perfectly rascally, that I have no sort of compassion for them, and none, I dare say, will be felt by those who will find such good account in this kind of neutral war. The only danger is, that they may be driven at last to join themselves openly to those to whom they are now giving every kind of clandestine assistance. Tho' they will find their own destruction in this, they may, in the main, considerably embarrass our operations.

No great stroke has yet been struck by any of the armies on the continent. Our campaign here, too, in the Houses of Parliament, is pretty quiet. If it was not for the trial of Mr Hastings, and the delay which his friends create, by insisting on the presence of the judges, and adjourning the proceedings in consequence, till after the circuit, we might be set at liberty in a few weeks; and I should then be tempted to make an excursion towards the coast, and to meet you probably either at the Downs or at Portsmouth.

There is another business indeed that may call me towards Norfolk,With a view to the possibility of a descent, troops of different sorts are proposed to be raised in aid of the militia one class of which will be volunteer cavalry, composed of persons who are in a state to furnish their own horses, and till they are called out of their own county (which is to be only in the case of actual invasion) are to receive no pay, nor any thing from government, but their saddles and arms. What think you of the possibility of my raising a troop of fifty such persons, including such as part of those concerned may be willing to hire or bring with them, in addition to themselves? Should the occasion not arise in which their services will be really wanted, the trouble will be very little, as I should not propose their meeting more than once a week; and the expence would be no more nor so much as attends their weekly

meetings at market. For a uniform, I would have nothing but a plain coat, such as they might wear at other times, or no more ornamented than might make them a little proud of it. I believe something of this sort I must attempt, and if it could be settled without the necessity of more attention on my part than I ought to allow myself to spare from other objects, I should not dislike to have such a troop established under my direction.

Mr Courtenay (the member,) who dined with me yesterday, shewed me a letter 'which he had received from a Mr Hayes, one of the Lieutenants, I conceive, on board the Boston, in which an interesting account is given of some of the principal circumstances of the action. It appears, by his account, that the Boston had only 200 hands, not above 30 of whom had ever before been on board, while the Ambuscade had 450. This difference I suppose must have told considerably; much more than the difference of four guns, which the French frigate had beyond ours. The conduct of one of the LieutenantsMr Kerr, seems to have been singur larly gallant. He staid on deck, afte ̧ he had received a cannister shot thro' his shoulder, and till a splinter strik ing him on the face altogether blinded him. The first Lieutenant too, a Mr Edwards, though wounded badly in the hand, came up again after the Captain's death, to take the command of the ship. In a former account, it was said, I think, that he had fainted from loss of blood. It is said in this letter, that there was a French fleet in sight at the time when the Boston bore up.

Let me hear from you when you have any thing to tell, and believe

me,

Your affectionate Uncle,

W. WINDHAM.

II. To Mrs Lukin, during his mission to the Duke of York's Army.

Berlikom, near Bois le Duc,
Sept. 12, 1794.

The ways of a camp life are so idle, that all the habits of business which I may be supposed to have acquired in the last two months, seem to give way before them; and I am in danger of finding myself a worse correspondent here, where I have so much to tell, and so much time for telling it, than I was in London, when occupied from morning till night, and when my occupations would leave me but little else to talk of. In fact, the pleasure of moving about in a scene so full of interest, the fatigue that is apt to follow, and the want of a comfortable room to retire to, are the causes that prove so fatal to my correspondence, and the reasons why, for want of a little occasional respite, my pleasure in this situation is less than it should be.

We are, as you will have learned from one of my former letters, near Bois le Duc, which is rather a large town, and a strong fortress belonging to the Dutch. About three miles from this place are the Duke's head quarters, and at four or five miles further is the camp. The immediate place of my residence is the village where head quarters are, and I am lodged in the house of a Dutch attorney. The country about is light and sandy, affording very pleasant rides, which are not the less so from your occasionally meeting bodies of troops, of different dresses, establishments, and countries. The variety in this respect is not so great as it was last year, nor, from a number of circumstances, is the scene so interesting, after allowing even for the difference of its not being seen, as that was, for the first time. The relief which all this gives, after confinement during the summer to London, and to such business as that of the war-office, is

more than you can conceive. It has given me a new stock of health; and the beauty of the autumn mornings, joined to the general idleness in which one lives by necessity, and, therefore, without self-reproach, has given me a feeling of youthful enjoyment, such as I now but rarely know. You cannot conceive how you would like a ride here, with the idea that if you wandered too far, and went beyond the out-posts, you might be carried off by a French patrole. It is the enjoyment that George Faulknor was supposed to describe, of a scene near Dublin, where "the delighted spectator expects every moment to be crushed by the impending rocks."

Were public business out of the question, I should stay here probably for a week or two longer; but, as it is, my stay must be regulated by other considerations, and it is probable that the messenger whom we are waiting for impatiently may occasion my departure immediately. The general state of things is as bad as need be.

The shooters in your part of the world must not suppose that they have all the sport to themselves. So strong is the love of mischief among men, that all the shooting of one another that is going on here, does not prevent their filling up their intervals by a little murder of partridges.

I

I am not the only person, probably, from the parish of Felbrigg, who is now with the army. There is a son of the family of Ransome, whom Moreton was charged some time since to make enquiry after, and who hope is alive; though there is som reason to suppose that he is wounded. A brother of James, too, who lives with your brother, is supposed to be here, and about him I shall make enquiry.

Farewell; I hope you are going on well at home: that Anne is recovered, and that the rest are gay.

W. W.

of the newspapers which I have seen, as having talked a language directly the reverse of that which I did talk, and which was alone conformable to the sentiments existing in my mind. In none of the papers, as I am told, am I made to express myself in terms so strong as those which I actually used. The history is, that having been forced, by the occupation of our bench by Mr Bankes, to sit more under the gallery than is desirable, and having spoken moreover in a lower tone than usual, owing perhaps to a little emotion, the reporters in the gallery could only hear what I said very imperfectly, and supplied what was wanting very much according to their own fancy. You may be fully assured, that what I said was of a sort perfectly to satisfy every friend of Mr Pitt; and this I am very anxious should be understood; as nothing could have been so base and ungenerous, and so perfectly adverse to the purpose of my speaking at all, as the saying any thing ungracious of him, in the circumstances in which he was supposed to be, and unhappily was. I am sorry to say, that all hope of recovery is entirely out of the question, if he should be alive even at this instant. As I expressed myself yesterday, the extinction of such great talents and powers is a very awful and affecting event, even in the minds of those whose lot it may have been to be most constantly opposed to them.

V. To the Same.

« Felbrigg, September 16, 1809. I have received from several quarters information of the probability of a change in the ministry, which is far from presenting to me a prospect that I can contemplate with any feelings of pleasure. I have not virtue enough to wish the ministers put, at the risk of being one of those who may be called upon to succeed them. While the change was said to be only

partial, I felt sufficiently at my ease; but in the way in which my informants suppose it is to take place, an offer to me, of some sort or another, I take it for granted, must be made. It is one of the things that one neither knows how to accept or decline. If I could always be as well as I am here,-if Downing Street were in Felbrigg Park, or a dozen miles from London,-I should think much less about it; but the being called upon to read and to write, to consider and to decide, when one is exhausted and worn down with one's duty in parliament, has something in it that hardly any advantages or gratifications can repay; and I am afraid my inabilities in point of health or strength are not got the better of, even in the two years that have elapsed since I was last in office. My hope must be, that the intelligence is unfounded, and that the question will not arise; tho' I have my misgivings; and partly from the progress which I understand is making in the Catholic question, and the alarms which I have heard the ministers have conceived on that account. If it should be found that the measure must be submitted to, it will not be unnatural that an entire new ministry should be called in, composed of men decidedly friendly to it. ****

A slight hurt which I got here in riding retards my return to town. I am, in the meantime, living a most wholesome life, and in many respects a very pleasant and useful one ;— pleasant, as I can recur to pursuits long laid aside, but very ill calculated to prepare me for a return to publio life; and useful, as I am getting things into order, both within doors and without.

trembling in my hole, waiting what shall befall me. The habits of life here are not a good preparation for a return to office, though the health is; -but even that has a little failed in the present instance; for, though I am considerably above my rate of London health, I am, from accident, not quite up to that which residence here ought to have given me.

VII. To the same.

Felbrigg, October 2, 1809.

I have had letters, with copies of the correspondence, both from Lord Grey and Lord Grenville. I should think that the ministers will contrive to go on, and I cannot but hope it; for, in the other event, I am sure I don't know what is to be done. I was enumerating, in my answer to Lord Grey, all that I thought could be looked to in that case, and the amount was very limited, and frightfully difficult. ***

I feel but little stomach to return to office, unless I can have carte blanche as to my military plans; and even then the whole is so be-devilled, that there is no restoring things to their original state.

VIII. To the same.

Beaconsfield, December 18, 1809. I have been here for some days, and have just been joined by Mrs Windham, who left London to-day. We are on our way to Bristol, and must lose no time, as Mr

who is here, insists on my being in London during the second week of next month. I shall come very reluctantly, having during this recess indulged myself so much in other pursuits, and contracted, by one means or another, so strong a dislike to the politics of the times, that I am by no means in a frame of mind fa

vourable for the commencement of a parliamentary session. The air of the country, however, will do something, if not to dispose me more to business, at least to render me more capable of it. One of the events that tend to create a great impatience of all public concerns, is this disgraceful and mischievous triumph of the O. P.'s, and the humiliating submission of the managers. Their conduct is quite unaccountable, unless they have secret information that the juries at the sessions would follow the example of Mr Clifford's jury; and even then the sacrifice of Brandon is something so scandalous, that no consideration of interest can excuse it. I am the more alive, I suppose, to this defeat of the managers, because I see it as a rehearsal of what is meant for higher performers; the managers being the government; the new prices, the taxes; Brandon, myself perhaps; and the O. P.'s exactly the same description of persons as at present. There is one difference I hope ;-that I shall never come on like poor Brandon with an apology. In all other respects, it seems to me to present but too sure a presage of the fate of the country, contemptible as the thing is in itself.

Believe me yours,
very faithfully,

W. WINDHAM.

Report of the Committee of the Society for the suppression of begging; containing the Plan of the Institution.

E inserted, in our Magazine for

October last, the first Report on this subject, which contained merely a view of the objects which the Society proposed to itself. Since that time, several meetings have been held, the plan has been matured, and a Committee