My niece Waldegrave talks of accompanying me to Paris, but ten or twelve weeks may make great alteration in a handsome young widow's plan: I even think I see some" who will-not forbid banns, but propose them. Indeed, I am almost afraid of coming to you myself. The air of Paris works such miracles, that it is not safe to trust oneself there. I hear of nothing but my Lady Hertford's rakery, and Mr. Wilkes's religious deportment, and constant attendance at your chapel. Lady Anne, I conclude, chatters as fast as my Lady Essex and her four daughters.

Princess Amelia told me t'other night, and bade me tell you, that she has seen Lady Massarene at Bath, who is warm in praise of you, and said that you had spent two thousand pounds out of friendship, to support her son in an election. She told the Princess too, that she had found a rent-roll of your estate in a farmhouse, and that it is fourteen thousand a-year. This I was ordered, I know not why, to tell you. The Duchess of Bedford has not been asked to the looparties at Cavendish-house this winter, and only once to whisk there, and that was one Friday when she is at home herself. We have nothing at the Princess's but silver-loo, and her Bath and Tunbridge acquaintance. The trade at our gold-loo is as contraband as ever. I cannot help saying, that the Duchess of Bedford would mend our silver-loo, and that I wish every body played like her at the gold.

Arlington Street, Tuesday.

You thank me, my dear lord, for my gazettes (in your letter of the 8th) more than they deserve. There is no trouble in sending you news; as you excuse the careless manner in which I write any thing I hear. Don't think yourself obliged to be punctual in answering me: it would be paying too dear for such idle and trifling despatches. Your picture of the attention paid to Madame Pompadour's illness, and of the ridicule attached to the mission of that homage, is very striking. It would be still more so by comparison. Think if the Duke of Cumberland was to set up with my Lord Bute!

The East India Company, yesterday, elected Lord Clive-Great Mogul; that is, they have made him governor-general of Bengal, and restored his Jaghire. I dare say he will put it out of their power ever to take it away again. We have had a deluge of disputes and

He means, as subsequently appears, the Duke of Portland.-C.

b Lord Hertford's eldest daughter, afterwards wife of Mr. Stewart, subsequently created Earl and Marquis of Londonderry.-E.

Elizabeth Russell, daughter of the second Duke of Bedford. She had four daughters; but the eldest died young.--E.

d Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Eyre, Esq. of Derbyshire, second wife of the first, and mother of the second, Earl of Massarene; the latter being at this time a minor. The election was probably for the county of Antrim, in which both Lord Massarene and Lord Hertford had considerable property.-C.

Princess Amelia's, the corner of Harley Street; since the residence of Mr. Hope, and of Mr. Watson Taylor.-C.

A rent-charge which had been granted him by the late Nabob, and which, on the seizure of the territory on which it was charged by the East India Company, Lord Clive insisted that the Company should continue to pay. It was about twenty-five thousand pounds per annum.-C.

pamphlets on the late events in that distant province of our empire, the Indies. The novelty of the manners divert me: our governors there, I think, have learned more of their treachery and injustice, than they have taught them of our discipline.

Monsieur Helvetius arrived yesterday. I will take care to inform the Princess, that you could not do otherwise than you did about her trees. My compliments to all your hotel.

TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD.

Sunday, March 18, 1764.

You will feel, my dear lord, for the loss I have had, and for the much greater affliction of poor Lady Malpas. My nephew went to his regiment in Ireland before Christmas, and returned but last Monday. He had, I suppose, heated himself in that bacchanalian country, and was taken ill the very day he set out, yet he came on, but grew much worse the night of his arrival; it turned to an inflammation in his bowels, and he died last Friday. You may imagine the distress where there was so much domestic felicity, and where the deprivation is augmented by the very slender circumstances in which he could but leave his family; as his father-such an improvident father-is living! Lord Malpas himself was very amiable, and I had always loved him-but this is the cruel tax one pays for living, to see one's friends taken away before one! It has been a week of mortality. The night I wrote to you last, and had sent away my letter, came an account of my Lord Townshend's death. He had been ill treated by a surgeon in the country, then was carried improperly to the Bath, and again back to Rainham; though Hawkins, and other surgeons and physicians, represented his danger to him. But the woman he kept, probably to prevent his seeing his family, persisted in these extravagant journeys, and he died in exquisite tor

A French philosopher, the son of a Dutch physician brought into France by Louis XIV. He was the author of a dull book mis-named "De l'Esprit." We cannot resist repeating a joke made about this period on the occasion of a requisition made by the French ministry to the government of Geneva, that it should seize copies of this book "De l'Esprit," and Voltaire's "Pucelle d'Orléans," which were supposed to be collected there in order to be smuggled into France. The worthy magistrates were said to have reported that, after the most diligent search, they could find in their whole town no trace "de l'Esprit, et pas une Pucelle."-C. (The following is Gibbon's character of Helvetius, in a letter of the 12th of February, 1763:-" Amongst my acquaintance I cannot help mentioning M. Helvetius, the author of the famous book De l'Esprit.' I met him at dinner at Madame Geoffrin's, where he took great notice of me, made me a visit next day, has ever since treated me, not in a polite but a friendly manner. Besides being a sensible man, an agreeable companion, and the worthiest creature in the world, he has a very pretty wife, an hundred thousand livres a-year, and one of the best tables in Paris." He died in 1771, at the age of fifty-six.-E.]

b George Viscount Malpas, member for Corfe-Castle, and colonel of the 65th regiment of foot, the son of George, third Earl of Cholmondeley, and of Mary, only legitimate daughter of Sir Robert Walpole. Lord Malpas had married, in 1747, Hester, daughter and heiress of Sir Francis Edwards, Bart. and by her was father of the fourth Earl.-C.

ment the day after his arrival in Norfolk. He mentions none of his children in his will, but the present lord; to whom he gives 3007. a-year that he had bought, adjoining to his estate. But there is said, or supposed to be, 50,000l. in the funds in his mistress's name, who was his housemaid. I do not aver this, for truth is not the staple commodity of that family. Charles is much disappointed and discontented-not so my lady, who has to 2000l. a-year already, another 10007. in jointure, and 1500l. her own estate in Hertfordshire. We conclude, that the Duke of Argyle will abandon Mrs. Villiers for this richer widow; who will only be inconsolable, as she is too cunning, I believe, to let any body console her. Lord Macclesfield is dead too; a great windfall for Mr. Grenville, who gets a teller's place for his son.

There is no public news: there was a longish day on Friday in our House, on a demand for money for the new bridge from the city. It was refused, and into the accompt of contempt, Dr. Hayd threw a good deal of abuse on the common council-a nest of hornets, that I' do not see the prudence of attacking.

I leave to your brother to tell you the particulars of an impertinent paragraph in the papers on you and your embassy; but I must tell you how instantly, warmly, and zealously, he resented it. He went directly to the Duke of Somerset, to beg of him to complain of it to the Lords. His grace's bashfulness made him choose rather to second the complaint, but he desired Lord Marchmont to make it, who liked the office, and the printers are to attend your House to

morrow.e

I went a little too fast in my history of Lord Clive, and yet I had it from Mr. Grenville himself. The Jaghire is to be decided by law, that is in the year 1900. Nor is it certain that his Omrahship goes; that will depend on his obtaining a board of directors to his mind, at the approaching election. I forgot, too, to answer your question

a She was daughter and heiress of J. Harrison, Esq. of Balls, in Herts.-E.

b Probably Mary Fowke, widow of Mr. Henry Villiers, nephew of the first Earl of Jersey.-C.

George, second Earl of Macclesfield, one of the tellers of the exchequer, and president of the Royal Society.-E.

d George Hay, LL. D. member for Sandwich, and one of the lords of the admiralty.-E. We find in the Journals, that the printers of two papers in which the libellous paragraph appeared, were, after examination at the bar, committed to Newgate. The libel itself is not recorded. The proceedings in the House of Lords were notified to Lord Hertford by the secretary of state, and the following is a copy of his reply to this communication:-"Paris, March 27th, 1764. I am informed by my friends of the insult that has been offered to my character in two public papers, and of the zeal shown by administration in seconding the resentment of the House of Peers in my favour. Perhaps my own inclination might have led me to despise such indignities; but if others, and particularly my friends, take the matter more warmly, I am not insensible to their attention, and receive with gratitude such pledges of their regard. I had indeed flattered myself, that my course of life had hitherto created me no enemy; but as I find that this felicity is too great for any man, I am pleased, at least, to find that he is a very low one : and I am so far obliged to him for discovering to me the share I have in the friendship of so many great persons, and for procuring me a testimony of esteem from so honourable an assembly as that of the Peers of England."-C.

Lord Clive made it a condition of his going to India, that Mr. Sullivan should be 26

VOL. III.

about Luther; and now I remember it, I cannot answer it. Some said his wife had been gallant. Some, that he had been too gallant, and that she suffered for it. Others laid it to his expenses at his election; others again, to political squabbles on that subject between him and his wife-but in short, as he sprung into the world by his election, so he withered when it was over, and has not been thought on since. George Selwyn has had a frightful accident, that ended in a great escape. He was at dinner at Lord Coventry's, and just as he was drinking a glass of wine, he was seized with a fit of coughing, the liquor went wrong, and suffocated him: he got up for some water at the sideboard, but being strangled, and losing his senses, he fell against the corner of the marble table with such violence, that they thought he had killed himself by a fracture of his skull. He lay senseless for some time, and was recovered with difficulty. He was immediately blooded, and had the chief wound, which is just over the eye, sewed up-but you never saw so battered a figure. All round his eye is as black as jet, and besides the scar on his forehead, he has cut his nose at top and bottom. He is well off with his life, and we with his wit.

P. S. Lord Macclesfield has left his wife threescore thousand pounds.

TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD.

Tuesday night, March 27, 1764. YOUR brother has just told me, my dear lord, at the Opera, that Colonel Keith, a friend of his, sets out for Paris on Thursday. I take that opportunity of saying a few things to you, which would be less proper than by the common post; and if I have not time to write to Lord Beauchamp too, I will defer my answer to him till Friday, as the post-office will be more welcome to read that.

Lord Bute is come to town, has been long with the King alone, and goes publicly to court and the House of Lords, where the Barony of Bottetourt has engrossed them some days, and of which the town. thinks much, and I not at all, so I can tell you nothing about it. The first two days, I hear, Lord Bute was little noticed; but to-day much

deprived of the lead he had in the direction at home.-C. [Soon after the election of the directors, the court took the subject of the settlement of Lord Clive's Jaghire into consideration; and a proposition, made by himself, was, on the 16th of May, agreed to, confirming his right for ten years, if he lived so long, and provided the company continued, during that period, in possession of the lands from which the revenue was paid.-E.]

John Luther, Esq. of Myless, near Ongar, in Essex, who, on the death of Mr. Harvey, of Chigwell, stood on the popular interest for that county against Mr. Conyers, and succeeded.-C.

b Lord Macclesfield's second wife, whom he married in 1757, was a Miss Dorothy Nesbit.-E.

The ancient Barony of Bottetourt had been considered as extinct ever since the reign of Edward III. and was now claimed by Mr. Norborne Berkeley, member for Gloucestershire, and a groom of the bedchamber; the revival of a claim so long forgotten created considerable interest.-C.

court was paid to him, even by the Duke of Bedford. Why this difference, I don't know: that matters are somehow adjusted between the favourite not minister, and the ministers not favourites, I have no doubt. Pitt certainly has been treating with him, and so threw away the great and unexpected progress which the opposition had made. They, good people, are either not angry with him for this, or have not found it out. The Sandwiches and Rigbys, who feel another half year coming into their pockets, are not so blind. For my own part, I rejoice that the opposition are only fools, and by thus missing their treaty, will not appear knaves. In the mean time, I have no doubt but the return of Lord Bute must produce confusion at court. He and Grenville are both too fond of being ministers, not to be jealous of one another. If what is said to be designed proves true, that the King will go to Hanover, and take the Queen with him, I shall expect that clamour (which you see depends on very few men, for it has subsided during these private negotiations) will rise higher than ever. The Queen's absence must be designed to leave the regency in the hands of another lady connect that with Lord Bute's return, and judge what will be the consequence! These are the present politics, at least mine, who trouble myself little about them, and know less. I have not been at the House this month; the great points which interested me are over, and the very stand has shut the door. I might like some folks out, but there are so few that I desire to see in, that indifference is my present most predominating principle. The busier world are attentive to the election at Cambridge, which comes on next Friday; and I think, now, Lord Sandwich's friends have little hopes. Had I a vote, it would not be given for the new Lord Hardwicke.

But we have a more extraordinary affair to engage us, and of which you particularly will hear much more,-indeed, I fear must be involved in. D'Eon has published (but to be sure you have already heard so) a most scandalous quarto, abusing Monsieur de Guerchy outrageously, and most offensive to Messieurs de Praslin and Nivernois.c In truth, I think he will have made all three irreconcilable enemies. The Duc de Praslin must be enraged as to the Duke's carelessness and partiality to D'Eon, and will certainly grow to hate Guerchy, concluding the latter can never forgive him. D'Eon, even by his own account, is as culpable as possible, mad with pride, insolent, abusive, ungrateful, and dishonest, in short, a complication of abominations, yet originally ill used by his court, afterwards too well; above all, he has great malice, and great parts to put the malice in play. Though there are even many bad puns in his book, a very uncommon fault in a French book, yet there is much wit too. Monsieur

This is an important observation: it affords a clue to the causes of the unpopularity of the early years of George III.-C.

b The Princess Dowager.

M. de Praslin was secretary for foreign affairs, and M. de Nivernois had been lately ambassador in England.-C.

d At this distance of time, D'Eon's book seems to us the mere ravings of insane vanity; the puns poor, and the wit rare and forced.-C.