he gave no orders, except for this, which was not asked by that earl.

TO SIR HORACE MANN.

(From Houghton.)

HERE are three new ballads, and you must take them as a plump part of a long letter. Consider, I am in the barren land of Norfolk, where news grows as slow as any thing green; and besides, I am in the house of a fallen minister! The first song I fancy is Lord Edgcumbe's; at least he had reason to write it. The second I do not think so good as the real story that occasioned it. The last is reckoned vastly the best, and is much admired: I cannot say I see all those beauties in it, nor am charmed with the poetry, which is cried up. I don't find that any body knows whose it is. Pultney is very angry, especially as he pretends, about his wife, and says, "it is too much to abuse ladies!" You see, their twenty years' satires come home thick! He is gone to the Bath in great dudgeon: the day before he went, he went in to the King to ask him to turn out Mr. Hill of the customs, for having opposed him at Heydon. "Sir," said the King, "was it not when you was opposing me? I won't turn him out: I will part with no more of my friends." Lord Wilmington was waiting to receive orders accordingly, but the King gave him none.

We came hither last Saturday; as we passed through Grosvenorsquare, we met Sir Roger Newdigate with a vast body of Tories, proceeding to his election at Brentford: we might have expected some insult, but only one single fellow hissed, and was not followed. Lord Edgcumbe, Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Hervey, in their way to Coke's,a and Lord Chief Justice Wills (on the circuit) are the only company here yet. My Lord invited nobody, but left it to their charity. The other night, as soon as he had gone through showing Mr. Ellis the house, "Well," said he, "here I am to enjoy it, and my Lord of Bath may- "I forgot to tell you, in confirmation of what you see in the song of the wife of Bath having shares of places, Sir Robert

As these ballads are to be found in the edition of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's works, published in 1822, it has been deemed better to omit them here. They are called, "Labour in Vain," "The Old Coachman," and, "The Country Girl.”—D. b It was written by Hanbury Williams.

c Sir Roger Newdigate, the fifth baronet of the family. He was elected member for Middlesex, upon the vacancy occasioned by Pultney's being created Earl of Bath. He belonged to the Tory or Jacobite party.-D. [Sir Roger afterwards represented the University of Oxford in five parliaments, and died in 1806, in his eighty-seventh year. Among other benefactions to his Alma Mater, he gave the noble candelabra in the Radcliffe library, and founded an annual prize for English verses on ancient painting, sculp ture, and architecture.]

d Holkham. Coke was the son of Lord Lovel, afterward Viscount Coke, when his father was created Earl of Leicester.-D.

told me, that when formerly she got a place for her own father, she took the salary and left him only the perquisites!

It is much thought that the King will go abroad, if he can avoid leaving the Prince in his place-. Imagine all this!

I received to-day yours of July 29, and two from Mr. Chute and Madame Pucci, which I will answer very soon: where is she now? I delight in Mr. Villiers's modesty-in one place you had written it Villette's; I fancy on purpose, for it would do for him.

Good night, my dear child! I have written myself threadbare. I know you will hate my campaign, but what can one do!

TO SIR HORACE MANN.

Houghton, Aug. 20, 1742.

By the tediousness of the post, and distance of place, I am still receiving letters from you about the Secret Committee, which seems strange, for it is as much forgotten now, as if it happened in the last reign. Thus much I must answer you about it, that it is possible to resume the inquiry upon the Report next session; but you may judge whether they will, after all the late promotions.

We are willing to believe that there are no news in town, for we hear none at all: Lord Lovel sent us word to-day, that he heard, by a messenger from the post office, that Montemar is put under arrest. I don't tell you this for news, for you must know it long ago: but I expect the confirmation of it from you next post. Since we came hither I have heard no more of the King's journey to Flanders: our troops are as peaceable there as on Hounslow Heath, except some bickerings and blows about beef with butchers, and about sacraments with friars. You know the English can eat no meat, nor be civil to any God but their own.

As much as I am obliged to you for the description of your Cocchiata, I don't like to hear of it. It is very unpleasant, instead of being at it, to be prisoner, in a melancholy, barren province, which

She was the daughter of the Conte di Valvasone, of Friuli, sister of Madame Suares, and of the bedchamber to the Duchess of Modena.

Thomas Villiers a younger son of William, second Earl of Jersey, at this time British minister at the court of Dresden, and eventually created Lord Hyde, and Earl of Clarendon. Sir H. Mann had alluded in one of his letters to a speech attributed to Mr. Villiers, in which he took great credit to himself for having induced the King of Poland to become a party to the peace of Breslau, recently concluded between the Queen of Hungary and the King of Prussia; a course of proceeding, which, in fact, his Polish Majesty had no alternative but to adopt. Villettes was an inferior diplomatic agent from England to some of the Italian courts, and was at this moment resident at the court of Turin.-D. Montemar was the General of the King of Spain, who commanded the troops of that sovereign against the Imperialists in Italy.-D.

d A sort of serenade. Sir H. Mann had mentioned, that he was about to give an entertainment of this kind in his garden to the society of Florence.-D.

would put one in mind of the deluge, only that we have no water. Do remember exactly how your last was; for I intend that you shall give me just such another Cocchiata next summer, if it pleases the kings and queens of this world to let us be at peace! "For it rests that without fig-leaves," as my Lord Bacon says in one of his letters, "I do ingenuously confess and acknowledge" that I like nothing so well as Italy.

I agree with you extremely about Tuscany for Prince Charles," but I can only agree with you on paper; for as to knowing any thing of it, I am sure Sir Robert himself knows nothing of it: the Duke of Newcastle and my Lord Carteret keep him in as great ignorance as possible, especially the latter; and even in other times, you know how little he ever thought on those things. Eelieve me, he will every day know less.

Your last, which I have been answering, was the 5th of August; I this minute receive another of the 12th. How I am charmed with your spirit and usage of Richcourt! Mais ce n'est pas d'aujourdhui que je commence à les mepriser! I am so glad that you have quitted your calm, to treat them as they deserve. You don't tell me if his opposition in the council hindered your intercession from taking place for the valet de chambre. I hope not! I could not bear his thwarting you!

I am now going to write to your brother, to get you the overtures; and to desire he will send them with some pamphlets and the magazines which I left in commission for you, at my leaving London. I am going to send him, too, des pleins pouvoirs, for nominating a person to represent me at his new babe's christening.

I am sorry Mrs. Goldsworthy is coming to England, though I think it can be of no effect. Sir Charles has no sort of interest with the new powers, and I don't think the Richmonds have enough to remove foreign ministers. However, I will consult with Sir Robert about it, and see if he thinks there is any danger for you, which I do not in the least; and whatever can be done by me, I think you know, will.

P. S. I inclose an answer to Madame Pucci's letter. Where is she in all this Modenese desolation?

TO SIR HORACE MANN.

Houghton, August 28, 1742.

I DID receive your letter of the 12th, as I think I mentioned in my last; and to-day another of the 19th. Had I been you, instead of

a Prince Charles of Lorraine, younger brother of Francis, who was now Grand Duke of Tuscany. He was a general of some abilities; but it was his misfortune to be so often opposed to the superior talents of the King of Prussia.-D.

b Sir Charles Wager.

saying that I would have taken my lady's woman for my spy, I should have said, that I would hire Richcourt himself: I dare to say that one might buy the count's own secrets of himself.

I am sorry to hear that the Impresarii have sent for the Chiaretta; I am not one of the managers; I should have remonstrated against her, for she will not do on the same stage with the Barbarina. I don't know who will be glad of her coming, but Mr. Blighe and Amorevoli.

'Tis amazing, but we hear not a syllable of Prague—taken, it must be! Indeed, Carthagena, too, was certain of being taken! but it seems, Maillebois is to stop at Bavaria. I hope Belleisles will be made prisoner? I am indifferent about the fate of the great Broglio-but Belleisle is able, and is our most determined enemy: we need not have more, for to-day it is confirmed that Cardinal Tencin and M. d'Argenson are declared of the prime ministry. The first moment they can, Tencin will be for transporting the Pretenders into England. Your advice about Naples was quite judicious: the appearance of a bomb will have great weight in the councils of the little king.

We don't talk now of any of the Royals passing into Flanders; though the Champion this morning had an admirable quotation, on the supposition that the King would go himself: it was this line from the Rehearsal :

"Give us our fiddle; we ourselves will play."

The Lesson for the Day' that I sent you, I gave to Mr. Coke, who came in as I was writing it, and by his dispersing it, it has got into print, with an additional one, which I cannot say I am proud should go under my name. Since that, nothing but lessons are the fashion: first and second lessons, morning and evening lessons, epistles, &c. One of the Tory papers published so abusive an one last week

a Lady Walpole. Richcourt, the Florentine minister, was her lover, and both, as has been seen in the former part of these letters, were enemies of Sir H. Mann.-D.

b This means retaken by the Imperialists from the French, who had obtained possession of it on the 25th of November, 1741. The Austrian troops drove the French out of Prague, in December, 1742.-D.

This wish was gratified, though not in this year. Marshal Belleisle was taken prisoner in 1745, by the Hanoverian dragoons, was confined for some months in Windsor Castle, and exchanged after the battle of Fontenoy.-D.

d A profligate ecclesiastic, who was deeply engaged in the corrupt political intrigues of the day. In these he was assisted by his sister Madame Tencin, an unprincipled woman of much ability, who had been the mistress of the still more infamous Cardinal Dubois. Voltaire boasts in his Memoirs, of having killed the Cardinal Tencin from vexation, at a sort of political hoax, which he played off upon him.-D. [The cardinal was afterwards made Archbishop of Lyons. In 1752, he entirely quitted the court, and retired to his diocese, where he died in 1758, "greatly esteemed," says the Biog. Univ. " for his extensive charities." His sister died in 1749. She was mother of the celebrated D'Alembert by Destouches Canon, and authoress of "Le Comte de Comminges," "Les Malheurs de l'Amour," and other romances.]

The Champion was an opposition Journal, written by Fielding. [Assisted by Ralph, the historian.]

f Entitled "The Lessons for the Day, 1742." Published in Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's works, but written by Walpole.-D.

on the new ministry, that three gentlemen called on the printer, to know how he dared to publish it. Don't you like these men, who for twenty years together led the way, and published every thing that was scandalous, that they should wonder at any body's daring to publish against them! Oh! it will come home to them! Indeed, every body's name now is published at length: last week the Champion mentioned the Earl of Orford and his natural daughter, Lady Mary, at length (for which he had a great mind to prosecute the printer). To-day, the London Evening Post says, Mr. Fane, nephew of Mr. Scrope, is made first clerk of the treasury, as a reward for his uncle's taciturnity before the Secret Committee. He is in the room of old Tilson, who was so tormented by that Committee that it turned his brain, and he is dead.

I am excessively shocked at Mr. Fane's behaviour to you; but Mr. Fane is an honourable man! he lets poor you pay him his salary for eighteen months, without thinking of returning it! But if he had lost that sum to Jansen, or to any of the honourable men at White's, he would think his honour engaged to pay it. There is nothing, sure, so whimsical as modern honour! You may debauch a woman upon a promise of marriage, and not marry her; you may ruin your tailor's or your baker's family by not paying them; you may make Mr. Mann maintain you for eighteen months, as a public minister, out of his own pocket, and still be a man of honour! But not to pay a common sharper, or not to murder a man that has trod upon your toe, is such a blot in your scutcheon, that you could never recover your honour, though you had in your veins "all the blood of all the Howards!"

My love to Mr. Chute: tell him, as he looks on the east front of Houghton, to tap under the two windows in the left-hand wing, up stairs, close to the colonnade-there are Patapan and I, at this instant, writing to you; there we are almost every morning, or in the library; the evenings, we walk till dark; then Lady Mary, Miss Leneve, and I play at comet; the Earl, Mrs. Leneve, and whosoever is here, discourse; car telle est notre vie! Adieu!

a Charles Fane, afterwards Lord Fane, had been minister at Florence before Mr. Mann.

b A notorious gambler. He is mentioned by Pope, in the character of the young man of fashion, in the fourth canto of the Dunciad,

"As much estate, and principle, and wit,

As Jansen, Fleetwood, Cibber, shall think fit.”—D.