Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

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Thank you for your exchequer-ward wishes for me, but I am apt
to think that I have enough from there already: don't think my
horns and hoofs are growing, when I profess indifference to my
interest. Disinterestedness is no merit in me, 'It happens to
be my passion. It certainly is not impossible that your two
young lords may appear in the new system. Mr. Williams is
just come from his niece, Lady North's, and commends her
husband exceedingly. He tells me that the plump Countess is
in terrors lest Lord Coventry should get a divorce from his
wife and Lord Bolingbroke should marry her. 'Tis a
well-imagined panic!

Mr. Mann, I trust, does not grow worse; I wish I could think
he mended. Mr. B. is sitting in his chimney-corner literally
with five girls; I expect him to meet me to-morrow at
Strawberry. As no provision is made for the great C`u in the
new arrangement, it is impossible but he may pout a little.
My best compliments to your brothers and sisters. Adieu! Will
this find you at Greatworth!

(732) Lord Hardwicke.

348 Letter 202
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Nov. 13, 1756.

Your brother has told me that Mr. Pitt accepts your southern
province, yielding to leave Lord Holderness in the northern.
I don't know what calm you at this distance may suppose this
will produce; I should think little; for though the Duke of
Newcastle resigned on Thursday, and Mr. Fox resigns to-day,
the chief friends of each remain in place -, and Mr. Pitt
accedes with so little strength that his success seems very
precarious. If he Hanoverizes, or checks any inquiries, he
loses his popularity, and falls that way; if he burnouts the
present rage of the people, he provokes two powerful factions.
His only chance seems to depend on joining with the Duke of
Newcastle, who is most offended with Fox: but after Pitt's
personal exclusion of his grace, and considering Pitt's small
force, it may not be easy for him to be accepted there. I
foresee nothing but confusion: the new system is composed of
such discordant parts that it can produce no harmony. Though
the Duke of Newcastle, the Chancellor, Lord Anson, and Fox
quit, yet scarce one of their friends is discarded. The very
cement seems disjunctive; I mean the Duke of Devonshire, who
takes the treasury. If he acts cordially, he disobliges his
intimate friend Mr. Fox; if he does not, he offends Pitt.
These little reasonings will give you light, though very
insufficient for giving you a clear idea of the most perplexed
and complicate situation that ever was. Mr. Legge returns to
be chancellor of the exchequer, and Sir George Lyttelton is
indemnified with a peerage. The Duke of Newcastle has got his
dukedom entailed on Lord Lincoln. The seals are to be in
commission, if not given to a lord keeper. Your friend Mr.
Doddington(733) is out again for about the hundred and
fiftieth time. The rest of the list is pretty near settled;
you shall have it as soon as it takes place. I should tell
you that Lord Temple is first lord of the admiralty.

Being much too busy to attend to such trifles as a war and
America, we know mighty little of either. The massacre at
Oswego happily proves a romance: part of the two regiments
that were made prisoners there are actually arrived at
Plymouth, the provisions at Quebec being too scanty to admit
additional numbers. The King of Prussia is gone into winter
quarters, but disposed in immediate readiness. One hears that
he has assured us, that if we will keep our fleet in good
order, he will find employment for the rest of our enemies.
Two days ago, in the midst of all the ferment at court,
Coloredo, the Austrian minister, abruptly demanded an
audience, in which he demanded our quotas: I suppose the King
told him that whenever he should have a ministry again he
would consult them. I will tell you my comment on this: the
Empress-Queen, who is scrupulous on the ceremonial of
mischief, though she so easily passes over the reality and
ingratitude, proposes, I imagine, on a refusal which she
deserves and has drawn upon her, to think herself justified in
assisting France in some attempts on us from the coast of
Flanders. I have received yours of October 23d, and am glad
the English showed a proper disregard of Richcourt. Thank you
a thousand times for your goodness to Mr. and Mrs. Dick: it
obliges me exceedingly, and I am sure will be most grateful to
Lady Henry Beauclerc.

I don't know what to answer to that part about your brother:
you think and argue exactly as I have done; would I had not
found it in vain! but, my dear child, you and I have never
been married, and are sad judges! As to your elder brother's
interposition, I wish he had tenderness enough to make him
arbitrary. I beg your pardon, but he is fitter to marry your
sister than to govern her. Your brother Gal. certainly looks
better; yet I think of him just as you do, and by no means
trust to so fallacious a distemper. Indeed I tease him to
death to take a resolution, but to no purpose. In short, my
dear Sir, they are melancholy words, but I can neither flatter
you publicly nor privately; England is undone, and your
brother is not to be persuaded; Yet i hope the former will not
be quite given up, and I shall certainly neglect nothing
possible with regard to the latter. Adieu!
'

(733) Doddington, in his Diary of the 15th, says, "The Duke of
Devonshire told me that he was forced by the King to take the
employment he held; that his grace was ordered to go to Mr.
Pitt, and know upon what conditions he would serve; that, in
the arrangement Pitt and his friends made, my office was
demanded--he was sorry for it--he was not concerned in it--and
he behaved very civilly," etc.-E.

350 Letter 203
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Nov. 25, 1756.

You must tell me what or whose the verses are that you demand;
I know of none. I could send you reams of tests, contests,
and such stupid papers, and bushels of more stupid cards. I
know of nothing good; nor of any news, but that the committee
of creations is not closed yet. Mr. Obrien was yesterday
created Irish Earl of Thomond. Mr. Pitt is to be wrapped up
in flannel, and brought to town to-morrow to see King George
the Second; and I believe, to dissolve the new ministry,
rather than to cement it. Mr. Fox has commenced hostilities,
and has the borough of Stockbridge from under Dr. Hay, one of
the new admiralty; this enrages extremely the new ministers,
who, having neither members nor boroughs enough , will
probably recur to their only resource, popularity.

I am exceedingly obliged to the Colonel, but is that new? to
whom am I so much obliged? I will not trouble him with any
commissions: the little money I have I am learning to save:
the times give one a hint that one may have occasion for it.

I beg my best compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Wetenhall, and Mr.
John Montagu. Don't you wish me joy of my Lord Hertford's
having the garter! It makes me very happy! Adieu!

350 Letter 204
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, November 29,

No material event has yet happened under the new
administration; indeed it has scarce happened itself: your new
master, Mr. Pitt, has been confined in the country with the
gout, and came to town but within these two days. The world,
who love to descry policy in every thing, and who have always
loved to find it in Mr. Pitt's illnesses, were persuaded that
his success was not perfect enough, and that he even hesitated
whether he should consummate. He is still so lame that he
cannot go to court--to be sure the King must go to him He
takes the seals on Saturday; the Parliament meets on Thursday,
but will adjourn for about ten days for the re-elections. The
new ministers are So little provided with interest in
boroughs, that it is almost an administration out of
Parliament. Mr. Fox has already attacked their seats, and has
undermined Dr. Hay, one of the new admiralty, in Stockbridge:
this angers extremely. The Duke of Newcastle is already
hanging out a white flag to Pitt; but there is so little
disposition in that quarter to treat, that they have employed
one Evans-, a lawyer, to draw up articles of impeachment
against Lord Anson. On the other hand they show great
tenderness to Byng, who has certainly been most inhumanly and
spitefully treated by Anson. Byng's trial is not yet
appointed. Lord Effingham, Cornwallis, and Stuart are
arrived, and are to have their conduct examined this day
se'nnight by three general officers. In the mean time the
King, of his own motion, has given a red riband and an Irish
barony to old Blakeney, who has been at court in a
hackney-coach, with a foot soldier behind it. As he has not
only lost his government, but as he was bedrid while it was
losing, these honours are a little ridiculed: we have too many
governors that will expect titles, if losses are pretensions!
Mr. Obrien is made Earl of Thomond:(734) my Lady Townshend
rejoices; she says he has family enough to re-establish the
dignity of the Irish peerage, to which of late nothing but
brewers and poulterers have been raised; that she expected
every day to receive a bill from her fishmonger, signed Lord
Mountshrimp!

I promised you a list of the changes when they should be
complete. They are very conveniently ready to fill the rest
of my letter.

Transcriber's note: In the print copy the following
information is given in three columns: the new office-holder
on the left, the office in the middle, and the previous
office-holder on the right.

Duke of Devonshire, in the room of the duke of Newcastle

(P) Mr. Legge, Chancellor of exchequer, in the room of (N) Sir
G. Lyttelton a peer.

(N) Mr. Nugent, Lord Duncannon, (P) Mr. J. Grenville, of the
Old Treasury; in the room of Mr. Furnese, dead; (N) mr.
Obrien, Irish Earl.

Mr. w. Pitt, Secretary of State, in the room of mr. Fox.

Lord Buckingham, Lord of bedchamber, in the room of Lord
Fitzwilliam, dead.

(F) Mr. Edgcumbe, Comptroller of Household, in the room of
Lord Buckingham.

(F) Lord Berkeley of Stratton, Captain of pensioners, in the
room of the late Lord Buckingham.

(F) Lord Bateman, Treasurer of Household, in the room of Lord
berkeley.

(P) Mr. G. Grenville, Treasurer of the Navy, in the room of
(F) mr. dodinglton.

(P) Mr. Potter, Joint paymaster, in the room of (N) Lord
Darlington

(P) mr. martin, Secretary of Treasury, in the room of (N) Mr.
West.

(P) Sir r. Lyttelton, Master of jewel Office, in the room of
(N) Lord Breadalbane.

(N) Lord Breadalbane, Justice in Eyre, in the room of (N) Lord
Sandys.

(N) Lord Sandys, Speaker of House of Lords, in the room of (N)
Lord Chancellor.

Lord chief Justice Willes, (P) Justice Wilmot, and baron
smyth, Commissioners of the Great Seal, in the room of the
Lord Chancellor.

(P) Lord Temple, Admiral Boscawen before, (P) Admiral West,
(P) Dr. Hay, (P) Mr. Elliot, (P) Mr. Hunter, (P) John Pitt, in
the room of (N) Lord Anson, Admiral (N) rowley, Lord
Duncannon, (F) Lord Bateman, Lord Hyde, and (F) mr. Edgcumbe.
But John Pitt is to resign again, and be made Paymaster of the
Marines, to make room for Admiral Forbes.

Charles Townshend, Treasurer of the Chambers, in the room of
Lord Hilsborough, English baron.

This last is not done; as Mr. Townshend cannot be rechosen at
Yarmouth, he only consents to accept, provided another borough
can be found for him' this does not appear very easy.

The Duke of Newcastle has advertised in all the newspapers,
that he retires without place or pension: here is a list of
his disinterestedness. The reversion of his dukedom for Lord
Lincoln: this is the only duchy bestowed by the present King:
on my father's resignation, the new ministers did prevail to
have dukedoms offered to Lord Northampton and Lord Ailesbury;
but both declined, having no sons. Mr. Shelley, the Duke's
nephew, has the reversion of Arundel's place: Mr. West has a
great reversion for himself and his son: your little waxen
friend, Tommy Pelham, has another reversion in the Customs.
Jones, the Duke's favourite secretary, and nephew of the late
chancellor, has another. Not to mention the English barony
for Sir George Lyttelton, and the Irish earldom for Mr.
Obrien. The Garters are given to the Duke of' Devonshire, to
Lord Carlisle, Lord Northumberland, and (to my great
satisfaction) to Lord Hertford.

Oh! I should explain the marks: the (N) signifies of the
Newcastle and Hardwick faction; the (P) of Pitt's; the (F) of
Fox's. You will be able by these to judge a little of how
strange a medley the new government is composed! consequently,
how durable!

I was with your brother this morning at Richmond; he thinks
himself better; I do not think him worse; but judge by your
own feelings if that is enough to content me. Pray that your
brother and your country may mend a little faster! I dread the
winter for him, and the summer for England! Adieu!

P. S. Since I have finished this, I received yours of November
13th, with the account of Richcourt's illness. What! you are
forced to have recourse to apoplexies and deaths for
revolutions! We make nothing of changing our ministers at
every fall of the leaf. My Lord Huntingdon (who, by the way,
loves you, and does you justice,) has told me one or two very
good bon-mots of the Pope:(735) I have always had a great
partiality for the good old man: I desire you will tell me any
anecdotes or stories of him that you know-. I remember some
of his sayings with great humour and wit. You can never
oblige me more than by anecdotes of particular people--but you
are indeed always good in that and every other way.

(734) Percy Windham Obrien, second son of Sir William Windham,
by a daughter of Charles Duke of Somerset. The Earl of
Thomond, who had married another daughter, left his estate to
this Mr. Windham, his wife's nephew, on condition of his
taking the name of Obrien.

(735) Prospero Lambertini, called Benedict the Fourteenth.

352 Letter 205
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, Dec. 8, 1756.

Your poor brother desires me to write to you to-day, as he is
in bed (and not able. He went to town last week, caught cold,
and returned with a fever. He has been drinking tar-water
since the middle of November, at the persuasion of your older
brother and his Richmond friends. Indeed he had gone through
the whole course of drugs to no purpose. There is a great
eruption to-day in most parts of his body, which they think
will be of great service to him. In my own opinion, he is so
weak, that I am in great apprehensions for him. He is very
low-spirited, and yet thinks himself much better to-day. Your
brother Ned was surprised at my being so alarmed, as they had
considered this as a most fortunate crisis-but I have much
difficulty in persuading myself to be so sanguine. As we have
a recess for a few days, I shall stay here till Saturday, and
see your brother again, and will tell you my opinion again.
You see I don't deceive you: if that is any satisfaction, be
assured that nobody else would give you so bad an account, as
I find all his family have new hopes of him: would to God I
had

Our first day of Parliament(736) passed off harmoniously; but
in the House of Lords there was an event. A clause of thanks
for having sent for the Hanoverians had crept into the address
of the peers--by Mr. Fox's means, as the world thinks: Lord
Temple came out of a sick bed to Oppose it.(737) Next day
there was an alarm of an intention of instating the same
clause in our address. Mr. Pitt went angry to court,
protesting that he would not take the seals, if any such
motion passed: it was sunk. Next day he accepted--and the day
after, Mr. Fox, extremely disgusted with the Duke of
Devonshire for preferences shown to Mr. Pitt, retired into the
country. The Parliament is adjourned for the reelections; and
Mr. Pitt, who has pleased in the closet, is again laid up with
the gout. We meet on Monday, when one shall be able to judge
a little better of the temper of the winter. The Duke of
Bedford is to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland-no measure of
peace! Not to mention his natural warmth, every body is
sensible that he is only placed there to traverse Pitt.

Your brother and I are uneasy about your situation: when we
are treated insolently at Leghorn, to what are we sunk! Can
Mr. Pitt or the King of Prussia find a panacea for all our
disgraces? Have you seen Voltaire's epigram?

"Rivaux du Vainqueur de l'Euphrate,
L'Oncle,(738) et le Neveu;(739)
L'un fait la guerre en pirate,
L'autre en partie bleue."

It is very insipid! It Seems to me,(740) as if Uncle and
Nephew could furnish a better epigram , unless their
reconciliation deadens wit. Besides, I don't believe that the
Uncle of these lines means at all to be like Alexander, who
never was introduced more pompously for the pitiful end of
supplying @ rhyme.

Is it true what we see in the gazettes, that the Pantheon is
tumbled down? Am not I a very Goth, who always thought it a
dismal clumsy performance, and could never discover any beauty
in a strange mass of light poured perpendicularly into a
circle of obscurity? Adieu! I wish you may hope more with
your elder brother than tremble with me!

(736) "The Speech from the throne, by its style and substance,
appeared to be the work of the new speech-maker: the Militia,
which his Majesty had always turned into ridicule, being
strongly recommended, the late administration censured, and
the uncourtly addresses of the preceding summer receiving the
highest commendations." Waldegrave, 88.-E.

(737) "The new Lord of the Admiralty came, as he told the
Lords, out of a sick bed, at the hazard of his life, (indeed,
he made a most sorrowful appearance,) to represent to their
lordships the fatal consequences of the intended compliment:
he said, that the people of England would be offended even at
the name of Hanover, or of foreign mercenaries, and added many
other arguments, without mentioning the true reason of his
disapprobation: namely, the Duke of Devonshire's having added
this compliment without consulting him: and, having finished
his oration, went out of the House, with a thorough conviction
that such weighty reasons must be quite unanswerable." Ibid.
p. 89.-E.

((738) George II.

(739) The King of Prussia.

(740) Mr. Walpole had had a quarrel with his uncle Horatio.

354 Letter 206
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Dec. 16, 1756.

It will be easier for you, I fear, to guess, than for me to
describe, what I have felt for these last six days! Your dear
brother is still alive; it is scarce possible he should be so
when you receive this. I wrote to you this day se'nnight, the
day after I saw him last. On that day and Friday I received
favourable messages. I went myself on Saturday, as I had
promised him--how shocked I was at seeing Your brother Ned and
a lawyer come to the chaise: the former told me that poor Gal.
had desired the lawyer to settle his affairs, which were then
in agitation: you may imagine I did not choose to add the
tender sensations of seeing me, to what he was then feeling?
I saw our doom too plainly, though your brother Ned still had
hopes. Every day confirmed my fears: but I could not bear my
anxiety, and went to Richmond to-day, with as much horror as
persons must go to execution yet determined to see Gal. if I
found that he had expressed the leas@ desire of it.--Alas! he
has scarce had moments of sense since Sunday morning--how can
I bring myself to say of so dreadful a situation, that it is
my greatest consolation! But I could not support the thought
of his remaining sensible of death with all those anxious
attentions about him which have composed his whole life! Oh!
my dear child, what rash wretches are heroes, compared to this
brother of yours! Nothing ever equalled his cool solicitude
for his family and friends. What an instance am I going to
repeat to you! His most unhappy life was poisoned by the
dread of leaving his children and fortune to be torn to pieces
by his frantic wife, whose settlements entitled her to thirds.
On Friday, perceiving her alarmed by his danger, he had the
amazing presence of mind and fortitude to seize that only
moment of tenderness, and prevailed on her to accept a
jointure. He instantly despatched your brother Ned to London
for his lawyer, and by five o'clock on Saturday, after
repeated struggles of passion on her side, the whole was
finished. Dear Gal. he could not speak, but he lifted up his
hands in thanks! While he had any sense, it was employed in
repeated kindnesses, particularly to your brother James--he
had ordered a codicil, but they have not found a sufficient
interval to get it signed!

My dearest Sir, what an afflicting letter am I forced to write
to you! but I flatter myself, you will bear it better from me,
than from any other person: and affectionate as I know you,
could I deprive you or myself of the melancholy pleasure of
relating such virtues My poorest, yet best consolation is,
that, though I think his obstinacy in not going abroad, and
Ill management, may have hurried his end, yet nothing could
have saved him; his lungs are entirely gone. But how will you
be amazed at what I am going to tell you! His wretched wife is
gone mad--at least your brother Ned and the physician are
persuaded so--I cannot think so well of her.--I see her in so
diabolic a light, that I cannot help throwing falsehood into
the account--but let us never mention her more. What little
more I would say, for I spare your grief rather than indulge
my own, is, that I beseech you to consider me as more and more
your friend: I adored Gal. and will heap affection on that I
already have for you. I feel your situation, and beg of you
to manage with no delicacy, but confide all your fears and
wishes and wants to me-if I could be capable of neglecting
you, write to Gal.'s image that will for ever live in a memory
most grateful to him.

You will be little disposed or curious to hear politics; yet
it must import you always to know the situation of your
country, and 'It never was less settled. Mr. Pitt is not yet
able to attend the House, therefore no inquiries are yet
commenced. The only thing like business has been the affair
of preparing quarters for the Hessians, who are soon to
depart; but the Tories have shown such attachment to Mr. Pitt
on this occasion, that it is almost become a Whig point to
detain them. The breach is so much widened between Mr. Pitt
and Mr. Fox, and the latter is so warm, that we must expect
great violences. The Duke of Newcastle's party lies quiet;
one of the others must join it. The -new ministers have so
little weight, that they seem determined at least not to part
with their popularity: the new Secretary of State(741) is to
attack the other, lord Holderness, on a famous letter of his
sent to the mayor of Maidstone, for releasing a Hanoverian
soldier committed for theft. You may judge what harmony there
is!

Adieu, my dear Sir! How much I pity you, and how much you
ought to pity me! Imitate your brother's firmness of Mind, and
bear his loss as well as you can. You have too much merit not
to be sensible of his, and then it will be impossible for you
to be soon comforted.

(741) Mr. Pitt.

356 Letter 207
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Dec. 23, 1756.

I KNOW I can no more add to your concern than to my own, by
giving you the last account of your dear brother, who put a
period to our anxious suspense in the night between the 20th
and 21st. For the five last days he had little glimmerings of
amendment, that gave hopes to some of his friends, terror to
me, who dreaded his sensibility coming to Itself! When I had
given up his life, I could not bear the return of his
tenderness! Sure he had felt enough for his friends--yet he
would have been anxious for them if he had recovered his
senses. He has left your brothers Edward, James, and
Foote,(742) his executors; to his daughters 7500 pounds
a-piece, and the entail of his estate in succession--to a name
I beg we may never mention, 700 pounds a-year, 4000 pounds and
his furniture, etc. Your brother James, a very worthy man,
though you never can have two Gals. desired me to give you
this account--' how sad a return for the two letters I have
received from you this week! Be assured, my dear Sir, that
nothing could have saved his life. For your sake and my own I
hurry from this dreadful subject-not for the amusement of'
either, or that I have any thing to tell you: my letter shall
be very short, for I am stabbing you with a dagger used on
myself!

Mr. Pitt has not been able to return to Parliament for the
gout, which has prevented our having one long day; we adjourn
to-morrow for a fortnight; yet scarce to meet then for
business, as a call of the House is not appointed till the
20th of January; very late indeed, were any inquiries
probable: this advantage I hope will be gained, that our new
ministers will have a month's time to think of their country.

Adieu! my dear Sir, this letter was necessary for me to write-
-I find it as necessary to finish it.