The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford Volume I Part 70

You may judge of our situation by the conversation of Marshal Belleisle: he has said for some time, that he saw we were so little capable of making any defence that he would engage, with five thousand scullions of the French army, to conquer England--yet, just now, they choose to release him! he goes away in a week.(1085) When he was told of the taking Cape Breton, he said. "he could believe that, because the ministry had no hand in it." We are making bonfires for Cape Breton, and thundering over Genoa, while our army in Flanders is running away, and dropping to pieces by detachments taken prisoners every day; while the King is at Hanover, the regency at their country-seats, not five thousand men in the island, and not above fourteen or fifteen ships at home! Allelujah!

I received yours yesterday, with the bill of lading for the gesse figures, but you don't tell me their price; pray do in your 'next. I don't know what to say to Mr. Chute's eagle; I would fain have it; I can depend upon his taste-but would not it be folly to be buying curiosities now! how can I tell that I shall have any thing in the world to pay for it, by the time it is bought? You may present these reasons to Mr. Chute; and if he laughs at them, why then he will buy the eagle for me; if he thinks them of weight, not.

Adieu! I have not time or patience to say more.

(1085) The Marshal and his brother left England on the 13th of August.-E.

431 Letter 175 To George Montagu, Esq.

[August 1, 1745.]

Dear George, I cannot help thinking you laugh at me when you say such very civil things of my letters, and yet, coming from you, I would fain not have it all flattery:

So much the more, as, from a little elf, I've had a high opinion of myself, Though sickly, slender, and not large of limb.

With this modest prepossession, you may be sure I like to have you commend me, whom, after I have done with myself, I admire of all men living. I only beg that you will commend me no more: it is very ruinous; and praise, like other debts, ceases to be due on being paid. One comfort indeed is, that it is as seldom paid as other debts.

I have been very fortunate lately: I have met with an extreme good print of M. de Grignan;(1086) I am persuaded, very like; and then it has his toufie 'ebouriff'ee; I don't, indeed, know what that was, but I am sure it Is in the-print. None of the critics could ever make out what Livy's Patavinity is though they are confident it is in his writings. I have heard within these few days, what, for your sake, I wish I could have told you sooner-that there is in Belleisle's suite the Abb'e Perrin, who published Madame S'evign'e's letters, and who has the originals in his hands. How one should have liked to have known him! The Marshal was privately in london last Friday.

He is entertained to-day at Hampton Court by the Duke of Grafton.(1087) Don't you believe it was to settle the binding the scarlet thread in the window, when the French shall come in unto the land to possess it? I don't at all wonder at any shrewd observations the Marshal has made on our situation.

The bringing him here at all--the sending him away now--in short, the whole series of our conduct convinces me that, we shall soon see as silent a change as that in the Rehearsal, of King Usher and King Physician. It may well be so, when the disposition of the drama is in the hands of the Duke of Newcastle--those hands that are always groping and sprawling, and fluttering and hurrying on the rest of his precipitate person. But there is no describing him, but as M. Courcelle, a French prisoner, did t'other day: "Je ne scais pas," dit il, "je ne scaurois m'exprimer, mais il a un certain tatillonage." If one could conceive a dead body hung in chains, always wanting to be hung somewhere else, one should have a comparative idea of him.

For my own part, I comfort myself with the humane reflection of the Irishman in the ship that was on fire--I am but a pa.s.senger! if I were not so indolent, I think I should rather put in practice the late d.u.c.h.ess of Bolton's(1088) geographical resolution of going to China, when Winston told her the world would be burnt in three years. Have you any philosophy? Tell me what you think. It is quite the fashion to talk of the French coming here. n.o.body sees it in any other light but as a thing to be talked of, not to be precautioned against. Don't you remember a report of the plague being in the city, and every body went to the house where it was to see it?

You- see I laugh about it, for I would not for the world be so unenglished as to do otherwise. I am persuaded that when Count Saxe, with ten thousand men, is within a day's march of London, people will be hiring windows at Charing-cross and Cheapside to see them pa.s.s by. 'Tis our characteristic to take dangers for sights, and evils for curiosities.

Adieu! dear George: I am laying in sc.r.a.ps of Cato against it may be necessary to take leave of one's correspondents 'a la Romaine, and, before the play itself is suppressed by a lettre de cachet to the booksellers.

P. S. Lord! 'tis the 1st of August, 1745, a holiday(1089) that is going to be turned out of the almanack!

(1086) Fran'cois-Adh'emar de Monteil, Comte de Grignan, Lieutenant-general of Provence. He married, in 1669, the daughter of Madame de S'evign'e-E.

(1087) As he was, on the preceding day, by the Duke of Newcastle, at Clermont.-E.

(1088) Natural daughter of James Scot, Duke of Monmouth, by Eleanor, daughter of Sir Robert Needham.-E.

(1089) The anniversary of the accession of the House of Brunswick to the throne of England.

432 Letter 176 To sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Aug. 7, 1745.

I have no news to tell you: Ostend is besieged, and must be gone in a few days. The Regency are all come to town to prevent an invasion--I should as soon think them able to make one--not but old Stair, who still exists upon the embers of an absurd fire that warmed him ninety years ago, thinks it still practicable to march to Paris, and the other day in council prevented a resolution of sending for our army home; but as we always do half of a thing, when even the whole would scarce signify, they seem determined to send for ten thousand--the other ten will remain in Flanders, to keep up the bad figure that we have been making there all this summer. Count Saxe has been three times tapped since the of Fontenoy: but if we get rid of his enmity, there is Belleisle gone, amply to supply and succeed to his hatred! Van Hoey, the ingenious Dutchman at Paris, wrote to the States to know if he should make new liveries against the rejoiCings for the French conquests in Flanders. I love the governor of SLuys; when the States sent him a reprimand, for not admitting our troops that retreated thither from the affair of Ghent, asking him if he did not know that he ought to admit their allies? he replied, "Yes; and would they have him admit the French too as their allies?"

There is a proclamation come out for apprehending the Pretender's son;(1090) he was undoubtedly on board the frigate attendant on the Elizabeth, with which Captain Brett fought so bravely:(1090) the boy is now said to be at Brest.

I have put off my journey to the Hague, as the sea is full of ships, and many French ones about the siege of Ostend: I go tomorrow to Mount Edgec.u.mbe. I don't think it impossible but you may receive a letter from me on the road, with a paragraph like that in Cibber's life, "Here I met the revolution."

My lady Orford is set out for Hanover; her gracious sovereign does not seem inclined to leave it. Mrs. Chute(1092) has sent me this letter, which you will be so good as to send to Rome.

We have taken infinite riches; vast wealth in the East Indies, vast from the West; in short, we grow so fat that we shall very soon be fit to kill.

Your brother has this moment brought me a letter from you, full of your good-natured concern for the Genoese. I have not time to write you any thing but short paragraphs, as I am in the act of writing all my letters and doing my business before my journey. I can say no more now about the affair of your secretary. Poor Mrs. Gibberne has been here this morning almost in fits about her son. She brought me a long letter to you, but I absolutely prevented her sending it, and told her I would let you know that it was my fault if you don't hear from her, but that I would take the answer upon myself. My dear Sir, for her sake, for the silly boy's, who is ruined if he follows his own whims, and for your own sake, who will have so much trouble to get and form another, I must try to prevent your parting. I am persuaded, that neither the fatigue of writing, nor the indignation of going to sea are the boy's true motives. They are, the smallness of his allowance, and his aversion to waiting it table, For the first, the poor woman does not expect that you should put yourself to any inconvenience; she only begs that you will be so good as to pay him twenty pounds a-year more, which she herself will repay to your brother; and not let her son know that it comes from her, as he would then refuse to take it.

For the other point, I must tell you, my dear child, fairly, that in goodness to the poor boy, I hope you will give it up.

He is to make his fortune in your way of life, if he can be so lucky, It will be an insuperable obstacle to him that he is with you in the light of a menial servant. When you reflect that his fortune may depend upon it, I am sure you will free him from this servitude, Your brother and I, you know, from the very first, thought that you should not insist upon it.

If he will stay with you on the terms I propose, I am sure, from the trouble it will save yourself, and the ruin from which it will save him, you will yield to this request; which I seriously make to you, and advise you to comply with.

Adieu!

(1090) The proclamation was dated the 1st of August, and offered a reward of thirty thousand pounds for the young Prince's apprehension. He left the island of Belleisle on the 13th of July, disguised in the habit of a Student of the Scots college at Paris, and allowing his beard to grow.-E.

(1091) Captain Brett was the same officer who, in Anson's expedition, had stormed Paita. His ship was called the Lion.

After a well-matched fight of five or six hours, the vessels parted, each nearly disabled.-E.

(1092) Widow of Francis Chute, Esq.

434 Letter 177 To The Rev. Thomas Birch.(1093) Woolterton 15th [Aug.] 1745

When I was lately in town I was favoured with yours of the 21st past; but my stay there was so short, and my hurry so great, that I had not time to see you as I intended. As I am persuaded that n.o.body is more capable than yourself, in all respects, to set his late Majesty's reign in a true light, I am sure there is n.o.body to whom I would more readily give my a.s.sistance, as far as I am able: but, as I have never wrote any thing in a historical way, have now and then suggested hints to others as they were writing, and never published but two pamphlets-one was to justify the taking and keeping in our pay the twelve thousand Hessians, of which I have forgot the t.i.tle, and have it not in the country; the other was published about two years since, ent.i.tled, "The Interest of Great Britain steadily Pursued," in answer to the pamphlets about the Hanover forces-I can't tell in what manner, nor on what heads to answer your desire, which is conceived in such general terms: if you could point out some stated times, and some particular facts, and I had before me a sketch of your narration, I perhaps might be able, to suggest or explain some things that are come but imperfectly to your knowledge, and some anecdotes might occur to my memory relating to domestic and foreign affairs, that are curious, and were never yet made public, and perhaps not proper to, be published yet; particularly with regard to the alteration of the ministry in 1717, by the removal of my relation, and the measures that were pursued in consequence of that alteration; but in order to do this, or any thing else for your service, requires a personal conversation with you, in which I should be ready to let you know what might occur to me. I am most truly, etc.

(1093) This industrious historian and biographer was born in 1705, and was killed by a fall from his horse, in 1765. Dr.

Johnson said of him, "Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties.--E.

435 Letter 178 To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Sept. 6, 1745.

It would have been inexcusable in me, in our present circ.u.mstances and after all I have promised you, not to have written to you for this last month, if I had been in London; but I have been at Mount Edgec.u.mbe, and so constantly upon the road, that I neither received your letters, had time to write, or knew what to write. I came back last night, and found three packets from you, which I have no time to answer, and but just time to read. The confusion I have found, and the danger we are in, prevent my talking of any thing else. The young Pretender(1094) at the head of three thousand men, has got a march on General Cope, who is not eighteen hundred strong: and when the last accounts came away, was fifty miles nearer Edinburgh than Cope, and by this time is there. The clans will not rise for the Government: the Dukes of Argyll(1095) and Athol,(1096) are come post to town,(1097) not having been able to raise a man. The young Duke of Gordon(1098) sent for his uncle and told him that he must arm their clan. "They are in arms."--"They must march against the rebels."--"They will wait on the Prince of Wales." The Duke flew in a pa.s.sion; his uncle pulled out a pistol, and told him it was in vain to dispute. Lord Loudon,(1099) Lord Fortrose(1100) and Lord Panmure,(1101) have been very zealous, and have raised some men; but I look upon Scotland as gone! I think of what King William said to the Duke of Hamilton, when he was extolling Scotland: "My Lord, I only wish it was a hundred thousand miles off, and that you was king of it!"

There are two manifestos published signed Charles Prince, Regent for his father, King of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland. By One, he promises to preserve every body in their just rights; and orders all persons who have public moneys in their hands to bring it to him; and by the other dissolves the union between England and Scotland. But all this is not the worst! Notice came yesterday, that there are ten thousand men, thirty transports, and ten men-of-war at Dunkirk. Against this force we have--I don't know what-- scarce fears! Three thousand Dutch -we hope are by this time landed In Scotland; three more are coming hither. We have sent for ten regiments from Flanders, which may be here in a week, and we have fifteen men-of-war in the Downs. I am grieved to tell you all this; but when it is so, how can I avoid telling you? Your brother is just come in, who says he has written to you-I have not time to expatiate.

My Lady O. is arrived; I hear she says, only to endeavour to get a certain allowance. Her mother has sent to offer her the use of her house. She is a poor weak woman. I can say nothing to Marquis Riccardi, nor think of him; only tell him, that I will when I have time. My sister(1102) has married herself, that is, declared she will, to young Churchill. It is a foolish match; but I have nothing to do with it. Adieu!

my dear Sir; excuse my haste, but you must imagine that one is not much at leisure to write long letters--hope if you can!

(1094) The 'Pretender had landed, with a few followers, in the Highlands Of Scotland, on the 25th of July. His appearance at this time is thus described by Mr. Eneas Macdonald, one of his attendants: "There entered the tent a tall youth, of a most agreeable aspect, in a plain black coat, with a plain shirt not very clean, and a cambric stock, fixed with a plain silver buckle, a plain hat with a canva.s.s string, having one end fixed to one of his coat b.u.t.tons. he had black stockings and bra.s.s buckles in his shoes. At his first appearance I found my heart swell to my very throat, but we were immediately told, that this youth was an English clergyman, who had long been possessed with a desire to see and converse with Highlanders." "It is remarkable,"

observes Lord Mahon, " that among the foremost to join Charles, was the father of Marshal Macdonald, Duke de Tarento, long after raised to these honours by his merit in the French revolutionary wars, and not more distinguished for courage and capacity than for integrity and honour." Hist. vol. iii. p.

344.-E.

(1095) Archibald, Earl of Islay, and upon the death of his elder brother John, Duke of Argyll,-D.

(1096) James Murray, second Duke of Athol; to which he succeeded upon the death of his father in 1724, in consequence of the attainder of his elder brother, William, Marquis of Tullibardine.-D.

(1097) This was not true of the Duke of Argyll; for he did not attempt to raise any men, but pleaded a Scotch act of parliament against arming without authority.

(1098) Cosmo George, third Duke of Gordon. He died in 1752.-D.