The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford Volume I Part 64

(991) Lord Vere Beauclerc, third son of the first Duke of St.

Albans, afterwards created Lord Vere, of Hanworth. He entered early into a maritime life, and distinguished himself in several commands, He died in 1781.-E.

(992) The King was much displeased that an adherent of the exiled family should be forced into the service of his own. in consequence of this appointment a caricature was circulated, representing the ministers thrusting Sir John, who was extremely corpulent, down the King's throat.

(993) John, first Lord Hobart, so created in 1728, by the interest of his sister, Lady Suffolk, the mistress of George the Second. In 1746 he was created Earl of Buckinghamshire; and died in 1756.-D.

(994) William O'Brien, fourth Earl of Inchiquin, in Ireland.

He died in 1777.-E.

(995) Pitt alone was placeless. He loftily declared, that he would accept no office except that of secretary at war, and the ministers were not yet able to dispense with Sir William Yonge in that department. This resolution of Pitt, joined to the King's pertinacity against him, excluded him, for the present, from any share in power."-Lord Mahon, vol. iii. p.

315.

(996) The d.u.c.h.ess died on the 8th of December. The Biog.

Univ. says, that the rumour of her having been poisoned was altogether without foundation.-E.

(997) It was Dr. Jurin's preparation.

399 Letter 154 To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Jan. 4, 1745.

When I receive your long letters I am ashamed: mine are notes in comparison. How do you contrive to roll out your patience into two sheets? You certainly don't love me better than I do you; and yet if our loves were to b@ sold by the quire, you would have by far the more magnificent stock to dispose of. I can only say that age has already an effect on the vigour of my pen; none on yours: it is not, I a.s.sure you, for you alone, but my ink is at low water-mark for all my acquaintance. My present shame arises from a letter of eight sides, of December 8th, which I received from you last post; but before I say a word to that, I must tell you that I have at last received the cases; three with gesse figures, and one with Lord Conway's gun- barrels: I thought there were to be four, besides the guns; but I quite forget, and did not even remember what they were to contain. Am not I in your debt again? Tell me, for you know how careless I am. Look over your list, and see whether I have received all. There were four barrels, the Ganymede, the Sleeping Cupid, the model of my statue, the Musaeum Florentinum, and some seeds for your brother. But alas! though I received them in gross, I did not at all in detail; the model was broken into ten thousand bits, and the Ganymede shorn in two: besides some of the fingers quite reduced to powder. Rysbrach has undertaken to mend him. The little Morpheus arrived quite whole, and is charmingly pretty; I like it better in plaster than in the original black marble.

It is not being an upright senator to promise one's vote beforehand, especially in a money matter; but I believe so many excellent patriots have just done the same thing, that I shall venture readily to engage my promise to you, to get you any sum for the defence of Tuscany -why it is to defend you and my own country! my own palace in via di santo spirits,(998) my own Princess 'epuis'ee, and all my family! I shall quite make interest for you: nay, I would speak to our new ally, and your old acquaintance, Lord Sandwich, to a.s.sist in it; but I could have no hope of getting at his ear, for he has put on such a first-rate tie-wig, on his admission to the admiralty board, that nothing without the lungs of a boatswain can ever think to penetrate the thickness of the curls. I think, however, it does honour to the dignity of ministers: when he was but a patriot, his wig was not of half its present gravity. There are no more changes made: all is quiet yet; but next Thursday the Parliament meets to decide the complexion of the session. My Lord Chesterfield goes next week to Holland, and then returns for Ireland.

The great present disturbance in politics is my Lady Granville's a.s.sembly; which I do a.s.sure you distresses the Pelhams infinitely more than a mysterious meeting of the States would, and far more than the abrupt breaking up of the Diet at Grodno. She had begun to keep Tuesdays before her lord resigned, which now she continues with greater zeal. Her house is very fine, she very handsome, her lord very agreeable and extraordinary; and yet the Duke of Newcastle wonders that people will go thither. He mentioned to my father my going there, who laughed at him; Cato's a proper person to trust with such a childish jealousy! Harry Fox says, "Let the Duke of Newcastle open his own house, and see if all that come thither are his friends." The fashion now is to send cards to the women, and to declare that all men Are welcome without being asked. This is a piece of ease that shocks the prudes of the last age. You can't imagine how my Lady Granville shines in doing favours; you know she is made for it. My lord has new furnished his mother's apartment for her, and has given her a magnificent set of dressing plate: he is very fond of her, and she as fond of his being so.

You will have heard of Marshal Belleisle's being made a prisoner at Hanover: the world will believe it was not by accident. He is sent for over hither: the first thought was to confine him to the Tower, but that is contrary to the politesse of modern war: they talk of sending him to Nottingham, where Tallard was. I am sure, if he is prisoner at large anywhere, we could not have a worse inmate! so ambitious and intriguing a man, who was author of this whole war, will be no bad general to be ready to head the Jacobites on any insurrection.(999)

I can say nothing more about young Gardiner, but that I don't think my father at all inclined now to have any letter written for him. Adieu!

(998) The street in Florence where Mr. Mann lived.

(999) Belleisle and his brother, who had been sent by the King

of France on a mission to the King of Prussia, were detained, while changing horses, at Elbengerode, and from thence conveyed to England; where, refusing to give their parole in the mode it was required, they were confined in Windsor Castle.

400 Letter 155 To sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Jan. 14, 1745.

I have given my uncle the letter from M. de Magnan; he had just received another from him at Venice, to desire his recommendation to you. His history is, first,-the Regent picked him up, (I don't know from whence, but he is of the Greek church,) to teach the present Duke of Orleans the Russ tongue, when they had a scheme for marrying him into Muscovy.

At Paris, Lord Waldegrave(1000) met with him, and sent him over hither, where they pensioned him and he was to be a spy, but made nothing out; till the King was weary of giving him money, and then they despatched him to Vienna, with a recommendation to Count d'Uhlefeldt, who, I suppose, has tacked him upon the Great Duke. My uncle says, he knows no ill of him; that you may be civil to him, but not enter into correspondence with him, you need not; he is of no use.

Apropos to you; I have been in a fright about you; we were told that Prince Lobkowitz was landed at Harwich; I did not like the name; and as he has been troublesome to you, I did not know but he might fancy he had some complaints against you. I wondered you had never mentioned his being set out; but it is his son, a travelling boy of twenty; he is sent under the care of an apothecary and surgeon.

The Parliament is met: one hears of the Tory Opposition continuing, but nothing has appeared; all is quiet. Lord Chesterfield is set out for the Hague - I don't know what ear the States will lend to his emba.s.sy, when they hear with what difficulty the King was brought to give him a parting audience; and which, by a watch, did not last five-and-forty seconds. The Granville faction are still the constant and only countenanced people at court. Lord Winchilsea, one of the disgraced, played at court On Twelfth-night, and won: the King asked him the next morning, how much he had for his own share?(1001) He replied, "Sir, about a quarter's salary." I liked the spirit, and was talking to him Of it the next night at Lord Granville's: "Why, yes," said he, "I think it showed familiarity at least: tell it your father--I don't think he will dislike it." My Lady Granville gives a ball this week, but in a manner a private one, to the two families of Carteret and Fermor and their intimacies: there is a fourth sister, Lady Jullana,(1002) who is very handsome, but I think not so well as Sophia: the latter thinks herself breeding.

I will tell you a very good thing: Lord Baltimore will not come into the admiralty, because in the new commission they give Lord Vere Beauclerc the precedence to him, and he has dispersed printed papers with precedents in his favour. A gentleman, I don't know who, the other night at Tom's coffee-house, said, "It put him in mind of Ponkethman's pet.i.tion in the Spectator, where he complains, that formerly he used to act second chair in Dioclesian, but now was reduced to dance fifth flowerpot."

The Duke of Montagu has found out an old penny-history-book, called the Old Woman's Will of Ratcliffe-Highway, which he has bound up with his mother-in-law's, Old Marlborough,(1003) only-tearing away the t.i.tle-page of the latter.

My father has been extremely ill this week with his disorder-- I think the physicians are more and more persuaded that it is the stone in his bladder. He is taking a preparation of Mrs.

Stevens's medicine, a receipt of one Dr. Jurin, which we began to fear was too violent for him: I made his doctor angry with me, by arguing on this medicine, which I never could comprehend. it is of so great violence, that it Is to split a stone when it arrives at it, and yet it is to do no damage to all the tender intestines through which it must first pa.s.s.(1004) I told him, I thought it was like an admiral going on a secret expedition of war, with instructions, which are not to be opened till he arrives in such a lat.i.tude.

George Townshend,(1005) my lord's eldest son, who is at the Hague on his travels, has had an offer to raise a regiment for their service, of which he is to be colonel, with power of naming all his own officers. It was proposed, that it should consist of Irish Roman Catholics, but the regency of Ireland have represented against that, because they think they will all desert to the French. He is now to try it of Scotch, which will scarce succeed, unless he will let all the officers be of the same nation. An affair of this kind first raised the late Duke of Argyll; and was the cause of the first quarrel with the Duke of Marlborough, who was against his coming into our army in the same rank.

Sir Thomas Hanmer has at last published his Shakspeare: he has made several alterations, but they will be the less talked of, as he has not marked in the text, margin, or notes, where or why he has made any change; but every body must be obliged to collate it with other editions. One most curiously absurd alteration I have been told. In Oth.e.l.lo, it is said of Ca.s.sio, "a Florentine, one almost d.a.m.ned in a fair wife." It happens that there is no other mention in the play of Ca.s.sio's wife. Sir Thomas has altered it-how do you think?-no, I should be sorry if you could think how-"almost d.a.m.ned in a fair phiz!"-what a tragic word! and what sense!

Adieu! I see advertised a translation of Dr. Cocchi's book on living on vegetables:(1006) Does he know any thing of it? My service to him and every body.

(1000) James, first Earl of Waldegrave, amba.s.sador at Paris, K. G. He died in 1741.-D.

(1001) Those who play at court on Twelfth-night, make a bank with several people.

(1002) Lady Juliana Fermor, married in 1751 to Thomas Penn, Esq. (son of William Penn, the great legislator of the Quakers) one of the proprietors of Pennsylvania. He died in 1775, and Lady Juliana in 1781.-E.

(1003) The d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough's will was published in a thin octavo volume.-D.

(1004) Mrs. Stephens's remedy for the stone made for some time, the greatest noise, and met both with medical approbation and national reward. In 1742, Dr. James Parsons published a pamphlet on the subject, which Dr. Mead describes as @' a very useful book; in which both the mischiefs done by the medicine, and the artifices employed to bring it into vogue are set in a clear light."--E.

(1005) Afterwards first Marquis Townshend, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Master General of the Ordnance. etc.

(1006) The Doctor's treatise "Di Vitto Pythagorico," appeared this year in England, under the t.i.tle of "The Pythagorean Diet; or Vegetables only conducive to the Preservation of Health and the Cure of Diseases."-E.

402 letter 156 To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Feb. 1, 1745.

I am glad my letters, obscure as they of course must be, give you any light into England; but don't mind them too much; they may be partial; must be imperfect: don't negotiate upon their authority, but have Capello's(1007) example before your eyes!

How I laugh when I see him important, and see my Lady Pomfret's letters at the bottom of his instructions! how it would make a philosopher smile at the vanity of politics! How it diverts me, who can entertain myself at the expense of philosophy, politics, or any thing else! Mr. Conway says I laugh at all serious characters-so I do-and at myself too, who am far from being of the number. Who would not laugh at a world, where so ridiculous a creature as the Duke of Newcastle can overturn ministries! Don't take me for a partisan of Lord Granville's because I despise his rivals; I am not for adopting his measures; they were wild and dangerous -. in his single capacity, I think him a great genius(1008) and without having recourse to the Countess's translatable periods, am pleased with his company. His frankness charms one when it is not necessary to depend upon it: and his contempt for fools is very flattering to any one who happens to know the present ministry. Their coalition goes on as One should expect; they have the name of having effected it; and the Opposition is no longer mentioned: yet there is not a half-witted prater in the House but can divide with every new minister on his side, except Lyttelton, whenever he pleases. They actually do every day bring in popular bills, and on the first tinkling of the bra.s.s, all the new bees swarm back to the Tory side of the House. The other day, on the Flanders army, Mr. Pitt came down to prevent this: he was very ill, but made a very strong and much admired speech for coalition,(1009) which for that day succeeded, and the army was voted with but one negative,.

But now the Emperor (1010) is dead, and every thing must wear a new face. If it produces a peace, Mr. Pelham is a fortunate man! He will do extremely well at the beginning of peace, like the man in Madame de la Fayette's Memoirs, Qui exer'coit extr'emement bien sa charge, quand il n'avoit rien 'a faire."

However, do you keep well with them, and be sure don't write me back any treason, in answer to all I write to you: you are to please them; I think of them -is they are.

The new Elector(1011) seems to set out well for us, though there are accounts of his having taken the style of Archduke, as claiming the Austrian succession: if he has, it will be like the children's game of beat knaves out of doors, where you play the pack twenty times over; one gets pam, the other gets pam, but there is no conclusion to the game till one side has never a card left.

After my ill success with the baronet,(1012) to whom I gave a letter for you. I shall always be very cautious how I recommend barbarians to your protection. I have this morning been solicited for some credentials for a Mr. Oxenden.(1013) I could not help laughing: he is a son of Sir George, my Lady W.'s famous lover! Can he want recommendations to Florence?

However, I must give him a letter; but beg you will not give yourself any particular trouble about him, for I do not know him enough to bow to. His person is good: that and his name, I suppose, will bespeak my lady's attentions, and save you the fatigue of doing him many honours.

Thank Mr. Chute for his letter; I will answer it very soon. I delight in the article of the Mantua Gazette. Adieu!

(1007) The Venetian amba.s.sador.

(1008) Swift, in speaking of Lord Granville, says, that "he carried away from college more Greek, Latin, and philosophy than properly became a person of his rank;" and Walpole, in his Memoires, describes him as "an extensive scholar, master of all cla.s.sic criticism, and of all modern politics."-E.

(1009) "Mr. Pitt, who had been laid up with the gout, came down with the mien and apparatus of an invalid, on purpose to make a full declaration of his sentiments on our present circ.u.mstances. What he said was enforced with much grace both of action and elocution. He commended the ministry for pursuing moderate and healing measures, and such -,is tended to set the King at the head of all his people." See Mr.- P.