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Well! this revolution is so surprising, and by me so unexpected, that I can only say, with a change in a Scripture phrase, "This is not the Lord's doing, but the Commons', and it is marvellous in our eyes!" If it produces the two points I have at heart, the recovery of the Constitution (which it appears by this spirit in the House of Commons was not quite gone) and peace, I shall be content, and will never think on politics more. What has a man to do with them who never felt a titillation of ambition? The spirit of liberty alone has made me at any time attend to them; for life without freedom has but a narrower or a wider prison. Honours make one a slave to etiquette, and power to solicitation. A private man, who is uncontrouled, is emperor of himself. I am going to my country palace; which is the best enjoyment that the greatest monarch knows.

*

Having dispatched a revolution, I must now trouble you on a private melancholy affair: General Conway has heard from Mrs. Damer, that her aunt Lady William Campbell is much out of order. I immediately advised Mr. Conway to write, and recommend to Mrs. Damer to carry her aunt directly to Florence, where you could be of the greatest comfort and assistance to them, and could best contrive means of sending Lady William home by sea from Leghorn, in as safe a manner as may be at this moment. He has done so, and

* Wife of Lord William Campbell, youngest brother of the Duke of Argyll and Lady Ailesbury. Lady William was an American, born in the province of Carolina; of which Lord William had been Governor.

begs you will be so good as to give Mrs. Damer your advice in this and any other point; especially of a physician, if there is any Dr. Cocchi at Florence. He desires, too, that you will supply her with what money she wants, and draw upon him directly.

St. Kit's has followed Minorca! It is sad: yet let us save the Constitution, and I shall not die brokenhearted. If England is free, and America free, though disunited, the whole earth will not be in vassalage.

LETTER CCCLXXIV.

Berkeley Square, April 7, 1782.

As you have received my letters on the total revolution in the Ministry, you will not be surprised that we have been occupied by that event, and have not run, as you expected, into great heats on the loss of Minorca. It has, indeed, made no more impression than if the King had lost his pocket-handkerchief. We are like the fishwoman, who, being reproached with the

* The old and valuable English island of St. Christopher's was doomed to be the next victim to the calamity of the times. In January, the Marquis de Bouille landed eight thousand men on the island, and was supported by the Count de Grasse with thirty-two ships of the line. As the garrison under General Frazer did not exceed six hundred effective men, resistance would have been altogether ineffectual. De Bouille accelerated the surrender, by threatening to burn the plantations, and renew the devastations which he had committed at Tobago. The militia in the garrison were too much interested in this menace not to press their commander to capitulate; and the French general acceded to every requisition they made, regarding either public or private property, the garrison, or the inhabitants at large.-ED.

VOL. III.-NEW SERIES.

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cruelty of skinning eels alive, replied, " Ah, poor things, they be used to it!" She mistook her own habitude for theirs. We are at once so dissipated and so accustomed to misfortunes, that, though flayed to the bone, we forget the amputation of a finger in a moment. Were the new arrangement completed, I believe it would cause no more sensation than the capture of an island. As yet, everybody is asking, "Who is to have this place, and who that? who are the new peers ?" For Minorca, we are satisfied with the encomiums showered on General Murray* by the Duc de Crillon ; we know poor Draper was mad +-and we have no farther curiosity.

The country and city seem to be pleased with the change; yet moderately too. The disgraced are extremely angry, and I dare to say will show their resentment in due time; but, as only some of the greater and a very few of the lesser posts are yet disposed of, they who hope to escape in the general massacre take

* Previous to the surrender, the effective garrison was reduced to six hundred. The surgeons remonstrated to the Governor, that a further delay of capitulation would only occasion an unavailing sacrifice of a few devoted victims, whom an enlarged scene of respiration and wholesome nutriment alone could rescue from the jaws of death. The Duc de Crillon readily granted honourable terms, and testified his regret at the sight of this brave band of invalids, marching through their disproportioned ranks to pile their arms.-ED.

+ In consequence of the surrender of Minorca, Sir William Draper, who, in 1779, had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the island, exhibited twenty-nine charges against General Murray, his superior in command; for doing which, although the General received a reprimand on account of two of them, his Accuser, it will be seen, was ordered to make an apology. In 1783, Sir William published some observations on the General's defence, and retired to Bath; where he died in 1787.-ED.

or severe.

care to hold their tongues; and all will probably lie still, till they see whether the new Ministers are lenient The recess of Parliament, too, for the holidays, re-elections and usual jaunts into the country, and the never-to-be-violated festival of Newmarket, have dispersed many. The House of Commons meets to-morrow, and then things will begin to have a complexion. If the new Administration can make a tolerable peace, and carry any popular bills, they may maintain themselves for a time; yet I do not look on the present system as very stable. Bad as the last it would be difficult to be; and as ruinous it cannot be, for we have not half so much to lose as we have lost.

I do not send you lists of changes, for all are not yet made; and, while the undetermined are in suspense, it would be only giving you guesses that would want corrections, or unfounded reports. The genuine

*

* Besides the changes above mentioned, the Earl of Carlisle was replaced, as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, by the Duke of Portland; Mr. Rigby's post of Paymaster of the Forces was given to Mr. Burke. His brother Richard was made one of the two Secretaries of the Treasury ; Colonel Barré, Treasurer of the Navy; Mr. Thomas Townshend, Secretary at War; Mr. Kenyon, Attorney-General; Mr. John Lee, SolicitorGeneral; Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Thomas Orde, Under-Secretaries of State; and General Burgoyne, Commander-in-chief in Ireland. "In forming their arrangements," says Dr. Tomline, "the new Ministers offered Mr. Pitt several situations, and among others a Vice-Treasurership of Ireland, an office of considerable rank and emolument, which, it was thought, would be more acceptable to him, as it had been formerly held by his father; but he resolutely declined this and every other offer, preferring his profession of the law to any official connection with an Administration of which he did not form a part: he had indeed determined, as he soon afterwards declared, never to accept any subordinate office,

alterations you will find in the Gazette. A long catalogue of new peers was expected. Only three have yet kissed hands; Sir Fletcher Norton, Dunning, and Admiral Keppel.*

I must now answer yours of March the 19th. In my last, I begged you to assist Mrs. Damer in her distress on her aunt's disorder. You would want no spur to good offices there. Lord Orford, I hear, is to be removed from the Rangership of the two Parks. It was intended by the new Ministers to leave him in the King's Bedchamber; which out of respect they did not mean to touch. Whether his dismission from the former post had been notified to him or not, I cannot tell. I should think it had; for he has sent his resignation of the Bedchamber also, though saying it is on account of his lameness. He has long had a very swelled leg, which I suppose balances or drains his head, and prevents it from quite oversetting again. Indeed, as he has been so warm an advocate for the

meaning an office which did not entitle him to a seat in the Cabinet. This determination did not proceed from any overweening self-opinion or reprehensible ambition, but from an unwillingness to be considered as pledged to measures in framing which he had no concern." Life, vol. i. p. 66.-ED.

* Admiral Keppel was created a Viscount, and appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. On the subject of his peerage, he thus wrote, on the 2nd of April, to Lord Rockingham: "I cannot help thinking that I ought to be well satisfied with the King's behaviour throughout this business. I need not doubt your finishing it in the properest manner, without any stipulation as to the degree of peerage or precedency of the two gentlemen of the law, in case I am called to the House as a Baron. They have kissed hands before, and the contention might breed unpleasant disputes, which are not necessary in our present situation." Life, vol. ii. p. 377.-ED.

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