you

what result I do not know, nor can I find that the lawyers agree that anything can be done against him. There has been a plan of some changes among the Dii Minores, your Lord Norths, and Carysforts, and Ellises, and Frederick Campbells, and such like; but the supposition that Lord Holland would be willing to accommodate the present ministers with the paymaster's place, being the axle on which this project turned, and his lordship not being in the accommodating humour, there are half a dozen abortions of new lords of the treasury and admiralty-excuse me if I do not send this list of embryos; I do not load my head with such fry. I am little more au fait of the confusion that happened yesterday at the East India House; I only know it was exactly like the jumble at Cambridge. Sullivan's list was chosen, all but himself-his own election turns on one disputed vote. Everything is intricate a presumption that we have few heads very clear. Good night, for I am tired; since dinner. I have been at an auction of prints, at the Antiquarian Society in Chancery-lane, at Lady Dalkeith's3 in Grosvenor-square, and at loo at my niece's in Pall Mall; I left them going to supper, that I might come home and finish this letter; it is half an hour after twelve, and now I am going to supper myself. I suppose all this sounds very sober to you!

'Second son of the fourth Duke of Argyle. He was successively keeper of the privy seal in Scotland, secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and lord register of Scotland, in which office he died.-C.

2 “On the 25th of April, a very warm contest took place. Mr. Sullivan brought forward one list of twenty-five directors, and Mr. Rous, who was supported by Lord Clive, produced another. Notwithstanding his friend Lord Bute was no longer minister, Mr. Sullivan succeeded in bringing in half his numbers; but the attack of Lord Clive had so shaken the power of this lately popular director, that his own election was only carried by one vote."-Malcolm's Memoirs of Lord Clive, vol. ii. p. 235.-E.

The eldest daughter of John Duke of Argyle and Greenwich, the widow of Francis Earl of Dalkeith, son of the second Duke of Buccleugh, and wife of Mr. Charles Townshend. She was, in 1767, created Baroness Greenwich, with remainder to her sons by Mr. Townshend. She, however, died leaving none.-C.

DEAR SIR,

TO THE REV. MR. COLE.

Arlington Street, April 12, 1764.

I SHALL send your MS. volume this week to Mr. Cartwright, and with a thousand thanks. I ought to beg your pardon for having detained it so long. The truth is, I had not time till last week to copy two or three little things at most. Do not let this delay discourage you from lending me more. If I have them in summer, I shall keep them much less time than in winter. I do not send my print with it as you ordered me, because I find it is too large to lie within the volume; and doubling a mezzotinto, you know, spoils it. You shall have one or more, if you please, whenever I see you.

I have lately made a few curious additions to my collections of various sorts, and shall hope to show them to you at Strawberry Hill. Adieu!

TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY.

Arlington Street, April 19, 1764.

I AM just come from the Duchess of Argyll's, where I dined. General Warburton was there, and said it was the report at the House of Lords, that you are turned out he imagined, of your regiment-but that I suppose is a mistake for the bedchamber. I shall hear more to-night, and Lady Strafford, who brings you this, will tell you; though to be sure you will know earlier by the post tomorrow. My only reason for writing is, to repeat to you,

1 Widow of John Campbell, Duke of Argyle. She was sister to General Warburton, and had been maid of honour to Queen Anne.-E.

2 Mr. Conway was dismissed from all his employments, civil and military, for having opposed the ministry in the House of Commons, on the question of the legality of general warrants, at the time of the prosecution of Mr. Wilkes for the publication of the North Briton.-C.

that whatever you do I shall act with you.' I resent anything done to you as to myself. My fortunes shall never be separated from yours - except that some time or other I hope yours will be great, and I am content with mine.

The Manns go on with the business—The letter you received was from Mr. Edward Mann, not from Gal.'s widow. Adieu! I was going to say, my disgraced friend - How delightful to have a character so unspotted, that the word disgrace recoils on those who displace you! Yours unalterably.

TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD.

Arlington Street, April 20, 1764.

THERE has been a strong report about town for these two days that your brother is dismissed, not only from the bedchamber, but from his regiment, and that the latter is given to Lord Pembroke. I do not believe it. Your brother went to Park-place but yesterday morning at ten: he certainly knew nothing of it the night before when we parted, after one, at Grafton-house; nor would he have passed my door yesterday without stopping to tell me of it: no letter has been sent to his house since, nor were any orders arrived at the War-office at half an hour after three yesterday; nay, though I can give the ministry credit for much folly, and some of them credit for even violence and folly, I do not believe they are so rash as this would amount to. For the bedchamber, you know, your brother never liked it, and would be glad to get rid of it. I should be sorry for his sake, and for yours too, if it went farther:-gentle and indifferent as his nature is, his resentment, if his profession were touched, would be as serious as such spirit and such abilities could make it. I would not be the man that advised provoking him; and one man3 has put himself wofully in his power!

1 Mr. Walpole was then in the House of Commons, member for King's Lynn in Norfolk.

E.

2 Of army-clothiers.

3 No doubt Mr. George Grenville is here meant. See antè, p. 328.

In my own opinion, this is one of the lies of which the time is so fruitful; I would not even swear that it has not the same parent with the legend I sent you last week, relating to an intended disposition in consequence of Lord Holland's resignation. The court confidently deny the whole plan, and ascribe it to the fertility of Charles Townshend's brain. However, as they have their Charles Townshends too, I do not totally disbelieve it.

2

The Parliament rose yesterday,-no new peers, not even Irish: Lord Northumberland's list is sent back ungranted.1 The Duke of Mecklenburgh and Lord Halifax are to have the garters. Bridgman is turned out of the green-cloth, which is given to Dick Vernon; and his place of surveyor of the gardens, which young Dickinson held for him, is bestowed on Cadogan. Dyson5 is made a lord of trade. These are all the changes I have heard-not of a complexion that indicates the removal of your brother.

The foreign ministers agreed, as to be sure you have been told, to make Monsieur de Guerchy's cause commune; and the Attorney-general has filed an information against D'Eon: that poor lunatic was at the Opera on Saturday, looking like Bedlam. He goes armed, and threatens, what I dare say he would perform, to kill or be killed, if any attempt is made to seize him.

Sullivan

The East Indian affairs have taken a new turn. had twelve votes to ten: Lord Clive bribed off one. When they came to the election of chairman, Sullivan desired to be placed in the chair, without the disgrace of a ballot; but it was denied. On the scrutiny, the votes appeared

This list was, Sir Ralph Gore, Sir Richard King, and Mr. Stephen Moore, all created peers in this summer by the respective titles of Bellisle, Kingston, and Kilworth.-C.

2 Adolphus Frederick III. Duke of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, the Queen's brother. He died in 1794.-C.

3 Mr. George Bridgman, brother of the first Lord Bradford. He had been many years surveyor of the royal gardens, and was celebrated for his taste in ornamental gardening. He died at Lisbon,

in 1767.-C.

4 Probably Charles Sloane Cadogan, son of the second Lord Cadogan, who was treasurer to Edward Duke of York.-C.

Jeremiah Dyson, Esq. afterwards a privy-counsellor.-E.

eleven and eleven. Sullivan understood the blow, and with three others left the room. Rous, his great enemy, was placed in the chair; since that, I think matters are a little compromised, and Sullivan does not abdicate the direction; but Lord Clive, it is supposed, will go to Bengal in the stead of Colonel Barré, as Sullivan and Lord Shelburne had intended.

Mr. Pitt is worse than ever with the gout. Legge's case is thought very dangerous: - thus stand our politics, and probably will not fluctuate much for some months. At least

-I expect to have little more to tell before I see you at Paris, except balls, weddings, and follies, of which, thank the moon! we never have a dearth: for one of the latter class, we are obliged to the Archbishop, who, in remembrance, I suppose, of his original profession of midwifery, has ordered some decent alterations to be made in King Henry's figure in the Tower. Poor Lady Susan O'Brien is in the most deplorable situation, for her Adonis is a Roman Catholic, and cannot be provided for out of his calling. Sir Francis Delaval, being touched with her calamity, has made her a present- of what do you think? — of a rich gold stuff! The delightful charity! O'Brien comforts himself, and says it will make a shining passage in his little history.

I will tell you but one more folly, and hasten to my signature. Lady Beaulieu was complaining of being waked by a noise in the night: my lord replied, "Oh, for my part, there is no disturbing me; if they don't wake me before I go to sleep, there is no waking me afterwards."

Lady Hervey's table is at last arrived, and the Princess's trees, which I sent her last night; but she wants nothing, for Lady Barrymore3 is arrived.

I smiled when I read your account of Lord Tavistock's expedition. Do you remember that I made seven days from

1 See antè, p. 334.

2 Mr. Hussey was an Irishman. See antè, p. 320.-E.

3 Margaret Davis, sister and heiress of Edward, the last Viscount Mountcashel of that family, and widow of James Earl of Barrymore.

C.