but beg he may be spared. The discussions and difference of opinions, on the sentence is incredible. The cabinet council, I believe, will be to determine whether the King shall pardon him or not: some who wish to make him the scape-goat for their own neglects, I fear, will try to complete his fate, but I should think the new administration will not be biassed to blood by such interested attempts. He bore well his unexpected sentence, as he has all the outrageous indignities and cruelties heaped upon him. Last week happened an odd event, I can scarce say in his favour, as the world seems to think it the effect of the arts of some of his friends: Voltaire sent him from Switzerland an accidental letter of the Duc de Richelieu, bearing witness to the Admiral's good behaviour in the engagement. A letter of a very different cast, and of great humour, is showed about, said to be written to Admiral Boscawen from an old tar, to this effect:

66

SIR, I had the honour of being at the taking of Port Mahon, for which one gentleman' was made a lord; I was also at the losing of Mahon, for which another gentleman has been made a lord: each of those gentlemen performed but one of those services; surely I, who performed both, ought at least to be made a lieutenant. Which is all from your honour's humble servant, &c."d

Did you hear that after their conquest, the French ladies wore little towers for pompons, and called them des Mahonnoises? I suppose, since the attempt on the King, all their fashions will be à l'assassin. We are quite in the dark still about that history: it is one of the bad effects of living in one's own time, that one never knows the truth of it till one is dead!

Old Fontenelle is dead at last; they asked him as he was dying, "s'il sentoit quelque mal?" He replied, "Oui, je sens le mal d'être." My uncle, a young creature compared to Fontenelle, is grown some

a Voltaire's letter to Admiral Byng was written in English, and is as follows:-" Aux Délices, près de Genéve. Sir, though I am almost unknown to you, I think 'tis my duty to send you the copy of the letter which I have just received from the Marshal Duc de Richelieu; honour, humanity, and equity order me to convey it into your hands. The noble and unexpected testimony from one of the most candid as well as the most generous of my countrymen, makes me presume your judges will do you the same justice." Sir John Barrow, in his Life of Lord Anson, proves that these letters got into the hands of those who were not friendly to the Admiral, and he suspects that they never reached the unfortunate person for whose benefit they were intended.-E.

b Byng, Viscount Torrington.

c Lord Blakeney.

d It is now generally believed that Byng was brave but incapable. He might have done more than he did; but this was occasioned not by his want of courage, but by his want of ability. He was cruelly sacrificed to the fury of the people, and to the popularity of the ministry.-D.

Fontenelle died on the 9th of January, having nearly completed his hundredth year. M. le Cat, in his éloge of him, gives the following account of his dying words!" He reflected upon his own situation, just as he would upon that of another man, and seemed to be observing a phenomenon. Drawing very near his end, he said, 'This is the first death I have ever seen;' and his physicians having asked him, whether he was in pain, or what he felt, his answer was, 'I feel nothing but a difficulty of existing.'”—E.

thing between childish and mad, and raves about the melancholy situation of politics; one should think he did not much despair of his country, when at seventy-eight he could practice such dirty arts to intercept his brother's estate from his brother's grandchildren! A conclusion how unlike that of the honest good-humoured Pope! I am charmed with his bon-mot that you sent me. Apropos! Mr. Chute has received a present of a diamond mourning ring from a cousin; he calls it l'anello del Piscatore.

Mr. Pitt is still confined, and the House of Commons little better than a coffee-house. I was diverted the other day with Père Brumoy's translation of Aristophanes: the Harangueses, or female orators, who take the government upon themselves instead of their husbands, might be well applied to our politics: Lady Hester Pitt, Lady Caroline Fox, and the Duchess of Newcastle, should be the heroines of the piece; and with this advantage, that as Lysistrata is forced to put on a beard, the Duchess has one ready grown.

Sir Charles Williams is returning, on the bad success of our dealings with Russia. The French were so determined to secure the Czarina, that they chose about seven of their handsomest young men to accompany their ambassador. How unlucky for us, that Sir Charles was embroiled with Sir Edward Hussey Montagu, who could alone have outweighed all the seven! Sir Charles's daughter, Lady Essex, had engaged the attentions of Prince Edward, who has got his liberty, and seems extremely disposed to use it, and has great life and good-humour. She has already made a ball for him. Sir Richard Lyttelton was so wise as to make her a visit, and advise her not to meddle with politics; that the Princess would conclude it was a plan laid for bringing together Prince Edward and Mr. Fox! As Mr. Fox was not just the person my Lady Essex was thinking of bringing together with Prince Edward, she replied very cleverly, "And my dear Sir Richard, let me advise you not to meddle with politics neither." Adieu!

a The following is Lord Chesterfield's account of Sir Charles's mental alienation, in a letter of the 4th, to his son: "He was let blood four times on board the ship, and has been let blood four times since his arrival here; but still the inflammation continues very high. He is now under the care of his brothers. They have written to the same Made moiselle John, to prevent, if they can, her coming to England; which, when she hears, she must be as mad as he is, if she takes the journey. By the way, she must be une dame aventurière, to receive a note for ten thousand roubles, from a man whom she had known only three days; to take a contract of marriage, knowing he was married already; and to engage herself to follow him to England." Again, on the 22d, he writes, "Sir C. W. is still in confinement, and, I fear, will always be so, for he seems cum ratione sanire: the physicians have collected all he has said and done, that indicated an alienation of mind, and have laid it before him in writing; he has answered it in writing too, and justifies himself by the most plausible argument that can possibly be urged. I conclude this subject with pitying him, and poor human nature, which holds its reason by so precarious a tenure. The lady, who you tell me is set out, en sera pour la peine et les frais du voyage, for her note is worth no more than her contract."-E.

b The Pope's seal with a ring, which is called the Fisherman's ring. Mr. Chute, who was unmarried, meant that his cousin was fishing for his estate.

Brother of George the Third; afterwards created Duke of York. He died in 1767,

at the early age of twenty-eight.-E.

d Sir Charles Williams was a particular friend of Mr. Fox.

TO SIR HORACE MANN.

Strawberry Hill, Feb. 13, 1757.

I AM not surprised to find you still lamenting your dear brother; but you are to blame, and perhaps I shall be so, for asking and giving any more accounts of his last hours. Indeed, after the fatal Saturday, on which I told you I was prevented seeing him by his being occupied with his lawyer, he had scarce an interval of senseand no wonder! His lawyer has since told me, that nothing ever equalled the horrid indecencies of your sister-in-law on that day. Having yielded to the settlement for which he so earnestly begged, she was determined to make him purchase it, and in transports of passion and avarice, kept traversing his chamber from the lawyer to the bed, whispering her husband, and then telling the lawyer, who was drawing the will, "Sir, Mr. Mann says I am to have this, I am to have that!" The lawyer at last, offended to the greatest degree, said, "Madam, it is Mr. Mann's will I am making, not yours!"but here let me break it off; I have told you all I know, and too much. It was a very different sensation I felt, when your brother Ned told me that he had found seven thousand pounds in the stocks in your

As Mr. Chute and I know how little it is possible for you to lay up, we conclude that this sun is amassed for you by dear Gal.'s industry and kindness, and by a silent way of serving you, without a possibility of his wife or any one else calling it in question.

What a dreadful catastrophe is that of Richcourt's family! What a lesson for human grandeur! Florence, the scene of all his triumphs and haughtiness, is now the theatre of his misery and misfortunes!

After a fortnight of the greatest variety of opinions, Byng's fate is still in suspense. The court and the late ministry have been most bitter against him; the new admiralty most good-natured; the King would not pardon him. They would not execute the sentence, as many lawyers are clear that it is not a legal one. At last the council has referred it to the twelve judges to give their opinion: if not a favourable one, he dies! He has had many fortunate chances; had the late admiralty continued, one knows how little any would have availed him. Their bitterness will always be recorded against themselves: it will be difficult to persuade posterity that all the shame of last summer was the fault of Byng! Exact evidence of whose fault it was, I believe posterity will never have: the long expected inquiries are begun, that is, some papers have been moved for, but so coldly, that it is plain George Townshend and the Tories are unwilling to push researches that must necessarily reunite Newcastle and Fox. In the mean time, Mr. Pitt stays at home, and holds the House of Commons in commendam. I do not augur very well of the ensuing

Walpole, in his Memoires, vol. ii. p. 152, says, that Mr. Pitt moved the King to mercy, but was cut very short; nor did his Majesty remember to ask his usual question, "whether there were any favourable circumstances."-E.

summer; a detachment is going to America under a commander whom a child might outwit, or terrify with a pop-gun! The confusions in France seem to thicken with our mismanagements: we hear of a total change in the ministry there, and of the disgrace both of Machault and D'Argenson, the chiefs of the Parliamentary and Ecclesiastic factions. That the King should be struck with the violence of their parties, I don't wonder: it is said, that as he went to hold the lit de Justice, no mortal cried Vive le Roi! but one old woman, for which the mob knocked her down, and trampled her to death.

My uncle died yesterday was se'nnight; his death I really believe hastened by the mortification of the money vainly spent at Norwich. I neither intend to spend money, nor to die of it, but, to my mortificacation, am forced to stand for Lynn, in the room of his son. The corporation still reverence my father's memory so much, that they will not bear distant relations, while he has sons living. I was reading the other day a foolish book called "L'Histoire des quatre Cicérons;" the author, who has taken Tully's son for his hero, says, he piqued himself on out-drinking Antony, his father's great enemy. Do you think I shall ever pique myself on being richer than my Lord Bath?

Prince Edward's pleasures continue to furnish conversation: he has been rather forbid by the Signora Madre to make himself so common; and he has been rather encouraged by his grandfather to disregard the prohibition. The other night the Duke and he were at a ball at Lady Rochford's: she and Lady Essex were singing in an inner chamber when the Princes entered, who insisting on a repetition of the song, my Lady Essex, instead of continuing the same, addressed herself to Prince Edward in this ballad of Lord Dorset

"False friends I have as well as you,

Who daily counsel me

Fame and ambition to pursue,

And leave off loving thee-"

It won't be unamusing, I hope it will be no more than amusing, when all the Johns of Gaunt, and Clarences, and Humphrys of Gloucester, are old enough to be running about town, and furnishing histories. Adieu!

MY DEAR SIR,

TO JOHN CHUTE, ESQ.b

Sunday night, very late, Feb. 27, 1757.

I SHOULD Certainly have been with you to-night, as I desired George Montagu to tell you, but every six hours produce such new wonders, that I do not know when I shall have a moment to see you. Will you, can you believe me, when I tell you that the four persons of the

Lucy Young, wife of William Henry, Earl of Rochford. b Now first published.

court-martial whom Keppel named yesterday to the House as commissioning him to ask for the bill, now deny they gave him such commission, though Norris, one of them, was twice on Friday with Sir Richard Lyttelton, and once with George Grenville for the same purpose! I have done nothing but traverse the town to-night from Sir Richard Lyttelton's to the Speaker's, to Mr. Pitt's, to Mr. Fox's, to Doddington's, to Lady Hervey's, to find out and try how to defeat the evil of this, and to extract, if possible, some good from it. Alas! alas! that what I meant so well, should be likely only to add a fortnight to the poor man's misery! Adieu!

TO SIR HORACE MANN.

Arlington Street, March 3, 1757.

I HAVE deferred writing to you till I could tell you something certain of the fate of Admiral Byng: no history was ever so extraordinary, or produced such variety of surprising turns. In my last I told you that his sentence was referred to the twelve judges. They have made law of that of which no man else could make sense. The Admiralty immediately signed the warrant for his execution on the last of February—that is, three signed: Admiral Forbes positively refused, and would have resigned sooner. The Speaker would have had Byng expelled the House, but his tigers were pitiful. Sir Francis Dashwood tried to call for the court-martial's letter, but the tigers were not so tender as that came to. Some of the court-martial grew to feel as the execution advanced: the city grew impatient for it. Mr. Fox tried to represent the new ministry as compassionate, and has damaged their popularity. Three of the court-martial applied on Wednesday last to Lord Temple to renew their solicitation for mercy. Sir Francis Dashwood moved a repeal of the bloody twelfth article: the House was savage enough; yet Mr. Doddington softened them, and not one man spoke directly against mercy. They had nothing to fear: the man," who, of all defects, hates cowardice and avarice most, and who has some little objection to a mob in St. James's street, has magnanimously forgot all the services of the great Lord Torrington. On Thursday seven of the court-martial applied for mercy: they were rejected. On Friday a most strange event happened. I was told at the House that Captain Keppel and Admiral Norris desired a bill to absolve them from their oath of secrecy, that they might unfold something very material towards saving the prisoner's life. I was out of Parliament myself during my re-election, but I ran to Keppel; he said he had never spoken in public, and could not, but would give authority to any body else. The Speaker was putting the question for the orders of the day, after which no motion could be made: it

The King.