into our hands; words in letters say, "qu'on se lasse de prendre des prisonniers." The main of the French army seen to be flying they know not where; being cut off, by the defeat of the Duke of Brissac, from their ovens and magazines, they have neither bread nor other provisions than what mere pillage, where they pass, affords. To this point has favouring Providence blessed our immortal Ferdinand. May Heaven send success on the Oder; and may happy peace wind up the glorious work, and heal a bleeding world!

W. PITT.

MR. PITT TO PRINCE FERDINAND OF BRUNSWICK.

[From a draught in Mr. Pitt's hand-writing.]

MONSEIGNEUr,

Ce 18e Decembre, 1759.

PERMETTEZ que j'aie l'honneur d'accuser la réception des lettres que V. A. S. a V. A. S. a daigné m'écrire du 26° Novembre et 8° de ce mois; aussi bien que celle qui m'a été rendue par le colonel Boyd. J'ose renouveller ici les respectueuses assurances, que je ne cesserai d'employer tout ce qui est en moi pour rendre justice à un si digne officier, qui a su s'attirer une protection si glorieuse.

fertile provinces of Germany to a desert; the pretence, to shorten the war. Had their meditated invasions of this country succeeded, one may judge what would have been the secret instructions to their generals."-Memoirs of Geo. II. vol. ii. p. 368.

Agréez, Monseigneur, que je vous offre, avec l'empressement le plus vif, de nouvelles félicitations sur la nouvelle gloire dont le Prince Héréditaire s'est couvert dans sa belle expédition de Fülde. Les actions éclatantes se succèdent si rapidement sous les auspices de V. A. S., que pendant que la joie de Munster étoit encore fraîche, ce dernier événement est venu avec un nouveau lustre, s'emparer pour le présent des éloges universels. En même tems, l'attention ne peut que se fixer à l'expédition de Monseigneur le Prince Héréditaire, non sans de vives inquiétudes pour des jours si précieux à l'Europe. (') On se flatte toutefois que des mouvemens exécutés avec la même сараcité auront des effets également prompts et efficaces sur la retraite de M. Daun, qu'ils l'ont eu sur celle de M. de Broglie.

Je ne puis exprimer, Monseigneur, combien je sens la part que V. A. S. veut bien prendre à la victoire de l'Amiral Hawke, et à quel point je suis pénétré de ce qui s'y trouve de si infiniment gracieux pour moi, et je supplie V. A. S. d'être per

(1) In a letter to Lord Holdernesse, dated head-quarters at Friburg, 12th February 1760, Mr. Mitchell says: "The hereditary Prince of Brunswick left this place on the 7th. This young hero, by the modesty and manliness of his behaviour, by his insensibility to flattery, and by an affability which can flow from an honest heart only, has gained the esteem and affection of every body here, from the King to the lowest officer he had occasion to converse with. In talking of the prince, his Prussian majesty said, he was surprised with the knowledge he had acquired, and added these remarkable words: Il a le jugement et le bon sens d'un homme de quarante ans, et il a fait tant de progrès dans la science militaire, que je pourrois lui confier le commandement de mes armées.'"- Mitchell MSS. in Brit Mus.

suadé, que je ne croirois pas les vrais sentimens de bon Anglois, si je prenois un intérêt moins vif aux plaines de Minden qu'à la baye de Quiberon.

Je suis, &c.

W. PITT.

WILLIAM BECKFORD, ESQ., TO MR. PITT.

MY DEAR SIR,

Fonthill, January 7, 1760.

YOUR very obliging and much esteemed favour was duly received. I consider it the greatest honour to have such a sponsor to my child. (') He was made a Christian last night, and Lord Effingham (2) was your proxy. No endeavours of mine shall be wanting (if it please God to spare his life) to instil into his tender mind principles of religion, honour, and love of country. It is true, these are oldfashioned principles; but they are such as you approve of, and practise.

Nothing would give me more pleasure than to take your opinion on my present works (3), and to

(1) Mr. Beckford married, in 1756, Maria, daughter and coheiress of the hon. George Hamilton, son of James, sixth earl of Abercorn; by whom he had an only child and heir, the present William Beckford, Esq.; author, amongst other elegant writings, of "Caliph Vathek," an Eastern tale, written originally in the French language, and which, in the opinion of Lord Byron, "for correctness of costume, beauty of description, and power of imagination, far surpasses all European imitations."

(2) Thomas, second earl of Effingham, deputy earl-marshal of England; who, in 1744-5, had married Elizabeth, daughter of the writer's eldest brother, Peter Beckford, Esq., speaker of the house of assembly of Jamaica.

(3) The improvements at this time going on at Fonthill.

regulate my future operations by your advice and judgment; but I cannot flatter myself so much as to think it possible to enjoy that comfort, until you have first procured for your country a safe, honourable, and lasting peace. I am, my dear Sir,

Your ever faithful and

affectionate humble servant,

W. BECKFOrd.

THE REV. LAURENCE STERNE TO MR. PITT.

SIR,

Friday, Mr. Dodsley's, Pall-Mall. [January, 1760. (1)]

THOUGH I have no suspicion that the inclosed Dedication can offend you, yet I thought it my duty to take some method of letting you see it, before I presumed to beg the honour of presenting it to you next week, with the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. I am, Sir,

Your most humble servant,

LAURENCE STERNE.

SIR,

TO THE RIGHT HON. MR. PITT.

NEVER poor wight of a dedicator had less hopes from his Dedication, than I have from this of mine;

(1) This letter, which is without date, was probably written in the first week of January, as the two first volumes of the Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy were published by Dodsley on the 10th of that month.

for it is written in a by-corner of the kingdom, and in a retired thatched house, where I live in a constant endeavour to fence against the infirmities of ill-health and other evils of life, by mirth; being firmly persuaded, that every time a man smiles, but much more so, when he laughs, that it adds something to this fragment of life.

I humbly beg, Sir, that you will honour this book by taking it (not under your protection, it must protect itself, but) into the country with you ; where, if I am ever told it has made you smile, or can conceive it has beguiled you of one moment's pain, I shall think myself as happy as a minister of state perhaps much happier than any one (ONE only excepted) that I have ever heard or read of. I am, great Sir, and, what is more to your honour, I am, good Sir,

Your well-wisher, and

most humble fellow-subject,

THE AUTHOR.(')

(1) "Tristram Shandy," says Gray, in a letter to Dr. Wharton, of the 22nd of June, "is a great object of admiration, the man as well as the book; one is invited to dinner, where he dines, a fortnight before. As to the volumes yet published, there is much good fun in them, and humour sometimes hit and sometimes missed. Have you read his Sermons, with his own comic figure, from a painting by Reynolds, at the head of them? They are in the style I think most proper for the pulpit, and show a strong imagination and a sensible heart; but you see him often tottering on the verge of laughter, and ready to throw his periwig in the face of the audience."