MR. PITT TO THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

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

SIRE,

[Without date.]

pas

ASPIRANT sans cesse au point que je le fais, à la gloire d'admirer et de servir votre Majesté, je la supplie d'agréer que je mette à ses pieds les hommages de mon respect et de ma reconnaissance, et que je tâche d'exprimer combien je suis touché des expressions de condescendance et de bonté infinie, à mon sujet, que renferme la lettre dont votre Majesté a daigné m'honorer de sa main. Ma gloire est à son comble, si elle ne discontinue de m'accorder son suffrage, et mon bonheur sera complet, si mes actions, ni mes discours ne reçoivent jamais auprès de V. M. une interprétation différente de ce que le zèle le plus pur et l'attachement le plus invariable me dictent. Il est vrai, Sire, qu'il y a eu des momens où ce zèle et cet attachement m'ont fait trembler pour les états et pour le salut du plus invincible Monarque. Plût à Dieu que ces momens fûssent entièrement passés, et que je pûsse dire, avec la sincérité d'un vrai serviteur de V. M., que ces inquiétudes fussent encore dissipées!

Mais c'est trop détourner V. M. sur les sentimens d'un particulier, qui, comme tel, sent tout son néant. Au reste, Sire, la constance du Roi mon maître à soutenir ses alliés est trop connue de ses

ennemis, et trop respectée de toute l'Europe, pour qu'il soit nécessaire ou convenable de la déployer par des paroles; d'autant que les âmes héroïques se rendent toujours justice, et que V. M. sentira bien mieux que je ne le saurais dire, l'étendue de l'amitié et de la fermeté du Roi. Je suis avec le plus profond respect, Sire, de votre Majesté, &c. W. PITT.

THE EARL OF GRANVILLE (1) TO MR. PITT.

Sunday, April 5, 1761.

LORD GRANVILLE presents his compliments to Mr. Pitt, and thanks him for the communication

(1) John Carteret, earl of Granville, was born in 1690, and educated at Christchurch, Oxford; whence, according to Swift, "he carried away more Greek, Latin, and philosophy, than properly became a person of his rank." In 1719, he was sent ambassador to Denmark; in 1721, on the death of Craggs, he was made secretary of state; and in 1724, lord-lieutenant of Ireland. On the removal of Sir Robert Walpole in 1742, he was reappointed secretary of state; which office he resigned in 1744. In 1746, on the attempt to form a new ministry, with the Earl of Bath at its head, Lord Granville again succeeded in obtaining the seals of office; which, however, he was compelled almost immediately after to resign,-"the new administration," according to a jeu d'esprit, intitled 'A History of the Long Administration,' having lasted only "forty-eight hours, three quarters, seven minutes, and eleven seconds; which," continues the historian, "may be truly called the most wise and most honest of all administrations; the minister having, to the astonishment of all wise men, never transacted one rash thing, and, what is more marvellous, left as much money in the treasury as he found in it."

of his answer to the Duc de Choiseul, together with the draught of the Memorial. (')

Neither of those draughts can, in my judgment, be mended; and when this great affair comes out into the world, every person of candour will agree to impute the happy setting out of this great affair, as well as the success of it, which God grant, to the right author; whose spirit, and perseverance, and judgment, under some discouragements, to my own knowledge, have produced this salutary work.

THE EARL OF BUTE (2) TO MR. PITT.

SIR,

Tuesday morn. [April 14, 1761.]

INTENDING to call upon you this morning, I this minute learn you are gone to the country. I must therefore give you this trouble to acquaint you, that

In 1751, the earl was appointed president of the council; a situation which he retained till his death, in January, 1763. "His person," says Walpole, " was handsome, open, and engaging; his eloquence at once rapid and pompous, and, by the mixture, a little bombast. He was an extensive scholar, master of classic criticism, and of all modern politics."

(1) For copies of the letter and memorial, see Parliamentary History, vol. xv. p. 1026.

(2) On the 25th of March, Lord Bute had been sworn in one of the principal secretaries of state, and taken his place at the council board.

Lord Egremont (') was with me yesterday, and, in a very handsome and respectful manner to his Majesty, expressed a wish to be employed at the future congress. I assured his lordship I would lay his request before the King, and that I could, in the mean time, assure him that, by the manner I had heard both the Duke of Newcastle and you talk of him, I had reason to think his lordship's nomination would be as agreeable to you as to myself. As the Duke of Newcastle seems to point to Sir Joseph Yorke, there remains only one to consider of. I should be extremely pleased to hear that you had thought of any proper person. I protest I know none; and the Duke of Newcastle is hitherto silent upon it. I had a letter from Mr. Ellis, whom I am little acquainted with, to offer himself. (2) I congratulate you, Sir, on Lord

(1) Sir Charles Wyndham, Bart., son of the celebrated Sir William Wyndham, chancellor of the exchequer in the reign of Queen Anne; whom speaker Onslow considered "the most made for a great man of any one he had ever known," and whose character has been handed down to posterity by Pope

"How can I Pult'ney, Chesterfield forget,
While Roman spirit charms, or Attic wit;
Or Wyndham, just to freedom and the throne,
The master of our passions, and his own."

Upon the demise of his uncle, Algernon, Duke of Somerset, without male issue, Sir Charles succeeded, in 1750, to the earldom of Egremont and barony of Cockermouth. On the resignation of Mr. Pitt, in October 1761, he was appointed secretary of state, and died of an apoplectic fit in August 1763.

(2) The three plenipotentiaries finally nominated were Lord Egremont, Sir Joseph Yorke, and Lord Stormont, the British ambassador in Poland.

Granby's safe arrival ('), and on things wearing I am, Sir, with great re

rather a better aspect.

gard,

Your most obedient

humble servant,

BUTE.

HANS STANLEY, ESQ. (2) TO MR. PITT.

SIR,

Charlton, April 18, 1761.

LORD TEMPLE mentioned to me yesterday a very great honour you had done me, in recollecting my name among those of others, who may, in some capacity, be useful on a future occasion. I should,

(1) The Marquis of Granby arrived in town from the army in Germany, on the morning of this day. On the 1st of May, he was appointed lieutenant-general of the ordnance, and returned to his command on the 25th.

(2) Mr. Stanley was the grandson of the celebrated Sir Hans Sloane, president of the college of physicians. At this time, he was one of the lords of the admiralty, and member for the town of Southampton. In 1766, he was appointed ambassadorextraordinary to the court of Petersburgh; in 1770, governor of the Isle of Wight; and in 1776, cofferer of the household. He died, unmarried, in 1780; by which event, his beautiful seat of Poultons, in the New Forest, became the property of his sister, married to the right hon. Welbore Ellis, afterwards Lord Mendip. Lady Hervey, in her letters (p. 204.), describes him as "a very ingenious, sensible, knowing, conversable, and, what is still better, a worthy, honest, valuable man." He was a trustee of the British Museum, and member of several learned societies. In a note to Pope's Temple of Fame, Dr. Warton states Mr. Stanley to have been "as accurately skilled in modern as in ancient Greek."