Now the Parliament is met, you will expect some new news; you will be disappointed: no battles are fought in Parliament now— the House of Commons is a mere war-office, and only sits for the despatch of military business. As I am one of the few men in England who am neither in the army nor militia, I never go thither. By the King's speech, and Mr. Pitt's t'other speech, it looks as if we intended to finish the conquest of the world the next campaign. The King did not go to the House; his last eye is so bad that he could scarce read his answer to the address, though the letters were as long and as black as Ned Finch. He complains that every body's face seems to have a crape over it. A person much more expected and much more missed, was not at the House neither; Lord George Sackville. He came to town the night before the opening, but did not appear—it looks as if he gave every thing up. Did you hear that M. de Contades saluted Prince Ferdinand on his installation with twenty-one cannons? The French could distinguish the outside of the ceremony, and the Prince sent word to the marshal, that if he observed any bustle that day, he must not expect to be attacked-it would only be a chapter of the Garter.
A very extraordinary event happened the day after the meeting: Lord Temple resigned the privy-seal. The account he gives himself is, that he continued to be so ill used by the King, that it was notorious to all the world; that in hopes of taking off that reproach, he had asked for the Garter.(1085) Being refused, he had determined to resign, at the same time beseeching Mr. Pitt not to resent any thing for him, and insisting with his two brothers that they should keep their places, and act as warm as ever with the administration, That in an audience of twenty-five minutes he hoped he had removed his Majesty's prejudices, and should now go out of town as well satisfied as any man in England. The town says, that it was concerted that he should not quit till Mr. Pitt made his speech on the first day, declaring that nothing should make him break union with the rest of the ministers, no, not for the nearest friend he had. All this is mighty fine; but the affair is, nevertheless, very impertinent. If Lord Temple hoped to involve Mr. Pitt in his quarrel, it was very wicked at such a crisis as this—and if he could, I am apt to believe he would— if he could not, it was very silly. To the garter nobody can have slenderer pretensions; his family is scarce older than his earldom, which is of the youngest. His person is ridiculously, awkward; and if chivalry were in vogue, he has given proofs of having no passion for tilt and tournament. Here end@ the history of King George the Second, and Earl Temple the First.
We are still advised to believe in the invasion, though it seems as slow in coming as the millennium. M. Thurot and his pigmy navy have scrambled to Gottenburg, where it is thought they will freight themselves with half a dozen pounds of Swedes. We continue to militiate, and to raise light troops, and when we have armed every apprentice in England, I suppose we shall translate our fears to Germany. In the mean time the King is overwhelmed with addresses on our victories he will have enough to paper his palace. ITe told the City of London, that all was owing to unanimity, but I think he should have said, to unmanimity, for it were shameful to ascribe our brilliancy to any thing but Mr. Pitt. The new King of Spain seems to think that our fleet is the best judge of the incapacity of his eldest son, and of the fitness of his disposition of Naples, for he has expressed the highest confidence of Wall, and the strongest assurances of neutrality. I am a little sorry that Richcourt is not in Florence; it would be pleasant to dress yourself up in mural crowns and American plumes in his face. Adieu!
(1085) By the following passage of a letter from Lord Temple himself to Mr. Pitt, of the 13th of October, in the Chatham Correspondence, it will be seen that it was not his lordship who solicited the garter, but Mr. Pitt:—"You have been so good as to ask of his Majesty the garter for me, as a reward to yourself, and the only one you desire for all the great and eminent services you have done to, the King, to the nation, and to the electorate; to which request you have, it seems, hitherto met with a refusal. At the same time that I thank you, and am proud to receive any testimony of your kind regard, permit me to add, that I am not so mean-spirited as to condescend to receive, in my own person, the reward of another man's services, however dear to me you so deservedly are on every account. Let the King continue to enjoy in peace the pleasure and Honour of this refusal; for if he should happen to be disposed, for other reasons than those of gratitude to you, which will have no weight with him, to give me that mark of distinction, I will not accept it on such terms." Vol. i. p. 438.-E.