MR. PITT TO MR. GRENVILLE.

Sunday, March 21, 1756. THE pain in my face and ear is so much more troublesome that I would avoid, if I could, an unnecessary trip to town to-morrow. I therefore beg you will be so good to let me know by the bearer, who is ordered to return to-morrow morning very early, whether Sir George's inflexibility holds out, and the tax on plate1 is to be forced upon us to-morrow. at present muffled up with flannel, but will come up (unless much worse) accordingly as your note shall inform me. Lady Hester is very well, and hopes to see you some time or other. W. PITT.

I am

MRS. GRENVILLE TO MR. GRENVILLE.

April 20, 1756.

I AM happy to hear, my dearest Love, that you got safe to Wotton; for notwithstanding all your boasts about the practicability of the country, I think the roads must be such as to make utter safety rather a piece of good luck than a certainty, for we have had a deluge of rain either night or day, and sometimes both, since you went out of town.

The tax upon plate formed part of Sir George Lyttelton's Budget, as Chancellor of the Exchequer: a sum of five shillings was to be levied for every one hundred ounces, as far as four thousand ounces, and all persons were to enter the amount of their plate at the Excise Office. It produced, says Horace Walpole, but 18,000l.

Lady Exeter' has made a will, by which she has left all her fortune, consisting of 70,000l., to Lord Exeter, for his life, and afterwards to Mr. Tommy Townshend', according to her father's desire. Her distemper was the same as as Lady Granby's, a St. Anthony's fire, which struck in and seized her brain. I heard yesterday that the Bishop of London withdraws his pretensions to the interruption of the Duke of G's road, so that it is once more confidently said that the Duke of Bedford will be defeated.

The news of the town is that there are fresh proposals of peace just imported, so advantageous that we shall certainly accept them. There is a Prince of Nassau, a sovereign just arrived, who is much admired for his beauty, and a Morocco Ambassador, as much admired for his great politeness (though he does not speak a word in any known language); he gives the preference to Lady Caroline Petersham before Lady Coven

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1 Wife of Brownlow, ninth Earl of Exeter, and sole daughter and heir of Horatio Townshend, third son of Horatio, first Viscount Townshend. She died on the 17th instant.

2 Grandson of Charles, second Viscount Townshend. He was made a Lord of the Treasury in 1765, and in 1782 Secretary of State; he was soon after created Baron and Viscount Sydney, and died in June, 1800.

3 Lady Francis, daughter of Charles Seymour, sixth Duke of Somerset; she married the Marquess of Granby, in 1750, and died in 1760.

MA

5 letter dated 1756, Lady Granby didn't dis till 19667

Now called the New Road, leading from Paddington to the City. It was considered to be very advantageous to the Duke of Grafton's property, but as it was intended to pass near the back of the gardens of Bedford House, it was objected to by the Duke on account of the dust it would make, and of some proposed buildings which would interfere with his prospect. Bedford House stood upon the site of what is now Bedford Place, Bloomsbury Square, and was taken down about fifty years ago.

3

Lady Caroline Petersham was the daughter of Charles, second

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try'; he says she is a glorious creature, and handsomer than either of his three wives. The Duke of Richmond' has put the Prince of Nassau in possession of his house at Whitehall during his stay in England; they went yesterday together to Newmarket. The Duke of Cumberland is gone there, but is to stay but two days. I met Mrs. Admiral West at Lady Cobham's on Sunday; she had then had no letters from the Admiral, and therefore gives no credit to the reports of their being put back into Plymouth.

3

Postscript.-From the most genuine authority, news is just come that the French sailed from Toulon the 9th, with twelve ships of the line, six frigates, with 16,000 men on board, three months' provision, and the Duke of Richelieu at their head; this is a stolen march,

Duke of Grafton, and wife of William, Viscount Petersham, who succeeded his father the 8th of December, 1756, and became second Earl of Harrington. She died in June, 1784.

1 Maria, eldest daughter of John Gunning, Esq., and wife of George William, sixth Earl of Coventry. She died Sept. 30, 1760, of consumption, and her death was the subject of some beautiful lines, by Mason:

"Think of her fate! revere the heavenly hand

That led her hence, tho' soon, by steps so slow!
Long at her couch Death took his patient stand,
And menaced oft, yet oft withheld the blow;

To give reflection time with lenient art,

Each fond delusion from her soul to steal;

Teach her from folly peaceably to part,

And wean her from a world she loved too well."

2 Charles, third Duke of Richmond, K.G. He married in April, 1757, Mary, eldest daughter and co-heir of Charles third Earl of Ailesbury. He was sent Ambassador to the French Court, in 1765, and in the following year made Secretary of State. He died in 1806.

3 Admiral Temple West was a nephew of the late Lord Cobham, being the second son of his eldest sister, Maria Temple, who married Dr. West, and afterwards Sir John Langham. Admiral West married Frances, daughter of Admiral Sir John Balchen. He was for some time M.P. for the borough of Buckingham. He died in 1757.

as the Government here expected no such attempt till the 20th; they are gone to Minorca'; all faces here lengthen upon it, and the greatest face of all could not forbear to take the same dimension. This is my friend and first intelligencer that has waylaid me that you might hear the news.

The news in the paper of the French ships taken

is true.

MR. ELLIOT2 TO MR. GRENVILLE.

May 25, 1756.

YE fields and woods, my refuge from the toilsome world of business! I know it well, Wotton is a perfect Paradise; who would live in London, or think of the public, who may enjoy undisturbed his plantations, his

This is the expedition which Admiral Byng encountered at Minorca, and with which he so unfortunately declined to engage.

2 Mr. Gilbert Elliot, second son of Sir Gilbert Elliot, of Minto. He was M.P. for Selkirk, and afterwards for Roxburghshire, and third baronet upon the decease of his father. In December, 1756, he was made a Commissioner of the Admiralty Upon the retirement of Lord Bute, in April, 1763, the Duke of Newcastle writes to Mr. Pitt:"My Lord Bute and Mr. Fox have taken good care of their friends. A second reversion of so considerable an office as Justice Clerk of Scotland, with that which he has already of Keeper of the Signet of Scotland, a place worth 1500l. per annum, for life, seems to me to be an ample reward for Mr. Gilbert Elliot, who has also an employment of Treasurer of the Chambers, worth between two and three thousand pounds per annum." Sir Gilbert Elliot had considerable poetical talent; he was author of a beautiful pastoral song, mentioned in the notes to Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel, beginning—

My sheep I neglected: I broke my sheep hook,

And all the gay haunts of my youth I forsook."

In the Bedford Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 52, Sir Gilbert is said to have died in 1782, but other authorities state that his death occurred in 1777.

children, and his chicken-yard! Yet I must congratulate with you, that only one Peer' was found to speak against a militia. Earl Stanhope' opened the debate, professing his love to mankind, his devotion to the public; then took a solemn oath that, if the Bill passed, he would accept of any commission, however low, and never retreat from any enemy, so help him God! As he began with an oath, he ended with a prayer.

Lord Granville spoke next; declared it was a hot day, he would not overheat himself, nor the Lords; the Bill was impracticable nonsense, a shoeing-horn to faction; ridiculed the manner it passed the Commons; he was against all militias, especially this unamended Bill.

My Lord Chancellor' spoke an hour; though no friend to foreigners, a friend to a militia, though an enemy to this Bill; it was a violation of prerogative, inconsistent with a commercial country; these were his two points. He proved the first by asserting Clarendon and Southampton had desired prerogative in the Militia Act, the 14th of Charles II.; this Bill a direct repeal of that Act, by making the consent of Parliament necessary to call out the militia; then a panegyric upon the King, a devout wish that his reign might be long, and his crown not descend to an excellent young prince, tarnished by this law. The second point: this country consists of merchants, artificers, and country gentlemen, all to be defended by an army; warlike ideas incompatible with trade; in twelve years, three hundred 1 John, Lord Granville.

2 Philip, second Earl of Stanhope; died 1786.

3 Philip Yorke, first Earl of Hardwicke, became Lord Chancellor on the death of Lord Talbot in 1737.

and died on the 6th of March, 1764.

He resigned the seals in 1756,