This is a summary of our situation, and of that of my mind; the latter certainly is not important enough to be blended with the former, but was absolutely necessary to explain why I can tell you so little, and to prevent your concluding that there is some mystery or reserve in my behaviour: but as no changes make any either in my principles or fortune, you may be very sure that I am sincere, and that my politics have never had any object but first, the liberty, and then, the honour of my country. My friends have more than once succeeded; yet I have never accepted or asked the smallest emolument for myself. I may then, at sixty-five, say that I have never varied; but one may be tired out-I am, I own; and though I never meant to profit by the splendour of my country, I cannot be so fond of it in its depression and rags.

I shall continue to send you any striking novelties; though, by the account I have given you of myself, I must become a less valuable correspondent. Indifference is not a good ingredient in letters-I think, in nothing; no, not where it is demanded, and commonly pretended, in history. But, if the writer does not keep his word, neither is the reader displeased; nay, if he is, it is only because the historian is not partial on the same side as his reader.

We have had the most deplorably wet summer that ever I remember, after three hotter than any in my memory. But I may as well finish when I have nothing better to talk of than the weather; it shows what a retired and insipid mortal I am.

I frequently ask Mrs. Noel, whom I see often at Twickenham Park, about your nephew; but she has only heard of him once at a cricketmatch, a proof of his being well. Cardini assured me, by a line, that he left you so, which he knew would be the most welcome news he could give me and, if he saw me, he would carry you as favourable an account of me; for, though I think myself older than any body of my age, my health in general is very good, and I am content with it; and, though my spirits are less nimble than they were, they are never low. Adieu! my dear sir. Shall not we be very venerable in the annals of friendship? What Orestes and Pylades ever wrote to each other for four and forty years without once meeting? Adieu !

Lord Grantham, the new Secretary of State, to Dr. Franklin, of which Mr. Fitzherbert was the bearer, the Doctor, on the 11th of September, replied: "You do me justice in believing that I agree with you in earnestly wishing the establishment of an honourable and lasting peace; and I am happy to be assured by your Lordship, that it is the system of the Ministers with whom you are co-operating. I know it to be the sincere desire of the United States; and, with such dispositions on both sides, there is reason to hope, that the good work in its progress will meet with little difficulty."-ED.

22*

LETTER CCCLXXXIII.

Strawberry Hill, Sept. 8, 1782. Two days after your letter by Cardini, I received yours of the 17th of last month, which you had written before that by him, but which, as you foresaw, his diligence would precede. I now write merely to answer what you say about Mozzi's business, for I do not know a tittle of news.

As the Cavalier is coming himself, I saw no cause of delivering his letter to Mr. Duane: however, as he had mentioned it to Sharpe, I did deliver it; and the next day received another from Sharpe, of Mozzi to him, with his own opinion, that I should either take the whole on myself, or accept of Mr. Duane. I confess, this shuffling did provoke me, and I have given it to Sharpe pretty roundly. I told him, that when I proposed Mr. Duane, he (Sharpe) would not consent, though Lucas had approved of him. I was glad thus to sow division between these two. From my Lord I expect no justice; but I will let him and them hear the truth whenever I have occasion. I never trouble myself about him or them but when they come across me, though the usage I have received from all would exasperate a cooler temper than mine.

To this moment my Lord has not paid my brother or me on shilling of our fortunes, though bound by bond to pay us on his mother's death; nor sixpence of the interest, though due from the date of the bonds. When he sold the collection of pictures at Houghton, he declared at St. James's that he was forced to it, to pay the fortunes of his uncles-which amounted but to ten thousand pounds; and he sold the pictures for forty, grievously to our discontent, and without any application from us for our money, which he now retains, trusting that we will not press him, lest he should disinherit us, were we to outlive him. But we are not so silly as to have any such expectations at our ages; nor, as he has sold the pictures, which we wished to have preserved in the family, do we care what he does with the estate. Would you believe-yes, for he is a madman,-that he is refurnishing Houghton; ay, and with pictures too-and by Cipriani. That flimsy scene-painter is to replace Guido, Claude Lorraine, Rubens, Vandyke, Carlo Maratti, Albano, Le Suceur, &c.; and with subjects out of Homer and Dryden's Fables, selected and directed by his Lordship himself. But enough!-it is madness to dwell on Bedlam actuated by attorneys !

I am perfectly ignorant of the state of the war abroad; they say we are in no pain for Gibraltar: but I know that we are in a state of war at home that is shocking. I mean, from the enormous profusion of house-breakers, highwaymen, and foot-pads; and, what is worse, from the savage barbarities of the two latter, who commit the most wanton cruelties. This evil is another fruit of the American war. Having no vent for the convicts that used to be transported to our

late colonies, a plan was adopted for confining them on board of lighters for the term of their sentences. In those colleges, undergraduates in villany commence masters of arts, and at the expiration of their studies issue as mischievous as if they had taken their degrees in law, physic, or divinity, at one of our regular universities; but, having no profession, nor testimonial to their characters, they can get no employment, and therefore live upon the public. In short, the grievance is so crying, that one dare not stir out after dinner but well-armed. If one goes abroad to dinner, you would think one was going to the relief of Gibraltar. You may judge how depraved we are, when the war has not consumed half the reprobates, nor press-gangs thinned their numbers! But no wonder how should the morals of the people be purified, when such frantic dissipation. reigns above them? Contagion does not mount, but descend. A new theatre is going to be erected merely for people of fashion, that they may not be confined to vulgar hours-that is, to day or night. Fashion is always silly, for, before it can spread far, it must be calculated for silly people; as examples of sense, wit, or ingenuity, could be imitated only by a few. All the discoveries that I can perceive to have been made by the present age, is to prefer riding about the streets rather than on the roads or on the turf, and being too late for every thing. Thus, though we have more public diversions than would suffice for two capitals, nobody goes to them till they are over. This is literally true. Ranelagh-that is, the music there,-finishes at half an hour after ten at night; but the most fashionable set out for it, though above a mile out of town, at eleven, or later. Well! but is not this censure being old and cross? were not the charming people of my youth guilty of equivalent absurdities? Oh, yes; but the sensible folks of my youth had not lost America, nor dipped us in wars with half Europe that cost us fifteen millions a-year. I believe the Jews went to Ranelagh at midnight, though Titus was at Knightsbridge. But Titus demolished their Ranelagh as well as Jerusalem. Adieu!

LETTER CCCLXXXIV.

Strawberry Hill, Sept. 25, 1782.

I Do not at all guess when this letter will set out; for I do not know when I shall have any thing to put into it, except an answer to one or two points of yours of the 15th of this month, which I have received this morning so soon, that I suppose the East-wind must have brought it himself. I cannot tell why your nephew neglected so many posts; I neither believe him ill nor on the road to Florence, either of which I think I should have heard from Mrs. Noel; but I shall see her this evening at Twickenham Park, and will ask her. My nephew, who is going to you, has not so much reason for that

journey. He was disappointed of preferment when Lord Shelburne, with whom he had connected himself, was made Secretary of State. However, Mr. Fox, who had the other Seals, named Lord Cholmondeley for the embassy to Berlin. When those two Ministers quarrelled, Lord Cholmondeley thought it became him to follow Mr. Fox, and resigned his unenjoyed post. This is what I have heard; for I have not seen him since the affair happened, nor am I of his privy council.

At night.

I have been at the Duchess of Montrose's. Mrs. Noel knew nothing of your nephew; but Miss Howe, who was there too, had a letter to-day from her sister, General Pitt's wife,* who is at the camp at Cox-heath, and happened to say that your nephew was there the day before yesterday with the son and daughter of your brother Edward; so, t'other Sir Horace is neither ill nor on the road to you. I hope you know so from himself before this.

We are in no pain for Gibraltar. There are accounts of Lord Howe having passed Lisbon. We reckon that the Bourbonian Princes will have made but a foolish jaunt.† Our rich fleet from the Baltic is arrived with all the stores we wanted. This is the sum total of our present news, and the relief of Gibraltar will probably be all we shall have this season. By the silence of new letters from New York, the fable of Colonies revolting from the Congress is quite annihilated. Every thing is mighty quiet here; and as the Parliament does not meet till the very end of November, I shall probably have very little to tell you for the next two months.

I am not sorry that your influenza ended in a little gout, which will carry it off. I have great respect for the Gout, though it has broken my limbs to pieces, like the rack; but it is like the Turk, it

seldom

66 -bears a brother near the throne."

I am afraid it will not cure a famine. We expected one from a very different cause-from heat and draught. In this region of humidity never was so wet a summer as the present; but we had a

* General Sir William Augustus Pitt, K. B., brother to George Lord Rivers, married Mary, sister of Kichard the fourth Viscount Howe.-Ed.

The length and celebrity of the siege, rendered more interesting by the fame of the extraordinary preparations now going on by sea and land, had drawn volunteers from every part of Europe to the camp before Gibraltar; and not only the nobility of Spain, but many of other countries were assembled, either to display their valour, or to gratify curiosity in beholding such a naval and military spectacle as, it was probable, had never before been exhibited. The arrival of two Princes of the blood-royal of France, served to increase the splendour of the scene. The Count d'Artois, and his cousin the Duke de Bourbon, seemed eager to immortalize their names, by partaking of the glory of so signal an enterprize as the recovery of Gibraltar to the crown of their kinsman and ally. So confidently was success anticipated, that the Duke de Crillon was thought extremely cautious of hazarding an opinion, when he allowed so long a term as fourteen days to the certainty of being in possession of the place.-ED.

parenthesis of fine weather for ten days, that housed most of the corn, of which there were plenty. Grass and leaves we have in such abundance, that our landscapes are even uncommonly luxuriant. Nebuchadnezzar, who used to eat his dominions, would here be the most opulent prince upon earth.

Our papers say, Lady Hamilton is dead at Naples. I am very sorry for her; but I hope, as she was a good fortune in land, that Sir William loses nothing by her death. If you write to him, pray mention

my concern.

30th.

My answer to your last would be so mouldy if I detained this any longer, that I determine to send it away. I might keep it back to the end of the week, by which time some account of Lord Howe and Gibraltar is expected; but that event may reach you before my letter could. I shall content myself if I am able to wish you joy; for I reckon Gibraltar in your department, especially as your vigilance and activity extend themselves to every possible duty that you can hook into your province.

LETTER CCCLXXXV.

Strawberry Hill, Oct. 12, 1782. An hour after I had sent my last to town for the Secretary's office, I received the account of the demolition of the Spanish floating butteries at Gibraltar.* There was no occasion for sending a postscript after my letter as I was sure you must learn that great success before my relation could reach you, especially as our intelligence came from

* On the 13th of September, the ten floating batteries of the enemy were ob served to be moored in a line, lying parallel to the Rock, and at about nine hundred yards' distance. The surrounding hills were covered with people; and it seemed as if all Spain had assembled to behold the spectacle. The cannonade and bombardment, on all sides and in all directions, from the isthmus, the sea, and the various works of the fortress, was tremendous beyond example. The prodigious showers of red-hot balls, of bombs, and of carcasses, which filled the air, astonished the commanders of the allied forces. A scene more terrible than this day and the succeeding night exhibited, imagination could not conceive. By two in the morning, the Admiral's ship and the ship commanded by the Prince of Nassau were in flames, and the rest took fire successively. The ten floating batteries were all consumed. "Such," says the historian of this mighty achievement," was the signal and complete defensive victory obtained by a comparatively handful of brave men over the combined efforts and united powers, by sea and by land, of two great, warlike, and potent nations, who, sparing no expense or exertion of art for the attainment of a favourite object, exceeded all former example, as well in the magnitude as in the formidable nature of their preparations; a victory which has shed a signal blaze of glory over the whole garrison, but which cannot fail particularly to immortalize the name of General Eliott, and to hand down to posterity, with distinguished honour, those of Lieutenant-General Boyd and the other principal officers.-ED.