The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 2 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,000 pages of information about The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 2.

The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 2 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,000 pages of information about The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 2.
out his dissatisfaction in Parliament, and was seconded by Fox.  The event was exactly what I dare say you have already foreseen.  Pitt was to be turned out; overtures were made to Fox; Pitt is not turned out:  Fox is quieted with the dignity of cabinet-counsellor, and the Duke of Newcastle remains affronted—­and omnipotent.  The commentary on this text is too long for a letter; it may be developed some time or other.  This scene has produced a diverting interlude; Sir George Lyttelton, who could not reconcile his content with Mr. Pitt’s discontents, has been very ill with the cousinhood.  In the grief of his heart, he thought of resigning his place, but somehow or other stumbled upon a negotiation for introducing the Duke of Bedford into the ministry again, to balance the loss of Mr. Pitt.  Whatever persuaded him, he thought this treaty so sure of success that he lost no time to be the agent of it himself; and whether commissioned or noncommissioned, as both he and the Duke of Newcastle say, he carried carte blanche, to the Duke of Bedford, who bounced like a rocket, frightened away poor Sir George, and sent for Mr. Pitt to notify the overture.  Pitt and the Grenvilles are outrageous; the Duke of Newcastle disclaims his ambassador, and every body laughs.  Sir George came hither yesterday, to expectorate with me, as he called it.  Think how I pricked up my ears, as high as King Midas, to hear a Lyttelton vent his grievances against a Pitt and Grenvilles!  Lord Temple has named Sir George the apostolic nuncio; and George Selwyn says, “that he will certainly be invited by Miss Ashe among the foreign ministers.”  These are greater storms than perhaps you expected yet; they have occasioned mighty bustle, and whisper, and speculation; but you see

Pulveris exigui jactu composta quiescunt.

You will be diverted with a collateral incident. * * * * met Dick Edgecumbe, and asked him with great importance, if he knew whether Mr. Pitt was out.  Edgecumbe, who thinks nothing important that is not to be decided by dice, and who, consequently, had never once thought of Pitt’s political state, replied, “Yes.”  “Ay! how do you know?” “Why, I called at his door just now, and his porter told me so.”  Another political event is, that Lord E. comes into place:  he is to succeed Lord Fitzwalter, who is to have Lord Grantham’s pension, -who is dead immensely rich:  I think this is the last of the old Opposition, of any name, except Sir John Barnard.  If you have curiosity about the Ohio, you must write to ]France:  there I believe they know something about it; here it was totally forgot till last night, when an express arrived with an account of the loss of one of the transports off Falmouth, with eight officers and sixty men on board.

My Lady Townshend has been dying, and was wofully frightened, and took prayers; but she is recovered now, even of her repentance.  You will not be undiverted to hear that the mob of Sudbury have literally sent a card to the mob of Bury, to offer their assistance at a contested election there:  I hope to be able to tell you in my next, that Mrs. Holman(531) has sent cards to both mobs for her assembly.

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The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 2 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.