now no more. I hope, at the same time, it is universally known how much Mr. Pitt and I disapprove of this paper war, and the daily abominations which are published; though, because Wilkes professes himself a friend of mine, I am for ever represented infamously as a patron of what I disapprove, and wish I could have put an end to; but, non mene curo. (1) Ever yours,

TEMPLE.

EARL TEMPLE TO LADY CHATHAM.

MY DEAR LADY CHATHAM,

November, 1762

GASCOYNE has been here: much dealing with Fox; but I think he is firm. The Duke of Devonshire tells me I may depend upon Lord Hardwicke, and his son in the House of Commons, taking their part against the vote of approbation. Gascoyne thinks if Mr. Pitt comes many of the Tories will be staggered. Shelley tells me the whole of the party will go against the vote of approbation. Some of the sanguine ones talk pretty high as to numbers.

The Duke of Devon

(1) This passage is satisfactory, as containing Lord Temple's undisguised opinion of the demagogue's writings, which opinion has been industriously misrepresented; especially by Almon, in his Memoirs of Wilkes, "than which," says Mr. Southey, in his Life of Cowper, "a more catch-penny work has seldom issued from the press."

VOL. II.

shire says, he thinks Charles Townshend will resign. May the good genius of England protect Mr. Pitt, and bring him tolerably well (I dare not hope more) to town! Ever most affectionately yours,

TEMPLE. (1)

(1) The preliminaries of peace were signed and interchanged on the 3rd of November, and the parliament assembled on the 25th. As no traces of the debates which took place on the first day of the session have been preserved, the following account of what passed, and of the state of public feeling out of doors, contained in a letter from Mr. Symmers to Mr. Mitchell, will be acceptable: "Yesterday I was carried to the House of Lords by Lord Hillsborough; who, with some difficulty, got me introduced, and placed me near the throne. There I had the pleasure of hearing a very proper speech, delivered in a noble and pathetic manner, by one of the most graceful princes of the age. The speech was followed by the motion for the address by Lord Egmont (who spoke like — the master of the post-office), and was seconded by Lord Weymouth, who spoke with grace and dignity, though with the timidity of a young man. It passed unanimously. What passed in the House of Commons was similar to this. Lord Carysfort moved, and Lord Charles Spencer seconded. The house was unanimous; but Mr. Beckford, now lord mayor, had his vagaries as usual, and gave the house a little prelude of what they were to expect more at large when the masters mount the stage. Lord Temple was not in the House of Lords, and neither Mr. Pitt nor Mr. Fox in the House of Commons. The opposition will open upon the preliminaries laid before parliament, and is likely to be more formidable than was at first imagined. Several great personages have of late declared themselves in it; the Duke of Cumberland, and the whole house of Yorke (I mean the Hardwicke family): but it is thought that all who will are now declared; so that the first division in each house will show the powers of the parties. If the whole opposition lay within doors, it would still be more tolerable, as it is not unconstitutional; but, alas! there is reason to apprehend it extends without doors. Such a mob was perhaps never seen, in our time, between Charing-cross and Westminster-hall.

THE BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER TO MR. PITT.

Grosvenor Square, December 3rd, 1762.

HONOURED SIR,

ON my coming to town I thought it but decent, as I had not seen the Duke of Newcastle since his resignation, to wait upon him with my compliments, which I did yesterday; when he showed his confidence in me by the following commission, which he intrusted to me. He said I might be of use to the public by assuring you of his disposition towards you (whom he spoke of as all the world does); that you had acted together, generally with the same, though sometimes with different sentiments; but that now, if your joint endeavours to serve the public should point the same way, I was commissioned by his Grace to assure you, you should for the future have no reason to complain of his perfect accord and union with you.

This, I think, is the substance of what I had to say, without knowing further from his Grace,

The King's magnificent new coach might be supposed to have brought them together; but, what kept them there after the coach had gone back is, perhaps, not so satisfactory to think of. In short, Lord Bute was insulted, both going and coming from the house; and, towards evening, some soldiers were called in to support the constables in the discharge of their duty in clearing of the streets, so that the members might get away." Mitchell MSS.

for what particular end and purpose I was to say it: but, if I be not mistaken, I think he said he had desired his royal highness, the Duke of Cumberland ('), to urge the same thing, with proper explanations.

Sir, your known goodness to me will be ready to pardon this impertinence. In these strange times I am sure but of one thing, -your continued love and service of the public; but that one thing is a very great one, when I consider what a capacity is joined to that disposition. I have the honour to be, most dear Sir,

Your most obliged and

devoted servant,

W. GLOUCESTER.

(1) In a letter to General Conway, of the 29th of October, Horace Walpole says, "I have been in town but once since this last revolution, which has brought Mr. Fox again upon the scene; yet I have learned enough to confirm the opinion I had conceived, that the building is tottering, and that this last buttress will but push on its fall. Besides the clamorous opposition already encamped, the world talks of another, composed of names not so often in mutiny. What think you of the great duke, and the little duke, and the old duke, and the Derbyshire duke*, banded together against the Favourite?" And, on the 18th of November, Lord Chesterfield thus writes to his son:-"I should naturally think, that this session will be a stormy one; that is, if Mr. Pitt takes an active part; but if he is pleased, as the ministers say he is, there is no other Eolus to blow a storm. The Dukes of Cumberland, Newcastle, and Devonshire have no better troops to attack with, than the militia; but Pitt alone is ipse agmen."

• The Dukes of Cumberland, Bedford, Newcastle, and Devonshire.

THE HON. THOMAS HERVEY (1) TO MR. PITT.

MY DEAR SIR,

Bond Street, December 5, 1762.

Ir any power were left me, either of mind or body, for such a disquisition, I could write very copiously to you concerning the present crisis. When I read the preliminaries of our precipitated peace, I could not avoid saying, to myself at least, what Antony says over the corpse of his friend Cæsar Alas, great Pitt! are all thy conquests, trophies, spoils, shrunk to this little measure? (2) For truth's sake, for your reputation's sake, and, above all, for the sake of your many staunch and invariable friends, recompense the cordial compliment I am making you, by testifying to the public, that you think with me upon this important measure.

(1) Second son of John, first earl of Bristol, and brother of the nobleman whose character Pope has delineated under the name of Sporus, and of the hon. Henry Hervey, the early friend of Dr. Johnson. He served in three parliaments for the borough of St. Edmundsbury, was surveyor of the royal gardens, and died in 1775. His celebrated Letter to Sir Thomas Hanmer, with whose wife he had eloped, appeared in 1742. Boswell, on the authority of Mr. Beauclerk, relates, that he had a great liking for Johnson, and had left him a legacy of fifty pounds, but afterwards gave it him in his lifetime. See Boswell's Johnson, vol. iii. p. 17. ed. 1835.

(2) "O mighty Cæsar! dost thou lie so low?

Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,

Shrunk to this little measure?"- Julius Cæsar, act 3. sc. 1.