Letters to His Son, 1759 to 1765
T >> The Earl of Chesterfield >> Letters to His Son, 1759 to 1765
When you are at Paris, you will of course wait upon Lord Hertford, and
desire him to present you to the King; at the same time make my
compliments to him, and thank him for the very obliging message he left
at my house in town; and tell him, that, had I received it in time from
thence, I would have come to town on purpose to have returned it in
person. If there are any new little books at Paris, pray bring them me. I
have already Voltaire's 'Zelis dans le Bain', his 'Droit du Seigneur',
and 'Olympie'. Do not forget to call once at Madame Monconseil's, and as
often as you please at Madame du Pin's. Au revoir.
LETTER CCLXII
BATH, November 24, 1763
MY DEAR FRIEND: I arrived here, as you suppose in your letter, last
Sunday; but after the worst day's journey I ever had in my life: it
snowed and froze that whole morning, and in the evening it rained and
thawed, which made the roads so slippery, that I was six hours coming
post from the Devizes, which is but eighteen miles from hence; so that,
but for the name of coming post, I might as well have walked on foot. I
have not yet quite got over my last violent attack, and am weak and
flimsy.
I have now drank the waters but three days; so that, without a miracle, I
cannot yet expect much alteration, and I do not in the least expect a
miracle. If they proved 'les eaux de Jouvence' to me, that would be a
miracle indeed; but, as the late Pope Lambertini said, 'Fra noi, gli
miracoli sono passati girt un pezzo'.
I have seen Harte, who inquired much after you: he is dejected and
dispirited, and thinks himself much worse than he is, though he has
really a tendency to the jaundice. I have yet seen nobody else, nor do I
know who here is to be seen; for I have not yet exhibited myself to
public view, except at the pump, which, at the time I go to it, is the
most private place in Bath.
After all the fears and hopes, occasioned severally by the meeting of the
parliament, in my opinion, it will prove a very easy session. Mr. Wilkes
is universally given up; and if the ministers themselves do not wantonly
raise difficulties, I think they will meet with none. A majority of two
hundred is a great anodyne. Adieu! God bless you!
LETTER CCLXIII
BATH, December 3, 1763.
MY DEAR FRIEND: Last post brought me your letter of the 29th past. I
suppose C-----T-----let off his speech upon the Princess's portion,
chiefly to show that he was of the opposition; for otherwise, the point
was not debatable, unless as to the quantum, against which something
might be said; for the late Princess of Orange (who was the eldest
daughter of a king) had no more, and her two sisters but half, if I am
not mistaken.
It is a great mercy that Mr. Wilkes, the intrepid defender of our rights
and liberties, is out of danger, and may live to fight and write again in
support of them; and it is no less a mercy, that God hath raised up the
Earl of S------to vindicate and promote true religion and morality. These
two blessings will justly make an epoch in the annals of this country.
I have delivered your message to Harte, who waits with impatience for
your letter. He is very happy now in having free access to all Lord
Craven's papers, which, he says, give him great lights into the 'bellum
tricenale'; the old Lord Craven having been the professed and valorous
knight-errant, and perhaps something more, to the Queen of Bohemia; at
least, like Sir Peter Pride, he had the honor of spending great part of
his estate in her royal cause:
I am by no means right yet; I am very weak and flimsy still; but the
doctor assures me that strength and spirits will return; if they do,
'lucro apponam', I will make the best of them; if they do not, I will not
make their want still worse by grieving and regretting them. I have lived
long enough, and observed enough, to estimate most things at their
intrinsic, and not their imaginary value; and, at seventy, I find nothing
much worth either desiring or fearing. But these reflections, which suit
with seventy, would be greatly premature at two-and-thirty. So make the
best of your time; enjoy the present hour, but 'memor ultimae'. God bless
you!
LETTER CCLXIV
BATH, December 18, 1763
MY DEAR FRIEND: I received your letter this morning, in which you
reproach me with not having written to you this week. The reason was,
that I did not know what to write. There is that sameness in my life
here, that EVERY DAY IS STILL BUT AS THE FIRST. I see very few people;
and, in the literal sense of the word, I hear nothing.
Mr. L------and Mr. C-----I hold to be two very ingenious men; and your
image of the two men ruined, one by losing his law-suit, and the other by
carrying it, is a very just one. To be sure, they felt in themselves
uncommon talents for business and speaking, which were to reimburse them.
Harte has a great poetical work to publish, before it be long; he has
shown me some parts of it. He had entitled it "Emblems," but I persuaded
him to alter that name for two reasons; the first was, because they were
not emblems, but fables; the second was, that if they had been emblems,
Quarles had degraded and vilified that name to such a degree, that it is
impossible to make use of it after him; so they are to be called fables,
though moral tales would, in my mind, be the properest name. If you ask
me what I think of those I have seen, I must say, that 'sunt plura bona,
quaedam mediocria, et quaedam----'
Your report of future changes, I cannot think is wholly groundless; for
it still runs strongly in my head, that the mine we talked of will be
sprung, at or before the end of the session.
I have got a little more strength, but not quite the strength of
Hercules; so that I will not undertake, like him, fifty deflorations in
one night; for I really believe that I could not compass them. So
good-night, and God bless you!
LETTER CCLXV
BATH, December 24, 1763.
DEAR FRIEND: I confess I was a good deal surprised at your pressing me so
strongly to influence Parson Rosenhagen, when you well know the
resolution I had made several years ago, and which I have scrupulously
observed ever since, not to concern myself, directly or indirectly, in
any party political contest whatsoever. Let parties go to loggerheads as
much and as long as they please; I will neither endeavor to part them,
nor take the part of either; for I know them all too well. But you say,
that Lord Sandwich has been remarkably civil, and kind to you. I am very
glad of it, and he can by no means impute to you my obstinacy, folly, or
philosophy, call it what you please: you may with great truth assure him,
that you did all you could to obey his commands.
I am sorry to find that you are out of order, but I hope it is only a
cold; should it be anything more, pray consult Dr. Maty, who did you so
much good in your last illness, when the great medicinal Mattadores did
you rather harm. I have found a Monsieur Diafoirus here, Dr. Moisy, who
has really done me a great deal of good; and I am sure I wanted it a
great deal when I came here first. I have recovered some strength, and a
little more will give me as much as I can make use of.
Lady Brown, whom I saw yesterday, makes you many compliments; and I wish
you a merry Christmas, and a good-night. Adieu!
LETTER CCLXVI
BATH, December 31, 1763
MY DEAR FRIEND: Gravenkop wrote me word, by the last post, that you were
laid up with the gout: but I much question it, that is, whether it is the
gout or not. Your last illness, before you went abroad, was pronounced
the gout, by the skillful, and proved at last a mere rheumatism. Take
care that the same mistake is not made this year; and that by giving you
strong and hot medicines to throw out the gout, they do not inflame the
rheumatism, if it be one.
Mr. Wilkes has imitated some of the great men of antiquity, by going into
voluntary exile: it was his only way of defeating both his creditors and
his prosecutors. Whatever his friends, if he has any, give out of his
returning soon, I will answer for it, that it will be a long time before
that soon comes.
I have been much out of order these four days of a violent cold which I
do not know how I got, and which obliged me to suspend drinking the
waters: but it is now so much better, that I propose resuming them for
this week, and paying my court to you in town on Monday or Tuesday
seven-night: but this is 'sub spe rati' only. God bless you!
LETTER CCLXVII
BLACKHEATH, July 20, 1764.
MY DEAR FRIEND: I have this moment received your letter of the 3d from
Prague, but I never received that which you mention from Ratisbon; this
made me think you in such rapid motion, that I did not know where to take
aim. I now suppose that you are arrived, though not yet settled, at
Dresden; your audiences and formalities are, to be sure, over, and that
is great ease of mind to you.
I have no political events to acquaint you with; the summer is not the
season for them, they ripen only in winter; great ones are expected
immediately before the meeting of parliament, but that, you know, is
always the language of fears and hopes. However, I rather believe that
there will be something patched up between the INS and the OUTS.
The whole subject of conversation, at present, is the death and will of
Lord Bath: he has left above twelve hundred thousand pounds in land and
money; four hundred thousand pounds in cash, stocks, and mortgages; his
own estate, in land, was improved to fifteen thousand pounds a-year, and
the Bradford estate, which he-----is as much; both which, at only
five-and twenty years' purchase, amount to eight hundred thousand pounds;
and all this he has left to his brother, General Pulteney, and in his own
disposal, though he never loved him. The legacies he has left are
trifling; for, in truth, he cared for nobody: the words GIVE and BEQUEATH
were too shocking for him to repeat, and so he left all in one word to
his brother. The public, which was long the dupe of his simulation and
dissimulation, begins to explain upon him; and draws such a picture of
him as I gave you long ago.
Your late secretary has been with me three or four times; he wants
something or another, and it seems all one to him what, whether civil or
military; in plain English, he wants bread. He has knocked at the doors
of some of the ministers, but to no purpose. I wish with all my heart
that I could help him: I told him fairly that I could not, but advised
him to find some channel to Lord B-----, which, though a Scotchman, he
told me he could not. He brought a packet of letters from the office to
you, which I made him seal up; and keep it for you, as I suppose it makes
up the series of your Ratisbon letters.
As for me, I am just what I was when you left me, that is, nobody. Old
age steals upon me insensibly. I grow weak and decrepit, but do not
suffer, and so I am content.
Forbes brought me four books of yours, two of which were Bielefeldt's
"Letters," in which, to my knowledge, there are many notorious lies.
Make my compliments to Comte Einsiedel, whom I love and honor much; and
so good-night to 'seine Excellentz'.
Now our correspondence may be more regular, and I expect a letter from
you every fortnight. I will be regular on my part: but write oftener to
your mother, if it be but three lines.
LETTER CCLXVIII
BLACKHEATH, July 27,1764
MY DEAR FRIEND: I received, two days ago, your letter of the 11th from
Dresden, where I am very glad that, you are safely arrived at last. The
prices of the necessaries of life are monstrous there; and I do not
conceive how the poor natives subsist at all, after having been so long
and so often plundered by their own as well as by other sovereigns.
As for procuring you either the title or the appointments of
Plenipotentiary, I could as soon procure them from the Turkish as from
the English Ministry; and, in truth, I believe they have it not to give.
Now to come to your civil list, if one may compare small things with
great: I think I have found out a better refreshment for it than you
propose; for to-morrow I shall send to your cashier, Mr. Larpent, five
hundred pounds at once, for your use, which, I presume, is better than by
quarterly payments; and I am very apt to think that next midsummer day,
he will have the same sum, and for the same use, consigned to him.
It is reported here, and I believe not without some foundation, that the
queen of Hungary has acceded to the Family Compact between France and
Spain: if so, I am sure it behooves us to form in time a counter
alliance, of at least equal strength; which I could easily point out, but
which, I fear, is not thought of here.
The rage of marrying is very prevalent; so that there will be probably a
great crop of cuckolds next winter, who are at present only 'cocus en
herbs'. It will contribute to population, and so far must be allowed to
be a public benefit. Lord G------, Mr. B-------, and Mr. D-------, are,
in this respect, very meritorious; for they have all married handsome
women, without one shilling fortune. Lord must indeed take some pains to
arrive at that dignity: but I dare say he will bring it about, by the
help of some young Scotch or Irish officer. Good-night, and God bless
you!
LETTER CCLXIX
BLACKHEATH, September 3, 1764.
DEAR FRIEND: I have received your letter of the 13th past. I see that
your complete arrangement approaches, and you need not be in a hurry to
give entertainments, since so few others do.
Comte Flemming is the man in the world the best calculated to retrieve
the Saxon finances, which have been all this century squandered and
lavished with the most absurd profusion: he has certainly abilities, and
I believe integrity; I dare answer for him, that the gentleness and
flexibility of his temper will not prevail with him to yield to the
importunities of craving and petulant applications. I see in him another
Sully; and therefore I wish he were at the head of our finances.
France and Spain both insult us, and we take it too tamely; for this is,
in my opinion, the time for us to talk high to them. France, I am
persuaded, will not quarrel with us till it has got a navy at least equal
to ours, which cannot be these three or four years at soonest; and then,
indeed, I believe we shall hear of something or other; therefore, this is
the moment for us to speak loud; and we shall be feared, if we do not
show that we fear.
Here is no domestic news of changes and chances in the political world;
which, like oysters, are only in season in the R months, when the
parliament sits. I think there will be some then, but of what kind, God
knows.
I have received a book for you, and one for myself, from Harte. It is
upon agriculture, and will surprise you, as I confess it did me. This
work is not only in English, but good and elegant English; he has even
scattered graces upon his subject; and in prose, has come very near
Virgil's "Georgics" in verse. I have written to him, to congratulate his
happy transformation. As soon as I can find an opportunity, I will send
you your copy. You (though no Agricola) will read it with pleasure.
I know Mackenzie, whom you mention. 'C'est une delie; sed cave'.
Make mine and Lady Chesterfield's compliments to Comte et Comtesse
Flemming; and so, 'Dieu vous aye en sa sainte garde'!
LETTER CCLXX
BLACKHEATH, September 14, 1764
MY DEAR FRIEND: Yesterday I received your letter of the 30th past, by
which I find that you had not then got mine, which I sent you the day
after I had received your former; you have had no great loss of it; for,
as I told you in my last, this inactive season of the year supplies no
materials for a letter; the winter may, and probably will, produce an
abundant crop, but of what grain I neither know, guess, nor care. I take
it for granted, that Lord B------'surnagera encore', but by the
assistance of what bladders or cork-waistcoats God only knows. The death
of poor Mr. Legge, the epileptic fits of the Duke of Devonshire, for
which he is gone to Aix-la-Chapelle, and the advanced age of the Duke of
Newcastle, seem to facilitate an accommodation, if Mr. Pitt and Lord Bute
are inclined to it.
You ask me what I think of the death of poor Iwan, and of the person who
ordered it. You may remember that I often said, she would murder or marry
him, or probably both; she has chosen the safest alternative; and has now
completed her character of femme forte, above scruples and hesitation. If
Machiavel were alive, she would probably be his heroine, as Caesar Borgia
was his hero. Women are all so far Machiavelians, that they are never
either good or bad by halves; their passions are too strong, and their
reason too weak, to do anything with moderation. She will, perhaps, meet,
before it is long, with some Scythian as free from prejudices as herself.
If there is one Oliver Cromwell in the three regiments of guards, he will
probably, for the sake of his dear country, depose and murder her; for
that is one and the same thing in Russia.
You seem now to have settled, and 'bien nippe' at Dresden. Four sedentary
footmen, and one running one, 'font equipage leste'. The German ones will
give you, 'seine Excellentz'; and the French ones, if you have any,
Monseigneur.
My own health varies, as usual, but never deviates into good. God bless
you, and send you better!
LETTER CCLXXI
BLACKHEATH, October 4, 1764.
MY DEAR FRIEND: I have now your last letter, of the 16th past, lying
before me, and I gave your inclosed to Grevenkop, which has put him into
a violent bustle to execute your commissions, as well and as cheap as
possible. I refer him to his own letter. He tells you true as to Comtesse
Cosel's diamonds, which certainly nobody will buy here, unsight unseen,
as they call it; so many minutiae concurring to increase or lessen the
value of a diamond. Your Cheshire cheese, your Burton ale and beer, I
charge myself with, and they shall be sent you as soon as possible. Upon
this occasion I will give you a piece of advice, which by experience I
know to be useful. In all commissions, whether from men or women, 'point
de galanterie', bring them in your account, and be paid to the uttermost
farthing; but if you would show them 'une galanterie', let your present
be of something that is not in your commission, otherwise you will be the
'Commissionaire banal' of all the women of Saxony. 'A propos', Who is
your Comtesse de Cosel? Is she daughter, or grand-daughter, of the famous
Madame de Cosel, in King Augustus's time? Is she young or old, ugly or
handsome?
I do not wonder that people are wonderfully surprised at our tameness and
forbearance, with regard to France and Spain. Spain, indeed, has lately
agreed to our cutting log wood, according to the treaty, and sent strict
orders to their governor to allow it; but you will observe too, that
there is not one word of reparation for the losses we lately sustained
there. But France is not even so tractable; it will pay but half the
money due, upon a liquidated account, for the maintenance of their
prisoners. Our request, to have the Comte d'Estaing recalled and
censured, they have absolutely rejected, though, by the laws of war, he
might be hanged for having twice broke his parole. This does not do
France honor: however, I think we shall be quiet, and that at the only
time, perhaps this century, when we might, with safety, be otherwise: but
this is nothing new, nor the first time, by many, when national honor and
interest have been sacrificed to private. It has always been so: and one
may say, upon this occasion, what Horace says upon another, 'Nam fuit
ante Helenam'.
I have seen 'les Contes de Guillaume Vade', and like most of them so
little, that I can hardly think them Voltaire's, but rather the scraps
that have fallen from his table, and been worked up by inferior workmen,
under his name. I have not seen the other book you mention, the
'Dictionnaire Portatif'. It is not yet come over.
I shall next week go to take my winter quarters in London, the weather
here being very cold and damp, and not proper for an old, shattered, and
cold carcass, like mine. In November I will go to the Bath, to careen
myself for the winter, and to shift the scene. Good-night.
LETTER CCLXXII
LONDON, October 19, 1764.
MY DEAR FRIEND: Yesterday morning Mr.-----came to me, from Lord Halifax,
to ask me whether I thought you would approve of vacating your seat in
parliament, during the remainder of it, upon a valuable consideration,
meaning MONEY. My answer was, that I really did not know your disposition
upon that subject: but that I knew you would be very willing, in general,
to accommodate them, so far as lay in your power: that your election, to
my knowledge, had cost you two thousand pounds; that this parliament had
not sat above half its time; and that, for my part, I approved of the
measure well enough, provided you had an equitable equivalent. I take it
for granted that you will have a letter from------, by this post, to that
effect, so that you must consider what you will do. What I advise is
this: Give them a good deal of 'Galbanum' in the first part of your
letter. 'Le Galbanum ne coute rien'; and then say that you are willing to
do as they please; but that you hope an equitable consideration will be
had to the two thousand pounds, which your seat cost you in the present
parliament, of which not above half the term is expired. Moreover, that
you take the liberty to remind them, that your being sent from Ratisbon,
last session, when you were just settled there, put you to the expense of
three or four hundred pounds, for which you were allowed nothing; and
that, therefore, you hope they will not think one thousand pounds too
much, considering all these circumstances: but that, in all events, you
will do whatever they desire. Upon the whole, I think this proposal
advantageous to you, as you probably will not make use of your seat this
parliament; and, further, as it will secure you from another unpaid
journey from Dresden, in case they meet, or fear to meet, with
difficulties in any ensuing session of the present parliament. Whatever
one must do, one should do 'de bonne grace'. 'Dixi'. God bless you!
LETTER CCLXXIII
BATH, November 10, 1764.
MY DEAR FRIEND: I am much concerned at the account you gave me of
yourself, in your last letter. There is, to be sure, at such a town as
Dresden, at least some one very skillful physician, whom I hope you have
consulted; and I would have you acquaint him with all your several
attacks of this nature, from your great one at Laubach, to your late one
at Dresden: tell him, too, that in your last illness in England, the
physicians mistook your case, and treated it as the gout, till Maty came,
who treated it as a rheumatism, and cured you. In my own opinion, you
have never had the gout, but always the rheumatism; which, to my
knowledge, is as painful as the gout can possibly be, and should be
treated in a quite different way; that is, by cooling medicines and
regimen, instead of those inflammatory cordials which they always
administer where they suppose the gout, to keep it, as they say, out of
the stomach.
I have been here now just a week; but have hitherto drank so little of
the water, that I can neither speak well nor ill of it. The number of
people in this place is infinite; but very few whom I know. Harte seems
settled here for life. He is not well, that is certain; but not so ill
neither as he thinks himself, or at least would be thought.
I long for your answer to my last letter, containing a certain proposal,
which, by this time, I suppose has been made you, and which, in the main,
I approve of your accepting.
God bless you, my dear friend! and send you better health! Adieu.
LETTER CCLXXIV
LONDON, February 26, 1765
MY DEAR FRIEND: Your last letter, of the 5th, gave me as much pleasure as
your former had given me uneasiness; and Larpent's acknowledgment of his
negligence frees you from those suspicions, which I own I did entertain,
and which I believe every one would, in the same concurrence of
circumstances, have entertained. So much for that.
You may depend upon what I promised you, before midsummer next, at
farthest, and AT LEAST.
All I can say of the affair between you, of the Corps Diplomatique, and
the Saxon Ministers, is, 'que voila bien du bruit pour une omelette au
lard'. It will most certainly be soon made up; and in that negotiation
show yourself as moderate and healing as your instructions from hence
will allow, especially to Comte de Flemming. The King of Prussia, I
believe, has a mind to insult him personally, as an old enemy, or else to
quarrel with Saxony, that dares not quarrel with him; but some of the
Corps Diplomatique here assure me it is only a pretense to recall his
envoy, and to send, when matters shall be made up, a little secretary
there, 'a moins de fraix', as he does now to Paris and London.
Comte Bruhl is much in fashion here; I like him mightily; he has very
much 'le ton de la bonne campagnie'. Poor Schrader died last Saturday,
without the least pain or sickness. God bless you!