Commons every day this week, and I may say, until night too, with his evidence relative to the alterations of the duties, free port, &c. I should tell you, that Mr. Nugent (1) insists on bringing the question of free port before the House now, whatever inclination the Treasury bench may have to defer it till another session; so that matter may probably come to be decided before the House rises.

All other politics I forbear to meddle with; but it makes but a ghastly appearance, on the part of the directors of the political machine, when, in a question of such importance as that now before the House, concerning the American duties, free port, &c., only seventy members could be found to attend their duty. Mr. Beckford, on Monday, put a

(1) The right hon. Robert Nugent, at this time member for Bristol. In 1754, he was appointed a lord of the treasury; in 1759, one of the vice-treasurers of Ireland; and in December 1766, a lord of trade. In 1767, he was created baron Nugent, and viscount Clare; and in 1776, earl Nugent. He is described as a man of parts, a poet, and a facetious companion. A volume of his poems, entitled, "Odes and Epistles," was published anonymously in 1739, and several of his pieces are to be found in Dodsley's collection, and in the New Foundling Hospital for Wit. He was the friend of Goldsmith; who addressed his "Haunch of Venison" to him. He was thrice mar ried; his second wife being the sister and heiress of secretary Craggs, by whom he acquired a large fortune. His only daughter married the first Marquis of Buckingham, on whose second son the title of Baron Nugent devolved. He died in 1788. Lord Dover says, "he seems to have passed his long life in seeking lucrative places, and courting rich widows; in both of which pursuits he was eminently successful."

question, for Mr. Fuller to leave the chair, and divided the House: for the question, the numbers were twenty eight; against it fifty, or some such number. (1) I am, with the most perfect respect, Sir,

Your faithful and obedient servant,

T. NUTHALL.

MR. PITT TO THOMAS NUTHALL, ESQ.

DEAR NUTHall,

Bath, Sunday, May 11, 1766.

The

You will imagine I was not a little disappointed and vexed to hear my cause was put off. law's will be done. Next to the "insolence of office," as Shakspeare has it, the "law's delay" is certainly the greatest plague of society; but we will hope for better things from your un-lawyer

(1) The measures taken, in this session, for extending and promoting the trade and manufactures of the country, are thus summed up by Mr. Burke, in his Short Account of a Short Administration: "The trade of America was set free from injudicious and ruinous impositions; its revenue was improved and settled upon a rational foundation; its commerce extended with foreign countries; while all the advantages were secured to Great Britain, by 'the act for repealing certain duties, and encouraging, regulating, and securing the trade of this kingdom, and the British dominions in America.' Materials were provided and insured to our manufactures; the sale of these manufactures was increased; the African trade preserved and extended; and the principles of the act of navigation pursued, and the plan improved, by the act for opening certain ports in Dominica and Jamaica.'"

like zeal for your friend; whose impatience you are not quite a stranger to, any time these twenty years; and with which you have many times kept some tolerable pace. Pray send me word soon that my cause is over; won or lost, I do not prescribe! (1)

American evidence will have sweated the House finely; though the cool attendance will have mitigated the sultry hours of investigation. As to molasses, I have little to say: I think a penny best. As to Dominica, nothing is so clear you ought to attend to the very beneficial cotton-manufacture (2); but, for that very reason, you ought, in all policy, to supply the first material, cotton, yourselves, and not render the basis of such a lucrative manufacture dependant on France, or the first rupture. Nothing so demonstrated, as that our British possessions will, with proper regulations, supply all the cotton wanted, in twice nine months, and our own sugar colonies be saved from being sacrificed to a speculative project. I (1) The heirs at law of Sir William Pynsent disputed the validity of his will. After numerous delays, unhappily but too common in similar cases, the cause was argued before the master of the rolls, and, after three days' hearing, was decided in favour of Mr. Pitt, on the 27th of June.

(2) At the time Mr. Pitt was penning this letter, cotton, as an article of commerce, was scarcely known in this country; the entire value of all the cotton goods manufactured in Great Britain, at the accession of George the Third, being estimated to amount to only two hundred thousand pounds sterling a year. In 1782, the whole produce of the cotton manufacture did not exceed two millions sterling; while, in the year 1837, the quantity of the raw material imported into this country exceeded three hundred millions of pounds!

hope to hear this unsolid idea of a free port is quite rejected and exploded.

I find the waters do well enough, and hope to receive benefit by continuing to drink them. I count, however, the days here, longing to be at Pynsent, where I hope to see you somehow or other, when affairs of state permit you. Believe me always, dear Nuthall,

Most faithfully yours,

W. PITT.

THOMAS NUTHALL, ESQ. TO MR. PITT.

Thursday night, 11 o'clock. [May 29, 1766.]

SIR,

WHEN I wrote to you from Hayes this afternoon, I did not know what had happened in the House of Lords yesterday, on the reading of the windowtax bill. I am told the Duke of Grafton declared his reasons for his resignation; which were, not that the office was too fatiguing to him, but that he thought the administration wanted authority, dignity, and extension; that he accepted the office he had quitted, upon a generally received idea, that you, to whom the nation was more indebted than to any minister who had ever lived in it, and who had raised it to the pitch of glory it had lately enjoyed, would become a part of the administration,

for the public good; that you were willing so to do, but it was not approved of; that without you, there was not safety to the public, &c., &c.; and said, that although he had held one of the first offices in the state, which, for the reasons given by him, he had quitted, yet were you to give your assistance, and to become a part of any administration to be formed with your concurrence, he should with pleasure take up the spade and the pick-axe, and dig in the trenches, and should be proud to hold any office whatever with you. I am, from good authority, assured, this was the substance of his Grace's speech, which I dare say you will not be displeased with my communicating to you. (1) I am,

Your faithful and obedient servant,

6

T. NUTHALL.

(1) The deranged condition of the ministry, at the beginning of June, is thus depicted by Lord Chesterfield: "What account shall I give you of ministerial affairs here? I protest I do not know. It is a total dislocation and derangement; consequently a total inefficiency. When the Duke of Grafton quitted the seals, he gave that very reason for it, in a speech in the House of Lords: he declared, that he had no objection to the persons or to the measures of the present ministers; but that he thought they wanted strength and efficiency to carry on proper measures with success, and that he knew but one man' (meaning, as you may easily suppose, Mr. Pitt) 'who could give them that strength and solidity; that under this person, he should be willing to serve in any capacity, not only as a general officer, but as a pioneer, and would take up a spade and mattock. To tell you the speculations, the reasonings, and the conjectures even of the best-informed public, upon the present wonderful situation of affairs, would take up more time than I can afford."