MR. JAMES GRENVILLE TO MR. GRENVILLE.

Thursday morning, June 29, 1758.

I was not in town when the news of the victory' arrived, so you happened not to hear from me. The particulars with regard to numbers killed, &c., were not arrived last night from Prince Ferdinand; but, upon the best accounts to be got from the officer who brought the express, it is thought that the King's army has lost from 500 to 1000, and the French to the extent of perhaps 8000.

I am told it was said in full circle that there are not better troops in the world than the Hanoverians when they have a good general at their head: that the greatest obligations are due to the King of Prussia for giving Prince Ferdinand to that army: that Prince Ferdinand loves that army, and the troops adore Prince Ferdinand, &c.

Politics are much as they were, and in some particulars very good.

P.S. What is material is, that the reinforcement of 15,000 men expected by the French had joined their army the day before the battle. It is thought their full force in the field was about 60,000 men.

MR. ELLIOT TO MR. GRENVILLE.

July 4, 1758.

OUR expedition, my dear Sir, arrived safely at St. Helens, on Saturday evening; the Volunteers got to

The battle of Creveldt.

town on Sunday; the Duke of Marlborough, Lord George', and Howe this day. They looked into the Bay of Caen, prepared to attack Cherbourg, but the wind changed, and water and forage were near exhausted; both these articles were ready at Spithead to put to sea, and before this time are on board. But new circumstances require new councils. The transports are ready at Gravesend to receive 1800 horse, the first division of the body destined for the Rhine. Nothing important from the Continent. The French retire to Cologne: Olmutz not taken. We have letters from Boscawen, dated Halifax, May 27th: he sailed next day with the troops. The other operations in America advance, though with no great rapidity: another battalion of Highlanders ordered. We sent directions to

the Navy Board about the new method of paying the seamen, but have not as yet got their report. I believe they must be roused by more than one letter upon this subject. Our transport account will exceed all imagination this year.

Marshal Belleisle mourns over his son2, who is dead of his wounds: several other noble families have suffered, besides the nameless vulgar. Believe me, &c.

GILBERT ELLIOT.

1 Lord George Sackville, a younger son of the first Duke of Dorset. Having returned from St. Maloes with the Duke of Marlborough, they set out together immediately for the army in Germany.

battle of Creveldt. "when he was in

2 The Duc de Gisors, who was killed at the "He was recommended to me," says Walpole, England: I knew him much, and thought as well of him as all the world did. He was graver, and with much more application to improve himself than any young Frenchman of quality I ever saw. How unfortunate Belleisle is, to have outlived his brother, his only son, and his hearing! Marshal Belleisle died at Versailles in January, 1761, aged 78. He had been Minister and Secretary of State to the French King, for the War Department. He left nearly the whole of his very large fortune to the King.

MR. ELLIOT TO MR. GRENVILLE.

July 10, 1758. THE landing of the troops at Cancale Bay, six miles from St. Maloes, tallies very exactly with Prince Ferdinand's passing the Rhine; and these two pieces of news are not ill supported by the accounts we have this day from the coast of Africa.

The several French forts, settlements, and storehouses on the River Senegal, with a rich booty, consisting of merchandize of various kinds, gold, gum, &c., are now in the possession of the English: ninety-two pieces of cannon, seven vessels, and several prisoners of some note, besides the prejudice done to the French East India Company, all contribute to enhance this

success.

The scheme was formed and conducted by the Admiralty, and executed by ships and marines only.

Notwithstanding this success, so extraordinary, and manifested in every different quarter of the world, many people are so malignant as to assert that this auspicious ministry, which plan so wisely, and conduct their enterprises with equal dispatch and secrecy, is composed of the most jarring and unaccording principles. As Dryden expresses it—"Gods war with gods, and jostle in the dark."

Others, still more profane, ridicule Habeas Corpus, and still persist in the old opinion that an Alderman of London is inferior to a Peer of England. All this, with a little philosophy, one can bear; but when they rise a note higher, and talk contemptuous of the Navy Bill itself, then, indeed, patience can hold no longer; yet upon this happy day, which quietly closes the end of every week, all animosities are laid aside-no Treasury,

no Admiralty, no House of Commons, even St. James's is deserted; Alderman and Peer alike dine at their villa every Saturday in short, we conquer every principle but habit, which suppresses even faction, and combats Nature herself. If you are happy in the country I rejoice at it; and yet you have no great merit-serenity, Mrs. Grenville, an Italian sky, and the blandishments of your little favourites. I beg you will flatter me, and own I have some merit, who feel myself happy, in spite of smoke and inconsistency.

SIR RICHARD LYTTELTON TO MR. GRENVILLE.

Ealing, July 22, 1758.

MY DEAR GRENVILLE,-Your brother James lay here last night in his way to Butleigh, and, as he set out very early this morning, I am charged to write a few lines to you upon the news from Moravia, that you may not be too much cast down with the accounts in the papers, which are all of them Austrian, either from Vienna or Bruxelles; though I am afraid the Prussian affairs go ill enough, as by a letter which Jemmy received from Mr. Pitt (which I have sent to your brother), he says that the siege of Olmutz is raised; his words are these, viz., the news of the day is very unfavourable, but as yet the whole is reducible to this single fact, that the siege of Olmutz is raised. I apprehend nothing very decisive has happened, nay the motives of raising the siege are are unknown. Reports are various, all exaggerated certainly, most probably false, being Austrian and French.

Yorke' writes that the King of Prussia had assembled his whole army at Littau: if this be true, there will probably be an action, and all may be well, and better than before. He adds, Louisbourg is despaired of in France: God send us a good account of it, and that

soon.

You know, my dear George, that Bligh' is at last the Commander-in-Chief for the Expedition. Prince Ferdinand calls out loudly for its sailing; he asks it even at the expense of some diminution of the forces to be sent; him nothing, he says, can serve him so effectually. Pitt, I hear, is well pleased with his new General: Clarke and Fitzmaurice go with him as Lieut. General and Adjutant General (Deputy as I suppose), as they can have no pretence to the rank of Colonel.

I have been lame for a long time, but as I begin to recover strength, projects arise in my mind, and I begin to think of going either to Harwich to bathe in the sea water made warm, or to take a fortnight of the Tunbridge waters, and then for Stowe and Wotton; but perhaps I may not go to either water place, but get to Wotton and Stowe the sooner; at all events I shall, God willing, find myself at Stowe about the 20th of next month, when Lord Lincoln, Viry3, &c., are to be there. The Duchess joins with me in kindest compliments to Mrs. Grenville, and declares I shall not go alone, be it when it may, to Wotton, so you may expect

4

Sir Joseph Yorke, British Minister at the Hague.

2 General Bligh was appointed to the Expedition against Cherbourg. Walpole speaks of him as "an elderly man, of no talents, brave, but in every other shape unfit for the destined service."

3 The Sardinian Ambassador.

4 The Duchess of Bridgewater, his wife.