I hear of neither deaths, marriages, or preferments; public news come to your knowledge sooner, and with more authenticity, than through me; so I have no more to say at present, but to beg that I may hear from you as often as possible, and that I may have the satisfaction of knowing that you are well. These assurances cannot be too often repeated to me, who am interested by every degree of affection in knowing whatever concerns you or yours.
My best compliments to Dr. Ekins, and my love once more to George, and to his sisters. He has wrote as often to me as I expected. I shall never, as long as I live, forget his assurances upon that head, the tone and air with which he said it, and the cordiality of it. Il a indubitablement le meilleur des coeurs possibles.
(165) On June 12th Fox moved that the House should resolve itself into a Committee to consider the American war, at the same time moving a further resolution that Ministers should take every possible measure to conclude peace with the American Colonies. The Motion was rejected by 172 to 99.
(166) Marlborough House was designed by Wren; it reverted to the Crown in 1817.
(167) Bedford House, built in the reign of Charles II., covered the whole of the north side of what is now Bloomsbury Square. It was sold and pulled down in 1800.
(168) Charles first Marquis Cornwallis (1738-1805). In early life Cornwallis was both a soldier and a politician. Though one of the few men opposed to the taxation of the American Colonists, he felt bound as a soldier to serve against them and was undoubtedly the most able of the English generals. In 1786, at the urgent request of Pitt, he became Governor General of India and did not return to England till 1793. In 1798 Cornwallis again entered the public service as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and occupied that position at the time of the Union. At his death he was again Viceroy of India.
(1781,) June 13, Wednesday m(orming).—As I think, after having wrote a long letter to Dr. Ekins, I shall have little to say to you, so I take only this vessel of paper for my purpose. Mrs. Webb and I are going to consummate our unfinished loves at Streatham, and to reside there at times for the next six weeks. I shall make use of this opportunity to fix myself in a country house for next year, and perhaps the Duke of Q(ueensberry) may do the same, for from that distance to about ten miles further we have agreed is the best to answer our purposes. We must necessarily have two houses, that purity and impurity may not occasionally meet. Lady Ossory has negotiated this matter for me, and this morning I shall go to Bedford House to do homage, as a tenant-at-will.
I heard yesterday young Pitt; I came down into the House to judge for myself. He is a young man who will undoubtedly make his way in the world by his abilities. But to give him credit for being very extraordinary, upon what I heard yesterday, would be absurd. If the oration had been pronounced equally well by a young man whose name was not of the same renown, and if the matter and expression had come without that prejudice, or wrote down, all which could have been said was, that he was a sensible and promising young man. There is no fairer way of judging.
Lord Cambden's son acquitted himself but very ill; however, Lord
Chatham did him the honour to say that he sees he will make a
speaker, so we must give him credit for what he may do by what Lord
Chatham has said.
If I wanted reputation, and to be puffed, and could afford to pay for such nonsense, I would certainly be in Opposition, and sit in the House in the places where Ossory and Lord Robert and young Greenville sit. But the difficulty would be to extol my speaking when I said nothing.