Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

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(742) Mr. Foote married the second sister of Mr. Mann; as his
brother, a clergyman, afterwards did the third.

356 Letter 208
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, January 6, 1757.

I live in dread of receiving your unhappy letters! I am
sensible how many, many reasons you have to lament your dear
brother; yet your long absence will prevent the loss of him
from leaving so sharp a sting as it would have done had you
seen as much of him as I have of late years! When I wrote to
you, I did not know his last instance Of love to you;(743) may
you never have occasion to use it!

I wish I could tell you any politics to abstract your thoughts
from your concern; but just at present all political
conversation centres in such a magazine of abuse, as was
scarce ever paralleled. Two papers, called the "Test" and
"Contest," appear every Saturday, the former against Mr. Pitt,
the latter against Mr. Fox, which make me recollect-,' "Fogs"
and "Craftsmen" as harmless libels. The authors are not
known; Doddington(744) is believed to have the chief hand in
the "Test,"(745) which is much the best, unless virulence is
to bestow the laurel. He has been turned out by the opposite
faction, and has a new opportunity of revenge, being just
become a widower. The best part of his fortune is entailed on
lord Temple if he has no son; but I suppose he would rather
marry a female hawker than not propagate children and
lampoons. There is another paper, called "The Monitor,"(746)
written by one Dr. Shebbeare, who made a pious resolution of
writing himself into a place or the pillory,(747) but having
miscarried in both views, is wreaking his resentment on the
late Chancellor, who might have gratified him in either of his
objects. The Parliament meets to-morrow, but as Mr. Pitt
cannot yet walk, we are not likely soon to have any business.
Admiral Byng's trial has been in agitation above these ten
days, and is supposed an affair of length: I think the reports
are rather unfavourable to him, though I do not find that it
is believed he will be capitally punished. I will tell you my
sentiments, I don't know whether judicious or not: it may
perhaps take a great deal of time to prove he was not a
coward; I should think it would not take half an hour to prove
he had behaved bravely.

Your old royal guest King Theodore is gone to the place which
it is said levels kings and beggars; an unnecessary journey
for him, who had already fallen from one to the other; I think
he died somewhere in the liberties of the Fleet.(748)

lord Lyttelton has received his things, and is much content
with them; this leads me to trouble you with another, I hope
trifling, commission; will you send me a case of the best
drains for Lord Hertford, and let me know the charge?

You must take this short letter only as an instance of my
attention to you; I would write, though I knew nothing to tell
you.

(743) Mr. Galfridus Mann left an annuity to his brother Sir
Horace, in case he were recalled from Florence.

(744) George Bubb Doddington, Esq. This report was not
confirmed.

(745) "The Test" was written principally by Arthur Murphy. It
forms a thin folio volume,.-E.

(746) "The "Monitor" was commenced in August 1755, and
terminated in July 1759. It is said to have been planned by
Alderman Beckford.-E.

(747) He did write himself into a pillory before, the
conclusion of that reign, and into a pension at the beginning
of the next, for one and the same kind of merit,--writing
against King William and the Revolution.

(748) See an account of his death, and the monument and
epitaph erected for him in Mr. Walpole's fugitive pieces; see
also his letter to Sir Horace Mann of the 29th of September,
in this year.-E.

358 Letter 209
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Jan. 17, 1757.

I am still, my dear Sir, waiting for your melancholy letters,
not one of which has yet reached me. I am impatient to know
how you bear your misfortune, though I tremble at what I shall
feel from your expressing it! Except good Dr. Cocchi, what
sensible friend have you at Florence to share and moderate
your unhappiness?--but I will not renew it: I will hurry to
tell you any thing that may amuse it--and yet what is that any
thing; Mr. Pitt, as George Selwyn says, has again taken to his
Lit de Justice; he has been once with the King,(749) but not
at the House; the day before yesterday the gout flew into his
arm, and has again laid him up: I am so particular in this,
because all our transactions, or rather our inactivity, hang
upon the progress of his distemper. Mr. Pitt and every thing
else have been forgot for these five days, obscured by the
news of the assassination of the King of France.(750) I don't
pretend to tell you any circumstance of it, who must know them
better than, at least as well as, I can; war and the sea don't
contribute to dispel the clouds of lies that involve such a
business. The letters of the foreign ministers, and ours from
Brussels, say he has been at council; in the city he is
believed dead: I hope not! We should make a bad exchange in
the Dauphin. Though the King is weak and irresolute, I
believe he does not want sense: weakness, bigotry, and some
sense, are the properest materials for keeping alive the
disturbances in that country, to which this blow, if the man
was any thing but a madman, Will contribute. The despotic and
holy stupidity(751) of the successor would quash the
Parliament at once. He told his father about a year ago, that
if he was King, the next day, and the Pope should bid him lay
down his crown, he would. They tell or make a good answer for
the father, "And if he was to bid you take the crown from me,
would you!" We have particular cause to say masses for the
father: there is invincible aversion between him and the young
Pretender, whom, it is believed, nothing could make him
assist. You may judge what would make the Dauphin assist him!
he was one day reading the reign of Nero he said, "Ma foi,
c'`etoit le plus grand sc`el`erat qui f`ut jamais; il ne lui
manquoit que d'`etre Janseniste." I am grieving for my
favourite,(752) the Pope, whom we suppose dead, at least I
trust he was superannuated when they drew from him the late
Bull enjoining the admission of the Unigenitus on pain of
damnation; a step how unlike all the amiable moderation of his
life! In my last I told you the death of another monarch, for
whom in our time you and I have interested ourselves, King
Theodore. He had just taken the benefit of the act of
insolvency, and went to the Old Bailey for that purpose: in
order to it, the person applying gives up all his effects to
his creditors - his Majesty was asked what effects he had? He
replied, nothing but the kingdom of Corsica--and it is
actually registered for the benefit of the creditors. You may
get it intimated to the Pretender, that if he has a mind to
heap titles upon the two or three medals that he coins, he has
nothing to do but to pay King Theodore's debts, and he may
have very good pretensions to Corsica. As soon as Theodore
was at liberty, he took a chair and went to the Portuguese
minister, but did not find him at home: not having sixpence to
pay, he prevailed on the chairman to carry him to a tailor he
knew in Soho, whom he prevailed upon to harbour him; but he
fell sick the next day, and died in three more.

Byng's trial continues; it has gone ill for him, but mends; it
is the general opinion that he will come off for some severe
censure.

Bower's first part of his reply is published; he has pinned a
most notorious falsehood about a Dr. Aspinwall on his enemies,
which must destroy their credit, and will do him more service
than what he has yet been able to prove about himself. They
have published another pamphlet against his history, but so
impertinent and scurrilous and malicious, that it will serve
him more than his own defence: they may keep the old man's
life so employed as to prevent the prosecution of his work,
but nothing can destroy the merit of the three volumes already
published, which in every respect is the best written history
I know: the language is the purest, the compilation the most
judicious, and the argumentation the soundest.

The famous Miss Elizabeth Villiers Pitt(753) is in England;
the only public place in which she has been seen is the Popish
chapel; her only exploit, endeavours to wreak her malice on
her brother William, whose kindness to her has been excessive.
She applies to all his enemies, and, as Mr. Fox told me, has
even gone so far as to send a bundle of his letters to the
author of the Test, to prove that Mr. Pitt has cheated her, as
she calls it, of a hundred a year, and which only prove that
he once allowed her two, and after all her wickedness still
allows her one. she must be vexed that she has no way of
setting the gout more against him! Adieu! tell me if you
receive all my letters.

(749) "The King became every day more and more averse to his
new ministers. Pitt, indeed, had not frequent occasions of
giving offence, having been confined by the gout the greater
part of the winter; and when he made his appearance he behaved
with proper respect, so that the King, though he did not like
his speeches, always treated him like a gentleman."
Waldegrave, p. 93.-E.

(750) Lady Hervey, in a letter of the 13th, gives the
following account of Damien's attempt:--"I have barely time to
tell you the news of the day, which arrived by a courier from
France this morning to M. d'Abreu, the Spanish minister. The
King of France was stepping into his coach to go to Bellevue,
and a fellow who seemed to be gaping and looking at the coach
en hayeur, took his opportunity, and taking aim at the King's
heart thrust his dagger into his side,--Just over against the
heart; but a lucky and sudden motion the King gave with his
elbow at that moment, turned the dagger. which made only a
slight wound in his ribs, as they say, which is judged not to
be dangerous. The fellow was immediately secured."-E.

(751) The Dauphin, son of Louis XV., had been bred a bigot;
but, as he by no means wanted sense, he got over the
prejudices of his education, and before he died had far more
liberal sentiments.

(752) Prospero Lambertini, by the name of Benedict XIV. For
Walpole's inscription on his picture, see Works, vol. i. p.
218; and also post, letter to Sir Horace Mann of the 20th of
June, in this year.-E.

(753) Sister of William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham.

360 Letter 210
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Jan. 30, 1757.

Last night I received your most melancholy letter of the 8th
of this month, in which you seem to feel all or more than I
apprehended. As I trust to time and the necessary avocation
of your thoughts, rather than to any arguments I could use for
your consolation, I choose to say as little more as possible
on the subject of your loss. Your not receiving letters from
your brothers as early as mine was the consequence of their
desiring me to take that most unwelcome office upon me: I
believe they have both written since, though your eldest
brother has had a severe fit of the gout: they are both
exceedingly busied in the details necessarily fallen upon
them. That would be no reason for their neglecting you, nor I
am persuaded will they; they shall certainly want no
incitements from me, who wish and will endeavour as much as
possible to repair your loss, alas! how inadequately! Your
brother James has found great favour from the Duke.(754) Your
@brother Ned, who is but just come to town from his
confinement, tells me that your nephew will be in vast
circumstances; above an hundred thousand pounds, besides the
landed estate and debts! These little details related, I had
rather try to amuse you, than indulge your grief and my own;
your dear brother's memory will never be separated from mine;
but the way in which I shall show it, shall be in increased
attention to you: he and you will make me perpetually think on
both of you!

All England is again occupied with Admiral Byng; he and his
friends were quite persuaded of his acquittal. The
court-martial, after the trial was finished, kept the whole
world in suspense for a week; after great debates and
divisions amongst themselves, and despatching messengers
hither to consult lawyers whether they could not mitigate the
article of war, to which a negative was returned, they
pronounced this extraordinary sentence on Thursday: they
condemn him to death for negligence, but acquit him of
disaffection and cowardice (the other heads of the article),
specifying the testimony of Lord Robert Bertie in his favour,
and unanimously recommending him to mercy; and accompanying
their sentence with a most earnest letter to the Lords of the
admiralty to intercede for his pardon, saying, that finding
themselves tied up from moderating the article of war, and not
being able in conscience to pronounce that he had done all he
could, they had been forced to bring him in guilty, but beg he
may be spared. The discussions and difference of opinions, on
the sentence is incredible. The cabinet council, I believe,
will be to determine whether the King shall pardon him or not:
some who wish to make him the scapegoat for their own
neglects, I fear, will try to complete his fate, but I should
think the new administration will not be biassed to blood by
such interested attempts. He bore well his Unexpected
sentence, as he has all the outrageous indignities and
cruelties heaped upon him. last week happened an odd event, I
can scarce say in his favour, as the world seems to think it
the effect of the arts of some of his friends: Voltaire sent
him from Switzerland an accidental letter of the Duc de
Richelieu bearing witness to the Admiral's good behaviour in
the engagement.(755) A letter of a very deferent cast, and of
great humour, is showed about, said to be written to Admiral
Boscawen from an old tar, to this effect:

"Sir., I had the honour of being at the taking of Port Mahon,
for which one gentleman(756) was made a lord; I was also at
the losing of Mahon, for which another gentleman(757) has been
made a lord: each of those gentlemen performed but one of
those services; surely I, who performed both, ought at least
to be made a lieutenant. Which is all from your honour's
humble servant, etc."(758)

Did you hear that after their conquest, the French ladies wore
little towers for pompons, and called them des Mahonnoises? I
suppose, since the attempt on the King, all their fashions
will be `a l'assassin. We are quite in the dark still about
that history: it is one of the bad effects of living in one's
own time, that one never knows the truth of it till one is
dead!

Old Fontenelle is dead at last;(759) they asked him as he was
dying "s'il sentoit quelque mal?" He replied, "Oui, je sens
le mal d'`etre." My uncle, a young creature compared to
Fontenelle, is grown something between childish and mad, and
raves about the melancholy situation of politics;(760) one
should think he did not much despair of his country, when at
seventy-eight he could practice such dirty arts to intercept
his brother's estate from his brother's grandchildren!
conclusion how unlike that of the honest good-humoured Pope! I
am charmed with his bon-mot that you sent me. Apropos! Mr,
Chute has received a present of a diamond mourning ring from a
cousin; he calls it l'anello del Piscatore.(761)

Mr. Pitt is still confined, and the House of Commons little
better than a coffee-house. I was diverted the other day with
P`ere Brumoy's translation of Aristophanes; the Harangueses,
or female orators, who take the Government upon themselves
instead of their husbands, might be well applied to our
politics: Lady Hester Pitt, Lady Caroline Fox, and the Duchess
of Newcastle, should be the heroines of the piece; and with
this advantage, that as lysistrata is forced to put on a
beard, the Duchess has one ready grown.

Sir Charles Williams is returning, on the bad success of our
dealings with Russia. The French were so determined to secure
the Czarina, that they chose about seven of their handsomest
young men to accompany their ambassador. How unlucky for us,
that Sir Charles was embroiled with Sir Edward Hussey Montagu,
who could alone have outweighed all the seven! Sir Charles's
daughter, Lady Essex, had engaged the attentions of Prince
Edward,(762) who has got his liberty, and seems extremely
disposed to use it, and has great life and good-humour. She
has already made a ball for him. Sir Richard Lyttelton was so
wise as to make her a visit, and advise her not to meddle with
politics; that the Princess would conclude it was a plan laid
for bringing together Prince Edward and Mr. Fox!(763) As Mr.
Fox was not just the person my Lady Essex was thinking of
bringing together with Prince Edward, she replied very
cleverly, "And my dear Sir Richard, let me advise you not to
meddle with politics neither." Adieu!

(754) From the Duke of Cumberland, commander-in-chief of the
army. Mr. Galfridus and James Mann were clothiers to many
regiments.

(755) Voltaire's letter to Admiral Byng was written in
English, and is as follows:@' Aux D`elices, pr`es de Gen`eve.
Sir, though I am almost unknown to you, I think 'tis my duty
to send you the copy of the letter which I have just received
from the Marshal Duc de Richelieu; honour, humanity, and
equity order me to convey it into your hands. The noble and
unexpected testimony from one of the most candid as well as
the most generous of my countrymen, makes me presume your
judges will do you the same justice." Sir John Barrow, in his
Life of Lord Anson, proves that these letters got into the
hands of those who were not friendly to the Admiral, and he
suspects that they never reached the unfortunate person for
whose benefit they were intended.-E.

(756) Byng, Viscount Torrington.

(757) Lord Blakeney.

(758) It is now generally believed that Byng was brave but
incapable. He might have done more than he did; but this was
occasioned not by his want of courage, but by his want of
ability. He was cruelly sacrificed to the fury of the people,
and to the popularity of the ministry.-D.

(759) Fontenelle died on the 9th of January, having nearly
completed his hundredth year. M. le Cat, in his `eloge of
him, gives the following account of his dying words!--"he
reflected upon his own situation, just as he would upon that
of another man, and seemed to be observing a phenomenon.
Drawing very near his end, he said, 'This is the first death I
have ever seen;' and his physicians having asked him, whether
be was in pain, or what he felt, his answer was, 'I feel
nothing but a difficulty of existing.'"-E.

(760) The following is Lord Chesterfield's account of Sir
Charles's mental alienation, in a letter of the 4th, to his
son: "He was let blood four times on board the ship, and has
been let blood four times since his arrival here; but still
the inflammation continues very high. He is now under the
care of his brothers. They have written to the same
Mademoiselle John, to prevent, if they can, her coming to
England; which, when she hears, she must be as mad as he is,
if she takes the journey. By the way, she must be une dame
aventuri`ere, to receive a note for ten thousand roubles, from
a man whom she had known only three days; to take a contract
of marriage, knowing he was married already; and to engage
herself to follow him to England." Again, on the 22d, he
writes, "Sir C. W. is still in confinement, and, I fear, will
always be so, for he seems cum ratione sanire: the physicians
have collected all he has said and done, that indicated an
alienation of mind, and have laid it before him in writing; he
has answered it in writing too, and justifies himself by the
most plausible argument that can possibly be urged. I
conclude this subject With pitying him, and poor human nature,
which holds its reason by so precarious a tenure. The lady,
who you tell me is set out, en sera pour la peine et les frais
du voyage, for her note is worth no more than her
contract."-E.

(761) The Pope's seal with a ring, which is called the
Fisherman's ring. Mr. Chute, who was unmarried, meant that
his cousin was fishing for his estate.

(762) Brother of George the Third; afterwards created Duke of
York. He died in 1767, at the early age of twenty-eight.-E.

(763) Sir Charles Williams was a particular friend of Mr. Fox.

363 Letter 211
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, Feb. 13, 1757.

I am not surprised to find you still lamenting your dear
brother but you are to blame, and perhaps I shall be so, for
asking and giving any more accounts of his last hours.
Indeed, after the fatal Saturday, on which I told you I was
prevented seeing him by his being occupied with his lawyer, he
had scarce an interval of sense--and no wonder! His lawyer
has since told me, that nothing ever equalled the horrid
indecencies of your sister-in-law on that day. Having yielded
to the settlement for which he so earnestly begged, she was
determined to make him purchase it, and in transports of
passion and avarice, kept traversing his chamber from the
lawyer to the bed, whispering her husband, and then telling
the lawyer, who was drawing the will, "Sir, Mr. Mann says I am
to have this, I am to have that!" The lawyer at last,
offended to the greatest degree, said, "Madam, it is Mr.
Mann's will I am making, not yours!"--but here let me break it
off; I have told you all I know, and too much. It was a very
different sensation I felt, when your brother Ned told me that
he had found seven thousand pounds in the stocks in your name.
As Mr. Chute and I know how little it is possible for you to
lay up, we conclude that this sum is amassed for you by dear
Gal.'s industry and kindness, and by a silent way of serving
you, without a possibility of his wife or any one else calling
it in question.

What a dreadful catastrophe is that of Richcourt's family!
What lesson for human grandeur! Florence, the scene of all his
triumphs and haughtiness, is now the theatre of his misery and
misfortunes!

After a fortnight of the greatest variety of opinions, Byng's
fate is still in suspense. The court and the late ministry
have been most bitter against him; the new admiralty most
good-natured; the King would not pardon him. They would not
execute the sentence, as many lawyers are clear that it is not
a legal one.(64) At last the council has referred it to the
twelve judges to give their opinion: if not a favourable one,
he dies! He has had many fortunate chances had the late
admiralty continued, one knows how little any would have
availed him. Their bitterness will always be recorded against
themselves: it will be difficult to persuade posterity that
all the shame of last summer was the fault of Byng! Exact
evidence of whose fault it was, I believe posterity will never
have: the long expected inquiries are begun, that is, some
papers have been moved for, but so coldly, that it is plain
George Townshend and the Tories are unwilling to push
researches that must necessarily reunite Newcastle and Fox.
In the mean time, Mr. Pitt stays at home, and holds the House
of Commons in commendam. I do not augur very well of the
ensuing summer; a detachment is going to America under a
commander whom a child might outwit, or terrify with a
pop-gun! The confusions in France seem to thicken with our
mismanagements: we hear of a total change in the ministry
there, and of the disgrace both of Machault and D'Argenson,
the chiefs of the Parliamentary and Ecclesiastic factions.
That the King should be struck with the violence Of their
parties, I don't wonder: it is said, that as he went to hold
the lit de Justice, no mortal cried Vive le Roi! but one old
woman, for which the mob knocked her down, and trampled her to
death.

My uncle died yesterday was Se'nnight; his death I really
believe hastened by the mortification of the money vainly
spent at Norwich. I neither intend to spend money, nor to die
of it, but, to my mortification, am forced to stand for Lynn,
in the room of his son. The corporation still reverence my
father's memory so much, that they will not bear distant
relations, while he has sons living. I was reading the other
day a foolish book called "l'Histoire des quatre Cic`erons;"
the author, who has taken Tully's son for his hero, says, he
piques himself on out-drinking Antony, his father's great
enemy. Do you think I shall ever pique myself on being richer
than my Lord Bath?

Prince Edward's pleasures continue to furnish conversation: he
has been rather forbid by the Signora Madre to make himself so
common; and he has been rather encouraged by his grandfather
to disregard the prohibition. The other night the Duke and he
were at a ball at Lady Rochford's:(765) she and Lady Essex
were singing in an inner chamber when the Princes entered, who
insisting on a repetition of the song, my Lady Essex, instead
of continuing the same, addressed herself to Prince Edward in
this ballad of Lord -Dorset-