Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

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TO THE NYMPH OF BATH.
Mistaken Nymph, thy gifts withhold;
Pitt's virtuous soul despises gold;
Grant him thy boon peculiar, health;
He'll guard, not covet, Britain's wealth.

Another.
The two great rivals London might content,
If what he values most to each she sent;
Ill was the franchise coupled with the box:
Give Pitt the freedom, and the gold to Fox.

ON DR. SHEBBEAR ABUSING Hume CAMPBELL FOR BEING A PROSTITUTE
ADVOCATE.
'Tis below you, dear Doctor to worry an elf,
Who you know will defend $any thing but himself.

The two first are but middling, and I am bound to think the
last so, as it is my own. Shebbear is a broken Jacobite
physician, who has threatened to write himself into a place or
the pillory: he has Just published a bitter letter to the Duke
of Newcastle, which occasioned the above two lines.

The French have seized in their own name the country of
Bentheim, a purchase of the King's, after having offered him
the most insulting neutrality for Hanover, in the world; they
proposed putting a garrison into the strongest Post(785) he has,
with twenty other concessions. We have rumours of the Prince of
Bevern having beaten the Austrians considerably.
I believe, upon review, that this is a mighty indefinite
letter; I would have waited for certainties, but not knowing
how long that might be, I thought you would prefer this
parenthesis of politics.

lord Northumberland's great gallery is finished and opened; it
is a sumptuous chamber, but might have been in a better taste.
He is wonderfully content with his pictures, and gave me leave
to repeat it to you. I rejoiced, as you had been the
negotiator--as you was not the painter, you will allow me not
to be so profuse of my applause. Indeed I have yet only seen
them by candle-light. Mengs's School of Athens pleased me:
Pompeio's two are black and hard; Mazucci's Apollo, fade and
without beauty; Costanza's piece is abominable. Adieu! till a
ministry.

(785) Hamelen.

374 Letter 218
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, May 19, 1757.

We are not yet arrived at having a ministry, but we have had
two or three alarms at one. On Monday, the Duke of
Devonshire, impatient for a plaything, took the chamberlain's
staff and key--these were reckoned certain prognostics; but they
were only symptoms Of his childishness. Yesterday it was
published that Mr. Pitt's terms were so extravagant, that the
Duke of Newcastle could not comply with them--and would take the
whole himself--perhaps leave some little trifle for Mr.
Fox--to-day all is afloat again, and all negotiations to
recommence. Pitt's demands were, that his grace should not
meddle in the House of Commons, nor in the province of
Secretary of State, but stick to the Treasury, and even there
to be controlled by a majority of Mr. Pitt's friends-they were
certainly great terms, but he has been taught not to trust less.
But it is tautology to dwell on these variations; the
inclosed(786 is an exact picture of our situation--and is
perhaps the only political paper ever written, in which no man
of any party can dislike or deny a single fact. I wrote it in
an hour and a half, and you will perceive that it must be the
effect of a single thought.

We had big letters yesterday of a total victory of the King of
Prussia over the Austrians,(787) with their army dispersed and
their general wounded and prisoner--I don't know how, but it is
not confirmed yet. You must excuse the brevity of my
English letter, in consideration of my Chinese one. Adieu!
(786) Letter from Xo Ho, a Chinese philosopher at London, to
his friend Lien Chi at Pekin.

(787) This was the battle of Prague, gained by the King of
Prussia on the 6th of May, 1757, over the forces of the
Empress-Queen, commanded by Prince Charles of Lorraine.-D.

375 Letter 219
To George Montagu, Esq.
May 27, 1757.

I have ticketed you with numbers 5832, 58322, 58323, 58324,
58325, 58326; I think you bespoke six. I do not send them by
post, unless you order it: but I have writ your name on each,
lest in case of accident my executors should put them into my
auction, for which you are so impatient, and then you would have
to buy them over again.

I am glad you like Xo Ho: I think every body does, which is
strange, considering it has no merit but truth. Mrs. Clive
cried out like you, "Lord! you will be sent to the Tower!"
"Well," said I coolly, "my father was there before me."

Lord Abercorn's picture is extremely like; he seems by the
Vandyke habit to be got back into his own times; but nothing is
finished yet, except the head.

You will be diverted with a health which my Lady Townshend gave
at supper with the Prince t'other night: "'Tis a health you will
all like," she said. "Well! what is it?" "The three P's." The
boy coloured up to the eyes. After keeping them in suspense
some time, she named, Pitt, Peace, and Plenty. The Princess has
given Home, the author of Douglas, a hundred a year. Prince and
Princess Edward continue to entertain
themselves and Ranelagh every night.

I wish your brother and all heirs to estates joy, for old Shutz
is dead, and cannot wriggle himself into any more wills. The
ministry is not yet hatched; the King of Prussia is
conquering the world; Mr. Chute has some murmurs of the gout;
and I am yours for ever.

376 Letter 220
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, June 1, 1757.

After a vacancy of full two months, we are at last likely to
have a ministry again--I do not promise you a very lasting one.
Last Wednesday the conferences broke off between the Duke of
Newcastle and Mr. Pitt; the latter demanding a full restoration
of his friends, with the admiralty and a peerage for Mr. Legge,
the blue riband and, I believe, Ireland for Lord Temple, and Mr.
Grenville for chancellor of the
exchequer, with stipulations that no more money should be sent
this year to Germany. The last article, the admiralty, and
especially the exchequer, were positively refused; and on Friday
the Duke went to the King, and consented to be sole minister,
insisting that Mr. Fox should be nothing but
paymaster, not cabinet-councillor, and have no power; Sir
Thomas Robinson to be again secretary of state, and Sir George
Lee chancellor of exchequer. For form, he was to retire to
Claremont for a few days, to take advice of his oracle, whose
answer he had already dictated. Lord Hardwicke refuses the
seals; says, he desires nobody should be dismissed for him; if
president or privy seal should by any means be vacant, he will
accept either, but nothing till Lord Anson is satisfied, for
whom he asks treasurer of the navy. The Duke goes to
Kensington to-morrow, when all this is to be declared-however,
till it is, I shall doubt it. Lord Lincoln and his principal
friends are vehement against it; and indeed his grace seems to
be precipitating his own ruin. If Mr. Fox could forgive all
that is past, which he by no means intends, here are now
provocations added--will they invite Mr. Fox's support? Not to
mention what Unpopular German steps the Duke must take to
recover the King's favour, who is now entirely Fox's; the latter
is answerable for nothing, and I believe would not manage
inquiries against his grace as Mr. Pitt has--leniently. In
short, I think the month of October will terminate the fortunes
of the house of Pelham for ever--his supporters are ridiculous;
his followers will every day desert to one or other of the two
princes(788) of the blood, who head the other factions. Two
parts in three of the cabinet, at least half, are attached to
Mr. Fox; there the Duke will be overborne; in Parliament will be
deserted. Never was a plan concerted with more weakness!

I enclose a most extraordinary print. Mr. Fox has found some
caricaturist(789) equal to George Townshend, and who manages
royal personages with at least as little ceremony. I have
written "Lord Lincoln" over the blue riband, because some people
take it for him--likeness there is none: it is certain Lord
Lincoln's mother was no whore; she never recovered the death of
her husband. The line that follows "son of a whore" seems but
too much connected with it; at least the "could say more" is not
very merciful. The person of Lord Bute, not his face, is
ridiculously like; Newcastle, Pitt, and Lord Temple are the very
men. It came out but to-day, and shows how
cordial the new union is. Since the Ligue against Henry III.
of France, there never was such intemperate freedom with
velvet and ermine; never, I believe, where religion was not
concerned.

I cannot find by the dates you send me that I have received
yours of Jan. 1, and Feb. 12, and I keep all your letters very
orderly. Mine of this year to you have been of Jan. 6, 17, 30;
Feb. 14; March 3 , 17; April 7, 20; May 5, 19. Tell me if you
have received them.

What a King is our Prussian! how his victories come out
doubled and trebled above their very fame! My Lady Townshend
says, "Lord! how all the Queens will go to see this Solomon! and
how they will be disappointed!" How she of Hungary is
disappointed! We hear that the French have recalled their green
troops, which had advanced for show, and have sent their oldest
regiments against the Duke.(790) Our foreign affairs are very
serious, but I don't know whether I do not think that our
domestic tend to be more so! Adieu!

(788) The Prince of Wales, who espoused Mr. Pitt; and the Duke
of Cumberland, Mr. Fox.

(789) This relates to a print that made much noise, called "The
Turnstile." The uncertain figure pretended to be Lord Lincoln,
but was generally thought to mean the Prince of
Wales, whom it resembled; but in the second impression a
little demon was inserted to imply ,The Devil over Lincoln."
Yet that evasion did not efface the first idea.

(790) The Duke of Cumberland.

377 Letter 221
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, June 2, 1757.

The ministry is to be settled to-day; there are different
accounts how: some say, that the Duke of Newcastle is to take
orders and to have the reversion of the bishopric of
Winchester: that Mr. Pitt is to have a regiment and to go serve
in Germany with the Duke; that Mr. Fox is to have Sir William
Irby'S place,(791) and be chamberlain to the Princess; that my
Lord Bute is to be divorced and marry Princess Emily; and that
my Lord Darlington is to be first minister. Others say, that
the Duke of Newcastle is to be sole minister, having broken with
Mr. Pitt; that Sir Thomas Robinson is to be again secretary of
state; Sir George Lee chancellor of the
exchequer, and Mr. Fox paymaster, but with no place in the
cabinet, nor any power. I believe the Duke himself has said
this; but, as I think the former establishment would be the less
ridiculous of the two, I intend to believe that.

I send you your tickets and a curious new print. The blue
riband in the corner, and the line that explains it, but
leaves it still in the dark, makes much noise. I choose to
think it my Lord Lincoln, for, having a tenderness for
royalties, I will not suppose, as most do, that it points
higher. The rest are certainly admirable: the times are very
entertaining; one cannot complain that no Wit is stirring, as
one used to do. I never thought I should feel glad for the death
of poor Mr. Pelham; but really it has opened such scenes of
amusement, that I begin to bear it better than I did. I rejoice
to hear that your brother is accommodated, though not by my
means. The Duke of Bedford might have reflected, that what I
asked was a very trifle, or that I should never have asked it;
nay, that if I could have asked a favour of
consequence, I should not have applied to himself, but to those
who govern him,--to the Duchess and Rigby.

I certainly am glad of rain, but could wish it was boiled a
little over the sun first: Mr. Bentley calls this the hard
summer, and says he is forced to buy his fine weather at
Newcastle. Adieu!

P. S. Pray acknowledge the receipt of your tickets. I don't
know how you came not to see the advertisements of Xo Ho, which
have been in continually; four editions were published in twelve
days.

(791) Vice-chamberlain to the Princess of wales.

378 Letter 222
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, June 9, 1757.

I must write you a very different story from my last. The day
before yesterday the Duke of Newcastle, who had resumed
conferences with Mr. Pitt by the intervention of Lord Bute,
though they could not agree on particulars, went to
Kensington, and told the King he could not act without Mr. Pitt
and a great plan of that connexion. The King reproached him
with his breach of promise; It seems the King is in the wrong
for Lord Lincoln and that court reckon his grace as white as
snow, and as steady as virtue itself. Mr. Fox went to court,
and consented to undertake the whole--but it is madness! Lord
Waldegrave,(792) a worthy man as ever was born, and sensible, is
to be the first lord of his treasury. Who is to be any thing
else I don't know, for by to-morrow it will rain resignations as
it did in the year '46. Lord Holderness has begun, and gave up
to-day; the Dukes of Rutland and Leeds and all these Pelhamites
are to follow immediately: the
standard of opposition is, I believe, ready painted, and is to
be hung out at Leicester-house by the beginning of the week. I
grieve for Mr. Fox, and have told him so: I see how
desperate his game is, but I shall not desert him, though I
mean nor meant to profit of his friendship. So many places will
be vacant, that I cannot yet guess who will be to fill them.
Mr. Fox will be chancellor of the exchequer, and, I think, Lord
Egremont one of the secretaries of state. What is certain,
great clamour, and I fear. great confusion, will follow. You
shall know more particulars in a few days, but at present I have
neither time for it, nor knowledge of, more. Adieu!

(792) James second Earl Waldegrave, and first Husband to Maria
Duchess of gloucester.

379 Letter 223
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, June 14, 1757.

This is Tuesday; I wrote to you but on Thursday, and promised to
write again in a few days--a week cannot pass without a new
revolution. On Friday Mr. Fox found that his kissing hands was
to be a signal for the resignations: Lord Rockingham and Lord
Coventry were the most eager to give up. The Duke of Newcastle,
transported that his breach of promise and
ingratitude to the King produced such noble mischief,
endeavoured to spread the flame as wide as possible. On
Saturday, Mr. Fox and Lord Waldegrave represented the ugly
situation of their affairs, and advised against persisting, yet
offering to proceed if commanded. The Chief Justice, who was to
carry the exchequer seal that morning, enforced this-- "Well,"
said the King, "go tell the others to make what
ministry they can; I only insist on two things, that Lord
Winchilsea remain where he is, and that Fox be paymaster."
These two preliminaries would be enough to prevent the whole, if
there were no other obstacles. Lord Winchilsea, indeed, would
not act with Newcastle and Pitt, if they would consent; but
there are twenty other impediments: Leicester-house can never
forgive or endure Fox; and if they could, his and
Winchilsea's remaining would keep their friends from
resigning, and then how would there be room for Newcastle's
zealots or Pitt's martyrs? But what I take to be most
difficult of all, is the accommodation between the chiefs
themselves: his grace's head and heart seem to be just as young
and as old as ever they were; this triumph will
intoxicate him; if he could not agree with Pitt, when his
prospect was worst, be will not be more firm or more sincere
when all his doublings have been rewarded. If his vainglory
turns his head, it will make no impression on Pitt, who is as
little likely to be awed by another's pageant, as to be
depressed by his own slender train. They can't agree--but what
becomes of us? There are three factions, just strong enough to
make every thing impracticable.

The willing victim, Lord Holderness, is likely to be the most
real victim. His situation was exactly parallel to Lord
Harrington's,(793) with the addition of the latter's
experience. Both the children of fortune, unsupported by
talents, fostered by the King's favour, without connexions or
interest, deserted him to please this wayward Duke, who, to
recover a little favour in the cabinet, sacrificed the first to
the King@s resentment, and has prepared to treat the other in
the same manner, by protesting that he did not ask the
compliment. But no matter for him! I have already told you, and
I repeat, that I see no end to these struggles without great
convulsions. The provocations, and consequently the
resentments, increase with every revolution. Blood royal is
mixed in the quarrels: two factions might cease by the victory
of either; here is always a third ready to turn the scale.
Happily the people care or interest themselves very little about
all this-but they will be listed soon, as the chiefs grow so
much in earnest, and as there are men of such vast property
engaged on every side-there is not a public pretence on any.
The scramble is avowedly for power-whoever remains master of the
field at last, I fear, will have power to use it!

This is not the sole uneasiness at Kensington; they know the
proximity of the French army to the Duke, and think that by this
time there may have been an action: the suspense is not
pleasant: the event may have great consequences even on these
broils at home. For the King of Prussia, he is left to the
coffee-houses. Adieu! I can scarce steal a day for
Strawberry; if one leaves London to itself for four-and-twenty
hours, one finds it topsy-turvy.

(793) William Stanhope, Earl of Harrington, who, though a
younger brother, had been raised to an earldom, to be Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland, and Secretary of State, had been the
first man to resign his place in 1746, when the King, his master
and benefactor, had a mind to remove the Pelhams, and make Lord
Granville prime minister. He was afterwards
sacrificed by the Pelhams to please the King. Lord Holderness
was born to an earldom, but having little fortune or parts, had
been promoted by the Duke of Newcastle to great posts.

380 Letter 224
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, June 20, 1757.

I renounce all prophesying; I will never suppose that I can
foresee politically; I can foresee nothing, what ever I may
foretell. Here is a ministry formed of all the people who for
these ten weeks have been giving each other exclusion! I will
now not venture, even to pronounce that they cannot agree
together. On Saturday last, the 18th, Lord Hardwicke carried to
Kensington the result of the last negotiations between Newcastle
and Pitt, and the latter followed and actually
kissed hands again for the seals.(794) Here is the
arrangement as far as I know it, the most extraordinary part of
which is, that they suffer Mr. Fox to be paymaster--oh! no, it
is more extraordinary that he will submit to be so. His grace
returns to the treasury, and replaces there his singular good
friend Mr. Legge. Lord Holderness "comes to life again as
secretary of state; Lord Anson reassumes the admiralty, not with
the present board, nor with his own, but with Mr. Pitt's, and
this by Mr. Pitt's own desire. The Duke of Dorset retires with
a pension of 4000 pounds a-year, to make room for Lord Gower,
that he may make room for Lord Temple. Lord George Sackville
forces out Lord Barrington from secretary at war, who was going
to resign with the rest, for fear Mr. Fox
should, and that this plan should not take place. Lord
Hardwicke, young disinterested creature! waits till something
drops. Thus far all was smooth; but even this perfection of
harmony and wisdom meets with rubs. Lord Halifax had often and
lately been promised to be erected into a secretary of state for
the West Indies. Mr. Pitt says, "No, I will not part with so
much power." Lord Halifax resigned on Saturday, and Lord Dublin
succeeds him. The two Townshends are gone into the country in a
rage; Lord Anson is made the pretence; Mr. Fox is the real sore
to George, Lord G. Sackville to
Charles. Sir George Lee, who resigned his treasurership to the
Princess against Mr. Pitt, and as the world says, wanting to
bring Lord Bute into Doctors' Commons,(795) is succeeded by Lord
Bute's brother M'Kinsy; but to be sure, all this, in which there
is no intrigue, no change, no policy, no hatred, no jealousy, no
disappointment, no resentment, no
mortification, no ambition, Will produce the utmost concord! It
is a system formed to last; and to be sure it will! In the mean
time, I shall bid adieu to politics; my curiosity is satisfied
for some months, and I shall betake myself to
employments I love better, and to this place, which I love best
of all. Here is the first fruit of my retirement; behind a
bas-relief in wax of the present Pope I have writ the
following inscription:

Prospero Lambertini
Bishop of Rome
by the name of Benedict IV.
who, though an absolute Prince, reigned as harmlessly as a Doge
of Venice. He restored the lustre of the Tiara by those arts
alone, by which alone he obtained it, his Virtues.
Beloved by Papists, esteemed by Protestants: A Priest without
insolence or interest; A Prince without favourites; A Pope
without nepotism: An Author without vanity; In short, a Man whom
neither Wit nor Power could spoil. The Son of a
favourite Minister, but One, who never courted a Prince, nor
worshipped a Churchman, offers, in a free Protestant Country,
this deserved Incense to the Best of the Roman Pontiffs.

If the good old soul is still alive, and you could do it
unaffectedly and easily, you may convey it to him; it must be a
satisfaction to a good heart to know that in so distant a
country, so detached from his, his merit is acknowledged,
without a possibility of interest entering into the
consideration. His death-bed does not want comfort or
cheerfulness, but it may be capable of an expansion of heart
that May still sweeten it! Adieu!

(794) "On the day they were all to kiss hands," says Lord
Waldegrave, "I went to Kensington, to entertain myself with the
innocent, or, perhaps, ill-natured amusement of examining the
different countenances. The behaviour of Pitt and his party was
decent and sensible; they had neither the insolence of men who
had gained a victory, nor were they awkward and disconcerted,
like those who come to a place where they know they are not
welcome: but as to the Duke of Newcastle, and his friends the
resigners, there was a mixture of fear and of shame on their
countenances: they were real objects of
compassion." Memoires, 138.-E.

(795) Meaning the offence he took at Lord Bute's favourite. Sir
George Lee was a civilian.

382 Letter 225
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, July 3, 1757.

I have been under great uneasiness about you; Coloredo, the
Austrian minister, is recalled precipitately, with orders not to
take leave. our papers joined Pucci(796) with him in this
recall, but I do not find with any foundation. However, I cannot
be easy while your situation is precarious. One should conceive
that the advantages of the English trade to Tuscany would induce
the Emperor to preserve a neutrality; but what are good reasons
against his wife's vengeance and obstinacy, and haughtiness?
Tell me immediately what you think or hear on this head; what
steps you would take; whither you would retire if this should
happen; whether you would not come home to watch over your own
interest and return, or whether you would be more in the way by
remaining in Italy. I know not what to advise; I don't even
know how this letter is to get to you, and how our
correspondence will continue; at least it must be very
irregular, now all communication is cut off through the
Empress's dominions. I am in great solicitude!

Had this recall happened a week later I should not have
wondered: it was haughty, indeed, at the time it was dictated;
but two days, and we heard of the reversal of all the King of
Prussia's triumphs; of his being beat by Count Daun; of the
siege of Prague being raised: of Prince Charles falling on their
retreat and cutting off two thousand: we would willingly not
believe to the extent of all this,(797) yet we have known what
it is to have our allies or ourselves beaten! The Duke has been
forced to pass the Weser, but writes that the French are so
distressed for provisions that he hopes to repass it.
I notified to you the settlement of the ministry, and,
contrary to late custom, have not to unnotify it again.
However, it took ten days to complete, after an
inter-ministerium of exactly three months. I have often
called this the age of abortions; for the present, the
struggles of the three factions, that threatened such
disturbances, have gone off like other forebodings. I think I
told you in my last the chief alterations; the King would not
absolutely give the secretary at war to Lord George Sackville;
Lord Barrington remains: the Duke of Dorset would not take a
pension eo nomine; his cinque-ports are given to him for life,
with a salary of four thousand pounds a-year. Lord
Cholmondeley, who is removed for Potter, has a pension equal to
his place. Mr. M'Kinsy is not treasurer to the Princess, as I
told you. One of the most extraordinary parts of the new system
is the advancement of Sir Robert Henley. He was made
attorney-general by Mr. Fox at the end of last year, and made as
bad a figure as might be. Mr. Pitt insisting upon an
attorney-general of his own, Sir Robert Henley is made lord
keeper!(798) The first mortification to Lord Holderness has
been, that, having been promised a garter as well as Lord
Waldegrave, and but one being vacant, that one, contrary to
customs has been given to the latter, with peculiar marks of
grace. I now come to your letter of June 18th, and attribute to
your distance, or to my imperfect representations of our actors
and affairs, that you suppose our dissensions owing to French
intrigues--we want no foreign causes; but in so
precarious a letter as this I cannot enter into farther
explanations; indeed the French need not be at any trouble to
distract or weaken our councils!