(1016) Philip, second Earl Stanhope. See ant`e, p. 308. Letter 96. He married, in July following, Lady Grizel Hamilton, daughter of Charles Lord Binning.-E.
(1017) The imbecile and insane Philip V. He did not die till 1746. The Prince of Asturias was Ferdinand VI., who succeeded him, and died childless in 1759.-D.
(1018) Of Cumberland. He never married.-D.
(1019) John Murray, second Earl of Dunmore: colonel of the third regiment of Scotch foot-guards. He died in 1752-E.
(1020) Sir John Ligonier a general of merit. He was created Lord Ligonier in Ireland, in 1757, an English peer by the same title in 1763, and Earl Ligonier in 1766. He died at the great age of ninety-one, in 1770.-D.
(1021) The Princess was deformed and- ugly. "Having in vain remonstrated with the King against the marriage, the Duke sent his governor, mr. Poyntz, to consult Lord Orford how to avoid the match. After reflecting a few moments, Orford advised 'that the Duke should give his consent, on condition of his receiving an ample and immediate establishment; and believe me,' added he, 'that the match will be no longer pressed.' The Duke followed the advice, and the result fulfilled the prediction "' Lord Mahon, vol. iii. p. 321.-E.
406 Letter 158 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, March 29, 1745.
I begged your brother to tell you what it was impossible for me to tell you.(1023) You share nearly in our common loss! Don't expect me to enter at all upon the subject. After the melancholy two months, that I have passed, and in my situation, you will not wonder I shun a conversation which could not be bounded by a letter-a letter that would grow into a panegyric, or a piece of moral; improper for me to write upon, and too distressful for us both!-a death is only to be felt, never to be talked over by those it touches!
I had yesterday your letter of three sheets - I began to flatter myself that the storm was blown over, but I tremble to think of the danger you are in! a danger, in which even the protection of the great friend you have lost could have been of no service to you. How ridiculous it seems for me to renew protestations of my friendship for you, at an instant when my father is just dead, and the Spaniards just bursting into Tuscany! How empty a charm would my name have, when all my interest and significance are buried in my father's grave! All hopes of present peace, the only thing that could save you, seem vanished. We expect every day to hear of the French declaration of war against Holland. The new Elector of Bavaria is French, like his father; and the King of Spain is not dead. I don't know how to talk to you. I have not even a belief that the Spaniards will spare Tuscany. My dear child what will become of you? whither will you retire till a peace restores you to your ministry? for upon that distant view alone I repose!
We are every day nearer confusion. The King is in as bad humour as a monarch can be; he wants to go abroad, and is detained by the Mediterranean affair; the inquiry into which was moved by a Major Selwyn, a dirty pensioner, half-turned patriot, by the Court being overstocked with votes.(1024) This inquiry takes up the whole time of the House of Commons, but I don't see what conclusion it can have. My confinement has kept me from being there, except the first day; and all I know of what is yet come out is, as it was stated by a Scotch member the other day, "that there had been one (Matthews) with a bad head, another, (Lestock) with a worse heart, and four (the captains of the inactive ships) with no heart at all." Among the numerous visits of form that I have received, one was from my Lord Sandys: as we two could only converse upon general topics, we fell upon this of the Mediterranean, and I made him allow, "that, to be sure, there is not so bad a court of justice in the world as the House of Commons; and how hard it is upon any man to have his cause tried there!"