Memoirs of the Twentieth Century/London, Chelsea, Feb. 24, 1999
My LORD,
London, Chelsea, Feb. 24. 1999.
I Had the pleasure of receiving yours of December the 16th and February the 8th, and have now the shame of answering them together; but if your Excellency considers the multiplicity of affairs that have been on the carpet of late, and in which I have been more than ordinarily engag'd; you will not take it unkindly, if I am more dilatory in my answers, than my strong attachment to your noble family, and my personal regard and esteem for your merit and services, may justly demand from me.
In the mean time, I have not been wanting in my care, as to those negotiations you are charg'd with, as the dispatches from Mr. Secretary Bridges will witness for me; nor in my respects for your brother, who is now one of the two Secretaries for foreign affairs. It is true, the salary, by increasing the number of Secretaries to four, is not so considerable as formerly, yet the credit and honour of the place will be of greater service than a more lucrative employment,
His Majesty expects with impatience the resolutions of the French Court, as to the affair of opposing the Inquisition. As you have receiv'd his instructions on that affair from his own hand, you will do well to return as exact an account as possible of your next audience, and to shew your utmost dexterity to spirit them up to vigorous resolutions on that matter, which may produce events of vast service to that crown and this, in humbling the exorbitant power of the empire of the Vatican. Your care in reviewing our French seaports and garrisons, and the works carrying on in the harbours of Dunkirk and Calais, gave his Majesty much satisfaction; and be assur'd, I shall endeavour to improve the impressions which your diligence and skill, in observing the state of things where you are, have made on him, to the utmost.
The ability and application of the French Ministers to retrieve the low condition a weak and unfortunate reign has reduced their country to, is very commendable; and as she can never recover strength enough in half a century to make her once more an object of our jealousy, it is our interest to support rather than distress her, lest she becomes a perfect province to Rome. Cæsar left her so, and there are many cowled Cæsars beyond the Alps, and in her own bowels, whose heads are as wise and bald as his, who would make her so again, if the pastoral staff and crosier did not want something of the force and vigour of his sword. Our accounts from Rome leave us no shadow of doubt of this, as well as their deep designs on Germany; but I hope the recovery of the Emperor, and a vigorous opposing the establishment of the Inquisition, will give us both room and time to lay such invincible obstacles in her way, as she can never get over.
But Mr. Secretary has so fully enlarged on this subject to you formerly, that there is no occasion for renewing any discourse on it now to your Excellency, who are also so well appriz'd of the state of affairs in Europe; and therefore I shall only add my earnest desires that you may continue to do service to the King and your Country, and honour to the character you sustain, by observing and taking hold of every occasion that offers, of making his Majesty's cares for the service of the world more and more successful.
I observe with pleasure (to pass to another subject) that while your Excellency is thus sollicitous for the service of the publick, you are perfectly regardless as to your own interest here; and particularly, as to the Royal Fishery and Plantation Companies, in both which you have so large a stock, and are so deeply engag'd. As those corporations have been entirely new modell'd by the act past this last sessions, and much improv'd from the state they have been in, since Frederick the first and George the third's establishing them, till now, I believe it will be a pleasure to you, if I acquaint you with their present circumstances.
I shall begin with the Royal Fishery, to which this act has assign'd six new ports to the ten formerly appointed, and obliges the company to keep at least 200000 hands employ'd, either as Coopers, Shipwrights, Smiths, Cawkers, Sawyers, Sailors, Fishers, and Sailmakers; or else in making nets, baskets, ropes, dressing and spinning hemp and flax, and weaving poledavies. Of these hands, there are to be at least 1600 lame and 1000 blind people employ'd in ropes and net-making, and the hemp and flax articles. The company must keep at the least 1000 Busses employ'd, and one fifth of all their hands, boys from 11 to 16 years of age, and one third new men, who had never been at sea before, as a nursery for seamen; and are to furnish the royal navy, on forty days notice, with 4000 mariners. On these accounts it is enacted, that for the encouragement of the company, and those who enter into wages with them, and enabling them who carry on the trade (tho' less gainful to private persons, yet more serviceable to the Nation than any other) to pursue it vigorously, the fourth of all the Profit of play-houses, shows, prize-fighters, operas, musick-meetings and gaming-houses, shall be paid to them for ever; and also the 200th part of all money or land recover'd at law, and the same of all immoveables that are sold. That all common beggars and vagabonds, and all foundlings, when eight years old, shall belong to the company, and be seiz'd by them, and kept in their work-houses for seven years, allowing them cloaths and diet, without wages. That no person shall have more than 10000 l. stock, nor less than one, in the company's funds, except his Majesty, who shall have 20000 l. embark'd therein; and that the tolls and customs for passage on the great canals cut by George III. and Frederick II. from Bristol to the Thames, from Southampton to Winchester, and from sea to sea from Carlisle to the Humber, be paid also to them. That for their further encouragement, each Friday in every week no person shall eat flesh, on severe penalties nam'd in the act; and every house in which are five inhabitants, besides children, shall be oblig'd to take from them one barrel of herring or other fish, at the market-price.
This is the main of the act, which by the nearness of our shores, and being furnish'd with all victualling and fishing necessaries within our selves, without the taxes the Dutch pay their masters; and being nearer the Baltick, and most foreign markets, enables us to undersell all our rivals in this trade, to breed up every year several thousand Seamen, and employ numbers of our useless poor, and import immense sums of treasure to our happy Island. But the great advantages this new model of the royal Fishery has procur'd us, are best seen by its stocks having risen above five per Cent. which your Lordship will be a great gainer by. The Plantation-Company for the new Colonies in the West-Indies, is by the same act favour'd by great encouragements, as to all duties of exports and imports, and a grant of three millions of acres, to be laid out and applotted equally to all planters who shall settle there, and build new towns. They have also large Premiums settled for such limited quantities of iron, pitch, tar, hemp, flax, silk, indigo, wine or oil, as they shall import from them hither. This has rais'd their stock as considerably as the former, and will probably, in a few years, make us utterly independent of our neighbours in the North for all naval stores, which us'd to drain such immense sums from us.
I do not congratulate your Excellency on your particular advantage herein, but on the credit and honour you have gain'd, by being so zealous for the welfare of these two glorious companies, and the prodigious addition they are likely to give to the strength and wealth of our native country. They will not only enrich us vastly beyond any of our neighbours, (and they that are richest, will be able to carry on war longest, and consequently tire out and subdue at last their enemies;) but they also vastly increase our naval strength, employ our starving poor, and will so far enlarge and extend our colonies on the Continent (greatly encourag'd by our former laws) that our trade will be every day growing more considerable. The very wine, oil and silk imported annually from them, is incredibly great already; and tho' in Frederick the first's and George the third's days, there were hardly forty engines for throwing of silk in this nation, it is certain there are now above a hundred; and yet there are daily new ones set up by the company, which throw more silk with two or three hands, than by a vast number of workmen in the ordinary way. The demands for our goods and manufactures there, are within this last century (as I am assur'd) risen to double what they were before; and I doubt not but your Excellency will live to see our Thames like the famous River the Tibiscus, of which it was said, that one third of it was water, a second fish, and another shipping and boats.
The truth is, our colonies abroad have, and are likely to acquire still such an increase of hands and strength, that the greatest care will be necessary to keep the strongest of them dependent; and yet to provide that the weakest of them may not live on the blood and spirits of the mother nation, nor suck, if I may use the allusion, on her breast too long. I am confident as they will require, so they will well deserve, and fully repay this care. Besides the advantages of the commerce and navigation betwixt us, it is certain, they generally in proportion produce greater, more sublime, and warlike spirits; as being compos'd of adventurous and daring people, or, at worst, of melancholy discontented men; which last, to say nothing of the other, (who must evidently be of service to us) are the best seed-bed for ingenious and inventive, as well as learned and judicious heads. It may indeed be objected to our foreign plantations, that they are in part made up of the filth and purgings of the nation, as felons and robbers; but we all know Rome it self built up all its courage and virtue on no better a foundation: and after all, even such offenders have often such resolution, subtilty, strength, sharpness and activity, as make their posterity, (by these qualities they derive from them,) sufficient amends for their descending from such evil ancestors.
I am confident the new bishopricks founded among them by the piety and generosity of his Majesty's ancestors, as well as those of Carolina, Barbadoes and Boston, establish'd by himself, will greatly contribute to the reformation of manners and principles in our colonies, and to the keeping them firm in their allegiance to the crown. Besides, as the severe ecclesiastical discipline settled there against all profaneness and scandalous immorality in both laity and clergy, and the encouraging those two noble colleges, erected there by George III. have gone a great way already in their civilizing and improving them; so I doubt not but a regular continuance of them, will fully amend what is yet wanting.
The melancholy prospect you have drawn, as to the corruption and debauchery of the French nobles, and the misery and excessive poverty of the lower people, must surprize every one, who considers the glory, virtue, and bravery of that nation in the last centuries, that cost her jealous neighbours such treasures of wealth and blood to prevent the universal empire she aim'd at in those days. It is true, one would not see so dangerous a rival restor'd to her former strength and vigour; but yet a generous enemy cannot see her present misfortunes, without some regret. However, a few years and a wise administration may by degrees resettle her affairs, and bring her out of that weak and languishing consumption that at present preys on her; but that deadly corruption and degeneracy of faith and manners that infects her clergy and laity, seems of a more desperate malignancy, because it does not only prey on her vitals, but is also encourag'd and increas'd by those physicians, who are only able to undertake the cure. Certainly while the King and his Ministers find their account in imitating the maxims of Venice, keeping the interest of the clergy low, and their persons and character contemptible, Religion and the influence of the mitre will be utterly absorb'd in reason of state, and the power of the crown; and the subject must necessarily become equally sceptical in their belief, corrupt in their principles, and immoral in the conduct of their lives. Now tho' this will evidently lessen the unreasonable authority of the Pope and the Church with the nation; yet whether such measures will not at the same time unloose the sacred bonds, by which religion ties the allegiance of the people to the supreme magistrate, and make them bad subjects in proportion as they are bad christians, is worth the consideration of the mighty Machiavels of France.
Your Excellency, who is so well acquainted with the history of our own country, will be the better able to judge of such consequences by the reign of Frederick III. in the 19th Century; when the miserable infection that had corrupted both the lives and faith of one part of our people, had almost driven the other to an absolute revolt in their allegiance and principles, to Rome and her superstitions. A consequence as natural in the politick, as a consumption to an old inveterate cough in the natural body and if that wise Prince had not in time foreseen, how unsafe all foundations must be, that were not built on a pious, prudent regulation of the establish'd church, and by professing an abhorrence for libertinism and scepticism, and a zeal for our religion, by preferring and honouring none that were known to think meanly of it as to their opinions, or that dishonoured it by their lives, I know not if we had not now been bowing to images, and adoring the Pope. The struggles and convulsions which that looseness of principles we were infected with, produc'd in his father's reign, are known to every body, that does but cursorily look into the history of those times; and certainly, nothing but the piety and prudence of his son, could have restor'd our peace and happiness, whose calm and rational zeal for our religion, in a few years wrought as great a change in the people, as ever happen'd on such an occasion since the days of Constantine the Great, when the sincere Christian triumph'd over the dissembling Pagan. But I will not follow this subject so far as it would lead me; and shall only say, that I heartily wish our neighbours in France may not find some consequences from the maxims they are pursuing, very different from what they expect; and that they are not tumbling into a greater, to avoid a lesser evil; like him who run into the water for fear of rain.
But let us leave these melancholy prospects for other nations, and let us reflect a little on the happy condition of our own country, and what it owes to that glorious Line of Hanover, that has adorned its throne with such an uninterrupted race of Heroes. What blessings have they not deriv'd on us, and our posterity, by their counsels at home, and their arms and courage abroad in the field; by giving us the best contriv'd and the best executed laws, and by raising the trade, wealth, power, and glory of our country to such heights, that our enemies may envy, but cannot lessen, and our friends may admire, but know not how to increase? And certainly, as our ancestors used to say, when they were torn in pieces by their senseless and distracted factions, That England could only be ruin'd by England; so we may as truly maintain, that our happiness, and (that greatest of all our blessings) our Liberties, as now settled under our excellent Prince, can never be destroy'd but by Parliaments; and our Church, as it now stands fenced in by human Laws, and founded on the divine Law, can only be overturn'd by the Fathers of it the Bishops. As neither of those cases can be supposed possible, unless men should break thro' the most sacred trusts; and, in spite of the most solemn obligations that nature, religion, and honour, can bind them by, prove false to their Posterity, their Country, their King and their God; I think we may be justly secure of their continuance, and bid adieu to jealousies and fears!
I return your Excellency my thanks for your two manuscript treatises, which gave me much entertainment for three days, which I stole from the hurry of affairs in this restless town, to give to my gardens in my beloved retirement at Windsor. You have so high a relish for the true rational pleasures of life, which are to be found in the silence and solitude of the country, that I shall easily persuade you to believe me, when I aver, that a debtor releas'd out of the City-Marshalsea, is not more transported with his liberty than I am, when I get loose from the crowd of importunate great beggars, (that besiege our chambers and anti-chambers, nay, our tables, and even our very beds, that should be sacred to peace and rest,) to breathe a little free air in that private retreat I am so fond of.
This was ever my way of thinking in my best health and vigor; but I must own, it grows much upon me of late, now that I am in the decline of life, and find the business of the world increase upon me, with the additional load of age and its infirmities. You will smile at me, may be, when I tell your Excellency, that I sometimes think seriously of retiring betimes, and living no longer, as I have done this thirty years, enslav'd to the world, and the wretched business of it, but to be at last possess'd of that delightful wish, vivere sibi & musis; or, to translate it into better English, to live to my self, and the great Author of all things.
When or whether ever I shall be able to put this in execution, I cannot say; but if I do not tell you my fixt resolutions, I tell you at least my sincere desires, which lie nearer my heart than any thing else on this side of the grave; where, I think, I find many hints given me every hour, that I am soon to retire. I am sure the unreasonable fatigue I am forced to undergo at Court, will hurry me thither the sooner; and I often reflect on the remark in the Talmud, That there is no prophet in the Old Testament, (as they past their days without care) but they out-liv'd four Kings: and that Joseph died before his brethren; because, says the Talmudists, he was turmoil'd and harrass'd by being prime minister to Pharaoh.
But these, you will say, are but the little fretful sallies of a mind sick of confinement, and thirsting after liberty; let us therefore leave them, without justifying them further with the least complaint of the malice, the envy, and ingratitude of the publick, which, (tho' perhaps not very successfully, yet still) we endeavour to serve; and return to the business of the world, and the worthy Creatures that make up the Crowd, and contribute to the noise of it.
The best news can send you from it (you see, my Lord, death and the grave are still in my thoughts) is the departure of Sir John Wingford, the best lawyer, and the worst judge that ever appear'd in England. He was, at the bottom, extremely avaricious; he had long refus'd the place of chief Justice, which his Majesty had offer'd him, on account of his prodigious abilities, for the sake of the immense sums he got every year from the crowd of his clients. But as the severe act against lawyers exorbitant fees, and the infirmities of a bad constitution and a wasted body in the latter part of his life, at length oblig'd him to comply with the desires of his Majesty, and indeed of mankind, to accept of it; he did it with the worst grace imaginable, and as haughtily, as tho' he had sacrific'd the interest of his family to the good of the nation.
I must own, with shame for my ignorance, that I was no small instrument in settling that affair; and I can make no better atonement for it, than confessing that I have now reason to believe, this first and greatest of our lawyers, (whole memory and imagination, whose learning and judgment seem'd by turns to outdo not only mankind, but themselves,) to the disgrace of human nature, prov'd the vilest and most corrupt of judges; and found the way, as I'm told, to make a comfortable balance between the bribes given his wife, and the fees of a private pleader at the bar. But he's gone to appear before the great Tribunal of his Maker, and therefore we shall leave him to stand or fall, as he pleases to determine; and I shall only add to the trouble I am giving your Excellency, since we are upon this subject, the death of a much honester judge, but a weaker man, my Lord Chancellor Hoskins, who died last week, a few days before him, of a fit of the apoplexy, which took him off in an instant.
Tho' his abilities were vastly meaner, yet his probity and honesty were infinitely superior to the others; but he had so perverse an integrity, that if any one attempted, or appeared to attempt, to lead or wheedle, or influence him in his decrees, he was sure to go the contrary way, where-ever it lead him. He carried this so far, that my Lord D having a suit before him for a great Estate with Mr. Lp, in which he was sure to be cast, contriv'd to get a certain great man, whom I shall not name, to recommend Mr. Lp's interest to him, with a kind of menace if he did not do him justice; by which single expedient he so turn'd the scales, that he run violently and headlong against Mr. Lp; and indeed against justice, and reason, and equity, to avoid the imaginary guilt of being influenc'd and biass'd.
It is true, some of his friends have attempted to make an apology for this weakness, by asserting, that on his being advanced to that bench, he had been misled in his judgment in one of the first causes he heard, by Mr. Pl, a near relation of his Wife's; and as he had been severely censur'd for it, like the scalded dog, he was afraid of the least shower of rain that threatned to fall on him: but surely this was but giving a stronger proof his weakness instead of excusing him, and shews more fully what vile and wretched creatures we are, when our poor scanty portion of reason is influenc'd by our passions or folly.
But I will quit this ungrateful subject for one that ought to be more agreeable to you and me; and that is, my sincere assurances, that as much as I have ever been attach'd to the interest of your Excellency, and your noble family, I have never been biass'd by any other regard, than that evident merit and justice, which oblige me both by inclination and judgment to be, with the most reasonable passion and affection,
My LORD,
Your Excellency's, &c.
NM.