George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life. George Augustus Selwyn
sets out for Paris, or some place or places abroad, next week. If she is not constantly wagging, as I'm told, she is in danger of a lethargy. Mrs. Horton sets out for Nice on Friday.
There has been a very long debate in the House of Commons to-day upon a motion of Ald. Beckford's(70) concerning a Bill he intends to bring in for the more effectual prevention of bribery and keeping out nabobs, commissaries, and agents of the House of Commons, or at least from their encroachments upon the claims of persons established in towns and boroughs, by descent, family interest, and long enjoyed property; the principle of his scheme is certainly good.
The Mayor and Corporation of Oxford are to appear at the Bar in defence of themselves, for having offered themselves to sale for 7,500 pounds. They had the honnetete to offer the refusal to their old members, who told them in answer to their modest proposal that as they had no intention to sell them, so they could not afford to buy them. I was not at the House, but this is likely to make a great noise. Bully's petition has been presented by Lord Sandw.,(71) and will probably be carried through this Session. Some of the Bishops intend to make speeches against it, as I hear.
Charles Boon has married a squint-eyed, chitten-face citizen with about 5,000 pounds fortune. Sir G. Mac(72) wedding will be about Monday or Tuesday next. They consummate at Comb, Vernon's house. Sir Ch[arles] is returned from Barton, and Lady Sarah gone to the Opera. You may be sure that we do not pass an hour without mention of you, but, shall I tell you mind (sic), when Lady Carlisle tells you that she has seen her at Chapel, and when I tell you that I have dined with her, we certainly mean to please you; but do we not help to keep up a flame that, in as much as that is the proper description of it, had better be extinguished? Crescit indulgent isti. I am sure I shall never say anything to lessen the just and natural esteem which you have for her, but when there is grafted on that what may make you uneasy, I must be an enemy to that or to yourself, and you know, I am sure, how incapable I am of that. I have a long letter almost every week from my flame also, Me du Deffand,(73) but these are passions which non in seria ducunt. She is very importunate with me to return to Paris, by which (?), if there is any sentiment, it must be all of her side. I should not be sorry to make another sejour there; but if I did, and it was with you, I should not throw away with old women and old Presidents,(74) which is the same thing, some of those hours which I regret very much at this instant. You may assure Lord Kildare that I will do my best about his election at the young club.(75)
(63) George Hobart, third Earl of Buckinghamshire (1732–1804). He was returned to Parliament in 1761, 1768, and 1774, and he was manager of the Opera for a time. In 1762 he was made Secretary to the Embassy at St. Petersburg, where his half-brother John, second Earl of Buckinghamshire, was Ambassador; in 1793 he succeeded him. He married, in 1757, Albinia, eldest daughter of Lord Vere Bertie.
(64) The Count de Viry, Sardinian Minister to England.
(65) William Robert, Marquis of Kildare (1748–1805). He succeeded as third Duke of Leinster in 1773.
(66) Percy Windham O'Brien, Baron of Stricheh and Earl of Thomond, brother of Lord Egremont and of Mrs. George Grenville. He was a Member of Parliament for Mmehead, Lord-Lieutenant of the county of Somerset, and a member of the Privy Council.
(67) George Grenville (1712–1770). Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1763. The author of the Stamp Act. See his Character, Lecky, "History of England," vol. III. p. 64.
(68) A dancing girl of fifteen and her family, at the moment the object of Lord March's attention.
(69) Lady Elizabeth Seymour, Duchess of Northumberland, generally called Lady Betty. In 1740 she married Sir Hugh Smithson, against the will of her grandfather, the Duke of Somerset, who disliked this marriage for the heiress of the Percys, but there was no power of depriving her of the property, and Smithson succeeded to the title in 1750; from this time they both figured prominently in society and politics, and the Duchess's entertainments, where the best musicians performed, were famous.
(70) William Beckford (1709–1770). Alderman and Lord Mayor of London, and Member of Parliament for the City of London. The friend and supporter of Wilkes, he was an upholder of popular rights at a time when men of wealth were usually supporters of the King.
(71) John George Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792); was a party politician whose term of office as First Lord of the Admiralty brought him into general opprobrium; in private life he was even more severely condemned. With the Earl of March, Sir Francis Dashwood, and others, he was associated with Wilkes in the infamous brotherhood of Medmenham, and later, when they made public the secrets of the club against Wilkes, popular feeling rose high against Sandwich, and he was characterised as Jemmy Twitcher, from a play then running; the theatre rose to the words "That Jemmy Twitcher should peach me I own surprised me."
(72) Sir George, afterward Lord Macartney (1737–1800). An ambitious young Irishman; a tutor and friend of Charles James Fox, he had been assisted in his career by Lord Holland. In 1764 he had been appointed Envoy Extraordinary to Russia, and later held appointments as Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, President of Madras, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, and Ambassador to China. He married Lord Bute's second and favourite daughter, Lady Jane.
(73) Marie de Vichy Chamroud, Marquise du Deffand (1697–1780). She married, in 1718, the Marquis du Deffand, from whom she soon separated, and lived the life of pleasure so common in the period. At the age of sixty-two she became totally blind. This misfortune but made her the more celebrated and sought after. In 1764 occurred the quarrel with Mlle. Lespinasse, which divided her salon and left her quite alone with her faithful secretary, Wiart. With the exception of her correspondence with the Duchesse de Choiseul, she bequeathed all her letters to Horace Walpole. She was seventy and Walpole fifty when they met and their famous attachment and correspondence began.
(74) President Henault (1685–1770). He was President of the
Parliament, a member of the Academy, and author of "L'abrege
Chronologique de l'Histoire de France." His devotion to Mme. du
Deffand lasted until his death, which preceded hers by ten years.
(75) At White's.
(1768) Feb. 2, Tuesday Morning.—Yesterday Sir T. Stapleton and Mr. Lee, the members for the town of Oxford, read in their places, by order of the House, the letter which they had received a year and a half ago from the Mayor, Bailiffs, and Council of Oxford to offer them a quiet election, and absolute sale of themselves, for 5,670 pounds sterling; the sum which the Corporation is indebted, and otherwise as they declare unable to pay. Eleven sign, of which [whom] one is since dead; all the rest are ordered to attend at our Bar on Friday with the Mace Bearer, &c. Their Regalia has been pawned for their high living. The House was excessively crow[d]ed; Thurloe and Rigby,(76) for the Duke of Marl(borough's) sake, made weak efforts to bring them off. Some of these people are fled to Calais, as it is said, to avoid Newgate; it may be that none of them will appear who signed.
Mr. Walpole's(77) book(78) came out yesterday, but I got it from him on Saturday, and my (?) Lord Molyneux carried it for me that morning to Sir John Lamb[er]t to be forwarded to your Lordship immediately. I'm confident that it will entertain you much, and, what is more extraordinary, convince you; because I have that good opinion of your understanding as not to think that ages and numbers can sanctify falsehood, and that such is your love of truth as to be glad to find it, although at the expense of quitting the prejudice of your whole precedent life. I will not forestall your judgment by saying anything more of this book, but only wish it may afford as much entertainment as it has me. This historic doubter dined with me yesterday, Williams, Lord March, Cadogan, and Fanshaw, qui m'a demande a diner, at the House.
Horry seemed mightily pleased with the success which his new book has met with; nobody cavils at anything, but here and there an expression; his hypothesis is approved of from the most reasonable conjectures, and the most indisputable authorities. I would have had Bully [to] have dined with us, but he was engaged to his brother, qui donne a diner fort souvent. I told him, that if he would pay his court to Horry he might give him a lick of his vernis, that would do his repu[ta]tion no harm. He is in high spirits; his divorce is making a rapid progress through your House.
Beauclerck looks