The Tories stay away; Sir George Oxenden is kept from us by the gout; so, except Mr. Norris, Mr. Sawbridge, Mr. Gordon, Mr. Cage, and myself, we are in the dark who will attend. The freeholders about Dartford grow more inclined: if the generality will give up their rights, they must; but shall have a fair trial. I am

Your Lordship's most obliged,

affectionate, humble servant,

JOHN CALCRAFT.

THE EARL OF CHATHAM TO JOHN CALCRAFT, ESQ.”

Hayes, November 25, 1769, Saturday Night.

MY DEAR SIR,

I AGREE most entirely with you concerning the entanglements which may probably be intended by the council on Monday upon American affairs. Lord Chancellor has not apprized me of the council, or consulted me upon what was fit to be done. It is much to be wished that Lord Granby may not go to the place where it rains snares, and where my Lord Chancellor's force of politics will afford but little shelter. Nothing, I trust, will prevent me from having the pleasure to see his Lordship tomorrow. Every kind and affectionate compliment attends Mr. Calcraft. Yours, &c.

CHATHAM.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE GRENVILLE TO THE COUNTESS OF CHATHAM.

Wotton, December 28, 1769.

THE letter which I received from you last night, my dear Sister, is not the first proof of that tender concern which Lord Chatham and you have shown for me and my family, under the heavy affliction which has befallen us.(1) I have learnt from your letter to my daughter Charlotte (2) how kind an interest you have both taken in us; and though I have not been able to do it myself, I trust that they have both informed you of the sense which I entertain of it. Time will necessarily soften the first emotions after so severe a stroke; but the painful consequences must remain, if not increase.

I acknowledge with gratitude the Divine Goodness which gave to me that happiness which I enjoyed in so unusual a degree, for above twenty years. Religion, wisdom, and every duty call for my submission when it is His pleasure to deprive me of it. I try to obey the call, even in the moment when I feel the blow most bitterly; trusting in the same goodness to assist and support me in these dispositions. The best human comfort

(1) The death of Mrs. George Grenville, which took place at Wotton, on the 5th instant. She was sister to Charles, Earl of Egremont, and daughter of Sir William Wyndham, Bart.

(2) Married, in 1770, to Sir Watkins Williams Wynne, Bart., and mother of the present baronet.

arises from the friendship and sympathy of those who are left to us, and from the prosperity of those whom Heaven has entrusted to our care. The affection of my friends upon this trying occasion has been and is daily manifested towards me in every way that is possible. The best return I can make for it is by my endeavours to deserve and to cultivate it. The favourable opinion Lord Chatham and you entertain of my children makes me flatter myself that the unwearied attention shown to them by her, whose loss they as well as I have too much reason to lament, has not been thrown away. I shall be happy in every opportunity of thanking Lord Chatham and you for the repeated instances of your kindness, and am, my dear Sister, very affectionately,

Your loving brother,

GEORGE GRENVILLE.

JOHN CALCRAFT, ESQ. TO THE EARL OF CHATHAM.

MY DEAR LORD,

Ingress, January 7, 1770,

THE enclosed extract containing the best account of the intended Speech which I have received, I trouble your Lordship therewith. Thinking also, that other occurrences may not, at this very critical moment, be unwelcome, I will proceed with some other paragraphs of intelligence.

""Tis said the Duke of Ancaster and Lord Jersey are to move in the Lords (') (the Earls of

(1) The session was opened on Tuesday the 9th of January. The speech from the throne began by taking notice of a distemper that had broken out among the horned cattle; touched upon some topics concerning foreign affairs and the distractions of America, and concluded with recommending unanimity. The address, in answer thereto, was moved in the Lords, by the Duke of Ancaster, and seconded by Lord Dunmore. The two following Speeches of Lord Chatham upon this occasion, as well as that of Lord Mansfield, were first published by Mr. Almon-in 1792-twenty years after they were delivered, – from a report furnished by MR., afterwards SIR PHILIP, FRANCIS*, who was present, and were by him revised and corrected, in 1813, for the Parliamentary History. The great

Mr. Francis was born in Dublin on the 22d of October 1740, O.S. He was the son of the celebrated Philip Francis, D.D., domestic chaplain to Lord Holland, and the tutor of his son, the late Mr. Fox. He received the rudiments of his education in Ireland, but came to England in 1750, and was placed at St. Paul's school, under the care of Mr. George Thicknesse. In 1756, he was given a small appointment in the secretary-of-state's office by Mr. Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland. Mr. Pitt, who succeeded Mr. Fox, patronised and encouraged him, and through his recommendation Mr. Francis became secretary to General Bligh, in the expedition against Cherburgh in 1758; and again, by the same interest, secretary to the Earl of Kinnoul, ambassador to the court of Lisbon in 1760. On the termination of the embassy in November of that year Mr. Francis returned to the secretary-of-state's office, where he remained some time longer under Mr. Pitt, and then under the Earl of Egremont. That nobleman died in 1763, and Mr. Francis was given an appointment in the War Office by William Ellis, Esq., secretary-at-war, and afterwards Lord Mendip. (See Vol. I. p. 188.) He continued in this situation until March 1772, when he retired, in consequence of a disagreement with Lord Barrington. He then proceeded to the Continent on a tour, and returned to England at the commencement of the following year. In June 1773, he was nominated by Lord North a member of the council appointed for the government of India. In 1780 he fought a duel with Warren Hastings, Esq., the governor-general, and was shot through the body. He shortly afterwards returned to England, and being elected, in 1784, a member of parliament for Yarmouth, in the Isle of Wight, had a principal share in the impeachment of his former antagonist. In 1806, when the whigs came into power, he was made a knight of the Bath. He was the acknowledged author of several political tracts and speeches, and was pronounced by Mr. Burke to be "the first pamphlet writer of the age." He retired from public life in 1807, and died, December 22, 1818.

Carlisle and March having refused); Mr. Payne and Lord Robert Spencer in the Commons. The view

similarity which exists between the language and sentiments contained in these Speeches and the Letters of Junius, would seem to afford grounds for the supposition that that writer took notes of this debate. To assist the curious in this inquiry, references are given to some of the most remarkable of these coincidences, according to the plan adopted in the very able and ingenious work entitled, "Junius Identified." Woodfall's Junius, three volumes 8vo., second edition, 1814, is the one referred to:

"The Earl of CHATHAM, after some compliment to the noble mover, took notice how happy it would have made him to have been able to concur with the noble duke in every part of an address, which was meant as a mark of respect and duty to the Crown-professed personal obligations to the King, and veneration for him; that, though he might differ from the noble duke in form of expressing his duty to the Crown, he hoped he should give his Majesty a more substantial proof of his attachment than if he agreed with the motion. That, at his time of life, and loaded as he was with infirmities, he might, perhaps, have stood excused if he had continued in his retirement, and never taken part again in public affairs. But that the alarming state of the nation called upon him, forced him, to come forward once more, and to execute that duty which he owed to God, to his sovereign, and to his country; that he was determined to perform it, even at the hazard of his life. That there never was a period which called more forcibly than the present for the serious attention and consideration of that house; that as they were the grand hereditary counsellors of the Crown, it was particularly their duty, at a crisis of such importance and danger, to lay before their sovereign the true state and condition of his subjects, the discontent which universally prevailed amongst them, the distresses under which they laboured, the injuries they complained of, and the true causes of this unhappy state of affairs.

"That he had heard with great concern of the distemper among the cattle, and was very ready to give his approbation to those prudent measures which the council had taken for putting a stop to so dreadful a calamity. That he was satisfied there was a power in some degree arbitrary, with which the constitution trusted the Crown, to be made use of under correction of the legislature, and at the hazard of the minister, upon any sudden emergency, or unforeseen calamity, which might threaten the welfare of the people, or the safety of the state. That on this principle he had himself advised a measure, which he