always attend the family" you belong to; and so, in a solemn manner-(for I cannot be merry), I subscribe myself, &c.

G. EARLE.

GILES EARLE, ESQ. TO MRS. HOWARD.

MADAM,

10th Aug. 1717.

ABOUT a fortnight since I did my

self the honour to write to you. I hope you had a little pleasure in receiving it, and hearing from a friend that wishes you as well as he does himself; it was since I wrote to you I have known the hard fate of my friends that were in the king's service. I have a thousand reasons for thinking them men of great honour, lovers of their king and country, and that had rather lose their lives than forfeit their honesty. I hope for the sake of the king's service, and the liberties and properties of a free people, their 'successors have

5 That of the Prince of Wales.

1 The successors were another branch of the whig party. It was in the commencement of these changes that Mr. Addison became secretary of state.

the same principles. If people would but think right, there are very few things can happen to a man (where bodily pain is not concerned) that are terrible; the necessaries of life are almost in every man's power, and comforts are what one is pleased to call so. Next winter I design to make me a plain coat, and line it with gratitude and honesty; it is a damned2 hot summer suit, but I fancy it will keep me as warm in cold weather as any laced coat of them all. Would to God I was at Hampton Court! I stupify myself by eternally thinking of that place, but I hope those that wish me best had rather I should mind my business here for a little time, repair my farm-houses, and put my estate in order that has been neglected these ten years. Pray give my most faithful and obedient service to those who will accept of it.

3

I am, madam, &c.

G. EARLE.

2 He seems to mean that, at that moment, gratitude and honesty were rather oppressive and inconvenient, but that the day would come when they would be rewarded.

3 Where the Prince of Wales, at this time, resided with the king.

HENRY PELHAM, ESQ. TO THE HON. GEO. BERKELEY.

[Henry Pelham, only brother of the Duke of Newcastle, born in 1696. He came into parliament in 1718; was a lord of the treasury in 1721; in 1724 he became secretary at war; and in 1730 paymaster of the forces. He was an able supporter of Sir Robert Walpole; and soon after that minister's fall was—on his recommendation to George II. and unexpectedly to Mr. Pelham and his family-named first lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer. His talents were not shining, but they were useful; his temper conciliatory, and his integrity above suspicion. If his administration had not the opportunity of being glorious abroad, it had the higher and rarer merit of being happy, prosperous, and popular, at home. He died after a short illness in 1754, and the general consternation at his loss is the best panegyric upon his character. Horace Walpole, who hated him from some private pique, depreciates on all occasions Mr. Pelham's merit, but his contemporaries and posterity cannot both be mistaken in a man who held so eminent a station for so long and luminous a period; and we may safely reject Walpole's prejudiced testimony.]

Nov. 3d, 1717.

SINCE you were so kind as to desire it, dear Berkeley', I give you this trouble to tell you, that after some few misfortunes upon the road, and

'Mr. Berkeley appears to have been at this period in Paris, whence Mr. Pelham was just returned.

2

3

a very violent storm at sea, I got up to Dover last Saturday, and to London last Sunday, where I found very little company except the prince's family. I went afterward to Hampton Court, where I was much flattered, and had great honours done me. The news of the town now, and whole conversation, is of the 3 young prince, who was born last night at six o'clock, and Her Royal Highness very well. I never saw any body so transported as the Prince of Wales Lord Hervey, being in waiting, was sent immediately to the king, and had the honour of kissing His Majesty's hands. Our wishes, and the town talk, give him a thousand pounds, but I am afraid. If it should be so, admire Herbert's good fortune!—it was his

2 The king was now at Hampton Court and the prince in

town.

To a misunderstanding about the christening of this child Smollett and other historians attribute the breach between the king and the prince. We see, however, in these letters that the breach already existed; the affair of the christening, which was followed by the prince and princess leaving St. James's in high indignation, only served to make the quarrel more public and scandalous.

4

Carr, Lord Hervey, gentleman of the prince's bedchamber; the elder brother of the more celebrated John, who, on Carr's death in 1723, became Lord Hervey. See the next letter.

Probably Henry, Lord Herbert, afterwards ninth Earl of Pembroke, one of the lords of the prince's bedchamber.

VOL. I.

C

turn to wait, but he changed with Hervey for the next.

Politics are much as you left them, the dif ference running as high between the two courts as ever. The king forbad the lord of the bedchamber inviting Lord Townshend and Walpole to dine with him at Newmarket; all others were very welcome. The ministers say they have nothing to ask this sessions that can be refused them, only common subsidies. They are reducing the army to fifteen thousand men; that reduction to be made by private men out of each company and troop, without breaking any corps. This will be agreeable news to Jemmy Dormer: if he has not gone from Paris, pray tell him I got his books to Waldershare without paying any duty, and 'Furnese will take care to get them to London.

6 After the prince had left St. James's, matters went still further, and the Gazette contained such a notification as never was before published, that the king would not receive at his court any one who should visit the prince.

7 General Dormer, a friend of Pope's, whose visits to Rowsham, the seat of the Dormers, are often mentioned in his correspondence. The news would be agreeable, because Dormer, by this arrangement, would not lose his regiment. Mr. Pelham had served under Dormer's command against the rebels in 1715. 8 The seat of the family of Furnese in Kent has since become the property of the Norths.

9 One cannot refrain from a smile at finding the future chancellor of the exchequer engaged in smuggling.

1 Probably Sir Robert Furnese, the second baronet.