MR. PITT TO PRINCE CHARLES OF BRUNSWICK.

[From a draught in Mr. Pitt's handwriting.]

MONSEIGNEUR,

Bath, ce 15 Decembre, 1765.

TOUT respectable que soit le motif qui me prive pour un tems de l'honneur tant desiré de me jetter aux pieds de V. A. S., je ne puis que déplorer l'effet, en admirant la haute prudence qui a dicté mon infortune. La bonté infinie de V. A. S. en daignant s'intéresser à mon santé me comble de gloire, et me préscrit, en même temps, d'en dire

un mot.

Je suis, Monseigneur, à poursuivre les eaux avec succès, et je commence à reprendre des forces; de sorte que, sans un rechute, je me flatte de pouvoir faire le voyage de Londres après les vacances. Cependant, touché au point que je le suis de la confidence dont V. A. S. m'honore, et me pénétrant de l'importance et de la délicatesse extrême de ce qu'elle me daigne laisser entrevoir, je ne saurois me dispenser de la prévenir même d'ici, que si j'étois à ses pieds, je ne pourrois que sentir toute la présomption qu'il y auroit à moi d'offrir au Prince le plus clairvoyant des conseils sur ce qui lui est personel; mais j'aurois très certainement à me reprocher à jamais une témérité dangereuse et impardonable, si, en une conjoncture qui me paroit incompréhensible, je lui hazardois à ce Prince, qui fixe les yeux de l'Europe, un avis, où il s'agit de prévoir la stabilité d'une systême politique. S'il en existe un ici, c'est ce que j'ignore parfaite

ment. Pour celui du feu Roi que j'ai vu renverser, et dont j'ai été la victime: il est avéré qu'il fut d'abord ébranlé par le concours des anciens et principaux ministres du feu Roi même, avec les influences dominant contre my Lord Temple et moi, sur des objets critiques et décisifs. Après cela, il seroit superflu, d'ajouter, qu'elle peut jamais être ma confiance en un ancien ministre de cette déscription-là.

Parmi ceux qui ne font qu'entrer sur la scène des affaires, j'estime qu'il y auroit de l'injustice à leur réfuser de bonnes intentions. Néanmoins, dans le corps du ministère, la voix publique ne nous annonce que désunion et que division de principes, d'inclinations, et d'objets. V. A. S. est à portée de vérifier si ce sont des rumeurs sans fondement; si les choses ont pris consistence, et qu'elles soient au point que l'esprit de prévention et de cabale aient finalement fait place au zèle pur et éclairé du bien public; si l'on s'en puisse promettre un procédé net sur un plan suivi et stable.

Ignorant, Monseigneur, tout ceci, je tremblerois de risquer aucun avis. La seule chose que je puis dire de science certaine, et dont je me fais gloire d'être témoin, c'est que le Roi ne veut que le bien, et ne désire que le contentement de ses peuples.

Il me reste, Monseigneur, d'implorer à V. A. S. le pardon de ce qu'une forte passion pour sa gloire, et un éloignement constant pour toute illusion, ne me permettent pas de supprimer. Je suis, &c.

W. PITT.

THOMAS NUTHALL, ESQ. TO MR. PITT.

SIR,

London, December 14, 1765.

I AM truly rejoiced to hear you are free from pain, and I hope you will be able very soon to undertake a London journey. Indeed, all you say upon public affairs is true; but it is also true, that besides the experienced leader alluded to in your letter, there is another hand less visible, though not less weighty, in directing and influencing the present council; I mean a great lord, and yet no lord chancellor.

But for God's sake, Sir, how is all this to end? Distraction increases every day, and ruin must follow. You, and you only, can withstand and prevent it; and I am confident, that if you would undertake it now before it is too late, every means and every power to make your endeavours effectual would be put into your hands, and every good man will assist you. I wish you were now in or near this city, that I might say a great deal to you, which I dare not commit to writing; but I flatter myself with the hopes of having this opportunity very soon, and will trouble you no further at present, than with most ardent wishes for your health. I beg my compliments to Lady Chatham; and am, Sir, your obedient

and faithful servant,

THOMAS NUTHALL.

GEORGE COOKE, ESQ. TO MR. PITT.

DEAR SIR,

Tuesday evening, 7 o'clock. [December 17, 1765.]

I AM just returned from the House ('), where there has been a long and unexpected debate on the words of the address, including a good deal of abuse on those who advised his Majesty to speak of what has happened in America, in the gentle terms of important occurrences. Lord George Cavendish (2) moved the address, and Lord Palmerston (3) seconded. Mr. George Grenville then rose, and, after assuring the House how much he disliked any steps to a debate when

(1) During the whole of this very important session, the standing order for the exclusion of strangers was rigidly enforced, and Horace Walpole was unfortunately absent at Paris; so that no report of the debates in either House, with the exception of two or three speeches, has been preserved. From this circumstance, the spirited sketches of what took place, contained in the letters of Mr. Cooke, Mr. George Onslow, and Lord Shelburne to Mr. Pitt, and in those of Mr. Gerard Hamilton to Mr. Calcraft acquire additional interest.

(2) Second son of William, third duke of Devonshire, and at this time member for Derbyshire; of which county he was appointed lord-lieutenant in 1766, and which he continued to represent in parliament, until his death in 1794.

(3) Henry Temple, second viscount Palmerston, at this time member for East Loo, and one of the commissioners of trade and plantations. In the following year, he was appointed one of the lords of the admiralty. His lordship was, in the male line, the representative of the antient family of Temple, which has produced so many distinguished characters in the political and literary world, and from which, in the female line, the Duke of Buckingham is descended. He died in 1802, and was succeeded in his title and estates by his son, the present secretary of state for foreign affairs.

gentlemen were absent and could not answer for themselves, entered directly into the argument: first, he would have substituted rebellion instead of occurrences, and afterwards declining that, would leave out both words, and then proposed an amendment to the address longer than himself, which carried marks of resentment, rather than candour.(1) He spoke en prince, and told us he should ask, and hope to have an answer, why the parliament was not called sooner together? why his Majesty was advised to speak with so much lenity of America ? with many other whys. Differing in many things from him, I took the liberty to answer him, in justification of the colonies, and on the cruelty of fixing the name of rebellion on all, because a tumultuous set of people had been riotous.

Mr. Charles Townshend asserted, with vehemence, his approbation of the stamp act, and was for enforcing it: he leant much to Mr. George Grenville's opinion, soothed him, and sat down, determined to vote against his amendment! () Mr. Elliot the same; thereby insuring a double protection. Mr.

(1) The following are the words of Mr. Grenville's amendment -"to express our just resentment and indignation at the outrageous tumults and insurrections which have been excited and carried on in North America, and at the resistance given, by open and rebellious force, to the execution of the laws in that part of his Majesty's dominions," &c.

(2) In reference to the extraordinary vacillation of Mr. Charles Townshend's principles, Lord Chesterfield, in a letter, written at this time to his son, says, "As to Charles, there was a good ridiculous paragraph in the newspapers, two or three days ago : We hear, that the right honourable Charles Townshend is indisposed, at his house in Oxfordshire, of a pain in his side; but it is not said in which side.'"