of the Ghost, and by the beginning of next month hope to hear of its being received, where I most wish it should be approved. Is Paris pleasant? Have the lively Gauls superior attractions to the English? The only thing I envy France, is you. For my own sake, I could wish it was without pleasure; for yours, I could wish every pleasure doubled. Col. ***** desires to be remembered to you, with many others; and when I reflect on the enquiries made after you by the most sensible of this sinking nation, I cannot help feeling a vain satisfaction, that I am the person of whom they enquire. Lloyd talks of writing, and Fitzherbert, who is perfectly recovered, of coming in at the heel of the letter, mean time, desiring his best respects. The post-chaise waits. and Charlotte cries, Away.-I beg you will not let me have an opportunity of writing again. I am on fire for politics, nor do I perceive one jot of discouragement come from the thought of the King's Bench, and the pale Mansfield.* Come over, nor by staying there add one more triumph of peace to France. Your friends long to see you, and none more than, yours most affectionately, I have resolved, C. CHURCHILL. Resolve not quick, but once resolved, be strong, to write an Epic Poem in four books. The purport you may guess by the name, Culloden. I enclose you the copy of a paper, which will In the epistle to Hogarth he says, Doth not the voice of Norton strike thy ear, And the pale Mansfield chill thy soul with fear? See also Ghost, book 4, vol. iii. 1. 1879. soon be sent you by the printers, &c. in gratitude for your late labours. I hope you are recruiting to begin more attacks against the tyranny of our ministry, which increases every day. "We, the underwitten, who were contrary to law imprisoned by the King's Messengers, desire thus publicly to return thanks to John Wilkes, Esquire, for his spirited endeavours, and steady attention to procure us that redress and satisfaction, which we have at length obtained by the verdict of our countrymen." Witness our hands, &c. MY DEAR WILKES, I AM greatly obliged by yours of this morning, and the moment I have occasion, there is no person in the world to whom I would so soon apply as yourself, and from whom I should so willingly receive favours. I shall without scruple shew you what dependence I have on your friendship. The plan of next North Briton I have changed, and for this reason, on pursuing it I find it the best subject for a poem I ever had in my life. The Prophecy of Famine, you may remember, took its rise from a similar circumstance; and if I may venture to be prophetical in prose, this will be a much better poem. I admire exceedingly your motto* for the last number of the Auditor. It will make Murphy mad. My head is full of Hogarth, and as I like not his company, I believe I shall get him on * Discedam, explebo numerum, reddarque tenebris. paper, not so much to please the public, not so much for the sake of justice, as for my own ease —a motive ever powerful with indolent minds. I have begun already, and seem to like the subject. I have been so long out of verse, that it appears like a new world, and has acquired fresh charms from disuse. Mr. Legge enquired affectionately after you. He is in good spirits, and bears up nobly. I am ever yours, C. CHURCHILL. Should I have put my name to the truth? Is it not a libel? * MY DEAR WILKES, My not writing to you sooner and my not giving you earlier notice of my inability to write the North Briton for this week, arises from my flattering myself that I should have been recovered * Dr. Southey, in a note in his Life of Cowper, on the subject of the two burlesque Odes to Oblivion and Obscurity, by Colman and Lloyd, in ridicule of Gray and Mason, adds the following observation: "The personal attack upon Mason was equally reprehensible and unfounded; but his stilted style and obtrusive alliteration, were not unfairly satirized; and this perhaps he felt, for his later poems were not characterized by the same faults. But if it was an act of prudence on his part to follow his friend Gray's example, and express no resentment at an unprovoked attack, it was an act of forbearance in him, who had the temper and the talents for satire. Lloyd and Colman would hardly have assailed him, had they known that he was the most efficient satirist of the age; for Mason it was who, by an anonymous satire, (the Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers,) exploded that barbarous fashion of Chinese taste, which most of the contemporary essayists had attacked without effect." from my indisposition, but I still keep my bed when I shall get out of it, I do not guess. Many things have I to say to you, but my head rambles too much for recollection. I am quite exhausted, for I have not been able to sleep for the last week. Would I had a Mason here! Lloyd tells me that you have wrote an answer to the supposed letter from the Pretender to the Earl of Bute, in the North Briton of February the 19th. He says you have most happily imitated all the quaintnesses of Bute's stile, and inserted several curious anecdotes from him to his dear Cousin. Pray send it to me. You are again happy in your motto* to it. Pray finish the paper against the Tories, which you shewed me, I mean that which has the motto, Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum I fear the damned Aristocracy † is gaining ground in this country. I am yours most sincerely, C. CHURCHILL. The motto to this ironical letter of the Earl of Bute to the Pretender was from Ovid: Nil mihi rescribas; attamen ipse veni. The letter was never published. Let not, whatever ills assail, A damned Aristocracy prevail. FAREWELL. D'Alembert says, "Dans le plan que le celebre Chancelier Oxenstiern donna pour la régence, on remarque un éloignement pour le despotisme, qui doit honorer la mémoire d'un Ministre d'Etat. Il paroît incliner pour un gouvernement melé du monarchique et du républicain; et l'on ne peut disconvenir que cette fórme n'ait plusieurs grands avantages, sans prétendre d'ailleurs toucher à la question delicate du meilleur gouvernement possible, dont la solution peut recevoir différentes modifications par la différence des climats, de la situation, des circonstances, du genie des Rois et des MY DEAR WILKES, I WISH it was in my power to send you the next Saturday's North Briton, according to your desires, but though I expected that you would depend on me, I have not as yet wrote a letter of it, according to my usual maxim of putting every thing off till the last. You may be certain, however, of its being done in time. I have the cause too much at heart to let it be out of my head.* I have just received the following epigram, built on the supposition of my being the North Briton. While the Briton, true Scotsman, more cunning than wise, And tells us those truths which we ought to be told. Thou hast twice laid a Ghost,† may'st thou now raise a spirit. I am very sorry I cannot meet you at Aylesbury, or come to you at Winchester; but that which I at first considered as the amusement of a trifling Peuples. Mais on ne sauroit soupçonner un esprit aussi eclairé qu' Oxenstiern d'avoir donné la préférence, comme quelquesuns l'ont cru, au gouvernement ARISTOCRATIQUE, que le droit naturel et l'experience démontrent être le pire de tous." Mélanges de Littérature. Amst. 1764, vol ii. p. 237. *The North Briton for July 17, 1762, was probably written by our author; it contains a ludicrous chronicle of the occurrences likely to take place in the event of the complete reascendency of the Stuarts. What other papers were written by Churchill we know not; but should suppose that during the absence of Wilkes he generally composed them from that gentleman's letters, and from the communications of occasional correspondents. † Only the first two books of the Ghost were then pub bished. |