George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life Part 14

Few events in the annals of the House of Commons are more remarkable than the sudden rise of Pitt. His maiden speech--in support of Burke's Bill for economical reform--placed him at once in the first rank of parliamentary orators. "I was able to execute in some measure what I intended," was Pitt's own modest account of this speech in a letter to his mother. The opinion of the House of Commons and the town was wholly different: his speech was regarded as masterly--astonis.h.i.+ng in one so young and new to Parliament.

Selwyn had not heard it, but in the following letter he tells Carlisle of the general impression it had made; and on June 13th he gives his own critical opinion of Pitt's third speech. The detailed description by Storer, who supplemented Selwyn's letters of the debate of February 26th, adds to our knowledge of this memorable debate.

(1781,) Feb. 27, Tuesday.--I have received no comfort or pleasure for some days, but what I had last night by a letter from Mrs. Sowerby to Lady Gower, and which Lady Gower was so good as to send to me.

I find by that that the children at Trentham are well, and that Charlotte is so altered for the better as to be reconnoissable. But of you and of Caroline, Lady C., Louise, I know nothing. The weather has been so wet that I have not proposed to Storer his visit to George, of which I shall profit. For my own pleasure, I long to see him.

We were in the House of Commons last night till half [an] hour past twelve. The majority of our side against the second reading of Burke's Bill,(153) and in fact, by a following question of rejecting it, was of 43, if I mistook not. I was not in the House to hear anybody speak a syllable, nor do I ever wish it. I believe there is no actor upon the stage of either theatre who, repeating what the author has wrote, does not, at the same time, recite his own private sentiments oftener, than our pantomimes in Parliament.

The chief subject of C. Fox's harangue yesterday was an eloge upon economy, and Jack Townshend,(154) who spoke for the second time, rehea.r.s.ed these maxims of his preceptor. Jack did better than the time before, but was so eclipsed by Mr. W. Pitt, that it appeared to impartial people but an indifferent performance. This young man, Mr.

Pitt, gained an universal applause.(155) I heard Lord N(orth) say it was the best first speech of a young man that he had ever heard. It was a very crowded House, but there were there neither Mr. Dunning, Mr.

Barry, or General Burgoyne. This was matter of speculation.

The P(rince) of W(ales) is said to have a kind of carbuncle. Mr. Delme told me that Lady B(etty) had heard from her mother, and that she talked of being here in April. Indeed I see no feasibility in any other scheme, although many would to her pa.s.sions appear more eligible.

Lord Althorp(156) is to be married before the 10th of March--that is all that Lady Lucan would tell me. I hear of no more news. The Emperor is expected or it is hoped will a.s.sist us, at least with his mediation.

There is all my foreign politics. The regaining America or having any kind of peace from that quarter is with me a perte de vue. I wish the spring was a little advanced that I might walk out, for nothing but George can make me stir out of my room, except in fine weather, and I have a hundred places to call at. I do not tease you, or ever will, about writing, but pray get some one person in your allegiance to write to me for you. I want neither anecdotes, or sentiments, or politics, but I want to know frequently how you all do. The Attorney General told me last night that there was no expecting an account of you but from me; j'eus honte de le detromper. I am supposed to have letters constantly from my Lord Lieutenant, and I give myself so much air at least as not to deny it.

(153) For the better regulation of Civil Establishments, and of certain public offices, and for the limitation of pensions, and the suppression of certain useless, expensive, and inconvenient places.

(154) John Townshend (1757-1833); second son of the fourth Viscount and first Marquis of Townshend. He was returned for the University of Cambridge in 1780, and lost his seat in 1784 when Pitt was elected.

(155) See Storer's letterbelow: "Anthony Storer to Lord Carlisle,"

(1781), Feb. 28.

(156) George John, afterwards second Earl Spencer, K.G. (1758-1834); married March 6, 1781, Lavinia, daughter of the first Earl of Lucan.

Anthony Storer to Lord Carlisle.

(1781), Feb. 28.--I have not wrote to you so often as perhaps I ought to do, and as I really wish, because in regard to everything that pa.s.ses on this side the water at present, the newspaper is a very authentic chronicle. The debates in Parliament are not frequent, and when they do happen Mr. Woodfall reports them very much at large, and almost always faithfully. In regard to the chronique scandaleuse, there is no occasion for any report, as the Session seems a maiden one.

These two heads, which Selwyn does not in general interfere with, I should have thought fell under my department, and I should certainly [have] told you all I knew but for the reasons which I have given. I take it for granted Selwyn writes to you princ.i.p.ally about Lord Morpeth, as I perceive he is in general uppermost in his thoughts, and the subject on which he converses le plus volontiers avec moi. Le seul bien qui nous rests, &c.

We had a debate on Monday, when Mr. Pitt for the first time made such a speech, that it excited the admiration very justly of every man in the House. Except he had foreseen the particular species of nonsense which Lord Nugent was to utter, his speech could not be prepared; it was delivered without any kind of improper a.s.surance, but with the exact proper self-possession which ought to accompany a speaker. There was not a word or a look which one would have wished to correct. This, I believe, in general was the universal sense of all those who heard him, and exactly the effect which his speech had on me, at the time I heard it.

Mr. Sheridan did very well; he said a very (few) words in answer to Mr.

Courtenay, each word being exactly placed where it ought to be--quasi tesserata emblemate--as if he had studied them a week beforehand, and had read them instead of speaking them. His harvest at the Opera House is likely to be very successful, for his Sat.u.r.days and Tuesdays are so full, that he is going even to attempt the Thursdays. Vestris' Ballet people think too long. "It is impossible that an English audience should be satisfied. They don't know when they have got a good spectacle, and think that finding fault is the only way to pa.s.s for judges." Such are the words of his Honour, the prophet Brudenell. John St. John says that the Baccelli is thrown away in the part of Nannette; au lieu d'etre danseuse, elle n'est que la Columbine. This he takes from the Baccelli, and the Duke of Dorset. John acts a strange underpart at the theatre. Mademoiselle Baccelli's runner is not so honourable an employment as being Lord North's.

Selwyn lost within this week a large sum of money. He was so larmoyant the other morning, that I did not dare to ask him any questions about it. Delme has sold all his hunters, and sold them at very extraordinary prices; his hounds too sold excessively well; it was fortunate at all events to part with them, but the people who bought them, according to all accounts, were as mad as he had been in keeping them. . . .

In Monday night's debate neither Dunning (n)or Barry was in the House; that looks very like a measure; it is impossible that should be mere accident. Opposition were without several of their plumpers that evening, either from their being ill or their being out of town. Lord Robert and Lord Edward for instance were ill; Ned Foley and his brother-in-law, out of town; Lord Howe and Doily not in the House, with more that do not occur to me. Burke acted with his usual bad judgment in not letting Sir Fletcher Norton speak before him, but rather pressing his privilege of bringing in the Bill, to speak before him; consequently Sir Fletcher did not speak at all. It was a debate of young members entirely. Neither Charles Fox or Lord N(orth) spoke.

There is a Select Committee upon East India affairs sitting, at which there is a great deal of curious evidence given relating to the manners, customs, and religion of the Gentoos. I was there one morning, and was very much entertained with the accounts of the witnesses. A Brammin, who is now in England, was examined on Monday. Voici, milord, a.s.sez de details.

(1781,) March 24, Sat.u.r.day.--. . . Mr. Potts has just left me. I have been freer from pain these last 29 (or 24?) hours. I am now to bathe three times a week, take opiate going to bed for some nights, and begin a course of bark. I take nothing after my coffee, besides, except Orgeat. I have quite relinquished nasty Brooks's, as Lady C(arlisle) calls it. I am with the s.e.xagenary of White's, et de cette maniere je pa.s.se le temps a.s.sez tranquillement.

12 o'clock.--Here comes a letter from George for Lady C[arlisle], brought to me by a gardener of Mr. Raikes, under his cover. Lord Deerhurst has sent a formal proposal of marriage by Lord Ligonier to Lady something Powis--Lord Powis's sister, who, to save appearance of repulse, has returned for answer that she will take three or four days to consider of it. This I have from Williams. He and his father have constant altercations upon this subject. Lord Cov(entry) does not object to the plan of marriage, but says it is not practicable, on account of circ.u.mstances. I shall hear nothing of the matter from the parties themselves. Ce n'est pas mon affaire, et je ne m'en melerai pas, aux signes de perdre les bonne graces de ce belle-mere.

Lady M'Cartney has wrote to me to hire my house; but one thing I am resolved upon is, not to let it to an acquaintance. I shall keep it in its present state till these things at Avignon are determined upon.

I dine to-day at the Bishop of Salisbury's, and to-morrow at Lord Lisbourne's. I was to have gone for a day with Lady Fitzw[illiam] to Roehampton, if these d.a.m.ned spasmodic complaints ne m'etoient pas survenus. However, Potts a.s.sures me that I shall be well again, but that I must take more care of myself. Je le crois. I have a great mind, as you may imagine, to see you again, and Lady C(arlisle) and Caroline, and all of you, and I have d'autres raisons qui m'attachent au monde, et je n'en suis pas degoute parce qu'il est comme il a toujours ete et comme il sera a toute eternite. I am very angry with Emily, that he will not write to me; is he afraid that his style is not good, or of what? . . . The play at Brooks's is exorbitant, I hear; Grady and Sir G.o.dfrey Whistler and the General and Admiral are at the head of it. Charles looks wretchedly, I am told, but I have scarce seen him. Richard is in high cash, and that is all I know of that infernal house. Adieu; my respects to Lady Carlisle, and my most hearty love to the children. My best compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Eden, and to Crowle, and pray rub Mr.

Dean Emily's ears till he writes to me.

It is not desirable that those who present a correspondence for perusal should play too much the part of a showman. Letters speak for themselves. Yet that which Selwyn wrote on April 14th may well be pointed to as giving, in a few lines, a reflection in miniature of the events grave and gay which were then interesting London society. We see it vividly, how people were admiring Lady Crawford's new chair, remarking parenthetically of bad news from across the Atlantic. But society was less frivolous perhaps than it seemed; the distance from America, the length of time which elapsed between the happening of an event and the news of it in England, the meagreness of the intelligence when at length it arrived, prevented the public imagination from being aroused, and so public interest and opinion lay inert.

(1781,) April 24, Tuesday noon, 1 o'clock.--. . . . . .

P.S. Tuesday afternoon, 3 o'clock.--. . . Vary has just dropped in upon me, and says that news is come from Arthburnot (sic), that there has been a skirmish with the Fr(ench) Adm[iral], and it was a kind of drawn battle; that General Phillips has joined Arnold with 2,000 men. He came to ask after George; il ne scait pas encore, a quel point le monde s'interesse pour lui. My best and most affectionate respects to Lady Carlisle, and my love to Caroline, and to her sisters, not forgetting Louisa, chi gia non sovra di me.

Two b.a.l.l.s! very fine, Caroline. Mie Mie will have seen but one, and that is Mr. Wills's annual ball. But we are very well feathered for that, a la Uestris. I had not the ordering so much ornament, and when it is over, and we have had our diversion, I shall read a lecture upon heads, which I wish not to be filled with so many thoughts about dress. But she coaxed Mrs. Webb into all this a mon inscu, and then I cannot be Mr. Killjoy; so pour le moment I seem to approve of it.

We have been at one opera, and instead of other spectacles, I propose to go for the first part of the evening to Ranelagh, quand la presse n'y sera pas. Lady Craufurd's new chair is, as Sir C.

Williams said of d.i.c.ky's, the charming'st thing in town, et les deux laquais qui la precedent attirent les yeux de tous les envieux et envieuses.

Sir Alexander comes and dines here with March, and is as easy as ever was Sir Jos. Vanheck, and lives with his friends now upon the same foot as before this acquisition of honour. I am told that you have a receipt as Lord Lieutenant to make knights yourself. But I suppose if you intend me such an honour I must come and fetch it. I suppose you do everything that is Royal except touching for the Evil, which would be the most useful fleuron of the Crown if it was effectual.

Storer was out of spirits yesterday at dinner, and I found out afterwards that he had been losing, like a simple boy, his money at Charles's and Richard's d.a.m.ned Pharo bank, which swallows up everybody's cash that comes to Brooks's, as I am told. I suppose that the bank is supported, if such a thing wanted support, by Brooks himself and your friend Jack Manners. It is a creditable way of living, I must own; and it would be well if by robbing some you might pay others, only that ce qui est acquis et (est?) jette par la fenetre, et si l'on paye, ou ne s'acquitte pas.

(1781,) May 16, Wednesday night.--I was engaged to dine to-day at Lady Ossory's,(157) but I called in at Lady Lucan's, and they obliged me to send an excuse, and so I dined there, and dine at Lady Ossory's on Sat.u.r.day. I found myself with a party of Irish, Dean Marly, and Lady Clermont, and with her Mrs. Jones, whom I was ravished to see, for she had given a ball where Caroline was, and commended her dancing, and I tormented the poor woman with such a number of questions about her, that I believe she thought me distracted. It is hard upon me to be so circ.u.mstanced that I cannot see what would give me so much pleasure, but on ne peut pas menager le choux et la chevre. If it pleases G.o.d that I should live, I shall have that, and for a time a great deal more, for I think that I must be quite wore out with infirmities, and blindness must be one, if seeing Caroline appear to advantage will not give me pleasure. . . .

I saw Charles to-day in a new hat, frock, waistcoat, s.h.i.+rt, and stockings; he was as clean and smug as a gentleman, and upon perceiving my surprise, he told me that it was from the Pharo Bank.

He then talked of the thousands it had lost, which I told him only proved its substance, and the advantage of the trade. He smiled, and seemed perfectly satisfied with that which he had taken up; he was in such a sort of humour that I should have liked to have dined with him. His old clothes, I suppose, have been burned like the paupers at Salt Hill.

(157) Anne, only child of Lord Ravensworth. In 1769 she was divorced from the Duke of Grafton and shortly afterward married the Earl of Upper Ossory. She was a correspondent of Selwyn, and of Walpole, who called her "my d.u.c.h.ess." She was "gifted with high endowments of mind and person, high spirited, and n.o.ble in her ways of thinking, and generous in her disposition."

(1781,) May 21, Monday morning.--. . . . Yesterday about the middle of the day, pa.s.sing by Brooks's, I saw a Hackney coach, which announced a late sitting. I had the curiosity to enquire how things were, and found Richard in his Pharo pulpit, where he had been, alternately with Charles, since the evening before, and dealing to Adm. Pigott only. I saw a card on the table--"Received from Messieurs Fox & Co. 1,500 guineas." The bank ceased in a few minutes after I was in the room; it was a little after 12 at noon, and it had won 3,400 or 500 g(uineas). Pigott, I believe, was the chief loser.

At Devons.h.i.+re House there had been a bank held by Sir W. Aston and Grady, and that won 700. Martindale cannot get paid, because, as Charles says, he is not allowed to take money from the bank; he means for the payment of debts, but yet I hear some are paid, such as O'Kelly and other blacklegs. But there are at this time two executions in his house, and Richard's horses were taken the other day from his coach, as Lady Ossory tells me.

Charles says that he is accable de demandes, comme de dettes, et avec la reputation d'avoir de l'argent, il ne sait ou donner de la tete. A vous dire la verite, si j'avais une tete comme la sienne, ou je me la ferois couper, ou j'en tirerois bien meilleur parti que ne fait notre ami; son charactere, son genie, et sa conduite sont egalement extraordinaires et m'est (me sont) incomprehensibles.

Lord G. Cavendish is to be married to Lady Eliz. Compton, it being agreed that the Cavendish family must be continued from his loins.

Me. La d.u.c.h.esse fait des paroles, mais non pas des enfans. I hear that she has won immensely, et avec beaucoup d'exact.i.tude, ce qui n'est pas fort ordinaire aux dames.

Harry St. John has been here to ask me to hold a bank to-night at his wife's, and I had an invitation from Mrs. Crewe(158) also this morning to come to her, and I suppose for the same purpose. Je rename a tout cela; les inconveniens en sont innombrables; all my play at present is confined to a rubber at whist, and a little Pharo with Ailsford, and perhaps two or three more. Le grand evenement c'est la perte or la gain de 50 or 80 guineas.

4 o'clock.--Come home to dinner. No letters as yet come from Ireland.

Lord Egremont tells me that Digby is sent after La Motte Piquet.(159) I went to Miss Gunning's to carry her a parcel of francs, but I did not find her at home. I expect to see Mitchel back in a few days; the wind, as I am told, is favourable for his return.

The post has brought me letters from Holyhead, but no other, so what kind of pa.s.sage my dear little boy has had over the sea I am still to know. But he was, I doubt not, safe with you on Friday, and will I hope in G.o.d remain so. I met Sir N. Thomas to-day, with whom I had some conversation about him. I do not perceive that he has a very favourable opinion of the Irish climate, for those whose lungs are not very strong. I hope to hear that Louisa is better. My love to them all most cordially, and to Lady Carlisle with my best respects at the same time. What a cursed affair to me is this Lieutenancy of Ireland, and a d.a.m.ned sea between us! Lord Buckingham shewed me last night an infernal ugly gold box which he had received from the town of Cork, and such another I understood that you would have. Adieu; I have heard no news to-day.

Our club at White's commence a tomber; la grande presse n'y (est?) pas; c'est un asyle toujours pour les caducs, et pour ceux qui n'ont pas une pa.s.sion decidee pour le jeu.

(158) The fas.h.i.+onable beauty, "whose mind kept the promise was made by her face," as Fox sang; the woman whom he said he preferred to any living. She was the daughter of Sir Everard Falkener, and was married to Mr. Crewe in the same year (1764) as her sister who became the celebrated Mrs. Bouverie.

(159) Commander of the French fleet.