sioners themselves have quarrelled, and are coming home. Thus we have begged peace of those we bullied, and only been laughed at. We seem to have wearied Fortune in the last war.

Cæsar seems to have made as bad a figure as we. After usurping Bavaria, he is forced to beg peace too. They say he is convinced of having been in the wrong, by a renunciation that has been found of the Emperor Albert. It is the first time a hero at the head of two hundred and twenty thousand men was ever convinced by an old parchment! His Imperial reason did not deign to listen to law and equity in the dismemberment of Poland; nor would he now, I ween, if Lord Chief Justice Frederic had not enclosed him with more numerous armies. We did not pay much regard to the charters of America, till France helped the latter to carry on the suit.

I am very anxious for the confirmation of this pacification in Germany; for the Duke of Gloucester was just setting out to make the campaign under the King of shall have your compassion. 1. We are blocked up by a French fleet. 2. We are kept in prison, as we dare not ride beyond our posts towards the country. 3. If any attack is made, either by sea or land, we wish more than we are likely to gain. 4. If certain events, which are not improbable, should take place, we shall be inevitably starved. 5. We have tried the Congress, and you will think with me that, in our present circumstances, they will not depart from their resolution in refusing our offers. 6. Our packet is taken, which would perhaps have relieved me from a state of suspense, that I have not public virtue enough not to think more bitter than many of those misfortunes which my country must feel as well as myself. I own fairly we have nothing to do here; but we must not quit the business till that point is so clear as not to admit of two opinions." Selwyn Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 301.—E».

Prussia. It was worthy of his spirit, and nobody dared to remonstrate against it; and yet the physicians think he could not support an autumnal campaign. The Duchess herself has only shed floods of tears, but not murmured. The behaviour of both does them infinite honour.

Your friends, the Mackenzies,* are arrived, and Mrs. Anne Pitt is expected daily. Mrs. Foote's friend, old Lady Westmorland,+ is dead, and the ancient beauty, Lady Fanny Shirley; she had lost her head some time, and her senses before, for she has made Lady Huntingdons her heir, having turned Methodist when she was no longer admired.

Our summer is as Italian as yours: I do not remember such an one. Adieu !

LETTER CCLXXXIX.

Arlington Street, Aug. 25, 1778.

You tell me, my dear sir, that you depend so entirely on me for intelligence, at least for the confirmation of public events, that I must not let yesterday's Gazette go away to-night without writing you a line.

* James Stuart Mackenzie, only brother of Lord Bute, married Lady Elizabeth Campbell, third daughter of John, Duke of Argyll. + Daughter of a son of the first Duke of Devonshire.

Formerly a great beauty, admired and celebrated by Lord Chesterfield, who wrote on her the well-known song, "When Fanny, blooming fair."

§ Lady Selina Shirley, niece of Lady Fanny, and patroness of the Methodists.

Military narratives are apt to be a little oracular, and ours of late have wanted some additional obscurity. You will collect from yesterday's, that General Clinton's army did get to New York, though with some difficulty, which, ministerially, you are to take for a victory; and, wherever any darkness hangs over it, you must clear it up on our side. I divine that Washington was ill served, for he has brought two of his Generals to a court-martial; and the excessive heats seem to have fought against both armies. This is the quintessence of what I know of the matter; and, upon the whole, the Royal army has gained an escape -I doubt, not much to their comfort; for they find no plenty at New York, and Monsieur D'Estaing blocks up the fleet there: so, probably, accounts will not mend.

Our fleet at home has not sailed again. There are rumours of dissensions between Admiral Keppel and Sir Hugh Palliser, and even of a duel between them; which, however, I have heard from no good authority: in short, I have nothing agreeable to tell you, and I do not love to send anything that is not to the glory of my country 'cross the Channel.

The German peace seems to halt. I should think it, however, still in agitation; as no considerable action has happened. The Duke of Gloucester has yet received no answer from the Prussian, but expects it this week. He is determined to go if he is acceptedto every peril indeed, for his strength is not equal to it.

We have had the most marvellous summer that I

ever remember in all my days. It is still sultry; and I am suffering, though I write between every open door and window in a back-room where the sun never enters. The harvest is prodigious;. and we might have wine and oil, had we made preparations for them.

The Duke of Ancaster is dead, and the Mastership of the Horse to be disposed of. This would have been an object in some summers; but we do not want topics of conversation at present. I used to make excuses for the shortness of my letters at this season.

That is not the case at present. I have given you the reason

at the top of this page.+

Adieu!

LETTER CCXC.

Strawberry Hill, Sept. 17, 1778.

YOUR last is of August 22nd, and mine of the 25th. Since then I could have told you nothing but expectations; nor are they realized yet. Admiral Keppel has been hunting for the Brest fleet, which has either gone southward, or is dodging in and out of their ports at least he had not found it. But if the god of sea-fights does not smile, the god of merchantmen has wrought miracles: all our fleets are come in from Portugal, the West Indies, and every other mart: he has been as cunning as if he were the demon of smugglers.

*The situation was conferred on the Duke of Northumberland.-ED. + Vide end of the second paragraph.

VOL. III.-NEW SERIES.

H

Letters are arrived, too, from New York. D'Estaing had quitted that blockade, and was thought to be sailed to attack Rhode Island. Lord Howe was gone after him with an inferior force, but, they say, hoping to be joined by six of Byron's squadron; which six are come to light again, and were not far off. Of that Admiral not a word. This is the quintessence of all I know.

In my family we are very happy that the King of Prussia has sent the Duke a most handsome excuse, being afraid of exposing a constitution so delicate as his Royal Highness's to the fatigues of a latter campaign; so, that anxiety is at an end! Prince Henry's success has not availed much. Having devoured the country, the Prussians have been forced to step back. The people that have been devoured count for nothing.

Your Duchess of Kingston is a paltry mountebank. It is too ridiculous to have airs after conviction. Mrs. Anne Pitt, I hear, is arrived. Her nephew, Mr. Thomas Pitt, I believe, you will see ere long. A weakness is fallen on his knees, and made him a cripple. He is, I think, set out for Italy, like Æneas, with his Creusa, her father of eighty-seven, and two sucking babes.* Let me give you a caution: he and I have never been on more than civil terms since Mr. Grenville's reign. He now swears by the ghost of his uncle Chatham, whom in those days he detested.

* Mr. Thomas Pitt, in 1783 created Lord Camelford, married, in 1771, the daughter and co-heir of Pinkney Wilkinson, Esq., of Burnham in Norfolk; by whom he had one son, Thomas, his successor, who was killed in a duel in 1804, and one daughter, who, in 1792, was married to William, Lord Grenville.-ED.