meet you there. Let me know where you are to be in Herefordshire, and I will send you some claret. It is no compliment, for I am overstocked, and it will decay before I drink it. You shall have either old or new; I have too much of both. I paid the woman for your handkerchiefs; but should not have given her so much, if she had not assured me you had agreed with her. I think you may very well shake off the old debt, and she will have no reason to complain. So I told her; but if you would have me, I will pay her. Pray send me the other copy*, or put me in a way of recovering the former. I am, &c. FROM THE DUKE OF ORMOND. SIR, July 22, 1714. I AM very glad to hear from you. I thought you had hid yourself from the world, and given over all thoughts of your friends. I am very sorry for the reason of your retirement. I am a witness to your endeavours to have made up, what I believe the great man you mention will hardly compass. I am of your opi nion, that it is shameful that the vacant bishopricks are not disposed of. I shall do all that lies in my power to serve the gentlemen that I have already mentioned to the queen, and hope with good success. For the lady you mention +, I shall endeavour to see her as often as I can. She is one that I have a great esteem for. I send you some Burgundy, which I hope you will like. It is very good to cure the spleen. Believe me, with great truth, sir, your most affectionate friend, and humble servant, *Of the "Free Thoughts." H. Lady Masham. D. S. ORMOND. SIR, FROM ERASMUS LEWIS, ESQ. Whitehall, July 22, 1714. I RÉCEIVED a letter from you last Monday, for my lord treasurer, in a blank cover. Last Friday lord chancellor went into the country, with a design to stay there till the tenth of August; but last Tuesday he was sent for express by lord Bolingbroke, Next Tuesday the queen goes to Windsor. What changes we are to have, will probably appear before she goes. Dr. Arbuthnot dines with me to day, and in the evening we go to Kensington. FROM CHARLES FORD, ESQ. London, July 22, 1714. PRAY send me the other copy, and let us have the benefit of it, since you have been at the trouble of writing. Unless * be served against his will, it is not likely to be done at all; but I think you used to take a pleasure in good offices of that kind; and I hope you would not let the cause suffer; though I must own, in this particular, the person who has the management of it does not deserve any favour. Nothing being left for me at St. Dunstan's, I sent to Barber for an answer to my last. He says, it is not yet restored to him; as soon as it is, I shall have it. This delay begins to make me think all ministers are alike; and as soon as the Captain is Colonel, he will act as his predecessors have done. * The blank should probably be filled up with "lord treasurer." N. : * The queen goes to Windsor next Tuesday, and we expect all matters will be settled before that time. We have had a report, that my lord privy seal is to go out alone; but the learned only laugh at it. The Captain's friends think themselves secure; and the Colonel's are so much of the same opinion, that they only drink his health while he is yet alive. However it is thought he will fall easy, with a pension of four thousand pounds a year, and a dukedom. Most of the staunch tories are pleased with the alteration and the whimsicals pretend the cause of their disgust was, because the whigs were too much favoured. In short, we propose very happy days to ourselves, as long as this reign lasts; and if the uncertain timorous nature of does not disappoint us, we have a very fair prospect. The Dragon and his antagonist meet every day at the cabinet. They often cat, and drink, and walk together, as if there was no sort of disagreement: and when they part, I hear they give one another such names, as nobody but ministers of state could bear, without cutting throats. The duke of Marlborough is expected here every day. Dr. Garth says, he comes only to drink the Bristol waters for a diabetes. The whigs are making great prepa rations to receive him. But yesterday I was offered considerable odds, that not one of those, who go out to meet him, will visit him in half a year. I durst not lay, though I can hardly think it. My lord Marr is married to lady Frances Pierrepoint; and my lord Dorchester, her father, is to be married next week to lady Bell Bentinck. Let me know if you go to Pope's, that I may endeavour to meet you there. I am, &c. * Bolingbroke. H. See before, p. 50. N. Bolingbroke. H. FROM THE SAME. London, July 24, 1714. WE expected the grand affair would have been done yesterday, and now every body agrees it will be to night. The bishop of London, lord Bathurst, Mr. Bridges, sir William Windham, and Campion, are named for commissioners of the treasury; but I have not sufficient authority for you to depend upon it. They talk of the duke of Ormond for our lord lieutenant. I cannot get the pamphlet back. What shall I do? I wish you would send me the other copy. My lord Anglesey goes next Monday to Ireland, I hear he is only angry with the chancellor, and not at all with the captain. FROM ERASMUS LEWIS, ESQ. Whitehall, July 24, 1714. I SAW lord Harley this morning. He tells me, that he left you horridly in the dumps. I wish you were here; for after giving a quarter of an hour's vent to our grief for the departure of our don Quixote †, we should recover ourselves, and receive consolation from each other. The triumph of the enemy makes me mad, I feel a strange tenderness within myself, and scarce bear the thoughts of dating letters from this place, * The dismission of lord Oxford, H. Lord Oxford, who was just at this time dismissed from his employment as first minister, and immediately succeeded by lord Bolingbroke. On Thursday the 27th of the same month he surrendered his staff as lord treasurer, and on the 30th lord Shrewsbury was appointed to succeed him in that office. H. when my old friend is out, whose fortune I have shared for so many years. But fiat voluntas tua! The damned thing is, we are to do all dirty work. We are to turn out Monckton*, and I hear we are to pass the new commission of the treasury. For God's sake write to lady Masham, in favour of poor Thomas †, to preserve him from ruin. I will second it. I intended to have writ you a long letter: but the mo ment I had turned this page, I had intelligence that the Dragon has broke out in a fiery passion with my lord chancellor, sworn a thousand oaths he would be revenged, &c. This impotent, womanish behaviour vexes me more than his being out. This last stroke shows, quantula sint hominum corpuscula. I am determined for the Bath on the second or the ninth of August at the farthest. FROM DR. ARBUTHNOT. DEAR BROTHER, July 24, 1714. I SUPPOSE you have read the account of St. Kilda. There is an officer there, who is a sort of tribunus plebis, whose office it is to represent the grievances of the people to the laird of M'Leod, who is supposed to * Robert Monckton, one of the commissioners for trade and plantations, who had given information against Arthur Moore, one of his brother commissioners, for accepting a bribe from the Spansh court, to get the treaty of commerce continued. H. + Mr. Thomas had been secretary under the old commis. sion of the treasury; and he wrote to the Dean, by the same post, for a recommendation to lady Masham, either to be continued in the same office under the new commissioners, or to be considered in some other manner, by way of compensation. He urges a precedent for this in the case of his predecessor, who being removed from his post of secretary, got the office of comptroller of, the lotteries, worth 500l. a year, for 32 See page 40. 47. H. Lord Harcourt. years H. |