dQS-ANGElfj^ .j ? = ni CO (-3 C^na-ltH',->/ /'I/. />'. f'.;i/li-7 . /'/:'/>! ,'tl t')S>/ says, " Digni- <( tatem nostram a Vespasiano inchoatam, " a Tito auctam, a Domitiano longius pro- " vectam, nunquam abnuerim: sed incorrup- " tarn fidem professis, nee amore quisquam, " et sine odio dicendus est." If I might be allowed to parody the words of that Historian, applying them to myself, I should say, " That " I consider George the Third, notwithstand- " ing the many errors of his government, (t which were most conspicuous in the begin- " ping of his reign, as one of the best princes " who e,ver governed this country, I readily MEMOIRS. 3 " A< tl A striking, and a melancholy conformity exists, between the destiny of the two most illustrious men of genius, whom Spain and Portugal have produced in modern Ages. I mean, Cervantes, and Camoens : a conformity which reflects no honor on those Countries, nor on the Sovereigns and Ministers who thus abandoned them to the rigors of adversity. Both served on the Expeditions undertaken against the Mahometans, in the capacity of private soldiers; and both were wounded. Camoens lost an eye, before the town of MEMOIRS. 51 Ceuta in Morocco ; and Cervantes lost his left hand, at the celebrated naval Battle of Lepanto, gained by Don John of Austria in 15?1, over the Turks. Each of them under- went captivity, shipwreck, and all the cala- mities of adverse fortune. Returning to their native country, both were admired, and de- serted. John the Third and Sebastian, Kings of Portugal, seem to have done as little to ameliorate the Condition of Camoens, as Phi- lip the Second and Third, the Sovereigns of Spain, did for Cervantes. Each of them attained to an advanced age, amidst the pressure of diseases, penury, and privations. Camoens breathed his last at Lisbon, in 1579, at about sixty-two years of age, in an Hos- pital ; reproaching his countrymen, as is as- serted, for their cruel neglect. Cervantes, extenuated by the progress of a Dropsy, which was rendered more severe by want, preserved his constitutional gaiety of dispo- sition to the last moments of his existence ; expired, it may be almost said, with the pen in his hand; and seemed to triumph over dissolution, by the elasticity and energy of his mind. He died at Madrid, in 1616; a year which likewise deprived the world of Shakespear ! The author of the " Lusiad," E 2 52 HISTORICAL and the writer of " Don Quixote," were both thrown into the ground without even the de- cencies of an ordinary funeral ; nor can the spot where either of their remains are depo- sited, be even ascertained at the present time. It is impossible to consider these facts, with- out emotions of mingled concern and indig- nation. Yet, Dante, Tasso, and Galileo among the Italians; Spenser, Otway, and Chatterton among us, appear to have expe- rienced scarcely a milder fate. If I could not discover the place of Camoens's interment, I at least found out the Grave and tombstone of the author of " Tom Jones." Fielding, who terminated his life, as is well known, at Lisbon, in 1754, of a complication of disorders, at little more than forty-seven years of age, lies buried in. the Cimetery appropriated to the English Factory. I visited his Grave, which was al- ready nearly concealed by weeds and nettles. Though he did not suffer the extremity of distress, under which Camoens and Cervantes terminated their lives; yet his extravagance, a quality so commonly characteristic of men distinguished by talents, embittered the even- ing of his days. Fielding, Richardson, and Le Sage, seem to have attained the highest MEMOIRS. 53 eminence in that seductive species of writing, unknown to Antiquity, which we denominate Novels. Crebillon, Marivaux, and Smollett, only occupy the second place. Voltaire and Rousseau, however beautiful may be their Compositions in this Line, are rather satirical or philosophical Moralists, than Novellists. " Don Quixote" is a work sui generis, and not amenable to ordinary rules. "Gil Bias" seems to stand alone, and will probably be read with avidity in every Age, and every Country. Though the Scene lies in Spain, and the Characters are Spaniards, the man- ners are universal; and true to nature equally in Madrid, in Paris, or in London. Richard- son and Fielding are more national, and can- not be read with the same delight on the banks of the Seyne, or of the Tyber, as on those of the Thames ; though the former writer transports us to Bologna, in his Sir Charles Grandison. Fielding never attempts to carry us out of England, and his actors are all Aborigines. Foreigners neither can taste his works, nor will he ever attain to the fame of Richardson, beyond the limits of his own Country. Clementina and Clarissa will penetrate, where Sophia Western and Parson Adams, never can be known or appre- 54 HISTORICAL elated. Joseph Andrews and Amelia may be considered, in point of composition, to Field- ing, what Pamela is to Richardson. NIJ; . *ito 'rrc The late Alderman Cadell, who was one of the most intelligent, honourable, and superior men of his profession ; told me that his pre- decessor, Millar , the Bookseller, bought Field- ing's Amelia of the Author ; giving him for the Copy-right, eight hundred Pounds; a great sum at that time. After making the pur- chase, Millar shewed the Manuscript to Sir Andrew Mitchell, who subsequently filled the post of British Minister at Berlin ; requesting to have his opinion of the work. Sir Andrew observed to him, that it bore the indelible marks of Fielding's genius, and was a fine performance; but, nevertheless, far beneath " Tom Jones;" finally advising him to get rid of it as soon as he could. Millar did not neglect the counsel, though he was too able a man, to divulge the opinion delivered by his friend. On the contrary,, at the first sale which he made to the Trade, he said, " Gentlemen, I have several works to put in London - } a period which is now so distant, and the Manners, as well as the in- habitants of the Metropolis, have undergone since that time, so total a change, that they no longer preserve almost any similarity. The sinister events of the American War, had al- ready begun to shed a degree of political gloom over the Capital and the kingdom ; but this cloud bore no comparison with the terror and alarm that pervaded the firmest minds in 1792, and 1793, after the first Burst of the French Revolution, and the com- mencement of the Continental war in Flan- ders. In 1777, we in fact only contended for 138 HISTORICAL Empire and Dominion. No fears of sub- version, extinction, and subjugation to foreign violence, or revolutionary arts, interrupted the general tranquillity of society. It was subjected, indeed, to other fetters, from which we have since emancipated ourselves j those of Dress, Etiquette, and Form. The lapse of two Centuries could scarcely have produced a greater alteration in these particulars, than have been made by about forty years. That Costume, which is now confined to the Levee, or the Drawing-room, was then worn by persons of condition, with few exceptions, every where, and every day. Mr. Fox and his friends, who might be said to dictate to the Town, affecting a style of neglect about their persons, and manifesting a contempt of all the usages hitherto established, first threw a sort of discredit on Dress. From the House of Commons, and the Clubs in St. James's Street, the Contagion spread through the private Assemblies of London. But, though gradually undermined, and insensibly perishing of an Atrophy, Dress never to- tally fell, till the ^Era of Jacobinism and of Equality, in 1793, and 1794. It was then, that Pantaloons, cropped hair, and shoe- strings, as well as the total abolition of MEMOIRS. 139 buckles and ruffles, together with the disuse of hair-powder, characterized the men : while ladies, having cut off those Tresses, which had done so much execution, and one lock of which purloined, gave rise to the finest model of mock-heroic Poetry, which our own, or any other language can boast; exhibited heads rounded " d la Victime y et d la Guillotine," as if ready for the stroke of the Axe. A Dra- pery, more suited to the climate of Greece or of Italy, than to the temperature of an Island situate in the fifty-first degree of Latitude; classic, elegant, luxurious, and picturesque, but ill calculated to protect against damp, cold, and fogs ; superseded the ancient female attire of Great Britain; finally levelling or obliterating almost all external distinction be- tween the highest and the lowest of the sex, in this Country. Perhaps, with all its incum- brances, penalties, and inconveniences, it will be found necessary, at some not very distant period, to revive, in a certain degree, 'the empire of Dress. At the time of which I speak, the " Gens de Lettres" or " Blue Stockings," as they were commonly denominated, formed a very numerous, powerful, compact Phalanx, in the 140 HISTORICAL midst of London. Into this society, the two Publications which I had recently given to the world ; one, on the Northern Kingdoms of Europe; the other, on the History of France under the Race of Valois; however destitute of merit they might be, yet facilitated and procured my admission. Mrs. Montague was then the Madame du Deffand of the English Capital ; and her house constituted the central point of union, for all those persons who already were known, or who emulated to become known, by their talents and produc- tions. Her supremacy, unlike that of Ma- dame du Deffand, was indeed, established on more solid foundations than those of in- tellect, and rested on more tangible materials, than any with which Shakespear himself could furnish her. Though she had not as yet begun to construct the splendid Mansion, in which she afterwards resided, near Port- man Square, she lived in a very elegant house in Hill Street. Impressed probably, from the suggestions of her own knowledge of the world, with a deep conviction of that great truth laid down by Moliere, which no Man of Letters ever disputed ; that " Le vrai Amphytrion est celui chez qui Von dine ;" Mrs. Montague was accustomed to open her house MEMOIRS. 141 to a large company of both sexes, whom she frequently entertained at dinner. A service of plate, and a table plentifully covered, dis- posed her guests to admire the splendor of her Fortune, not less than the lustre of her Talents. She had found the same results flowing from the same causes, during the visit that she made to Paris, after the Peace of 1 763 ; where she displayed to the astonished Literati of that Metropolis, the extent of her pecuniary, as well as of her mental resources. As this topic formed one of the subjects most gratifying to her, she was easily induced to launch out on it, with much apparent com- placency. The Eulogiums lavished on her Repasts, and the astonishment expressed at the magnitude of her income, which appeared prodigiously augmented by being transformed from Pounds Sterling, into French Livres; seemed to have afforded her as much grati- fication, as the Panegyrics bestowed upon the " Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shakespear." Mrs. Montague, in 1776, verged towards her sixtieth year ; but her person, which was thin, spare, and in good preservation, gave her an appearance of less antiquity. From 142 HISTORICAL the infirmities often attendant on advanced life, she seemed to be almost wholly exempt. All the lines of her countenance bespoke in- telligence, and her eyes were accommodated to her cast of features, which had in them something satirical and severe, rather than amiable or inviting. She possessed great na- tural cheerfulness, and a flow of animal spi- rits ; loved to talk, and talked well on almost every subject; led the conversation, and was qualified to preside in her circle, whatever subject of discourse was started": but her manner was more dictatorial and sententious, than conciliating or diffident. There was nothing feminine about her; and though her opinions were usually just, as well as deli- vered in language suited to give them force, yet the organ which conveyed them, was not soft or harmonious. Destitute of taste in disposing the ornaments of her Dress, she nevertheless studied or affected those aids, more than would seem to have become a woman professing a philosophic mind, intent on higher pursuits than the Toilet. Even when approaching to fourscore, this female weakness still accompanied her; nor could she relinquish her diamond necklace and bows, which, like Sir William Draper's "blush- MEMOIRS. 143 ing Riband," commemorated by " Junius," formed of evenings, the perpetual ornament of her emaciated person. I used to think that these glittering appendages of opulence, sometimes helped to dazzle the disputants, whom her arguments might not always con- vince, or her literary reputation intimidate. That reputation had not as yet received the rude attack made on it by Dr. Johnson at a subsequent period, when he appears to have treated with much irreverence, her " Essay on Shakespear," if we may believe his Bio- grapher, Boswell. Notwithstanding the de- fects and weaknesses that I have enumerated, she possessed a masculine understanding, en- lightened, cultivated, and expanded by the ac- quaintance of men, as well as of books. Many of the most illustrious persons in rank, no less than in ability, under the reigns of George the Second and Third, had been her corres- pondents, friends, companions, and admirers. Pulteney, Earl of Bath, whose portrait hung over the chimney piece in her drawing room j and George, the first Lord Lyttelton, so emi- nent for his genius, were among the number. She was constantly surrounded by all that was distinguished for attainments or talents, male or female, English or foreign ; and it would 144 HISTORICAL be almost ungrateful in me not to acknow- ledge the gratification, derived from the con- versation and intercourse of such a society. Though Mrs. Montague occupied the first place among the "beaux Esprits" at this period, she was not a female without compe- titors for so eminent a distinction. Mrs. Vesey might indeed be said to hold the second rank : but, unlike Mademoiselle de rEspinasse at Paris, who raised a separate literary standard from Madame du Dejfand; Mrs. Vesey only aspired to follow at a humble distance, the brilliant track of Mrs. Montague. The former rather seemed desirous to assemble persons of celebrity and talents, under her roof, or at her table, than assumed or pretended to form one of them, herself. Though not lodged with the same magnificence as Mrs. Monta- gue, yet she entertained with less form, as well as less ostentation. Mrs. Vesey 's repasts were at once more select, and more delicate. Far- ther advanced in life than Mrs. Montague, she possessed no personal advantages of manner, and studied no ornaments of Dress. Simpli- city, accompanied by a sort of oblivious inat- tention to things passing under her very sight, characterized her. In absence of mind, in- MEMOIRS. 145 deed, she might almost be said to equal the Duke de Brancas, Chamberlain to Anne of Austria, relative to whose continual violation of common rules, Madame de Sevigne has consigned to us so many amusing Anecdotes. With Mrs. Vesey this forgetfulness extended to such a point, that she sometimes hardly remembered her own name. It will scarcely be credited, that she could declaim against second marriages, to a Lady of Quality who had ,been twice married, and though Mr. Vesey was her own second husband. When at last reminded of the circumstance, she only exclaimed, " Bless me, my dear, I had " quite forgotten it !" There was, indeed, some decay of mind in such want of recollec- tion. Her sister-in-law, who lived in the same house with her, and who formed, phy- sically as well as morally, a perfect contrast to Mrs/ Vesey, superintended all domestic arrangements. From their opposite figures, qualities, and endowments, the one was called *< Body," the other " Mind." In these two houses might then be seen many or most of the persons of both sexes, eminent for literary Attainments, or Cele- brity of any kind. Mrs. Thrale, still better VOL. I. t 146 HISTORICAL known by the name of Mrs. Piozzi, was to- be met with frequently in this society, fol- lowed or attended by Mr. Thrale, and by Dr. Johnson. Of the former, it is unnecessary to say any thing ; and relative to the last, after the laboured, minute portraits which have been drawn of him under every attitude, what is it possible to say new ? I will freely con- fess that his rugged exterior and garb, his un- couth gestures, his convolutions and distor- tions, when added to the rude or dogmatical manner in which he delivered his opinions and decisions on every point; rendered him so disagreeable in company, and so oppressive in conversation, that all the superiority of his talents could not make full amends, in my es- timation, for these defects. In his anger, or even in the warmth of argument, where he met with opposition, he often respected nei- ther age, rank, nor sex ; and the usages of polished life imposed a very inadequate re- straint on his expressions, or his feelings. What are we to think of a man, who, by the testimony of his own Biographer, denomi- nated Lord Russel and Algernon Sidnev, O / * " rascals ;" qualified Pennant by the Epithet of " a dog," because in his political opinions he was a Whig -, gave to Fielding, the appel- MEMOIRS. 14? lations of " a blockhead, and a barren ras- cal j" and in speaking of King William the Third, always termed him "a scoundrel?" If not irascible, he was certainly dictatorial, coarse, and sometimes almost impracticable. Those whom he could not always vanquish by the force of his intellect, by the depth and range of his arguments, and by the compass of his gigantic faculties, he silenced by rude- ness ; and I have, myself, more than once, stood in the predicament which I here de- scribe. Yet, no sooner was he withdrawn, and with him had disappeared these personal imperfections, than the sublime attainments of his mind left their full effect on the audi- ence : for such the whole assembly might be in some measure esteemed, while he was pre- sent. His beautiful compositions, both prose and poetical, the unquestionable benevolence and philanthropy of his character, his labori- ous and useful, as well as voluminous and toil- some productions, when added to his literary fame and pre-eminence ; all these combined qualities so overbore or subdued, the few who ventured to contend with him, that submis- sion or silence formed the only protection, and the ordinary refuge, to which they had recourse. L2 148 HISTORICAL We never can enough regret, that a man who possessed such poetic talents as are dis- played in his two Imitations of Juvenal ; " London," and the " Vanity of Human "Wishes ;" should have neglected that Branch of Composition, in which he might have at- tained to such comprehensive eminence. If Pope's Imitations of Horace, have more sua- vity, delicacy, and taste, than Johnson's pro- ductions can boast; the latter breathe a spirit of sublime and severe morality, mingled with a philosophic grandeur of thought, which is equally captivating, as it is impressive and instructive. How admirable is his picture of Charles the Twelfth, as opposed to that of Hannibal! How fine is the comparison be- tween Wolsey and Sejanus ! What can ex- ceed the judgement shewn in selecting Charles the Seventh, the Bavarian Emperor of 1741, as opposed to the Xerxes of the Roman Sati- rist ! The English language offers, perhaps, nothing more chaste, correct, and yet harmo- nious, than these Verses, which are free from any pedantry, or affectation of learning. The fact however is, that Johnson did not dare to yield to the seductions of the Muse, or to abandon himself to the Inspiration of Poetry. He was compelled to restrain his efforts, to MEMOIRS. 149 the more temperate walk of Prose, however capable he felt himself to be of emulating Ad- dison, or Gray, or Pope. It is well known, that he was constitutionally subject to a me- lancholy, morbid humour, which, advancing with his years, approached on certain occa- sions, to something like alienation of mind. Well aware of this infirmity, he was appre- hensive of its effects. Topham Beauclerk, who lived in great intimacy with him, often expressed to him the astonishment and re- gret, naturally excited by his apparent ne- glect of such Poetic Powers as Nature had conferred on him. Johnson heard him in si- lence, or made little reply to these remon- strances. But, on Mr. Beauclerk's making the same remark to Mr. Thrale, that gentle- man immediately answered, that " the real ff reason why Johnson did not apply his fa- ft culties to Poetry, was, that he dared not " trust himself in such a pursuit, his mind " not being equal to the species of Tnspira- " tion which Verse demands; though in the " walk of prose Composition, whether moral, " philological, or biographical, he could con- " tinue his labours, without apprehension of ( any injurious consequences." 150 HISTORICAL If, nevertheless, after rendering due ho- mage to his paramount abilities, which no testimony of mine can affect, I might venture to criticise so eminent a person, as having been deficient in any particular branch of In- formation and polite knowledge, I should say that his deficiency lay in History. Boswell has very aptly compared his understanding to an intellectual mill, into which subjects were thrown, in order to be ground or pulverized. And Mrs. Piozzi somewhere remarks, in bet- ter language than I can do it by memory, that " his mind resembled a royal pleasure " garden, within whose ample dimensions *' every thing subservient to dignity, beauty, " or utility, was to be found, from the stately te cedar, dow-n to the lowliest plant or herb." That this assertion, if loosely and generally taken, is perfectly just, no person can dis- pute, who knew him. That. he was even tho- roughly conversant in the modern History of Europe, for the last two or three Centuries, is incontestible ; and still less will it be denied, that he intimately knew all the classic periods of Greek and Roman story, most of which he had studied or perused in the original writers. But, these attainments he shared with many MEMOIRS. 151 of his Contemporaries. In the History of Europe during the middle Ages, by which I mean, from the destruction of the Roman Empire in the West, in the year 476, through the ten Centuries that elapsed before the revi- val of letters, I always thought him very im- perfectly versed; if not, on some portions, uninformed and ignorant. To have compared his knowledge, on these subjects, with the in- formation which Gibbon, or which Robertson possessed, would have been an insult to truth. But, as far as I could ever presume to form an opinion, he was much below either Burke, or Fox, in all general historical information. Even as a Biographer, which constitutes a minor species of History, Johnson, however masterly, profound, and acute, in all that re- lates to Criticism, to discrimination, and to dissection of literary merit; has always ap- peared to me to have wanted many essential qualities, or to have evinced great inaccuracy and neglect. I do not mean to speak of his prejudices and political partialities, which hardly allow him to do justice to Milton, or to Addison, because the one was a Republi- can, and the other a Whig ; just as he calls Hampden, " the Zealot of Rebellion:" I al- 152 HISTORICAL ]ude to errors that could only have arisen from an ignorance of facts, with which he might and ought to have been acquainted. What shall we say, when we find him telling us, that Stepney, the Poet, " was invited into public life by the Duke of Dorset?" The event in question, must have taken place about 1683, towards the end of Charles the Second's reign. But, the creation of the Dukedom of Dorset, only originated under George the First, in 1720. In like manner he informs us, that Prior published about 1706, " a volume " of poems, with the encomiastic character ." of his deceased patron, the Duke of Dor- " set." No doubt he means to speak of Charles, Earl of Dorset, who died nearly at that time. His mistakes, or his omissions and defect of information, in the life of that distinguished Nobleman, are much more gross. Johnson makes him succeed to James Cranfield, second Earl of Middlesex, in 1674, his uncle; who was already dead, many years antecedent. It was the third Earl of Middle- sex, Lionel, to whose estates and title the Earl of Dorset succeeded, or was raised by Charles the Second. On all the interesting particu- lars of his marriages, his private life, and his decease, relative to which objects curiosity MEMOIRS. must be so naturally and warmly excited, the Biographer is either silent or misinformed. I may be told, that these inaccuracies, chiefly chronological, are of little moment. So is it, whether the great Duke of Marlborough died in 1722, or in 1?23. But, he who undertakes to compose an account of Churchill's life, is bound to know, and accurately to relate, all the leading facts that attended, or distinguish- ed it. Johnson, we may be assured, would have been, himself, the first to detect and to expose such errors in another writer. Mrs. Thrale always appeared to me, to possess at least as much Information, a mind as cultivated, and more Brilliancy of Intellect, than Mrs. Montague ; but she did not descend among men from such an eminence, and she talked much more, 'as well as more unguard- edly, on every subject. She was the Pro- vider and the Conductress of Johnson, who lived almost constantly under her roof, or more properly, under that of Mr. Thrale, both in Town, and at Streatham. He did not however spare her, more than other women, in his Attacks, if she courted or provoked his Animadversion. As little did he appear to respect or to manage Garrick, who frequently 154 HISTORICAL made one of the Assembly. His presence al- ways diffused a gaiety over the room ; but he seemed to shrink from too near a contact with Johnson, whose superiority of mind, added to the roughness and closeness of his hugs, reduced Garrick to acton the defensive. Mrs. Carter, so well known by her Erudition, the Madame Dacier of England ; from her religious cast of character, and gravity of deportment, no less than from her intellectual Acquirements, was more formed to impose some check on the asperity or eccentricities of Johnson. Dr. Burney, and his daughter, the author of " Evelina " and " Cecilia," though both were generally present ; I always thought, rather avoided, than solicited, notice. Horace Walpole, whenever he appeared there, enriched and illuminated the conversation, by Anecdotes, personal and historical ; many of which were rendered more curious or inter- esting, from his having, himself, witnessed their existence, or received them from his father Sir Robert Walpole. Sir Joshua Rey- nolds, precluded by his deafness from mixing in, or contributing to general conversation j his trumpet held up to his ear, was gratified by the attention of those who addressed to him their discourse ; a notice which the re- MEMOIRS. 155 sources of his mind enabled him to repay with interest. Mrs. Chapone, under one of the most repulsive exteriors that any woman ever possessed, concealed very superior attain- ments, and extensive knowledge. Burke, though occupied in the toils of parliamentary discussion, and of ministerial attack, which left him little leisure to bestow on literary men or subjects ; yet sometimes unbent his Faculties among persons, adapted by nature to unfold the powers of delighting and in- structing, with which genius and study had enriched him. His presence was, however, more coveted, than enjoyed. Dr. Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, accompanied by his daughter, Miss Shipley, afterwards married to Sir William Jones, might be frequently seen there. The Abbe Raynal, who passed that Winter in London, was readily admitted, and eagerly courted. It must be confessed that the variety of his Information, and the Facility, as well as Readiness, with which he communicated the stores of his exuberant Memory, would have rendered him a valu- able accession to any Circle : but his Loqua- city generally fatigued even those, whom it delighted and improved. The present Lord 156 HISTORICAL Erskine, who, thirty years later, attained to the Great Seal, had not yet commenced his career of Jurisprudence. But, the versatility of his talents, the energy of his character, and the vivacity of his conversation, suffi- ciently manifested, even at that time, the ef- fect which such a union of Qualities might produce, when powerfully urged and im- pelled towards one object. Happily for him- self, he did not want the strongest impulse, arising from domestic pledges and embar- rassments, well calculated to call out every faculty of the mind. It is curious to reflect, that if he had been born one step higher; if, instead of being the younger son of a Scotch Early his father had been a Marquis, he never could have been called to the Bar. His endowments, however great, assuredly would not, in any other Profession, have raised him to the Peerage, to fortune, and to fame. His Celebrity, indeed, if we may believe Mr. Fox's Biographer, had not ex- tended across the Straits of Dover, even in 1802, when the Corsican First Consul ap- pears not to have known his name. Mrs. Boscawen, though inferior in literary Reputation to Mrs. Montague, and perhaps possessed of less general information, yet con- MEMOIRS. ' ,- 157 ciliated more good- will. She had an histo- rical turn of mind ; and in the course of a long life passed among the upper circles of society, she had collected and retained a number of curious or interesting Anecdotes of her own Times. Mr. Pepys, now Sir William Pepys, to whose acquaintance and partiality I was not a little indebted, for facilitating my entrance into this Assembly of distinguished Persons, is the last individual whom I shall enumerate. To a mind adorned with classic images, and conversant with classic authors, he united great colloquial powers. The friend of the first Lord Lvttelton, of Sir James i Macdonald, and of Topham Beauclerk, he was in principle a staunch Whig ; and as Johnson might be justly esteemed a violent,as well as abigotted Tory, much political sparring occa- sionally took place between them, in the pro- gress of which, many sparks of historical or philosophical fire, were elicited on both sides. Though literary reputation, or acknow- ledged talents and celebrity of some kind, seemed to constitute the primary title to a place in those Conversations, from which every species of Play was altogether excluded ; yet rank and beauty were to be found there, 158 HISTORICAL and contributed to render them interesting in the highest Degree. The late Duchess Dowager of Portland, Grand-daughter of the Lord Treasurer Oxford, herself a woman of distinguished taste in various branches of art, was a frequent visitant. It was impossible to look on her, without reflecting that while still in early childhood, she had been the ob- ject of Swift's poetic attention, and the sub- ject of Prior's expiring Muse. I have seen the Duchess of Devonshire, then in the first bloom of youth, hanging on the sentences that fell from Johnson's lips, and contending for the nearest place to his chair. All the Cynic moroseness of the Philosopher and the Moralist, seemed to dissolve under so flatter- ing an approach ; to the gratification and dis- tinction resulting from which, he was nothing less than insensible. We may see in Boswell, how tractable, gentle, and accommodating he became while at Inverary, seated between the Duke and Duchess of Argyle. It is natural to ask, whether the literary Society of London, at the period of which I am speaking, could enter into any competi- tion for extent of talents, and superiority of attainments, with the Society of Paris, that MEMOIRS. 159 met at the Apartments of Madame du Deffand, and of Mademoiselle VEspinasse, under the reigns of Louis the Fifteenth and Sixteenth. In other words, whether the persons who formed the Assemblies in the English Capital, can support a comparison for ability and for fame, with those who were accustomed to meet in the French Metropolis. If I were to presume to give an opinion on this question, I should have no hesitation in saying, that neither in the period of its duration, nor in the number, merit, or intellectual eminence of the principal members, can the English Society be held up on any parity, scarcely, in- deed, in any Comparison, with that of France. The latter Assemblies may be said to have lasted near half a Century, from 1725, or 1730, down to 1775, or 1780; either in the Houses of Madame du Deffand y or of Made- moiselle 1'Espinasse, or in both. The "Blue Stocking" Assemblies at Mrs. Montague's and Mrs. Vesey's, remained in their brilliant state, only for about fifteen years, from 1770, to 1785. Before the last of those periods, Mrs. Vesey had yielded to the progress of time, and of infirmity; while Mrs. Thrale, then become Mrs. Piozzi, had removed from the banks of the Thames, to those of the Arno, 160 HISTORICAL Mrs. Montague, indeed, survived ; and her Dinners, as well as her Assemblies, were perpetuated to a very late period of her life ; but the charm and the impulse that pro- pelled them, had disappeared. They were principally supported by, and they fell with, the giant talents of Johnson, who formed the Nucleus, round which all the subordinate members revolved. It became impossible, after his decease in 1786, to supply his place. Burke, as I have already observed, had more powerful avocations, and aspired to other honors and emoluments, than those which mere literary distinction could bestow on him. Hume, and Adam Smith, men of superior en- dowments, who might have contributed to support such a society, had retired to Scot- land, or were already dead. Robertson, Lord Kaimes, and Lord Monboddo, resided at Edin- burgh ; only visiting London occasionally, on business, or for Recreation. Gibbon, I believe, never emulated to be a member of these Assemblies, and never attended them. He, too, like Burke, looked more to politics, than to letters, for his substantial recompense - 9 being at once a Member of the House of Commons, and a Lord of Trade. Perhaps, indeed, the freedom of Hume's, and of Gib- MEMOIRS. 161 bon's printed opinions on subjects connected with religion, might have rendered their ad- mission difficult, or their society distasteful, to the principal persons who composed these parties ; where nothing like a relaxation on points so serious, found protection or support. Johnson, who, as we know, had so great a repugnance to every species of Scepticism on matters of religious belief, that when com- posing his Dictionary, he would not cite Hobbes, the celebrated Philosopher, as an authority for any word or expression used by that writer, merely because he held Hobbes's principles in aversion ; Johnson, who blamed Tyers, for only doing justice to Hume, upon parts of his character wholly unconnected with his writings ; and who said, that " he should just as soon have thought of praising " a mad dog 5" he would hardly have re- mained in the same room with Hume and Gibbon ; though when taken once by a sort of surprize, he did not refuse to dine in com- pany with Wilkes, of whom he had neverthe- less previously said, that " he would as soon " dine with Jack Ketch, as with Jack " Wilkes/' The case was widely different in Paris, VOL I. M 162 HISTORICAL where no political pursuits distracted men of letters ; and where Infidelity, or even Mate- rialism, far from exciting alienation, would rather have conduced to recommend to notice, the persons professing such tenets. Among the Constellation of eminent men and women, who met at Madame du Deffand's, and at Mademoiselle rEspinasse's, the greater num- ber were indeed avowedly " des Esprits forts ;' in other words, Free Thinkers, who not con- tent with being so, themselves, endeavoured to make Proselytes by their writings. It is evi- dent therefore, that the Circle in London was, from various causes, necessarily much more contracted than in France ; where every per- son distinguished by talents, with few excep- tions, commonly resided altogether in the Capital. For Voltaire was virtually banished beyond the French confines, by the Govern- ment ; and lived in the territory of Geneva, more by constraint, than by choice or inclina- tion. Rousseau was a Genevese by birth, who only visited Paris from time to time; some- times resident in its Vicinity, often a Wan- derer, proscribed and fugitive. After stating these facts, which may explain the causes of the superiority of the literary society, or As- semblies of Paris, over those of London ; it MEMOIRS. 163 would be idle to contest that they altogether eclipsed ours, in almost every point of genius science, and intellectual attainment. Who in fact, met at Mrs. Montague's, or at Mrs. Ve- sey's, that can compete with the names of Maupertuis, Helvetius, Montesquiou, Fonte- nelle, Voltaire, Madame du Chatelet, the Marquis d'Argens, Mademoiselle de Launay, the President Henault, D'Alembert, Diderot, Condamine, the Duchess de Choiseul, Mar- montel, Raynal, the Duke de Nivernois, Ma- rivaux, the Abbe Barthelemi, Turgot, Con- dorcet, and so many other illustrious persons of both sexes, who composed the Literati of the French Metropolis ? We can scarcely be said to have any thing to oppose to such a cloud of eminent persons, except the single name of Johnson. There seems, indeed, to be something in the National character of the French; at least there was so previous to the temporary extinction of the ancient Monarchy, and the reign of Jacobinism, or military Despotism ; more congenial to these mixed assemblies of persons of literary endowments, than is found among us. From the middle of the seven- teenth Century, as long ago as the Regency M 2 164 HISTORICAL of Anne of Austria, we find that such meet- ings existed at Paris, and enjoyed a great de- gree of Celebrity. The Hotel de Rambouil- let, as. early as 1650, constituted the point of re- union for all the individuals of both sexes, distinguished in the Career of Letters. Ca- therine de Vivonne, (the Madame du Deffand of that period,) Marchioness of Rambouillet, presided at them : an eminence for which she was qualified, by the elegance of her taste, and the superiority of her mind. In her house, which became a sort of Academy, the productions of the time were appreciated, and passed in Review. Dying in 1665, she was succeeded by Henrietta de Coligny, Countess de la Suzej who, though with inferior repu- tation, continued to assemble the wits and " Beaux Esprits" at her Hotel. Her high Birth, her extraordinary Beauty, and her po- etic Talents, attracted to her Circle, every person eminent in the Metropolis. It was on her, that the four classic lines were composed; " Quae Dea sublimi vehitur per Inania Curru ? An Juno, an Pallas, an Venus ipsa venit ? Si Genus inspicias, Juno : si scripta, Minerva : Si spectes Oculos, Mater Amoris erit." Subsequent to her decease in 1673, these MEMOIRS. 165 Conversations seem to have languished for nearly fifty years, till they were revived and re- animated by the Duchess du Maine, a Prin- cess of the royal Blood, grand-daughter of the great Conde, married to the Duke du Maine, natural son of Louis the Fourteenth. After her release from the Castle of Dijon, to which Fortress she had been committed Prisoner by the Regent Duke of Orleans in 1717, for her participation in the Conspiracy of Prince Cel- lamare; about the year 1722, she began to assemble persons of literary Celebrity under her roof, in whose society she passed the greater part of her leisure. These meetings, which were principally held, not in the Capi- tal, but at the Palace of Seaux, about four leagues South of Paris, continued to exist down to the Duchess du Maine's decease, in 1753; and were attended by many of the persons of both sexes, who afterwards formed the Circles at Madame du Deffand's, and at Mademoiselle 1'Espinasse's Apartments. Du- ring the same period of time, Madame de Tencin, sister to the Cardinal of that name, one of the most captivating women in France, the Aspasia of that Country, received at her Hotel, the " Gens de Lettres ;" and may be said to have rivalled the Duchess du Maine, 166 HISTORICAL as the protectress of taste and politer 'know- ledge. Nothing of a similar nature or description, appears to have existed in London, between the Restoration of Charles the Second in 1660, and the conclusion of the Century, except the Society that met at the house of the fa- mous Hortensia Mancini, Duchess de Maza- rin, niece to the Cardinal of that name; who, from 1667, to the period of her death in 1699, was accustomed to receive at her Apartments, the Litera ti of both sexes. St. Evremond, an exile, a foreigner, and a fugitive, like herself, constituted the principal support, and the or- nament of these parties ; where the Chevalier de Grammont, so well known by the Memoirs published under his name, was likewise to be found. It is curious to remark, that the first " Blue Stocking" Assemblies, and I believe, the only meetings deserving that name, which have ever been held in London, down to those of which we have been speaking ; were set on foot by natives of France, expatriated and re- sident here. For, neither the letters, nor the writings of Addison, Gay, Steele, Swift, or Pope, indicate that any such meetings existed from 1700, down to the beginning of the pre- MEMOIRS. 16? sent reign. Lady Wortley Montagu, Lady Hervey, the Duchess of Queensberry, and various other females distinguished by their talents, no less than by their high rank, adorned that period of time; but they do not appear to have emulated the line which Mrs. Montague so successfully undertook, though they occasionally received in their Drawing rooms;Hhe wits and poets of the reigns of Queen Anne, of George the First, and George the Second. Foreigners have indeed with reason reproached the English, as too much attracted by the love of Play, to Clubs composed exclusively jf men, to be capable of relishing a mixed society, where researches of taste and literature constitute the basis and the central point of union. I quitted England in the Surotne of 1777 > and made some stay at the Hague, where I was presented by our Ambassador, Sir Joseph Yorke, to the Prince of Orange ; with whom I afterwards had the honour to sup at " the " Palace in the Wood," as well as to meet him in private society. This Prince has be- come so well known to us, since his precipi tate retreat from Holland in the Winter of 1795, by his long residence in England, that 168 HISTORICAL it is unnecessary to enter into any minute de- tails relative to his character and qualities. Even at the period to which I allude, he neither inspired public respect, nor excited private regard. His person, destitute of dig- nity, corresponded with his manners, which were shy, awkward, and altogether unfitted to his high situation as Stadtholder. If he displayed no glaring vices, he either did not, or could not, conceal many weaknesses, cal- culated to injure him in the estimation of mankind. A constitutional somnolency, which increased with the progress of age, was too frequently accompanied by excesses still more injurious, or fatal to his reputation; I mean those of the table, particularly of wine. I have seen him at the Hague, of an evening, in a large company, at Sir Joseph Yorke's, in the situation that I here describe. In vigour, ability, 6r resources of mind, such as might enable him successfully to struggle, like William the Third, with difficult or tu- multuous Times, he was utterly deficient. If William the Fifth had possessed the energies of that great Prince, we should neither have been engaged in War with Holland, as hap- pened towards the close of 1780; nor would the Stadtholderate have been overturned in MEMOIRS. 169 1795, and the Seven Provinces, which success- fully resisted all the power of Philip the Second, have ultimately sunk into an enslaved Province of the Corsican Ruler of France. The two Brothers, John and Cornelius de Witt, became in every Sense as formidable Opponents to William the Third, as Van Berkel and Neufville proved to his successor : but William the Fifth allowed the French Faction at Amsterdam, acting under the di- rection of Vergennes, to consolidate their strength, to conclude a treaty with the American Insurgents, and to precipitate a rupture with England. His magnanimous predecessor, though he had scarcely then at- tained to manhood, opposed and surmounted all the efforts of the Republican Party, sus- tained by Louis the Fourteen^, with a view to subject Holland to Frencu ambition. Van Berkel merited the fate which unjustly befel the two de Witts, and only escaped it by the inert and incapable conduct of the Stadt- holder, who permitted the fairest opportunity to pass, for bringing him to public punishment, as a violator of the laws of nations, a disturber of the public peace, and an enemy to his own country. Relative to William the Fifth's 1 70 HISTORICAL personal courage, no opinion can be formed, as it was never tried ; but he possessed neither the activity, nor any of the endowments fitted for the conduct of Armies. It must however be admitted, that his understanding was cul- tivated, his memory very retentive, his con- versation, when unembarrassed, entertaining and even instructive, abounding with histo- rical information that displayed extensive ac- quaintance with polite letters ; and that he joined to a fine taste in the arts, particularly in painting, a generous protection of their professors. In a period of repose, he might have been tolerated ; but the Stadtholderate, at every time since its commencement in the person of William the First, and the revolt of the Low Countries from Philip the Second, has demanded the greatest energies in the individual, who was placed at the head of the Dutch Commonwealth. Nature, which rarely confers great or emi- nent qualities of mind in hereditary descent, seemed to have departed from that rule, in the House of Nassau- Orange ; where she pro- duced five Princes in succession, all of whom were conspicuous in a greater or a less de- gree, for courage, capacity, and the talents that ensure or confirm political power. The MEMOIRS. 171 five Roman Emperors, Nerva, Trajan, Ha- drian, and the two Antonines, who succeeded each other in Antiquity, were altogether tm- allied by ties of consanguinity. Adoption alone constituted the connexion existing be- tween them : and Commodus, whom we sup- pose to have been the son of Marcus Aurelius, the last of those five Caesars, was only distin- guished by his crimes, or by his incapacity. William the First, and his two sons by different wives; Maurice, and Frederic- Henry, who may be said to have successively occupied the Office of Stadtholder, or Captain-General of the United Provinces, during fourscore years, from 156? to 1647, without interrup- tion; were three of the most illustrious win whom we have seen in modern Ages. Even William the Second, though his end was pre- mature, and in some measure unfortunate, yet manifested no less strength of character and vigour of mind, than his three prede- cessors. The whole existence of William the Third, from his early youth to his grave, which occupied more than thirty years, formed a perpetual display of fortitude, en- durance, toil, and military, as well as civil exertion. With him expired in 1702, the great line of Nassau- Orange. In 1747, the 1 72 HISTORICAL if dignity and functions of Stadtholder, which had been suspended for five and forty years, were revived in the person of William the Fourth, head of the branch of Nassau-/)/^, collaterally related to the preceding race. However little favoured by nature in his bodily formation, which was very defective, resembling our popular Idea of Richard the third j and however moderately endowed with intellectual powers was William the Fourth, who married the Princess Anne, daughter of George the Second ; he at least maintained during the few years that he survived his ele- vation, an external dignity of deportment, and an irreproachable moral conduct. But, in the hands of William the Fifth, his son, may be said in every sense to have become eclipsed, that great Office of Stadtholder, in itself only less than royal ; and, under able management, perhaps even more formidable than the kingly Dignity ! The reception of the late Prince of Orange by George the ThrYd, when he sought refuge in this Country, from the French Invasion, in 1795 ; was no less affectionate, hospitable, and cordial, than the treatment which James the Second experienced in 1689, from Louis the MEMOIRS. 173 i Fourteenth. If James, justly expelled by his English subjects for tyranny, political and re- ligious, was lodged at the Castle of St. Ger- main, and treated with Royal Honors, by the French Monarch ; William was equally placed in the Palace at Hampton Court. The Prin- ces of the Royal Family, and the Nation at large, vied in demonstrations of respect, com- passion, and attention towards him. The Princess of Orange, a woman of a far more elevated, correct, and manly character than her husband, experienced as generous, and as kind a welcome, from the King and Queen of Great Britain, as Mary of Modena, the Consort of James, received in France. Of a stature exceeding the height of ordinary women, she extremely resembled in her figure, the late King of Prussia, Frederick- William the Second, her Brother, who was cast by nature in the same Colossal mould. Fortune, which had persecuted her in Holland, did not prove more favourable to her in England. Her second son, Prince Frederic of Orange, a young man who excited the liveliest ex- pectations, and gave promise of many virtues, had entered into the Austrian Service, after his father's expulsion from Holland. By his mother he was regarded with peculiar predi- 174 HISTORICAL lection, as formed to support the honor of the Houses of Nassau and of Brandenburgh, from both which he equally descended. Exem- plary in the discharge of all his military duties, to this principle his premature death was to be attributed, which took place at Venice, in January, 1799; occasioned by a malignant distemper or fever, caught in consequence of visiting the sick soldiers, confined in the hos- pitals of that city. His Britannic Majesty first read the ac- count of it at the Queen's House, in one of the French Newspapers, on Thursday night, the 31st of January, 1799. Shocked at the intelligence, and not being quite sure of its authenticity, he put the Newspaper in his pocket ; and taking the Queen aside, com- municated it to her with much concern. As the probabilities were greatly in favor of its truth, or rather, as no doubt could reasonably be entertained on the point, they agreed not to delay announcing it to the Prince and Princess of Orange -, who might otherwise re- ceive so melancholy a notification, through the channel of the English diurnal Publica- tions, or even from common fame. This de- termination they executed on the following MEMOIRS. 175 day, at the Queen's House, where they de- tained the Prince and Princess for two or three weeks, till the violence of the emotions occasioned by the loss of their son, had sub- sided. Some faint hopes, indeed, were enter- tained during eight or ten days after the arri- val of the intelligence, that it might prove ei- ther premature or untrue. It was, however, soon fully confirmed. All mankind agreed that Prince Frederic eminently possessed ta- lents, honor, and courage. His unfortunate father, after arriving in this Country under a dark political cloud, and after residing here many years, without acquiring the public esteem, or redeeming his public character, finally and precipitately quitted England un- der a still darker cloud ; only to bury himself in the obscurity of Germany, there to expire, forgotten, and almost unknown. Such has been the Destiny, in our time, of the Repre- sentative of that August House, which, in the sixteenth Century, while it conducted the ar- mies of Holland, opposed and humbled Spain ; and which, in the seventeenth Century, affix- ed limits to the Ambition of France, under Louis the Fourteenth. A Corsican Adven- turer has since enslaved, plundered, and con- scribed during many years, the Country, in 1?6 HISTORICAL whose councils, Barnevelt, the two de Witts, and Heinsius, once presided ; for which Van Tromp and Ruyter fought, conquered, and fell; and where the spirit of freedom seemed to have animated every individual, when the Duke of Alva overran, and desolated those Provinces. It is in making these reflections on the modern Dutch, and contrasting their conduct with the heroism of their Ancestors, that we involuntarily exclaim with Goldsmith t " Gods ! how, unlike their Belgic Sires of old !" At the time when I visited the Hague, in July, 1777, Prince Louis, one of the brothers of the then reigning Duke of Brunswic Wol- fenbuttel, and Commander-in-chief of the Dutch Forces, enjoyed a much higher place in the public consideration, than the Stadt- holder. I have rarely seen in the course of my life, a man of more enormous bodily di- mensions. William, Duke of Cumberland, son of George the Second, whose corpulency was extreme, fell nevertheless far short of him in bulk. But, this prodigious mass of flesh, which it was natural to suppose, would ener- vate or enfeeble the powers of his mind, seemed neither to have rendered him indolent or inactive. The strength of his character, MEMOIRS. 177 and the solidity of his talents, while they sup- plied in some measure the defects of the Prince of Orange, animated and impelled the vast machine that he inhabited. Prince Louis manifested no somnolency when in company ; nor was he ever betrayed at table, into excesses injurious to his reputation. On the Parade, and in his military capacity, he displayed equal animation and professional knowledge. Attached to the interests of the House of Orange, and to those of Great Bri- tain, he became naturally obnoxious to the French faction in Holland ; which finally ef- fected his removal from the post that he held in the service of the Republic, and compelled him to retire out of the Dutch Dominions, a few years later than the period of which I am speaking. He died, I believe, in 1788. His dismission and departure prepared the way for the overthrow of the Stadtholderate, not- withstanding the temporary triumph of the late Duke of Brunswic, and the capture of Amsterdam, effected in the Summer of 1787 S by the Prussian forces. His brother, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswic, who commanded the allied army with so much reputation, during the " Seven Years VOL. I. N 178 HISTORICAL War," from 1757 down to 1763; and who oc- cupied at that time so distinguished a rank in the History of Europe 5 was unquestionably an able General, and a good Tactician ; but by no means endowed with superior talents of any kind. In order to have secured the de- gree of fame that he had acquired in the field, it may be asserted that he ought not to have survived his last Campaign; as Juvenal says of Marius, that he should have breathed his last, immediately after his Victory over the Cimbri, ! '".'.;) i! Ol< " Cum de Teutonico vellet descendere Curru." For, Prince Ferdinand soon afterwards aban- doned himself to the doctrines and reve- ries of the Illumines, who, it is well known, obtained such an ascendant about that time, in Germany. They reduced his mind to a degree of imbecility which could only excite compassion. It will hardly be believed that before the year 1773, he was so subjugated by them, as frequently to pass many hours of the night in Churchyards, en- gaged in evoking, and attempting to raise Apparitions. They practised successfully on his credulity, making him conceive that he beheld Spectres, or aerial forms. These oc- cupations, which afforded sufficient proofs of intellectual decline, having impelled the MEMOIRS. 179 great Frederic, whose sound understanding despised the Illumines, to dismiss Prince Fer- dinand from his situation in the Prussian ser- vice; he then retired to Magdeburgh, of the Chapter of which secularized Archbishoprick, he was Dean. In that City he principally resided till his Decease, divested of any military Com- mand, in a sort of retreat; but, keep- ing a good table, and receiving strangers occasionally who visited Magdeburgh. His income, a considerable part of which consist- ed in a Pension from the Crown of Great Bri- tain, enabled him to maintain an establish- ment becoming his rank. An intimate friend of mine, now, I regret, no more; who was about that time, Minister of England at the Court of Dresden, Mr. Osborn, being well acquainted with Prince Ferdinand, used fre- quently to dine with him. The Prince, who treated him with great regard, wishing to make a Proselyte of him, one day proposed that they should go together to a certain Church- yard, on that same night; promising him that a Ghost would infallibly appear to them. Mr. Osborn agreed to accept the propo- sal, and to accompany His Serene Highness N 2 180 HISTORICAL to the scene of these supernatural exhibitions, provided that he would order six Grenadiers, their pieces loaded with ball cartridge, to at- tend them; and would enjoin the Grenadiers to fire upon whatever object might assume the appearance of a Ghost. But, the Prince by no means relished the idea, and the party therefore did not take place. Of the accu- racy of this Anecdote I can have no doubt, as it was related to me by Mr. Osborn him- self, whose honor and veracity were indispu- table. Prince Ferdinand continued till the period of his death, in July, 1792, to be a Dupe and a Convert of the Illumines. Sir Joseph Yorke, afterwards created Lord Dover, maintained a distinguished rank among the Members of the Corps Diploma- tique, in 1777, at the Hague. His table, splendid and hospitable, was open to strangers of every country. Educated under Horace, Lord Walpole, and the first Lord Hampden, his manners and address had in them some- thing formal and ceremonious ; but, the vigi- lance and ability which he displayed during above five-and-twenty years that he was Em- bassador of England to the States-General, more than compensated for these defects of external deportment. Never, perhaps, at any MEMOIRS. 181 period of modern time, except by Sir William Temple, under Charles the Second, were the Interests of Great Britain so zealously, yet temperately sustained, as by him ; for whom the Stadtholder felt and expressed a sort of filial regard. In 1777, the English Sovereign and Nation still continued to preserve an As- cendancy in the Dutch Councils; till the augmenting misfortunes, and accumulated disgraces of the American War, finally ena- bling France to obtain a predominating influ- ence, compelled Lord North to recall Sir Jo- seph Yorke from the Hague. With another of His Majesty's foreign Mi- nisters, Mr. Wroughton, who became after- wards Sir Thomas Wroughton, I passed a con- siderable part of the Summer of 1778, in the Court and Capital of Poland. Warsaw, des- tined to become in more recent periods, the Theatre of Carnage and Revolution, then en- joyed a delusive calm ; while Austria, Saxony, and Prussia, were involved in war relative to the Bavarian Succession. Wroughton, at the time of which I speak, was about forty-six. He had been very handsome in his youth ; and though grown somewhat corpulent, still preserved many of the graces, and much of 182 HISTORICAL the activity, of that period of life. His edu- cation, if it had not given him a very culti- vated mind, had completely fitted him for the world ; and a residence of more than twenty vears at the two Courts of Poland and Russia, ./ in a public character, rendered his conversa- tion, upon all points connected with the History of the North of Europe, no less en- tertaining, than informing. From him I learned a number of curious facts respecting the two Russian Empresses, Elizabeth and Catherine ; which, though they assuredly would have been transmitted to posterity by Brantome, cannot, without violating decorum, be commemorated in the present Age. Sir Thomas Wroughton was sent, at three or four-and-twenty, to Petersburg!!, where he subsequently became British Consul, during the reign of the former of those Princesses. No man was better acquainted with her cha- racter, as well as with the political Intrigues which distinguished the concluding years of Elizabeth's life. He assured me that she died a victim to her own excesses, and almost with a saucer of cherry-brandy at her lips; it having been found impossible, by any in- junctions of her physicians, to prevent the MEMOIRS. 183 female attendants about her person and bed, from indulging her in this pernicious gratifi- cation. The last Princess of the Stuart line who reigned in this country, has been ac- cused of a similar passion, if we may believe the Secret History of that Time, or trust to the Couplet which was affixed to the Pedestal of her Statue in front of St. Paul's, by the satirical Wits of 1714. The Empress Eliza- beth's Amours were such as the Messalinas and Faustinas of Antiquity, are asserted to have carried on in the Capital of the Roman world, without delicacy, shame, or restraint. Suetonius might have found it difficult to re- late, and Juvenal as impossible to exaggerate, the particulars of Elizabeth's Gallantries. Of Catherine, Sir Thomas Wroughton always spoke with admiration and respect, though with freedom. To her notice he was in- deed greatly indebted for his elevation in life; she having been instrumental in procuring him the appointment of Consul to Petersburgh. As he was in the flower of his age at that time, and of an imposing figure, he attracted her attention, and was honored by her with such distinguishing marks of predilection, as to draw upon him the resentment of the 184 HISTORICAL Grand Duke, her husband ; who, when he ascended the Throne, early in 1762, by the name of Peter the Third, obtained during his short reign, Wroughton's removal from Russia. He was then sent, by orders from his own Court, to Dresden, as Minister to Augustus the Third, Elector of Saxony, in his capacity of King of Poland ; and he accompanied or followed that Monarch from Saxony to Warsaw, in the last visit that Augustus made to his Polish Dominions. As Wroughton had become an object of Peter's unconcealed dislike or jealousy ; and as Ca- therine had distinguished him by personal attentions of the most flattering nature, it was not an improbable supposition, that she might have carried to the utmost extent, her pre- ference of him. But he always assured me, even in moments of the greatest confidence and unreserve, that he had never violated for an instant, the limits of the most profound respect towards her; nor had ever received from her, encouragement for such presump- tion on his part. " Count Poniatowski," said he, " was her Lover. I was only her " humble Friend and Servant." He told me, that the first time he ever . MEMOIRS. 185 heard the name of Orloff mentioned, or ever saw the Officer who afterwards became, as Prince OrlofF, the avowed Favourite of Ca- therine in every sense, was on the following occasion. Crossing the Court of the Winter Palace at Petersburgh, some time during the year 1?60, the Grand Duchess, who leaned on his arm, pointed out to him a young man in the Uniform of the Russian Guards, then in the act of saluting her with his Spontoon ; and added, " Vous voyez ce beaujeune Homme? " Le connoissez-vous ?" Wroughton replying in the negative, " // s'appelk Orlojf" said Catherine; " Croiriez-vous qu'il a eu la. Har- " diesse de me faire V amour ?" ." // est bien " hardiy Madame" answered he, smiling. The conversation proceeded no further ; but it remained deeply imprinted upon Wrough- ton's recollection, who from that moment silently anticipated the future favor of Orloff. Sir Thomas Wroughton always spoke to me of Catherine's Participation or Acquiescence in the death of Peter the Third, as involun- tary, reluctant, and the Result of an insur- mountable Necessity. He even considered her knowledge of the destruction of the unfortunate Emperor Ivan, who was stabbed by his own Guards at Schlusselbourg, in 186 HISTORICAL 1764, with a view to prevent his being li- berated by Mirowitsch, as exceedingly pro- blematical. But he believed, in common with all Poland, that Catherine had found means to entrap, and to transfer to Petersburg!!, the Princess Tarrakanoff, a daughter of the Empress Elizabeth ; where, as was as- serted, she had perished in prison, by the waters of the River Neva entering the room in which she was confined. There can be no Doubt that Alexis Orloff, so well known in the Annals of Catherine's Reign, who then com- manded the Russian Fleet in the Mediteran- nean ; became on that occasion, the instru- ment of her vengeance, or rather of her ap- prehensions, by enticing on board his ship, in the Port of Leghorn, the unhappy female in question. This accusation, sustained by many strong facts, and apparent proofs, nar- rated at great length, has since been sub- mitted to the Tribunal of Europe, in " La Vie de Catherine Seconds" by Castera, pub- lished in 1797, soon after the Empress's decease. Sir John Dick, who at the time of the supposed Princess's seizure by Alexis Or- loff, was British Consul at Leghorn; is named in the work to which I allude, as having been an accomplice in the act of ensnaring, and MEMOIRS. 18? carrying her off to the Russian Admiral's ship. His wife is likewise charged with a participation in so foul a conspiracy. I lived during several years, in habits of familiar acquaintance with Sir John Dick, who retained, at fourscore, all the activity of middle life, together with the perfect possession of his memory and faculties. He was an agreeable, entertaining, and well bred man, who had seen much of the world. Dining in a large company, at Mr. Tho- mas Hope's, in Berkeley Square, on Sunday, the 10th of February, 1799, 1 sat by Sir John Dick ; and well knowing his intimacy with Alexis Orloff, I enquired of him, where the Count then was.,- " He is," answered Sir John Dick, " at present at Leipsic, from " which place he wrote to me, only three " weeks ago. The Emperor Paul com- " manded him to travel, after having made speak in their intercourse " with each other. It is true that he under- " stands French, and converses in it when in- " dispensable; but he rarely reads any French " Author, and still more rarely attempts to " write in that language. All the correspon- " dence that takes place between him and " his Father, the King of Spain, is carried " on in the common Neapolitan Jargon. " They write very frequently and largely to ** each other; but seldom does this inter- " course embrace political subjects : their st letters, of which I have seen numbers, " being filled with accounts of the quantity " and variety of the game respectively killed " by them, in which the great ambition of " each Prince, is to exceed the other. Fer- " dinand, indeed, who scarcely ever reads, " considers as the greatest of misfortunes, a * f rainy day, when the weather proves too " bad for him to go out to the chace. On Fratello mio.' The Emperor " instantly withdrew his hand, not without " manifesting great discomposure ; and the " two Sovereigns remained for a few seconds, " looking in each other's faces. Surprize " was equally painted in the features of both ; (( for, as the one had never before been invited " to try such an experiment, so the other ef had never found any individual who did " not esteem himself honored by the famili- MEMOIRS. 251 on " culprits of high Birth." MEMOIRS. The vicinity of the Northern Provinces of the kingdom of Naples, to the Papal territo- ries ; and the ease with which malefactors of both countries, respectively gained an Asy- lum, by passing the frontiers ; opened another door to the commission of the most flagitious acts. Conversing one day, at Portici, on this subject, with Lady Hamilton, she re- lated to me the following story, which I shall endeavour to give in her own words. " About " the year 1743, a person of the name of " Ogilvie, an Irishman by birth, who prac- " tised Surgery with great reputation at " Rome, and who resided not far from the " ' Piazza di Spagna,' in that city ; being in " bed, was called up to attend some strangers " who demanded his professional assistance. " They stopped before his house, in a Coach; " and on his going to the door, he found two " men masked, by whom he was desired to " accompany them immediately, as the case " which brought them, admitted of no delay, * f and not to omit taking with him his lan- having repaired with his eldest son, the present Emperor Francis, to that Castle or hunting seat of the Elector of Saxony, situate near Dresden ; Frederic William, accompanied in like manner by his successor the reigning King of Prussia, there met Leopold. The conferences led to a Treaty, which adopted as its fundamental Basis, the Resolution " not to make war on " France, but to arm against the introduc- " tion of French Revolutionary Principles into " Germany and the Low Countries." The Emperor, who had formed an opinion by which he systematically adhered, that the Re- publican Faction in Paris would only be aided MEMOIRS. 285 by aggression and hostility; thought that War must therefore be avoided : but he con- ceived that the great Powers of Europe should arm against French Principles, by forming a military Cordon round France ; thus shutting in the moral or political infection, and leaving them to exhaust their rage on each other. Such was the unquestionable object and scope of that memorable Treaty, relative to which so much has been said and written within the last twenty years. How far the plan might have proved efficacious, if it had been generally acted upon by all the Germanic Body, as early as 1791 ; and if Leopold, who framed it, had lived to conduct its operations; it is difficult to venture a decided opinion : but for the authenticity of the Fact itself, I think I may challenge contradiction. Per- haps, moral and political principles are not to be shut in or compressed by any defensive precautions which can be adopted by human wisdom. I am fully convinced at least, that when Mr. Pitt, early in 1793, declared open hostility on France, he could not have saved England by temporizing measures. Nay, I thought at the time, and I continue so to think now, after the lapse of more than 286 HISTORICAL twenty years, that Mr. Fox would have form- ed the same Estimate, and have acted pre- cisely in the same manner, if he had been seated in Mr. Pitt's place, as First Minister, on the Treasury Bench. The whole differ- ence in their mode of seeing and appreciating the tendency of the French Revolution, lay in the possession, or the negation, of political power. Indeed, the fact was practically proved, when Fox, after Pitt's decease in 1806, arrived at Employment. It soon be- came evident how much his attainment of a seat in the Cabinet, had illuminated his un- derstanding, as well as invigorated his mea- sures, in opposition to revolutionary prin- ciples and their consequences. . I return to Leopold. So anxious was he to form a defensive League against the French Republican contagion, that on the very day succeeding his Coronation at Frankfort, as Emperor of Germany, in the Autumn of 1790, he dispatched a confidential Agent to the Court of Berlin, empowered to open a private Negociation with Frederick William. It was confined personally to the two Sove- reigns; their respective Ministers, Kaunitz and Hertzberg, being excluded from any MEMOIRS. 287 knowledge of the transaction. The King of Prussia, who came readily into Leopold's views, employed Bischoffswerder, his favorite, to carry back his assent. But, no final or effectual Measures, as they well knew, could be settled, without the participation of Eng- land. Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville entered ardently into the Plan, which had in view two objects $ to arrest the arms of Catherine on the Shore of the Euxine, and to coerce the Republicans of Paris, without making offen- sive War on France. The former of these points would unquestionably have been at- tained, if Mr. Fox had not excited so formi- dable an opposition in the House of Com- mons, as compelled the Ministry reluctantly to recede from their engagements. He at the same time sent Mr. Adair as his own private Agent, to Petersburg!!; an act, for which, many persons thought that he deserved Im- peachment, far more than Hastings merited it, on Account of his Conduct while Go- vernor General of India. Leopold, appre- hensive of Catherine's resentment, doubtful of Mr. Pitt's and Lord Grenville's sincerity, nor without alarm at the murmurs which he foresaw would arise among his own troops, on the evacuation of Belgrade, and the Restitu- 288 HISTORICAL tion of his conquests in Servia; said to a Gen- tleman, deep in his confidence, with whom he was accustomed to unbosom his thoughts, and who had formed the medium of his inter- course with Frederic William, " J'aisigne la Paix avec les Turcs : mais, la Grande Bre- tagne, est-elle sincere? Me tiendra-t-elle ses engagement? Catherine sera inexorable. Je Vai vu en songe, hier, la nuit, le poignard d la main." He even disapproved and lamented Pitt's line of conduct towards the Empress, in the business of Oczakow, as severe, irritat- ing, and calculated to render her implacable. " Why," observed Leopold, speaking to the same friend, " rob the Empress of her laurels, " and humiliate her in the eyes of Europe ? " It is necessary that her head should be en- " circled with glory, in order to hide her feet, " which are all stained with blood." In fact, Catherine, who never forgave either Austria, Prussia, or England, for their conduct to- wards her, propelled those Powers to com- mence war on France in 1792; but she never aided them in the contest. On the contrary, she compelled Frederic William to withdraw from the great Alliance, and to return home, by attacking Poland. " If," said the King, " I had not marched my army back into my MEMOIRS. 289 " own dominions, she would not only have " taken Warsaw, but have entered Berlin " likewise." It was Russia, therefore, which acted as one great cause of the overthrow of the first Confederacy formed against Repul> lican France. During the Autumn of the year 1791 > Leopold being on his way from Vienna to Florence, stopped, for the Purpose of refresh- ment, at a small post house in the Duchy of Styria ; where, while he remained, a croud of people, all of whom were his own subjects, pressed round to look at him. Among them he remarked an old woman, who, when he got into his Carriage, approached it; and knock- ing against the glass with her hand, addressed some words to him in a tone of great violence and asperity, accompanied with gestures in-: dicative of resentment : but, as she spoke in the Styrian Dialect, he was wholly unable to comprehend her meaning. Apprehending that she might have some complaint to prefer, or might have received some injury demand- ing redress, he ordered his attendants to question her on the subject of her application. They manifested considerable reluctance in explaining to him its nature ; but on his in* VOL. I. U 290 HISTORICAL sisting to be informed, one of them answered that she said, " Render justice promptly. " We know all that the Poissardes have done " at Paris." The Emperor made no reply; but when he recounted the story to the Gen- tleman who related it to me, he added, " You may suppose that I have read and " reflected much upon the French Revolu- to the view of an Englishman, was the Chevalier de St. George 5 or, as we common- 294 HISTORICAL ly denominate him, the Pretender. It was impossible to contemplate him, without mak- ing many reflections on his own destiny, and on the condition of the infatuated Family of which he was the representative. Neither antient, nor modern History, presents the ex- ample of a line of Princes so eminently un- fortunate, during a succession of Ages ! The calamities which overwhelmed the House of Bourbon, awful as they must be esteemed, have been comprized within the space of five and twenty years : but, from James the First of Scotland, murdered in the most inhuman manner at Perth, in 1437, down to the last of his Descendants ; with only the two excep- tions of James the First of England, and Charles the Second ; all the others perished by the hand of the Executioner, or by violent and premature death, or in Exile, maintained by foreign contribution. It was not however, merely when considered as the Grandson of James the Second, and the Inheritor of the pretensions of the Stuarts, that the Chevalier de St. George excited an interest in the mind of every reflecting spectator. By his Mother, he descended from the celebrated John Sobi- eski, King of Poland, who was his maternal great Grandfather ; the first Chevalier de St. MEMOIRS. 295 George having carried off from Inspruck, about the year 1719, and married, Clemen- tina Sobieska, daughter and heiress of Prince James Sobieski, whom Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden, meditated, some years ear- lier, to have placed on the Polish Throne. In right of that Princess, her son succeeded to very considerable patrimonial Estates, situ- ated in Poland ; the produce of which, formed a much more solid source of support, than the precarious allowance or donations, made and withdrawn as circumstances impelled, by the French and Spanish Crowns, or by the Apostolic See. Clement the Fourteenth (Ganganelli), when he refused to continue to the Chevalier, the public Honors previously enjoyed by his father and himself at Rome, where they had a Canopy decorated with the Royal Arms of Great Britain, erected over their Box in the Theatre; retrenched like- wise the pecuniary Appointments, antecedently paid him out of the Treasury of St. Peter. Nor do I believe that they were restored by Pius the Sixth, after his election to the Papal Chair in 1775 : but, the Pretender's income at the time of which I speak, might be esti- mated at more than five thousand Pounds Sterling; a sum fully adequate, at Florence, -296 HISTORICAL to maintain an Establishment becoming his situation. His faculties, even in their Zenith, appear to have been very moderate : but his valour, though not heroic, was never, I believe, called in question by the Scots, during his Campaign in 1745 and 1746; as that of Charles the Se- cond had been doubted in 1652, at the Battle of Worcester; and as James the Second's courage was questioned, on various occasions, both as Lord High Admiral on the water, and on the land. Charles the First is indeed the only Prince of the Stuart Race, after their accession to the English Throne, whose bravery, conspicuously displayed at Edge Hill, at Newbury, at Naseby, and in many other Battles or encounters, equally sustained him in the last act of his life, on the Scaffold. In 1779, Charles Edward exhibited to the world a very humiliating spectacle. At the Theatre, where he appeared almost every evening, he was led in by his Domestics, who laid him down on a species of Sofa, in the back part of his Box; while the Countess d'Albany, his consort, occupied the front seat during the whole performance. Count Al- fieri, a Man singularly eccentric in his Mind, MEMOIRS. 297 Habits, and Manners; her " Cavaliero ser- vants" always attended on her in public, ac- cording to the established usages of society throughout Italy. As, for obvious reasons, English subjects could not be presented to a man who still laid claim to the British Crown ; no opportunity of distinctly seeing the Che- valier de St. George, offered itself, except across the Theatre : and even there he lay concealed, as I have already observed, on ac- count of his infirmities; rarely coming for- ward to view. Being desirous, nevertheless, to obtain a more accurate idea of his face and person, than could be acquired at such a distance; I took my station, one Evening, at the head of a private staircase, near the door by which, when the performance closed, he quitted the Playhouse. Previous to my leaving England in 1777, His Majesty had been pleased, at the application of Lord Robert Manners, who then commanded the third regiment of Dra- goon Guards, to give me a Lieutenant's Com- mission ; and Lord Robert had allowed me lo wear his Uniform, which I had on at the time. The present General Manners, now first Equerry to the King, then a Cornet in 298 HISTORICAL his father's regiment, dressed in the same Uni- form, and actuated by a similar curiosity, ac- companied me. As soon as the Chevalier approached near enough to distinguish the English Regimental, he instantly stopped, gently shook off the two servants who sup- ported him, one on each side ; and taking off his hat, politely saluted us. He then passed on to his Carriage, sustained by the two at- tendants, as he descended the staircase. I could not help, as I looked at him, recollect- ing the series of dangers and escapes which he underwent or effected, for successive Months, among the Hebrides, after his defeat at Culloden : a chain of Adventures which has no parallel among modern Nations, ex- cept in those equally extraordinary hardships which distinguished the flight of Charles the Second from Worcester j or in the romantic Extremities to which Stanislaus, King of Po- land, was reduced in 1734, after his Evasion and Flight from Dantzic. Mrs. Lane gave to the former of those Princes, the same noble proofs of disinterested devotion, which Flora Macdonald displayed towards the Pre- tender: and both were eminently indebted for their final preservation, to female Honor or loyalty. Charles Edward's complexion MEMOIRS. 299 was dark, and he manifestly bore the same fa- mily resemblance to his grand-father James the Second, that His Britannic Majesty's countenance presents to George the First, or to the late King. On the occasion just re- lated, he wore, besides the Decorations of the Order of the Garter, a velvet great coat, which his infirm health rendered necessary even in Summer, on coming out of the Thea- tre; and a cocked hat, the sides of which were half drawn up with gold twist. His whole figure, paralytic and debilitated, pre- sented the appearance of great bodily decay. The strength of his Mind had likewise be- come extinct at this time ; and with the de- cline of his intellectual powers, the suavity of his temper forsaking him, he became irrita- ble, morose, and intractable, particularly in his family. An unhappy propensity to wine, which he gratified to excess, while it ener- vated his system, rendered him frequently an object of pity or of contempt, when in pub- lic ; divesting him of that Dignity which would otherwise have always accompanied the representative of so many Kings. His mis- fortunes, exile, and anomalous situation, ag- gravated by mortifications of various kinds 300 HISTORICAL which he had undergone, both in France, and at Rome ; probably induced him to have re- course to the Grape, for procuring oblivion, or temporary felicity. That melancholy in- dulgence extinguished the last hope which fortune ever tendered him, of ascending the Throne of England, justly forfeited by the Tyranny and imbecile Bigotry of James the Second. I know from high authority, that as late as the year 1770, the Duke de Choiseul, then First Minister of France, not deterred by the ill success of the attempts made in 1715, and in 1745, meditated to undertake a third effort for restoring the House of Stuart. His enterprizing spirit led him to profit of the dis- pute which arose between the English and Spanish Crowns, respecting the possession of Falkland Islands, in order to accomplish the object. As the first step towards it, he dis- patched a private emissary to Rome, who signified to Charles Edward, the Duke's de- sire of seeing him immediately at Paris. He complied, and arrived in that city with the utmost privacy. Having announced it to Choiseul, the Minister fixed the same night, at twelve o'clock, when he and the Marshal MEMOIRS. 301 de Broglio would be ready to receive the Pre- tender, and to lay before him their plan for an invasion of England. The Hotel de Choi- seul was named for the interview, to which place he was enjoined to repair in a hackney Coach, disguised, and without any attendant. At the appointed time, the Duke and the Marshal, furnished with the requisite papers and instructions (}rawn up for his conduct on the expedition, were ready : but, after wait- ing a full hour, expecting his appearance every instant, when the Clock struck one, they concluded that some unforeseen accident must have intervened to prevent his arrival. Under this impression they were preparing to separate, when the noise of wheels was heard in the court yard ; and a few moments afterwards, the Pretender entered the room, in a state of such intoxication, as to be ut- terly incapable even of ordinary conversation. Disgusted, as well as indignant, at this dis- graceful conduct, and well convinced that no expedition undertaken for the restoration of a man so lost to every sense of decency or self interest, could be crowned with success ; Choiseul, without hesitation, sent him, next Morning, a peremptory order to quit the French Dominions. The Pretender returned 302 HISTORICAL to Italy ; and the Nobleman who related to me these particulars, being in company with the late Duke of Glocester, in 1770, while walking together in the streets of Genoa, met the Chevalier de St. George, then on his way back from France to Rome. The Duke de Choiseul was soon afterwards dismissed by Louis the Fifteenth : new principles of policy were adopted in the Cabinet of Versailles j the Contest respecting the Falkland Islands being accommodated, peace continued to subsist between the Courts of France and England : while Charles Edward, driven by the mortifications which he experienced at Rome, to abandon that City, sought Refuge at Florence; where he finished in January, 1784, his inglorious career, as James the Second had done in 1701, at the palace of St. Germain, in the Vicinity of Paris. Louisa, Countess d'Albany, his Consort, merited a more agreeable partner, and might, herself, have graced a Throne. When I saw her at Florence, though she had been long married, she was not quite twenty. seven years -of age. Her person was formed on a small scale, with a fair complexion, delicate features, and lively, as well as attractive man- MEMOIRS. 303 ners. Born Princess of Stolberg, she excited great admiration on her first arrival from Germany : but in 1779, no hope of issue by the Chevalier could be any longer enter- tained; and their mutual infelicity had at- tained to such a height, that she made various ineffectual attempts to obtain a separation. The French Court may indeed be censured for not having earlier negociated and con- cluded the Pretender's marriage, if it was desired to perpetuate the Stuart Line of Claimants. When Charles Edward espoused Louisa, Princess of Stolberg, he was past his fiftieth year, broken in Constitution, and debilitated by excesses of many kinds. After his decease, she quitted Italy, and finally es- tablished herself at Paris. In the year 1787, I have passed the evening at her residence, the Hotel de Bourgogne, situate in the Faux- bourg St. Germain, where she supported an elegant Establishment. Her person then still retained many pretensions to Beauty; and her Deportment, unassuming, but dignified, set off her attractions. In one of the Apart- ments stood a Canopy, with a chair of state, on which were displayed the royal Arms of Great Britain ; and every piece of plate, down to the very tea spoons, were ornamented 304 HISTORICAL in a similar manner. Some of the more massy pieces, which were said to have be- longed to Mary of Modena, James the Se- cond's Queen, seemed to revive the extinct recollections of the Revolution of 1688. A numerous company, both English and French, male and female, was assembled under her roof, by all of whom she was addressed only as Countess d'Albany : but her own domes- tics, when serving her, invariably gave her the title of Majesty. The Honors of a Queen, were in like manner paid her by the Nuns of all those Convents in Paris, which she was accustomed to visit on certain Holydays or festivals. She continued to reside in the Ca- pital of France, till the calamitous progress of the French Revolution, compelling her to abandon that country, she repaired to Lon- don ; where she found not only personal pro- tection, but new resources in the liberality and bounty of George the Third. While I am engaged on the Adventures of the Stuart Family, I shall commemorate a fact, which will probably, on perusal, impress every reader with as much astonishment, as I experienced, myself, at first hearing it. Dining at the present Earl of Hard wick's, in MEMOIRS. 805 London, with a large company, in June, 1796; among the persons present, was the late Sir John Dalrymple, known by his " His- tory of England," and " State Papers." The conversation turning on historical subjects, he assured us that the Princess Sophia, mo- ther of King George the First, who only failed in ascending the Throne of Great Britain in her own person, by dying about seven weeks before Queen Anne j was, nevertheless, a de- termined Jacobite in her political principles. On our expressing the amazement which such an assertion was calculated to produce, he declared, that while he was occupied in looking over the Chest in Kensington Palace, from which, in the beginning of the present reign, he took the State Papers that he had given to the world ; he found a bundle of Let- ters, marked on the back, in King William's own hand-writing, " Letters of the Electress Sophia to the Court of St. Germain's." Hav- ing perused them, he ascertained that Sophia was really engaged in close Correspondence with James the Second, and attached to his in- terests, in opposition to those of William. Lord Rochford, who had procured for Sir John Dalrymple, permission from His Majesty, to examine and publish the Papers in question ; VOL. L X 306 HISTORICAL being then Secretary of State, he immediately communicated to that Nobleman his disco- very : requesting at the same time, his Lord- ship's opinion on the propriety of giving to the world, the Letters of the Electress Sophia. " Publish them by all means, Jack," an- swered he. Thus empowered, from such au- thority, Dairy mple destined them for the press : but, before he had time to get the Let- ters copied, Lord Rochford sent to him, desi- ring to have them delivered back to himself, in order that he might submit them to His Majesty's inspection j he having, on more mature reflection, judged it proper to take the King's pleasure on a matter of such deli- cacy and singularity. Dalrymple returned them therefore to Lord Rochford, who carried them to the Queen's House, and presented the Bundle to His Majesty. But, they were neither restored, nor was even any allusion to them ever made in conversation by the King; he no doubt conceiving it more judi- cious to commit such documents to the flames, than to permit their publication. However extraordinary this Anecdote may appear, it ought not to surprize, on full con- sideration, that Sophia should feel the warm- est attachment to James the Second. He MEMOIRS. 30? was very nearly related to her by Consan- guinity ; her mother, Elizabeth, the unfortu- nate Queen of Bohemia, and Charles the First, his father, being brother and sister. Nor could Sophia, during many years subse- quent to the Revolution of 1688, nourish the slightest expectation of being called to the British Throne, while the Princess Anne and her issue interposed between the House of Brunswic and that succession. It was not till after the death of William, the young Duke of Glocester, in 1700, when the Princess So- phia and her Descendants being named by Act of Parliament, to succeed eventually to the Crown of Great Britain, as the nearest Protestant heirs of the Royal line ; her inte- rests from that time, became opposed to the right of blood existing in the Stuart race. Brussels, where I made a short stay in the Summer of the same year, 1779, exhibited another Prince in a state of corporal and mental infirmity, not less calculated to excite pity than the Pretender. The Austrian Ne- therlands were at that Time administered, as they had been almost ever since the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, by Prince Charles of Lorrain. His double alliance, both by con- 308 HISTORICAL sanguinity and by marriage, with the Empe- ror Francis and Maria Theresa; being bro- ther to the former, and having married the sister of the latter Sovereign ; these qualities and pretensions, rather than any mental en- dowments, civil or military, had raised him to the Government of the Low Countries, the most enviable delegation of sovereign power then existing in Europe. Neither Hungary, nor the Milaneze, nor Sicily, nor Sardinia, nor Ireland, nor Norway, could enter into any political competition with the rich pro- vinces of Flanders, Haynault, and Brabant. Brussels constituted one of the most pleasing, as well as elegant, Courts of the Continent; its local position, almost central between Ger- many, Holland, France, and England, ren- dering it far more important in a diplomatic point of view, than either Turin, Warsaw, or Naples; perhaps even than Copenhagen, or Stockholm. Prince Charles of Lorrain, hav- ing been bred to the profession of Arms from his early youth, and possessing an athletic frame of body, with unquestionable personal courage, had more than once nominally com- manded the Austrian Armies. His passage of the Rhine in 1744, and his irruption into Alsace, acquired him a degree of Reputation, MEMOIRS. 309 which he by no means afterwards preserved, during the memorable " Seven years War." To Frederic, King of Prussia, he was indeed a most unequal antagonist, as that great Prince sufficiently proved at the battle of Lissa, in December, 1757, where he defeated the Austrians, and on many other occasions. When I was presented to Prince Charles, in August, 1779, he might be regarded as per- forming the last of tne Seven Ages of Man, and as sinking fast into " mere oblivion." At his Levee he seemed apparently unconscious of any thing beyond the mere ceremony of the hour, even his speech and articulation being rendered very indistinct by a paralytic affec- tion. He expired in the following Summer, at his Palace in the vicinity of Brussels, re- gretted by the Flemings for his moderation ; and was succeeded in the Government gene- ral of the Netherlands, by the Archduchess Christina, the favorite daughter of the Em- press Queen Maria Theresa. Never did a deeper political gloom over- spread England than in the Autumn of 1779, when I arrived in London from the conti- nent. I question, whether at the time of the Destruction of the ships of war lying in 310 HISTORICAL the Medway, burnt by the Dutch, under Charles the Second ; or after the defeat of the English and Dutch fleets by the French, off Beachy-Head, in 1690, under William and Mary^ which constitute two of the most calamitous Epochas in our History; greater despondency, consternation, and general dis- satisfaction, prevailed throughout the King- dom. The disgraceful naval Campaign of 1778, in which Keppel's engagement off Ushant, forms the principal or only feature ; had been succeeded by another year of Hos- tilities, still more humiliating to Great Bri- tain. D'Orvilliers, at the head of the fleets of France and Spain, rode Master of the Channel for a considerable time ; and the total want of enterprize, or of information on their part, alone saved the Town, as well as the Dock-yards at Plymouth, from falling into the enemy's possession. Not only was the place in want of many indispensable ar- ticles requisite to repel an Attack : even flints for supplying the muskets, however incredible the fact may appear, were deficient. Sir Charles Hardy, who commanded our fleet; inferior in numbers, and unapprized of the enemy's approach to the Coast of England, remained quietly cruizing in the Atlantic, MEMOIRS. 311 while they thus menaced our Shores. Hap- pily, the defect of intelligence, or of mutual confidence, in the combined Squadrons, supplied every Ministerial neglect ; and ex- tricated the Country from a calamity, which, had it taken place, must have shaken not only the Administration, but would have convulsed the Throne itself. Faction did not however less pervade the Navy, where the respective adherents of Keppel and of Palliser, carried their reciprocal rancour to the ut- most height. The American War, after four unsuccessful Campaigns, began to grow odious to the Nation : while the Administra- tion, depressed under the weight of a contest, to which the talents of the great Earl of Chatham might have been found unequal, did not manifest or exert the energy de- manded by the nature of the emergency. Even the King, notwithstanding a display of private virtues, which since Charles the First had not been exhibited by any Sovereign of Great Britain, not even by William the Third, yet fully participated in the unpopularity of his Ministers. As he was supposed to feel a more than common interest in the reduction of his revolted subjects, so he was believed to exert a more than ordinary personal influence HISTORICAL over the Cabinet which directed the opera- tions of the war. After the return of Lord Howe in 177&, from his unsuccessful Campaigns in America, the supreme naval command on that Coast, as well as in the West Indies, devolved on Admiral Byron. He was a brother of Lord Byron, whose Duel with Mr. Chaworth ren- dered him unfortunately conspicuous in the Journals of the House of Peers. At an early period of his life, having been wrecked on the desart Coast of Patagonia, not far from Cape Horn, with Captain Cheap, in the " Wager" Frigate, he there endured incon- ceivable hardships, during a great length of time. An intrepid and skilful, no less than an experienced naval Officer, he was never- theless deficient in the judgment, promp- titude, and decision of Character, requisite for conducting the operations of a numerous fleet. On the element of the Water, an evil destiny seemed invariably to accompany him, from his first Expedition under Commodore Anson, down to the close of his professional life. So well was this fact known in the Navy, that the sailors bestowed on him the name of " Foul Weather Jack," and esteemed them* MEMOIRS. 313 selves certain of stormy weather, whenever they sailed under his Command. From the time of his leaving England in 1778, till his re- turn about two years afterwards, all the Tem- pests of the deep seemed to have conspired against him. No man could less say with ^Eolus, or rather with Holstenius, u Ventorumqm facis Tempestaturaque potentem ;" Virgil having written the line, " Nimborumque facis Tempestatumque potentem." bufTOflmi During the action which Byron fought with D'Estaign, in July, 1779, off Grenada, all the characteristic valour of the British was displayed, not only by the crews, but by the Captains and their Commander. Yet the honors of the day were divided, while the ad- vantages of it were reaped by France ; though the slaughter of men on the side of the French, prodigiously exceeded our loss. But, the West India Islands, one after another, fell into the enemy's hands; and after" the sur- render of Grenada, when D'Estaign quitted Martinico, to carry the arms of Louis the Sixteenth against Savannah, he triumphantly HISTORICAL swept the coast of America. We must re- luctantly confess, that the Navy of England at this period of the present Reign, had sunk to a point of depression hardly con- ceivable, when compared with the times of Hawke, Saunders, and Boscawen ; or if placed near the still more splendid period of Jervis, Duncan, and Nelson. We may in- cline to attribute so extraordinary a contrast, to the errors or inability of Lord North's Ad- ministration : the popular voice, I well know, sanctioned that accusation : but its cause lay principally in the nature of the contest, which depressing the national energy, unnerved the British spirit, and allowed France, during near four years, from 1778 to 1782, aided by Spain, to make such exertions, as acquired them a temporary ascendant on the Ocean. Byron, recalled from his Command, soon afterwards revisited England, and his name occurs no more in our naval History : but it has derived new Celebrity in the present Times, from the poetic eminence to which his Grandson has attained, by productions emulating the fame of Spencer, of Gray, of Mason, and of Scott. To Byron, succeeded Rodney, who fills so MEMOIRS. 315 distinguished a place during the unfortunate period of the American War : a naval Com- mander as much distinguished by the pros- perous fatality which attended him, as Byron seemed to be under the influence of an un- lucky Planet. Cardinal Mazarin, who, be- fore he employed any individual, always asked, " Est-il heureux ?" had he been First Minister of England, might have selected Rodney for active Service, upon that prin- ciple, from among all the Admirals in the Navy. His person was more elegant than seemed to become his rough profession. There was even something that approached to delicacy and effeminacy in his figure : but no man manifested a more temperate and steady courage in Action. I had the honor to live in great personal intimacy with him, and have often heard him declare, that superiority to fear was not in him the physical effect of Constitution ; on the contrary, no man being more sensible by nature to that passion than himself: but that he surmounted it from the considerations of honor and public duty. Like the famous Marshal Villars, he justly incurred the reputation of being " glorieux et bavard ;" making himself frequently the theme of his own discourse. He talked much 316 HISTORICAL and freely upon every subject ; concealed nothing in the course of conversation, regard- less who were present ; and dealt his censures, as well as his praises, with imprudent libe- rality j qualities which necessarily procured him many enemies, particularly in his own profession. Throughout his whole life, two passions, both highly injurious to his repose, Women and Play, carried him into many ex- cesses. It was universally believed that he had been distinguished in his youth, by the personal attachment of the Princess Amelia, daughter of George the Second, who dis- played the same partiality for Rodney, which her cousin, the Princess Amelia of Prussia, manifested for Trenck. A living evidence of the former connexion existed, unless fame had recourse to fiction for support. But, de- traction, in every age, from Elizabeth down to the present Times, has not spared the most illustrious females. The love of Play had proved more ruinous in its effects to Rodney, and that indulgence compelled him, after quitting England, to take refuge at Paris. So great was his pecu- niary distress while he resided in the French Capital, as to induce him to send over his MEMOIRS. 31? second wife to London, early in 1777, with the view of procuring a subscription to be opened among the Members of the Club at White's, for his relief. Lady Rodney finding it however impracticable to raise any supplies from that source; after much ineffectual so- licitation among Sir George's former friends, finally renounced the attempt. The old Marshal de Biron having soon afterwards, by an act of liberality, enabled Rodney to revisit his Country, he made the strongest applica- tions to the Admiralty, for Employment. His private circumstances, indeed, impe- riously demanded every exertion, when he was named, towards the Autumn of 1779, to command the Expedition then fitting out at Portsmouth, for the West Indies. I passed much time with him, at his residence in Cleve- land Row, St. James's, down to the very mo- ment of his departure. Naturally sanguine and confident, he anticipated in his daily conversation, with a sort of certainty, the future success which he should obtain over the enemy ; and he had not only already conceived, but he had delineated on paper, the naval Manoeuvre of breaking, or in- tersecting the Line, to which he afterwards was indebted in an eminent degree, for his 318 HISTORICAL brilliant victory over De Grasse : a Manoeuvre then new in maritime Tactics, though now become familiar to us ; and which Nelson practised with so much effect, in the Battle of the Nile, as well as on other occasions. Rodney possessed no superior parts j but, un- like Keppel, his enterprizing spirit always impelled him rather to risk, than to act with caution, when in presence of the enemy. The ardor of his character supplied, in some degree, the physical defects of his health and constitution, already impaired by various causes : while his happy audacity, directed by the nautical skill of others, controuled by science, and propelled by favorable circum- stances, at length enabled him to dissipate the gloom that had so long overhung our naval Annals, at the same time that he covered him- self with great personal glory. The Ministry sustained about this time, a diminution of strength, and a loss of talents, in the House of Peers, which an Administra- tion so unpopular could ill afford, by the de- fection of Lord Lyttelton, who suddenly went over to the side of Opposition. His decease, not less sudden in its nature, took place im- mediately afterwards. He was a man of very MEMOIRS. 319 considerable parliamentary abilities, who, not- withstanding the many glaring vices of his private character, might have made a conspi- cuous political figure, if he had not been car- ried off in the prime of life. His father, the first Lord Lyttelton, well known as an Histo- rian and a Poet, derived not less respect from the elevation of his mind, and his many do- mestic virtues. The second Lord Lyttelton, by the profligacy of his conduct, and the abuse of his talents, seemed to emulate Dry- den's Duke of Buckingham, or Pope's Duke of Wharton ; both of whom he resembled in the superiority of his natural endowments, as well as in the peculiarity of his end. Villiers, the " Zimri" of Dryden's Poem of " Absa- lom and Achitophelj" after exhausting his health, and squandering his immense fortune in every species of excess or riot, expired, as is well known, at a wretched tenement, on his own Estate near Helmsley, in Yorkshire, abandoned by all his former admirers. Whar- ton, who acted a part under George the First, hardly less distinguished or eccentric, than Villiers had performed under Charles the Se- cond; terminated his equally extraordinary career, exiled and attainted, among the Py- renees, in an obscure Monastery of Catalonia, 320 HISTORICAL worn out by his pursuit of pleasures. Lyttel- ton, when scarcely thirty-six, breathed his last at a country house near Epsom, called Pit Place, from its situation in a chalkpit; where he witnessed, as he conceived, a super- natural appearance. Having gone down there for purposes of recreation, with a gay party of both sexes, several Individuals among whom I personally knew ; he had retired to bed, when a noise which resembled the fluttering of a dove or pigeon heard at his chamber window, at- tracted his attention. He then saw, or thought he saw, a female figure, which approaching the foot of the bed, announced to him that in three days precisely from that time, he should be called from this state of existence. In- whatever manner the supposed intimation was conveyed, whether by sound or by im- pression, it is certain that Lord Lytteltoa considered the circumstance as real ; that he mentioned it as such, to those persons who were in the house with him, that it deeply af- fected his mind, and that he died on the third night, at the predicted hour. About four years afterwards, in the year 1?83, dining at Pit Place, I had the curiosity to visit the MEMOIR! 321 bed-chamber, where the casement window, at which, as Lord Lyttelton asserted, the dove appeared to flutter, was pointed out to me. And at his step-mother's, the Dowager Lady Lyttelton's, in Portugal-Street, Grosvenor Square, who being a woman of very lively imagination, lent an implicit faith to all the supernatural facts which were supposed to have accompanied or produced Lord Lyttel- ton's end j I have frequently seen a painting, which she herself executed in 1780, express- ly to commemorate the event. It hung in a conspicuous part of her drawing-room. There, the Dove appears at the window, while a female figure, habited in white, stands at the bed foot, announcing to Lord Lyttel- ton his dissolution. Every part of the pic- ture was faithfully designed after the descrip- tion given her by the Valet de Chambre who attended him, to whom, his master related all the circumstances. This man assured Lady Lyttelton, that on the night indicated, Lord Lyttelton, who, notwithstanding his endea- vours to surmount the impression, had suffered under great depression of spirits during the , three preceding days, retired to bed before twelve o'clock. Having ordered the Valet to mix him some Rhubarb, he sat up in the bed, VOL. I. Y HISTORICAL apparently in health, intending to swallow the medicine ; but, being in want of a tea spoon, which the servant had neglected to bring, his master, with a strong expression of impa- tience, sent him to bring a spoon. He was not absent from the room more than the space of 9, minute ; but when he returned, Lord Lyt- telton, who had fallen back, lay motionless in that attitude. No efforts to restore anima- tion, were attended with success. Whether, therefore, his death was occasioned by any new Attack upon his nerves, or happened in consequence of an Apoplectic or other sei- zure, must remain matter of uncertainty and conjecture. It is however to be observed, that the Lyt- telton family, either from constitutional nerv- ous irritability, or from other causes, was pe- culiarly susceptible of impressions similar to the shock which seems to have produced Lord Lyttelton's end. His father, though a man of very distinguished talents, manifested great credulity, as I have been assured, on the subject of Apparitions : and his cousin, Miss Lyttelton, who married the present Sir Richard Hoare, died in a way somewhat si- milar, about four years later, at Stourhead. MEMOIRS. 323 The secQiid Lord Lyttelton's life had likewise been of a nature and description so licentious, not to say abandoned, as to subject him conti- nually to the keenest reproaches of an accus- ing conscience. This domestic spectre, which accompanied him every where, was known to have given rise, while on his travels, particu- larly at Lyons, to scenes greatly resembling his last moments. Among the females who had been the objects and the victims of his temporary attachment, was a Mrs. Dawson, whose fortune, as well as her honor and repu- tation, fell a sacrifice to her passion. Being soon forsaken by him, she did not long sur- vive ; and distress of mind was known to have accelerated, if not to have produced her death. It was her image which haunted his pillow, and was supposed by him to have announced his approaching dissolution, at Pit Place. Lord North, who had presided during ten years at the head of Administration, con- tinued in the Spring of 1780, to struggle with the utmost difficulty through the sixth Session of Parliament, against a numerous and aug- menting Opposition in both Houses. His re- signation, anxiously anticipated, seemed to be inevitable, and even imminent: but the Y 2 324 HISTORICAL ministerial disgraces, as well as the triumphs of the adverse Party, were equally obliterated in a Calamity, which for the time of its dura- tion, absorbed all attention. I mean the Riots of June, 1780. No event in our Annals, bears any analogy with the scene then exhi- bited in the Capital, except the Fire of Lon- don under Charles the Second. Even that misfortune wanted some of the melancholy and sanguinary features, which characterized the tumults in question. During the Confla- gration of 1666, whatever stories may have been invented by party rage, or commemo- rated on public Monuments, by religious An- tipathy, the inhabitants had only to contend with the progress of a devouring element. In 1780, the flames were originally kindled, as well as rendered far more destructive, by a populace of the lowest and vilest description, who carried with them, wherever they moved, the materials of universal ruin. It was only in their Blood, by the interposition of an over- whelming military force, that the convulsion, became finally arrested; and that London, after being desolated by fire, was rescued from plunder, bankruptcy, and subversion. Even the French Revolution, which from July, 1789, down to April, 1814, either under the MEMOIRS. 325 forms of a Republic, or of a military Des- potism, has presented to mankind a pattern of every crime revolting and degrading to hu- man Nature $ yet did not produce in the Ca- pital of France, any similar outrages. At Lyons, it must be admitted that Collot d'Her- bois in 1793, exercised the most savage ven- geance on the Buildings of the city, as well as on the unfortunate Inhabitants. But, neither Robespierre, nor Bonaparte, though the for- mer converted the Metropolis into a charnel- house ; and though the vengeance, or atro- cious Ambition of the latter Adventurer, has covered Europe with human Bones, from the Tagus to the Moskwa; yet ever directed their destructive efforts against the public and private Edifices of Paris, I was personally present at many of the most tremendous effects of the popular fury, on the memorable 7th of June, the night on which it attained its highest point. About nine o'clock on that Evening, accompanied by three other Gentlemen, who, as well as myself, were alarmed at the accounts brought in every moment, of the outrages committed; and of the still greater acts of violence medi- tated, as soon as darkness should favor and 326 HISTORICAL facilitate their further progress; we set out from Portland-place, in order to view the scene. Having got into a hackney-coach, we drove to Bloomsbury-square ; attracted to that spot by a Rumour generally spread, that Lord Mansfield's residence, situate at the North-east corner, was either already burnt, or destined for destruction. Hart-Street and Great Russell-Street presented, each, to the view, as we passed, large fires composed of furniture taken from the houses of magis- trates, or other obnoxious individuals. Quit- ting the coach, we crossed the Square, and had scarcely got under the wall of Bedford House, when we heard the door of Lord Mansfield's house burst open with violence. In a few minutes, all the contents of the apartments being precipitated from the win- dows, were piled up, and wrapt in flames. A file of foot-soldiers arriving, drew up near the blazing pile; but, without either attempting to quench the fire, or to impede the mob, who were indeed far too numerous to admit of their being dispersed, or even intimidated, by a small detachment of Infantry. The po- pulace remained masters; while we, after sur- veying the spectacle for a short time, moved on into Holborn, where Mr. Langdale's dwel- MEMOIRS. S27 ling house and warehouses afforded a more appalling picture of devastation. They were altogether enveloped in smoke and flame. In front had assembled an immense multitude of both sexes, many of whom were females, and not a few held infants in their arms. All ap- peared to be, like ourselves, attracted as spec- tators solely by curiosity, without taking any part in the acts of violence. The kennel of the street ran down with spirituous liquors, and numbers of the populace were already in- toxicated with this beverage. So little dispo- sition, however, did they manifest to riot or pillage, that it would have been difficult to conceive who were the authors and perpetra- tors of such enormous mischief, if we had not distinctly seen at the windows of the house, men, who while the floors and rooms were on fire, calmly tore down the furniture, and threw it into the street, or tossed it into the flames. They experienced no kind of oppo- sition, during a considerable time that we re- mained at this place : but a party of the Horse Guards arriving, the terrified crowd in- stantly began to disperse ; and we, anxious to gratify our farther curiosity, continued our progress on foot, along Holborn, towards Fleet-Market. 328 HISTORICAL I would in vain attempt adequately to de- scribe the spectacle which presented itself, when we reached the declivity of the Hill, close to St. Andrew's Church. The other House and Magazines of Mr. Langdale, who, as a Catholic, had been selected for the blind vengeance of the mob j situated in the hol- low, near the North end of Fleet-Market, threw up into the air a pinnacle of flame re- sembling a Volcano. Such was the beautiful and brilliant effect of the illumination, that St. Andrew's Church appeared to be almost scorched by the Jieat of so prodigious a body of fire ; and the figures on the Clock were as distinctly perceptible as at noon-day. It re- sembled indeed a Tower, rather than a pri- vate Building, in a state of Conflagration; and would have inspired the Beholder with a sentiment of admiration allied to pleasure, if it had been possible to separate the object, from its causes and its consequences. The wind did not however augment its rage on this occasion ; for the night was serene, and the sky unclouded, except when it became obscured by the volumes of smoke, which, from time to time produced a temporary dark- ness. The mob, which completely blocked up the whole Street in every part, and in all MEMOIRS. 329 directions, prevented our approaching within fifty or sixty yards of the Building , but the populace, though still principally composed of persons allured by curiosity, yet evidently began here to assume a more disorderly and ferocious character. Troops, either horse or foot, we still saw none ; nor, in the midst of this Combination of tumult, terror, and vio- lence, had the ordinary Police ceased to con- tinue its functions. While we stood by the wall of St. Andrew's Church-yard, a Watch- man, with his lanthorn in his hand, passed us, calling the hour, as if in a time of profound tranquillity, Finding it altogether impracticable to force our way any further down Holborn-Hill, and hearing that the Fleet Prison had been set on fire ; we penetrated through a number of narrow lanes, behind St. Andrew's Church, and presently found ourselves in the middle of Fleet-Market. Here, the sam Destruction raged, but in a different stage of its progress. Mr. Langdale's houses were already at the height of their demolition : the Fleet Prison on the contrary was only beginning to blaze, and the sparks or flaming particles that filled the air, fell so thick upon us on every side, 330 - HISTORICAL as to render unsafe its immediate vicinity, Meanwhile we began to hear the Platoons discharged on the other side of the river, to- wards St. George's Fields; and were in- formed, that a considerable number of the Rioters had been killed on Black-friars Bridge, which was occupied by the Troops. On approaching it, we beheld the King's Bench Prison completely wrapt in flames. It exhibited a sublime sight, and we might be said there to stand in a central point, from whence London offered on every side, before, as well as behind us, the picture of a city sacked and abandoned to a ferocious enemy. The shouts of the populace, the cries of women, the crackling of the fires, the blaze reflected in the stream of the Thames, and the irregular firing which was kept up both in St. George's Fields, as well as towards the quarter of the Mansion-House, and the Bank ; all these sounds, or images combined, left scarcely any thing for the imagination to supply ; presenting to the view every recol- lection, which the classic descriptions in Virgil, or in Tacitus, have impressed on the mind in youth, but which I so little expected to see exemplified in the Capital of Great Britain. MEMOIRS. 331 Not yet satisfied, and hearing that an ob- stinate conflict was going on at the Bank, between the Soldiery and the Rioters, we de- termined, if possible, to reach that spot. We accordingly proceeded through St. Paul's Church-yard towards it, and had advanced without impediment to the Poultry, within about sixty paces of the Mansion House, when our progress was stopped by a Centinel, who acquainted us that the Mob had been repulsed in their attempt upon the Bank; but, that we could penetrate no further in that direction, as his orders were peremptory, not to suffer the passage of any person. Cheapside, silent and empty, unlike the Streets that we had visited, presented neither the appearance of tumult, nor of confusion 5 though to the East, West, and South, all was disorder. This contrast formed not the least striking circumstance of the moment. Prevented thus from approaching any nearer to the Bank, satiated in some measure with the scenes which we had witnessed, and wearied by so long a peregrination, which, from our first alighting near Bloomsbury Square, had all been performed on foot; we resolved to return to the west end of the town. On Ludgate Hill we were fortunate enough to find a Hackney Coach, which conveyed 332 HISTORICAL us safely back, about four o'clock in the morning. It is impossible for the most prejudiced person, without violating truth, to accuse the Opposition of having had any partici- pation as a Body, direct or indirect, in these outrages. They were indeed, themselves, individually, the objects of popular prejudice and violence, not less than the Ministers; Sir George Savile's house in Leicester Square, having been one of the first assailed and plun- dered by the mob. Devonshire House in Piccadilly, menaced with the same fate, was considered as so insecure, that the Duchess of Devonshire yielding to her fears, did not venture to remain in it after dusk, for a con- siderable time. She took refuge at Lord Clermont's in Berkeley Square, where she deemed herself safe from attack ; and lay down for successive nights, on a Sofa, or a small tent Bed, placed in the Drawing Room. Many other persons of both sexes, of the highest rank, either quitted their own Dwell- ings, or sent their most valuable effects and jewels into the country. The first Minister, Lord North, passed that alarming night, at his official residence in Downing Street; ac- companied by a few Friends, who had re MEMOIRS. 333 paired thither to offer him their personal aid, if circumstances should render it necessary for his protection. One of those Gentlemen, Sir John Mac- pherson, has often recounted to me the particulars of that memorable Evening, which I shall give in his own words, and which will be perused with no common interest. " A day or two before the ?th of June," said he, " Count Maltzan, then the Prus- " sian Minister at our Court, called on me, (t and informed me that the Mob had de- " termined to attack the Bank. He added, " that the fact had come to his knowledge " through an authentic channel, on the ac- " curacy of which I might depend. Having "conveyed this Intelligence immediately to " Lord North, I received on the morning of " that day, an intimation to be at his house " in Downing Street at dinner. When I " got there, I found Mr. Eden, (since created " Lord Auckland) the Honourable General r ff/>'\.j;V*t Many of the Rioters, who fell at Black Friars Bridge, or in its vicinity, where the slaughter was most considerable, were imme- diately thrown over into the Thames, by their companions. The carnage which took place at the Bank likewise was great, though not of very long duration j and in order to conceal as much as possible, the magnitude of the number, as well as the names of the persons who perished, similar precautions were taken. All the dead bodies being carried away du- ring the night, were precipitated into the "River. Even the impressions made by the Musket balls, on the houses opposite to the Hank, were as much as possible erased next MEMOIRS. 341. morning, and the buildings whitewashed. Government and the Rioters seem to have felt an equal disposition, by drawing a veil over the extent of the calamity, to bury it in profound darkness. To Colonel Holroyd, since deservedly raised to the British Peerage as Lord Sheffield, and to his Regiment of Mi- litia, the Country was eminently indebted for repelling the fury of the Mob at the Bank - y where, during some moments, the conflict seemed doubtful, and the assailants had near- ly forced an entrance. Lord Algernon Per- cy, now Earl of Beverley, marched likewise at the head of the Northumberland Militia, to the same spot. Their arrival, together with the energy, promptitude, and decision which Colonel Holroyd manifested, princi- pally conduced to ensure the safety of that great National Establishment. Numbers con- cealed their wounds, in order to evade disco- very of the part which they had taken in the disorders of the Capital. It is however indis- putable, that almost all who perished, were of a low and obscure description. If the Populace had been conducted by leaders of system or ability, London must have been fundamentally overturned on that 3421 HISTORICAL night. The Bank, the India House, and the Shops of the great Bankers, would in that case have been early attacked ; instead of throw- ing away their rage, as they did, on Popish Chapels, private houses, and prisons. When they began, after their first fury had exhaust- ed itself, to direct their blows more systema- tically and skilfully, the time for action was passed. Government, which was accused with reason of having appeared supine during the first days of June, awoke early enough to pre- serve the Metropolis and Public Credit, from sustaining the last shock of popular violence. In fact, from the instant that the three Bridges over the Thames were occupied by regular troops, the danger was at an end. This aw- ful convulsion, which, on Wednesday, the seventh of June, seemed to menace the de- struction of every thing j was so completely quelled, and so suddenly extinguished, that on the eighth, hardly a spark survived of the popular effervescence. Some few persons in the Borough of Southwark, attempted to re- peat the outrages of Wednesday; but they were easily and immediately quelled by the military force. Never was a contrast exhi- bited more striking, than between those two Evenings, in the same city ! The patroles of MEMOIRS. 343 Cavalry, stationed in the Squares and great Streets, throughout the West End of the Town, gave London the aspect of a Garrison : while the Camp which was immediately af- terwards formed in St. James's Park, afforded a picturesque landscape; both sides of the Canal, from the Queen's House down to the vicinity of the Horse Guards, being covered with tents and troops. The common danger, which united all Par- ties for the time, extinguished, or at least sus- pended in some measure, even the virulence of political enmity. Alarmed at the prospect of impending Destruction, some of the prin- cipal Leaders of the Opposition repaired, unasked, to St. James's, under pretence of offering their services to the Administration ; nearly as the Dukes of Somerset and Argyle had done in the last Days of July, 1714, when Queen Anne lay insensible, near her end. The Marquis of Rockingham hearing that a Privy Council was summoned to meet on the Morning of the 7th of June, which, all who enjoyed seats at that Board, were called or invited to attend ; made his appearance in an undress, his hair disordered, and with testi- monies of great consternation. Nor did he, 344 HISTORICAL when seated at the Table, where the King was present, spare the Ministers, for having, as he asserted, by their negligence, or want of timely energy, allowed the Assemblage of People to take place in St. George's Fields, which original Meeting led to all the subse- quent Outrages. It is nevertheless incontes- table, that to the Decision manifested by His' Majesty on that occasion, the safety of the Metropolis, and its extrication from all the Calamities that impended over it, was princi- pally, or solely to be ascribed. Elizabeth, or William the Third, could not have displayed more calm and systematic courage in the highest sense of the term, than George the Third exhibited in so trying a moment. Far from throwing himself for support or guidance on his Cabinet, as a Prince of feeble charac- ter would have done ; he came forward, and exhibited an example of self-devotion to his Ministers. It is well known that at the Council to which I have alluded, the King assisted in person. The great Question was there dis- cussed, on which hinged the protection and preservation of the Capital ; a question, re- specting which, the first legal characters were MEMOIRS. .' 345 divided ; and on which, Lord Mansfield him- self, was with reason accused of never having clearly expressed his opinion up to that time. Doubts existed, whether Persons riotously collected together, and committing Outrages or Infractions of the Peace, however great, might legally be fired on by the military power, without staying previously to read the Riot Act. Lord Bathurst, President of the Council, and Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons, who were both pre- sent j on being appealed to for their Opinion, declared that " a Soldier was not less a Citi- zen, because he was a Soldier, and consequent- ly that he might repel Force by Force :" but, no Minister would sign the Order for the Pur- pose. In this Emergency, when every Mo- ment was precious, Mr. Wedderburn, since successively raised to the dignity of a Baron and of an Earl of Great Britain, who was then Attorney-general, having been called in to the Council Table, and ordered by the King to deliver his official opinion on the point; stated in the most precise terms, that any such Assemblage might be dispersed by mili- tary force, without waiting for forms, or read- ing the Act in Question. " Is that your de- claration of the Law, as Attorney-general?" 346 HISTORICAL said the King. Wedderburn answering de- cidedly in the affirmative, " Then so let it be done," rejoined His Majesty. The Attorney- general drew up the Order immediately, which the King signed, and on which Lord Amherst acted the same Evening. The com- plete suppression of the Riots followed in the course of a few hours. Never had any people a greater obligation to the judicious Intrepi- dity of their Sovereign ! Nor ought we to deny the merit due to Wedderburn, for having with so much deci- sion cut the Gordian knot, which the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, either could not, or would not untie. His inexpli- cit Declarations on the subject, involuntarily remind us of the Accusations levelled against him by " Junius," when, speaking of Lord Mansfield, he says, " Besides his natural " timidity, it makes part of his political plan, " never to be known to recommend violent " measures. When the Guards are called te forth to murder their fellow subjects, it generally assembled for the purpose. His Majesty had just sat down to Play, and was engaged at Cards, when a Page, dispatched from Leices- ter House,, arrived, bringing information that the Prince was no more. He received the intelligence without testifying either emotion or surprize. Then rising, he crossed the room to Lady Yarmouth's table, who was likewise occupied at Play -, and leaning over her chair, said to her in a low tone of voice, in German, " Fritz is dode." Freddy is 1781.] MEMOIRS. 419 dead. Having communicated it to her, he instantly withdrew. She followed him, the company broke up, and the News became public. These particulars were related to me by the late Lord Sackville, who made one of Lady Yarmouth's party, and heard the King announce to her his son's Decease. Frederic seems never to have enjoyed from his early youth, a distinguished place in the affection of his father, whose partiality was reserved for his youngest son, William, Duke of Cumberland. During the last twelve years of Frederic's life, we know that he passed much of his time, in anticipations of his future Sovereignty, and in forming Administrations, which, like his own Reign, were destined never to be realized. Among the Noblemen, and Gentlemen who occupied a high place in his favour or friendship, were Charles, Duke of Queensberry, the patron of Gay, who died in 1778 ; Mr. Spencer, brother to the second Duke of Marlborough, and commonly called Jack Spencer; Charles, Earl of Middlesex, afterwards Duke of Dorset, and his brother Lord John Sackville, together with Francis, Earl of Guildford. The personal resemblance that existed between Lord North, (son of the 2 E 2 420 HISTORICAL [1781. last mentioned Peer, who was subsequently First Minister) and Prince George, was thought so striking, as to excite much remark and pleasantry on the Part of Frederic him- self, who often jested on the subject with Lord Guildford; observing, that the world would think one of their wives had played her husband false, though it might be doubt- ful, which of them lay under the Imputation. Persons who may be disposed to refine upon the Prince's observation, will perhaps likewise be struck with other points of physical simi- larity between George the Third and Lord North; in particular with the loss of sight, a privation common to both in the decline of life. Lady Archibald Hamilton formed during many years, the object of Frederick's avowed and particular attachment. In order to be near him, she resided in Pall-Mali, close to Carlton House; the Prince having allowed her to construct a Drawing- Room, the win- dows of which commanded over the Gardens of that Palace, and the House itself commu- nicated with them. Towards men of Genius, His Royal Highness always affected to ex- tend his protection. Glover, the Writer of 1781.] MEMOIRS. 421 " Leonidas," enjoyed his confidence; though we may justly doubt how much of it was given to him as a Member of Parliament, the Friend of Pulteney and Pitt ; how much was extended to him, as a Poet. The Prince shewed uncommon deference for Pope, whom he visited at Twickenham ; a circumstance to which that Author alludes with natural pride, when, after enumerating the great or illustri- ous Persons who honored him with their re- gard and friendship, he subjoins, " And if yet higher the proud List should end, " Still let me add, no Follower, but a Friend." In force of character, steadiness, vigor of mind, and the Qualities that fit Men for Government, even his Friends considered the Prince to be deficient. Nor was Economy among the virtues that he displayed j he having before his Decease contracted numerous Debts to a large amount, which were never dis- charged. Even through the medium of Do- dington's Description, who was partial to Frederick's Character and Memory, we can- not conceive any very elevated idea of him. His Court seems to have been the center of Cabal, torn by contending Candidates for HISTORICAL [1781. the Guidance of his future imaginary Reign. The Earl of Egmont, and Dodington himself, were avowedly at the head of two great hos- tile Parties. In November, 1?49, we find His Royal Highness, in a secret Conclave held at Carlton House, making all the finan- cial Dispositions proper to be adopted on the Demise of the King, his Fathers and framing a new Civil List. At the close of these mock Deliberations, he binds the three Assistants to abide by, and support his Plan. ; giving them his hand, and making them take hands with each other. The Transaction, as nar- rated by Dodington, who was himself one of the Party, reminds the Reader of a similar Convocation commemorated by Sallust, and is not unlike one of the Scenes in " Venice Preserved." It was performed, however, after Dinner, which may perhaps form its best Apology. The diversions of the Prince's Court, appear to us equally puerile. Three times, within thirteen Months preceding his Decease, Dodington accompanied him and the Princess of Wales, to Fortune-tellers the last of which Frolicks took place scarcely nine Weeks before his Death. After one of these magical Consultations, apparently dictated by anxiety to penetrate his future destiny, 1781.] MEMOIRS. 423 the Party supped with Mrs. Cannon, the Princess's Midwife. Frederic used to go, disguised, to Hockley-in-the-Hole, to witness Bull-baiting. Either Lord Middlesex, or Lord John Sackville, Father to the late Duke of Dorset, were commonly his Companions on such Expeditions. As far as we are autho- rized from these Premises, to form a Conclu- sion, his premature Death before he ascended the Throne, ought not to excite any great national Regret. George the Second, who survived the Prince near ten years, died at last not less suddenly than his Son, though at the ad- vanced age of Seventy-seven ; a period at- tained by no Sovereign in modern History, except Louis the Fourteenth. A rupture in some of the vessels, or in the Membrane of the Heart, carried him off in a few minutes. During his whole life, but particularly for a number of years before his decease, he had been subject to such constant palpitations about the region of the Heart, especially after Dinner, that he always took off his cloaths, and reposed himself for an hour in, bed, of an afternoon. In order to accommo- date himself to this habit or infirmity, Mr. 424 HISTORICAL [1781. Pitt, when, as Secretary of State, he was sometimes necessitated to transact Business with the King during the time that he lay down, always knelt on a cushion by the bed- side; a mark of respect which contributed to render him not a little acceptable to His Majesty. At his rising, George the Second dressed himself completely a second time, and commonly passed the evening at Cards, with Lady Yarmouth, in a select party. His sight had greatly failed him, for some time preced- ing his Decease. I have heard Mr. Fraser say, who was, during many years, Under Secretary of State, that in 1760, a few Months before the King died, having occasion to present a Paper to him for his signature, at Kensington, George the Second took the pen in his hand; and having as he conceived, affixed his name to it, returned it to Fraser. But, so defective was his vision, that he had neither dipped his pen in the ink, nor did he perceive that of course he had only drawn it over the Paper, without making any impres- sion. Fraser, aware of the King's blindness, yet,*unwilling to let His Majesty perceive that he discovered it, said, " Sir, I have given " you so bad a pen, that it will not write. " Allow me to present you a better for the * * 1781.] MEMOIRS. 425 " Purpose." Then dipping it himself in the ink, he returned it to the King, who, with- out making any remark, instantly signed the Paper. He was unquestionably an honest, well-in- tentioned, and good Prince ; of very mode- rate, but not mean talents; frugal in his ex- penses, from natural character; more inclined to Avarice than any King of England since Henry the Seventh ; irascible and hasty, but not vindictive in his temper. Imbued with a strong enmity to France, and as warm a pre- dilection for Germany, he never enjoyed such felicity as when at Herenhausen, surrounded with his Hanoverian Courtiers and subjects. William the Third in like manner, seemed to taste much more happiness, while hunting at Loo in the sterile Sands of Guelderland, than at Whitehall, or at Hampton Court. At the Battle of Dettingen, in 1743, it is well known that George the Second's horse, which was unruly, ran away with him to a considerable distance. General Cyrus Trapaud, then an Ensign, by seizing the horse's bridle, enabled His Majesty to dismount in safety. " Now " that I am once on my legs," said he, " I " am sure I shall not run away." Having 426 HISTORICAL [1781, enquired Trapaud's name, the King always distinguished him afterwards in military pro- motions. When incensed either with his Mi- nisters, or with his Attendants, he was some- times not Master of his Actions, nor attentive to preserve his dignity. On these occasions, his Hat, and it is asserted, even his Wig, be- came frequently the Objects on which he expended his anger. . Queen Caroline, by her address, her ju- dicious compliances, and her activity <*f character, maintained, down to the time of her Decease in 1737, a great Ascendant over him. She formed the chief conducting wire between the Sovereign and his First Minister. It is a fact, that Sir Robert Walpole and Her Majesty managed Matters with so much Art, as to keep up a secret understanding by Watch-words, even in the Drawing Room, when and where George the Second was present. According to the King's temper, frame of mind, or practicability on the Points which Sir Robert wished to carry, the Queen signified to him whether to proceed, or to desist, on that particular day. This com- munication was so well preconcerted, and so delicately executed, as to be imper- 1781.] MEMOIRS. 427 ceptible by the By-standers. Sir Robert lost a most able and vigilant Ally, when Queen. Caroline died. Her decease was indeed a Misfortune to her husband, to her children, and to the Nation. She sacrificed her life to the desire of concealing her Complaint; a rupture of the bowels, which might have been easily reduced, if she had not delayed the dis- closure of it, till a mortification took place. We have not possessed since Elizabeth's death, a Queen of more Talent, Capacity, and Strength of Understanding, than Caro- line of Brandenburgh Anspach. Anne of Denmark, Wife of James the First, was a Woman of mean Endowments, deficient in Judgement, and of doubtful moral Character. Henrietta Maria possessed great personal Beauty, and Graces of Deportment : but she was violent, bigotted, and conduced by her imprudent Advice, to accelerate the Ruin of Charles the First. Catherine of Braganza wanted every Attraction of Mind or of Body $ and Mary of Modena, however agreeable in her Person, as well as correct in her Con- duct, she might be, was superstitious, and unfit for the Throne of England, though she might have adorned a little Italian Court. Mary, wife of William the Third, approached 428 HISTORICAL [1781. the nearest to Queen Caroline, but did not equal her in mental Endowments. At the time of his Decease, George the Se- cond certainly enjoyed great and universal Po- pularity: but to Mr. Pitt, afterwards created Earl of Chatham, he was eminently indebted for this gratifying Distinction at the close of life, when Victory was said to have erected her Altar between his aged knees. The Mis- fortunes and Disgraces which preceded Pitt's entrance into Office, had in fact forced him upon the King ; who, notwithstanding that Minister's recognized Talents, did not em- ploy him without the utmost reluctance. The inglorious Naval Engagement in the Medi- terranean, between Byng and La Galissoniere, for his Conduct in which, the former of those Admirals suffered; the consequent loss of Minorca; the defeat of Braddock in Caro- lina; the Repulse sustained before Ticon- derago; the ignominious Capitulation of "William, Duke of Cumberland, at Closter- Seven ; and the disgraceful Expedition against Rochfort; these ill-concerted, or ill-exe- cuted Measures, at the commencement of the War of 1756, had not only brought the Administration into contempt, but had much 1781.] MEMOIRS. 429 diminished the National Affection borne to- wards the sovereign. From the period of, Pitt's Nomination to a Place in the Cabinet, Success almost uniformly attended on the British Arms. Though only occupying the Post of Secretary of State, he directed, or rather he dictated the Operations, at Home and Abroad. The Treasury, the Admiralty, the War Office, all obeyed his Orders with prompt and implicit submission. Lord An- son and the Duke of Newcastle, sometimes, it is true, remonstrated, and often com- plained ; but always finished by Compliance. In the full Career of Pitt's ministerial Triumphs, George the Second died; an Event, which it is impossible not to consider as having been a great national Misfortune, when we reflect on the Nature of the Peace which took place little more than two years afterwards, in November, 1762. Mr. Pitt, we may be assured, would have dictated far different terms, to the two Branches of the House of Bourbon. The new King did not indeed immediately dismiss so able and popular a Statesman ; but it was soon sus- pected that his Administration, though it might languish, or continue for a few Months, would not prove of long duration. Lord 430 HISTORICAL [1781. Bute had already secured the exclusive Re- gard and Favor of the young Monarch. The late Mrs. Boscawen > widow of the Admiral of that Name, so distinguished in our Naval Annals, whose Connexions enabled her to collect many curious Facts in the course of a long life; has often assured me, that Lord Bute's first personal introduction to the Prince of Wales, originated in a very singular accident. That Nobleman, as is well known, married the only daughter of the celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Mon- tague, by whom he had a very numerous Family. She brought him eventually like- wise a large landed Property : but, as her father, Mr. Wortley, did not die till the year 1761 3 and as her brother, the eccentric Edward Wortley Montague, lived to a much later period, I believe, down to 1777j Lord Bute, encumbered with a number of Chil- dren, found his patrimonial Fortune very un- equal to maintain the figure befitting his rank in life. After passing some years in profound Retirement, on his estate in the Isle of Bute, he re-visited England, and took a house on the Banks of the Thames. During his residence there, he was induced 1781.] MEMOIRS. 431 * . to visit Egham Races, about the year 1747. But, as he either did not at that Time keep a Carriage, or did not use it to convey him to the Race Ground, he condescended to ac- company a medical Acquaintance; in other words, the Apothecary that attended His Lordship's family, who carried him there in his own Chariot. Frederic, Prince of Wales, who then resided at Cliefden, honored the Races on that day with his presence ; where a tent was pitched for his accommodation, and the Reception of the Princess, his Con- sort. The weather proving rainy, it was pro- posed, in order to amuse his Royal Highness before his return home, to make a party at Cards : but a difficulty occurred about finding persons of sufficient rank to sit down at the same table with him. While they remained under this embarrassment, somebody observed that Lord Bute had been seen on the Race Ground; who, as being an Earl, would be peculiarly proper to make one of the Prince's party. He was soon found, informed of the Occasion which demanded his Attendance, brought to the Tent, and presented to Frederic. When the Company broke up, Lord Bute thought of returning back to his own House : but his Friend the Apothecary 432 HISTORICAL bad disappeared; and with him had disap- peared the Chariot, in which his Lordship had been brought to Egham Races. The Prince was no sooner made acquainted with the Circumstance, than he insisted on Lord Bute's accompanying him to Cliefden, and there passing the night. He complied, ren- dered himself extremely acceptable to their Royal Highnesses, and thus laid the Founda- tion, under a succeeding Reign, of his poli- tical elevation, which flowed originally in. some measure from this strange contingency. Lord Bute, when young, possessed a very handsome person, of which advantage he was not insensible; and he used to pass many hours every day, as his enemies asserted, oc- cupied in contemplating the symmetry of his own legs, during his solitary walks by the side of the Thames. Even after he became an in- mate at Cliefden, and at Leicester House, he frequently played the part of " Lothario," in the private Theatricals exhibited for the amusement of their Royal Highnesses, by the late Duchess of Queensberry 5 a fact to which Wilkes alludes with malignant plea- santry, in more than one of his publications. To these external accomplishments, he added 1781.] MEMOIRS. 433 a cultivated mind, illuminated by a taste for many branches of the Fine Arts and Letters. For the study of Botany he nourished a de- cided passion, which he gratified to the ut- most; and in the indulgence of which pre- dilection, he manifested on some occasions, a princely liberality. Of a disposition na- turally retired and severe, he was not formed for an extensive commerce with mankind, or endowed by Nature with talents for managing popular Assemblies. Even in his family he was austere, harsh, difficult of access, and sometimes totally inaccessible to his own children. In the House of Lords he neither displayed Eloquence nor graciousness of manners. But he proved himself likewise deficient in a quality still more essential for a First Minister, firmness of character. Yet, with these political defects of mind, and of personal deportment, he undertook to dis- place, and he aspired to succeed Mr. Pitt, at a moment when that Minister had carried the glory of the British Arms to an unexampled height, by sea and land. We cannot suf- ficiently regret that George the Third should not have contented himself with heaping Honours and Dignities on him, carefully ex- cluding him from any political Employment. VOL. I. 2 P 434 HISTORICAL [1781. Few Princes, however, of whom History preserves any Record, have manifested at twenty-three, a Judgement so superior to the natural Partialities of Youth. Even Eliza- beth, though She placed Cecil at the Head of her Councils, yet committed her Armies successively to Leicester and to Essex. After an Administration of about two years, passed either in the Post of Secretary of State, or as First Lord of the Treasury; during which time he brought the war with France and Spain to a conclusion ; Lord Bute aban- doning his royal master, quitted his situation, and again withdrew to privacy. No testi- monies of national regret, or of national es- teem, accompanied him at his departure from Office. His magnificent residence in Berkeley Square, exposed him to very malignant com- ments, respecting the means by which he had reared so expensive a pile. His enemies asserted that he could not possibly have pos- sessed the ability, either from his patrimonial fortune, or in consequence of his marriage, to erect such a structure. As little could he be supposed to have amassed wherewithal, dur- ing his very short Administration, to suffice for its construction. The only satisfactory 1781.} MEMOIRS. 435 solution of the difficulty therefore, lay .in imagining that he had either received presents from France, or had made large purchases in the public Funds, previous to the signature of the Preliminaries. " Junius," addressing the Duke of Bedford, who signed that Peace, in his Letter of the " 19th September, 1769," written within seven years afterwards ; charges the Duke, in the most unequivocal terms, with betraying and selling his Country. " Your Patrons," says he, " wanted an Em- " bassador who would submit to make con- " cessions, without daring to insist upon " any honorable condition for his Sovereign. " Their business required a man, who had " as little feeling for his own dignity, as for f( the welfare of his Country ; and they found " him in the first Rank of the Nobility. " Belleisle, Goree, Gaudeloupe, St. Lucia, " Martinique, the Fishery, and the Havan- " nah, are glorious monuments of your " Grace's talents for Negociation. My Lord, " we are too well acquainted with your pe- " cuniary character, to think it possible that " so many public sacrifices should have been Si made, without some private compensations. " Your conduct carries with it an internal "evidence, beyond all the legal proofs of 2 F2 HISTORICAL [1781. " a Court of Justice." No answer was ever made to this charge, either by the Duke, or by any of his Friends, if we except Sir Wil- liam Draper's vague and unauthorized Letter of the " 7th of October, 1769." Dr. Musgrave, an English Physician, who practised Medicine at Paris in 1763, and whose name has been known in the Repub- lic of Letters, by the publication of some Tragedies of Euripides; did not scruple to assert publicly, that the Princess Dowager of Wales and Lord Bute received money from the French Court, for aiding to effect the Peace. I am acquainted with the individuals, Gentlemen of the highest honor and most un- impeached veracity, to whom Dr. Musgrave himself related the circumstance at Paris, in 1764, almost immediately after the Treaty of Fontainbleau. And if I do not name them, it is only because they are still alive. Dr. Musgrave did not retract his accusation, when he was examined at the Bar of the House of Commons, some years afterwards, in the Month of January, 1770, upon the same point. He maintained on the contrary, his original assertion, which he supported by facts or circumstances calculated to authenti- 1781.] MEMOIRS. 43? cate its truth, though the House thought pro- per to declare it " Frivolous, and unworthy " of Credit." " Junius," writing in the Month of May, 1770, says, " Through the " whole proceedings of the House of Com- " mons in this Session, there is an apparent, " a palpable consciousness of guilt, which " has prevented their daring to assert their " own dignity, where it has been itnmedi- " ately and grossly attacked. In the course " of Dr. Musgrave's Examination, he said " every thing that can be conceived mortify- " ing to individuals, or offensive to the House. " They voted his information frivolous, but " they were awed by his firmness and inte- " grity, and sunk under it." Dr. Musgrave resided in this Country, during the last years of his life ; and died, I believe, at Exeter, in the Summer of the year 1780. Similar reflexions indeed, at different pe- riods of our History, have been thrown not only upon Ministers, but even upon Kings. Lord Clarendon, when Chancellor, under Charles the Second, having, like Lord Bute, undertaken to build a magnificent house in London, soon after the sale of Dunkirk to Louis the Fourteenth, about 1664; it was 438 HISTORICAL [1781. named by the people " Dunkirk House/' on the supposition of its having been raised by French money. No person can doubt of Charles the Second himself having received large sums from the Court of Versailles, for purposes inimical to the interests of his people. So did his successor, James the Se- cond. Bribes were even confidently said and believed to have been given to various of the Courtiers or favourites of William the Third, from the East- India Company, and other Corporate Bodies, in order to procure the consent or approbation of the Sovereign, to the renewal of their Charters. The Duch- ess of Kendal, Mistress of George the First; as well as Craggs, father of the Secretary of State of the same name, and himself at the time, Post Master General; together with other individuals about the Court or person of that Monarch, were either known or sup- posed to have been implicated in the Trans- actions of the memorable South Sea Year, 1720, when such immense sums were gained and lost in that ruinous speculation. Ma- lignity did not spare the King himself, who, it was asserted, became a sharer in the acqui- sitions. Lord Bute, at the distance of half a Century, is still believed to have rendered the 1781.] MEMOIRS. 439 Treaty of Fontainbleau subservient to his private emolument : a supposition which was again renewed twenty years later, at the con- clusion of the Peace of 1783, against Lord Shelburne, with greater virulence, and with bolder affirmations ! Such were the unfortu- nate results of the Earl of Bute's Ministry, which must be considered as having given the first blow to the popularity, enjoyed by the King at his Accession to the Throne. ' It is an indisputable fact, that Lord Bute, terrified or disgusted at the indications of re- sentment shewn by the nation, forsook his Master; and that he was not dismissed or abandoned by the Sovereign. He was the first, though not the last Minister, who in the course of the present reign, exhibited that example of timidity, or weariness, or deser- tion. But, his ostensible relinquishment of Office, by no means restored to the King, the confidence or the affections of his subjects. Even when nominally divested of power, Lord Bute was still supposed to direct unseen, the wheels of Government. However false and unfounded might be this imputation, and such I have ever considered it, yet it operated with irresistible force. A cry of Secret In- 440 HISTORICAL [1781. fluence arose, more pernicious in its effects on the Country at large, than even the open accusations lately levelled against the inca- pacity or venality of the first Minister. The Grenville Administration, which succeeded, was stigmatized as being only a machine, the puppets of which were agitated by concealed wires. It is obvious, that no imputation in the power of malevolence to invent and circulate, could be more calculated to pre- judice the King in the estimation of his people. But it became further augmented by another topic of abuse and declama- tion, founded on the extraordinary degree of favour enjoyed by Lord Bute at Carlton House, and the predilection with which he was known to be regarded, by the Princess Dowager of Wales. Satirical prints, gene- rally dispersed throughout the kingdom, in which her Royal Highness was not at all spared, inflamed the public mind. Compa- risons, drawn from English History, particu- larly from the reign of Edward the Third, when the Queen Dowager Isabella, and Mor- timer her favourite, were known or supposed to have lived in a criminal union ; these al- lusions, which were disseminated in all the periodical works of the Time, and particu- 1781.] MEMOIRS. 441 larly in the " North Briton," made a deep impression. Even the filial deference and respect, mani- fested by his Majesty after his accession, down to the last moment of her life, towards his Mother, was converted into a subject not only of Censure, but of Accusation, as originating in unworthy Motives. It can- not, however, be denied, that Lord Bute en- joyed a higher place in that Princess's favor, if not in her affection, than seemed com- patible with strict propriety. His visits to Carlton House, which were always performed in the evening; and the precautions taken to conceal his arrival ; though they might perhaps have been dictated more by an ap- prehension of insult from the populace, to whom he was obnoxious, than from any im- proper Reasons; yet awakened suspicion. He commonly made use on these occasions, of the Sedan Chair and the Chairmen of Miss Vansittart, a Lady who held a distinguished place in Her Royal Highness's family. In order more effectually to elude notice, the curtains of the Chair were close drawn. The repartee of Miss Chudleigh, afterwards better 442 HISTORICAL [1781. known as Duchess of Kingston, at that time a Maid of Honour at Carlton House ; when reproached by her royal Mistress, for the irregularities of her conduct, obtained like- wise much publicity. " Votre Altesse Royale sait" replied she, " que chacune a son But." As the King was accustomed to repair fre- quently of Evenings to Carlton House, and there to pass a considerable time, the world supposed that the Sovereign, his Mother, and the Ex-Minister met, in order to concert, and to compare their ideas ; thus forming a sort of interior Cabinet, which controuled and directed the ostensible Administration. That after having so precipitately thrown up the ministerial reins in 1763, Lord Bute felt desirous of again resuming his political power, I know from good authority. And that he was aided in the attempt by the Prin- cess, with all her influence, is equally matter of fact; but their joint efforts proved un- availing to effect the object. A Nobleman, who was accustomed at that time to form one of the Party which met at Carlton House, and who usually remained there while His Majesty stayed ; assured me that every mea- 1781.] MEMOIRS. 443 sure bad been concerted between her Royal Highness and Lord Bute, for the purpose of bringing him again into Ministry. As the first necessary step towards its accomplish- ment, they agreed that he should endeavour to obtain permission to see the Dispatches, which were often sent to the King from the Secretary of State, while he continued with his Mother. On those occasions, when the green Box, containing letters or papers, arrived, he always withdrew into another room, in order to peruse them at his Ease. Lord Bute, as had been pre-arranged, upon the messenger bringing a Dispatch, imme- diately took up two candles, and proceeded before the King to the closet ; expecting that His Majesty, when they were alone together, would communicate to him its nature; and that he should thus begin again to transact Business. But the King, unquestionably aware of the intention, and probably disgusted at the want of firmness which his Minister had formerly shewn, or from other unascertained causes, extinguished at once the hopes enter- tained from this project. When he came to the door of the room, he stopped, took the candles out of Lord Bute's hand, and then dismissing him, shut the door; after which 444 HISTORICAL [1?81. he proceeded to examine the Dispatches, alone. Lord Bute returned to the company, and the experiment was never repeated. . If the selection of that Nobleman for the office of First Minister, and the dismission of Mr. Pitt, deprived the King of the affections of many loyal subjects ; the terms upon which the Treaty of Fontainbleau was con- cluded, early in 1763, by Lord Bute, excited the strongest sensations of general disappro- bation throughout the Country. I am old enough to remember the expressions of that condemnation, which it is impossible not to admit were well founded. When we reflect that the Navy of France had been nearly annihilated, as early as 1759, by Sir Edward Havvke, in the action at Quiberon; that Spain could make little or no opposition to us on the Ocean; and that we were masters of Quebec, Montreal, together with all Canada; Cape Breton, Pondicherry, Goree, Belleisle, the Havannah, and a large part of Cuba; besides the islands of Martinique and Guada- loupe ; not to mention the capture of Manilla, which was not then known : while, on the other hand, the enemy, though they probably would have effected the conquest or reduction 1781.] MEMOIRS. 445 of Portugal, in the course of the ensuing Campaign, yet had taken nothing from us, which they had retained, except Minorca; when we consider these facts, what shall we say to a Peace, which restored to the two Branches of the House of Bourbon, every possession above enumerated, except Canada? for, as to Cape Breton, when dismantled, it became only an useless desart; accepting, in exchange for so many valuable Colonies or Settlements in every Quarter of the Globe, the cession of the two Floridas from Spain, together with the restitution of Minorca by France. At the distance of more than half a Century, when the passions and prejudices of the hour have ceased, we cannot consider such a Treaty without astonishment and concern. Scarcely indeed does the Peace of Utrecht justly awaken warmer feelings of indignation ; for concluding which, its authors were im- peached, imprisoned, or compelled to fly their Country. If Lord Bute escaped the fate of Lord Oxford and Lord Bolingbroke, he has not been more exempt than were those Ministers, from the censures of his contem- poraries and of posterity. Nor did Queen Anne perhaps sustain a greater loss of repu- tation and popularity, by signing the Treaty of Utrecht, than George the Third suffered 446 HISTORICAL [1781. by concluding that of Fontainbleau. Its im- policy appears not less glaring, nor less ob- vious, than its defects of every other kind. The expulsion of the French from Canada, and of the Spaniards from Florida, by liberating the American Colonies from all apprehension of foreign enemies, laid the inevitable foundation of their rebellion ; and effected their subse- quent emancipation from Great Britain, with- in the space of twenty years. This necessary result of such measures, perfectly foreseen at the time, was pointed out by Dr. Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, as well as by others. The House of Bourbon, soon recovering from the wounds inflicted by Pitt, contested anew, with better success, for the empire of the Sea. Neither the Havannah, Belleisle, nor Manilla, have ever passed a second time under the power of the English. If we weigh these circumstances, we shall not wonder that motives unworthy of an upright Minister, or of an able Statesman, were attributed to Lord Bute. Nor shall we be surprized, that the incapacity or errors of the Administration, diminished in no small degree the respect justly inspired by the private virtues of the Sovereign. The injudicious persecution of Wilkes, com- pleted the unpopularity, which Lord Bute's 1781.] MEMOIRS. 447 person and measures had begun to produce throughout the nation. Whatever might have been the misconduct of Wilkes ; and however deficient he might have appeared in those moral qualities which entitle to public respect, or even to individual approbation ; yet, from the instant that he became an object of Royal or Ministerial resentment, on account of his attachment to the cause of Freedom, he found protectors in the Public. Neither his wit, his talents, nor his courage, could have raised him to political eminence, if he had not been singled out for severe, not to say unconstitutional, prosecution. The two Secretaries of State, and the Lord Steward of the Household, had they been hired by his worst enemies, to in* jure their Royal Master in the esteem of his people j and, to throw, as it were, upon him, the Odium of their violence, or incapacity, or ignorance; could not have done it more effectually, than by the line of action which they adopted. Lord Talbot is consigned to eternal ridicule, (as Pope says that Cromwell is " Damned to everlasting Fame ;") in that incomparable Letter written by Wilkes to the late Earl Temple, descriptive of the entertain- ing Duel fought at Bagshot, where the Lord Steward appears in the most contemptible 448 HISTORICAL [1781. point of view. The Earls of Egremont and Halifax, by issuing a General Warrant for the seizure of Wilkes, and taking his person into Custody ; while they compromized the Ma- jesty of the Crown, trampled on the Liberties of the Subject, and violated the essence of the English Constitution. Men who com- mented with severity on these measures of impolitic resentment, arraigned them as more characteristic of the vindictive Administration of James the Second, than becoming the mild Government of George the Third. Wilkes, nevertheless, wounded in a Duel, repeatedly menaced with assassination, pursued by the House of Commons, and outlawed by the Court of King's Bench j withdrew into France, where he insensibly sunk into oblivion. His very name, and his public merits, as well as his private sufferings, seemed to be equally forgotten by the Nation, during two or three years. But the Duke of Grafton, who had become first Minister, after the extinction of the fee- ble Administration of Lord Rockingham, ap- peared as if desirous to improve upon the errors, and to renew the most unpopular acts of his predecessor, Lord Bute. Instead of 1781.] MEMOIRS. 440 wisely extending the pardon of the Crown to Mr. Wilkes, or treating him with magnani- mous contempt, when he returned from Paris 3 the Duke, in defiance of their past intimacy and familiarity, put in force the penalties of his Sentence of Outlawry 5 thus rendering him a second time, the object of general compas- sion and protection. Rejected as a Candidate to represent the City of London, Jie was elected Member for the County of Middlesex. Assemblies of the people in St. George's Fields, whom it was esteemed necessary to repress by a military force; and in performing which service, some individuals were killed or wound- ed, exasperated the Nation against the author of such severities. The House of Commons adopting the principles, as well as the enmi- ties of the Administration, expelled Wilkes from his Seat, declared him ineligible to sit among them, and placed Colonel Luttrell in his room. While the Pardon of the Crown was extended to persons convicted of the most sanguinary outrages and riotSj during the Election at Brentford; by measures of consummate incapacity, a popular individual was singled out for the whole vengeance of the Government and the legislature. The tumults of London, in March, 1?69, which VOL, I. 2 G 450 HISTORICAL [1?81. menaced with insult or attack, even the Pa- lace of the Sovereign, bore no feeble resem- blance to the riotous disorders that preceded the Civil Wars, under Charles the First. A Hearse, followed by the Mob, was driven into the Court Yard at St. James's, decorated with Insignia of the most humiliating or indecent description. I have always understood that the late Lord Mountmorris, then a very young man, was the person who on that oc- casion personated the Executioner, holding an Axe in his hands, and his face covered with a crape. The King's firmness did not however forsake him, in the midst of these trying ebul- litions of Democratic rage. He remained calm and unmoved in the Drawing-Room, while the streets surrounding his residence, echoed with the shouts of an enraged multi- tude, who seemed disposed to proceed to the greatest extremities. But, the Duke of Graf- ton did not manifest equal constancy, nor display the same resolution as his master. It seemed to be the fate of George the Third to be served by Ministers, as much his inferiors in personal and political courage, as in every other moral or estimable quality. Another opponent, still more formidable 1781.] MEMOIRS. 451 than Mr. Wilkes, had arisen amidst these con- vulsions of the Capital and the Country ; who, from the place of his concealment, inflicted the severest wounds, and who seems to have eluded all discovery, down to the present hour. It is obvious that I mean " Junius." This celebrated writer, whom the obtrusive and imprudent vanity of Sir William Draper, even more than his own matchless powers of Com- position, originally forced upon the notice of the Public, appeared in January, 1769. His first Letter, addressed to the Printer of the " Public Advertizer," then a popular News- paper, depictures in the severest colours, the situation of the Country ; dishonoured, as he asserts, in the eyes of foreign nations ; dis- united, oppressed, and ill-administered at home. Like Satan, when invoking his stupi* fied and fallen Associates, he seems to exclaim, while endeavouring to rouse the English Na- tion from their political Apathy, " Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen !" The conclusion of his opening Address, operated with amazing effect, and can hardly be exceeded in Energy. ex- 1781.] MEMOIRS. 50? ceeded in Numbers, and at least equalled in Virulence, the Minority which impeached Lord Melville. : As a Man, considered in every private Relation, even in his very Weaknesses, Lord North was most amiable : in that point of View, his Character will rise on a Compa- rison with any First Minister of Great Bri- tain, during the Course of the Eighteenth Century ; not excepting Lord Godolphin, Mr. Pelham, or the Marquis of Rocking- ham. The two former were justly accused of a passion for Play, which accompanied them through Life : a Vice from which Lord North was wholly exempt. Burnet, who re- counts the Fact relative to the Lord Trea- surer Godolphin, says, " He loved Gaming " the most of any Man of Business I ever * e knew ; and gave one Reason for it -, be- " cause it delivered him from the Obligation " to talk much." Dodington, when relating Mr. Pelham's Attachment to the same Grati- fication, adds, that he studiously concealed it with the utmost Care. Lord North pos- sessed better intellectual Resources in him- self. He possessed likewise the highest Sources of Enjoyment in his Family, sur- 508 HISTORICAL [1781. rounded by his Children. The Marquis of Rockingham was childless; and Lord Bute's Fire-side was not characterized by the same Expansion of the Heart, the same Emancipa- tion from all Severity of Form, or the same Ebullitions of Fancy and Intellect. His im- mediate Predecessor, the Duke of Grafton, respecting whom " Junius" observes, when speaking of his domestic qualities, " Your " Grace has now made the complete Revolu- " tion of the political Zodiac, from the Scor- " pion in which you stung Lord Chatham, to " the hopes of a Virgin in the House of " Bloomsbury ;" the Duke could stand no Competition with Lord North, in the en- dearing Charities of Life, where the Minister becomes merged in the Father, the Husband, and the Individual. If we would try to find his Equal in these Endowments and Virtues, we must remount to Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, or to Hyde, Earl of Claren- don. Every Beholder, while contemplating the Monument where rest the Remains of the great Earl of Chatham, or of the Second Mr. Pitt, must be penetrated with Emotions of Ad- miration and Respect : but all those who per- sonally knew Lord North, or had ever mixed with him in Society, while regarding his 1781.] MEMOIRS. 509 Tomb, would involuntarily find their Eyes suffused in Tears. The post of Secretary of State for the Northern Department, was at that Time filled by Lord Stormont ; a Nobleman who having passed great Part of his Life in a diplomatic Capacity, on the Continent, principally at the Courts of Dresden and Vienna, necessarily possessed a considerable Knowledge of the Interests and Politics of Europe. He had nevertheless manifested no great Vigilance, nor displayed any superior Penetration, dur- ing his recent Embassy at Paris; where, it was commonly believed, he had been de- ceived by the Protestations, or duped by the Artifices, of Maurepas and of Vergennes, pre- vious to the open Interference of France in the Affairs of America. His near Alliance to the Earl of Mansfield, of whom he was the Nephew and collateral Heir, if it conferred no Claim to popular Favor, unquestionably conduced to render him more acceptable at St. James's. Even his Enemies admitted him to possess Application; and whenever he rose in the House of Peers, he displayed a thorough Acquaintance with the Subject on 510 HISTORICAL [1781. which he spoke, together with great Preci- sion of Language, and force of Argument. The Earl of Hillsborough, who held the Southern Department, wanted neither Ability, nor Attention to public Business : but his natural Endowments, however solid, did not rise above mediocrity. He seemed to have owed his political, as well as personal Eleva- tion in Life, more to his good Sense, Penetra- tion, and Address, than to any intellectual Superiority. I have seen him much embar- rassed and disconcerted in the Session of 1781, when called on officially in the House of Lords, to explain, or to justify, the Mea- sures adopted in Bengal : an 'Embarrassment which arose from his Ignorance of Names, Places, and Circumstances in that Quarter of the Globe, with which, as Secretary of State for the East Indies, he ought to have been acquainted. We must however recollect, that very few Persons, except such as were locally connected with India, had then at- tained any accurate Information respecting the Company's Affairs. Of this assertion I could adduce many proofs. In February, > when Lord Shelburne speaking in the 1781.] MEMOIRS. 511 House of Peers, made Allusion to "a King, " or Supreme Rajah of the Mharattas," he felt himself compelled to explain to their Lordships, the Nature and narrow Limits of that nominal Sovereignty; with which, as well as with the Office of " Peshwa," or efficient Ruler, of the Mharatta Empire, nine-tenths of his Audience were utterly un- acquainted. I recollect the Astonishment, not unmixed with some degree of Ridicule, excited in the House of Commons, on Go- vernor Johnstone's first Mention and De- scription of the Harbour of Trincomale in the Island of Ceylon; a Bay, which probably, till that Occasion, had never been heard of by the greater part of the County Members. Though the Irruption of Hyder Ally into the Carnatic in 1780, powerfully awakened the Bational Attention to the Subject ; it was Fox's memorable Bill, followed at a short In- terval, by Hastings's Trial, that diffused over the whole Kingdom, an Eagerness for Orien- tal Knowledge. But, Lord George Germain, who presided over the American Department, attracted from a variety of Causes, far more public Consideration, while he presented a fairer 512 HISTORICAL [1781. Mark for parliamentary Attack, or for popu- lar Declamation, than either of the other Secretaries of State. His Abilities, the Cir- cumstance of his being a Member of the House of Commons, even the Events of his former Life,, when commanding the British Forces in Germany; and above all, the' Ob- ject of the War in which we were engaged ; a War, that at the Commencement of 178.1, still professed to be the Subjugation of the re- volted Colonies ; these united Circumstances rendered him, after Lord North, the most prominent Person in Administration. As I had the Honor to enjoy a place in his Friend- ship, and to live with him during the latter Years of his Life, on terms of great Intimacy, I may pretend to have known him well. Nor will I deny that I am partial to his Memory: but, that Partiality will never in- duce me to pervert, or to misrepresent any Fact; though I am aware that it may unin- tentionally bias my Opinions. He had com- pleted his Sixty-fifth Year at this Time ; but a frame of Body naturally robust, and a vi- gorous Constitution, secured him almost un- interrupted Health, together with the Enjoy- ment of all his Faculties. In his Person, which rose to near six feet, he was muscular* 1781.] MEMOIRS. 513 and capable of enduring much bodily, as well as mental, Fatigue. His Countenance indi- cated Intellect, particularly his Eye, the Motions of which were quick and piercing. On first Acquaintance, his Manner and Air impressed with an idea of proud Reserve : but no Man, in private Society, unbent him- self more, or manifested less Self-importance. In the midst of his Family; for he rarely dined from home ; and in the Company of a few select Friends, he soon forgot the Toils annexed to public Life, the Asperities of De- bate, and the Vexations of Office. Even after the latest Nights in the House of Com- mons, he always sat down to Table, drank a pint of Claret, and passed in Review the In- cidents of the preceding Evening. It was then that his Conversation became most en- tertaining ; seasoned with curious Anecdotes collected during the course of a long Life, passed in the highest Circles, amidst the greatest Affairs, in England, Ireland, Scot- land, and on the Continent, where he had served ; embracing the Secret History of the present, and of the two late Reigns. Though Lord George Germain was so highly born, his Education did not altogether VOL. I. 2 L 514 HISTORICAL [l?8l< correspond with his Extraction, and he owed far more to Nature, than to Cultivation. He had, indeed, been brought up in the College of Dublin ; but he possessed little Informa- tion derived from Books, nor had he im- proved his Mind by extensive Reading, in the Course of subsequent Years. Even after his Retreat from public Employment, in the decline of Life, when at Drayton, where he had a fine Library, he rarely opened an Au- thor, except for a short Time on his Return from coursing, shooting, riding, or other favourite Exercises, He had visited Paris, when young, with his Father the Duke of Dorset j and the French language was fa- miliar to him : but with Horace, Tacitus, or Cicero, he had formed lit-tle Acquaintance. His initiation into public Life, Politics, and Parliament, took place too early, to admit of storing his Mind with classic Images or Ideas. Though he was versed in English History since the Time of Elizabeth, during which Period of near two Centuries, some one of his immediate Ancestors had almost always sat, and sometimes presided, in the Councils of the Sovereign, he was not conversant in our Annals of an earlier Date. But, on the other hand, he had witnessed much with his 1781.] MEMOIRS. own Eyes, he had heard still more from others, he seized with Ease on whatever was submitted to his Understanding, and he for- got nothing. In Business he was rapid, yet clear and accurate; rather negligent in his Style, which was that of a Gentleman and a Man of the World, unstudied and frequently careless, even in his official Dispatches. But, there was no Obscurity or Ambiguity in his Com- positions. Capable of Application in Cases of Necessity, he nevertheless passed little Time at the Desk, or in the Closet: and while Secretary of State, under critical, as well as perilous Circumstances, when every Courier brought, or might bring, Accounts the most disastrous ; no Man who saw him at Table, or of an Evening in his Drawing Room, would have suspected from his De- portment and Conversation, that the Re- sponsibility of the American War reposed principally on his Shoulders. More than one Member of the Cabinet was supposed to en- joy a greater degree of personal Accepta- bility with the King ; but none exercised the Privilege of speaking with more freedom to him. Lord George sel lorn hazarded to ask 2 L2 516 HISTORICAL [1781. Favours ; but when he undertook any Cause, he never receded till he had obtained the Ob- ject. Dr. Eliot, who then practised Physic with some Celebrity, and of whose medical Skill Lord George entertained a high Opinion ; induced him to exert his Interest at Court, for procuring the Doctor to be created a Baronet. The King, who disliked Eliot per- sonally, and regarded his professional Talents with as little Partiality, displayed much Re- pugnance to grant the Request. Yielding however at last, " Well, my Lord," said he, " since you desire it, let it be : but remember, " He shall not be my Physician." " No, " Sir," answered Lord George, bowing, " He " shall be your Majesty's Baronet, and my " Physician." The King laughed, and Eliot was raised to the Baronetage. In the House of Commons, down to the last Hour that Lord George remained a Member of that Assembly, he was constant- ly the Object of the severest, and most point- ed Attacks of the Opposition; who always hoped to force from his Irritability, the Secret or the Fact, which they had vainly attempted to extort from the Apathy and Tranquillity of Lord North. In this endeavour they fre- 1781.] MEMOIRS. 51? quently succeeded : for, Lord George, goad- ed by Reproaches, often fictitious, frequently unjust, and always exaggerated, generally started up sooner or later ; repelled the Charges advanced; and in so doing, some- times put the Adversary in possession of the very Matter which they sought to discover. He spoke, as he wrote, without much Premeditation, from the impulse of the Occasion ; in animated, rather than in correct Language j with Vehemence, but, not without Dignity. His Voice was power- ful, and his Figure commanding ; though he did not always thoroughly possess himself, nor display the Coolness demanded by so try- ing a Situation as that of American Secre- tary. His Opponents, who well knew, a- vailed themselves of this Defect in his for- mation of Mind. On the other Hand, the Keenness of his Sight gave him a prodigious Advantage over Lord North, when in the House of Commons. Lord George Germain had no sooner taken his Seat on the Treasury Bench, than he pervaded with a Glance of his Eye, the Opposition Benches ; saw who attended, as well as who were absent; and formed his Conclusions accordingly on the Business of the Day. He used to say, that HISTORICAL [1781. for those who were enabled to exercise this Faculty, every Thing was to be seen in the House ; where, on the contrary, nothing except Declamation, was to be gained by the Ear. No Man better understood the Ma- nagement of Parliament; the Prolongation or Acceleration of a Debate, according to the Temper or the Number of the Members present ; and every Detail of official Dex- terity or Address, requisite in conducting Affairs submitted to a popular Assembly. To all these Arts of Government, he had served two long and severe Apprenticeships in Ireland, as Secretary to his Father, the Duke of Dorset, when successively Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom. In political courage and firmness he was not deficient. I have seen him in circumstances which sufficiently put those qualities to the proof, towards the close of the American War, when intelligence arrived of Lord Cornwallis's surrender at York Town : a Disaster of the most irreparable nature, the load of which fell almost exclusively on himself. While summing up Lord George's Charac- ter, it is so impossible not to think of the business at Minden, and consequently not to 1781.] MEMOIRS. 519 allude to it, that my silence on this subject, would seem to imply my conviction of the Justice of the Sentence passed on him by the Court Martial. On the other hand, I feel how delicate and invidious a matter it is, on which to touch, even at the distance of more than half a Century. Yet, as personal, and political Courage, though altogether dissimilar, are commonly considered to have an intimate connexion ; as we are even with difficulty in- duced to allow, or duly to estimate any vir- tues, however eminent, in a man whom we suppose to have been deficient in the former of those essential qualities; as general pre- judice is certainly in Lord George's disfavor, and as I may claim to possess some informa- tion on the subject ; I shall enter briefly into the Disquisition. I lay no stress on Lord George Germain's illustrious Extraction, since we all know that the greatest Houses have produced the most degenerate descendants ; instances of which in point, to which I forbear alluding, have occurred in our own Times. Pope justly exclaims, " What can ennoble Slaves, or Sots, or Cowards ? " Alas ! Not all the Blood of all the Howards !" HISTORICAL [1781. It is, nevertheless, an incentive to noble Achievements, when we descend from those who have performed such actions. The me- morable Letter of Edward, Earl of Dorset, describing his Duel with Lord Bruce, under the reign of James the First, commemorated in the " Guardian ;" and the celebrated Song, beginning, " To all you Ladies now on Land, " We Men at Sea indite," which was composed by Charles, Earl of Dorset, Lord George's Grandfather, as we are assured, on the Night before the En- gagement between the English fleet, and that of Holland, commanded by Opdam, under Charles the Second's reign : these two Pro- ductions, which are as universally known as the Language in which they are written, sufficiently attest that he drew his Lineage from men of Courage. His maternal Grand- father, Marshal Colyear, Brother of the first Earl of Portmore, and Governor of Namur, with whom Lord George passed much time in his youth ; had grown grey in all the Sieges and Battles of the Low Countries, under Wil- liam the Third. As soon as England took a part in the War occasioned by the Accession 1781.] MEMOIRS. 521 of Maria Theresa, in 1743, Lord George was sent to the Continent; where he served, if not with marked distinction, certainly with- out the slightest reproach, under the Com- mand of Lord Stair, and of His late Britannic Majesty. In 1745, at the Battle of Fontenoy, where a number of our Officers fell, he received a musket-ball in the breast, and was thrown upon a waggon, with many others. He had preserved the Uniform that he wore on that day, which I have seen and examined ; bear- ing on it the mark of the Ball, corresponding to the place where he was struck, and other Holes in the Skirts of the Coat, perforated by Bullets. During the domestic Rebellion that followed the Defeat of Fontenoy, being re- called to his own Country, he accompanied William, Duke of Cumberland, from the Commencement, to the Close, of the Insur- rection in Scotland ; where great commenda- tion was bestowed on his Services. Among the Dorset Papers, which I have seen, were preserved a Series of Letters, ad- dressed by him to the Duke his father, con- taining many interesting incidents of the years 1745 and 1746, while he was serving in the Highlands, against the Rebels. On the break- ing out of the war in 1756, he accompanied ,522 HISTORICAL the late Duke of Marlborough, on those desultory Expeditions to the Coast of Nor- mandy and Brittany, when we bombarded St. Malo, and demolished Cherburgh, After the Demise of the Duke, which took place at Munster, towards the close of 1758, it is well known that Lord George commanded the British Forces during the ensuing Campaign, and in particular at the Battle of Minden. That he did not advance at the head of the Cavalry, on that Occasion, with the Celerity that might have been wished; and that his Pelay is ever to be regretted on a national Account, because, if he had so advanced, the Defeat of the Enemy would have been much more complete; that consequently he became a just Subject of Blame or of Cen- sure, if we judge by the Result, and not by the Motives all these Points must be con- ceded to his Accusers. But, the Question is, whether he manifested any such Back- wardness to lead on the Horse, after he re- ceived Prince Ferdinand's Orders for that Purpose, as justly rendered him liable to the Suspicion of Reluctance, or to the Imputa- tion of Cowardice ? The Depositions of Lieutenant Colonels JJgonier, Sloper, and Fitzroy, would certainly 1781.] MEMOIRS. 523 seem to affix on him, either one or the other of these Charges. But, the Evidence of Lieutenant Colonel Hotham, as well as the positive Testimony of Captains Lloyd and Smith, two of Lord George's Aid-du- Camps, appear as completely to exculpate him. There were even negative, if not positive Doubts, stated by Hotham and Smith, rela- tive to the Accuracy, not to say the Truth or Existence, of the asserted Conversation held by Colonels Fitzroy and Ligonier with Lord George, when they successively de- livered him Prince Ferdinand's Orders. Cap- tain Smith, Sir Sidney Smith's Father, I very intimately knew; who was himself a Man of distinguished personal Courage, strictly con- scientious, and incapable of asserting any Thing that he disbelieved. He never enter- tained an Idea that Lord George was with- held by unbecoming personal Motives, from advancing at Minden. The Fact plainly ap- peared to be, even on the Testimony of Fitz- roy, Sloper, and Ligonier, that either Prince Ferdinand's Orders were in themselves contra- dictory, or were misunderstood by the Aid- du-Camps, or were imperfectly delivered by them. Lord George displayed evident Ir- resolution under those Circumstances. He 524 HISTORICAL [1781. first halted, and afterwards did not cause the Cavalry to advance with the Rapidity that would have ensured the Enemy's entire De- feat. Probably, similar Accidents happen in almost every great engagement. But, the World, which pardons the Excesses of intem- perate Courage, never forgives the slightest Appearance of Backwardness in the Field. Prince Rupert, who three times ruined the Affairs of Charles the First ; who by his im- petuous Valour, lost him the three Battles of Edge Mill, of Marston Moor, and of Naseby, is pardoned by Posterity : while Admiral Byng and Lord George Sackville remain under Imputation. Such will ever be the Lot of Military Men who venture to hold back, when they might go forward in Action. It must nevertheless excite no small Sur- prize, that Prince Ferdinand, though he al- ludes in the General Orders issued on the Day following the Battle, to Lord George's supposed Misconduct; yet, in the first Dis- patches sent to this Country, containing the Account of the Victory, made no public Mention whatever of it ; and some Days elapsed, before the Prince preferred any for- mal Accusation against him. I have seen 1781.] MEMOIRS. 525 among the Dorset Papers, a Series of Lord George's Letters to his Father, written from the Allied Army, during that Campaign, ex- tending to within very few Days of the Action, at Minden. And I have likewise perused the Notes addressed to Lionel, Duke of Dorset, from the Foreign Office of the Secretary of State here, on the Arrival of the official In- telligence of the Engagement ; felicitating the Duke on the Result of a Battle so glorious to this Country, and in which He must neces- sarily feel so deep a personal Interest. Not a Word, nor a Hint, appears in these Notes, of Lord George's supposed want of Alacrity. How are we to explain this line of Con- duct in the Prince? It would seem as if the Charge should have instantly followed the Act. George the Second, it must be remember- ed, was at this Time near Seventy-six Years old; strongly prejudiced, as we well know, in favour of his Relative and Countryman, Prince Ferdinand ; and naturally chagrined at an Event, which, even though it should have been publicly recognized as the mere effect of Misconception or Mistake in the Orders sent, yet equally afforded Subject for Regret, on 526 HISTORICAL [1781. account of its injurious consequences. Under these Circumstances the Court Martial took place, and the King's sentiments respecting Lord George's Culpability, were universally known throughout the Country. It is a fact, that His late Majesty sent him a Message, acquainting him of his own Determination to put into Execution the Sentence of the Court, whatever it might be, without Mitigation. Lord George was tried in March, 1760. Had the late King died in October, 17^9, instead of October, 1760, might not the Result, in all probability, have been far less severe under a new Reign, when the Clamour of the Hour had subsided ? In 1759 and 1760, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswic, occupied a high Place in the ad- miration of the English Public, by whom he was considered as only inferior in the Field, to the Protestant Hero, as he was then absurd- ly denominated, Frederic, King of Prussia. But his Popularity, I mean, Prince Ferdi- nand's, proved of very short duration. As early as January, 1761, we may see in " Do- " dington's Diary," how low the Prince had fallen in general Estimation, and what serious Accusations were brought against him. Do- 1781.] MEMOIRS.. 527 dington, relating the particulars of a Conver- sation which he had at that Time with the Earl of Bute, says, I told him, " that I thought " Prince Ferdinand was become as unpopu- " lar in the Army, as he was once popular : " that he was accused of three great Heads " of Malversation. The first was, that he " had exacted complete Pay for uncomplete " Corps : the second, that not One Shilling .'* Lord George's Duel with Governor John- stone, is a well known Fact. On that Occa- sion, even by his Adversary's admission, he exhibited perfect Self-possession ; presenting so fair and erect a Mark, while he calmly waited for the Governor's fire, that it extort- ed from him an involuntary Testimony to Lord George's courage. The late Lord Syd- ney, then Mr. Townsend, who was his Se- cond, equally witnessed and attested his cool- ness. How can we believe or conceive, that such a Man, on such a Field as Minden, be- fore so many Spectators, would, from personal Fear, have at once covered himself with Ig- nominy ? As little is it proved, whatever we may suspect, that Motives of personal Ani- mosity to Prince Ferdinand, with whom we know he was on bad terms, operated on Lord George's Mind, and impelled him to delay 1781.] MEMOIRS. 529 moving forward with the Cavalry, to complete the Victory. It is evident, on the calmest and most dispassionate Review of the Trans- action, which has obtained such a melan- choly celebrity, in our Military Annals under George the Second; that an Ambiguity in Prince Ferdinand's Orders to Lord George, or a Contradiction in them, produced the whole Misfortune. We may indeed assert, or believe, that the British Commander inten- tionally misunderstood them. But, where was the Proof adduced of that Fact? Captain Ligonier brings an Order for the zv/wle Ca- valry to advance. Colonel Fitzroy, almost in the same Moment, orders only the British Cavalry to advance. On receiving these op- posite Messages, Lord George halts the Ca- valry, while he gallops up to Prince Ferdi- nand, in order to receive his personal Instruc- tions. There might be error in this Delay, and public Injury might accrue from it, as Prince Ferdinand asserts did actually ensue, when in his " General Orders" above alluded to, he says, that if " the Marquis of Gran by " had been at the Head of the Cavalry of the " Right Wing, he is persuaded, the Decision " of that Day would have been more com- " plete and more brilliant." Still there is no VOL, I. 2 M 530 HISTORICAL [1781. proof of Lord George's voluntary Miscon- struction of the Orders, or of his Reluctance to execute them ; and the Error might have originated in Mistake, as well as in Volition. How easily would the whole Misfortune have been rendered impossible, if Prince Ferdinand had, like Prince Eugene of Savoy, whom he might have copied on this Point ; only sent one of his successive Orders in Pencil?, Prince Eugene expressly says in his " Memoirs," " I derived much Benefit from always carry - ** ing in my Pocket a Pencil^ to write in the