Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1

H >> Horace Walpole >> The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67

We every minute expect news of the Mediterranean engagement
for, besides your account, Birtles has written the same from
Genoa. We expect good news, too, from Prince Charles, who is
driving the King of Prussia before him. In the mean time, his
wife the Archduchess is dead, which may be a signal loss to
him.

I forgot to tell you that, on Friday, Lord Charles Hay,(989)
who has more of the parts of an Irishman than of a Scot, told
my Lady Granville at the drawing-room, on her seeing so full a
court, "that people were come out of curiosity." The
Speaker,(990) is the happiest of any man in these bustles: he
says, "this Parliament has torn two favourite ministers from
the throne." His conclusion is, that the power of the
Parliament will in the end be so great, that nobody can be
minister but their own speaker.

Winnington says my Lord Chesterfield and Pitt will have places
before old Marlborough's legacy to them for being patriots is
paid. My compliments to the family of Suares on the
Vittorina's marriage. Adieu!

(986) By the death of his mother, Lord Carteret had become
Earl Granville.-E.

(987) George, Earl Cholmondeley.

(988) Bishop of Lincoln [successively translated to Salisbury
and Winchester. He died in 1781.]

(989) Brother of Lord Tweedale.

(990) Arthur Onslow.

397 Letter 153
To sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Dec. '24, 1744.

You will wonder what has become of me: nothing has. I know it
is above three weeks since I wrote to you; but I will tell you
the reason. I have kept a parliamentary silence, which I must
'explain to you. Ever since Lord Granville went out, all has
been in suspense. The leaders of the Opposition immediately
imposed silence upon their party; every thing passed without
the least debate--in short, all were making their bargains.
One has heard of the corruption of courtiers; but believe me,
the impudent prostitution of patriots, going to market with
their honesty, beats it to nothing. Do but think of two
hundred men of the most consummate virtue, setting themselves
to sale for three weeks! I have been reprimanded by the wise
for saying that they all stood like servants at a country
statute fair to be hired. All this while nothing was certain:
one day the coalition was settled; the next, the treaty broke
off-I hated to write to you what I might contradict next post.
Besides, in my last letter I remember telling you that the
Archduchess was dead; she did not die till a fortnight
afterwards.

The result of the whole is this: the King, instigated by Lord
Granville, has used all his ministry as ill as possible, and
has with the greatest difficulty been brought to consent to
the necessary changes. Mr. Pelham has had as much difficulty
to regulate the disposition of places. Numbers of lists of
the hungry have been given in by their centurions of those,
several Tories have refused to accept the proffered posts
some, from an impossibility of being rechosen for their
Jacobite counties. But upon the whole, it appears that their
leaders have had very little influence with them; for not
above four or five are come into place. The rest will stick
to Opposition. Here is a list of the changes, as made last
Saturday:

Duke of Devonshire, Lord Steward, in the room of the Duke of
Dorset.
Duke of Dorset, Lord President, in Lord Harrington's room.
Lord Chesterfield,+ Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in the Duke of
Devonshire's.
Duke of Bedford,+ Lord Sandwich,+ George Grenville,+ Lord Vere
Beauclerc,(991) and Admiral Anson, Lords of the Admiralty, in
the room of Lord Winchilsea,* Dr. Lee,* Cockburn,* Sir Charles
Hardy,* and Philipson.*
Mr. Arundel and George Lyttelton,f Lords of the Treasury, in
the room of Compton* and Gybbon.*
Lord Gowerf again Privy Seal, in Lord Cholmondeley's* room,
who is made Vice-Treasurer of Ireland in Harry Vane's.*
Mr. Doddington,+ Treasurer of the Navy, in Sir John
Rushout's.*
Mr. Waller,+ Cofferer, in Lord Sandys'.*
Lord Hobart, Captain of the Pensioners, in Lord Bathurst's.*
Sir John Cotton, +(992) Treasurer of the Chambers, in Lord
Hobart'S.(993)
Mr. Keene, Paymaster of the Pensions, in Mr. Hooper's.*
Sir John Philippsf and John Pitt+ Commissioners of Trade, in
Mr. Keene's and Sir Charles Gilmour's.*
William Chetwynd,+ Master of the Mint, in Mr. Arundel's.
Lord Halifax,+ Master of the Buck-hounds, in Mr. Jennison's,
who has a pension.

All those with a cross are from the Opposition; those with a
star, the turned-out, and are of the Granville and Bath
squadron, except Lord Cholmondeley, (who, too, had connected
with the former,) and Mr. Philipson. The King parted with
great regret with Lord Cholmondeley, and complains loudly of
the force put upon him. The Prince, who is full as warm as
his father for Lord Granville, has already turned out
Lyttelton, who was his secretary, and Lord Halifax; and has
named Mr. Drax and Lord Inchiquin(994) in their places. You
perceive the great Mr. William Pitt is not in the list, though
he comes thoroughly into the measures. To preserve his
character and authority in the Parliament, he was unwilling to
accept any thing yet: the ministry very rightly insisted that
he should; he asked for secretary at war, knowing it would be
refused-and it was.(995)

By this short sketch, and it is impossible to be more
explanatory, you will perceive that all is confusion: all
parties broken to Pieces, and the whole Opposition by tens and
by twenties selling themselves for profit-power they get none!
It is not easy to say where power resides at present: it is
plain that it resides not in the King; and yet he has enough
to hinder any body else from having it. His new governors
have no interest with him-scarce any converse with him.

The Pretender's son is owned in France as Prince of Wales; the
princes of the blood have been to visit him in form. The
Duchess of Chateauroux is poisoned there; so their monarch is
as ill-used as our most gracious King!(996) How go your
Tuscan affairs? I am always trembling for you, though I am
laughing at every thing else. My father is pretty well: he is
taking a preparation of Mr. Stephens's(997) medicine; but I
think all his physicians begin to agree that he has no large
stone.

Adieu! my dear child: I think the present comedy cannot be of
long duration. the Parliament is adjourned for the holidays;
I am impatient to see the first division.

(991) Lord Vere Beauclerc, third son of the first Duke of St.
Albans, afterwards created Lord Vere, of Hanworth. He entered
early into a maritime life, and distinguished himself in
several commands, He died in 1781.-E.

(992) The King was much displeased that an adherent of the
exiled family should be forced into the service of his own. in
consequence of this appointment a caricature was circulated,
representing the ministers thrusting Sir John, who was
extremely corpulent, down the King's throat.

(993) John, first Lord Hobart, so created in 1728, by the
interest of his sister, Lady Suffolk, the mistress of George
the Second. In 1746 he was created Earl of Buckinghamshire;
and died in 1756.-D.

(994) William O'Brien, fourth Earl of Inchiquin, in Ireland.
He died in 1777.-E.

(995) Pitt alone was placeless. He loftily declared, that he
would accept no office except that of secretary at war, and
the ministers were not yet able to dispense with Sir William
Yonge in that department. This resolution of Pitt, joined to
the King's pertinacity against him, excluded him, for the
present, from any share in power."-Lord Mahon, vol. iii. p.
315.

(996) The Duchess died on the 8th of December. The Biog.
Univ. says, that the rumour of her having been poisoned was
altogether without foundation.-E.

(997) It was Dr. Jurin's preparation.

399 Letter 154
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Jan. 4, 1745.

When I receive your long letters I am ashamed: mine are notes
in comparison. How do you contrive to roll out your patience
into two sheets? You certainly don't love me better than I do
you; and yet if our loves were to b@ sold by the quire, you
would have by far the more magnificent stock to dispose of. I
can only say that age has already an effect on the vigour of
my pen; none on yours: it is not, I assure you, for you alone,
but my ink is at low water-mark for all my acquaintance. My
present shame arises from a letter of eight sides, of December
8th, which I received from you last post; but before I say a
word to that, I must tell you that I have at last received the
cases; three with gesse figures, and one with Lord Conway's
gun- barrels: I thought there were to be four, besides the
guns; but I quite forget, and did not even remember what they
were to contain. Am not I in your debt again? Tell me, for
you know how careless I am. Look over your list, and see
whether I have received all. There were four barrels, the
Ganymede, the Sleeping Cupid, the model of my statue, the
Musaeum Florentinum, and some seeds for your brother. But
alas! though I received them in gross, I did not at all in
detail; the model was broken into ten thousand bits, and the
Ganymede shorn in two: besides some of the fingers quite
reduced to powder. Rysbrach has undertaken to mend him. The
little Morpheus arrived quite whole, and is charmingly pretty;
I like it better in plaster than in the original black marble.

It is not being an upright senator to promise one's vote
beforehand, especially in a money matter; but I believe so
many excellent patriots have just done the same thing, that I
shall venture readily to engage my promise to you, to get you
any sum for the defence of Tuscany -why it is to defend you
and my own country! my own palace in via di santo
spirits,(998) my own Princess `epuis`ee, and all my family! I
shall quite make interest for you: nay, I would speak to our
new ally, and your old acquaintance, Lord Sandwich, to assist
in it; but I could have no hope of getting at his ear, for he
has put on such a first-rate tie-wig, on his admission to the
admiralty board, that nothing without the lungs of a boatswain
can ever think to penetrate the thickness of the curls. I
think, however, it does honour to the dignity of ministers:
when he was but a patriot, his wig was not of half its present
gravity. There are no more changes made: all is quiet yet;
but next Thursday the Parliament meets to decide the
complexion of the session. My Lord Chesterfield goes next
week to Holland, and then returns for Ireland.

The great present disturbance in politics is my Lady
Granville's assembly; which I do assure you distresses the
Pelhams infinitely more than a mysterious meeting of the
States would, and far more than the abrupt breaking up of the
Diet at Grodno. She had begun to keep Tuesdays before her
lord resigned, which now she continues with greater zeal. Her
house is very fine, she very handsome, her lord very agreeable
and extraordinary; and yet the Duke of Newcastle wonders that
people will go thither. He mentioned to my father my going
there, who laughed at him; Cato's a proper person to trust
with such a childish jealousy! Harry Fox says, "Let the Duke
of Newcastle open his own house, and see if all that come
thither are his friends." The fashion now is to send cards to
the women, and to declare that all men Are welcome without
being asked. This is a piece of ease that shocks the prudes
of the last age. You can't imagine how my Lady Granville
shines in doing favours; you know she is made for it. My lord
has new furnished his mother's apartment for her, and has
given her a magnificent set of dressing plate: he is very fond
of her, and she as fond of his being so.

You will have heard of Marshal Belleisle's being made a
prisoner at Hanover: the world will believe it was not by
accident. He is sent for over hither: the first thought was
to confine him to the Tower, but that is contrary to the
politesse of modern war: they talk of sending him to
Nottingham, where Tallard was. I am sure, if he is prisoner
at large anywhere, we could not have a worse inmate! so
ambitious and intriguing a man, who was author of this whole
war, will be no bad general to be ready to head the Jacobites
on any insurrection.(999)

I can say nothing more about young Gardiner, but that I don't
think my father at all inclined now to have any letter written
for him. Adieu!

(998) The street in Florence where Mr. Mann lived.
(999) Belleisle and his brother, who had been sent by the King

of France on a mission to the King of Prussia, were detained,
while changing horses, at Elbengerode, and from thence
conveyed to England; where, refusing to give their parole in
the mode it was required, they were confined in Windsor
Castle.

400 Letter 155
To sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Jan. 14, 1745.

I have given my uncle the letter from M. de Magnan; he had
just received another from him at Venice, to desire his
recommendation to you. His history is, first,-the Regent
picked him up, (I don't know from whence, but he is of the
Greek church,) to teach the present Duke of Orleans the Russ
tongue, when they had a scheme for marrying him into Muscovy.
At Paris, Lord Waldegrave(1000) met with him, and sent him
over hither, where they pensioned him and he was to be a spy,
but made nothing out; till the King was weary of giving him
money, and then they despatched him to Vienna, with a
recommendation to Count d'Uhlefeldt, who, I suppose, has
tacked him upon the Great Duke. My uncle says, he knows no
ill of him; that you may be civil to him, but not enter into
correspondence with him, you need not; he is of no use.
Apropos to you; I have been in a fright about you; we were
told that Prince Lobkowitz was landed at Harwich; I did not
like the name; and as he has been troublesome to you, I did
not know but he might fancy he had some complaints against
you. I wondered you had never mentioned his being set out;
but it is his son, a travelling boy of twenty; he is sent
under the care of an apothecary and surgeon.

The Parliament is met: one hears of the Tory Opposition
continuing, but nothing has appeared; all is quiet. Lord
Chesterfield is set out for the Hague - I don't know what ear
the States will lend to his embassy, when they hear with what
difficulty the King was brought to give him a parting
audience; and which, by a watch, did not last five-and-forty
seconds. The Granville faction are still the constant and
only countenanced people at court. Lord Winchilsea, one of
the disgraced, played at court On Twelfth-night, and won: the
King asked him the next morning, how much he had for his own
share?(1001) He replied, "Sir, about a quarter's salary." I
liked the spirit, and was talking to him Of it the next night
at Lord Granville's: "Why, yes," said he, "I think it showed
familiarity at least: tell it your father--I don't think he
will dislike it." My Lady Granville gives a ball this week,
but in a manner a private one, to the two families of Carteret
and Fermor and their intimacies: there is a fourth sister,
Lady Jullana,(1002) who is very handsome, but I think not so
well as Sophia: the latter thinks herself breeding.

I will tell you a very good thing: Lord Baltimore will not
come into the admiralty, because in the new commission they
give Lord Vere Beauclerc the precedence to him, and he has
dispersed printed papers with precedents in his favour. A
gentleman, I don't know who, the other night at Tom's
coffee-house, said, "It put him in mind of Ponkethman's
petition in the Spectator, where he complains, that formerly
he used to act second chair in Dioclesian, but now was reduced
to dance fifth flowerpot."

The Duke of Montagu has found out an old penny-history-book,
called the Old Woman's Will of Ratcliffe-Highway, which he has
bound up with his mother-in-law's, Old Marlborough,(1003)
only-tearing away the title-page of the latter.

My father has been extremely ill this week with his disorder--
I think the physicians are more and more persuaded that it is
the stone in his bladder. He is taking a preparation of Mrs.
Stevens's medicine, a receipt of one Dr. Jurin, which we began
to fear was too violent for him: I made his doctor angry with
me, by arguing on this medicine, which I never could
comprehend. it is of so great violence, that it Is to split a
stone when it arrives at it, and yet it is to do no damage to
all the tender intestines through which it must first
pass.(1004) I told him, I thought it was like an admiral
going on a secret expedition of war, with instructions, which
are not to be opened till he arrives in such a latitude.

George Townshend,(1005) my lord's eldest son, who is at the
Hague on his travels, has had an offer to raise a regiment for
their service, of which he is to be colonel, with power of
naming all his own officers. It was proposed, that it should
consist of Irish Roman Catholics, but the regency of Ireland
have represented against that, because they think they will
all desert to the French. He is now to try it of Scotch, which
will scarce succeed, unless he will let all the officers be of
the same nation. An affair of this kind first raised the late
Duke of Argyll; and was the cause of the first quarrel with
the Duke of Marlborough, who was against his coming into our
army in the same rank.

Sir Thomas Hanmer has at last published his Shakspeare: he has
made several alterations, but they will be the less talked of,
as he has not marked in the text, margin, or notes, where or
why he has made any change; but every body must be obliged to
collate it with other editions. One most curiously absurd
alteration I have been told. In Othello, it is said of
Cassio, "a Florentine, one almost damned in a fair wife." It
happens that there is no other mention in the play of Cassio's
wife. Sir Thomas has altered it-how do you think?-no, I
should be sorry if you could think how-"almost damned in a
fair phiz!"-what a tragic word! and what sense!

Adieu! I see advertised a translation of Dr. Cocchi's book on
living on vegetables:(1006) Does he know any thing of it? My
service to him and every body.

(1000) James, first Earl of Waldegrave, ambassador at Paris,
K. G. He died in 1741.-D.

(1001) Those who play at court on Twelfth-night, make a bank
with several people.

(1002) Lady Juliana Fermor, married in 1751 to Thomas Penn,
Esq. (son of William Penn, the great legislator of the
Quakers) one of the proprietors of Pennsylvania. He died in
1775, and Lady Juliana in 1781.-E.

(1003) The Duchess of Marlborough's will was published in a
thin octavo volume.-D.

(1004) Mrs. Stephens's remedy for the stone made for some
time, the greatest noise, and met both with medical
approbation and national reward. In 1742, Dr. James Parsons
published a pamphlet on the subject, which Dr. Mead describes
as @' a very useful book; in which both the mischiefs done by
the medicine, and the artifices employed to bring it into
vogue are set in a clear light."--E.

(1005) Afterwards first Marquis Townshend, Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, Master General of the Ordnance. etc.

(1006) The Doctor's treatise "Di Vitto Pythagorico," appeared
this year in England, under the title of "The Pythagorean
Diet; or Vegetables only conducive to the Preservation of
Health and the Cure of Diseases."-E.

402 letter 156
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Feb. 1, 1745.

I am glad my letters, obscure as they of course must be, give
you any light into England; but don't mind them too much; they
may be partial; must be imperfect: don't negotiate upon their
authority, but have Capello's(1007) example before your eyes!
How I laugh when I see him important, and see my Lady
Pomfret's letters at the bottom of his instructions! how it
would make a philosopher smile at the vanity of politics! How
it diverts me, who can entertain myself at the expense of
philosophy, politics, or any thing else! Mr. Conway says I
laugh at all serious characters-so I do-and at myself too, who
am far from being of the number. Who would not laugh at a
world, where so ridiculous a creature as the Duke of Newcastle
can overturn ministries! Don't take me for a partisan of Lord
Granville's because I despise his rivals; I am not for
adopting his measures; they were wild and dangerous -. in his
single capacity, I think him a great genius(1008) and without
having recourse to the Countess's translatable periods, am
pleased with his company. His frankness charms one when it is
not necessary to depend upon it: and his contempt for fools is
very flattering to any one who happens to know the present
ministry. Their coalition goes on as One should expect; they
have the name of having effected it; and the Opposition is no
longer mentioned: yet there is not a half-witted prater in the
House but can divide with every new minister on his side,
except Lyttelton, whenever he pleases. They actually do every
day bring in popular bills, and on the first tinkling of the
brass, all the new bees swarm back to the Tory side of the
House. The other day, on the Flanders army, Mr. Pitt came
down to prevent this: he was very ill, but made a very strong
and much admired speech for coalition,(1009) which for that
day succeeded, and the army was voted with but one negative,.
But now the Emperor (1010) is dead, and every thing must wear
a new face. If it produces a peace, Mr. Pelham is a fortunate
man! He will do extremely well at the beginning of peace,
like the man in Madame de la Fayette's Memoirs, Qui exer`coit
extr`emement bien sa charge, quand il n'avoit rien `a faire."
However, do you keep well with them, and be sure don't write
me back any treason, in answer to all I write to you: you are
to please them; I think of them -is they are.

The new Elector(1011) seems to set out well for us, though
there are accounts of his having taken the style of Archduke,
as claiming the Austrian succession: if he has, it will be
like the children's game of beat knaves out of doors, where
you play the pack twenty times over; one gets pam, the other
gets pam, but there is no conclusion to the game till one side
has never a card left.

After my ill success with the baronet,(1012) to whom I gave a
letter for
you. I shall always be very cautious how I recommend
barbarians to your protection. I have this morning been
solicited for some credentials for a Mr. Oxenden.(1013) I
could not help laughing: he is a son of Sir George, my Lady
W.'s famous lover! Can he want recommendations to Florence?
However, I must give him a letter; but beg you will not give
yourself any particular trouble about him, for I
do not know him enough to bow to. His person is good: that
and his name, I suppose, will bespeak my lady's attentions,
and save you the fatigue of doing him many honours.

Thank Mr. Chute for his letter; I will answer it very soon. I
delight in the article of the Mantua Gazette. Adieu!

(1007) The Venetian ambassador.

(1008) Swift, in speaking of Lord Granville, says, that "he
carried away from college more Greek, Latin, and philosophy
than properly became a person of his rank;" and Walpole, in
his Memoires, describes him as "an extensive scholar, master
of all classic criticism, and of all modern politics."-E.

(1009) "Mr. Pitt, who had been laid up with the gout, came
down with the mien and apparatus of an invalid, on purpose to
make a full declaration of his sentiments on our present
circumstances. What he said was enforced with much grace both
of action and elocution. He commended the ministry for
pursuing moderate and healing measures, and such -,is tended
to set the King at the head of all his people." See Mr.- P.
Yorke's MS. Parliamentary Journal.-E.

(1010) Charles Vii. Elector of Bavaria.

(1011) Maximilian Joseph. He died in 1777.-E.

(1012) Sir William Maynard. (He married the daughter of Sir
Cecil Bisshopp, and died in 1772.]

(1013) Afterwards Sir Henry Oxenden, the sixth baronet of the
family, and eldest son of Sir George Oxenden, for many years a
lord of the treasury during the reign of George the Second.
He died in 1803.-E.

404 Letter 157
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Feb. 28, 1745.

You have heard from your brother the reason of my not having
written to you so long. I have been out but twice since my
father fell into this illness, which is now near a month; and
all that time either continually in his room, or obliged to
see multitudes of people; for it is most wonderful how every
body of all kinds has affected to express their concern for
him. He has been out of danger above this week; but I can't
say he mended at all perceptibly, till these last three days.
His spirits are amazing, and his constitution more; for Dr.
Hulse, said honestly from the first, that if he recovered, it
would be from his own strength, not from their art. After the
four or five first days, in which they gave him the bark, they
resigned him to the struggles of his own good temperament-and
it has surmounted! surmounted an explosion and discharge of
thirty-two pieces of stone, a constant and vast effusion of
blood for five days, a fever of three weeks, a perpetual flux
of water, and sixty-nine years, already (one should think)
worn down with his vast fatigues! How much more he will ever
recover, one scarce dare hope about: for us, he is greatly
recovered; for himself-