Harriot, in Dover-street; and bid him call in Westminster, to know if I had any thing to say to his lord. He was here to-day, when he was sure the scaffold was ready and the axe-whetted; and is in Herefordshire, when the consent of all mankind either justifies his ministry, or follows the plan of it. The South Sea Company have raised their stocks to three hundred and fifty, and he has not sixpence in it. Thou art a stranger in Israel, my good friend ; and seemest to know no more of this lord, than thou didst of the Conde de Peterborow, when first I construed him to thee at the coffeehouse.

I labour under the distemper you complain of, deafness; especially upon the least cold. I did not take care of my ears, till I knew if my head was my own or not; but am now syringing, and I hope to profit by it. My cousin is here, and well, and I see him sometimes; but I find he has had a caution, which depended upon his expecting more from court, and is justifiable in a man, who, like him, has a great family. I have given your compliments to my two favourites. We never forget your health.

I have seen Mr Butler, and served him to the utmost of my power with my amici potentiories: though he had a good cause, and a strong recommendation, he trusted wholly to neither of them, but added the greatest diligence to his solicitations.

Auditor Harley thanks you for remembering him and his singing man. * As to the affair of subscriptions, do all at your leisure, and in the manner you

* Probably a person recommended to the dean's cathe

dral.-H.

judge most proper; and so I bid you heartily farewell, assuring you, that I am ever most truly yours, M. P.

Friend Ford salutes you. Adieu.

Richardson, whom I take to be a better painter than any named in your letter, has made an excellent picture of me; from whence Lord Harley (whose it is) has a stamp taken by Vertue. He has given me some of them for you to give to our friends at or about Dublin. I will send them by Tonson's canal to Hyde at Dublin, in such a manner, as that, I hope, they may come safe to you.

TO ROBERT COPE, ESQ.

Dublin, May 26, 1720.

If all the world would not be ready to knock me down for disputing the good nature and generosity of you and Mrs Cope, I should swear you invited me out of malice; some spiteful people have told you I am grown sickly and splenetic; and, having been formerly so yourself, you want to triumph over me with your health and good humour; and she is your accomplice. You have made so particular a muster of my wants and humours, and demands and singularities, and they look so formidable, that I wonder how you have the courage to be such an undertaker. What if I should add, that once in five or six weeks I am deaf for three or four days together; will you and Mrs Cope undertake to bawl to me, or let me mop in my chamber till I grow better?

Singula de nobis anni prædantur euntes. *

HOR. Ep. ii. lib. ii. 55.

I hunted four years for horses, gave twenty-six pounds for one of three years and a half old, have been eighteen months training him, and when he grew fit to ride, behold my groom gave him a strain in the shoulder, he is rowelled, and gone to grass. Show me a misfortune greater in its kind. Mr Charleton has refused Wadman's living; why, God knows; and got the duchess to recommend his brother to it; the most unreasonable thing in the world. The day before I had your letter, I was working with Mr Nutley and Mr Whaley, to see what could be done for your lad, in case Caulfeild should get the living which Mr Whaley (the primate's chaplain) is to leave for Wadman's. Because, to say the truth, I have no concern at all for Charleton's brother, whom I never saw but once. We know not yet whether Whaley's present living will not be given to Dr Kearney; t and I cannot learn the scheme yet, nor have been able to see Dr Stone. The primate † is the hardest to be seen or dealt with in the world. Whaley seems to think the primate will offer Caulfeild's living to young Charleton. I know not what will come of it. I called at Sir William Fownes's; §

The waning years apace

Steal off our thoughts, and rifle every grace.-FRANCIS.

+ Treasurer of Armagh.-F.

Dr Thomas Lindsay.

§ An alderman and lord mayor of Dublin, father of Mr Cope's lady. He was author of " Methods proposed for regulating the Poor, supporting some, and employing others, according to their Capacities. By Sir W. F. 1725," 8vo.; and there is a letter of his to the Dean, September 9, 1732, on the utility of an hospital for lunatics.

but he is in the county of Wicklow.-If we could have notice of any thing in good time, I cannot but think that, mustering up friends, something might be done for Barclay; but really the primate's life is not upon a very good foot, though I see no sudden apprehensions. I could upon any occasion write to him very freely, and I believe my writing would be of some weight, for they say he is not wholly governed by Crosse. * All this may be vision; however, you will forgive it. I do not care to put my name to a letter; you must know my hand. I present my humble service to Mrs Cope; and wonder she can be so good to remember an absent man, of whom she has no manner of knowledge, but what she got by his troubling her. I wish you success in what you hint to me, and that you may have enough of this world's wisdom to manage it. Pray God preserve you and your fireside. Are none of them yet in your lady's opinion ripe for Sheridan? I am still under the discipline

* Rector of St Mary's, Dublin.-F. Reading the name of Crosse in this page gives me reason to apprehend the letter is misdated For Crosse, who had been chaplain to the Smyrna company, was not rector of St Mary's until the year 1722; nor do I believe he was at all known in Ireland, further than, perhaps, by name, until his arrival there, when, by the virulence of party rage, Dean Francis, an old tory, father to Mr Francis, who translated Horace, was most spitefully turned out of the rectory of St Mary's, which he had enjoyed for eighteen years. Crosse was so universally detested for accepting a living, which had been absolutely refused by two or three others of the clergy (particularly by Dr Cobb, who lived to be promoted several years after to the archiepiscopal see of Dublin) that I am sure Lindsay, who was an old and high tory, would scorn to be acquainted with him. My real opinion is, that Crosse, in that passage, is no more than a pun.-D. S.

of the bark, to prevent relapses. Charles Ford comes this summer to Ireland. Adieu.

FROM SIR THOMAS HANMER.

SIR,

Mildenhall, Oct. 22, 1720.

I RECEIVED the favour of a letter from you about ten days since, at which time the Duke of Grafton * was at London; but as he was soon expected in the country, and is now actually returned, I thought it best, rather than write, to wait for an opportunity of speaking to him; and yesterday I went over to his house, on purpose to obey your commands. I found he was not a stranger to the subject of my errand; for he had all the particulars of the story very perfect, and told me, my Lord Arran had spoke to him concerning it. † I added my solicitations, backed with the reasons with which you had furnished me; and he was so kind to promise, he would by this post write to the chief-justice; how explicitly or how pressingly I cannot say, because men in high posts are afraid of being positive in their answers; but I hope it will be in such a manner as will be effectual.

If the thing is done, it will be best that the means should be a secret by which it is brought about; and

* Charles, whose mother Isabella, daughter of Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, married for her second husband Sir Thomas Hanmer.-H.

+ The prosecution of Waters. See the letter from Sir Constantine Phipps, on the same subject.