Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

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(711) Kippax Park.

(712) The chapel upon Wakefield bridge is said to have been
built upon the spot where Edmund Earl of Rutland, the youngest
son of Richard Duke of York, and brother of Edward IV. and
Richard III. was killed by John Lord Clifford, surnamed the
Butcher.-E.

(713) The magnificent structure here described by Walpole was
burnt down in 1761.-E.

339 Letter 195
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 19, 1756.

I promised you an account of your brother as soon as he should
return from Bristol, but I deferred it for a week, till I
could see him reposed and refreshed, and could judge more
fairly. I do think him much mended; I do not say recovered.
H e looks with colour again, and has (got a little flesh, and
is able to do much more than before he went. My Lord Radnor
thinks he has a great appetite; I did not perceive it when he
dined with me. His breath is better, though sometimes
troublesome, and he brought back a great cough, which,
however, is much abated. I think him so much better, that I
ventured to talk very freely to him upon his own state; and
though I allowed him mended, I told him plainly that I was
convinced his case would be irrecoverable, if he did not go
abroad. At times he swears he will, if he falls back at all;
at others he will not listen to it, but pleads the confusion
of his affairs. I wish there is not another more
insurmountable cause, the fury, who not only torments him in
this world, but is hurrying him into the next. I have not
been able to prevail with him to pass one day or two here with
me in tranquility. I see his life at stake, I feel for him,
for you, for myself'; I am desperate about it, and yet know no
remedy! I can only assure you that I will not see it quietly;
nor would any thing check me from going the greatest lengths
with your sister, whom I think effectually, though perhaps not
maliciously, a most wicked being, but that I always find it
recoils upon your brother. Alas! what signifies whether she
murders him from a bad heart or a bad temper?

Poor Mr. Chute, too, has been grievously ill with the gout- he
is laid up at his own house, whither I am going to see him.

I feel a little satisfaction that you have an opportunity of
Richcourt's insults: who thought that the King of Prussia
would ever be a rod in our hands? For my part, I feel quite
pleasant, for whether he demolishes the Queen, or the Queen
him, can one but find a loophole to let out joy? Lord
Stormont's(714) valet de chambre arrived three days ago with
an account of his being within four leagues of Dresden.(715)
He laughs at the King o abuses Count Bruhl(716) with so much
contempt, that one reconciles to him very fast: however, I
don't know what to think of his stopping in Saxony. He
assures us, that the Queen has not 55,000 men, nor magazines,
nor money; but why give her time to get away? As the chance
upon the long run must be so much against him, and as he has
three times repeated his offers of desisting if the
Empress-Queen will pawn her honour (counters to which I wonder
he of all Kings would trust) that she will not attack him, one
must believe that he thinks himself reduced to this step; but
I don@t see how he is reduced to involve the Russian Empress
in the quarrel too. He affirms that both intended to demolish
him--but I think I would not accuse both till at least I had
humbled one. We are much pleased with this expedition, but at
best it ensures the duration of the war--and I wish we don't
attend more to that on the Continent than to that on our
element, especially as we are discouraged a little on the
latter. You reproach me for not telling you more of Byng-
-what can I tell you, my dear child, of a poor simpleton who
behaves arrogantly and ridiculously in the most calamitous of
all situations? he quarrels with the admiralty and ministry
every day, though he is doing all he can to defer his trial.
After he had asked for and had had granted a great number of
witnesses, he demanded another large set: this has been
refused him: he is under close confinement, but it will be
scarce possible to try him before the Parliament meets.

The rage of addresses did not go far: at present every thing
is quiet. Whatever ministerial politics there are, are in
suspense. The rains are begun, and I suppose will soon
disperse our camps. The Parliament does not meet till the
middle of November. Admiral Martin, whom I think you knew in
Italy, died here yesterday, unemployed. This is a complete
abridgement of all I know, except that, since Colonel
Jefferies arrived, we think still worse of the land-officers
on board the fleet, as Boyd passed from St. Philip's to the
fleet easily and back again. Jefferies (strange that Lord
Tyrawley should not tell him) did not know till he landed
here,,what succour had been intended--he could not refrain
from tears. Byng's brother did die immediately on his
arrival.(717) I shall like to send you Prussian journals, but
am much more intent on what relates to your brother. Adieu!

(714) British minister at Vienna.

(715) This was the King of Prussia's irruption into Saxony,
which was the commencement of the terrible Seven Years'
War.-D.

(716) Prime minister to Augustus King of Poland, and Elector
of Saxony.

(717) Edward Byng, youngest brother of the Admiral. He was
bred up in the army. On the Admiral being brought home a
prisoner, he went to visit him at Portsmouth, on the 28th of
July: overcome by the fatigue of the journey, in which he had
made great expedition, he was on the next morning seized with
convulsions, and died.-E.

341 Letter 196
To George Montagu, Esq.
Strawberry Hill, Oct. 14, 1756.

I shall certainly not bid for the chariot for you; do you
estimate an old dowager's new machine but at ten pounds? You
could scarce have valued herself at less! it is appraised here
at fifty. There are no family pictures but such as you might
buy at any sale, that is, there are three portraits without
names. If you had offered ten pounds for a set of Pelhams,
perhaps I should not have thought you had underpriced them.

You bid me give you some account of myself; I can in a very
few words: I am quite alone; in the morning I view a new pond
I am making for gold fish, and stick in a few shrubs or trees,
wherever I can find a space, which is very rare: in the
evening I scribble a little; all this is mixed with reading;
that is, I can't say I read much, but I pick up a good deal of
reading. The only thing I have done that can compose a
paragraph, and which I think you are Whig enough to forgive
me, is, that on each side of my bed I have hung MAGNA CHARTA,
and the warrant for King Charles's execution, on which I have
written Major Charta; and I believe, without the latter, the
former by this time would be of very little importance. You
will ask where Mr. Bentley is; confined with five sick
infants, who
live in spite of the epidemic distemper, as if they were
infantas, and in bed himself with a fever and the same sore
throat, though he sends me word he mends.

The King of Prussia has sent us over a victory, which is very
kind, as we are not likely to get any of our own-not even by
the secret Expedition, which you apprehend, and which I
believe still less than I did the invasion-perhaps indeed
there may be another port on the coast of France which we hope
to discover, as we did one in the last war. By degrees, and
somehow or other, I believe, we shall be fully acquainted with
France. I saw the German letter you mention, think it very
mischievous, and very well written for the purpose.

You talk of being better than you have been for many months;
pray, which months were they, and what was the matter with
you? Don't send me your fancies; I shall neither pity nor
comfort you. You are perfectly well, and always were ever
since I knew you, which is now--I won't say how long, but
within this century. Thank God you have good health, and
don't call it names.

John and I are just going to Garrick's with a grove of
cypresses in our hands, like the Kentish men at the Conquest.
He has built a temple to his master Shakspeare, and I am going
to adorn the outside, since his modesty would not let me
decorate it within, as I proposed, with these mottoes:

"Quod spiro et placeo, si placeo, tuum est.
That I spirit have and nature,
That sense breathes in ev'ry feature,
That I please, if please I do,
Shakspeare, all I owe to you."

342 Letter 197
To George Montagu, Esq.
Twickenham, Monday.

You are desired to have business to hinder you from going to
Northampton, and you are desired to have none to hinder you
from coming to Twickenham. The autumn is in great beauty; my
Lord Radnor's baby-houses lay eggs every day, and promise new
swarms; Mrs. Chandler treads, but don't lay; and the
neighbouring dowagers order their visiting coaches before
sunset-can you resist such a landscape? only send me a line
that I may be sure to be ready for you, for I go to London now
and then to buy coals.

I believe there cannot be a word of truth in Lord Granville's
going to Berlin; by the clumsiness of the thought, I should
take it for ministerial wit--and so, and so.

The Twickenham Alabouches say that Legge is to marry the
eldest Pelhamine infanta; he loves a minister's daughter--I
shall not wonder if he intends it, but can the parents! Mr.
Conway mentioned nothing to me but of the prisoners of the
last battle. and I hope it extends no farther, but I vow I
don't see why it should not. Adieu!

342 Letter 198
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, Oct. 17, 1756.

Lentulus (I am going to tell you no old Roman tale; he is the
King of Prussia's aide-de-camp) arrived yesterday, with ample
Confirmation of the victory in Bohemia.(718) Are not you glad
that we have got a victory that we can at least call Cousin?
Between six and seven thousand Austrians were killed: eight
Prussian squadrons sustained the acharnement, which is said to
have been extreme, of thirty-two squadrons of Austrians: the
pursuit lasted from Friday noon till Monday morning; both our
countrymen Brown and Keith(719) performed wonders--we seem to
flourish much when transplanted to Germany--but Germany don't
make good manure here! The Prussian King writes that both
Brown and Piccolomini are too strongly entrenched to be
attacked. His Majesty ran to this victory; not `a la
Mulwitz.(720) He affirms having found In the King of Poland's
cabinet ample justification of his treatment of Saxony--should
not one query whether he had not those proofs(721) in his
hands antecedent to the cabinet? The Dauphiness(722) is said
to have flung herself at the King of France's feet and begged
his protection for her father; that he promised "qu'il le
rendroit au centuple au Roi de Prusse."

Peace is made between the courts of Kensington and Kew; Lord
Bute(723) who had no visible employment at the latter, and yet
whose office was certainly no sinecure, is to be groom of the
stole(724) to the Prince of Wales; which satisfies. The rest
of the family will be named before the birthday--but I don't
know how, as soon as one wound is closed, another breaks out!
Mr. Fox, extremely discontent at having no power, no
confidence, no favour, (all entirely engrossed by the old
monopolist(725) has asked leave to resign. It is not yet
granted. If Mr. Pitt will--or can, accept the seals, probably
Mr. Fox will be indulged,--if Mr. Pitt will not, why then, it
is impossible to tell you what will happen.(726) Whatever
happens on such an emergency, with the Parliament SO near,
with no time for considering measures, with so bad a past, and
so much worse a future, there certainly is no duration or good
in prospect. Unless the King of Prussia will take our affairs
at home as well as abroad to nurse, I see no possible recovery
for us-and you may believe, when a doctor like him is
necessary, I should be full as willing to die of the
distemper.

Well! and so you think we are undone!--not at all; if folly
and extravagance are symptoms of nation's being at the height
of their glory, as after-observers pretend that they are
forerunners Of its ruin, we never were in a more flourishing
situation. My Lord Rockingham and my nephew Lord Orford have
made a match of five hundred pounds, between five turkeys and
five geese, to run from Norwich to London. Don't you believe
in the transmigration of souls? And are not you convinced
that this race is between Marquis Sardanapalus and Earl
Heliogabalus? And don't you pity the poor Asiatics and
Italians who comforted themselves on their resurrection with
being geese and turkeys?

Here's another symptom of our glory! The Irish Speaker, Mr.
Ponsonby,(727) has been reposing himself at Newmarket. George
Selwyn, seeing him toss about bank-bills at the hazard-table,
said, "How easily the Speaker passes the money-bills!"

You, who live at Florence among vulgar vices and tame slavery,
will stare at these accounts. Pray be acquainted with your
own country, while it is in its lustre. In a regular monarchy
the folly of the Prince gives the tone; in a downright
tyranny, folly dares give itself no airs; it is in a wanton
overgrown commonwealth that whim and debauchery ]Intrigue best
together. Ask me which of these governments I prefer--oh! the
last--only I fear it is the least durable.

I have not yet thanked you for your letter of September 18th,
with the accounts of the Genoese treaty and of the Pretender's
quarrel with the Pope--it is a squabble worthy a Stuart. Were
he here, as absolute as any Stuart ever wished to be, who
knows with all his bigotry but he might favour us with a
reformation and the downfall of the mass? The ambition of
making a Duke of York vice-chancellor of holy church would be
as good a reason for breaking with holy church, as Harry the
Eighth's was for quarrelling with it, because it would not
excuse him from going to bed to his sister, after it had given
him leave.

I wish I could tell you that your brother mends! indeed I
don't think he does; nor do I know what to say to him; I have
exhausted both arguments and entreaties, and yet if I thought
either would avail, would gladly recommence them. Adieu!

(718) This was the battle of Lowositz, gained by the King of
Prussia over the Austrians, commanded by Marshal Brown, on the
first of October, 1756.-D.

(719) Brother of the Earl Marshal.

(720) The King of Prussia was said to have fled from the first
battle, though it proved a victory.

(721) He had procured copies of all Count Bruhl's despatches
by bribing a secretary.

(722) The second wife of the Dauphin was daughter of Augustus
King of Poland.

(723) John Stuart, Earl of Bute, who played so conspicuous a
part in the succeeding reign.-D.

(724) Upon this appointment Edward Wortley Montagu thus writes
to lady Mary:--"I have something to mention that I believe
will be agreeable to you: I mean some particulars relating to
Lord Bute. He stood higher in the late Prince Of Wales's
favour than any man. His attendance was frequent at
Leicester-house, where this young Prince has resided, and
since his father's death has continued without intermission,
till new officers were to be placed under him. It is said
that another person was to be groom of the stole, but that the
Prince's earnest request was complied with in my lord's
favour. It is supposed that the governors, preceptors, etc.
who were about him before will be now set aside, and that my
lord is the principal adviser, This young Prince is supposed
to know the true state of the country, and to have the best
inclinations to do all in his power to make it flourish."-E.

(725) The Duke of Newcastle.

(726) "Oct. 19. Mr. Pitt was sent for to town, and came. He
returned, rejecting all terms, till the Duke of Newcastle was
removed." Dodington, p. 346-E.

(727) The Right Hon. John Ponsonby, brother of Lord
Besborough.-D.

344 Letter 199
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Oct. 28, 1756.

Can you recommend one a first minister? We want one so much,
that we do not insist upon his having a character from his
last place: there will be good vails.--But I forget; one ought
to condole with you: the Duke of Newcastle is your cousin, and
as I know by experience how much one loves one's relations, I
sympathize with you! But, alas! all first ministers are
mortal; and, as Sir Jonathan Swift said, crowned heads and
cane heads, good heads and no heads at all, may all come to
disgrace. My father, who had no capacity, and the Duke of
Newcastle, who has so much, have equally experienced the
mutability of this world. Well-a-day, well-a-day! his grace
is gone! He has bid adieu to courts, retires to a hermitage,
and Will let his beard grow as long as his Duchess's.

so you are surprised! and the next question you will ask will
be, who succeeds? Truly that used to be a question the
easiest in the world to be resolved upon change of ministers.
It is now the most unanswerable. I can only tell you that all
the atoms are dancing, and as atoms always do, I suppose. will
range themselves into the most durable system imaginable.
Beyond the past hour I know not a syllable; a good deal of'
the preceding hours--a volume would not contain it. There is
some notion that the Duke of Bedford and your cousin Halifax
are to be the secretaries of state--as Witwould says, they
will sputter at one another like roasted apples.

The Duchess of Hamilton has brought her beauty to London at
the only instant when it would not make a crowd. I believe we
should scarce stare at the King of Prussia, so much are we
engrossed by this ministerial ferment.

I have been this morning to see your monument;(728) it IS not
Put together, but the parts are admirably executed; there is a
helmet that would tempt one to enlist. The inscription suits
wonderfully, but I have overruled the golden letters, which
not Only are not lasting, but would not do at all, as they are
to be cut in statuary marble. I have given him the arms,
which certainly should be in colours: but a shield for your
sister's would be barbarous tautology. You see how arbitrary
I am, as you gave me leave to be. Adieu!

(728) To the memory of his sister, Miss Harriet Montagu.-E.

345 Letter 200
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Nov. 4, 1756.

I desired your brother last week to tell you that it was in
vain for me to write while every thing was in such confusion.
The chaos is just as far from being dispersed now; I only
write to tell you what has been its motions. One of the
Popes, I think, said soon after his accession, he did not
think it had been so easy to govern. What would he have
thought of such a nation as this, engaged in a formidable war,
without any government at all, literally, for above a
fortnight! The foreign ministers have not attempted to
transact any business since yesterday fortnight. For God's
sake, what do other countries say of us?--but hear the
progress of our inter-ministerium.

When Mr. Fox had declared his determination of resigning great
offers were sent to Mr. Pitt; his demands were much greater,
accompanied with a total exclusion of the Duke of Newcastle.
Some of the latter's friends would have persuaded him, as the
House of Commons is at his devotion, to have undertaken the
government against both Pitt and Fox; but fears preponderated.
Yesterday his grace declared his resolution of retiring with
all that satisfaction of mind which must attend a man whom not
one man of sense, will trust any longer. The King sent for
Mr. Fox, and bid him try if Mr. Pitt would join him. The
latter, without any hesitation, refused. In this perplexity
the King ordered the Duke of Devonshire to try to compose some
ministry for him, and sent him to Pitt, to try to accommodate
with Fox.(729) Pitt, with a list of terms a little modified,
was ready to engage, but on condition that Fox should have no
employment in the cabinet. Upon this plan negotiations have
been carrying on for this week. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge, whose
whole party consists of from twelve to sixteen persons,
exclusive of Leicester-house, (of that presently,) concluded
they were entering on the government as secretary of state and
chancellor of the exchequer;@ but there is so great
unwillingness to give it up totally into their hands, that all
manner of expedients have been projected to get rid of their
proposals, or to limit their power. Thus the case stands at
this instant: the Parliament has been put off for a fortnight,
to gain time; the Lord knows whether that will suffice to
bring on any sort of temper! In the mean time the government
stands still; pray Heaven the war may too! You will wonder how
fifteen or sixteen persons can be of such importance. In the
first place, their importance has been conferred on them, and
has been notified to the nation by these concessions and
messages; next, Minorca is gone; Oswego gone; the nation is in
a ferment; some very great indiscretions in delivering a
Hanoverian soldier from prison by a warrant from the secretary
of state have raised great difficulties; instructions from
counties, boroughs, especially from the city of London, in the
style of 1641, and really in the spirit of 1715(730) and 1745,
have raised a great flame; and lastly, the countenance of
Leicester-house, which Mr. Pitt is supposed to have,(731) and
which Mr. Legge thinks he has, all these tell Pitt that he may
command such numbers without doors as may make the majorities
within the House tremble.

Leicester-house is by some thought inclined to more pacific
measures. Lord Bute's being established groom of the stole
has satisfied. They seem more Occupied in disobliging all
their new court than in disturbing the King's. Lord
Huntingdon, the new master of the horse to the Prince, and
Lord Pembroke, one of his lords, have not been spoken to.
Alas! if the present storms should blow over, what seeds for
new! You must guess at the sense of this paragraph, which it
is difficult, at least improper to explain to you; though you
could not go into a coffee-house here where it would not be
interpreted to you. One would think all those little
politicians had been reading the Memoirs of the minority of
Louis XIV.

There has been another great difficulty: the season obliging
all camps to break up, the poor Hanoverians' have been forced
to continue soaking in theirs. The country magistrates have
been advised that they arc not obliged by law to billet
foreigners on public-houses, and have refused. Transports
were yesterday ordered to carry away the Hanoverians! There
are eight thousand men taken from America; for I am sure we
can spare none from hence. The negligence and dilatoriness of
the ministers at home, the wickedness of our West Indian
governors, and the little-minded quarrels of the regulars and
irregular forces, have reduced our affairs in that part of the
world to a most deplorable state. Oswego, of ten times more
importance even than Minorca, is so annihilated that we cannot
learn the particulars.

My dear Sir, what a present and future picture have I given
you! The details are infinite, and what I have neither time,
nor, for many reasons, the imprudence to send by the post:
your good sense will but too well lead you to develop them.
The crisis is most melancholy and alarming. I remember two or
three years ago I wished for more active times, and for events
to furnish our correspondence. I think I could write you a
letter almost as big as my Lord Clarendon's History. What a
bold man is he who shall undertake the administration! How
much shall we be obliged to him! How mad is he, whoever is
ambitious of it! Adieu!

(729) "The Duke of Devonshire advised his Majesty to comply
with Pitt's demands, whereupon the administration was formed;
on which account the Duke was unjustly censured by some
unreasonable friends; for he joined Pitt rather than Fox, not
from any change of friendship, or any partiality in Pitt's
favour, but because it was more safe to be united with him who
had the nation of his side, than with the man who was the most
unpopular; a reason which will have its proper weight with
most ministers." Waldegrave's Memoirs, p. 87.-E.

(730) Meaning that the Jacobites excited the clamour.

(731) Lord Temple, in a letter to Mr. Pitt of the 11th, says,
"Lord Bute used expressions so transcendently obliging to me,
and so decisive of the determined purpose of Leicester-house
towards us, in the present or any future day, that your own
lively imagination cannot suggest to you a wish beyond them."
Chatham correspondence, vol. i. p. 191.-E.

347 Letter 201
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, November 6, 1756.

After an inter-MinisteriUm of seventeen days, Mr. Pitt has
this morning, accepted the government as secretary of state;
the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Fox being both excluded. The
Duke of Devonshire is to be at the head of the treasury. the
Chancellor(732) retires; the seals to be in commission.
Remnants of both administrations must be preserved, as Mr.
Pitt has not wherewithal to fill a quarter of their
employments. Did you ever expect to see a time when he would
not have cousins enough? It will take some days to adjust all
that is to follow. You see that, unless Mr. Pitt joins with
either Fox or Newcastle, his ministry cannot last six months;
I would bet that the lightness of the latter emerged first.
George Selwyn, hearing some people at Arthur's t'other night
lamenting the distracted state of the country, joined in the
discourse, with the whites of his eyes and his prim mouth, and
fetching a deep sigh, said, "Yes, to be sure it is terrible!
There is the Duke of Newcastle's faction, and there is Fox's
faction, and there is Leicester-house! between two factions
and one faction we are torn to pieces!"