comes from, make all recommendation on my part superfluous; yet I cannot help telling you what I know to be true, that he is a brave, worthy, sensible man, with an honest heart, the servant of a great king, who has the highest value for you.

I am glad of every opportunity that affords me occasion to assure you of the sincere respect and affection with which I have the honour to be, &c. ANDREW MITCHELL.

from the field of battle, sent for me to ride along with him. When I came up to him, and had given him joy of the victory, he was pleased to say very graciously, 'As you have shared the fatigues with me, I want you should likewise rejoice with me.' He then entered into a detail of the battle; commended highly the behaviour of his troops; and after making some excellent reflections on the imperfection of human foresight, he said, You see how I have laboured, to no purpose, to bring about the event that has now happened: the victory I have gained is entirely owing to the bravery of my troops. Had I remained in the camp at Leignitz, I should have been surrounded on all sides had I arrived but a quarter of an hour sooner on the field of battle, the event would not have happened; and a few days would have put an end to the whole affair.' His Prussian Majesty then observed, that the chief advantages he had over the enemy were, that his army was formed before that of the enemy was quite arranged, and that, by his knowledge of the ground, he had got possession of the heights."" In another letter to the Duke, of the 10th of November, Mr. Mitchell relates the following anecdote: "I entirely agree with your Grace on the notions of Providence, and have had many disputes with his Prussian Majesty on that subject; the last was on the field of battle near Leignitz, when he said he owed that victory to chance. I took the liberty to reply, that it was plain to me, if Providence had not given his Majesty a better understanding. than his enemies, he would not have been victorious that day: he answered, with good-humour; 'Je sais que nous ne sommes pas tout-à-fait d'accord sur ce point là, mais soit à présent, parceque vous le voulez ainsi.'' Newcastle MSS.

MR. PITT TO ANDREW MITCHELL, ESQ.

(Private.)

DEAR SIR,

September 9, 1760.

I CANNOT let a messenger go away without conveying some expressions, at least, of all my heart feels, on the glorious and stupendous successes with which Providence has at last crowned the heroic constancy of spirit and unexampled activity of mind of that truly great King, you are so fortunate as to contemplate nearly. Never was joy more sincere and universal than that which M. Coccei's arrival confirmed to us; and, amidst a whole nation's joy, none can surpass, if any can equal, mine. May Heaven continue to prosper the arduous work! for much, very much, remains to be done, and other wonders to be performed. May all prove propitious; and may success inspire sentiments of peace, to fix at last this long-fluctuating scene of blood and desolation, and to give stability and happiness to the fortunes of this unconquerable monarch!

M. Coccei's appearance and manner fully answer to the advantageous portrait you make of him; and I esteem myself happy in the acquisition of that gentleman's acquaintance. Accept my best thanks for the volume of admirable poetry which you were so good as to send me. I find

there the happiest imitations of the ancients; the delicacy of Horace, and the force of Juvenal. I am, with great truth and consideration,

Dear Sir,

Your faithful friend,

and most humble servant,

W. PITT.

THE ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH(1) TO MR. PITT.

SIR,

Dublin, September 11, 1760.

I FLATTER myself you will have the goodness to pardon this one intrusion (the first I have ever presumed to make) from a person who, however unworthy, has yet been as little troublesome to you as any one can have been, whom you have ever honoured with the smallest share of your friendship or confidence. I am far from setting up any better claim to your favour, than that of having returned to this country from England, three years ago, with your badge upon my breast; where it has appeared ever since, visible enough to deprive me of the privilege of begging at any other door. My situation here, and the part given me in the King's service, put me now under an indispensable necessity of begging; and the consideration I have just now mentioned (I shall not use unnecessary words in enlarging upon it) contains the whole

(1) Dr. George Stone. See Vol. I. p. 229. note.

of my apology for addressing this application to you.

The circumstance of the Earl of Drogheda's having raised a regiment of light dragoons, I know is familiar to you. I believe I was the first person (having for many years lived in friendship with his family) with whom Lord Drogheda consulted before he offered his proposal. I was at first startled at the expense: he was then lieutenant-colonel of horse; in his course to which command he had expended upwards of six thousand pounds of his own fortune, and was here to advance very near five thousand more for a commission of a more precarious tenure, and to lose all possibility of return of the first six thousand, which was otherwise secure to him, in case of his retiring from the service. All this I thought it incumbent upon me to lay before him; but he was bent upon the undertaking, nor did I take much pains to dissuade him from it, hoping that he might obtain the rank of colonel, from which he was not far distant by his standing in the army, without borrowing any aid from his nobility, property, or alliances. When this distinction could not be obtained, I was the only one of Lord Drogheda's friends who did not endeavour to oppose his inclinations for proceeding and he did proceed, and has completely, and in an extraordinary manner, executed what he undertook, without desiring an alteration in any one condition of his proposal, although the material one that was ad

vantageous to himself was not granted; and though other gentlemen were commissioned afterwards to raise regiments, upon terms in every respect more favourable to them.

I beg you to believe that I am neither so absurd nor so ignorant as to move this business (which is in the Duke of Bedford's province) to you originally, or that I could hope for any assistance from you upon those terms. It is the subject of my constant, and I may say of my only very earnest, solicitation to the Duke of Bedford. Mr. Rigby is in full possession of my application, and I am encouraged to hope it will succeed; but I am very certain that your countenance will both secure and accelerate its execution, if I can have credit enough to engage you to take one step out of your common way, in a business which affects me most essentially.

The Duke of Bedford and Mr. Rigby will, I am sure, do me full justice in their testimony of my conduct towards his Grace, and with regard to the King's service in a country, sometimes as untoward as it could be if it were more powerful. They are also extremely good to me in their acceptance of my services, and I make no doubt are in earnest in desiring that I may be gratified in this request; which I should be ashamed of making in this very strong manner, if I were suing for a gratification to myself merely; but I am less modest when I am speaking for one of the first noblemen in the country; who, if the merits of his