writing, that he had done it so, and I acquaint your Excellency with it for your intelligence. It was not possible for me to write to your Excellency by Choiseul's messenger, because I did not know it in time. This minister believes that they will not come into their memorial; but I am afraid they will, and that if the negotiation is broke off, it will be on our account. GRIMALDI. COUNT DE LALLY (1) TO MR. PITT. SIR, London, September 29, 1761. SINCE my departure, now almost five years, from Europe for the Asiatic climates, I am his (1) This brave, but most imprudent and unfortunate officer, was of an Irish family, which had followed the fortunes of James the Second. He entered the army at a very early age; and having distinguished himself at the battle of Fontenoy, he was, in 1756, selected to restore the French influence in India, and made governor of Pondicherry. On the surrender of that place, in January 1761, he was made prisoner of war, and arrived in London a few days prior to the date of this letter. Having obtained the desired permission, he hastened to France to confront his enemies, by whom he was accused of having sold Pondicherry to the English; but no sooner had he reached Paris, than he was seized and sent to the Bastile, and, after a confinement of several years, brought to trial for treachery, abuse of authority, and unjust exactions. He was found guilty; and the circumstances of peculiar horror which attended his execution are thus related by Voltaire: "When the Count's sentence was pronounced, the excess of his indignation was equal -- torically acquainted but with two men in this world, the King of Prussia and Mr. Pitt; the one by a series of distress, the other of success; the to his astonishment: he inveighed against his judges, and, holding in his hand a pair of compasses which he used for tracing maps in his prison, he struck it against his heart; but the blow was not sufficient to take away life: destined to lose it upon the scaffold, he was dragged into a dung-cart, with a gag in his mouth, lest, being conscious of his innocence, he should convince the spectators of the injustice of his fate." Madame du Deffand, in a letter to Horace Walpole, says, "le peuple battoit des mains pendant l'exécution;" to which he replies, "“Ah, madame, madame, quelles horreurs me racontez vous là! On a bien massacré des gens chez nous; mais a-t-on jamais vu battre des mains pendant qu'on mettoit à mort un pauvre malheureux, un officier général, qui avoit langui pendant deux ans en prison? un homme, enfin, si sensible à l'honneur, qu'il n'avoit pas voulu se sauver! si touché de la disgrace, qu'il cherche à avaler les grilles de sa prison, plutôt que de se voir exposé à l'ignominie publique!" In 1783, his son, the celebrated Lally Tollendal, so far obtained a reversal of the judgments passed by the parliaments, as to regain the possession of his paternal estates. In 1789, he was one of the most popular and eloquent members of the constituent assembly; but, perceiving that principles prevailed repugnant to his sense of justice, he retired into Switzerland, and passed the winter at Lausanne with Gibbon. Having returned to France in 1792, he was sent to the Abbaye, whence he escaped during the massacres which took place in the prisons in September, and effected his retreat to England, where he found an asylum in the house of Lord Sheffield. During the consulate he returned to France, where he resided in literary retirement, till the restoration of the Bourbons; when he obtained a seat in the chamber of peers, as a marquis. He died in 1830. Besides several political works, he wrote "Essai sur la Vie du Comte de Strafford," and a tragedy on the fall of that nobleman. Gibbon, in a letter to Lady Sheffield, says: — ." I perfectly concur in your partiality for Lally; though nature might forget some meaner ingredients of economy, prudence, &c., she never formed a purer heart, or a brighter imagination." former snatching at fortune, the latter directing her. But when I shall have seen and heard here of Mr. Pitt all I have already read of him, I shall always remember I am his prisoner, and liberty to me, though a Frenchman, is of an inestimable value; therefore I earnestly beg your interest with his Majesty to grant me leave to repair to my native soil, either upon my parole, or upon the terms of the cartel in accepting of my ransom. Nothing but my sense of gratitude for this favour can add to the high regard with which I am, Sir, your Excellency's Most humble and most obedient servant, LALLY. THE EARL OF BUTE TO MR. PITT. October 6, 1761. SIR, I TAKE up the pen with more than ordinary desire to succeed in the business I am, by the King's command, to write to you upon. I earnestly wished to have carried to his Majesty some little opening of your mind; something that might have pointed towards that mark of his royal favour he seems impatient to bestow upon you. (1) (1) Mr. Burke, who wrote the historical portion of the Annual Register for the year 1761, says, that "when Mr. Pitt As that was not in my power, the King has desired me to mention two ideas; wishing to have the one most agreeable to you carried into immediate execution: but, if neither should be suitable to your inclinations, it is hoped that you will not be averse to give his Majesty a little insight into your own thoughts upon this subject. The government of the province of Canada, with a salary of five thousand pounds, seemed to strike the King most; and that for two reasons: the first, as you would preside over a province acquired by your own ability and firmness; secondly, as it would convey to all the world his Majesty's intentions of never parting with that great and im resigned the seals, the great person to whom they were redelivered received them with ease and firmness, without requesting that he should resume his office. His Majesty expressed his concern for the loss of so able a servant; and to show the favourable sense he entertained of his services, he made him a most gracious and unlimited offer of any rewards in the power of the crown to bestow. His Majesty at the same time expressed himself not only satisfied with the opinion of the majority of his council, but declared he would have found himself under the greatest difficulty how to have acted, had that council concurred as fully in supporting the measure proposed by Mr. Pitt as they had done in rejecting it. Mr. Pitt was sensibly touched with the grandeur and condescension of the proceeding. I confess, Sir, I had but too much reason to expect your Majesty's displeasure: I did not come prepared for this exceeding goodness: pardon me, Sir, it overpowers, it oppresses me.' He burst into tears. We are far from an attempt to add any colouring to so exquisitely affecting a picture; we are, indeed, far from being able to do justice to perhaps one of the most pathetic and elevated scenes which could possibly be displayed, the parting of such a prince, and such a minister." portant conquest. The objection of its not being tenable with a seat in parliament is foreseen; but a short bill might remedy that in this new case; in the preamble of which, the King's reasons for this appointment would be set forth. If, however, this should not strike you in the same light it does his Majesty, the next thing I am ordered to mention is the chancellor of the dutchy, with the salary annexed to it as before mentioned. You will please, Sir, to consider these as proofs of the King's earnest desire to show this country the high opinion he has of your merit. If they do not entirely please, impute it to the want of information I before hinted at; and do me the justice to believe, that I never shall execute any commission with more pleasure than I have done this. I am, Sir, with the highest regard, humble servant, BUTE. (1) (1) On the evening of this day, Bubb Dodington (now Lord Melcombe) wrote thus to Lord Bute: "I sincerely wish your lordship joy of being delivered of a most impracticable colleague, his Majesty of a most imperious servant, and the country of a most dangerous minister. I am told that the people are sullen about it. Be that as it may, I think it my duty to my most gracious sovereign and my generous friend to say, that, if I can be of any service to either in any thing that is most dangerous and difficult, I am most ready to undertake it." In his answer, of the following day, Lord Bute says: "Whatever private motives of uneasiness I might have in the late administration, I am far from thinking the dissolution of it favourable, in the present minute, to the King's affairs. I shall not fail to acquaint the King with the very frank and generous declaration |