debates are now so circumstantially detailed in the newspapers, that at best I could but send you extracts. Adieu!

LETTER CCCCXV.

Berkeley Square, Jan. 13, 1784.

AMID the distresses of my family I can find time to send you but few lines. My brother died yesterday evening, with the same constant tranquillity which he had preserved through his whole illness. His almost unvaried health from soon after thirty to seventy-seven, his ample fortune and unambitious temper, make his life and death rather to be envied than lamented. His boundless benevolence and charity had left him but very moderate wealth, which he has given chiefly to his eldest daughter, Mrs. Keppel.

Yesterday was the mighty day of expectation in the House of Commons: at six in the morning the ex-Ministers had a majority of 39.

I could tell you but few or no particulars, having been shut up entirely at my brother's; and this whole morning was employed on reading his will, and other melancholy duties, till seven this evening, when I have barely time to write and send this to the Secretary's office. It was expected yesterday that the Parliament will be immediately dissolved-what the opinion is to-day, I do not at all know.. I am interrupted, and must bid you good night.

LETTER CCCCXVI.

Berkeley Square, Feb. 2, 1784.

As your nephew tells me that he sends you punctual accounts of our politics, I shall say nothing on them. I do not know how he contrives to give you a clear idea of them, so fluctuating and uncertain they are. Once or twice a week there is a day which it is said will be decisive. To-day is in that number; yet I expect it so little, that I am writing to you at ten at night, without inquiring whether the House of Commons, where action is expected, is up; without knowing what was to be there.

My reason for writing is to tell Cavalier Mozzi, through you, that Lucas was with me this morning along with Messrs. Duane and Sharpe. I then acquainted them, as I had resolved, that Mr. Sharpe, having received from the Cavalier, and I from you, the strongest remonstrances against the injustice criante of allowing my lord interest upon interest, and Mr. Lucas adhering to the demand, I did not see how Mr. Duane and I could proceed any farther as referees; as to decide on either side, must discontent the other; whereas our business

was to accord them as amicably as we could, consistently with equity. Mr. Duane then declared against the legality of interest on interest. I said, if it was illegal, it was not a point on which we could decide, but ought to be left to lawyers; and that it would be better to name two new lawyers, one on each side; and, if they disagreed, to call in a third, who should pronounce decisively. Mr. Duane was warm against that; said, the whole cause must be gone over again, and would not end in years. He was for offering my Lord 6007. out of 24317. demanded by Lucas, who on the other hand offered to abate 1000l. Neither would come into the proposal of the other. At last, after many words, I hit on this expedientthat the 54577., which we had all agreed my Lord should receive as a compromise of the demands of both parties, (and which yet Lucas persists in calling a very liberal concession on my Lord's part, not, I believe, because strictly just, but he having all the proofs in his hands, and Mr. Sharpe few or none but what Lucas pleased to give him,) I proposed, I say, that Mr. Duane and I should decide that sum to my Lord, and then that my Lord and the Cavalier should settle as they could the demand of 24317. Mr. Duane and Mr. Sharpe were much pleased with this expedient. Lucas did not like it so well, but could urge nothing material against it. On that issue we left it for the present. Lucas is to write to my Lord, and Mr. Sharpe to Mozzi, who will now know what he likes to do, and how much of the 24317. he will sacrifice for a termination. He may take what time he will to consider on it, or what measures he pleases to obtain as much as he can. Do not let him answer hastily or inconsiderately. If he is impatient to finish, I believe Lucas is as eager to finger the money for my Lord. The more patient will have the advantage. As I believe the demand exorbitant, if not totally unjust, I cannot help saying, that I should think Mozzi had better offer but little at first, which may make Lucas at last except less than he would if the of fer were considerable. A delay cannot make much addition to the time already lost; and whatever he recovers by this new contestation will pay him for losing two or three months more.

I have thus done all that was possible for me to do in my situa tion. Thinking my party in the wrong in general, though perhaps not wholly, (as it does seem that my Lady had appropriated some things to herself to which she had no right,) I have preferred justice to partiality towards the person for whom I acted; and, as I avowed to Lucas to-day, I have contradicted him throughout whenever I knew (by my own acquaintance with the affairs of the family) that he urged what was not true or matter of fact; for instance, in the case of Lady Orford's jewels, the chief of which I remembered my brother had retained when she went abroad. Still, I dare to say, that, besides displeasing my Lord and Lucas, I shall not have answered Cavalier Mozzi's expectations. I can only say to that, that when I have submitted, I have been guided by Mr. Duane, and never allowed but what he said ought to be allowed-and yet I as

sure you he has not flinched a jot when he thought Lucas unreasonable. Mr. Sharpe has said less, but has been against the interest on interest.

Upon the whole, I am still of opinion that had Cavalier Mozzi come over when I advised him, he would have fared better-but that is past!

You, my dear sir, will be as tired as I am of this tedious affair; but your goodness to poor Mozzi will make you excuse it. I could not possibly have explained myself to him in Italian, nor even in French; he is lucky that I could not in terms of law, which even you could not have translated into Italian, nor perhaps into sense. Adieu! I am quite fatigued, having been writing another letter on

business.

I have received and thank you for the two prints of old Cosimo's Duchess; and I thank you for telling me the price of the Fatti Farnesiani, which I shall pay directly to Mr. Croft; I have been so hurried by my brother's death, that I forgot it till just now on reading your last of Jan. 10th again.

LETTER CCCCXVII.

March 12, 1784.

YOUR nephew sends you such regular accounts from the fountainhead, the House of Commons, that I could only retail them more imperfectly. As it will not be long before you see him, you will understand our state of politics better by question and answer, than from maimed or partial relations. The present face of things looks like a suspension of arms-not a truce; much less has your halfnephew succeeded in his endeavours to negotiate an accommodation. The Opposition acquiesce in raising the supplies; and, consequently, the rest of the session is not likely to be tempestuous, as it has been. You may be sure that I approve of your nephew's intention of withdrawing from Parliament. As I have never for one moment regretted my own retirement from that disagreeable occupation, I cannot wonder at another's being sick of it. Ambition, vanity, and interest may reconcile one to acting a part in their theatre; but where they are weak motives, or not existent, how many are there to disgust!

You perceive that I have received yours of Feb. 14th, and the news of Florence in it, which require no answer. Nor have I any to send you in return. Politics have engrossed all conversation, and stifled other events, if any have happened. Thus I find it difficult to be so punctual as I was wont, or to fill a decent sheet when I do write. Indeed, our ladies, who used to contribute to enliven correspondence, are become politicians, and, as lady Townley says,

66

squeeze a little too much lemon into conversation." They have been called back a little to their own profession-dress, by a magnificent ball which the Prince of Wales gave two nights ago to near six hundred persons, to which the Amazons of both parties were invited; and not a scratch was given or received!

I am impatient for Cavalier Mozzi's answer to Mr. Sharpe's letter. The one you sent me from the former came too late; and, though he mentions the distress that delay would occasion to him by his probably missing the opportunity of buying into the French funds, it was impossible for me to go back. I had avoided the inconve nience of throwing up the refereeship, by the sole expedient of deciding all but the interest on interest, and leaving that to be accom. modated by the parties themselves, on which it was impossible for me to pronounce, unless by allowing it to my Lord, which I both thought unjust, and which Cavalier Mozzi himself had almost absolutely forbidden me to grant-I say almost, for, though not positively, he had represented so strongly against it, that, concurring with mine and Mr. Sharpe's sentiments, I could not think myself at liberty to comply; and indeed, if I had, Mr. Duane and I should, after so long a suspense, have been of very little use, as Lucas would have obtained very near all he demanded in the most unbounded manner at first. I have, I am persuaded, offended my Lord much, and do not doubt but that Lucas will have insinuated that I have given his Lordship full excuse for doing any act to my prejudice; but I laugh at that. I am neither fool enough to expect to outlive him, nor care, if I should, whether he totally disinherits me, as I conclude he would. I will not pay the smallest degree of court to him, but rather less, if less could be, since I am become his next heir. I will not owe even what my birth would entitle to, to any insincerity. Judge, then, whether I should not be hurt, if Cavalier Mozzi should suspect me of having acted with any partiality. I doubt whether I have not shown too much on his behalf, though I have often checked myself when I perceived it; for indignation at the treatment of him, resentment on other accounts to his adversaries, and even the vanity, the ostentatious vanity of acting uprightly, may, and I really believe have, biassed my inclinations against the party for whom I was employed: -but then, I have really done nothing but by Mr. Duane's advice; and by his advice have allowed much more to my Lord than I ever believed he had a right to; and which, if he had behaved handsomely, and not been guided by Lucas, he would not have claimed, whatever his pretensions were.

I beg your pardon for dwelling so much on this tedious affair. You will soon, I trust, hear no more of it.

LETTER CCCCXVIII.

Berkeley Square, March 26, 1784. THE Dissolution of Parliament, a manœuvre so long upon the anvil, and so often intermitted, has at last taken place. The King went to the House on Wednesday, and in a few words declared his intention; a strange event interrupted the blow for a moment. In the preceding night some thieves had broken into the Chancellor's house, and stolen the Great Seal! The hubbub it occasioned for some hours was prodigious; but, as forms and ceremonies are not quite so awful as before Time was arrived at years of discretion, a cast was taken off, and served for the death-warrant of the House of Commons last night. In truth, there does not seem to remain any terror in solemnity, when housebreakers make free with the head of the law himself. I doubt, that, for a month or six weeks to come, one shall have additional occasion to keep watch and ward. All the island will be a scene of riot, and probably of violence. The parties are not separated in gentle mood: there will, they say, be contested elections every where; consequently, vast expense and animosities. The Court, it is believed, will have the majority in the new Parliament. As your nephew does not intend to be of it, you will, I conclude, see him soon; but he is out of town, and I know nothing of him. I only write now just to mark the crisis, though tomorrow's papers would have notified the event; but you love, now and then to have the confirmation from me. I have not received from you that of the Pretender's death, though it has been public here this fortnight. I do not mean that I cared a straw about it; and perhaps you thought you had mentioned it. Does his brother mean to encircle his hat with a diadem, like old King Henry of Portugal; or rather, more like the imaginary Charles the Tenth of France, the puppet of the League?

I have not only not heard from you on the part of Mozzi, but not a word from Sharpe; and therefore I conclude no answer is come. We have no private news at all. Indeed, politics are all in all. 'I question whether any woman intrigues with a man of a different party. Little girls say, "Pray, Miss, of which side are you?" I heard of one that said, "Mama and I cannot get Papa over to our side!"

The weather is as violent as our contests. Though the winter was so long and severe, we had snow two days ago, and have again to-day; yet our calamities are trifling to what we hear from the

*This proved to be erroneous. He had, however, been given over, and had received extreme unction.

† Cardinal Henry, uncle and successor of Don Sebastin.

The Cardinal of Bourbon, uncle of Henry IV. of France, proclaimed king by the name of Charles X. by the League, though a prisoner to his nephew; in which confinement he died.

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