"—Rivers, Vaughan, and Grey
Ere this lie shorter by the head at Pomfret."
The book is supposed to be the second ever printed in England by Caxton: it contains an illumination representing the Earl introducing Caxton to Edward the Fourth, his Queen, and the Prince. "The most remarkable circumstance attending it," says Walpole, in his Noble Authors, "is the gallantry of the Earl, who omitted to translate part of it, because it contained sarcasms of Socrates against the fair sex."-E.
410 Letter 252 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Jan, 11, 1758.
You express so much concern and tenderness for Mr. Conway and me in your letter of Dec. 17th, which I received two days ago, that I am impatient and happy to tell you, that after keeping the report of the court-martial a week, the King yesterday approved the sentence, which is a full acquittal of Sir John Mordaunt, and was unanimous. If the commander-in-chief is so fully cleared, what must the subordinate generals be? There are still flying whispers of its being brought into Parliament in some shape or other, but every public and private reason, I say reason, forbid it. Sure this is not a season to relume heats, when tranquility is so essential and so established! In a private light who can wish to raise such a cloud of enemies as the whole army, who murmur grievously at hearing that an acquittal is not an acquittal; who hold it tyranny, if they are not to be as safe by their juries as the rest of their fellow-subjects; and who think a judgment of twenty-one general officers not to be trifled with. I tremble if any rashness drives the army to distinguish or think themselves distinguished from the civil government.
You are by this time, I suppose, in weepers for princess Caroline;(856) though her state of health has been so dangerous for years, and her absolute confinement for many of them, her disorder was in a manner new and sudden, and her death unexpected by herself, though earnestly her wish. her goodness was constant and uniform, her generosity immense, her charities most extensive—in short I, no royalist, could be lavish in her praise. What will divert you is, that the Duke of Norfolk's and Lord Northumberland's upper servants have asked leave to put themselves in mourning, not out of regard for this admirable Princess, but to be more sur le bon ton. I told the Duchess I supposed they would expect her to mourn hereafter for their relations.
Well, it seems I guessed better about Sir James Grey than he knew about himself. Sir Benjamin Keene is dead;(857) I dined to-day where Colonel Grey did; he told me it is a year and a half since the King named his brother for Spain, and that he himself was told but yesterday that Sir James was too well at Naples to be removed,(858) and that reasons of state called for somebody else. Would they called for you! and why not? You are attached to nobody; your dear brother had as much reason to flatter himself with Mr. Pitt's favour, as he was marked by not having Mr. Fox's. Your not having the least connexion with the latter cannot hurt you. Such a change, for so great an object, would overrule all my prudence: but I do not know whether it were safe, to hint it'. especially as by this time, at least before your application could come, it must be disposed of. Lord Rochfort wishes it, Lord Huntingdon has asked it; Lord Tyrawley and Lord Bristol(859) are talked of. I am so afraid of ticklish situations for you, that in case of the latter's removal, I should scarce wish you Turin. I cannot quit this chapter without lamenting Keene! my father had the highest opinion of his abilities, and indeed his late Negotiations have been crowned with proportionate success. He had great wit, agreeableness, and an indolent good-humour that was very pleasing: he loved our dearest Gal.!
The King of Prussia is quite idle; I think he has done nothing this fortnight but take Breslau, and Schweidnitz, and ten or a dozen generals, and from thirty to fifty thousand prisoners— in this respect he contradicts the omne majus continet in se minus. I trust he is galloping somewhere or other with only a groom to get a victory. Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick has galloped a little from one: when we were expecting that he would drive the French army into the sea, and were preparing to go to Harwich to see it, he turned back, as if he wanted to speak with the King of Prussia. In a street very near me they do not care to own this; but as my side of Arlington Street is not ministerial, we plain-dealing houses speak our mind about it. Pray, do not you about that or any thing else; remember you are an envoy, and though you must not presume to be as false as an ambassador, yet not a grain of truth is consistent with your character. Truth is very well for such simple people as me, with my Fari quae sentiat, which my father left me, and which I value more than all he left me; but I am errantly wicked enough to desire you should lie and prosper. I know you don't like my doctrine, and therefore I compound with you for holding your tongue. Adieu! my dear child—shall we never meet! Are we always to love one another at the discretion of a sheet of paper? I would tell you in another manner that I am ever yours.
P. S. I will not plague you with more than a postscript on my eyes: I write this after midnight quite at my ease; I think the greatest benefit I have found lies between old rum and elder-water, (three spoonfuls of the latter to one of the former,) and dipping my head in a pail of cold water every morning the moment I am out of bed. This I am told may affect my hearing, but I have too constant a passion for my eyes to throw away a thought on any rival.
(856) Third daughter of King George the Second; who died at St. James's on the 28th of December, in the forty-fifth year of her age.-E.
(857) Sir Benjamin Keene died at Madrid on the 15th of December. He was the eldest son of Charles Keene, Esq. of Lynn, in Norfolk. His remains were brought to England-, and buried at Lynn, near those of his parents.-E.