichin, that
he will go as far as a thousand pounds for the Correggio. Do
you really think we shall get it, and for that price?

You talk of the new couple, and of giving the sposa a
mantilla: What new couple! you don't say. I suppose, some
Suares, by the raffle. Adieu!

(874) Lord Carteret.

(875) Lord Carteret's, Mr. Pelham's, and Lord Orford's.

(876) The Hon. George Compton, second son of George, fourth
Earl of Northampton. He succeeded his elder brother James,
the fifth earl, in the family titles and estates in 1754, and
died in 1758.-D.

(877) The only son of Lord Lovel.-D.

(878) Philip Yorke, eldest son of Lord Hardwicke; and
afterwards the second earl of that title.-D.

(879) In Mr. Yorke's MS. parliamentary journal, the words are"an
execrable, a sole minister, who had renounced the British
nation, and seemed to have drunk of the potion described in
poetic fictions."-E.

352 Letter 125
To Sir Horace Mann.
Dec. 15, 1743.

I write in a great fright, lest this letter should come too
late. My lord has been told by a Dr. Bragge, a virtuoso,
that, some ye(irs ago, the monks asked ten thousand pounds for
our Correggio,(880) and that there were two copies then made
of it: that afterwards, he is persuaded, the King of Portugal
bought the original; he does not know at what price. Now, I
think it very possible that this doctor, hearing the picture
was to be come at, may have invented this Portuguese history;
but as there is a possibility, too, that it may be true, you
must take all imaginable precautions to be sure it is the very
original-a copy would do neither you nor me great honour.

We have entered upon the Hanoverian campaign. Last Wednesday,
Waller moved in our House an address to the King, to continue
them no longer in our pay than to Christmas-day, the term for
which they were granted. The debate lasted till half an hour
after eight at night. Two young officers (881) told some very
trifling stories against the Hanoverians, which did not at all
add any weight to the arguments of the Opposition; but we
divided 231 to 181. On Friday,' Lord Sandwich and Lord
Halifax, in good speeches, brought the same motion into the
Lords. I was there, and heard Lord Chesterfield make the
finest oration I ever did hear.(882) My father did not speak,
nor Lord Bath. They threw out the motion by 71 to 36. These
motions will determine the bringing on the demand for the
Hanoverians for another year in form; which was a doubtful
point, the old part of the ministry being against it, though
very contrary to my lord's advice.

Lord Gower, finding no more Tories were to be admitted,
resigned on Thursday; and Lord Cobham in the afternoon. The
privy-seal was the next day given to Lord Cholmondeley. Lord
Gower's resignation is one of the few points in which I am
content the prophecy in the old Jacobite ballad should be
fulfilled-"The King shall have his own again."

The changes are begun, but will not be completed till the
recess, as the preferments will occasion more re-elections
than they can spare just now in the House of Commons. Sandys
has resigned the exchequer to Mr. Pelham; Sir John Rushout is
to be treasurer of the navy; Winnington, paymaster; Harry Fox,
lord of the treasury: Lord Edgcumbe, I believe, lord of the
treasury,(883) and Sandys, cofferer and a peer. I am so
scandalized at this, that I will fill up my letter (having
told you all the news) with the first fruits of my
indignation.

VERSES ADDRESSED TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS
ON ITS RECEIVING A NEW PEER,

THou senseless Hall, whose injudicious space,
Like Death, confounds a various mismatched race,
Where kings and clowns, th' ambitious and the mean,
Compose th' inactive soporific scene,

Unfold thy doors!-and a promotion see
That must amaze even prostituted thee!
Shall not thy sons, incurious though they are,
Raise their dull lids, and meditate a stare?
Thy sons, who sleep in monumental state,
To show the spot where their great fathers sate.
Ambition first, and specious warlike worth,
Call'd our old peers and brave patricians forth;
And subject provinces produced to fame
Their lords with scarce a less than regal name.
Then blinded monarchs, flattery's fondled race,
Their favourite minions stamp'd with titled grace,
And bade the tools of power succeed to Virtue's place,
Hence Spensers, Gavestons, by crimes grown great,
Vaulted into degraded Honour's seat:
Hence dainty Villiers sits in high debate,
Where manly Beauchamps, Talbots, Cecils sate
Hence Wentworth,(884) perjured patriot, burst each tie,
Profaned each oath, and gave his life the lie:
Renounced whate'er he sacred held and dear,
Renounced his country's cause, and sank into a Peer.
Some have bought ermine, venal Honour's veil,
When set by bankrupt Majesty to sale
Or drew Nobility's coarse ductile thread
>From some distinguished harlot's titled bed.
Not thus ennobled Samuel!-no worth
from his mud the sluggish reptile forth;
No parts to flatter, and no grace to please,
With scarce an insect's impotence to tease,
He struts a Peer-though proved too dull to stay,
Whence (885) even poor Gybbons is not brush'd away.

Adieu! I am just going to Leicester House, where the Princess
sees company to-day and to-morrow, from seven to nine, on her
lying-in. I mention this per amor del Signor Marchese Cosimo
Riccardi.(886)

(880) One of the most celebrated pictures of Correggio, with
the Madonna and Child, saints, and angels, in a convent at
Parma.

(881) Captain Ross and Lord Charles Hay.-E.

(882) "Lord Chesterfield's performance," says Mr. Yorke, "was
much cried up; but few of his admirers could distinguish the
faults of his eloquence from its beauties." MS. Part.
Journal.-E.

(
883 This did not happen.

(884) Earl of Strafford; but it alludes to Lord Bath.

(885) The Treasury.

(886) A gossiping old Florentine nobleman, whose whole
employment was to inform himself of the state of marriages,
pregnancies, lyings-in, and such like histories.

354 Letter 126
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Dec. 26, 1743.

I shall complain of inflammations in my eyes till you
think it is an excuse for not writing; but your
brother is@My Witness that I have been shut up in a dark room
for this week. I got frequent colds, which fall upon my eyes;
and then I have bottles of sovereign eye- waters from all my
acquaintance; but as they are Only accidental colds, I never
use any thing but sage, which braces my eye-fibres again in a
few days. I have had two letters since my last to you; One
Complaining of my silence, and the other acknowledging one
from me after a week's intermission: indeed, I never have been
so long without writing to you - I do sometimes miss two weeks
on any great dearth of news, which is all I have to fill a
letter; for living as I do among people, whom, from your long
absence, you cannot know, should talk Hebrew to mention them
to you. Those, that from eminent birth, folly, or parts, are
to be found in the chronicles of the times, I tell you of,
whenever necessity or the King puts them into new lights. The
latter, for I cannot think the former had any hand in it, has
made
Sandys, as I told you, a lord and
cofferer! Lord Middlesex is one of the new treasury, not
ambassador as you heard. So the Opera-house and White's have
contributed a commissioner and a secretary to the
treasury,(887) as their quota to the
government. It is a period to make a figure in history.

There is a recess of both Houses for a fortnight; and we are
to meet again, with all the quotations and flowers that the
young orators can collect-,ind forcibly apply to the
Hanoverians; with all the malice which the disappointed Old
have hoarded against Carteret, and with all the impudence his
defenders can sell him - and when all that is
vented-what then?-why then, things will
just be where they were.

General Wade (888) is made field-marshal, and is to have
command of the army, as it is supposed, on the King's not
going abroad; but that is not declared . The French
preparations go on with much more vigour than ours; they not
having a House of Commons to combat all the winter; a campaign
that necessarily engages all the attention of ministers, who
have no great variety of apartments in their understandings.

I have paid your brother the bill I received from you, and
give you a thousand thanks for all the trouble you have had;
most particularly from the plague of hams,(889) from which you
have saved me. Heavens! how blank"I should have looked at
unpacking a great case of bacon and wine! My dear child, be
my friend, and preserve me from heroic presents. I cannot
possibly at this distance begin a new courtship of regalia;
for I suppose all those hams were to be converted into watches
and toys. Now it would suit Sir Paul Methuen very well, who
is a knight-errant at seventy-three, to carry on an amour
between a Mrs. Chenevix's(890) shop and a noble collar in
Florence; but alas! I am neither old enough nor young enough
to be gallant, and should ill become the writing of heroic
epistles to a fair mistress in Italy-no, no: "ne sono uscito
con onore, mi pare, e non
voglio riprendere quel impegno pi`u" You see how rustic I am
grown again!

I knew your new brother-in-law(891) at school, but have not
seen him since. But your sister was in love, and must
consequently be happy to have him. Yet I own, I cannot much
felicitate any body that marries for love. It is bad enough
to marry; but to marry where one loves, ten times worse.
it is so charming at first, that the decay of inclination
renders it infinitely more disagreeable afterwards. Your
sister has a thousand merits; but they don't count: but then
she has good sense enough to make her happy, if her merit cannot
make him so.

Adieu! I rejoice for your sake that Madame Royale' is
recovered, as I saw in the papers.

(887) John JefFries.

(888)General George Wade, afterwards commander of the forces
in Scotland. He died in 1748. A fine monument, by Roubillac,
was erected to his memory in Westminster
Abbey.-E.

(889) Madame Grifoni was going to send Mr. W. a Present of
hams and Florence wine.

(890) The proprietress of a celebrated toy-shop.-D.

(891) Mr. Foote.

(892) The Duchess of Lorrain, mother of the Great Duke: her
death would have occasioned a long mourning at Florence.
[Elizabeth of Orleans, only daughter of Philip, Duke of
Orleans
(Monsieur), by his second wife, the Princess Palatine.] -D.

To Sir Horace Mann.

Dear Sir,
I have been much desired by a very particular friend, to
recommend to you Sir William Maynard,(893) who is going to
Florence. You will oblige me extremely by any civilities you
show him while he stays there; in particular, by introducing
him to the Prince and Princess de Craon, Madame Suares, and
the rest of my acquaintance there, who, I dare say, will
continue their goodness to me, by receiving him with the same
politeness that they received me. I am, etc.

(893) Sir William Maynard, the fourth baronet of the family,
and a younger branch of the Lords Maynard. His son, Sir
Charles Maynard, became Viscount Maynard in 1775, upon the
death of his cousin Charles, the first viscount, who had been
so created, with special remainder to him.-D.

356 Letter 127
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Jan. 24, 1744.

Don't think me guilty of forgetting you a moment, though I
have missed two or three posts. If you knew the incessant
hurry and fatigue in which I live, and how few 'moments I have
to myself, you would not suspect Me. You know, I am naturally
indolent, and without application to any kind of business; yet
it is- impossible, in this country, to live in the world, and
be in parliament, and not find oneself every day more hooked
into politics and company, especially inhabiting a house that
is again become the centre of affairs. My lord becomes the
last resource, to which they are all forced to apply. One
part of the ministry, you may be sure, do; and for the other,
they affect to give themselves the honour of it too.

Last Thursday I would certainly have written to give you a
full answer to your letter of grief (894) but I was shut up in
the House till past ten at night; and the night before till
twelve. But I must speak to you in private first. I don't in
the least doubt but my Lady Walpole and Richcourt would
willingly be as mischievous as they are malicious, If they
could: but, my dear child, it is impossible. Don't fear from
Carteret's silence to you; he never writes: if that were a
symptom of disgrace, the Duke of' Newcastle would have been
out long ere this: and when the regency were not thought
worthy of his notice, you could not expect it. As to your
being attached to Lord Orford, that is your safety. Carteret
told him the other day, "My Lord, I appeal to the Duke of
Newcastle, if I did not tell the King, that it was you who had
carried the Hanover troops." That, too, disproves the
accusation of Sir Robert's being no friend to the Queen of
Hungary. That is now too stale and old. However, I will
speak to my lord and Mr. Pelham-would I had no more cause to
tremble for you, than from little cabals! But, my dear child,
when we hear every day of the 'Toulon fleet sailing, can I be
easy for you? or can I not foresee where that must break,
unless Matthews and the wonderful fortune of England can
interpose effectually? We are not without our own fears; the
Brest fleet of twenty-two sail is out at sea; they talk, for
Barbadoes. I believe we wish it may be thither destined?
Judge what I think; I cannot, nor may write: but I am in the
utmost anxiety for your situation.

The whole world, nay the Prince himself allows, that if Lord
Orford had not come to town, the Hanover troops had been
lost.(895) They were in effect given up by all but Carteret.
We carried our own army in Flanders by a majority of 112.(896)
Last Wednesday was the great day of expectation: we sat in the
committee on the Hanover troops till twelve at night: the
numbers were 271 to 226. The next day on the report we sat
again till past ten, the opposition having moved to adjourn
till Monday, on which we divided, 265 to 177. Then the Tories
all went away in a body, and the troops were voted.

We have still tough work to do: there are the estimates on The
extraordinaries of the campaign, and the treaty of Worms (897)
to come;--I know who (898) thinks this last more difficult to
fight than the Hanover troops. It is likely to turn out as
laborious a session as ever was. All the comfort is, all the
abuse don't lie at your door nor mine; Lord Carteret has the
full perquisites of the ministry. The other day, after Pitt
had called him "the Hanover troop-minister, a flagitious
taskmaster," and said, "that the sixteen thousand Hanoverians
were all the party he had, and were his placemen;" in short,
after he had exhausted invectives, he added, "But I have done:
if he were present, I would say ten times more."(899) Murray
shines as bright as ever he did at the bar; which he seems to
decline, to push his fortune in the House of Commons under Mr.
Pelham.

This is the present state of our politics, which is our
present state; for nothing else is thought of. We. fear the
King will again go abroad.

Lord Hartington has desired me to write to you for some
melon-seeds, which you will be so good to get the best, and
send to me for him.

I can't conclude without mentioning again the Toulon squadron:
we vapour and say, by this time Matthews has beaten them,
while I see them in the port of Leghorn!

My dear Mr. Chute, I trust to your friendship to comfort our
poor Miny: for my part, I am all apprehension! My dearest
child, if it turns out so, trust to my friendship for working
every engine to restore you to as good a situation as you will
lose, If my fears prove prophetic! The first peace would
reinstate you in your favourite Florence, whoever were
sovereign of it. I wish you may be able to smile at the
vanity of my fears, as I did at yours about Richcourt. Adieu!
adieu!

(894) Sir Horace Mann had written in great uneasiness, in
consequence of his having heard that Count Richcourt, the
Great Duke's minister; was using all his influence with the
English government, in conjunction with Lady Walpole, to have
Sir Horace removed from his situation at Florence.-D.

(895) "Lord Orford's personal credit with his friends was the
main reason that the question was so well disposed of: he
never laboured any point during his own administration with
more zeal, and at a dinner at Hanbury Williams's had a meeting
with such of the old court party as were thought most averse
to concurring in this measure; where he took great pains to
convince them of the necessity there was for repeating it."
Mr. P. Yorke's MS. Journal.-E.

(896) It appears from Mr. Philip Yorke's Parliamentary
Journal, that the letter-writer took a part in the
debate-"Young Mr. Walpole's speech," he says, "met with
deserved applause from every body: it was judicious and
elegant: he applied the verse which Lucan puts in Curia's
mouth to Caesar, to the King:-

"Livor edax tibi cuncta negat, Gallasque subactos,
Vix impune feres."-E.

(897) Between the King of England, the Queen of Hungary, and
the King of Sardinia, to whom were afterwards added Holland
and Saxony. It is sometimes called "the triple alliance."-D.

(898) Lord Orford.

(899) "Pitt as usual," says Mr. Yorke, in his MS.
Parliamentary Journal, ,fell foul of Lord Carteret, called him
a Hanover troop-minister; that they were his party, his
placemen; that he had conquered the cabinet by their means,
and after being very lavish of his abuse, wished he was in the
House, that he might give him more of it." Tu the uncommon
accuracy of Mr. Walpole's reports of the proceedings in
Parliament, the above-quoted Journal bears strong evidence.-E.

358 Letter 128
To Sir Horace Mann.
Feb. 9, 1744.

I have scarce time to write, or to know what I write. I live
in the House of Commons. We sat on Tuesday till ten at
night, on a Welsh election; and shall probably stay as long
to-day on the same.

I have received all your letters by the couriers and the post:
I am persuaded the Duke of Newcastle is much pleased with your
despatch; but I dare not enquire, for fear he should dislike
your having written the same to me.

I believe we should have heard more of the Brest squadron, if
their appearance off the Land's End on Friday was se'nnight,
steering towards Ireland, had occasioned greater
consternation. It is incredible how little impression it
made: the stocks hardly fell: though it was then generally
believed that the Pretender's son was on board. We expected
some invasion; but as they were probably disappointed on
finding no rising in their favour, it is now believed that
they are gone to the Mediterranean. They narrowly missed
taking the Jamaica fleet, which was gone out convoyed by two
men-of-war. The French pursued them, outsailed them, and
missed them by their own inexpertness. Sir John Norris is at
Portsmouth, ready to sail with nineteen
men-of-war, and is to be
joined by two more from Plymouth. We
hope to hear that Matthews has
beat the Toulon squadron before they can be joined by the
Brest. This is the state of our situation. "le have stopped
the embarkation of the six thousand men for Flanders; and I
hope the King's journey thither, The Opposition fight every
measure of supply, but very
unsuccessfully. When this Welsh election is over, they will
probably go out of town, and leave the rest of the session at
ease.

I think you have nothing to apprehend from the new mine that
is preparing against you. My lord is convinced it is an idle
attempt and it will always be in his power to prevent any such
thing from taking effect. I am very unhappy for Mr. Chute's
gout, or for any thing that disturbs the peace of people I
love so much, and that I have such vast reason to love. You
know my fears for you: pray Heaven they end well!

It is universally believed that the Pretender's son, who is at
Paris, will make the campaign in one of their armies. I
suppose this will soon produce a declaration of war; and then
France, perhaps, will not find her account in having brought
him as near to England as ever he is like to be. Adieu! My
Lord is hurrying me down to the House. I must go!

359 Letter 129
To Sir Horace Mann.
House of Commons, Feb. 16, 1744.

We are come nearer to a crisis than indeed I expected! After
the various reports about the Brest squadron, it has proved
that they are sixteen ships of the line off Torbay; in all
probability to draw our fleet from Dunkirk, where they have
two men-of-war and sixteen large Indiamen to transport eight
thousand foot and two thousand horse, which are there in the
town. There has been some difficulty to persuade people of
the imminence of our danger - but yesterday the King sent a
message to both Houses to acquaint us that he has certain
information of the young Pretender being in France, and of the
designed invasion from thence, in concert with the disaffected
here.(900) Immediately the Duke of Marlborough, who most
handsomely and seasonably was come to town on purpose, moved
for an Address to assure the King of standing by him with
lives and fortunes. Lord Hartington, seconded by Sir Charles
Windham,(901) the convert son of Sir William, moved the same
in our House. To our amazement, and little sure to their own
honour, Waller and Doddington, supported in the most indecent
manner by Pitt, moved to add, that we would immediately
inquire into the state of the navy, the causes of our danger
by negligence, and the sailing of the Brest fleet. They
insisted on this amendment, and debated it till seven at
night, not one (professed) Jacobite speaking. The division
was 287 against 123. In the Lords, Chesterfield moved the
same amendment, seconded by old dull Westmoreland; but they
did not divide.

All the troops have been sent for in the greatest haste to
London but we shall not have above eight thousand men together
at most. An express is gone to Holland, and General Wentworth
followed it last night, to demand six thousand men, who will
probably be here by the end of next week. Lord Stair (902)
has offered the King his service, and is to-day named
commander-in-chief. This is very generous, and will be of
great use. He is extremely beloved in the -army, and most
firm to this family.

I cannot say our situation is the most agreeable; we know not
whether Norris is gone after the Brest fleet or not. We have
three ships in the Downs, but they cannot prevent a landing,
which will probably be in Essex or Suffolk. Don't be
surprised if you hear that this crown is fought for on land.
As yet there is no rising; but we must expect it on the first
descent.

Don't be uneasy for me, when the whole is at stake. I don't
feel as if my friends would have any reason to be concerned
for me: my warmth will carry me as far as any man; and I think
I can bear as I should the worst that can happen; though the
delays of the French, I don't know from what cause, have not
made that likely to happen.

The King keeps his bed with the rheumatism. He is not less
obliged to Lord Orford for the defence of his crown, now he is
out of place, than when he was in the administration. His
zeal, his courage, his attention, are indefatigable and
inconceivable. He regards his own life no more than when it
was most his duty to expose it, and fears for every thing but
that.