The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford Volume I Part 24

(337) the Right Hon. Sir William Yonge, Bart., secretary at war, to which office he had succeeded in May, 1735. Walpole, who tells us (Memoires, i. p. 20,) that " he was vain, extravagant, and trifling; simple out of the House, and too ready at a.s.sertions in it," adds, "that his vivacity and parts, whatever the cause was, made him s.h.i.+ne, and he was always content with the l.u.s.tre that accompanied fame, without thinking of what was reflected from rewarded fame-a convenient ambition to ministers, who had few such disinterested combatants. Sir Robert Walpole always said of him 'that nothing but Yonge's character could keep down his parts, and nothing but his parts support his character.'" That these parts were very great is shown by the fact, that Sir Robert Walpole often, when he did not care to enter early into the debate himself, gave Yonge his notes, as the latter came late into the House, from which be could speak admirably and fluently, though he had missed the preceding discussion. Sir William, who had a p.r.o.neness to poetry, wrote the epilogue to Johnson's tragedy of "Irene." 'When I published the plan for my Dictionary," says the Doctor, "Lord'Chesterfield told me that the word great should be p.r.o.nounced so as to rhyme to state; and Sir William Yonge sent me word, that it should be p.r.o.nounced so as to rhyme to seat, and that none but an Irishman would p.r.o.nounce it great. Now, here were two men of the highest rank, the one the best speaker in the House of Lords, the other the best speaker in the House of Commons, differing entirely." See Boswell's Johnson,vol.iii.p.191.

(338) Sir Thomas Bootle, chancellor to the Prince of Wales; a dull, heavy man, and who is, therefore, ironically called, by Sir C. H. Williams, "Bright Bootle,"-D.

(339) Francis Chute, an eminent lawyer, second brother of Anthony Chute, of the Vine, in Hamps.h.i.+re, had, in concert with Luke Robinson, another lawyer, disputed Mr. Pultney's borough of Heydon with him at the general elections and been returned but on a pet.i.tion, and the removal of Sir R. W. they were voted out of their seats, and Mr. Chute died soon after.-E.

(340) Sarah, Dowager d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough.

(341) Nor did she, Her grace survived the date of this letter nearly three years. She died on the 18th of October 1744, being then eighty-four years of age.-E.

197 Letter 46 To Sir Horace Mann.

Wednesday night, eleven o'clock, Dec. 16, 1741.

Remember this day.

Nous voil'a de la Minorit'e! entens-tu cela! h'e! My dear child, since you will have these ugly words explained, they just mean that we ar-- metamorphosed into the minority. This was the night of choosing a chairman of the committee of elections. Gyles Earle, (342) (as in the two last parliaments) was named by the Court; Dr. Lee, (343) a civilian, by the Opposition, a man of a fair character. (344) Earle was formerly a dependent on the Duke of Argyle,(345) is of remarkable covetousness and wit, which he has dealt out largely against the Scotch and the Patriots. It was a day of much expectation, and both sides had raked together all probabilities: I except near twenty who are in town, but stay to vote on a second question, when the majority may be decided to either party. have you not read of such in story?

Men, who would not care to find themselves on the weaker side, contrary to their intent. In short, the determined sick were dragged out of their beds; zeal came in a great coat. There were two vast dinners at two taverns, for either-party; at six we met in the House. Sir William Yonge, seconded by my uncle Horace, (346) moved for Mr. Earle: Sir Paul Methuen (347) and Sir Watkyn Williams (348) proposed Dr. Lee-and carried him, by a majority of four: 242 against 238-the greatest number, I believe, that ever lost a question. You have no idea of their huzza! unless you can conceive how people must triumph after defeats of twenty years together. We had one vote shut out, by coming a moment too late; one that quitted us, for having been ill used by the Duke of Newcastle but yesterday-for which in all probability, he will use him well to-morrow-I mean, for quitting us. Sir Thomas Lowther,(349) Lord Hartington's (350) uncle, was fetched down by him and voted against us. Young Ross,(351) son to a commissioner of the customs, and saved from the dishonour of not liking to go to the West Indies when it was his turn, by Sir R.s giving him a lieutenancy, voted against us; and Tom Hervey,(352) who is always with us, but is quite mad; and being asked why he left us, replied, "Jesus knows my thoughts; one day I blaspheme, and pray the next." so, you see what accidents were against us, or we had carried our point. They cry, Sir R. miscalculated: how should he calculate, when there are men like Ross, and fifty others he could name! It was not very pleasant to be stared in the face to see how one bore it-you can guess at my bearing it, who interest myself so little about any thing. I have had a taste of what I am to meet from all sorts of people. The moment we had lost the question, I went from the heat of the house into the Speaker's chamber, and there were some fifteen others of us-an under door-keeper thought a question was new put, when it was not, and, withou@ giving us notice, clapped the door to. I asked him how he dared lock us out without calling us: he replied insolently, "It was his duty, and he would do it again:" one of the party went to him, commended him, and told him he should be punished if he acted otherwise. Sir R. is in great spirits, and still sanguine. I have so little experience, that I shall not be amazed at whatever scenes follow. My dear child, we have triumphed twenty years; is it strange that fortune should at last forsake us; or ought we not always to expect it, especially in this kingdom? They talk loudly of the year forty-one, and promise themselves all the confusions that began a hundred years ago from the same date. I hope they prognosticate wrong; but should it be so, I can be happy in other places. One reflection I shall have, very sweet, though very melancholy; that if our family is to be the sacrifice that shall first pamper discord, at least the one,' the part of it that interested all my concerns, and must have suffered from our ruin, is safe, secure, and above the rage of confusion: nothing in this world can touch her peace now!

To-morrow and Friday we go upon the Westminster election-you will not wonder, shall you, if you hear the next post that we have lost that too? Good night.

Yours, ever.

(342) Giles Earle, Esq. one of the lords of the treasury and who had been chairman of the committees of the House of Commons from 1727 to the date of this letter. He had been successively groom of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales in 1718, clerk comptroller of the King"s household in 1720, commissioner of the Irish revenue in 1728, and a lord of the treasury in 1738. Mr.

Earle was a man of broad coa.r.s.e wit, and a lively image of his style and sentiments has been preserved by Sir C. H. Williams, in his "Dialogue between Giles Earle and Bubb Dodington."-E.

(343) George Lee, brother to the lord-chief justice; he was appointed one of the lords of the admiralty on the following change, which post he resigned on the disgrace of his patron, Lord Granville. He was designed by the Prince of Wales for his first minister, and, immediately on the prince's death, was appointed treasurer to the princess dowager, and soon after made dean of the arches, a knight, and privy counsellor. He died in 1758.

(344) In a letter to Dodington, written from Spa, on the 8th of September, Lord Chesterfield says:-"I am for acting at the very beginning of the session. The court generally proposes some servile and shameless tool of theirs to be chairman of the committee of privileges. Why should not we, therefore, pick up some Whig of a fair character, and with personal connexions, to set up in opposition? I think we should be pretty strong upon this point."-E.

(345) John, the great Duke of Argyle and Greenwich.-D.

(346) Horace Walpole, younger brother of Sir Robert, created. in his old age, Lord Walpole of Wolterton. He was commonly called "Old Horace," to distinguish him from his nephew, the writer of these letters.-D.

(347) The son of John Methuen, Esq. the diplomatist, and author of the celebrated Methuen treaty with Portugal. Sir Paul was a knight of the Bath, and died in 1757.-D.

(348) Sir Watkyn Williams Wynn, Bart. the third baronet of the family, was long one of the leaders in the House of Commons.-D.

(349) Sir Thomas Lowther, Bart. of Holker, in Lancas.h.i.+re. He had married Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of the second Duke of Devons.h.i.+re.-D.

(350) Afterwards the fourth Duke of Devons.h.i.+re.

(351) Charles Ross, killed in flannders, at the battle of Fontenoy, 1745.

(352) Thomas Hervey, second son of John, first Earl of Bristol, 'and Surveyor of the royal gardens. He was at this time writing his famous letter to Sir Thomas Hanmer. [With whose wife he had eloped. In the letter alluded to, he expresses his conviction that his conduct was natural and delicate, and that, finally, in heaven, Lady Hanmer, in the distribution of wives, would be considered to be his. Dr. Johnson (to whom he had left a legacy of fifty pounds, but -,afterwards gave it him in his life-time) characterises him as "very vicious." " Alas!" observes Mr.

Croker, "it is but too probable that he was disordered in mind, and that what was called vice was. in truth, disease, and required a madhouse rather than a prison." He died in 1775. See Boswell's Johnson, Vol. iii. P. 18, ed. 1835.)

(353) His mother, Catherine Lady Walpole, who died August 20, 1737.

199 Letter 47 To Sir Horace Mann.

Thursday, six o'clock. [Dec. 17, 1741.

You will hardly divine where I am writing to you-in the Speaker's chamber. The House is examining witnesses on the Westminster election, which will not be determined to-day; I am not in haste it should, for I believe we shall lose it. A great fat fellow, a constable, on their side, has just deposed, that Lord Sundon,(355) and the high constable, took him by the collar at the election, and threw him down stairs. Do you know the figure of Lord Sundon? If you do, only think of that little old creature throwing any man down stairs!

As I was coming down this morning, your brother brought me a long letter from you, in answer to mine of the 12th of November. You try to make me mistrust the designs of Spain against Tuscany, but I will hope yet: hopes are all I have for any thing I know!

As to the young man, I will see his mother the first moment I can; and by next post, hope to give you a definite answer, whether he will submit to be a servant or not; in every other respect, I am sure he will please you.

Your friend, Mr. Fane,(356) would not come for us last night, nor will vote till after the Westminster election: be is brought into parliament by the Duke of Bedford,(357) and is unwilling to disoblige him in this. We flattered ourselves with better success; for last Friday, after sitting till two in the morning we carried a Cornish election in four divisions-the first by a majority of six, then of twelve, then of fourteen, and lastly by thirty-six. You can't imagine the zeal of the young men on both sides: Lord Fitzwilliam, Lord Hartington, and my friend c.o.ke (358) on ours, are warm as possible; Lord Quarendon (359) and Sir Francis Dashwood (360) are as violent on theirs: the former speaks often and well. But I am talking to you of nothing but parliament; why, really, all one's ideas are stuffed with it, and you yourself will not dislike to hear things so material. The Opposition who invent every method of killing Sir R., intend to make us sit on Sat.u.r.days; but how mean and dirty is it, how scandalous! when they can't ruin him by the least plausible means, to murder him by denying him air and exercise.(361) There was a strange affair happened on Sat.u.r.day; it was strange, yet very English. One Nourse, an old gamester, said, in the coffee-house, that Mr. Shuttleworth, a member, only pretended to be ill. This was told to Lord Windsor,(362) his friend, who quarrelled with Nourse, and the latter challenged him. My lord replied, he would not fight him, he was too old. The other replied, he was not too old to fight with pistols. Lord Windsor still refused: Nourse, in a rage, went home and cut his own throat. This was one of the odd ways in which men are made.

I have scarce seen Lady Pomfret lately, but I am sure Lord Lincoln is not going to marry her daughter. I am not surprised at her sister being shy of receiving civilities from you-that was English too!

Say a great deal for me to the Chutes. How I envy your snug suppers! I never have such suppers! Trust me, if we fall, all the grandeur, all the envied grandeur of our house, will not cost me a sigh: it has given me no pleasure while we have it, and will give me no pain when I part with it. My liberty, my ease, and choice of my own friends and company, will sufficiently counterbalance the crowds of Downing-street. I am so sick of it all, that if we are victorious or not, I propose leaving England in the spring,. Adieu!

Yours, ever and ever.

(355) William clayton, Lord Sundon, in Ireland, so created in 1735. His wife was a favourite of Queen Caroline, to whom she was mistress of the robes.

(356) Charles Fane, Only son of Lord Viscount Fane, whom he succeeded, had been minister at Florence.

(357) John Russell, fourth Duke of Bedford.-D.

(358) Edward, Lord Viscount c.o.ke, only son of the Earl of Leicester. He died in 1753.

(359) George Henry Lee, Lord Viscount Quarendon, eldest son of the Earl of Lichfield, whom he succeeded in that t.i.tle.

(360) Sir Francis Dashwood, Bart., afterwards Lord Le Despencer. Under the administration of Lord Bute he was, for a short time, chancellor of the exchequer.-D.

(361) Sir Robert always went every Sat.u.r.day to Newpark, Richmond, to hunt. (From his early youth, Sir Robert was fond of the diversions of the field. He was accustomed to hunt in Richmond Park with a pack of beagles. On receiving a packet of letters, he usually opened that from his gamekeeper first.]

(362) Herbert Windsor Hickman, second Viscount Windsor in Ireland, and Baron Montjoy of the Isle of Wight. [His lords.h.i.+p died in 1758, when all his honours, in default of male issue, became extinct.]

201 Letter 48 To Sir Horace Mann.

Christmas eve, 1741.

My dearest child, if I had not heard regularly from you, what a shock it would have given me! The other night at the opera, Mr.

Worseley, with his peevish face, half smiling through ill-nature, told me (only mind!) by way of news, "that he heard Mr. Mann was dead at Florence!"' How kind! To entertain one with the chitchat of the town, a man comes and tells one that one's dearest friend is dead! I am sure he would have lost his speech if he had had any thing pleasurable to tell. If ever there is a metempsychosis, his soul will pa.s.s into a vulture and prey upon carcases after a battle, and then go and bode at the windows of their relations. But I will say no more of him; I will punish him sufficiently, if sufficiently there be, by telling him you are perfectly well: you are, are you not? Send me certificate signed by Dr. Cocchi,(363) and I will choke him with it: another's health must be venomous to him.

Sir Francis Dashwood too,-as you know all ill-natured people hear all ill news,-told me he heard you was ill: I vowed you was grown as strong as the Farnese Hercules. Then he desires you will send him four of the Volterra urns, of the chimney-piece size; send them with any of my things; do, or he will think I neglected it because he is our enemy; and I would not be peevish, not to be like them. He is one of the most inveterate; they list under Sandys,(364) a parcel of them with no more brains than their general; but being malicious they pa.s.s for ingenious, as in these countries fogs are reckoned warm weather.

Did you ever hear what Earle said of Sandys? "that he never laughed but once, and that was when his best friend broke his thigh."

Last Thursday I wrote you word of our losing the chairman of the committee. This winter is to be all ups and downs. The next day (Friday) we had a most complete victory. Mr. Pultney moved for all papers and letters, etc. between the King and the Queen of Hungary and their ministers. Sir R. agreed to give them all the papers relative to those transactions, only desiring to except the letters written by the two sovereigns themselves. They divided, and we carried it, 237 against 227. They moved to have those relations to France, Prussia, and Holland. Sir R. begged they would defer asking for those of Prussia till the end of January, at which time a negotiation would be at an end with that King, which now he might break off, if he knew it was to be made public. Mr. Pultney persisted; but his obstinacy, which might be so prejudicial to the public, revolted even his own partisans, and seven of them spoke against him. We carried that question by twenty-four; and another by twenty-one, against sitting on the next day (Sat.u.r.day). Monday and Tuesday we went on the Westminster election. Murray (365) spoke divinely; he Was their counsel. Lloyd (366) answered him extremely well: but on summing up the evidence on both sides, and in his reply, Murray was in short, beyond what was ever heard at the bar.That day (Tuesday) we went on the merits of the cause, and at ten at night divided, and lost it. They had 220, we 216; so that the election was declared void. You see four is a fortunate number to them. We had forty-one more members in town, who would not, or could not come down. The time. is a touchstone for wavering consciences. All the arts, money, promises, threats,, all the arts of the. former year 41, are applied; and self-interest, in the shape of Scotch members-nay, and of English ones, operates to the aid of their party, and to the defeat of ours. Lord Doneraile,(367) a young Irishman, brought in by the court, was pet.i.tioned against, though his compet.i.tor had but one vote. This young man spoke as well as ever any one spoke in his own defence insisted on the pet.i.tion being heard, and concluded with declaring, that, "his cause was his Defence, and Impartiality must be his support." Do you know that, after this, he went and engaged if they would withdraw the pet.i.tion, to vote with them in the Westminster affair! His friends reproached him so strongly with his meanness, that he was shocked, and went to Mr. Pultney to get off; Mr. P. told him he had given him his honour, and he would not release him, though Lord Doneraile declared it was against his conscience: but he voted with them, and lost us the next question which they put (for censuring the High Bailiff) by his single vote; for in that the numbers were 217 against 215: the alteration of his vote would have made it even; and then the Speaker, I suppose, would have chosen the merciful side, and decided for us.

After this, Mr. Pultney, with an affected humanity, agreed to commit the High Bailiff only to the serjeant-at-arms. Then, by a majority of six, they voted that the soldiers, who had been sent for after the poll was closed, to save Lord Sundon's (368) life, had come in a military and illegal manner, and influenced the election. In short, they determined, as Mr. Murray had dictated to them, that no civil magistrate, on any pretence whatsoever, though he may not be able to suppress even a riot by the a.s.sistance of the militia and constables, may call in the aid of the army. Is not this doing the work of the Jacobites? have they any other view than to render the riot act useless? and then they may rise for the Pretender whenever they please. Then they moved to punish Justice Blackerby for calling in the soldiers; and when it was desired that he might be heard in his own defence, they said he had already confessed his crime. Do but think on it! without being accused, without knowing, or being told it was a crime, a man gives evidence in another cause, not his own, and then they call it his-own accusation of himself, and would condemn him for it. You see what justice we may expect if they actually get the majority. But this was too strong a pill for one of their own leaders to swallow: Sir John Barnard(369 did propose and persuade them to give him a day to be heard. In short we sat till half an hour after four in the morning; the longest day that ever was known. I say nothing of myself, for I could but just speak when I came away; but Sir Robert was as well as ever, and spoke with as much spirit as ever, at four o'clock.

This way they will not kill him; I Will not answer for any other.

As he came out, Whitehead,(370) the author of Manners, and agent with one Carey, a surgeon, for the Opposition, said "D-n him, how well he looks!" Immediately after their success, Lord Gage (371) went forth, and begged there might be no mobbing; but last night we had bonfires all over the town, and I suppose shall have notable mobbing at the new election; though I do not believe there will be any opposition to their Mr. Edwin and Lord Perceval.(372) Thank G.o.d!

we are now adjourned for three weeks. I shall go to Swallowfield (373) for a few days: so for one week you will miss hearing from me. We have escaped the Prince'S (374) affair hitherto, but we shall have it after the holidays. All depends upon the practices of both sides in securing or getting new votes during the recess. Sir Robert is very sanguine: I hope, for his sake and for his honour, and for the nation's peace, that he will get the better: but the moment he has the majority secure, I shall be very earnest with him to resign. He has a const.i.tution to last some years, and enjoy some repose; and for my own part (and both my brothers agree with me in it), we wish most heartily to see an end of his ministry. If I can judge of them by myself, those who want to be in our situation, do not wish to see it brought about more than we do.

It is fatiguing to bear so much envy and ill-will undeservedly.-Otium Divos rogo; but adieu, politics, for three weeks!