manner declared to our minister as the ground of a personal objection from that power, if such an exception was admitted; that his Majesty, ever desirous (as he had so often shown) of a connexion with Russia, had conceived that if the court of Berlin becoming herself a party in a triple league of union tending very much to her interest had appeared disposed to relinquish this point, every obstruction would have then been removed, and that the attempting so laudable and desirable a conclusion of this long negotiation had been the motive of the proposed embassy; but as this frank and advantageous offer had not been relished as it deserved at Berlin, his Majesty was of opinion that a formal refusal of the Turkish exception, and consequently of the alliance, would serve only to occasion a coolness between the two courts, and end in a triumph to the secret enemies of both; and that it therefore was become proper, in the present conjuncture, to ask whether a point so little founded in reason could not be waved, if Russia was satisfied in all other conditions which could prove our predilections and cordiality.

I ventured to throw out these crude thoughts of mine as the most obvious and natural issue of this transaction, even in the worst event, and his Majesty seemed to honour them with some degree of attention. I am, my dear Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient and

most humble servant,

H. STANLEY.

THE DUKE OF GRAFTON TO THE EARL OF CHATHAM.

MY LORD,

Grosvenor Square, October 4, 1766.

LORD NORTHUMBERLAND was yesterday created Duke of Northumberland, Earl of Percy, and Viscount Louvaine; the last of which Mr.Conway had the address to persuade him from adding as a second dukedom, as he before had that of getting him to change the title he first had asked of Duke Brabant. (1) The Earl of Cardigan preferred the temporary enjoyment of his post to the honour which has been the object of his life.

Lord Scarborough (2) was with me yesterday, in consequence of the letter I had written to him, and told me that he had considered the proposal of the post-office, which he begged to decline accepting, totally from family convenience ("), which would

() Agnes de Percy, second daughter of the third Lord William de Percy, was married to Joceline of Lovaine, son of Godfrey Barbutus, Duke of Lower Lorraine, and Count of Brabant.

(2) Richard Lumley Saunderson, fourth earl of Scarborough. During the preceding administration he had filled the office of cofferer to the King's household. He was also deputy earl marshal of England.

(3) This passage extinguishes for ever one of the numerous misrepresentations of Lord Chatham's conduct during the forming of this administration, contained in Almon's "Anecdotes," and since transferred into Thackeray's more volumiHistory of the Earl of Chatham." Both these authors assert, that Lord Scarborough and Mr. Dowdeswell complained of the offensive manner in which they were applied to by Lord

nous "

not allow him to be as much in town as he should think it necessary to be if he was in the post-office, and which neither his own nor Lady Scarborough's health would admit of. He added, that his declining arose from no other motive; and if ever he did not approve of any system, he would lay down whatever employment he held, before he opposed it. Lord Monson's(') letter to me was very short, and is comprehended in these words, "that the advance of peerage was an honour he could accept by no means at this time."

I make no doubt that your Lordship is turning in your thoughts the Speech that will come most properly from the Throne in the present circumstances; and we trust that, in the hands of the lords now assembled at Bath (2) it is best placed. Give me leave to conclude with the sincerest wishes for

Chatham, and consequently declined office: " to the first," say they," an abrupt message was sent, that he might have an office if he would;' to a second, that such an office was still vacant;' to a third, that he must take such an office or none."" Of Mr. Almon's work Archdeacon Coxe, in his Memoirs of Lord Walpole, gives the following opinion: "I think it a duty I owe to the public, in mentioning this wretched compilation, to declare, that from the access I have had to the papers and documents of the times, I find it superficial and inaccurate, principally drawn from newspapers and party pamphlets, and interspersed, perhaps, with a few anecdotes communicated in desultory conversations by Earl Temple."

(1) John, second Lord Monson; in October 1765, appointed chief justice of his Majesty's forests south of Trent, which office he resigned in November 1766.

(2) Besides Lord Chatham, Lord Northington and Lord Camden were at this time at Bath.

your Lordship's health, and by assuring you of the real sentiments of esteem and respect with which I have the honour to be, my Lord,

I CANNOT return to London from being so near your Lordship, without desiring to know how your journey agreed with you. I am come here on account of some alarm my servants were in for the safety of my house on account of the late riots; which I am glad to find not very well founded, or at least prevented by the activity of some country gentlemen. I wish I may find, on my return to London, that they have had the same success in other counties. Oxfordshire and Leicestershire are in a most disorderly state, and the applications to government have been so repeated, that the King has thought proper to order General Conway and me to write to the lordlieutenants of those counties where there have been disturbances, and where they have continued since the embargo, to desire them to enquire into the grounds of them, their nature and tendency;

and if they find it necessary in consequence to meet the sheriff, justices, or gentlemen in some central place, to consider of proper steps to be taken to warn the deluded, and to seize the persons of those that persist, that they may suffer the full punishment the law directs.

Since your Lordship left town, there has been nothing worthy your attention, except a silence on the part of Prussia. I wish we may hear something from thence soon, because the King and General Conway wish it; for myself, I own I was not surprised at Sir Andrew Mitchell's despatch, having heard so much of the King of Prussia's difficulty and diffidence; which last is not surprising with this country, both on account of what has happened personally in regard to him here, and the great fluctuation of administration for some time past.

Lord Grantham (1) and Mr. Robinson (2) have been in town, and desire their thanks to your Lordship, perfectly happy in the arrangement. Governor Lyttelton (3) is ready to do his utmost to

(1) See Vol. I. p. 96. His lordship was at this time one of the postmasters-general.

(2) The honourable Thomas Robinson, eldest son of Lord Grantham, at this time member for Christchurch. In November, he was appointed one of the lords of trade; in 1770, vice-chamberlain to the King; in 1771, ambassador to the court of Madrid; in 1781, first lord of the board of trade; and in 1782, secretary of state for the foreign department. He succeeded his father as second Lord Grantham in 1770, and died in 1786.

(3) William-Henry, sixth son of Sir Thomas, and brother of George first Lord Lyttelton. In 1755, he was appointed go