1750. it, as I shall, by the first opportunity, M. de Mi repoix. I am, &c. BEDFORD. DUKE OF BEDFORD TO NICHOLAS MAN ESQ.* [Relative to some abuses in the Charter House.] MR. KEENE TO THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. (Private and particular.) My Lord, Madrid, December 8. 1750. I have waited for this opportunity to return my most humble thanks for the honour of the private and secret letter your Grace was pleased to write to me on the 26th October by General Wall's messenger. And I likewise take advantage of it to profess my gratitude for the source of every success I may have had here; the clearness and Secretary to the Charterhouse, of which the Duke of Bedford was a governor; the letter is written in a strain of severe remonstrance against some practices greatly interfering with the comforts of the scholars. This is but one among numerous instances with which the corre : spondence abounds, of the Duke's anxiety for the comfort of all who were in any degree dependent upon him if it were necessary to print letters, in themselves of little interest to the public, they could only redound to the honour of his warm-hearted character. precision of the instructions I have from time to time received from you, and the manner in which you have been so good as to signify them, as well as for the attention you have been pleased to show to every private request that I have taken the liberty to make to your Grace, that has had any relation to the national service. I have real pride and happiness, my Lord, in the approbation with which you honour me. It makes the deeper impression upon me, as your sincerity is as known and conspicuous as any of the noble qualities you are possessed of. And I will draw this essential comfort from it, that I do not appear to have forfeited any part of the good opinion you had conceived of me, when you were pleased to acquaint me with your desires to charge myself with this work, nor consequently any share of that goodness and protection which you gave me leave to expect from you. I have never been, nor ever shall be, importunate. My circumstances, after a life of some labour and disagreeable passages, are in every respect much the same as when I made the first step into it. My appointments and much more have always been expended in procuring that regard here which was necessary for his Majesty's service. But I confess I am now tempted to hope from the present occasion, and from your Grace's favour and concurrence, I may receive some such marks of his Majesty's approbation as shall be thought proper to be conferred upon me. 1750. 1750. It costs me no little pain to say thus much; but as it is the only time I shall ever trouble your Grace upon what relates to myself or my own interests, I hope you will forgive it. And that you will believe that in every station my good or indifferent fortune may place me for the rest of my days, I shall always think myself happy in having had an opportunity of showing you a disinterested zeal for the national service, and of making known to you the gratitude with which I am, &c. &c. THE DUKE of bedFORD TO MR. KEENE. (Private and particular.) Dear Sir, Whitehall, December 20. 1750. I am now to acknowledge the receipt of your Nov. 27, private and particular letter of Dec. 8' which I received from Jackson the messenger, and which I had the honour to lay before the King immediately upon the receipt of it, and am sorry I am not as yet enabled to answer it in so satisfactory a way to you as I wished to have done. However, I hope it may be possible, by waiting for a proper opportunity, to bring about what I so much wish for your sake; and I can assure you there shall be nothing left undone by me, that can contribute to have your good. I not only think that what you brought about with the court of Spain deserves great notice from his Majesty to you personally, but also the doing any act of favour to you at this time, would be of great consequence in its public light, as it would be showing to all Europe the good opinion the King himself has, as well of the measure as of the person who brought it to perfection. For God's sake continue to cultivate this so happy union between the two nations by your skill and knowledge of the Spanish court and ministry; and above all things endeavour to bring to maturity those thoughts you have thrown out to them about their mistaken system of policy in the West Indies, which you have explained to me in your separate letter. If that could be effected, I think there would be the greatest probability that has existed for this last century of keeping a firm and lasting union between the two nations, as by it the great bone of contention would be removed. I am so much pressed in time that I cannot at present explain myself fuller to you on this point, but shall be glad by a safe conveyance to hear further from you upon it, and what hopes you may have conceived of bringing a measure of this nature, in a court so stiff as that of Madrid with regard to old prejudices, to a happy conclusion. I am, &c. BEDFORD. VOL. II. F 1750. When I saw Mr. Puisieux yesterday at Versailles, I perceived he had something upon his mind that was uneasy to him, and which he wanted to disburthen; however, his conversation with me at first was very general, but it was not long before he came to the point he had most at heart. He told me he was extremely sorry to find, by a letter he had received from M. Mirepoix, in which that ambassador gave him an account of a conversation he had had with the Duke of Newcastle, in your Grace's absence, that the proposition he (M. Puisieux) had made of establishing conferences at Versailles, to settle some points, previous to the election of a king of the Romans, had been disapproved by his Grace and rejected: he said that his intention in making this proposal was not to fix the manner of the election, as that he knew would be irregular and improper to have been thought of, but merely to settle some demands that seemed necessary to be adjudged before proceeding to that election, and particularly the pretensions of the King of Prussia and the Elector Palatine, in order that all parties who had any interest in this important affair might be satisfied as much as possible, and that there might be the greater unanimity in bringing it to a conclusion: that even the pre |