long, and are till, too undecypherable for me to understand, confequently to relate. Fox out of place, takes the lead in the house of commons; Pitt, fecretary of state, declares that he is no minister, and has no ministerial influence. The duke of Newcafile and lord Hardwicke lye by, and declare themfelves for neither party. Byng is reprieved for a fortnight; what will become of him at laft, God knows; for the late admiralty want to fhoot him to excufe themfelves; and the prefent admiralty want to fave him, in order to lay the blame upon their predeceffors. "The fright, that your friend Mr. Van-haaren has put the Dutch into, by telling them the French army is intended for Cleves and Gueldres, is a most idle alarm. They are not of importance enough to be in danger; nobody thinks of them now. Hanover is evidently the object, and the only rational one, of the operations of the French ariny; not as Hanover, but belonging to the King of England, and that electorate is to be a reply to the prefent ftate of Saxony. The fields of Bohemia and Moravia will become Golgothas, or fields of blood, this year; for probably an hundred thousand human creatures will perish there this year, for the quarrel of two individuals. The king of Pruffia will, I fuppofe, feek for battle, in which, I think, he will be victorious. The Auftrians will, I fuppofe, avoid it if they can, and endeavour to defroy his armies, as they did the French ones in the laft war, by harraffing, intercepting convoys, killing ftraglers, and all the feats of their irregulars. Thefe are my political dreams, or prophecies, for perhaps they do not deferve the name of reafonings. "The Bath did me more good than I thought any thing could do me; but all that good does not amount to what builders call halfrepairs, and only keeps up the fhattered fabric a little longer than it would have stood without them: but take my word for it, it will ftand but a very little while longer. I am now on my grand climacteric, and fhall not compleat it. Fontenelle's last words at a hundred, were, fe fouffre d'être (a): (I feel the pain of being). Deaf and infirm as I am, I can with truth fay the fame thing at fixty-three, In 66 66 (a) Lord Chesterfield wrote this but fix weeks after the death of Fontenelle; but, as his information of that celebrated Frenchman's obfervations on his own death is imperfect, the readers will not be difpleafed to find here more accurate, as well as fuller, account of his dying words, given us by his countryman M le Cat in his eulogy of that great man; His end was "the last period of a machine, fettled by the laws of nature. His death was not preceded by any ficknefs; nine days before it happened, he perceived a confiderable diminution in his frength, and prepared for his diffolution, "by performing the duties of an honcit man and a "chriflian. It proved, however, much flower than he expected, which made him far three days before his laft: I did not think I should have made fo much ads about dyz ing. He continued a philofopher to the laft, and preferved the full "joyment of all his faculties. "He relected upon his own fituation, juft he would have done upon that of another man, and feemed to be obferving a phenomenon. Drawing very near his end, he faid, this is the fi death I have ever feen; and his physician having afked him, whether he was in pain, or what he felt, his antaver was, i feel nothing but a dificulty # of exifting. (Je ne fens autre chofe qu'une difficulté d'etre.) 66 re Kk 2 my mind, it is only the strength of our paffions, and the weakness of our realon, that make us fo fond of life; but, when the former fubfide and give way to the latter, we grow weary of being, and willing to withdraw. I do not recommend this train of ferious reflections to you, nor ought you to adopt them. Our ages, our fituations are widely different. You have children to educate and and provide for, you have all your fenfes, and can enjoy all the comforts both of domeftic and focial life. I am in every fenfe folé, and have wound up all my bottoms. I may now walk off quietly, neither mifling nor miffed. Till when, Yours moft fincerely, CHESTERFIELD" Book the Third contains Letters to Dr. Richard Chenevix, Bishop of Waterford, and other friends in Ireland.-From this correfpondence we fhall fele&t two or three fhort epiftles; defcriptive of our noble author's humorous difpofition and placid temper of mind even at the clofe of his life. To Dr. R. CHENEVIX, Lord Bishop of Waterford. MY DEAR LORD, "I fhall make but a very unfatisfactory return to your kind inquiries and follicitude about my health, when I tell you that but three days ago, I had a very strong attack of my ufual illness, which has eft me still weak and languid. I thought myself the better for the waters, which I have now drank a month, till this relapse came and undeceived me. All mineral waters, and the whole materia medica, lofe their efficacy upon my fhattered carcafe; and the enemy within is too hard for them. I bear it all with patience, and without melancholy, because I must bear it whether I will or no. Phyfical ills are the taxes laid upon this wretched life; fome are taxed higher, and fome lower, but all pay fomething. My philofoplry teaches me to reflect, how much higher, rather than how much lower, I might have been taxed. How gentle are my phyfical ills, compared with the exquifite torments of the gout, ftone, &c.! The faculties of my mind are, thank God, not yet much impaired; and they comfort me in my worit moments, and amufe me in the best. hear; I read with more pleasure than ever; perhaps, because it is the only pleafore I have left. For, fince I am ftruck out of living company by my deafness, I have recourie to the dead whom alone I can and I have affigned them their flated hours of audience. Solid folios are the people of butinefs, with whom I converfe in the morning. Quartos are the eafier mixed company, with whom I fit after dinner; and I pafs my evenings in the light, and often frivolous, chitchat of small oavos and duodecimos. This, upon the whole, hinders me from wishing for death, while other confiderations hinder me from fearing it. Does lord Clanbrazil bring in his regifter bill this feffion? If he can keep it short, clear, and mild, it will be in my opinion a very good one one. Some time or other, though God knows when, it will be found out in Ireland, that the popifh religion and influence cannot be fubdued by force, but may be undermined and deftroyed by art. Allow the papifts to buy lands, let and take leafes equally with the proteftants, but fubject to the gavel act, which will always have its effect upon their pofterity at least. Tye them down to the government by the tender but strong bonds of landed property, which the pope will have much ado to diffolve, notwithstanding his power of loofening and binding. Ufe thofe who come over to you, though perhaps only feemingly at first, well and kindly, inftead of looking for their cloven feet and their tails as you do now. Increase both your number, and your care of the proteftant charter fchools. Make your penal laws extremely mild, and then put them strictly in execution. Ha tibi erunt artes. (Thefe will be your arts.) This would do in time, and nothing elfe will, nor ought. I would as foon murder a man for his eftate, as profecute him for his religious and fpeculative errors; and, fince I am in a way of quoting verles I will give you three out of Walth's famous ode to King William, Nor think it a sufficient cause, To punish men by penal laws, I am very glad that your daughter is recovered. I am glad that you are well, and whatever you are glad of will upon my word gladden Your faithful friend and servant, CHESTERFIELD." TO THE SAME. MY DEAR LORD, Blackheath, May 23, 1758. "I have received your letter of the 4th inftant. The day afterwards I received the book which you was fo kind as to fend me by major Maccullogh, and the day after that, by Mr. Ruffel, your bill for expences incurred and not provided for, which I have paid. "Now, first to the first. You folicit a very poor employment fo modeftly, and offered your daughters as a fecurity for your good behaviour, that I cannot refuse it you, and do hereby appoint you my fole commiffioner for the kingdom of Ireland. To the fecond. This ninth volume * of Swift will not do him fo much honour, as I hope it will bring profit to my friend George Faulkner. The hiftorical part † is a party pamphlet, founded on the lie of the day, which, as lord Bolingbroke who had read it, often affured me, was coined and delivered out to him, to write Examiners, and other political papers upon. That fpirit remarkably runs through it. Macarteney, for inftance, murdered duke Hamilton; nothing is falfer, for though Macarteney was very capable of the vileft actions, he was guiltiefs of that, as I myself can *The ninth volume of Faulkner's edition. testify, teftify, who was at his trial in the king's bench, when he came over voluntarily to take it, in the late king's time. There did not appear even the leaft ground for a fufpicion of it, nor did Hamilton, who appeared in court, pretend to tax him with it, which would have been in truth accufing himself of the utmost baseness, in letting the murderer of his friend go off from the field of battle, without either refentment, purfuit, or even accufation, till three days afterwards. This lie was invented to inflame the Scotch nation ag inft the whigs; as the other, that prince Eugene intended to murder lord Oxford, by employing a fet of people called Mohocks, which fociety, by the way never existed, was calculated to inflame the mob of London. Swift took thofe hints de la meilleure foi du monde, and thought them materials for history. So far he is blameless. "Thirdly and lastly, I paid Mr. Ruffel the twenty-feven pounds five fhillings, for which you drew your bill. I hope you are fenfible that I need not have paid it till I had received the goods, or at least till I had proofs of your having fent them, but where I have in general a good opinion of the peron, I always procced frankly, and do not itand upon forms, and I have without flattery fo good an opinion of you, that I would truft you not only with twenty feven pounds, but even as far as thirty feven. "Your friend's letter to you, inclofed in the book, is an honeft and melancholic one: but what can I do in it? He feems not to know the nature of factions in Ireland; the prevailing for the time being is abfolute, and whofo tranfgreffeth the leaft of their commandments is guilty of the whole. A lord lieutenant may if he pleafes govern alone, but then he muft, as I know by experience, take a great deal more trouble · upon himself than most lord lieutenants care to do, and he must not be afraid but as they commonly prefer otium cum dignitate, their guards, their battle axes, and their trumpets, not to mention perhaps, the profits of their poft, to a laborious execution of it, they must neceffarily rule by a faction for the time being, they are only the first flaves: the condition of the obligation is this, your excellency or your grace wants to carry on his majefty's bufinefs fmoothly, and to have it to fay when you go back, that you met with no difficulties, this we have fufficient itrength in parliament to engage for, provided we appear to have the favour and countenance of the government, the money, be it what it will, fhall be chearfully voted; as for the public you fhall do what you will, or nothing at all, for we care for that no more than we fuppofe your grace or excellency does, but we repeat it again, our recommendations to places, penfions, &c. muft prevail, or we shall not be able to keep our people in order. Thefe are always the expreffed, or at least the implied, conditions of thefe treaties, which either the indolence or the infufficiency of the governors ratify: from that moment thefe undertakers bury the governor alive, but indeed pompously: different from the worshipful company of undertakers here, who feldom bury any body alive, or at leait never without the content and privity of the next heirs. "I am now fettled here for the furner, perhaps for ever, in great tranquillity of mind, not equally of body; I make the most of it, I vegetate vegetate with the vegetables, and I crawl with the infects in my garden, and I am, such as I am, most faithfully and fincerely Yours, CHESTERFIELD." TO THE SAME. Blackheath, June 2, 1758. MY DEAR LORD, "I am now in poffeffion of the goods you procured me, and they are both excellent in their kind; but how difficult, not to fay impoffible, it is to find an honest factor! You have not cheated me it is true, but you have most grofly defrauded the bishop of Waterford, as appears by your own account here inclofed, you fet down two pieces and fourteen yards yards of cloth £.16. 75. 3d. whereas I have receiv'ed feven pieces and fourteen yards, which muft certainly come to a great deal more, Item, you fet down but fix dozen and fix pints of Ufquebaugh, whereas I have received nine dozen and fix, for which you put down only £.13. 55. and which makes it as cheap as porter's ale. Pray retrieve your character, which is at stake, and clear up this matter to the Bishop, and to Your faithful fervant, CHESTERFIELD." In a fubfequent letter dated in the fame year, his lordship writes to the bishop in the following words. "I am extremely obliged to you for your kind letter of the 2d, and, thank God, can return you a more fatisfactory anfwer than for fome time paft, I have been able to do. In the first place I am alive, which neither I nor any body elte, fix months ago," thought that I should be. In the next place my old, crazy, and fhattered carcate enjoys more negative health than it has done for a long time. I owe this unexpected amendment to milk, which, in this my fecond infancy, I live upon almost as entirely as I did in my firft. Afles, cows, and even goats club to maintain me. I have in particular a white amalthea, that strays upon the heath all day, and felects the most faiutary and odoriferous herbs, which he brings me night and morning filtrated into milk. Thus I rub on in a tolerable mediocrity; life is neither a burthen nor a pleasure to me, but a certain degree of ennui necetlarily attends that neutral ftate, which makes me very willing to part with it, when he who placed me here thinks tit to call me away." Upwards of ten years afterwards we yet find his lordship living and writing in much the fame ftrain. MY DEAR LORD, TO THE SAME. London, June 14, 17;0. "I have long told you, and you have as long found, that I was an anomalous noun, I can hardly fay a fubitantive, for I grow weaker and weaker every day, particularly in my legs and my thighs, fo that I can walk very little at a time, and am obliged to take my hare of exercise by |
