Chapter XIV: 1764-1765. Æt. 53-54 (3)

"So you did not permit your friend to write the long intended letter. Your reason for this, I must own, is not to me a satisfactory one. If the secretaryship were now actually vacant, it would of course devolve upon you; nor would the interposition of your friends be necessary. It is Mr. Bunbury's provision then, and not yours, which constitutes the difficulty: he happens to be in possession; his alliance and his connexions are considerable; and the difficulty of his re-election makes it less easy than it would otherwise be to find an equivalent for him. Yet if it could be found, it is impossible to conceive that he would not willingly exchange a situation, the functions of which are performed by another, and which he holds contrary to the inclination of his principal. In such a state of things, I cannot help thinking, that a lively representation of your case, from the warm and persuasive pen of your friend, is the most likely circumstance to engage the active genius of the D. of B. to rouse government from their indolence about finding or creating some proper arrangement for Mr. Bunbury. Lord Holland will probably join his influence, and Lord Tavistock, even on his new friend's account, will most certainly concur. This joint operation, supported by the justice of your claims, and the application of your friends, seems to me the most infallible method to surmount the real difficulty, which you have candour enough to admit stands in the way of administration, though disposed to do you justice. If to all this you object certain delicacies in your own mind, and a disdain to solicit what ought to be bestowed, I can only answer, a British minister is at all times so much the slave of those who are not his friends, that his best friends are almost always obliged to extort justice to themselves by methods often hostile, always indelicate. I write to you popularly, not as a philosopher. I desire, therefore, that your objections to my doctrine may be in the same tone; and, after all, why should you, like the plaintive author of 'Emile,' indulge yourself in a pleasing kind of indignation, as if your countrymen had some unaccountable satisfaction in mortifying a man, who feels so very different treatment even from strangers. Notwithstanding all you say, we are both Englishmen; that is, true British subjects, entitled to every emolument and advantage that our happy constitution can bestow. Do not you speak and write and publish what you please? and though attacking favourite and popular opinions, are you not in the confidential friendship of Lord Hertford, and intrusted with the most important national concerns? Am not I, a member of Parliament, as much at liberty to abuse ministers and administration, as if I had been born in Wapping, or to support them if I think proper? Had it not been for the clamour of _a Scott_, perhaps indeed I might have been in some more active, but not more honourable or lucrative situation. This clamour we all know is merely artificial and occasional. It will in time give way to some other, equally absurd and ill-founded, when you, if you will, may become a bishop, and I a minister. In the mean time, let us make the best of our present circumstances; I as treasurer of the chamber, you as the idol of whatever is fair and learned at Paris. About the beginning of December I will be at London, ready to assist your operations if you will follow my advice. Yours," &c. MS. R.S.E.

[241:1] It will be seen that the letter had arrived safely.

[243:1] Minto MS. The remainder of the letter is wanting.

[245:1] Minto MSS. On 19th October, Mr. Elliot writes,--

"I am too well acquainted with your friendly disposition to be
at all surprised at the trouble you have so successfully taken
about my boys. You will, however, allow me to admire your
punctuality in sending me three letters all differently
addressed. The short one for this place is the only one come
to hand. I am impatient, on every account but what regards the
establishment of the boys, for the long one sent to London. I
act with implicit faith upon your short mandate; and if I
could have entertained any doubt, the name of Madame Mirepoix,
you very well know, was more than sufficient to remove it."

On 6th November, he is able to say,--

"I have at length received all your letters; the one intrusted
to Lord March, the other wrote on the supposition of its being
lost, and a third dated October 9th. They all came on the same
day, and so late as the 24th of October. The two boys and
their tutor, Mr. Liston, are now, I presume, settled at Paris.
They had a letter for you. I had luckily directed them, if
they found nobody at the Hotel de Brancas, to inquire for a
Pension opposite to the Maréchale de Mirepoix." (MS. R.S.E.)

[251:1] Private Correspondence, p. 112, _et seq._

[252:1] "But there is a person that has written an "Inquiry, historical and critical, into the evidence against Mary Queen of Scots;" and has attempted to refute the foregoing narrative. He quotes a single passage of the narrative, in which Mary is said simply to refuse answering; and then a single passage from Goodall, in which she boasts simply that she will answer; and he very civilly and almost directly, calls the author a liar, on account of this pretended contradiction. The whole inquiry, from beginning to end, is composed of such scandalous artifices; and, from this instance, the reader may judge of the candour, fair dealing, veracity, and good manners of the inquirer. There are, indeed, three events in our history which may be regarded as the touchstone of party men. An English Whig, who asserts the reality of the Popish plot; an Irish Catholic, who denies the massacre in 1641: and a Scotch Jacobite, who maintains the innocence of Queen Mary, must be considered as men beyond the reach of argument or reason, and must be left to their prejudices."

[252:2] There is no address on the MS., but circumstances show the letter to have been intended for Lord Elibank.

[253:1] These references are to the first edition of the "History of the House of Tudor."

[256:1] Scroll MS. R.S.E. A faint line is drawn through the concluding paragraph, and the passage may have been omitted in the letter as transmitted.

[260:1] Scroll, MS. R.S.E.

[260:2] MS. R.S.E.

[261:1] See pp. 240, 244.

[263:1] Minto MSS.