The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford Volume III Part 47

Letter 202 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Arlington Street, April 12, 1764. (page 313)

I shall send your MS. volume this week to Mr. Cartwright, and with a thousand thanks. I ought to beg your pardon for having detained it so long. The truth is, I had not time till last week to copy two or three little things at most. Do not let this delay discourage you from lending me more. If I have them in summer I shall keep them much less time than in winter. I do not send my print with it as you ordered me, because I find it is too large to lie within the volume; and doubling a mezzotinto, you know, spoils it. You shall have one more, if you please, whenever I see you.

I have lately made a few curious additions to my collections of various sorts, and shall hope to show them to you at Strawberry Hill. Adieu!

Letter 203 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.

Arlington Street, April 19, 1764. (page 313)

I am just come from the d.u.c.h.ess of Argyll's,(592) where I dined.

General Warburton was there, and said it was the report at the House of Lords, that you are turned out--he imagined, of your regiment--but that I suppose is a mistake for the bedchamber.(593) I shall hear more to-night, and Lady Strafford, who brings you this, will tell you; though to be sure You will know earlier by the post to-morrow. My only reason for writing is, to repeat to you, that whatever you do, I shall act with you.(594) I resent any thing done to you as to myself. My fortunes shall never be separated from yours--except that some time or other I hope yours will be great, and I am content with mine.

The Manns go on with the business.(595) The letter you received was from Mr. Edward Mann, not from Gal.'s widow. Adieu! I was going to say, my disgraced friend--How delightful to have a character so unspotted, that the word disgrace recoils on those who displace you! Yours unalterably.

(592) Widow of John Campbell, Duke of Argyle. She was sister to General Warburton, and had been maid of Honour to Queen Anne.-E.

(593) Mr. Conway was dismissed from all his employments, civil and military, for having Opposed the ministry in the House of Commons, on the question of the legality of warrants, at the time of the prosecution of Mr. Wilkes for the publication of the North Briton.-C.

(594) Mr. Walpole was then in the House of Commons, member for King's Lynn in Norfolk.

(595) Of army-clothiers.

Letter 204 To The Earl Of Hertford.

Arlington Street, April 20, 1764. (page 314)

There has been a strong report about town for these two days that your brother is dismissed, not only from the bedchamber, but from his regiment, and that the latter is given to Lord Pembroke. I do not believe it. Your brother went to Park-place but yesterday morning at ten: he certainly knew nothing of it the night before when we parted, after one, at Grafton-house: nor would he have pa.s.sed my door yesterday without stopping to tell me Of it: no letter has been sent to his house since, nor were any orders arrived at the War office at half an hour after three yesterday; nay, though I can give the ministry credit for much folly, and some of them credit for even violence and folly, I do not believe they are so rash as this would amount to. For the bedchamber, you know, your brother never liked it, and would be glad to get rid of it. I should be sorry for his sake, and for yours too, if it went farther;--gentle and indifferent as his nature is, his resentment, if his profession were touched, would be as serious as such spirit and such abilities could make it. I would not be the man that advised provoking him; and one man(596) has put himself wofully in his power! In my own opinion, this is one of the lies of which the time is so fruitful; I would not even swear that it has not the same parent with the legend I sent you last week, relating to an intended disposition in consequence of Lord Holland's resignation. The court confidently deny the whole plan, and ascribe it to the fertility of Charles Townshend's brain. However, as they have their Charles Townshends too, I do not totally disbelieve it.

The Parliament rose yesterday,-no new peers, not even Irish: Lord Northumberland's list is sent back ungranted.(597) The Duke of MecklenbUrgh(598) and Lord Halifax are to have the garters.

Bridgman(599) is turned out of the green cloth, which is given to d.i.c.k Vernon; and his place of surveyor of the gardens, which young d.i.c.kinson held for him, is bestowed on Cadogan.(600) Dyson(601) is made a lord of trade. These are all the changes I have heard--not of a complexion that indicates the removal of your brother.

The foreign ministers agreed, as to be sure you have been told, to make Monsieur de Guerchy's cause commune; and the Attorney-general has filed an information against D'Eon: the poor lunatic was at the Opera on Sat.u.r.day, looking like Bedlam. He goes armed, and threatens, what I dare say he would perform, to kill or be killed, if any attempt is made to seize him.

The East Indian affairs have taken a new turn. Sullivan had twelve votes to ten: Lord Clive bribed off one. When they came to the election of chairman, Sullivan desired to be placed in the chair, without the disgrace of a ballot; but it was denied. On the scrutiny, the votes appeared eleven and eleven. Sullivan understood the blow, and with three others left the room. Rous, his great enemy, was placed in the chair; since that, I think matters are a little compromised, and Sullivan does not abdicate the direction; but Lord Clive, it is supposed, will go to Bengal in the stead of Colonel Barr'e, as Sullivan and Lord Shelburne had intended.

Mr. Pitt is worse than ever with the gout. Legge's case is thought very dangerous:--thus stand our politics, and probably will not fluctuate much for some months. At least-I expect to have little more to tell you before I see you at Paris, except b.a.l.l.s, weddings, and follies, of which, thank the moon! we never have a dearth: for one of the latter cla.s.s, we are obliged to the Archbishop,(602) who, in remembrance, I suppose, of his original profession of midwifery, has ordered some decent alterations to be made in King Henry's figure in the Tower. Poor Lady Susan O'Brien is in the most deplorable situation, for her Adonis is a Roman Catholic, and cannot be provided for out of his calling.

Sir Francis Delaval, being touched with her calamity, has made her a present--of what do you think?--of a rich gold stuff! The delightful charity! O'Brien comforts himself, and says it will make a shining pa.s.sage in his little history.

I will tell you but one more folly, and hasten to my signature.

Lady Beaulieu was complaining of being waked by a noise in the night: my lord(603 replied, "Oh, for my Part, there is no disturbing be; If they don't wake me before I go to sleep, there is no waking me afterwards."

Lady Hervey's table is at last arrived, and the Princess's trees, which I sent her last night; but she wants nothing, for Lady Barrymore(604) is arrived.

I smiled when I read your account of Lord Tavistock's expedition.

Do you remember that I made seven days from Calais to Paris, by laying out my journeys at the rate of travelling in England, thirty miles a-day; and did not find but that I could have gone in a third of the time! I shall not be such a snail the next time. It is said that on Lord Tavistock's return, he is to decide whom he will marry. Is it true that the Choiseuls totter, and that the Broglios are to succeed; or is there a Charles Townshend at Versailles? Adieu! my dear lord.

(596) No doubt Mr. George Grenville is here meant. See ant'e, p.

257, letter 184.-E.

(597) This list was, Sir Ralph Gore, Sir Richard King, and Mr.

Stephen MOOTE, all created peers in this summer by the respective t.i.tles of Bellisle, Kingston, and Kilworth.-C.

(598) Adolphus Frederick III. Duke of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, the Queen's brother. He died in 1794.-C.

(599) Mr. George Bridgman, brother of the first Lord Bradford.

He had been many years surveyor of the royal gardens, and was celebrated for his taste in ornamental gardening. He died at Lisbon, in 1767.-C.

(600) Probably Charles Sloane Cadagan, son of the second Lord Cadogan, who was treasurer to Edward Duke of York.-C.

(601) Jeremiah Dyson, Esq. afterwards a privy-counsellor.-E.

(602) See ant'e, p. 262, letter 185.

(603) Mr. Hussey was an Irishman. See ant'e, p. 251.-E.

(604) Margaret Davis, sister and Heiress of Edward, the last Viscount Mountcashel of that family, and widow of James Earl of Barrymore.-C.

Letter 205 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.

Strawberry Hill, Sat.u.r.day night, eight o'clock, April 21, 1764.

(page 316)

I write to you with a very bad headache; I have Pa.s.sed a night, for which George Grenville and the Duke of bedford shall pa.s.s many an uneasy one! Notwithstanding that I heard from every body I met, that your regiment, as well as bedchamber, were taken away, I would not believe it, till last night the d.u.c.h.ess of Grafton told me, that the night before the d.u.c.h.ess of Bedford said to her, "Are not you sorry for Poor Mr. Conway? He has lost every thing." When the Witch of Endor pities, one knows she has raised the devil.

I am come hither alone to put my thoughts into some order, and to avoid showing the first sallies of my resentment, which I know you would disapprove; nor does it become your friend to rail. My anger shall be a little more manly, and the plan of my revenge a little deeper laid than in peevish bon-mots. You shall judge of my indignation by its duration.

In the mean time, let me beg you, in the most earnest and most sincere of all professions, to suffer me to make your loss as light as it is in my power to make it: I have six thousand pounds in the funds; accept all, or what part you want. Do not imagine I will be put off with a refusal. The retrenchment of my expenses, which I shall from this hour commence, will convince you that I mean to replace Your fortune as far as I can. When I thought you did not want it, I had made another disposition. You have ever been the dearest person to me in the world. You have shown that you deserve to be so. You suffer for your spotless integrity. Can I hesitate a moment to show that there is at least one man who knows how to value you? The new will, which I am going to make, will be a testimonial of my own sense of virtue.

One circ.u.mstance has heightened my resentment. If it was not an accident, it deserves to heighten it. The very day on which your dismission was notified, I received an order from the treasury for the payment of what money was due to me there. Is it possible that they could mean to make any distinction between us?

Have I separated myself from you? Is there that spot on earth where I can be suspected of having paid court? Have I even left my name at a minister's door since you took your part? If they have dared to hint this, the pen that is now writing to you will bitterly undeceive them.

I am impatient to see the letters you have received, and the answers you have sent. Do you come to town? If you do not, I will come to you to-morrow se'nnight, that is, the 29th. I give no advice on any thing, because you are cooler than I am--not so cool, I hope, as to be insensible to this outrage, this villany, this injustice You owe it to your country to labour the extermination of such ministers!

I am so bad a hypocrite, that I am afraid of showing how deeply I feel this. Yet last night I received the account from the d.u.c.h.ess of Grafton with more temper than you believe me 'capable of: but the agitation of the night disordered me so much, that Lord John Cavendish, who was with me two hours this morning, does not, I believe, take me for a hero. As there are some who I know would enjoy my mortification, and who probably desired I should feel my share of it, I wish to command myself-but that struggle shall be added to their bill. I saw n.o.body else before I came away but Legge, who sent for me and wrote the enclosed for you.

He would have said more both to you and Lady Ailesbury, but I would not let him, as he is so ill: however, he thinks himself that he shall live. I hope be will! I would not lose a shadow that can haunt these ministers.

I feel for Lady Ailesbury, because I know she feels just as I do- -and it is not a pleasant sensation. I will say no more, though I could write volumes. Adieu! Yours, as I ever have been and ever will be.

Letter 206 The Hon. H. S. Conway To The Earl Of Hertford.(605) Park Place, April 23, 1764. (page 317)