State; but at length the Duke of Portland's reluctance to accept office having been overcome, it was thought proper, in consideration of his high rank and influence in the country, to place him in the office which had been intended for Mr. Windham, the latter consenting to accept the inferior one of Secretary at War, with a seat in the cabinet. The emoluments of this office amounted only to 2,480l. a year. The distinction of a seat in the cabinet was first annexed to it on this occasion, and has since been granted only for a few months to one of Mr. Windham's numerous successors. Lords Fitzwilliam and Spencer also joined the cabinet. Lord Loughborough (afterwards Earl of Rosslyn) had received the appointment of Lord Chancellor a few months earlier. Mr. Burke accepted a pension, which was justly due to his merits and ser vices, and withdrew from Parliament, considering himself disqualified by age and declining health for taking an active part in the measures of Government.

On going down to Norwich in July 1794, to be re-elected, in consequence of his acceptance of office, Mr. Windham met with an opposition, which was raised in favour of Mr. Mingay, the King's counsel, but without that Gentleman's knowledge. Though Mr. Windham was completely triumphant on the poll, he found a rough reception from the populace, who considered themselves to be severely suffering by the war. On his being chaired in the evening, a stone was thrown at him, but he avoided the blow, jumped down from his chair, seized the culprit, and delivered him over into the hands of an officer.

it

Very soon after his acceptance of office, Mr. Wind ham, at the request of his colleagues, undertook a mission to our army in Flanders; for the purpose, is understood, of explaining in confidence to the Duke of York, certain reasons which induced the ministers to make a new arrangement for the command of the forces. He sailed for Helvoetsluys in the latter end of August, and after executing the business of his mission, remained a short time at His Royal Highness's head quarters, gratifying his love of military pursuits, by a taste of a soldier's life on service*. He returned to England early in October.

* A familiar letter written by Mr. Windham, during this em bassy, to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Lukin, will furnish some descriptions which the reader may think not altogether uninteresting : —

"Berlikom, near Bois le Duc, Sept. 12, 1794.

« THE ways of a camp life are so idle, that all the habits of business which I may be supposed to have acquired in the last two months, seem to give way before them; and I am in danger of finding myself a worse correspondent here, where I have so much to tell, and so much time for telling it, than I was in London, when occupied from morning till night, and when my occupations would leave me but little else to talk of. In fact, the pleasure of moving about in a scene so full of interest, the fatigue that is apt to follow, and the want of a comfortable room to retire to, are the causes that prove so fatal to my correspondence, and the reasons why, for want of a little occasional respite, my pleasure in this situation is less than it should be.

"We are, as you will have learned from one of my former letters, near Bois le Duc, which is rather a large town, and a strong fortress belonging to the Dutch. About three miles from this place are the Duke's head quarters, and at four or five miles für

In his new capacity, Mr. Windham vindicated the measures of government in parliament with a degree of warmth and openness which by some persons was cen

ther is the camp. The immediate place of my residence is the village where head quarters are, and I am lodged in the house of a Dutch attorney. The country about is light and sandy, afford. ing very pleasant rides, which are not the less so from your occa sionally meeting bodies of troops, of different dresses, establish ments, and countries. The variety in this respect is not so great as it was last year, nor, from a number of circumstances, is the scene so interesting, after allowing even for the difference of its not being seen, as that was, for the first time. The relief which all this gives, after confinement during the summer to London, and to such business as that of the war-office, is more than you can conceive. It has given me a new stock of health; and the beauty of the autumn mornings, joined to the general idleness in which one lives by necessity, and therefore without self-reproach, has given me a feeling of youthful enjoyment, such as I now but rarely know. You cannot conceive how you would like a ride here, with the idea that if you wandered too far, and went beyond the out-posts, you might be carried off by a French patrole. It is the enjoyment that George Faulknor was supposed to describe, of a scene near Dublin, where "the delighted spectator expects every moment to be crushed by the impending rocks.”

"Were public business out of the question, I should stay here probably for a week or two longer; but, as it is, my stay must be regulated by other considerations, and it is probable that the messenger whom we are waiting for impatiently may occasion my departure immediately. The general state of things is as bad as need be.

"The shooters in your part of the world must not suppose that they have all the sport to themselves. So strong is the love of mischief among men, that all the shooting of one another that is going on here, does not prevent their filling up their intervals by a little murder of partridges.

sured as indiscreet. To that sort of discretion, indeed, which consists in dissembling opinions and feelings, Mr. Windham was an utter stranger. He thought that the common maxim, "honesty is the best policy,"

"I am not the only person, probably, from the parish of Felbrigg, who is now with the army. There is a son of the family of Ransome, whom Moreton was charged some time since to make enquiry after, and who I hope is alive; though there is some reason to suppose that he is wounded. A brother of James, too, who lives with your brother, is supposed to be here, and about him I shall make enquiry.

"Farewell: I hope you are going on well at home: that Anne is recovered, and that the rest are gay.

« W.W."

In the above letter there is an allusion to a visit which he had made in the preceding year, before he was in office, to our army at Valenciennes. The paragraph which relates to a Felbrigg man, about whom his servant, Moreton, had been desired to make enquiry, is preserved as a characteristic trait of his kind attention to inferiors.

A trifling anecdote, which the author has heard Mr. Windham relate with some glee, may perhaps in this place be deemed admissible. While on this expedition, he happened to fall into conversation with an elderly Dutch clergyman, who questioned him very closely as to the establishment and discipline of the church of England. These enquiries he answered in a way that seemed satisfactory; but they were followed by others of a more puzzling nature, concerning the mechanical process (if it may so be called) by which some English preachers occasionally manufacture their sermons. Upon Mr. Windham's confessing his ignorance of this subject, the Dutchman, in a tone of disappointment, exclaimed, "Why then I find, Sir, after all the conversation we have had, that I have been deceived as to your profession. They told me you were an English Minister."

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was as valuable in courts and cabinets as in the ordinary concerns in life. It is true that, by pursuing. this conduct, he sometimes gave opportunities to his adversaries to turn to his disadvantage any hasty or strong expressions which might fall from him in the course of a warm debate. Among those which were imputed to him, the greatest triumph was assumed by the opposition of the day from that of perish com. merce let the constitution live." But it is curious enough that this remarkable sentiment, which was first charged on him in a pamphlet under the fictitious signature of Jasper Wilson, and was afterwards echoed and re-echoed through the country, had in fact never been uttered by him, but was owned by Mr. Hardinge. Mr. Windham, however, though he denied having spoken the words, justified the sentiment, under the explanation which he gave of it, namely, a preference, as an alternative, of government, order, and the British laws, above mere wealth and commercial prosperity.

In July 1795, an expedition, composed of Emigrants, proceeded against Quiberon. For this project, which unhappily failed, Mr. Windham always held himself responsible. He thought it a most important object that an attempt should be made to assist the efforts of those Frenchmen who were bravely struggling at home against republican usurpation; and he earnestly wished that such an experiment should be tried with a far greater force than was actually employed in it. He always remained firmly of opinion that the royalist war in France had been too lightly considered by our