Chapter 4: 1781 the Disasters in America (1)

A drum at Selwyn's--George, Lord Morpeth--Dr. Warner--Sale of the Houghton pictures--The House of Commons--Pitt's first speech--Selwyn unwell--Play at Brooks's--London gaieties--Fox and his new clothes --Gambling--The bailiffs in Fox's house--"Fish" Crawford--Montem at Eton--Mie Mie's education--Second speech of Pitt--Lord North--A Court Ball--Society and politics--The Emperor of Austria --Conversation with Fox--Personal feelings--American affairs--Lord North and Mr. Robinson--State of politics--London Society.

The year 1781 will remain memorable as that in which the connection of England with her American Colonies was finally broken. The surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19th impressed the Government with the futility of a contest which the country had already realised, and which would have at once caused a change of administration if the House of Commons had been truly representative of the opinion of the country; "a sense of past error," wrote the Duke of Grafton in his autobiography, "and a conviction that the American war might terminate in further destruction to our armies, began from this time rapidly to insinuate itself into the minds of men. Their discourse was quite changed, though the majorities in Parliament were still ready to support the American war, while all the world was representing it to be the height of madness and folly."(146) But though the country was oppressed by taxation, and disgusted at the want of success of its armies, society in St. James's Street took the national disasters with perfect composure. It troubled itself more about the nightly losses of money at the card-tables of Brooks's than of soldiers on the Delaware. It lived in the same kind of fatalism as the House of Commons and the King, who, with characteristic obstinacy, refused to bow to the force of events, and kept in office, but not in power, a minister who did not believe in the policy which he was compelled to support in Parliament. From contemporaries the cardinal events of history are obscured by the course of their ordinary social or political life. To us, who can see them so large and momentous, it appears strange that they do not fill a greater place in the public mind of the period. Selwyn constantly hearing of the course of the vital conflict between England and her Colonies, fills his correspondence with details of the day, mingling remarks on facts which have become historical with the latest story of the clubs.

1781, Feb. 1, Thursday morning, Cleveland Court.--. . . I saw Lord Gower yesterday morning; he is grown very corpulent, and his face fuller of humour than I ever saw it. While this humour keeps out he will be well, but when it returns I am afraid the consequences will be fatal to him. . . .

We dined at March's yesterday. Boothby, James, Williams, Offley, Lord W. Gordon, Dr. Warner,(147) and myself. The place of rendezvous for the morning is I believe, the Park, and it is a reconnoitring party too. Where the Prince sups, and lies, and with whom, are the chief objects of the politics of a certain class of people. All agree that at present the agreement between him and the King is perfect. The speculation is only how long it is likely to last. His Royal Highness stoops as yet to very low game. In some respects it may be better. You will have heard of Captain Waldgrave's success with the two Dutch ships, and the French merchantman, if I am right.

To-day is to be one of violent attack upon Lord Sandwich and Palliser. Charles makes the motion. We shall have a great deal of abuse, and reply and declamation from Bourk(148) (Burke), and vociferation from Lord Mahon, and perhaps a long day; and I must go down early, because I was yesterday when the House was called a defaulter; so I shall dine there, and after dinner I will collect upon paper what I hear of the transactions of the day.

I read yesterday in the P(ublic) Advertiser an account of your box at the play. I am not knowing enough in what is called humour, to be sure, if that was such, and pure invention, or not. I hear that you did not produce yourself enough, but retired too much within the box, which did not please the Irish, who do not so well comprehend what it is to be out of countenance. I wish to know if Lady C(arlisle) will find for Caroline masters to her satisfaction, and a country house. I have not seen as yet Lord Fitzwilliam, or had any answer about the pictures. Eden they tell me calls too soon for coffee. But upon the whole, the reports concerning you, and your Court, and your ministers, &c. is [are] good. I do not expect this business in which you are engaged to be quite couleur de rose. I hope you will preserve your health, and the peace of your mind, your temper, and your fortune. I am in no pain about anything else.

Lord W(---) had yesterday an air more egare than usual; he is enlaidi, et mal vetu, et enfin il avait plus l'air de pendard que son frere. Vous pouvez bien vous imaginer que nous n'avons pas parle de corde, pas meme celle du mariage. The Marechal de Rich(e)lieu was told that the mob intended to have hung me, but que je m'en suis tire comme un loial chevalier. This was their notion in Paris of the mob which insulted me at Gloucester.

(146) Page 314.

(147) Dr. John Warner (1736-1800) was the son of a clergyman and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He took orders, but had a literary and social, rather than theological, bent. He was a confidential friend of Selwyn's, and after his death wrote a defence of him in regard to witnessing executions.

(148) Edmund Burke (1729-1797). The only political office that the great publicist ever held was that of Paymaster of the Forces for a few months under Lord Rockingham and the Coalition Government.

(1781,) Feb. 11, Sunday morning, Cleveland Court.--I received your letter of the 5th, yesterday, in the afternoon, and another of the same date from Dr. Ekins, at the same time the day before: why they did not come together, I know not. But so it has happened, I believe more than once before, since my connections with Ireland, which I wish to God were at an end. There is one indeed which will plague me, while I live, and that is an annuity upon Mr. Gore's estate, which I must sue for as regularly as it becomes due.

I was prevented from writing to you yesterday by I do not know how much disagreeable occupation. I had a Drum, and that began early; I was to prepare for it, I was to be served in ambigu, and it was to be the easiest, most agreeable, best understood thing in the world. It was to my apprehension the very antipode of this. I do not know how my company felt, but I was not at my ease a moment. I had a Commerce table, and one of Whist. My company were Middletons,(149) Bostons,(150) Townshends, and Selwyns.

March came to the door at eleven, but hearing that supper was served, and almost over, and perhaps hearing of the company too, he went away; they were all good kind of people, and who I dare say had conversation enough in their own families, but although we were all related, we had not one word to say to one another. There was Mr. Methuen, Lady Boston's father, who seems to be a shrewd entertaining man, if he was where he found himself at home. The cook, the housekeeper, and Maitre Jacques all exerted themselves, and did their parts tolerably well, but rien n'a pu me mettre a mon aise, and the more I tried to be at home, the more I was desoriente; so I believe I shall try some other kind of party for the future; otherwise I may say que le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle. But now for your letter.

George's subject is not the first in course, but it has taken the first place in my thoughts. I do assure you that I am not his puff. What I tell you of his reading is literally true; but it is not reading that expresses it, for I could have said as much if he had read nothing but the History of Cinder Breech and that kind of biography. He read with me English History, and stopped for information, and showed an uncommon thirst for it. He asked me as many questions in the History of George 1st concerning the South Sea Scheme, the prosecution of Lord Macclesfield, and the Barrier Treaty, as another boy would have asked me about Robinson Crusoe. He likes other books too, and it is agreeable to hear him talk of them. For which reason I should be glad, if you approved of it, that he had a choice of books, to a certain amount --a little library--as many as would fill a small bookcase. Mr. Raikes tells me that he is remarkably careful of his books, and therefore was not displeased that those which you gave him I had well bound, and that it was a fair edition. An early love of books will produce a desire to read, which amusements may suppress for a time, but is a constant resource against ennui. I have been years without looking in a book, and God knows in my long life how few I have read; but when it has happened that I could, par force, do nothing else, I have collected together a number, began a piece of history, and have thought at last the day too short, because I wanted to read more; and this I attribute to having once read, although it was but a very little. Rollin was the first author I read by choice. . . .

I am in hopes that your kindness to Storer will take place; il en est digne, soyez en assure, sur ma parole. I never doubted, I was quite persuaded indeed, that you would do what you have done, and properly too. I have been told that he is to have this place, but I have not seen him much lately. I hope that he will dine here to-morrow, or on Tuesday, when all the Gregg family comes, and it may be, Dr. Warner. Your letter to Hare was sent to him by the post of the day that I received it, and you will have had information of it, I doubt not, by this time. He was not that day in town. You desired it to be sent, without loss of time. I therefore lost none. But unluckily he was on the road, although nobody knew it; he must have received it a few days after, so I suppose by this time he has acknowledged to you the receipt of it. I shall send your letter to Dr. Warner to-day, and invite him to meet Mr. Gregg's family at dinner here on Tuesday. . . .I believe him to be a perfectly honest man; he is uncommonly humane and friendly, and most actively so. But he has such a flow of spirits, and so much the ton de ce monde qu'il a frequente, that, had I been to have chose a profession for him, it should not have been that of the Church. There is more buckram in that, professionally, than he can digest, or submit to. The Archbishop, who has been applied to in his favour, by the late Mr. Townshend, said he was too lively, but it was the worst he could say of him. Lord Besborough served him once essentially, and esteems him. The family of Mr. Hoare, the banker, has assisted him, and so he has been able to support his mother and his nearest relations, whom his father, with a great deal of literary merit, had left beggars. I have given you this succinct history of my doctor, whom you have enlisted into your corps. I was once before obliged to write his character for Lord Ossory, when he settled himself in Bedfordshire, and Lord Ossory has found it true in all particulars.

The K(ing) has told my friend M. that Lord Cadogan(151) wants to sell his house at Caversham, for why, I know not. Lord Walpole's eldest son is to marry Lady Cadogan's sister. Churchill, du cote du falbala, ne reussit pas mal; his sons, I am afraid, one of them at least, has (have) not managed so well. But I would myself sooner have been married to (a) Buckhorse, than to that (A)Esop Lord C. The Zarina repents of her bargain, and, it is said, will give no more than 20,000 for the pictures.(152) If that is not accepted, Lord Orford make (may) take them back. He gets an estate of near 10,000 pounds a year by his mother's death. Her will is all wrote in her own hand, and not one word, even her own name, rightly spelt.

(149) George, fourth Viscount Middleton (1754-1836); son of George, third viscount, and Albinia, daughter of the Hon. Thomas Townshend. He married first, in 1778, Lady Frances Pelham, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Chichester, who died in 1783.

(150) Frederick, second Baron Boston (1749-1825), son of Sir William, first Baron Boston and Albinia, daughter of Henry Selwyn. He married, in 1775, Christiana, only daughter of'Paul Methuen.

(151) Charles Sloane, third Baron and first Earl Cadogan (1728-1807). The house at Caversham Park was destroyed by fire in 1850 and re-built.

(152) The gallery of pictures at Houghton, collected by Sir Robert Walpole, was, with some reservations, sold by the third Lord Orford, to the Empress Catharine of Russia in 1779. "Private news we have none, but what I have long been bidden to expect the completion of the sale of the pictures at Houghton to the Czarina" (Letters of Walpole, vol. vii. p. 234.) The date of the sale and of Selwyn's gossiping allusion are not reconcilable.

Few events in the annals of the House of Commons are more remarkable than the sudden rise of Pitt. His maiden speech--in support of Burke's Bill for economical reform--placed him at once in the first rank of parliamentary orators. "I was able to execute in some measure what I intended," was Pitt's own modest account of this speech in a letter to his mother. The opinion of the House of Commons and the town was wholly different: his speech was regarded as masterly--astonishing in one so young and new to Parliament. Selwyn had not heard it, but in the following letter he tells Carlisle of the general impression it had made; and on June 13th he gives his own critical opinion of Pitt's third speech. The detailed description by Storer, who supplemented Selwyn's letters of the debate of February 26th, adds to our knowledge of this memorable debate.

(1781,) Feb. 27, Tuesday.--I have received no comfort or pleasure for some days, but what I had last night by a letter from Mrs. Sowerby to Lady Gower, and which Lady Gower was so good as to send to me.

I find by that that the children at Trentham are well, and that Charlotte is so altered for the better as to be reconnoissable. But of you and of Caroline, Lady C., Louise, I know nothing. The weather has been so wet that I have not proposed to Storer his visit to George, of which I shall profit. For my own pleasure, I long to see him.

We were in the House of Commons last night till half [an] hour past twelve. The majority of our side against the second reading of Burke's Bill,(153) and in fact, by a following question of rejecting it, was of 43, if I mistook not. I was not in the House to hear anybody speak a syllable, nor do I ever wish it. I believe there is no actor upon the stage of either theatre who, repeating what the author has wrote, does not, at the same time, recite his own private sentiments oftener, than our pantomimes in Parliament.

The chief subject of C. Fox's harangue yesterday was an eloge upon economy, and Jack Townshend,(154) who spoke for the second time, rehearsed these maxims of his preceptor. Jack did better than the time before, but was so eclipsed by Mr. W. Pitt, that it appeared to impartial people but an indifferent performance. This young man, Mr. Pitt, gained an universal applause.(155) I heard Lord N(orth) say it was the best first speech of a young man that he had ever heard. It was a very crowded House, but there were there neither Mr. Dunning, Mr. Barry, or General Burgoyne. This was matter of speculation.

The P(rince) of W(ales) is said to have a kind of carbuncle. Mr. Delme told me that Lady B(etty) had heard from her mother, and that she talked of being here in April. Indeed I see no feasibility in any other scheme, although many would to her passions appear more eligible.

Lord Althorp(156) is to be married before the 10th of March--that is all that Lady Lucan would tell me. I hear of no more news. The Emperor is expected or it is hoped will assist us, at least with his mediation. There is all my foreign politics. The regaining America or having any kind of peace from that quarter is with me a perte de vue. I wish the spring was a little advanced that I might walk out, for nothing but George can make me stir out of my room, except in fine weather, and I have a hundred places to call at. I do not tease you, or ever will, about writing, but pray get some one person in your allegiance to write to me for you. I want neither anecdotes, or sentiments, or politics, but I want to know frequently how you all do. The Attorney General told me last night that there was no expecting an account of you but from me; j'eus honte de le detromper. I am supposed to have letters constantly from my Lord Lieutenant, and I give myself so much air at least as not to deny it.

(153) For the better regulation of Civil Establishments, and of certain public offices, and for the limitation of pensions, and the suppression of certain useless, expensive, and inconvenient places.

(154) John Townshend (1757-1833); second son of the fourth Viscount and first Marquis of Townshend. He was returned for the University of Cambridge in 1780, and lost his seat in 1784 when Pitt was elected.

(155) See Storer's letterbelow: "Anthony Storer to Lord Carlisle," (1781), Feb. 28.

(156) George John, afterwards second Earl Spencer, K.G. (1758-1834); married March 6, 1781, Lavinia, daughter of the first Earl of Lucan.

Anthony Storer to Lord Carlisle.

(1781), Feb. 28.--I have not wrote to you so often as perhaps I ought to do, and as I really wish, because in regard to everything that passes on this side the water at present, the newspaper is a very authentic chronicle. The debates in Parliament are not frequent, and when they do happen Mr. Woodfall reports them very much at large, and almost always faithfully. In regard to the chronique scandaleuse, there is no occasion for any report, as the Session seems a maiden one. These two heads, which Selwyn does not in general interfere with, I should have thought fell under my department, and I should certainly [have] told you all I knew but for the reasons which I have given. I take it for granted Selwyn writes to you principally about Lord Morpeth, as I perceive he is in general uppermost in his thoughts, and the subject on which he converses le plus volontiers avec moi. Le seul bien qui nous rests, &c.

We had a debate on Monday, when Mr. Pitt for the first time made such a speech, that it excited the admiration very justly of every man in the House. Except he had foreseen the particular species of nonsense which Lord Nugent was to utter, his speech could not be prepared; it was delivered without any kind of improper assurance, but with the exact proper self-possession which ought to accompany a speaker. There was not a word or a look which one would have wished to correct. This, I believe, in general was the universal sense of all those who heard him, and exactly the effect which his speech had on me, at the time I heard it.

Mr. Sheridan did very well; he said a very (few) words in answer to Mr. Courtenay, each word being exactly placed where it ought to be--quasi tesserata emblemate--as if he had studied them a week beforehand, and had read them instead of speaking them. His harvest at the Opera House is likely to be very successful, for his Saturdays and Tuesdays are so full, that he is going even to attempt the Thursdays. Vestris' Ballet people think too long. "It is impossible that an English audience should be satisfied. They don't know when they have got a good spectacle, and think that finding fault is the only way to pass for judges." Such are the words of his Honour, the prophet Brudenell. John St. John says that the Baccelli is thrown away in the part of Nannette; au lieu d'etre danseuse, elle n'est que la Columbine. This he takes from the Baccelli, and the Duke of Dorset. John acts a strange underpart at the theatre. Mademoiselle Baccelli's runner is not so honourable an employment as being Lord North's.

Selwyn lost within this week a large sum of money. He was so larmoyant the other morning, that I did not dare to ask him any questions about it. Delme has sold all his hunters, and sold them at very extraordinary prices; his hounds too sold excessively well; it was fortunate at all events to part with them, but the people who bought them, according to all accounts, were as mad as he had been in keeping them. . . .

In Monday night's debate neither Dunning (n)or Barry was in the House; that looks very like a measure; it is impossible that should be mere accident. Opposition were without several of their plumpers that evening, either from their being ill or their being out of town. Lord Robert and Lord Edward for instance were ill; Ned Foley and his brother-in-law, out of town; Lord Howe and Doily not in the House, with more that do not occur to me. Burke acted with his usual bad judgment in not letting Sir Fletcher Norton speak before him, but rather pressing his privilege of bringing in the Bill, to speak before him; consequently Sir Fletcher did not speak at all. It was a debate of young members entirely. Neither Charles Fox or Lord N(orth) spoke. There is a Select Committee upon East India affairs sitting, at which there is a great deal of curious evidence given relating to the manners, customs, and religion of the Gentoos. I was there one morning, and was very much entertained with the accounts of the witnesses. A Brammin, who is now in England, was examined on Monday. Voici, milord, assez de details.

(1781,) March 24, Saturday.--. . . Mr. Potts has just left me. I have been freer from pain these last 29 (or 24?) hours. I am now to bathe three times a week, take opiate going to bed for some nights, and begin a course of bark. I take nothing after my coffee, besides, except Orgeat. I have quite relinquished nasty Brooks's, as Lady C(arlisle) calls it. I am with the sexagenary of White's, et de cette maniere je passe le temps assez tranquillement.

12 o'clock.--Here comes a letter from George for Lady C[arlisle], brought to me by a gardener of Mr. Raikes, under his cover. Lord Deerhurst has sent a formal proposal of marriage by Lord Ligonier to Lady something Powis--Lord Powis's sister, who, to save appearance of repulse, has returned for answer that she will take three or four days to consider of it. This I have from Williams. He and his father have constant altercations upon this subject. Lord Cov(entry) does not object to the plan of marriage, but says it is not practicable, on account of circumstances. I shall hear nothing of the matter from the parties themselves. Ce n'est pas mon affaire, et je ne m'en melerai pas, aux signes de perdre les bonne graces de ce belle-mere. Lady M'Cartney has wrote to me to hire my house; but one thing I am resolved upon is, not to let it to an acquaintance. I shall keep it in its present state till these things at Avignon are determined upon.

I dine to-day at the Bishop of Salisbury's, and to-morrow at Lord Lisbourne's. I was to have gone for a day with Lady Fitzw[illiam] to Roehampton, if these damned spasmodic complaints ne m'etoient pas survenus. However, Potts assures me that I shall be well again, but that I must take more care of myself. Je le crois. I have a great mind, as you may imagine, to see you again, and Lady C(arlisle) and Caroline, and all of you, and I have d'autres raisons qui m'attachent au monde, et je n'en suis pas degoute parce qu'il est comme il a toujours ete et comme il sera a toute eternite. I am very angry with Emily, that he will not write to me; is he afraid that his style is not good, or of what? . . . The play at Brooks's is exorbitant, I hear; Grady and Sir Godfrey Whistler and the General and Admiral are at the head of it. Charles looks wretchedly, I am told, but I have scarce seen him. Richard is in high cash, and that is all I know of that infernal house. Adieu; my respects to Lady Carlisle, and my most hearty love to the children. My best compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Eden, and to Crowle, and pray rub Mr. Dean Emily's ears till he writes to me.

It is not desirable that those who present a correspondence for perusal should play too much the part of a showman. Letters speak for themselves. Yet that which Selwyn wrote on April 14th may well be pointed to as giving, in a few lines, a reflection in miniature of the events grave and gay which were then interesting London society. We see it vividly, how people were admiring Lady Crawford's new chair, remarking parenthetically of bad news from across the Atlantic. But society was less frivolous perhaps than it seemed; the distance from America, the length of time which elapsed between the happening of an event and the news of it in England, the meagreness of the intelligence when at length it arrived, prevented the public imagination from being aroused, and so public interest and opinion lay inert.

(1781,) April 24, Tuesday noon, 1 o'clock.--. . . . . . P.S. Tuesday afternoon, 3 o'clock.--. . . Vary has just dropped in upon me, and says that news is come from Arthburnot (sic), that there has been a skirmish with the Fr(ench) Adm[iral], and it was a kind of drawn battle; that General Phillips has joined Arnold with 2,000 men. He came to ask after George; il ne scait pas encore, a quel point le monde s'interesse pour lui. My best and most affectionate respects to Lady Carlisle, and my love to Caroline, and to her sisters, not forgetting Louisa, chi gia non sovra di me.

Two balls! very fine, Caroline. Mie Mie will have seen but one, and that is Mr. Wills's annual ball. But we are very well feathered for that, a la Uestris. I had not the ordering so much ornament, and when it is over, and we have had our diversion, I shall read a lecture upon heads, which I wish not to be filled with so many thoughts about dress. But she coaxed Mrs. Webb into all this a mon inscu, and then I cannot be Mr. Killjoy; so pour le moment I seem to approve of it.

We have been at one opera, and| instead of other spectacles, I propose to go for the first part of the evening to Ranelagh, quand la presse n'y sera pas. Lady Craufurd's new chair is, as Sir C. Williams said of Dicky's, the charming'st thing in town, et les deux laquais qui la precedent attirent les yeux de tous les envieux et envieuses.

Sir Alexander comes and dines here with March, and is as easy as ever was Sir Jos. Vanheck, and lives with his friends now upon the same foot as before this acquisition of honour. I am told that you have a receipt as Lord Lieutenant to make knights yourself. But I suppose if you intend me such an honour I must come and fetch it. I suppose you do everything that is Royal except touching for the Evil, which would be the most useful fleuron of the Crown if it was effectual.

Storer was out of spirits yesterday at dinner, and I found out afterwards that he had been losing, like a simple boy, his money at Charles's and Richard's damned Pharo bank, which swallows up everybody's cash that comes to Brooks's, as I am told. I suppose that the bank is supported, if such a thing wanted support, by Brooks himself and your friend Jack Manners. It is a creditable way of living, I must own; and it would be well if by robbing some you might pay others, only that ce qui est acquis et (est?) jette par la fenetre, et si l'on paye, ou ne s'acquitte pas.

(1781,) May 16, Wednesday night.--I was engaged to dine to-day at Lady Ossory's,(157) but I called in at Lady Lucan's, and they obliged me to send an excuse, and so I dined there, and dine at Lady Ossory's on Saturday. I found myself with a party of Irish, Dean Marly, and Lady Clermont, and with her Mrs. Jones, whom I was ravished to see, for she had given a ball where Caroline was, and commended her dancing, and I tormented the poor woman with such a number of questions about her, that I believe she thought me distracted. It is hard upon me to be so circumstanced that I cannot see what would give me so much pleasure, but on ne peut pas menager le choux et la chevre. If it pleases God that I should live, I shall have that, and for a time a great deal more, for I think that I must be quite wore out with infirmities, and blindness must be one, if seeing Caroline appear to advantage will not give me pleasure. . . .

I saw Charles to-day in a new hat, frock, waistcoat, shirt, and stockings; he was as clean and smug as a gentleman, and upon perceiving my surprise, he told me that it was from the Pharo Bank. He then talked of the thousands it had lost, which I told him only proved its substance, and the advantage of the trade. He smiled, and seemed perfectly satisfied with that which he had taken up; he was in such a sort of humour that I should have liked to have dined with him. His old clothes, I suppose, have been burned like the paupers at Salt Hill.

(157) Anne, only child of Lord Ravensworth. In 1769 she was divorced from the Duke of Grafton and shortly afterward married the Earl of Upper Ossory. She was a correspondent of Selwyn, and of Walpole, who called her "my duchess." She was "gifted with high endowments of mind and person, high spirited, and noble in her ways of thinking, and generous in her disposition."

(1781,) May 21, Monday morning.--. . . . Yesterday about the middle of the day, passing by Brooks's, I saw a Hackney coach, which announced a late sitting. I had the curiosity to enquire how things were, and found Richard in his Pharo pulpit, where he had been, alternately with Charles, since the evening before, and dealing to Adm. Pigott only. I saw a card on the table--"Received from Messieurs Fox & Co. 1,500 guineas." The bank ceased in a few minutes after I was in the room; it was a little after 12 at noon, and it had won 3,400 or 500 g(uineas). Pigott, I believe, was the chief loser.

At Devonshire House there had been a bank held by Sir W. Aston and Grady, and that won 700. Martindale cannot get paid, because, as Charles says, he is not allowed to take money from the bank; he means for the payment of debts, but yet I hear some are paid, such as O'Kelly and other blacklegs. But there are at this time two executions in his house, and Richard's horses were taken the other day from his coach, as Lady Ossory tells me.

Charles says that he is accable de demandes, comme de dettes, et avec la reputation d'avoir de l'argent, il ne sait ou donner de la tete. A vous dire la verite, si j'avais une tete comme la sienne, ou je me la ferois couper, ou j'en tirerois bien meilleur parti que ne fait notre ami; son charactere, son genie, et sa conduite sont egalement extraordinaires et m'est (me sont) incomprehensibles.

Lord G. Cavendish is to be married to Lady Eliz. Compton, it being agreed that the Cavendish family must be continued from his loins. Me. La Duchesse fait des paroles, mais non pas des enfans. I hear that she has won immensely, et avec beaucoup d'exactitude, ce qui n'est pas fort ordinaire aux dames.

Harry St. John has been here to ask me to hold a bank to-night at his wife's, and I had an invitation from Mrs. Crewe(158) also this morning to come to her, and I suppose for the same purpose. Je rename a tout cela; les inconveniens en sont innombrables; all my play at present is confined to a rubber at whist, and a little Pharo with Ailsford, and perhaps two or three more. Le grand evenement c'est la perte or la gain de 50 or 80 guineas.

4 o'clock.--Come home to dinner. No letters as yet come from Ireland. Lord Egremont tells me that Digby is sent after La Motte Piquet.(159) I went to Miss Gunning's to carry her a parcel of francs, but I did not find her at home. I expect to see Mitchel back in a few days; the wind, as I am told, is favourable for his return.

The post has brought me letters from Holyhead, but no other, so what kind of passage my dear little boy has had over the sea I am still to know. But he was, I doubt not, safe with you on Friday, and will I hope in God remain so. I met Sir N. Thomas to-day, with whom I had some conversation about him. I do not perceive that he has a very favourable opinion of the Irish climate, for those whose lungs are not very strong. I hope to hear that Louisa is better. My love to them all most cordially, and to Lady Carlisle with my best respects at the same time. What a cursed affair to me is this Lieutenancy of Ireland, and a damned sea between us! Lord Buckingham shewed me last night an infernal ugly gold box which he had received from the town of Cork, and such another I understood that you would have. Adieu; I have heard no news to-day.

Our club at White's commence a tomber; la grande presse n'y (est?) pas; c'est un asyle toujours pour les caducs, et pour ceux qui n'ont pas une passion decidee pour le jeu.

(158) The fashionable beauty, "whose mind kept the promise was made by her face," as Fox sang; the woman whom he said he preferred to any living. She was the daughter of Sir Everard Falkener, and was married to Mr. Crewe in the same year (1764) as her sister who became the celebrated Mrs. Bouverie.

(159) Commander of the French fleet.

(1781, May 29.)--You must know that for these two days past, all passengers in St. James' Street have been amused with seeing two carts at Charles's door filling, by the Jews, with his goods, clothes, books, and pictures. He was waked by Basilico yesterday, and Hare afterwards by his valet de chambre, they bein(g) told at the same time that the execution was begun, and the carts were drawn up against the door. Such furniture I never saw.

Betty and Jack Manners are perpetually in a survey of this operation, and Charles, with all Brooks's on his behalf, in the highest spirits. And while this execution is going on in one part of the street, Charles, Richard, and Hare are alternatively holding a bank of 3,000 pounds ostensible, and by which they must have got among them near 2,000. Lord Robert since his bankruptcy, and in consideration of his party principles, is admitted, as I am told, to some small share in this.

What public business is going on I know not, for all the discourse at which I am present turns upon this bank. Offly sat up last night till four, and I believe has lost a good part of his last legacy. Lord Spencer did not sit up, but was there punting at 4. Now the windows are open at break of day, et le masque leve, rien ne surprend qu'a qui tout soit nouveau, et ne ressemble a rien que l'on ait jamais vu depuis le commencement du monde. There is to-night a great ball at Gloucester House; it is the Restoration Day, and the birthday also of Princess Sophia. Lady Craufurd is now dressing for it, with more roses, blood, and furbelow than were ever yet enlisted(?). My love and thanks to my dear boy for his letter, which I will answer.

(1781,) May 31, Thursday.--If I did not send you tous les petits details de ma vie, as insignificant as it is, our correspondence must soon cease, which is one of the greatest pleasures to me, or rather comforts, in your absence. I trust to others the information of things of more consequence. I have, then, if this is not disagreeable to you, a perpetual source of intelligence, for although je ne fais rien qui vaille, I am always doing or hearing something, as much as those who are employed about more important matters, and if among these a circumstance happens to interest or amuse you, je ne serai pas fache de vous l'avoir mandee.

The diversion of seeing Charles's dirty furniture in the street, and the speculations which this execution has caused, avec tous les propos, et toutes les plaisanteries qui en resultant--all that is now over, and he is established either at his Pharo table, or at his apothecary's, Mr. Mann, who, as a recompense for the legacy which was left by his father and not yet paid, has Charles for a lodger. Jack Manners does not scruple to say that he knows for a certainty that this bank has won to the amount of 40,000 pounds, but then Jack does not scruple to lie when he chooses so to do. I cannot conceive above half the sum to have been won; but then, most of it has been paid.

Trusty's advancement to a share in this bank, and his new occupation of dealing, was what I had a great curiosity to see; and although he is, as you know, fort chiche de ses paroles, he is obliged for the time that he is upon duty to say "The King loses," and "The Knave wins," and this for some'hours, while Charles and Richard are in bed. Hare is also indefatigable, but what his share is, or what have been his profits, I know not. Never was a room so crowded or so hot as this was last night. I could not stay, or chose so to do. The punters were Lord Ossory, Lord C. Spencer, Admiral Pigott, General Smith, Lord Monson, Sir J. Ramsden, &c., &c.

To-day I dine at Lord Ossory's with Lord Robert and Harry Conway, qui m'avoient demande a diner, but it was by Ossory's desire to his house. I mentioned to Lord Ossory the offer which the Duchess of Bedford had made me of Streatham, and I was much blamed for refusing it. If the offer is made again I shall accept it, and it will serve me for a villa till I have hired another.

The Fish came a few evenings ago to dine at Brooks's after the House of Commons was up, but hearing by accident that Lord North dined at White's he went thither, and ordered some champagne and burgundy from his own house for his Lordship's use. He got a dinner by this means the next day at Rigby's with Lord Mansfield and the Chancellor, and then he came to Ossory, and gave himself a thousand airs upon this invitation. I have told you perhaps that a nephew of Lord Chedworth's, the heir of his title and estate, got into the same scrape at Epsom as Onslow did at the Exhibition; ceci prouve la force d'une passion qui est hors de la nature; les autres ont leurs bornes, et de la discretion jusqu'a un certain point.

I went from dinner yesterday to the House of Commons, and came just time enough to be in a division upon some American question, God knows what. I was received in the House with a laugh, because three parts out of four believed me to be with you in Ireland, as bouffon de la Cour. This the morning papers had instructed them to believe, and such is the notion I believe that the writers of those papers have of my talents and turn. You have not told me that Lady Carlisle is with child, but I hear it from other hands. Be so good as not to let me be ignorant of these probable events, in which my affection to her and to you is so much interested.

I sat a great while the other morning with Miss Gunning at St. James's; Sir Robert was with her. She is afraid of having the measles; her sister has them at present. The Ball at Glouc(ster) House was magnificent, and their Royal Highnesses gracious al maggior segno. They call the others, "the people in Pall Mall," and the man in Pall Mall calls the Duke(160) "the Warden of the Forest," and distinguishes him by no other name. I wonder that they do not let other people find names for them both, who know them better than they do themselves.

64 (161) is to be a fine sight, that is, a great concourse of people will be there, I suppose, on their Majesties' account. Mie Mie wants to go. If the Townshends, that is Mary and Lady Middleton, had offered to be troubled with her, I should have consented and gone there myself. I have made no preparations for the Birthday, but thinking where I shall go to avoid it; or for yours, but I will; Storer shall dine with me that day, et ceux que je crois vous etre les plus attaches, and we will drink the health of their Excellencies, cela du petit dauphin, of my dear little Caroline, et ainsi du reste. Pierre tells me that she is not so tall as Mie Mie is at present; en dedommagement de cela elle est cent mille fois plus robuste. As to myself, j'ai un management pour ma sante incroyable. For I am determined, if it pleases God, to live to see you and all of you again, but when or where, that must be left to the chapter of accidents. Emily has left off writing to me; he wrote to me twice pour faire votre eloge, ce qui ne fut fort peu necessaire, and there was an end of his epistolary correspondence. Pray goad that Dean(162) who slumbers in his stall, and make him write. . . .

(160) Of Gloucester.

(161) In the time of George III. and up to the date when it was abolished in 1847, Montem at Eton was a school holiday, an "event," as we should now say, of the London season. Of its origin nothing is known, but the ceremony of a procession in military costume "ad Montem" to a mound near Slough, now called Salt Hill, can be traced back to the sixteenth century. Visitors were offered salt by some of the boys, and in exchange gave money. The amount collected after payment of the expenses belonged to the captain of the school. --"History of Eton College," by H. C. Maxwell-Lyte, p. 450.

(162) Edward Emly, Dean of Derry.

(1781,) June 1, Friday m(orning).--I am at this moment employed fort pedagoguement. I have taken into my own department Mie Mie's translations out of English into French. That is, I am at her elbow when she translates, and by that means can see what faults she makes from insufficiency, and what are produced from carelessness. She is very much so if left to herself, but is very much improved, as I perceive. But Mrs. Webb can be of no use in this, and so I have the task when Labort is not here. I hope that Caroline has somebody to read French with her who has a real good pronunciation, otherwise it will take un mauvais pli, which will not be so easy to recover, and it is better not to speak a language at all than without some sort of grace.

To-day I give a dinner to the bankers; the two not upon duty come here at five, and when the other two come off they will find here des rechauffes; to the Duke of Q(ueensberry) and Mr. Greenville, and to two chance comers; it may be Boothby and Storer, or Sir C. Bunbury. It is too hot to go out to-day. I have seen nobody, and the rise and fall of the bank is not as yet added to the other stocks in the morning papers. It is frequently declared from the window, or gallery, aux passans. Pigott was there this morning at four, and from May the 31st (sic) at night, that is, from Tuesday night, about nine. The account brought to White's, about supper time, was that he had rose to eat a mutton chop. But that merits confirmation.

Young Pitt made yesterday on the Accounts another speech,(163) which is much admired, in which there was du sel, et du piquant, a pleines mains. Charles en fut enchants, and I hear that the satire of it was pointed strongly against Lord N(orth). It wanted no other recommendation to the party who dines here to-day. Sir J. Irwin will be soon with you. I supped with him at White's, and with Lord Glendower and Lord Westmoreland, &c., &c., and I concluded my sitting with a little bank to Harry Carteret, Sir W. Gordon, Lord Ailsford and General Grant, and to no others. I had them in great order. I do not allow the opposite no greater sum than 5 guineas, and such byelaws as these I oblige the observance of, and I won 120 guineas. They waited till near one before I had finished my prosing, and telling old stories at supper to the two young men. When they were finished, I retired and opened my bank.

Charles's house is now going to be new painted, and entire new furniture to be put into it, belonging to I do not know who(m). He was security for an annuity of Richard's, and so suffered this seizure on his account. It is a strange combination altogether, and is now more the subject of conversation than any other topic, and it serves me also as one to fill my letter. Si le recit vous ennuye, vous n'ignorez pas le motif que j'ai a vous le faire. I suppose that you are not always at audiences, and that you may like sometimes to know what passes in circles from whence everything of moment is excluded, and where you may be again, to relieve yourself from business.

To-day I expect a letter from Warner, and of great decision and importance as to the matter about which he has been employed. But if I see him come in while I am at dinner I shall not be surprised. If I have a letter I will send you the substance of it, for I may not go out again after dinner, or only to Lady Harrington's. My bank is not like that at Brooks's; there are a great many lacunes, and it is not above once in I do not know how long that I can get such a party as I had last night.

Ossory's new house is delightful, and the furniture mighty well chose. I have not met yet Lord Euston there, as I expected, But I have dined there less this than former years.

(163) Pitt's second speech, on May 31st, was against a Bill to continue an Act for the appointment of Commissioners' accounts. The Opposition were defeated by 98 votes to 42. The speech attracted great notice.

(1781,) June 2, Saturday morning.--Charles Fox has desired me to send Gregg to him, and is to discharge the annuity for which you are bound, and, I hope, to pay off the arrears at the same time. I have wrote to Gregg, to desire that he will lose no time, as Charles's property is of a very fluctuating kind. My dinner of yesterday was a very agreeable one to me, and seemed to be so to the rest. But Charles had forgot, when he promised to come to me, that he was engaged to the Duke of Grafton. The rest came, for this remarkable sitting at Pharo was over yesterday morning about seven o'clock, and so shall be my further account of it. The event is so often repeated that it becomes less extraordinary. But I have known of no other to entertain you with for some days past. General Craigs sets off for Ireland in about a week or ten days. I shall send my box of things for the children, either by him or Mr. Kinsman. . . .

The Montem is put off from Monday till Wednesday, for the convenience of their Majesties, who are to be there. The Queen will not have prayers read in the manner that they have been used to be there; she sees it [in] the light of a comedy acted, and therefore, improper. Doctor Young, the Fellow, has just been with me, to ask me if I could borrow a regimental suit of clothes, sash, and gorgette from some officer of the Guards, of my acquaintance. I intend to ask Richard, for the boy who is to wear it is, by Doctor Y(oung)'s account, of Richard's height. If I had known it before, I could have sent to Matson for a sash which my father wore at the battle of Blenheim, where he assisted as Aid-de-Camp to my Lord Marlborough. It will be a very lucrative campaign for the boy, who is captain. His name is Roberts; he is a son of one of the Fellows.

Storer's business is not, from what I have accidentally heard, in so great forwardness as I was in hopes that it had been. There must be two vacancies at the Board before he has a very good chance, if he has any. Lord Walsingham has no inclination to quit; it is a scene of business which he likes. \ Mr. Buller has been many years in Parliament, and I am afraid that his pretensions will preponderate above the friendship or good-will which Lord N(orth) professes to Storer. I picked up this by accident as I was going out yesterday airing with Mie Mie, after my company had left me. I met Lord Brudenel, and I collected this from his conversation, for he did not tell it me directly. But this and everything else, trifling or not, I think myself obliged to let you know, et enfin ne n'en laisser au boute de ma plume.