be accorded. This answer was transmitted to Lord Shelburne, and by him conveyed accordingly. The time pressed: the House of Commons was to meet on Monday, and were not in a mood to be dallied with. Prudence prevailed, and prevented-no matter now what; all was granted and ceded that Lord Rockingham asked. He accepted; and Mr. Dunning, Lord Shelburne's friend, moved by authority, that the House should adjourn till Wednesday, declaring that an arrangement was ready to be made.*

Here is the list of the Cabinet-Lord Thurlow to remain Chancellor; Lord Camden, President; Lord Rockingham, First Lord of the Treasury; General Conway, Commander-in-chief; Admiral Keppel, First Lord of the Admiralty; Lord Shelburne and Charles Fox, Secretaries of State; the Duke of Grafton, Privy Seal with the Duke of Richmond, Master of the Ordnance; and Lord John Cavendish, Chancellor of the Exchequer; to have seats in the Cabinet. This is all I know, and all I shall seek to know. I am totally indifferent about the arrangement of places, and hate details so much, that I am going out of town to avoid discussions and reports.

Well! this revolution is so surprising, and by me so unexpected, that I can only say, with a change in a Scripture phrase, "This is not the Lord's doing but the Commons', and it is marvellous in our eyes!" If it produces the two points I have at heart, the recovery of the Constitution (which it appears by this spirit in the House of Commons was not quite gone) and peace, I shall be content, and will never think on politics more. What has a man to do with them who never felt a titillation of ambition? The spirit of liberty alone has made me at any time attend to them; for life without freedom has but a narrower or a wider prison. Honours make one a slave to etiquette, and power to

* Although the King could not prevail upon Lord Shelburne to accept his offer, "he arranged," says Nicholls, in his Recollections of the Reign of George the Third, "the Administration with him, and then sent him to the Marquis of Rockingham, to inform him of the names of the gentlemen who were to form the Cabi net, and of the different offices they were to fill. No man," he continues, "was at that time more confidential with the Marquis than Admiral Keppel, who told me that Lord Rockingham himself was very averse to accept the office offered him; that the noble Lord thought the King had manifested such personal dislike to him, by refusing him an audience, and arranging the Administration with Lord Shelburne, that in his own opinion, he was not a fit person to be in the King's service." Nor would this reluctance, it is said, have been overcome, but for the earnest solicitations of Fox, Burke, and the Duke of Richmond. On Friday the 22nd, the Marquis had an audience of the King, at which his Majesty consented to the conditions proposed, only attempting to stipulate," says Wraxall, "that two of his actual Ministers, the Chancellor and Lord Stormont, should be included in the new Administration. He could not obtain such terms, and it was only after considerable difficulty that Lord Thurlow was suffered to retain his situation. When the House of Commons met again on Monday the 25th, Mr. Dunning, an adherent of the Earl of Shelburne, was elected and authorized to communicate the state of affairs at St. James's. Dunning, who forty-eight hours afterwards kissed his Majesty's hands on being created a peer, informed the members that arrangements for the formation of a new Administration were in great forwardness, and moved another short adjournment till Wednesday."-ED.

66

solicitation. A private man, who is uncontrolled, is emperor of himself. I am going to my country palace; which is the best enjoyment that the greatest monarch knows.

Having despatched a revolution, I must now trouble you on a private melancholy affair: General Conway has heard from Mrs. Damer, that her aunt Lady William Campbell* is much out of order. I immediately advised Mr. Conway to write, and recommend to Mrs. Damer to carry her aunt directly to Florence, where you could be of the greatest comfort and assistance to them, and could best contrive means of sending Lady William home by sea from Leghorn, in as safe a manner as may be at this moment. He has done so, and begs you will be so good as to give Mrs. Damer your advice in this aud any other point; especially of a physician, if there is any Dr. Cocchi at Florence. He desires, too, that you will supply her with what money she wants, and draw upon him directly.

St. Kit'st has followed Minorca ! It is sad Constitution, and I shall not die broken-hearted. and America free, though disunited, the whole vassalage.

yet let us save the If England is free, earth will not be in

LETTER CCCLXXIV..

Berkeley Square, April 7, 1782..

As you have received my letters on the total revolution in the Ministry, you will not be surprised that we have been occupied by that event, and have not run, as you expected, into great heats on the loss of Minorca. It has, indeed, made no more impression than if the King had lost his pocket-handkerchief. We are like the fishwoman, who, bing reproached with the cruelty of skinning eels alive, replied, Ah, poor things, they be used to it!" She mistook her own habitude for theirs. We are at once so dissipated and so accustomed to misfortunes, that, though flayed to the bone, we forget the amputation of a finger in a moment. Were the new arrangement completed, I

* Wife of Lord William. Campbell, youngest brother of the Duke of Argyll and Lady Ailsbury. Lady William was an American, born in the province of Carolina; of which Lord William had been Governor.

†The old and valuable English island of St.. Christopher's was doomed to be the next victim to the calamity of the times. In January, the Marquis de Bouille landed eight thousand men on the island, and was supported by the Count de Grasse with thirty-two ships of the line. As the garrison under General Frazer did not exceed six hundred effective men, resistance would have been altogether ineffectual. De Bouille accelerated the surrender, by threatening to burn the plantations, and renew the devastations which he had committed at Tobago. The militia in the garrison were too much interested in this menace not to press their commander to capitulate; and the French general acceded to every requisition they made,, regarding either public or private property, the garrison, or the inhabitants at large. -ED.

believe it would cause no more sensation than the capture of an island. As yet, every body is asking, "Who is to have this place, and who that? who are the new peers?" For Minorca, we are satisfied with the encomiums showered on General Murray* by the Duc de Crillon; we know poor Draper was madt-and we have no further curiosity.

The country and city seem to be pleased with the change; yet moderately too. The disgraced are extremely angry, and I dare to say will show their resentment in due time; but, as only some of the greater and a very few of the lesser posts are yet disposed of, they who hope to escape in the general massacre take care to hold their tongues; and all will probably lie still, till they see whether the new Ministers are lenient or severe. The recess of Parliament, too, for the holidays, re-elections and usual jaunts into the country, and the never-to-be-violated festival of Newmarket, have dispersed many. The House of Commons meets to-morrow, and then things will begin to have a complexion. If the new Administration can make a tolerable peace, and carry any popular bills, they may maintain themselves for a time; yet I do not look on the present system as very stable. Bad as the last it would be difficult to be; and as ruinous it cannot be, for we have not half so much to lose as we have lost.

I do not send you lists of changes, for all are not yet made, and, while the undetermined are in suspense, it would be only giving you guesses that would want corrections, or unfounded reports. The

*Previous to the surrender, the effective garrison was reduced to six hundred. The surgeons remonstrated to the Governor, that a further delay of capitulation would only occasion an unavailing sacrifice of a few devoted victims, whom an enlarged scene of respiration and wholesome nutriment alone could rescue from the jaws of death. The Duc de Crillon readily granted honourable terms, and testified his regret at the sight of this brave band of invalids, marching through their disproportioned ranks to pile their arms.-ED.

In consequence of the surrender of Minorca, Sir William Draper, who, in 1779, had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the island, exhibited twenty-nine charges against General Murray, his superior in command; for doing which, although the General received a reprimand on account of two of them, his Accuser, it will be seen, was ordered to make an apology. In 1783, Sir William published some observations on the General's defence, and retired to Bath; where he died in 1787.-ED.

Besides the changes above mentioned, the Earl of Carlisle was replaced, as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, by the Duke of Portland; Mr. Rigby's post of Paymas ter of the Forces was given to Mr. Burke. His brother Richard was made one of the two Secretaries of the Treasury; Colonel Barré, Treasurer of the Navy; Mr. Thomas Townshend, Secretary at War; Mr. Kenyon, Attorney-General: Mr. John Lee, Solicitor-General; Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Thomas Orde, Under-Secretaries of State; and General Burgoyne, Commander-in-chief in Ireland. "In forming their arrangements," says Dr. Tomline, "the new Ministers offered Mr. Pitt several situations, and among others a Vice-Treasurer-ship of Ireland, an office of considerable rank and emolument, which, it was thought, would be more acceptable to him, as it had been formerly held by his father; but he resolutely declined this and every other offer, preferring his profession of the law to any official connexion with an Administration of which he did not form a part: he had indeed determined, as he soon afterwards declared, never to accept any subordinate office, meaning an office which did not entitle him to a seat in the Cabinet. This determination did not pro

genuine alterations you will find in the Gazette. A long catalogue of new peers was expected. Only three have yet kissed hands; Sir Fletcher Norton, Dunning, and Admiral Keppel.*

I must now answer yours of March the 19th. In my last, I begged you to assist Mrs. Damer in her distress on her aunt's disorder. You would want no spur to good offices there. Lord Orford, I hear, is to be removed from the Rangership of the two Parks. It was intended by the new Ministers to leave him in the King's Bed-chamber; which out of respect they did not mean to touch. Whether his dismission from the former post had been notified to him or not, I cannot tell. I should think it had; for he has sent his resignation of the Bed-chamber also, though saying it is on account of his lameness. He has long had a very swelled leg, which I suppose balances or drains hist head, and prevents it from quite oversetting again. Indeed, as he has been so warm an advocate for the late abominable system, I must a little wonder, if he is angry, that he has palliated the cause of his resignation-but who can argue on a lunatic?

It looks very much as if we should be reconciled with Holland; and, as Russia espouses that temper, I should hope pacification would spread farther. How blessed would that moment be! But we have another grievous thorn in our very side! Ireland is little less estranged than America; and a most wicked coxcomb, one Eden, Secretary to the late Lord Lieutenant,† has dared to do his utmost to heighten the rupture. As he had not sense or judgment enough to cloak his folly, it has fallen on his own head with general indignation; but, as Irish heads are not better poised, we fear consequences. You will see the detail in the papers, too long for a letter. The late Adminis

ceed from any overweening self-opinion or reprehensible ambition, but from an unwillingness to be considered as pledged to measures in framing which he had no concern." Life, vol. i. p. 66.-Ed.

* Admiral Keppel was created a Viscount, and appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. On the subject of his peerage, he thus wrote, on the 2nd of April, to Lord Rockingham: "I cannot help thinking that I ought to be well satisfied with the King's behaviour throughout this business. I need not doubt your finishing it in the properest manner, without any stipulation as to the degree of peerage or prece. dency of the two gentlemen of the law, in case I am called to the House as a Baron. They have kissed hands before, and the contention might breed unpleasant disputes, which are not necessary in our present situation." Life, vol. ii. p. 377.-ED.

The following is the character of Mr. Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland, as drawn by Hardy, in his memoirs of the Earl of Charlemont: "Perfectly skilled in Parliamentary language and management, of quick as well as versatile parts, consummate talents for business and correspondent industry, he was well calculated, not only to guide the nation in its newly-opened path of commerce, but to form such establishments as would advance its progress therein, and enable them to improve what they had acquired. But for such acquisitions a more pacific season was requisite." Vol. i. p. 396.-ED.

The following is Sir Samuel Romilly's account of the proceeding here referred to "The Ministers seem likely, at the very commencement of their administration, to have great difficulties to encounter in the affairs of Ireland. You know the Irish have long talked of throwing off the supremacy of Great Britain. A motion for that purpose has been made this session in the Irish Parliament, but lost

tration had neglected and inflamed that business, as they have acted in almost every other. Such grievous waste and negligence appear from every office, that it is very doubtful whether they will fall so lightly as they expected.* Though they will be very ready to accuse, it may chance that they will be accused first. They have provoked and invited four wars, neglected all, succeeded in none, rejected every overture of peace, while tampering for peace, and by profusion and carelessness thrown away the means of making war any longer. As ministers, generals, treasurers, negotiators, they have proved themselves as incapable as any set of men who ever overturned a great country; and in the rapidity of their achievements they have exceeded all. Strange it was that they did not fall sooner! And yet their fall was instantaneous and unforeseen! My sentiments about them have been uniform. I restrain rather than exaggerate them. Every country in which we are concerned testifies to the truth of what I say. I reap no advantage from their fall, nor shall; fully content if peace is restored, and as much as can be of our Constitution, credit, and felicity. Adieu!

LETTER CCCLXXV.

May 5th, 1782.

I HAVE given the new Administration time to breathe; that is, I did

by a very great majority; since which, the different associations in Ireland have come to resolutions to assert their independence. This has been followed by tumults at Dublin. Lord Carlisle, the Lord Lieutenant, has not dared to stir out of his Castle; and Eden, his Secretary, was near receiving personal violence from the populace as he was setting off for England. The object of his journey was to bring Lord Carlisle's resignation of his vice-royalty, and to represent to the Ministers the state of affairs in Ireland; but on his arrival, he found the Ministry changed, and Lord Carlisle deprived. of the lord-lieutenancy of the East Riding of Yorkshire, and also of the vice-royalty of Ireland, which was now conferred on the Duke of Portland. Piqued at this affront, as he considered it, to Lord Carlisle, he refused to give the Secretaries of State any information; but told them he should, on the first day of the Commons meeting, make a motion relative to the affairs of Ireland. Accordingly, last Monday, he moved to repeal a clause in an act of George I. which declares the supremacy of the British over the Irish Legislature. The Ministers, particularly Fox, complained loudly of the very uncandid manner in which Eden had behaved. They said, that, for themselves, having no information of the state of affairs in Ireland, or of that people's demands, they could not judge how far the measure proposed was proper; but that it seemed, like all the measures of the late Ministers, designed to palliate, not eradicate, the evil: that the present Ministers intended to make such a settlement of the affairs of Ireland as would be agreeable to both countries, and remove all fears and jealousies for the future. Eden was desired by a number of Members to withdraw his motion, but for a long time he refused. General Conway talked of moving a vote of censure on him: at last he complied with the wishes of the House." Life, vol. i. p. 218.—Ed.

* In the course of his speech in the House of Commons, on the first day of its meeting after the adjournment, Mr. Fox said, "that, since he and his colleagues