Yet, for aught I know, it may be very true, that, with all his attention to the dear little hair, he was incapable of taking the fairest opportunity by the forelock.

ANTI-W.

LETTER LXXXVII

TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER.

SIR, January, 17, 1771. IF Sir Edward Hawke had followed the advice and example of his friends, he would not have been reduced to the dishonourable necessity of quitting the direction of the English navy, at the very moment it is going to be employed against the foreign enemies of England. To be left in employment after Chatham, Granby, and Camden had retired; to continue in it in company with Grafton, North, Gower, and Hillsborough; and at last to be succeeded by Lord Sandwich, are circumstances too disgraceful to admit of aggrava tion. It is natural to sympathise in the distresses of a brave man, and to lament that a noble estate of reputation should be squandered away in debts of dishonour contracted with sharpers.

His Majesty, God bless him: has now got rid of every man whose former services or present scruples could be supposed to give offence to her Royal Highness the Princess Dowager of Wales. The security of our civil and religious liberties cannot be more happily provided for than while Lord Mansfield pronounces the law, and Lord Sandwich represents the religion of St. James's. Such law and such religion are too closely united to suffer even a momentary intervention of common honesty between them. Her Royal Highness's scheme of government, formed long before her husband's death, is now accomplished. She has succeeded in disuniting every party, and dissolving every connection; and, by the mere influence of the crown, has formed an administration, such as it is, out of the refuse of them all. There are two leading principles in the politics of St. James's, which will account for almost every measure of government since the King's accession. The first is, that the prerogative is sufficient to make a lacquey &

prime minister, and to maintain him in that post, without any regard to the welfare or to the opinion of the people. The second is, that none but persons insignificant in themselves, or of tainted reputation, should be brought into employment. Men of greater consequence and abilities will have opinions of their own, and will not submit to the meddling, unnatural ambition of a mother who grasps at unlimited power, at the hazard of her son's destruction. They will not suffer measures of public utility, which have been resolved upon in council, to be checked and controlled by a secret influence in the closet. Such men consequently will never be called upon but in cases of extreme necessity. When that ceases, they find their places no longer tenable. To answer the purposes of an ambitious woman, an administration must be formed of more pliant materials-of men, who, having no connection with each other, no personal interest, no weight or consideration with the people, may separately depend upon the smiles of the crown alone for their advancement to high offices, and for their continuance there. If such men resist the Princess Dowager's pleasure, his Majesty knows that he may dismiss them without risking anything from their resentment. His wisdom suggests to him that, if he were to choose his ministers for any of those qualities which might entitle them to public esteem, the nation might take part with them, and resent their dismission. As it is, whenever he changes his servants, he is sure to have the people, in that instance, of his side.

I love and respect our gracious Sovereign too much to suppose it possible that he should be anything more than passive in forming and supporting such a system of government; and even this acquiescence of the best of princes I am ready to attribute to a most amiable quality implanted in him by nature, and carefully cultivated by art-unlimited duty and obedience to his dear mother. Few nations are in the predicament that we are, to have nothing to complain of but the filial virtues of our sovereign. Charles the First had the same implicit attachment to his spouse; but his worthy parent was in her grave. It were to be wished that the parallel held good in all the circumstances.

In respect to her Royal Highness, I shall deliver my sentiments without any false tenderness or reserve.

I con

sider her not only as the original creating cause of the shameful and deplorable condition of this country, but as a being whose operation is uniform and permanent; who watches, with a kind of providential malignity, over the work of her hands, to correct, improve, and preserve it. If the strongest appearances may be relied on, this lady has now brought her schemes to perfection. Every office in government is filled with men who are known to be her creatures, or by mere cyphers incapable of resistance. Is it conceivable that anything, less than a determined plan of drawing the whole power of the crown into her own hands, could have collected such an administration as the present? Who is Lord North? The son of a poor unknown earl, who four years ago was a needy commissioner of the treasury for the benefit of a subsistence, and who would have accepted a commission of hackney coaches upon the same terms. The politics of Carlton House, finances picked up in Mr. Grenville's anti-chamber, and the elocution of a Demosthenes, endeavouring to speak plain with pebbles in his mouth, form the stuffing of that figure that calls itself minister, that does homage to the Princess Dowager, and says, Madam, I am your man.

The stage was deprived of a promising actor when poor Lord Hillsborough gave his mind to politics. Yet his theatrical talents have been of use to his fortune. The Princess Dowager saw what part this man was capable of acting; and with regard to himself, it signified but little whether he represented Prince Volscius at Drury-lane, or secretary of state at St. James's.

It is not pretended that Lord Rochford's abilities are of the explicit kind. Yet from a chargé d'affaires at Turin, the allpowerful guiding hand has raised him to be secretary of state. The Princess Dowager knows, better than we do, what positive good qualities this nobleman possesses. The public only

knows that he is a mute in the House of Lords, and that he is destitute of fortune, interest, and connections. To do him justice, he has all the negative qualifications that constitute merit at Carlton House.

The character of third secretary is not yet disposed of. Public suspicion gives Lord Hillsborough a formidable rival. At the opening of the theatre young Suffolk is to be produced. Prince Pretty man can cant very near as well as Prince Vol

scius. Such a pair of actors make tragedy ridiculous. Our enemies at least will laugh at the catastrophe. But this young man shall be left for abler hands. It requires no vulgar pen to do justice to such a strain of monstrous pros titution.

Why is that wretched creature Lord Townshend maintained in Ireland? Is it not universally known that the ignorance, presumption, and incapacity of that man have ruined the King's affairs in Ireland?—that he has, in a great measure, destroyed the political dependance of that country upon Great Britain? But he too is an unconnected being, without any hope of support but in the protection of Lord Bute and the Princess Dowager.

Why is not a commander-in-chief appointed? Because there is an insignificant secretary at war, who has no chance of continuing in the receipt of 2500l. a year, but by making himself the instrument through which the Princess Dowager disposes of every valuable commission in the army.

Why have we not a master-general of the ordnance? Because the gentle Conway knows how to be as pliant as Lord Barrington.

Why is there no chancellor? Partly because there is a convenience in bribing four of the judges with the emoluments of that office, and partly because no man of credit in the profession will submit to act with the present infamous administration.

What merit has Lord Halifax?-The issue of general warrants; the opposition of his privilege for years together to the laws of his country; prostitution in private life, and poverty in the extreme.

Why is the King so fond of having Lord Bristol about his person? If the duties of the noble Lord's office had a closer connection with the title of it, as usually pronounced, I should understand his Majesty, and admire his attention in paying so delicate a compliment to his Lordship's amours. The last question I would ask is, by what kind of service or ability the Earl of Sandwich is distinguished? Prostitution and poverty may be found in other subjects, and appearances saved by a decent formality of behaviour. The choice and preference of the most profligate character in the kingdom may suit well enough with the substantial purposes of Carlton House, but

now does it consist with the hypocritical decorum of Saint James's? What opinion are we to entertain of the piety, chastity, and integrity of the best of princes, when, in the face of England and of all Europe, he takes such a man as Sandwich to his bosom ! Let us hear no more of the piety of Saint James's. To talk of morals or devotion in such company is a scandalous insult to common sense, and a still more scandalous mockery of religion.

The Princess Dowager having now carried her plan of administration into effect, it is not to be wondered that she should be very unwilling to expose herself and her schemes to the uncertain events of a foreign war. She knows that a disaster abroad would not only defeat the cunning plan of female avarice and ambition, but that it might reach further. The mothers of our kings have heretofore been impeached; and if the precedents are not so complete as they should be, they require and will admit of improvement.

To maintain this lady in her present state of power and security, there is no insult, no indignity, to which the King of Britain must not submit-no condition, however humiliating, which the King and the nation must not accept of without resentment. At this point, however, her cunning forsakes her. Both she and her ministers deceive themselves grossly, if they imagine that any concessions can secure peace with an enemy determined upon war. She may disgrace the English nation. She may dishonour her son, and persuade him to forfeit his right to precedence among the sovereigns of Europe. The man who receives a blow, and does not return it (whether he be a king or a private person), from that moment stands degraded from his natural rank and condition. If he be a young man, his infamy is immortal. Yet I am ready to confess that where two nations upon the whole are peaceably disposed, there is a degree of slight, and ill humour, and even of injury, which, for the sake of peace, may and ought to be dissembled; but a direct, positive, intended insult must always be resented. To flatter ourselves that the moderation of the Spaniards will be proportioned to our forbearance, or that, because we have submitted tamely to one affront, they will therefore avoid offering us a second, would be arguing in contradiction to all reason and experience. If Falkland Island had never existed, the rancour of the Spaniards woula