present instance, the legislative and executive authority over America, the ruinous side of the dilemma to which we are brought is, the making good by force there, preposterous and infatuated errors in policy here; and I shall unalterably sustain that opinion.

The openings from Lord Rockingham to your Lordship and Colonel Barré, which you are so good as to impart to me, you will easily believe could not surprise me; nothing being so natural as for ministers, under the extreme double pressure of affairs all in confusion, and doubtful internal situation, to recur to distinguished abilities for assistance. The further resource to which the very flattering answers made to these openings pointed, is indeed such as, without affectation, I blush to read. Would to God, my dear Lord, that all my vanity, awakened as it may well be by such repeated testimonies, were able to tell me, I could really effect any material public good! The evils are, I fear, incurable. Faction shakes, and corruption saps the country to its foundations; nor are the means, such as this wretched condition could admit, so much as opened in the extent, and with an authenticity, sufficient to engage a close and confidential deliberation among common friends, bent on the same great object. To speak plain : until the King is pleased to signify his pleasure to me, that I should again submit my thoughts upon the formation of such a system, both as to the measures and as to the instruments which are to consti

tute that system, and that in so ample and full an extent as shall leave nothing to the eyes of men equivocal on the outside of it, nor any dark creeping factions, scattering doubts and sowing discords within

I should not omit, though I am already too tedious, that I have said on proper occasions, that I would continue to attribute to such of the ministers as lately entered on the scene of affairs, good intentions and right principles, until by their actions they obliged me to think otherwise; declaring, at the same time, that I can never have confidence in a system, where the Duke of Newcastle has influence. That must cease, as well as many other things, before I shall think the ground clear enough to entertain the smallest hope for the public.

Melancholy, indeed, are the accounts your Lordship mentions from America. Allow me still, my dear Lord, to suggest, that allowance must be made for first alarms, as well as that I fear the very air of this mother-country (') breathes too much partial

(1) In a letter, written on the next day, to his son, Lord Chesterfield makes the following reflections:-" You have, to be sure, had from the office an account of what the parliament did, or rather did not do, the day of their meeting; and the same point will be the great object at their next meeting: I mean, the affair of our American colonies, relatively to the late imposed Stamp-duty; which our colonists absolutely refuse to pay. The administration are for some indulgence and forbearance to those froward children of their mother-country: the opposition are for taking vigorous, as they call them, but I call them violent mea

resentment against those unhappy men, provoked to madness.

Lady Chatham and I are infinitely honoured by Lady Shelburne's very obliging remembrance. We both join in sincere congratulations on the happy domestic event ('); and offering many respectful compliments, I am, my dear Lord, &c.

W. PITT.

MR. PITT TO THOMAS NUTHALL, ESQ.

DEAR NUTHALL,

Bath, January 9, 1766.

I HAVE deferred answering the favour of your last letter of the 20th of December, till I could send you some accounts of my motions eastward. Inow propose leaving this place, with Lady Chatham and our family, on Saturday or Sunday, and being at Hayes in a few days afterwards, according as health, roads, and accidents permit.

sures; not less than les dragonades, and to have the tax collected by the troops we have there For my part, I never saw a froward child mended by whipping; and I would not have the mother-country become a step-mother. Our trade to America brings in, communibus annis, two millions a year; and the Stampduty is estimated at but one hundred thousand pounds a year; which I would by no means bring into the stock of the exchequer, at the loss, or even the risk, of a million a year to the national stock."

(1) The birth, on the 6th of the month, of a son and heir.

I am, thank God, at present much better for the waters; and if I could, in so distracted and miserable a state of affairs, have remained here, instead of breathing the air of St. Stephen's chapel, I flatter myself I should have fixed the benefit I have got by Bath. As it is, my resolution is taken; and if I can crawl, or be carried, I will deliver my mind and heart upon the state of America. (1) As for some other events, I will only say, that the spirit

(1) During the Christmas recess, a meeting of the ministers was held at the house of the Marquis of Rockingham, for the purpose of arranging measures against the opening of the session, and particularly with respect to the late transactions in America. The following is Mr. Adolphus's account of what passed at this meeting, drawn up from private information and minutes of the conference: "Among the persons present, were the Marquis of Rockingham, Lord Egmont, General Conway, Mr. Dowdeswell, the Earl of Dartmouth, and Mr. Yorke. The most effective and dignified advice was, to declare, by an act of parliament, the legislative power of Great Britain over America, and inflict penalties of high treason on those who should impeach that authority. The supremacy of the parent-country being thus ascertained, it was recommended to bring in a bill to explain, alter, and amend the Stamp-act, in such a manner as would render the operation easy, and its provisions unexceptionable. The principal alterations were, that duties should be paid in currency, instead of sterling money, and the merchants relieved, by taking off, or greatly reducing, the stamps on cockets and clearances. But this firm and manly advice did not prevail; the opinions previously delivered by some members of administration were incompatible with such measures; and although Mr. Dowdeswell, chancellor of the Exchequer, produced letters from New York, importing that the money collected from the duty on molasses had been detained in the colony, by the threats and orders of the mob, yet no vigorous measure was resolved on. In fact, nothing was decided, except the terms in which the King's speech should be comprised; and the ministry formed no regular or consistent plan of operation and mutual support."

of infatuation and insanity has, to be sure, banished all reflection!

I hope to find you in perfect health of body, and (as a mark of my opinion of you) in perfect dejection of mind; for indeed, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived what we behold in very deed.

I am ever, Dear Nuthall,

Most faithfully yours,

WILLIAM PITT.

MR. PITT TO LADY CHATHAM.

Bond Street, 12 o'clock, [January 15, 1766.]

I AM just out of bed, my dearest life, and, considering the great fatigue, not getting to bed till past four, I am tolerably well-my hand not worse, my country not better. (') We (number three)

(1) The two Houses met on the 14th of January. The King in his speech informed them, that "he had lost no time, on the first advice of these disturbances in America, to issue orders to the governors of his provinces, and to the commanders of his forces, for the exertion of all the powers of government, in the suppression of riots and tumults, and in the effectual support of lawful authority." In the debate on the address, the dif ference of sentiment which prevailed in the cabinet became apparent, and the contest was not properly between the ministry and the opposition, but between those who favoured and those who disavowed the taxation of America. Mr. Nugent, afterwards Lord Clare, insisted, that the honour and dignity of the kingdom obliged us to compel the enforcement of the stamp