361 Letter 131 To Sir Horace Mann.  March 1st, 1744.

I wish I could put you out of the pain my last letters must have given you.  I don’t know whether your situation, to be at such a distance on so great a crisis, is not more disagreeable than ours, who are expecting every moment to hear the French are landed.  We had great ill-luck last week:  Sir John Norris, with four-and-twenty sail, came within a league of the Brest squadron, which had but fourteen.  The coasts were covered with people to see the engagement; but at seven in the evening the wind changed, and they escaped.  There have been terrible winds these four or five days . our fleet has not suffered materially, but theirs less.  Ours lies in the Downs; five of theirs at Torbay-the rest at La Hague.  We hope to hear that these storms, which blew directly on Dunkirk, have done great damage to their transports.  By the fortune of the winds, which have detained them in port, we have had time to make preparations; if they had been ready three weeks ago. when the Brest squadron sailed, it had all been decided.  We expect the Dutch in four or five days.  Ten battalions, which make seven thousand men, are sent for from our army in Flanders, and four thousand from Ireland, two of which are arrived.  If they still attempt the invasion, it must be a bloody war!

The spirit of the nation has appeared extraordinarily in our favour.  I wish I could say as much for that of’ the ministry.  Addresses are come from all parts, but you know how little they are to be depended on-King James had them.  The merchants of London are most zealous:  the French name will do more harm to their cause than the Pretender’s service.  One remarkable circumstance happened to Colonel Cholmondeley’s regiment on their march to London:  the public-houses on all the road would not let them pay any thing, but treated them, and said, “You are going to defend us against the French.”  There are no signs of any rising.  Lord Barrymore,(903) the Pretender’s general, and Colonel Cecil, his secretary of state, are at last taken up; the latter, who having removed his papers, had sent for them back, thinking the danger over, is committed to the Tower, on discoveries from them; but, alas! these discoveries go on but lamely.(904) One may perceive who is not minister, rather than who is.  The Opposition tried to put off the suspension of the Habeas Corpus -feebly.  Vernon (905) and the Grennvilles are the warmest:  Pitt and Lyttelton went away without voting.(906) My father has exerted himself most amazingly — the other day, on the King’s laying some information before the House, when the ministry had determined to make no address on it, he rose up in the greatest agitation, and made a long and fine speech On the present situation.(907) The Prince was so pleased with it, that he has given him leave to go to his court, which he never would before.  He went yesterday, and was most graciously received.