to acknowledge the very obliging favour of your letter from Lyons, of the 23rd past. How shall I find words to thank you for all the affectionate sentiments which you are so good as to express, relating to domestic events, which arrive to your village-friend and humble servant? How kind are your thoughts, in following him into the small but endearing occupations of such a retirement as that to which he has been driven; where I fairly own that Lady Chatham and I find much delight in the little sage discourses of the diminutive philosophers who surround us. But for an unlucky jaunt last summer into Wiltshire, here, my dear Sir Richard, I should be happy indeed; and with a happiness too large and too perfect for a mortal man, had England been suffered to become what favouring Providence seemed to intend it to be. But I avert my mind from this contemplation, devoutly wishing that the progress of our country's decadence may not be so rapid as my mind forebodes.

As for whatever touches your particular welfare and happiness, my dear Sir Richard, I have only to wish, that you may find all satisfaction and consideration in the gracious mark of the King's favour, which you tell me you have accepted, and of which the Bishop of Carlisle had before your letter informed me; and that you may bring home much health, with all your own happy, social gaiety of temper, to enjoy amongst your friends all that is agreeable to you. I am, &c. W. PITT.

MR. PITT TO BARON DE KNYPHAUSEN. (1)

MONSIEUR,

Hayes, ce Seme Fevrier, 1763.

AYANT appris, avec bien du regret, que nous sommes sur le point de vous perdre, j'ai encore celui de me trouver, par un retour de goute depuis quelques jours, hors d'état de me donner l'honneur de me présenter chez vous, pour vous embrasser avant votre départ. Permettez donc,

que je vous addresse ce mot de lettre, pour vous offrir tous les sentimens d'une estime respectueuse pour votre personne, et pour ces talens distingués, qui vous destinent à de plus grandes choses. Vous allez avoir la félicité de revoir, et la gloire de servir, un Roi, qui sera l'étonnement de tous les siècles, Oserois-je aspirer de ma part à supplier, que ce Monarque daigne songer, que, dans un village d'Angleterre, il y a un homme, qui fait sa plus douce consolation de le voir triompher de tous ses ennemis, et de contempler, dans les merveilles de son regne héroique, jusqu' où la nature humaine peut aller.

Je me flatte que vous voudrez bien me conserver une place dans votre souvenir, et ne jamais douter des sentimens d'attachement et de considération, avec lesquels je ne cesserai d'étre, &c.

W. PITT.

(1) The Prussian minister at the court of London. See vol. I. p. 206. The baron left England a few days after the date of this letter, and was succeeded by M. Michell, hitherto chargé d'affaires.

THE BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER TO MR. PITT.

HONOURED SIR,

Prior Park, February 22, 1763

YOUR and good Lady Chatham's kind inquiries after me were the greatest consolation to me under my unhappy accident('); and I was impatient till I could make my acknowledgments under my own hand. They tell me the case goes on very prosperously; which, next to the mercy of Providence, we ascribe to a long habit of temperance; a temperance, indeed, which has little other merit in it, for I think I stumbled upon it in the pursuit of pleasure.

Your account, Sir, of your own state of health fills me with the sincerest grief. You have given superfluous health to a nation, and we use it as men are wont to use their superfluous health. You never misapplied your natural health, yet want it in the midst of the abundance you have given of the civil; but, Providence has been your guide and conductor, and I am sure is your great confidence.

I have the honour and happiness to be, Sir,
Your most obliged and

most devoted servant,

W. GLOUCEster.

(1) In January, the bishop had had the misfortune to break his left arm, by a fall in the garden of Prior Park; the ill effects of which he felt for several months. In a letter to a friend, written in May, he says, "Be not under too much concern for

WILLIAM TAYLOR HOW, ESQ. (1) TO MR. PITT.

SIR,

Pisa, February 21, 1763.

I HAVE the honour to address this letter to you, in pursuance of a commission with which I have been favoured by Count Algarotti; who, since the intelligence arrived from Mr. Hollis, of your most gracious acceptance of the treatise proposed to be dedicated to you, has taken all imaginable pains to equip it as soon as possible, in order to send it out on its voyage to the most illustrious of patrons. On Thursday last I consigned to the care of Captain George Max of the Groignard, now ready to sail from Leghorn, a packet directed to you by Count Algarotti; in which are enclosed two copies of the Essay upon the Opera in Music, bound in Spanish leather, two in calf, and three in parchment. Count Algarotti only begs that you will be so obliging as to present one of these in his name to my Lord Temple, and accept the rest for yourself.

I have had an awe upon me in writing, Sir, that has continually checked me with the fear of

my hand. I, whose life is a warfare upon earth (that is to say, with bigots and libertines, against whom I have denounced eternal war, like Hannibal against Rome at the altar), have reason to be thankful that the debility is not in my sword-hand.”

(1) Of Stándon-place, Essex. Mr. How was an honorary member of Pembroke Hall, and at this time on his travels in Italy.

taking too much liberty; and yet I flatter myself, that a man of your penetration will easily distinguish a simple good meaning from affectation and impertinence.

I am, Sir, with admiration and respect, &c.
WILLIAM TAYLOR HOW.

COUNT ALGAROTTI TO MR. PITT.

Pisa, 28 Febbraio, 1763.

ECCELLENZA,

QUELL' omaggio che io ho reso à vostra Eccellenza in publico, la supplico permettermi di renderle ora in privato, e di ringraziarla nel medesimo tempo della permissione, che mi ha benignamente accordata di manifestare quello, che la virtù sua crea in cuore di tutti coloro che pensono. Ben vorrei, che tale fosse la mia operetta da portare degnamente in fronte un così gran nome come è il suo; vorrei aver formato uno spettacolo, a cui potesse assistere Pericle. (1)

Ardirei pregare vostra Eccellenza di offrire à my lord Temple uno dei libretti, che receverà, secondo che ha avuto l'onore di scriverle giorni sono, il suo grande ammiratore, e amico mio, il Signor Guglielmo Taylor How. Mi figuro bene

(1) Mr. Pitt says, in a note to Mr. How, "the Essay on the Opera in Music is indeed a master-piece in its kind. What order, light, and interest thrown into a confused, dark, and, till now, but little affecting matter!

"Tenuis labor, at tenuis non gloria!""