year. I told you how little prospect Cavalier Mozzi has of obtaining assistance from him. It is plain this delay is welcome to my Lord; for I have not heard a syllable from his lawyers. I was indeed, surprised the other day by a letter from his Lordship. It was to desire the favour of me to go and see a large picture that Cipriani has painted for him for the saloon at Houghton-a most engaging sight to me, to be sure! though such a request provoked me, I really believe it was madness and folly dictated it, rather than insult; though the latter is not impossible. I would not trust a pen in my own hand, lest it should be warm; and so have made no manner of answer. He has now bespoken another piece, frantic enough; for the subject is both indecent and shocking. Perhaps you have forgotten the story; it is that of Theodore and Honoria, from Dryden's Fables, where the naked ghost of a scornful mistress is pursued by demons and worried by blood-hounds.* The subject, were it indurable, could only be executed by Salvator or Spagnolet. Imagine it attempted by modern artists, who are too feeble to paint any thing but fan-mounts!

I believe I never told you, that, since his Lordship sold his collection of pictures, he has taken to design himself, and his scratches are pinned up about the stripped apartments. But I am foolish to repeat instances of his deliriums; though, indeed, the nation is so lunatic, that my nephew is no phenomenon. I saw your nephew last night at Gloucester-House, and wonder he did not mention your new appointments; but, indeed, it was but for a moment: nor, in truth, though he is very obliging to me, and though I often see him at our little Court, have I had any conversation with him for a long time. The play there begins late, for every thing begins late, every body arrives late every where, and I retire early; for I avoid all public places, and go to no other. A court-life was never my object,

* Of Dryden's story of the spectre huntsman and his blood-hounds, and of the scene of it, the pine-forest of Ravenna, Lord Byron makes beautiful mention in the third canto of Don Juan

"Sweet hour of twilight!-in the solitude

66

Of the pine-forest, and the silent shore,

Which bounds Ravenna's immemorial wood

Rooted where once the Adrian wave flow'd o'er

To where the last Cæsarean fortress stood,

Evergreen forest! which Boccacio's lore

And Dryden's lay made haunted ground to me,
How have I lov'd the twilight hour and thee!

The shrill cicalas, people of the pine,

Making their summer lives one countless song,.
Were the sole echoes, save my steed's and mine,

And vesper bell's, that rose the boughs along;
The spectre huntsman of Oresti's line,

His hell-dogs and their chase, and the fair throng,
Which learn'd from this example not to fly

From a true lover,-shadow'd my mind's eye."-En.. '

nor would have been my choice for this end of my course, any more than it was for the commencement, though fate has connected both periods with such an attachment; yet trust I have acquired as little of the esprit des cours as if I had never been within one. How strange are the accidents of life! At ten years old I had set my heart on seeing George the First, and, being a favourite child, my mother asked leave for me to be presented to him; which to the First Minister's wife was granted, and I was carried by the Lady Chesterfield to kiss his hand as he went to supper in the Duchess of Kendal's apartment. This was the night but one before he left England the last time; and now, fifty years afterwards, one of his great-grandsons and one of his great-grand-daughters are my great-nephew and niece! Yet how little had the first part to do with bringing about the second! When one considers these events abstractedly, as I do, the reflection is amusing; it makes the politician's arts trifling and ridiculous: no plan, no foresight, no industry, could have ranged or accomplished what mere chance has effected. It would not be less entertaining, if a politician would talk as frankly on the projects he had planned and been disappointed of effecting; but a politician would not look on the dénouement with the same indifference.

LETTER CCCLXX.

I

Berkeley Square, March 1, 1782. You know I deem myself a bad political prophet. 1 certainly did not expect that the Opposition (no longer the minority) would have such rapid success as to have gained a complete victory already. wrote to you on Tuesday, that on the Friday preceding they had been beaten but by one. On Wednesday last, General Conway renewed his motion for an address of pacification with America, and carried the question by a majority of nineteen.* His speech was full of wit,

*The result of the late division was considered by the Opposition so satisfactory, that it was resolved to bring the question again before the House. Accordingly, on the 27th of February, General Conway moved, "That it is the opinion of the House, that the further prosecution of offensive war on the continent of North America, for the purpose of reducing the rebel colonies to obedience by force, will be the means of weakening the efforts of this country against her European enemies; tends, under the present circumstances, dangerously to increase the mutual enmity, so fatal to the interests both of Great Britain and America; and, by preventing a happy reconciliation with that country, to frustrate the earnest desire graciously expressed by his Majesty to restore the blessings of public tranquillity." The arguments urged in support of the motion were nearly the same as those employed on the former occasion. Lord North said, it would be his duty, if the House should withdraw their confidence from him, to deliver up to his Sovereign the seal of his office, and say to him, "I have served your Majesty with diligence, zeal, and fidelity; but your Parliament have withdrawn from me their confidence; let me therefore resign those employments, which I ought to keep only as long as I can

spirit, and severity: and after the debate Mr. Fox complimented him publicly on this second triumph, he also having been the mover of the repeal of the Stamp-act. In short, he stands in the highest light, and all his fame is unsullied by the slightest suspicion of interested or factious motives in his conduct.*

It would be idle in me, who profess want of penetration or intuition into futurity, to tell you what I think will happen; in truth, I could not tell you, if I would, what I foresee. The public certainly expects some sudden change. I neither do, nor wish it. At present, I think alteration would produce confusion, without any advantage. My reasons it would be useless to detail, for they will have no share in the decision.

I would write these few words, lest your nephew should not; though in reality I have told you nothing. You will just be prepared not to be surprised, whatever shall arrive, as it is a moment which may produce any thing. I mean, a change, a partial settlement, a total one, or a re-settlement of the present system; though I should think that, or a partial change, the least likely to last. Any one of them will be fortunate if productive of peace; and, at least, nothing that has happened removes that prospect to a greater distance. If I live to see that moment, I shall be happier than I have for some time expected to be. I dare not entertain greater views for my countryfor a long season; though nations, like individuals, are not precluded from experiencing any change of fortune.

be serviceable to your Majesty and to the country." Mr. Wallace, the AttorneyGeneral, acknowledged that nothing but peace with America could restore the country to its former state of splendour, and said that, considering a truce with America the best means of obtaining that object, he intended to move for leave to bring in a bill to enable Ministers to treat upon that ground, and would therefore move that the debate be adjourned till that day fortnight. Mr. Pitt, in a brilliant speech, censured the idea of a truce, and stigmatized the motion of adjournment as a manœuvre to gain a few votes. At half-past one the House divided on the motion of adjournment, which was negatived by a majority of 234 to 215. The Government, being thus left in a minority of nineteen, suffered General Conway's motion to pass without a division. The General then moved an address to the King nearly in the words of the motion; which was presented to his Majesty by the whole House.-ED.

* 61 The day after the motion passed," says Sir Samuel Romilly, "there were rejoicings in several places; the bells were rung and a great many houses were illuminated and papers were cried about the streets, 'Good news for England; Lord North in the dumps, and peace with America!' The Ministers affected to take the alarm, and sent advice to the Lord Mayor, that they had notice of intended riots; but every thing was very peaceable." Mr. Burke wrote, on the same day, to Dr. Franklin at Paris: "I congratulate you as the friend of America; I trust, as not the enemy of England; I am sure, as the friend of mankind, on the resolution of the House of Commons, carried by a majority of nineteen, at two o'clock this morning, in a very full House. It was the declaration of two hundred and thirty-four: I think it was the opinion of the whole. I trust it will lead to a speedy peace between the two branches of the English nation, perhaps to a general peace; and that our happiness may be an introduction to that of the world at large.”—ED.

P.S. When you do not hear from me at such a crisis, be sure that nothing material has happened. We have both seen inter-ministeriums of six weeks.

LETTER CCCLXXI.

Strawberry Hill, March 11, 1782.

THOUGH I begin this letter to-night, I do not know when it will set out; perhaps not before to-morrow sevennight. I do not even know whether I shall not contradict at the end every thing I may tell you at the beginning; for the parties in the House of Commons are so equally balanced, that victory vibrates from the one side to the other every day. Opposition stock fell ten below par last Friday, on questions that tended to remove the Ministers. As three of the four motions were undeniable, the Ministers got rid of them by the previous question, and consequently prevented the fourth, which would have brought home the others to their doors. They carried that question by 226 to 216. The report of another victory, more national, fa

On the 5th of March, in the committee on the Attorney-General's bill to enable his Majesty to make peace or truce with the revolted American Colonies, Mr. Fox said, that nothing but the personal respect he bore the learned gentleman had prevented him from bursting out into a laugh when he heard the proposition, and then walking out of the House. It was in the course of this speech that Mr. Fox made his memorable declaration," that, from the moment he should enter into any terms with the present Ministers, he would rest satisfied to be deemed the most infamous of mankind: that he could not for an instant contemplate a coalition with men who, as Ministers, in every transaction, public and private, had proved themselves devoid of every principle of honour or honesty; into the hands of such men he would not trust his honour for a single minute." Lord North avowed his determination not to retire from office until he should receive his Royal Master's commands to leave it, or the wish of the House, expressed in the most unequivocal terms, should point out to him the propriety of withdrawing.-ED.

† Lord John Cavendish, on the 8th of March, had moved four resolutions. The first three recounted the expenses and losses of the war, and the fourth stated, that the chief cause of all these misfortunes had been the want of foresight and ability in his Majesty's Ministers. Upon this there was a long debate, in the course of which Mr. Welbore Ellis, the new Secretary of State, alluded to his having left a warm and comfortable bed (the Treasurership of the Navy,) and stepped into the ship of state in the midst of storm and tempest. Mr. Burke said, he thought the Right Honourable Secretary very unwise in quitting his flannel nightcap and warm bed for a post of danger, and applied to him the words of Brutus to his wife

"Wherefore rise you now?

It is not for your health, thus to commit

Your weak condition to the raw cold morning."

In his firm belief, the bed was left merely for the purpose of introducing a Scotch warming-pan. This allusion to the Lord Advocate, which excited much laughter, received an appropriate reply: "I see no reason," said Mr. Dundas, "if the eager expectations of the gentleman opposite should be fulfilled, why it should not be an Irish warming-pan that is to be introduced into the bed." The retort turned the

voured them, though many suspect it was coined on purpose. Admiral Hood was said to have defeated the French fleet, rescued St. Christopher's, and taken the six hundred men that had landed. This would be most fortunate; but it was not confirmed when I left town this morning. In short, I came hither for two days to breathe, and rest my ears from politics, which at such a crisis you may be sure assail them from morning to night: not that I open them voluntarily, you may judge, when I fly hither, though there is to be important matter in the House again to-day, not a syllable of which I shall hear before Wednesday. Lord North is to open his taxes, which probably just now will not be admitted as submissively as of late years; though I suppose they will produce more clamour in a little time than at their birth, when every one who will be affected by them shall begin to apply the grievance to himself, especially as Opposition will naturally paint them in their worst colours. As I shall not go to town to-morrow-one of the two foreign post-days-I could not send this away, were it farther advanced; and on Friday, the other postday, I shall not know the event time enough to write. The Opposition intend to give battle again on that day, but I do not know what is to be their cri de guerre; however, the field will be fought till it will be too late for the post. I am less anxious, as your nephew tells me he writes to you constantly.

The Ministers are certainly run hard; and if they do not make peace with America, or have some great victory, though I do not guess where that is likely to arrive, they will have difficulty to stand their ground. New losses will make their fall more probable, and more dangerous. Minorca, we know, is gone; and we know what other places may follow. The foreign papers will ring with the enormous sum it has cost us to lose America, &c. I saw a letter from abroad last week, which said, that they were amazed so many miscarriages had not overturned the Administration. They may wonder; but, believe me, deprivation would be a feather-bed to what they hear every day I mean the Ministers. It is a worse service than that of a General. He stands on a rising ground out of cannon-shot, gives his orders, sees his soldiers fall or conquer, and at most is quit for the disgrace, if he loses the day. In Parliament, all the artillery is pointed at the leaders, who are galled during the combat, and must fight the battle themselves. The troops sit by, are paid beforehand, receive not a knock, and retire to their tents as soon as they have said Yes or No! I wish generals were in the same predicament, and suffered all the wounds. Well! I shall reserve the rest of my paper; I may have

matter to fill it.

laugh against Mr. Burke; and scarcely three weeks elapsed before Colonel Barré was appointed Treasurer of the Navy. Upon the order of the day, which was moved by Mr. Jenkinson, the Secretary at War, the House divided; when Ministers had a majority of ten, the numbers being 226 to 216.-ED.