Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

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As England grows turbulent again, Ireland grows calm again.
Mr. Conway, who has gone thither secretary to Lord Hartington,
has with great prudence and skill pacified that kingdom: you
may imagine that I am not a little happy at his acquiring
renown. The Primate is to be the peace-offering.

If there were any private news, as there are none, I could not
possibly to-day step out of my high historical pantoufles to
tell it you. Adieu! You know I don't dislike to see the Kings
and queens and Knaves of this world shuffled backwards and
forwards; consequently I look on, very well amused, and very
indifferent whatever is trumps!

(614) Alluding to the King's love of money.

(615 The daughters of Louis the Fifteenth.-D.

(616) The following is from Dodington's Diary:-"Sept. 3. Mr.
Pitt told me, that he had painted to the Duke of Newcastle all
the ill Consequences of this system of subsidies in the
strongest light that his imagination could furnish him with:
he had deprecated his Grace not to complete the ruin which the
King had nearly brought upon himself by his journey to
Hanover, which all people should have prevented, even with
their bodies. A King abroad, at this time, without one man
about him that has one English sentiment, and to bring home a
whole set of subsidies! That he was willing to promote the
King's service; but if this was what he was sent for to
promote, few words were best--nothing in the world should
induce him to consent to these subsidies."-E.

(617) " Fox must again be treated with; for the session of
Parliament approached, and it was become a general maxim, that
the House of Commons had been so much accustomed to have a
minister of its own, they would not any longer be governed by
deputy. Fox insisted on being made secretary of state, much
against the King's inclination, as well as the Duke of
Newcastle's: for though his Majesty preferred Fox to Pitt, he
liked Sir Thomas Robinson better than either of them; for Sir
Thomas did -is he was directed, understood foreign affairs,
and pretended to nothing further. However, Fox carried his
point." Waldegrave's Memoirs, p. 51.-E.

279 Letter 151
To John Chute, Esq.(618)
Arlington Street, Sept. 29, 1755.

I should not answer your letter so soon, as you write so
often, if I had not something particular to tell you. Mr. Fox
is to be secretary of state. The history of this event, in
short, is this: George Elector of Hanover, and Thomas King of
England, have been exceedingly alarmed. By some
misapprehension, the Russian and Hessian treaties, the
greatest blessings that were ever calculated for this country,
have been totally, and almost universally disapproved. Mr.
Legge grew conscientious about them; the Speaker,
constitutional; Mr. Pitt, patriot; Sir George Lee. scrupulous;
Lord Egmont, uncertain; the Duke of Devonshire, something that
he meant for some of these; and my uncle, I suppose, frugal--
how you know. Let a Parliament be ever so ready to vote for
any thing, yet if every body in both Houses is against a
thing, why the Parliament itself can't carry a point against
both Houses. This made such a dilemma, that, after trying
every body else, and being ready to fling up themselves, King
Thomas and his Chancellor offered Mr. Fox the honour of
defending and saving them. He, who is all Christian charity,
and forgiving every body but himself and those who dissuaded
him, for not taking the seals before, consented to undertake
the cause of the treaties, and is to have the management of
the House Of Commons as long as he can keep it. In the mean
time, to give his new friends all the assistance he can, he is
endeavouring to bring the Bedfords to court; and if any other
person in the world hates King Thomas, why Mr. Fox is very
willing to bring them to court too. In the mean time, Mr.
Pitt is scouring his old Hanoverian trumpet and Mr. Legge is
to accompany him with his hurdy-gurdy.

Mr. Mann did not tell me a word of his intending you a visit.
The reason the Dacres have not been with you is, they have
been at court; and as at present there are as many royal hands
to kiss as a Japanese idol has, it takes some time to slobber
through the whole ceremony.

I have some thoughts of going to Bath for a week; though I
don't know whether my love for my country, while my country is
in a quandary, may not detain me hereabouts. When Mr. Muntz
has done, you will be so good as to pacquet him up, and send
him to Strawberry. I rather wish you would bring him
yourself; I am impatient for the drawing you announce to me.
A commission has passed the seals, I mean of' secrecy, (for I
don't know whether they must not be stole,) to get you some
swans; and as in this age one ought not to despair of any
thing where robbery is concerned, I have some hopes of
succeeding. If you should want any French ships for your
water, there are great numbers to be had cheap, and small
enough. Adieu!

618) Now first printed.

280 Letter 152
To Richard Bentley, Esq.
Arlington Street, Sept. 30, 1755.

Solomon says somewhere or other, I think it is in
Castelnuovo's edition--is not there such a one?--that the
infatuation of a nation for a foolish minister is like that of
a lover for an ugly woman: when once he opens his eyes, he
wonders what the devil bewitched him. This is the text to the
present sermon in politics, which I shall not divide under
three heads, but tell you at once, that no minister was ever
nearer the precipice than ours has been. I did tell you, I
believe, that Legge had refused to sign the warrant for the
Hessian subsidy: in short, he heartily resented the quick
coldness that followed his exaltation, waited for an
opportunity of revenge, found this; and, to be sure, no
vengeance ever took speedier strides. All the world revolted
against subsidiary treaties; nobody was left to defend them
but Murray, and he did not care to venture. Offers of
graciousness, of cabinet councillor, or chancellor of the
exchequer, were made to right and left. Dr. Lee was
conscientious; Mr. Pitt might be brought, in compliment to his
Majesty, to digest one--but a system of subsidies--impossible!
In short, the very first ministership was offered to be made
over to my Lord Granville. He begged to be excused--he was not
fit for it. Well, you laugh--all this is fact. At last we
were forced to strike sail to Mr. Fox he is named for
secretary of state, with not only the lead, but the power of
the House of Commons. You ask, in the room of which
secretary? What signifies of which? Why, I think, of Sir
Thomas Robinson, who returns to his wardrobe; and Lord
Barrington comes into the war-office. This is the present
state of things in this grave reasonable island: the union hug
like two cats over a string; the rest are arming for
opposition. But I Will not promise you any more warlike
winters; I remember how soon the campaign of the list was
addled.

In Ireland, Mr. Conway has pacified all things: the Irish are
to get as drunk as ever to the glorious and immortal memory of
King George, and the prerogative is to be exalted as high as
ever, by being obliged to give up the Primate. There! I think
I have told you volumes: yet I know you will not be content,
you will want to know something of the war, and of America;
but, I assure you, it is not the bon-ton to talk of either
this week. We think not of the former, and of the latter we
should think to very little purpose '. for we have not heard a
syllable more; Braddock's defeat still remains in the
situation of the longest battle that ever was fought with
nobody. Content your English spirit with knowing that there
are very near three thousand French prisoners in England,
taken out of several ships.

281 Letter 153
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Oct. 7, 1755.

My dear sir,
Nobody living feels more for you than I do: nobody knows
better either the goodness and tenderness of your heart, or
the real value of the person you have lost.' I cannot flatter
myself that any thing I could say would comfort you under an
affliction so well founded; but I should have set out, and
endeavoured to share your concern, if Mrs. Trevor had not told
me that you were going into Cheshire. I will only say, that
if you think change of place can contribute at all to divert
your melancholy, you know where you would be most welcome; and
whenever you will come to Strawberry Hill, you will, at least,
if you do not find a comforter, find a most sincere friend
that pities your distress, and would do any thing upon earth
to alleviate your misfortune. If you can listen yet to any
advice, let me recommend to you to give up all thoughts of
Greatworth; you will never be able to support life there any
more: let me look out for some little box for you in my
neighbourhood. You can live nowhere where you will be more
beloved; and you will there always have it in your power to
enjoy company Or solitude, as you like. I have long wished to
get you so far back into the world, and now it is become
absolutely necessary for your health and peace. I will say no
more, lest too long a letter should be either troublesome or
make you think it necessary to answer; but do not, till you
find it more agreeable to vent your grief this way than in any
other. I am, my good Sir, with hearty concern and affection,
yours most sincerely.

(619) His sister, Miss Harriet Montagu.

281 Letter 154
To Richard Bentley, Esq.
Arlington Street, Oct. 19, 1755.

Do you love royal quarrels? You may be served-I know you
don't love an invasion-nay, that even passes my taste; it will
make too much party. In short, the lady dowager Prudence
begins to step a little over the threshold of that discretion
which she has always hitherto so sanctimoniously observed.
She is suspected of strange whims; so strange, as neither to
like more German subsidies or more German matches. A strong
faction, professedly against the treaties,(620) openly against
Mr. Fox, and covertly under the banners of the aforesaid lady
Prudence, arm from all quarters against the opening of the
session. Her ladyship's eldest boy declares violently against
being bewulfenbuttled,(621) a word which I don't pretend to
understand, as it is not in Mr. Johnson's new dictionary.
There! now I have been as enigmatic as ever I have accused you
of being; and hoping you will not be able to expound my German
hieroglyphics, I proceed to tell you in plain English that we
are going to be invaded. I have within this day or two seen
grandees of ten, twenty, and thirty thousand pounds a-year,
who are in a mortal fright; consequently, it would be
impertinent in much less folk to tremble, and accordingly they
don't. At court there is no doubt but an attempt will be made
before Christmas. I find valour is like virtue: impregnable
as they boast themselves, it is discovered that on the first
attack both lie strangely open! They are raising more men,
camps are to be formed in Kent and Sussex, the Duke of
Newcastle is frightened out of his wits, which, though he has
lost so often, you know he always recovers, and as fresh as
ever. Lord Egmont despairs of the commonwealth; and I am
going to fortify my castle of Strawberry, according to an old
charter I should have had for embattling and making a deep
ditch. But here am I laughing when I really ought to cry,
both with my public eye and my private one. I have told you
what I think ought to sluice my public eye; and your private
eye too will moisten, when I tell you that poor Miss Harriet
Montagu is dead. She died about a fortnight ago; but having
nothing else to tell you, I would not send a letter so far
with only such melancholy news-and so, you will say, I stayed
till I could tell still more bad news. The truth is, I have
for some time had two letters of yours to answer: it is three
weeks since I wrote to you, and one begins to doubt whether
one shall ever be to write again. I will hope all my best
hopes; for I have no sort of intention at this time of day of
finishing either as a martyr or a hero. I rather intend to
live and record both those professions, if need be; and I have
no inclination to scuttle barefoot after a Duke of
Wolfenbuttle's army as Philip de Comines says he saw their
graces of Exeter and Somerset trudge after the Duke of
Burgundy's. The invasion, though not much in fashion yet,
begins, like Moses's rod, to swallow other news, both
political and suicidical. Our politics I have sketched out to
you, and can only add, that Mr. Fox's ministry does not as yet
promise to be of long duration. When it was first thought
that he had cot the better of the Duke of Newcastle, Charles
Townshend said admirably, that he was sure the Duchess, like
the old Cavaliers, would make a vow not to shave her beard
till the restoration.

I can't recollect the least morsel of a fess or chevron of the
Boynets: they did not happen to enter into any extinct
genealogy for whose welfare I interest myself. I sent your
letter to Mr. Chute, who is still under his own vine: Mr.
Muntz is still with him, recovering of a violent fever.
Adieu! If memoirs don't grow too memorable, I think this
season will produce a large crop.

P. S. I believe I scarce ever mentioned to you last Winter the
follies of the Opera: the impertinences of a great singer were
too old and common a topic. I must mention them now, when
they rise to any improvement in the character Of national
folly. The Mingotti, a noble figure, a great mistress of
music, and a most incomparable actress, surpassed any thing I
ever saw for the extravagance of her humours.(622) She never
sung above one night in three, from a fever upon hot-temper:
and never would act at all when Ricciarelli, the first man,
was to be in dialogue with her.(623) Her fevers grow so high,
that the audience caught them, and hissed her more than once:
she herself once turned and hissed again--Tit pro tat geminat
phoy d'achamiesmeyn--among the treaties which a secretary of
state has negotiated this summer, he has contracted for a
succedaneum to the Mingotti. In short, there is a woman hired
to sing when the other shall be- out of humour!

Here is a "World" by Lord Chesterfield:(624) the first part is
very pretty, till it runs into witticism. I have marked the
passages I particularly like.

You would not draw Henry IV. at a siege for me: pray don't
draw Louis XV.(625

(620) Lord Chesterfield, in a letter to Mr. Dayrolles, of the
4th of this month, says, "the next which now draws very near,
will, I believe, be a very troublesome one; and I really think
it very doubtful whether the subsidiary treaties with Russia
and Cassel will be carried or not. To be sure, much may be
said against both; but yet I dread the consequences of
rejecting them by Parliament, since they are made."-E.

(621) This is an allusion to a contemplated marriage between
the Prince of Wales, afterwards George the Third, and a
daughter of the Duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle. The following
is Lord Waldegrave's account of this project:--"An event
happened about the middle of the summer, which engaged
Leicester House still deeper in faction than they at first
intended. The Prince of Wales was just entering into his
eighteenth year; and being of a modest, sober disposition,
with a healthy, vigorous constitution, it might reasonably be
supposed that a matrimonial companion might be no unacceptable
amusement. The Duchess of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle, with her
two unmarried daughters, waited on his Majesty at Hanover.
The older, both as to person and understanding, was a most
accomplished Princess: the King was charmed with her cheerful,
modest, and sensible behaviour, and wished to make her his
granddaughter, being too old to make her his wife. I remember
his telling me, with great eagerness, that had he been only
twenty years younger, she would never have been refused by a
Prince of Wales, but should at once have been Queen of
England. Now, whether his Majesty spoke seriously is very
little to the purpose; his grandson's happiness was
undoubtedly his principal object; and he was desirous the
match might be concluded before his own death, that the
Princess of Wales should have no temptation to do a Job for
her relations, by marrying her son to one of the Saxe Gotha
family, who might not have the amiable accomplishments of the
Princess of Wolfenbuttle. The King's intentions, it may
easily be imagined, were not agreeable to the Princess of
Wales. She knew the temper of the Prince her son; that he was
by nature indolent, hated business, but loved a domestic life,
and would make an excellent husband. She knew also that the
young Princess, having merit and understanding equal to her
beauty, must in a short time have the greatest influence over
him. In which circumstances, it may naturally be concluded
that her Royal Highness did every thing in her Power to
prevent the match. The Prince of Wales was taught to
believe that he was to be made a sacrifice merely to gratify the
King's private interest in the electorate of Hanover. The
young Princess was most cruelly misrepresented; many even of
her perfections were aggravated into faults; his Royal
Highness implicitly believing every idle tale and improbable
assertion, till his prejudice against her amounted to aversion
itself." Memoirs, p. 39.-E.

(622) The following is Dr. Burney's account:--"Upon the
success of Jomelli's 'Andromaca' a damp was thrown by the
indisposition of Mingotti, during which Frasi was called upon
to play her part in that opera; when suspicion arising, that
Mingotti's was a mere dramatic and political cold, the public
was much out of humour, till she resumed her function in
Metastasio's admirable drama of 'Demofoonte,' in which she
acquired more applause, and augmented her theatrical
consequence beyond any period of her performance in
England."-E.

(623) "Ricciarelli was a neat and pleasing performer, with a
clear, flexible, and silver-toned voice; but so much inferior
to Mingotti, both in singing and acting, that he was never in
very high favour." Burney.-E.

(624) No. 146, Advice to the Ladies on their return to the
country.-E.

(625) Alluding to the subject Mr. Walpole had proposed to him
for a picture, in the letter of the 15th of August (letter
143), and to the then expected invasion of' England by Louis
XV.

284 Letter 155
To John Chute, Esq.(626)
Arlington Street, October 20, 1755.

You know, my dear Sir, that I do not love to have you taken
unprepared: the last visit I announced to you was of the Lord
Dacre of the South and of the Lady Baroness, his spouse: the
next company you may expect will be composed of the Prince of
Soubise and twelve thousand French; though, as winter is
coming on, they will scarce stay in the country, but hasten to
London. I need not protest to you I believe, that I am
serious, and that an invasion before Christmas will certainly
be attempted; you will believe me at the first word. It is a
little hard, however! they need not envy us General Braddock's
laurels; they were not in such quantity!

Parliamentary and subsidiary politics are in great ferment. I
could tell you much if I saw you; but I will not while you
stay there--yet, as I am a true friend and not to be changed
by prosperity, I can't neglect offering YOU my services when I
am cens`e to be well with a minister. It is so long since I
was, and I believe so little a while that I shall be so,, (to
be sure, I mean that he will be minister,) that I must faire
valoir my interest, while I have any-in short, shall I get you
one of these new independent companies ?-Hush! don't tell Mr.
Muntz how powerful I am: his warlike spirit will want to
coincide with my ministerial one; and it would be very
inconvenient to the Lords Castlecomers to have him knocked on
the head before he had finished all the strawberries and vines
that we lust after.

I had a note from Gray, who is still at Stoke; and he desired
I would tell you, that he has continued pretty well. Do come.
Adieu!

Lottery tickets rise: subsidiary treaties under par--I don't
say, no price. Lord Robert Bertie, with a
company of the Guards, has thrown himself
into Dover castle; don't they sound very war-full?

(626) Now first printed.

285 Letter 156
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, Oct. 27, 1755.

When the newspapers swarm with our military preparations at
home, with encampments, fire-ships, floating castles at the
mouths of the great rivers, etc. in short, when we expect an
invasion, you would chide, or be disposed to chide me, if I
were quite silent-and yet, what can I tell you more than that
an invasion is threatened? that sixteen thousand men are
about Dunkirk, and that they are assembling great quantities
of flat-bottomed boats! Perhaps they will attempt some
landing; they are certainly full of resentment; they broke the
peace, took our forts and built others on our boundaries; we
did not bear it patiently; we retook two forts, attacked or
have been going to attack others, and have taken vast numbers
of their ships: this is the state of the provocation--what is
more provoking, for once we have not sent twenty or thirty
thousand men to Flanders on whom they might vent their
revenge. Well! then they must come here, and perhaps invite
the Pretender to be of the party; not in a very popular light
for him, to be brought by the French in revenge of a national
war. You will ask me, if we are alarmed? the people not at
all so: a minister or two, who are subject to alarms, are--and
that is no bad circumstances We are as much an island as ever,
and I think a much less exposed one than we have been for many
years. Our fleet is vast; our army at home, and ready, and
two-thirds stronger than when we were threatened in 1744; the
season has been the wettest that ever has been known,
consequently the roads not very invade-able: and there is the
additional little circumstance of the late rebellion defeated;
I believe I may reckon too, Marshal Saxe dead. You see our
situation is not desperate: in short, we escaped in '44, and
when the rebels were at Derby in '45; we must have bad luck
indeed, if we fall now.

Our Parliament meets in a fortnight; if no French come, our
campaign there will be warm; nay, and uncommon, the opposition
will be chiefly composed of men in place. You know we always
refine; it used to be an imputation on our senators, that they
opposed to get places. They now oppose to get better places!
We are a comical nation (I Speak with all due regard to our
gravity!)-It were a pity we should be destroyed, if it were
only for the sake of posterity; we shall not be half so droll,
if we are either a province to France, or under an absolute
prince of our own.

I am sorry you are losing my Lord Cork; you must balance the
loss with that of Miss Pitt,(627) who is a dangerous inmate.
You ask me if I have seen Lord Northumberland's Triumph of
Bacchus;(628) I have not: you know I never approved the
thought of those copies and have adjourned my curiosity till
the gallery is thrown open with the first masquerade. Adieu!
my dear Sir.

(627) Elizabeth Pitt, sister of Lord Chatham@ She had been
maid of honour to Augusta Princess of Wales; then lived openly
with Lord Talbot as his mistress; went to Italy, turned
Catholic, and married; came back, wrote against her brother,
and a trifling pamphlet recommending magazines of corn, and
called herself Clara Villiers Pitt.

(628) Hugh, Earl and afterwards Duke of Northumberland,
bespoke at a great price five copies of capital pictures in
Italy, by Mentz, Pompeo, Battoni, etc. for his gallery at
Northumberland House.

286 Letter 157
To Richard Bentley, Esq.
Strawberry Hill, October 31, 1755.

As the invasion is not ready, we are forced to take up with a
victory. An account came yesterday, that General Johnson(629)
had defeated the French near the lake St. Sacrement, had
killed one thousand, and taken the lieutenant-general who
commanded them prisoner! his name is Dieskau, a Saxon, an
esteemed `el`eve of Marshal Saxe. By the printed account,
which I enclose, Johnson showed great generalship and bravery.
As the whole business was done by irregulars, it does not
lessen the faults of Braddock, and the panic of his troops.
If I were so disposed, I could conceive that there are heroes
in the world who are not quite pleased with this extra-
martinette success(630)--but we won't blame those Alexanders,
till they have beaten the French in Kent! You know it will be
time enough to abuse them, when they have done all the service
they can! The other enclosed paper is another World,(631) by
my Lord Chesterfield; not so pretty, I think, as the last; yet
it has merit. While England and France are at war, and Mr.
Fox and Mr. Pitt going to war, his lordship is coolly amusing
himself at picquet at Bath with a Moravian baron, who would be
in prison, if his creditors did not occasionally release him
to play with and cheat my Lord Chesterfield, as the only
chance they have for recovering their- money!