friends reprefented to me, that he was no man of bunefs, but only a very genteel, pretty young fellow; I affured them, and with truth, that was the very reafon why I chose him: for that I was refolvd to do all the business myself, and without even the fufpicion of having a minifter; which the lord lieutenant's fecretary, if he is a man of bufinefs, is always fuppofed, and commonly with reafon, to be. My only remaining ambition is now to be the counfellor and minister of your rifing ambition. Let me fee my own youth revived in you; let me be your Mentor, and, with your parts and knowledge, I promise you, you shall go far. You must bring, on your part, activity and attention, and I will point out to you the proper objects for them. I own I fear but one thing for you, and that is what one has generally the leaft reafon to fear, from one of your age, I mean your laziness; which, if you indulge, will make you ftagnate in a contemptible obfcurity all your life. It will hinder you from doing any thing that will deferve to be written, or from writing any thing that may deferve to be read; and yet one or other of these two objects fhould be at least aimed at by every rational being. I look upon indolence as a fort of fuicide; for the man is effectually deftroyed, though the appetites of the brute may furvive. Ufe yourfelf, therefore, in time to be alert and diligent in your little concerns: never procrastinate, never put off till to-morrow, what you can do to-day; and never do two things at a time: purfue your object, be it what it will, fteadily and indefatigably; and let any difficulties (if furmount able) rather animate than flacken your endeavours. Perfeverance has furprifing effects.

I wish you would ufe yourself to tranflate, every day, only three or four lines, from any book, in any language, into the correcteft and moft elegant English that you can think of; you cannot imagine how it will infenfibly form your ftyle, and give you an habitual elegancy it would not take you up a quarter of an hour in a day. This letter is fo long, that it will hardly leave you that quarter of an hour, the day you re cive it. So good night.

LETTER CLIX.

Death of Mr. Pelham...Minifterial Changes... Abfurd Politica Speculations...Mr. Fox.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

London, March the 8th.

A GREAT and unexpected event has lately hap

pened in our minifterial world-Mr. Pelham died last Monday, of a fever and mortification, occafioned by a general corruption of his whole mafs of blood, which. had broken out into fores in his back. I regret him as an old ocquaintance, a pretty near relation, and a private man, with whom I have lived many years in a focial and friendly way. He meaned well to the public, and was incorrupt in a post where corruption is commonly contagious. If he was no fhining, enterprifing minifter, he was a fafe one, which I like better. Very fhining minifters, like the fun, are apt to fcorch when they thine the brighteft: in our conftitution, I prefer the milder light of a lefs glaring minifter. His fucceffor is not yet, at least publicly, defignatus.

You

will eafily fuppofe that many are very willing, and very few able to fill that poft. Various perfons are talked of, by different people, for it, according as their interest prompts them to with, or their ignorance to conje&ture. Mr. Fox is the moft talked of; he is strongly supported. by the duke of Cumberland. Mr. Legge the folicitorgeneral, and Dr. Lee, are likewife all fpoken of, upon the foot of the duke of Newcastle's and the chancellor's intereft. Should it be any one of the three laft, I think no great alterations will enfue; but fhould Mr. Fox prevail, it would, in my opinion, foon produce changes by no means favourable to the duke of Newcastle. In the mean time, the wild conjectures of volunteer politician's, and the ridiculous importance which, upon thefe occafions, blockheads always endeavour to give themselves, by grave looks, fignificant fhrugs, and infignificant whilpers, are very entertaining to a byeftander, as, happily I now am. I One knows fomething, but is not yet at liberty to tell it; another has heard. fomething from a very good hand; a third congratu lates himself upon a certain degree of intimacy which he has long had with every one of the candidates,

though, perhaps, he has never spoken twice to any one of them. In short, in thefe fort of intervals, vanity, intereft, and abfurdity, always difplay themselves in the most ridiculous light. One who has been so long behind the scenes, as I have, is much more diverted with the entertainment than thofe can be who only fee it from the pit and boxes. I know the whole machinery of the interior, and can laugh the better at the filly wonder and wild conjectures of the uninformed fpec

tators.

*

I am this moment informed, and I believe truly, that Mr. Fox is to fucceed Mr. Pelham as firft commiffioner of the Treafury and chancellor of the Exchequer; and your friend Mr. Yorke of the Hague, to fucceed Mr. Fox as fecretary at war. I am not forry for this promotion of Mr. Fox, as I have always been upon civil terms with him, and found him ready to do me any little fervices. He is frank and gentleman-like in his manner; and, to a certain degree, I really believe will be your friend upon my account; if terwards make him yours,upon your own, tant mieux. I have nothing more to fay now, but adieu !

LETTER CLX.

you can af

Neceffity of Self-Command...Florid Style...Philofophy of Cicero

MY DEAR FRIEND,

and Plato.

London, March the 26th.

YESTERDAY I received your letter of the 15th,

from Manheim, where I find you have been received in the ufual gracious manner; which I hope you return in a graceful one. I am very glad that you wrote the letter to lord, which, in every different cafe that can poffibly be fuppofed, was, I am fure, both a decent and a prudent ftep. You will find it very difficult, whenever we meet, to convince me that you could have any good reafons for not doing it; for I will for argument's fake, fuppofe, what I cannot in reality believe, that he has both faid and done the worst he

1763.

Henry Fox, created lord Holland, baron of F

of

and by you. What then? How will you help your felf? Are you in a fituation to hurt him? Certainly not; but he certainly is in a fituation to hurt you. Would you show a fullen, pouting, impotent refentment? I hope not: leave that filly unavailing fort of refentment to thofe who are always guided by humour, never by reafon and prudence. That pettish pouting conduct is a great deal too young, and implies too little knowledge of the world for one who has feen fo much of it as you have. Whoever cannot mafter his humour, should leave the world, and retire to fome hermitage in an unfrequented defart. By fhowing an unavailing and fullen refentment, you authorise the refentment of those who can hurt you, and whom you cannot hurt; and give them that very pretence which, perhaps, they wished for, of breaking with and injuring you; whereas the contrary behaviour would lay them under the reftraints of decency at leaft; and either hackle or expofe their malice. Befides, captiousness, fullennefs, and pouting, are most exceedingly illiberal and vulgar.

You judge very rightly, that I love le ftyle leger & fleurit I do, and fo does every body who has any parts and tafte. It fhould, I confefs, be more or lefs fleuri, according to the fubject; but at the fame time I affert, that there is no fubject that may not properly, and which ought not to be adorned, by a certain elegancy and beauty of ftyle. What can be more adorned than Cicero's philofophical works? What more than Plato's? It is their eloquence only that has preferved and tranfmitted them down to us through fo many centuries; for the philofophy of them is wretched, and the reasoning part miferable. But eloquence will always please, and has always pleafed. Study it therefore; make it the object of your thoughts and attention. Use yourself to relate elegantly; that is a good ftep towards fpeaking well in parliament. Take fome political fubject, turn it in your thoughts, confider what may be faid both for and against it, then put thofe arguments into writing in the molt correct and elegant English you can. For inLively and florid.

ftance, a ftanding army, a place-bill, &c. As to the former, confider, on one fide, the dangers arifing to a free country from a great ftanding military force; on the other fide, confider the neceffity of a force to repel force with. Examine whether a standing army, though in itself an evil, may not, from circumftances, become a neceffary evil, and preventative of greater dangers. As to the latter, confider how far places may bias and warp the conduct of men, from the fervice of their country, into an unwarrantable complaifance to the court; and, on the other hand, confider whether they can be fuppofed to have that effect upon the conduct of people of probity and property, who are more folidly interested in the permanent good of their country, than they can be in an uncertain and precarious employment. Seek for, and answer in your own mind, all the arguments that can be urged on either fide, and write them down in an elegant ftyle. This will prepare you for debating, and give you an habitual eloquence; for I would not give a farthing for a mere holiday eloquence; difplayed once or twice in a feffion, in a fet declamation ; but I want an every-day, ready, and habitual eloquence, to adorn extempore and debating fpeeches; to make bufinefs not only clear but agreeable,and to pleafe even those whom you cannot inform, and who do not defire to be informed.

When we meet at Spa, next July, we must have a great many ferious converfations; in which I will pour out all my expericace of the world, and which, I hope, you will truft to, more than to your own young notions of men and things. You will in time difcover most of them to have been erroneous; and, if you fol low them long, you will perceive your error too late; but,if you will be led by a guide,who,you are fure, does not mean to mislead you, you will unite two things feldom united in the fame perfon; the vivacity and fpirit of youth, with the caution and experience of

age.

Laft Saturday, Sir Thomas Robinson +, who had

Created lord Grantham in the year 1761, and fince a extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the court of Spain

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