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about what. Still, I hear nothing from him, though I told him, near a fortnight ago, that I would meet him and Mr. Hoare, &c. in town, whenever they would give me notice they were ready. I comprehend nothing of all this. I am surprised Lucas is not impatient to finger his booty; but his invincible slowness, in which, somehow or other, he thinks he finds his account, is perhaps the sole cause; for I do not see how he can possibly hope to extort more from Mozzi than he has done. You may depend upon hearing, the moment the affair is terminated.

This letter is merely written to explain my silence to poor Mozzi. I know no news, public or private. The Parliament sits, but only on necessary business. There is much noise about a variety of new taxes, yet only few have a right to complain of them.* The majority of the nation persisted in approving and calling for the American war, and ought to swallow the heavy consequences in silence. Instead of our colonies and trade, we have a debt of two hundred and fourscore millions! Half of that enormous burden our wise country-gentlemen have acquired, instead of an alleviation of the Land-tax, which they were such boobies as as to expect from the prosecution of the war! Posterity will perhaps discover what his own age would not see, that my father's motto, Quieta non movere, was a golden sentence; but what avail retrospects?

I

Pray tell me if you know any thing of a very thin book lately printed at Florence, called "The Arno Miscellany," said to be printed at the Stamperia Bonducciana; and what does that mean? The Abbé Bonducci I thought dead many years ago; yet that term, and the style of the work, seems to allude to his buffoonery. The paper, impression, and binding, I will swear, are Florentine. This dab was left at my house in town without a name. It consists of some pretended translations and odes by (pretended) initials, though suppose all by the same hand. The last two are a pastoral and an ode that are perfect nonsense; designedly nonsensical, no doubt; yet undesignedly too, for they have no humour, or at least no originality, being copies of Swift's ballad, Mild Arcadians, ever blooming: and certainly nothing is so easy as to mismatch substantives and adjectives, when the idea has once been started. The last ode seems to be meant to ridicule Gray's magnificent odes, and in truth is better than the serious pieces; for a thousand persons can mimic an actor, who cannot act themselves. I imagine the whole to be the work of young Beckford. He is just returned from Italy.

*The budget comprised a loan of six millions, which was obtained on very favourable terms, and an increase of the window-tax, to make up for a reduction of the duties on tea.

This was a slip of memory. Mr. Walpole, in 1740, had been acquainted at Florence with the Abbés Bonducci and Buondelmonte: the latter was the wit and mimic; the other had taught Mr. Gray Italian. In this letter Mr. Walpole had confounded them.

The celebrated author of "Vathek," and of " Italy, Spain, and Portugal; with an Excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha."-ED.

One of my hundred nieces has just married herself by an expedition to Scotland. It is Mrs. Keppel's second daughter;* a beautiful girl, and more universally admired than her sister or cousins the Waldegraves. For such an exploit her choice is not a very bad one; the swain is eldest son of Lord Southampton.t Mrs. Keppel has been persuaded to pardon her, but Lady Southampton is inexorable; nor can I quite blame her, for she has thirteen other children, and a fortune was very requisite: but both the bride and bridegroom are descendants of Charles the Second, from whom they probably inherit stronger impulses than a spirit of collateral calculation.

Another of the Fitzroys is dead, the Dowager Lady Harrington,‡ who in the predominant characteristic of the founders of her line certainly did not degenerate in her day from the King her grandfather, or her grandam the Duchess of Cleveland.

Adieu! I hope you will hear from me again very soon; but I answer for nothing that depends on Lucas. One would think that he had been the inventor of the game of chess.

LETTER CCCCXXIII.

July 10, 1784.

THE very night on which I sent my letter for you to town, complaining of Lucas's tediousness, I received one, not from him, but from Mr. Sharpe,-telling me that Mr. Hoare had paid the money to my Lord, who had executed a full discharge to Cavalier Mozzi, one part of which was lodged with Mr. Hoare, and the other part, or duplicate he, Sharpe, had sent me, as he apprehended the Chevalier had desired him to do, in hopes that I might find some favourable opportunity of conveying it to you; and, as the Chevalier must execute a counterpart, he had sent that to me too, and had himself written to Mozzi to acquaint him with the termination, and in what manner he must execute the deed. Thus the same post will convey my complaint of the delay, and Sharpe's account of the conclusion: however, this will explain the contradiction. But what will explain Lucas's conduct? He would not withdraw the caveat till Mr. Hoare had the order; and yet Mr. Hoare pays the money without that order, of which he has seen nothing but a copy! This may be law-it is not common sense. What do you think, too, of Lucas's impertinence to me? I was referee; I have made no decision in form; I offered to meet all the parties, to settle and conclude the whole business; and then Lucas,

* Laura, second daughter of Dr. Frederic Keppel, Bishop of Exeter, by Laura, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Walpole.

† Lord Southampton was grandson of the Duke of Grafton; the Bishop of Exeter's mother was Lady Anne Lenox, daughter of the first Duke of Richmond. Lady Caroline Fitzroy, eldest daughter of Charles, second Duke of Grafton, and widow of Henry Stanhope, second Earl of Harrington.

VOL. II.-29

without taking notice of me, concludes the whole without me! A footman would have been treated with less disrespect; they would at least have told him they did not want him. I have written a word of resentment to Sharpe: but do not mention it to Mozzi, lest he should suspect any informality, and not yet be easy.

I do not doubt but they have acted legally, and only chose to affront me after all the trouble I have had. They never omit any opportunity of egging the poor madman to insult me. I wish that was all: I despise such wretches; but I am not indifferent to being kept out of even the interest of my fortune. But I shall not trouble you with my own grievances; indeed, they do not sit heavy. I am arrived too near the term when grievances or joys will be equally shadows passed away, not to consider either but as the colours of a moment. A prospect of suffering long may poison even the present hour; but it were weak indeed to be much affected by injuries that arrive at the end of one's course: one is within reach of the great panacea which delivers one from the power of the most malevolent. Old age is like dipping one in Styx; not above the breadth of one's heel is left vulnerable. I perceive this numbness even to bodily pain. Some years ago the dread of a fit of the gout soured even the intervals; now, if the apprehension occurs, I say to myself, "Is not it full as probable that I shall be laid out as be laid up? then why anticipitate what may never happen?" My dear sir, life is like a chessboard,-the white spaces and the black are close together: it does not signify of which hue the last square is; the border closes all!

12th.

Well! I have received a note from Lucas, to tell me he had desired Mr. Sharpe to give me intelligence of the conclusion, and that Mr. Hoare now ought to have the order-if I please to deliver it. This, you see, is again to imply blame on me-as if I could have had any reason for detaining the order, but from a caution which in justice I owed to Cavalier Mozzi. Does any one give up an order on a banker, unless he is ready to pay the money? Nor indeed did I know till now that a banker would pay money on the copy of an order. It is all a juggle that I do not comprehend: perhaps it is not irreputable not to understand all the tricks of such an attorney as Lucas. I can plainly see that he and his associates are willing to censure me for ends for which they would always have pretended some reasons or other; and it is not improbable but that was an inducement to employing me as referee. Lucas knew I disapproved of his instigating my Lord to contest his mother's will; and, because I have said what I owed in justice to Mozzi, he will have represented me as partial to one for whom in reality I could have no partiality, though certainly would not be influenced by any prejudice against him. I smile at all their plots, and am not fool enough to entertain myself with such improbable visions as they may think I indulge; though my whole conduct, and the little management I have had for the crew, proves how far I am from having a grain of such weakness.

I trust, my dear sir, that this is the last letter I shall write to you on the subject of Mozzi. Sharpe's expression, of apprehending the Chevalier meant the deed should be deposited with me, looks as if he had expected it himself; or that he is in the plot of representing me as acting in concert with Mozzi. On the other hand, I should not be surprised if Mozzi, from the unfavourableness of the decision, should suspect me of having acted too partially towards my Lord. I cannot help it if he does.

It will be some comfort to reflect, that, if I have dissatisfied both sides, it is a presumption that I have not been very partial to either. At Mozzi I shall not wonder. From the other side I have never met but ingratitude, distrust, and ill-usage, in return for behaviour, I will dare to say, unparallelled in tenderness, care, attention to his interest, and most scrupulous integrity. Should it ever come,to the test, I know what my reward would be. Adieu!

LETTER CCCCXXIV.

Strawberry Hill, Aug. 9, 1784.

YOUR'S of the 24th of July, which I have just received, tells me that Cavalier Mozzi is much disappointed at the small sum he is to receive on the winding up of his affair. I am not surprised, and can only tell him what I have said to my nephew; from whom I have, to my great surprise, received a letter of thanks, but saying that Cavalier Mozzi must be satisfied, as many points had been given up. I replied, "that I had done but my duty in undertaking the arbitration, to prevent a very disagreeable discussion in a public court; that I confessed I had favoured Mozzi to the utmost of my power, as far as I thought I might, that he, a stranger, and not acquainted with even his own lawyer or referee, might not think himself betrayed; and that I had done it the rather, lest he should suspect me of partiality too; that, for thanks, his Lordship owed me none; as I owned, that, if Mr. Duane had not given his opinion so much in favour of his Lordship, I should have been inclined to allow him less; and, consequently, I could not agree that any rights had been ceded on that side."

I do not doubt but Lucas had already acquainted him with what I have said, though, perhaps, neither the one nor the other expected I should be so frank. I did not expect to content either party, nor have even contented myself; but I could not act otherwise than I have done. And, as Cavalier Mozzi would not be persuaded by any thing I could urge to come over, he must blame himself, if his cause has not been better defended.

The history of Count Albani's daughter is no news to me;* I knew

The Pretender had just acknowledged his natural daughter, declared her his heiress, and pretended to create her Duchess of Albany. He sent this declaration to be registered at Paris.

it from a physician who attended her at Paris: but you mistake the name of the mother, which was Walkinshaw, not Walsingham, and who has a sister now living, that was Woman of the Bedchamber to the late Princess of wales. The family of Fitzjames have always opposed the acknowledgment of the daughter, lest on her father's death they should be obliged to maintain her in a greater style than they wished.

I asked you a question in my last, about some poems lately printed at Florence: I know now that I did guess the right author.† I know no news, public or private. We have had, and it still continues, a most dismal summer; not only wet, but so cold, that for these two evenings I have had a fire. The rage of air-balloons still continues, both here and in France. The Duc de Chartrest made a campaign in one, that did not redound to his glory more than his former one by sea. As he has miscarried on three elements, he should try if he could purify himself by the fourth. He is now in England for the third time.

I have been writing to you this morning, but you will not receive my letter immediately. It is to recommend Lord Mount-Edgcumbe's only son, who is on his travels. The grandfather|| was my father's most intimate friend, and the late Lord¶ a friend of mine; and with the present I have been much acquainted from a boy; consequently, I should wish you to be kind to the son, even if you were not always disposed to be so. But I have been so unlucky in my protegés, and your goodness has been so thrown away upon them, that I desire no work of supererogation on my account. The son of an English peer, whose father has a considerable office, is entitled to attentions enough; but, after Mr. Windham, I will never trust any man with particular credentials, nor will expose you to rudeness by beseech

* Dr. Gem, an English physician settled at Paris. She had been educated in a convent in Paris, and at this time resided en pension, under the name of Lady Charlotte Stuart. The Pretender was desirous that she should reside with him in Flo rence, where he purposed to marry her to some Florentine noble.

Mr. Walpole was misinformed; at least, it is not certain that Mr. Beckford had any hand in those poems which were written in concert by the persons whose initials are prefixed. "M." was Captain Merry, who had been in the Horse-guards, sold out, and retired to Florence. The second was old Alan Ramsay, the painter and author, son of Alan Ramsay, the Scotch poet. The son, who died at Dover about this time, on his return from Italy, whither he had been for his health, brought over some copies of these poems, and had ordered, or intended, a copy to be sent to Mr. Walpole, who from his family probably received it. The third was one Buignon, a Swiss governor to Mr. Dawkins.

Afterwards Duke of Orleans, and unhappily distinguished in the French Revolution as Philippe Egalité. He was the father of the present King of the French. On the 15th of July 1784, he ascended from the park of St. Cloud in a balloon with three companions, and after a very perilous voyage descended safely.-ED.

George, third Lord Edgcumbe, created Viscount Mount-Edgcumbe by George III. He was an Admiral, and Captain of the band of Pensioners.

Richard, the first baron created by George II., had been Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

¶ Richard, second baron, was Controller of the Household to Geo. II.

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