THE HON. THOMAS HERVEY (1) TO MR. PITT.

MY DEAR SIR,

Bond Street, December 5, 1762.

If any power were left me, either of mind or body, for such a disquisition, I could write very copiously to you concerning the present crisis. When I read the preliminaries of our precipitated peace, I could not avoid saying, to myself at least, what Antony says over the corpse of his friend Cæsar Alas, great Pitt! are all thy conquests, trophies, spoils, shrunk to this little measure? (2) For truth's sake, for your reputation's sake, and, above all, for the sake of your many staunch and invariable friends, recompense the cordial compliment I am making you, by testifying to the public, that you think with me upon this important measure.

(1) Second son of John, first earl of Bristol, and brother of the nobleman whose character Pope has delineated under the name of Sporus, and of the hon. Henry Hervey, the early friend of Dr. Johnson. He served in three parliaments for the borough of St. Edmundsbury, was surveyor of the royal gardens, and died in 1775. His celebrated Letter to Sir Thomas Hanmer, with whose wife he had eloped, appeared in 1742. Boswell, on the authority of Mr. Beauclerk, relates, that he had a great liking for Johnson, and had left him a legacy of fifty pounds, but afterwards gave it him in his lifetime. See Boswell's Johnson, vol. iii. p. 17. ed. 1835.

(2) "O mighty Cæsar! dost thou lie so low?

Are all thy conquests, glaries, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure?

"

Julius Caesar, act 3. sc. 1.

Exclusive of the considerations I have mentioned to you, the vanity of your opposition is as visible to me, as the vanity of all things was to Solomon; and therefore it is to be hoped, that you will not abide the issue of my prediction, till, like him, you find it verified by the test of experience. Had the Duke of Newcastle quitted his employment at the time of your resignation, his Grace had then made one right judgment of things before he died; and might have succeeded in that, which is not at present to be effected.

What part you intend to take upon this emergency is a point that puzzles our ablest politicians. New rumours and surmises are almost daily set on foot and circulated, and they are agreed in nothing, but their impatience for the event. (1) You are still

(1) On the 9th of December, Mr. Pitt, although very ill, came down to the house, to state his objections to the preliminaries of peace. His speech, which lasted three hours and forty minutes, embraced every topic of objection. He declared, although he was at that instant suffering under the most excruciating torture, that he had determined, at the hazard of his life, to attend that day to raise up his voice, his hand, and his arm against the preliminary articles of a treaty, which obscured all the glories of the war, surrendered the dearest interests of the nation, and sacrificed the public faith by abandoning our allies. He proceeded to analyse every part of the stipulations; which he stigmatised in general with unqualified censure. The only particulars which met his approbation were the dereliction of North America by the French, and the restitution of Minorca. He expatiated at great length on the German connection; and affirmed, that the desertion of the King of Prussia was insidious, tricking, base, and treacherous. In conclusion, he said the terms of the proposed treaty met his most hearty disapprobation; for he saw in them the seeds of a future war. The peace was

beloved and reverenced by the patriot band, and still possessed of a dignity never conferred on any other man; that of being deemed, and even called, the people's minister. Your own firmness will keep firm this glorious basis; and as long as you continue to rest and build upon it, they that do not love you must ultimately find it necessary to have you. I am I am telling you these things, as the last efforts of my friendship; for I am wasting my life in such incessant constraint and pain, that, if you loved me as well as you do your wife and children, you would not wish the duration of it. Adieu. THO. HERVEY.

insecure, because it restored the enemy to her former greatness; it was inadequate, because the places retained were no equivalent for those surrendered. Mr. Pitt was so feeble at the beginning of his speech, that he was supported by two of his friends; but his pain increasing as he proceeded, he was allowed the unprecedented indulgence of delivering his sentiments sitting. * Towards the close of his speech he was so ill that he could scarcely be heard. He intended to have spoken to some points relative to Spain, but was unable, and left the house in an agony of pain, before the division.

* Mr. Hatsell, in the first edition of his " Precedents," says, "I remember two instances of the House's permitting members to speak sitting; one was Mr. Pitt, in his very long speech against the peace of 1762." To this passage, in subsequent editions, he added: "Mr. Pitt spoke for three hours and forty minutes. This, at the time of the first publication of this volume, entitled me to call his speech very long. The later practice (contrary to the recommendation of Cicero, 'ut modo, ne sit infinitus; nam brevitas in sententia, senatoris laus est') has rendered this epithet improper." The speech of Mr. (now Lord) Brougham, in February 1828, on moving for a commission to enquire into the state of the common law courts, occupied nearly seven hours.

THOMAS HOLLIS, ESQ. (1) TO MR. PITT.

SIR,

Pall Mall, December 21, 1762.

I HAVE been much embarrassed by the receipt of the enclosed letter and papers, which were wholly unexpected. At length I resolve to send them to you as I received them: forgive their liberty who wrote them, for they are ingenuous; and mine who send them, for I mean well. Retain the dedication, I request; and bestow on me beneficently, such an answer as I wish to send, and they to receive.

For the sincerity of the dedication, I appeal to the suffrages of the English people in Runymead, in general assembly convened, or any such hallowed spot; or to foreigners, every where. Sir, you have surprised, astonished, us all, on a late remark

(1) Of Corscombe, in the county of Dorset. The following quaint character of this extraordinary man appeared in one of the public prints some years before his death :-" Thomas Hollis is a gentleman possessed of a large fortune, above the half of which he devotes to charities, to the encouragement of genius, and to the support and defence of liberty. Wherever he meets the man of letters, he is sure to assist him; and were I to describe in paint this illustrious citizen, I would depict him leading by the hands Genius and distressed Virtue to the temple of Reward.', He was a fellow of the Royal, the Antiquarian, and other learned societies, and made many valuable presents to the British Museum. He died in 1774; and in 1781, his Memoirs, compiled by Archdeacon Blackburne, were printed in two volumes quarto, "as a lasting monument of one, who was nobly and ingenuously devoted to the services of his country by deeds of peace."

"Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni. (1)

I am, with unfeigned and deepest respect and

reverence,

Your most obedient servant,

THOMAS HOLLIS.

[The enclosures spoken of were a letter from Mr. Taylor How, then residing at Pisa, to Mr. Hollis, announcing the intention of Count Algarotti to dedicate his forthcoming " Essay on the Opera" to Mr. Pitt, and also a copy of the proposed dedication, in the Count's hand-writing; of which the following is a transcript.]

'A GUGLIELMO PITT FRANCESCO ALGAROTTI. (2)

Pisa, 18 Novembre, 1762. SEMBRERA ad alcuni assai strano, che à Voi, uomo immortale, che nella vostra nazione sapeste riaccendere il nativo valore, sapeste provveder per sempre alla sua difesa, et la faceste in un medesimo anno trionfare nelle quattro parti del mondo, venga intitolato uno scritto, che ragione da poesia, di musica, di cose da teatro.

(1) "The gods and Cato did in this divide;

They chose the conquering, he the conquer'd side."

(2) Algarotti was born at Venice in 1712, and when young paid a visit to England. His first publication was the "Newtonianismo per le Dame," which was translated into English by Mrs. Carter. He afterwards visited Berlin, where he was much caressed by Frederick the Great; who bestowed on him the post of chamberlain, the order of merit, and the title of count. He died in 1764. An edition of his works, in seventeen volumes octavo, appeared at Venice in 1794.