66

day!”

less."

ask you to eat any, because I know you no other subject than eternal dullness. despise it."

I don't know what is the matter with "No, madam, no," cried he, “I despise David; I am afraid he is grown supernothing that is good of its sort; but I annuated, for his prologues and epilogues am now too proud to eat it. Sitting by used to be incomparable.” Miss Burney makes me very proud to- "Nothing is so fatiguing," said Mrs.

Thrale, as the life of a wit. He and “Miss Burney,” said Mrs. Thrale,

Wilkes are the two oldest men of their laughing, you must take great care of ages I know, for they have both worn your heart if Dr. Johnson attacks it; themselves out by being eternally on for I assure you he is not often success- the rack to give entertainment to others."

“David, madam," said the doctor, “What's that you say, madam?” cried “looks much older than he is; for his he. “Are you making mischief between face has had double the business of any the young lady and me already?”

other man's. It is never at rest; when A little while after he drank Mrs. he speaks one minute, he has quite a Thrale's health and mine, and then different countenance to what he assumes added: "'Tis a terrible thing that we the next. I don't believe he ever kept the cannot wish young ladies well without same look for half an hour together in wishing them to become old women !” the whole course of his life; and such an

"But some people," said Mr. Seward, eternal, restless, fatiguing play of the 'are old and young at the same time, muscles must certainly wear out a man's for they wear so well that they never face before its real time." look old.”

"O yes,” cried Mrs. Thrale, "we must "No, sir, no,” cried the doctor, laugh- certainly make some allowance for such ing; “that never yet was; you might wear and tear of a man's face." as well say they are at the same time The next name that was started was tall and short. I remember an epitaph that of Sir John Hawkins, and Mrs. to that purpose, which is in—" (I have Thrale said: "Why, now, Dr. Johnson, quite forgot what, and also the name he is another of those whom you suffer it was made upon, but the rest I recollect nobody to abuse but yourself; Garrick exactly :

is one, too; for if any other person speaks

against him, you browbeat him in a lies buried here;

minute!” So early wise, so lasting fair, That none, unless her years you told,

“Why, madam,” answered he, “they Thought her a child, or thought her old.”) don't know when to abuse him, and when

to praise him. I will allow no man to Mrs. Thrale then repeated some lines speak ill of David that he does not dein French, and Dr. Johnson some more in serve; and as to Sir John, why, really Latin. An epilogue of Mr. Garrick's to I believe him to be an honest man at the Bonduca was then mentioned, and Dr. bottom; but to be sure he is penurious, Johnson said it was a miserable perform- and he is mean, and it must be owned he ance, and everybody agreed it was the has a degree of brutality, and a tendency worst he had ever made.

to savageness, that cannot easily be “And yet,” said Mr. Seward, “it has defended.” been very much admired; but it is in We all laughed, as he meant we should, praise of English valour, and so I

suppose at this curious manner of speaking in his the subject made it popular.”

favor; and he then related an anecdote "I don't know, sir," said Dr. Johnson, that he said he knew to be true in regard "anything about the subject, for I could to his meanness. He said that Sir John not read on till I came to it; I got through and he once belonged to the same club, half a dozen lines, but I could observe but that as he eat no supper after the

a

we all

measure.

first night of his admission, he desired of all the divisions in the Hall were all to be excused paying his share.

directly adjoining to where I was seated. “And was he excused?"

“O yes; for no man is angry at another The business did not begin till near for being inferior to himself;

twelve o'clock. The opening to the whole scorned him, and admitted his plea. For then took place, by the entrance of the my part, I was such a fool as to pay my managers of the prosecution; all the share for wine, though I never tasted company were already long in their boxes any. But Sir John was a most unclubable or galleries. I shuddered, and drew inman! And this,” continued he, “re- voluntarily back, when, as the doors minds me of a gentleman and lady with were flung open, I saw Mr. Burke, as whom I traveled once; I suppose I must Head of the Committee, make his solemn call them gentleman and lady, according entry. He held a scroll in his hand, and to form, because they traveled in their walked alone, his brow knit with corroding own coach and four horses. But at the care and deep laboring thought, – a brow first inn where we stopped, the lady called how different to that which had proved for a pint of ale! and when it came, so alluring to my warmest admiration quarreled with the waiter for not giving when first I met him! so highly as he full

Now Madame Duval 1 had been my favourite, so captivating as could not have done a grosser thing !” I had found his manners and conversation

Oh, how everybody laughed! and to in our first acquaintance, and so much be sure I did not glow at all, nor munch as I owed to his zeal and kindness to me fast, nor look on my plate, nor lose any and my affairs in its progress! How did part of my usual composure! But how I grieve to behold him now the cruel grateful do I feel to this dear Dr. Johnson, prosecutor (such to me he appeared) of for never naming me and the book as an injured and innocent man! belonging one to the other, and yet making Mr. Fox followed next, Mr. Sheridan, an allusion that showed his thoughts led Mr. Wyndham, Messrs. Anstruther, to it, and, at the same time, that seemed Grey, Adam, Michael Angelo Taylor, Pelto justify the character as being natural! ham, Colonel North, Mr. Frederick MonBut indeed, the delicacy I met with from tagu, Sir Gilbert Elliot, General Burgoyne, him, and from all the Thrales, was yet Dudley Long, etc. They were all named more flattering to me than the praise over to me by Lady Claremont, or I with which I have heard they have hon- should not have recollected even those oured my book.

of my acquaintance, from the shortness

of my sight. February 13, 1788.

When the committee box was filled, In the middle was placed a large table, the House of Commons at large took their and at the head of it the seat for the Chan

seats on their green benches, which cellor, and round it seats for the judges, stretched, as I have said, along the whole the Masters in Chancery, the clerks, and left side of the Hall. . . Then began the all who belonged to the law; the upper procession, the clerks entering first, then end, and the right side of the room, was the lawyers according to their rank, and allotted to the peers in their robes; the the peers, bishops, and officers, all in left side to the bishops and archbishops. their coronation robes; concluding with Immediately below the Great Chamber

the Princes of the Blood, Prince Willain's box was the place allotted for the liam, son to the Duke of Gloucester, comprisoner. On his right side was a box for ing first, then the Dukes of Cumberland, his own counsel, on his left the box for

Gloucester, and York, then the Prince of the managers, or committee, for the

ance.

A sergeant-at-arms arose, and com- All I had heard of his eloquence, and manded silence in the court, on pain of all I had conceived of his great abilities, imprisonment. Then some other officer, was more than answered by his performin a loud voice, called out, as well as I can

Nervous, clear, and striking was recollect, words to this purpose: “War- almost all that he uttered; the main ren Hastings, Esquire, come forth! An- business, indeed, of his coming forth was swer to the charges brought against you; frequently neglected, and not seldom save your bail, or forfeit your recogniz- wholly lost; but his excursions were so ance!” Indeed I trembled at these

these fanciful, so entertaining, and so ingenious, words, and hardly could keep my place that no miscellaneous hearer, like myself, when I found Mr. Hastings was being could blame them. It is true he was brought to the bar. He came forth from unequal, but his inequality produced an some place immediately under the Great effect which, in so long a speech, was Chamberlain's box, and was preceded by perhaps preferable to greater consistency, Sir Francis Molyneux, Gentleman Usher since, though it lost attention in its falling of the Black Rod; and at each side of off, it recovered it with additional energy him walked his bails, Messrs. Sullivan by some ascent unexpected and wonderful. and Sumner. The moment he came in When he narrated, he was easy, flowing, sight, which was not for full ten minutes and natural; when he declaimed, enerafter his awful summons, he made a low getic, warm, and . brilliant. The sentibow to the Chancellor and court facing ments he interspersed were so nobly him. I saw not his face, as he was di- conceived as they were highly coloured; rectly under me. He moved on slowly, his satire had a poignancy of wit that and, I think, supported between his two made it as entertaining as it was penebails, to the opening of his own box; trating. His allusions and quotations, as there, lower still, he bowed again; and far as they were English and within my then, advancing to the bar, he leant his reach, were apt and ingenious; and the hands upon it, and dropped on his knees; wild and sudden flights of his fancy, burstbut a voice in the same moment proclaim- ing forth from his creative imagination ing he had leave to rise, he stood up almost in language fluent, forcible, and varied, instantaneously, and a third time pro- had a charm for my ear and my attention foundly bowed to the court.

wholly new and perfectly irresistible.

Were talents such as these exercised The crier, I think it was, made, in a

in the service of truth, unbiased by party loud and hollow voice, a public proclama

and prejudice, how could we sufficiently tion, “that Warren Hastings, Esquire, late Governor-General of Bengal, was

applaud their exalted possessor! But

now on his trial for high crimes and mis

though frequently he made me tremble demeanours, with which he was charged

by his strong and horrible representations,

his own violence recovered me, by stigby the Commons of Great Britain ; and

matizing his assertions with personal illthat all persons whatsoever who had aught to allege against him were now to

will and designing illiberality. Yet at

times I confess, with all that I felt, wished, stand forth.”..

and thought concerning Mr. Hastings, The interest of this trial was so much the whirlwind of his eloquence nearly upon my mind that I have not kept even drew me into its vortex. a memorandum of what passed from the 13th of February to the day when I went

HORACE WALPOLE again to Westminster Hall. ... The pris

TO HORACE MANN oner was brought in, and Mr. Burke began his speech. It was the second day

Windsor, August 21, 1746. of his harangue; the first I had not been

I CAME from town (for take notice, able to attend.

I put this place upon myself for the country) the day after the execution of the prayed some time with Forster, who rebel lords. I was not at it, but had two wept over him, exhorted and encouraged persons come to me directly who were him. He delivered a long speech to the at the next house to the scaffold, and I Sheriff, and with a noble manliness stuck saw another who was upon it; so that to the recantation he had made at his you may depend upon my accounts. trial, declaring he wished that all who

Just before they came out of the Tower, embarked in the same cause might meet Lord Balmerino drank a bumper to King the same fate. He then took off his bag, James's health. As the clock struck coat, and waistcoat, with great compoten, they came forth on foot, Lord Kil- sure, and after some trouble put on a marnock all in black, his hair unpowdered napkin-cap, and then several times tried in a bag, supported by Forster, the great the block; the executioner, who was in Presbyterian, and by Mr. Home, a young white, with a white apron, out of tenderclergyman, his friend. Lord Balmerino ness concealing the axe behind himself. followed, alone, in a blue coat, turned up At last the Earl knelt down, with a visible with red (his rebellious regimentals), a unwillingness to depart, and after five flannel waistcoat, and his shroud beneath; minutes dropped his handkerchief, the their hearses following. They were con- signal, and his head was cut off at once, ducted to a house near the scaffold; only hanging by a bit of skin, and was the room forwards had benches for spec- received in a scarlet cloth by four of the tators, in the second Lord Kilmarnock undertaker's men kneeling, who wrapped was put, and in the third backwards it up and put it into the coffin with the Lord Balmerino; all three chambers body, - orders having been given not to hung with black. Here they parted. expose the heads, as used to be the cusBalmerino embraced the other, and said, tom. "My lord, I wish I could suffer for both !” The scaffold was immediately newHe had scarce left him, before he desired strewed with sawdust, the block newagain to see him, and then asked him, covered, the executioner new-dressed, and "My Lord Kilmarnock, do you know a axe brought. Then came old anything of the resolution taken in our Balmerino, treading with the air of a army, the day before the battle of Cullo- general. As soon as he mounted the den, to put the English prisoners to scaffold, he read the inscription on his death?” He replied, “My lord, I was coffin, as he did again afterwards. He not present; but since I came hither, I then surveyed the spectators, who were have had all the reason to believe that in amazing numbers, even upon masts there was such order taken; and I hear of ships in the river; and, pulling out his the Duke has the pocket-book with the spectacles, read a treasonable speech, order.” Balmerino answered, “It was which he delivered to the Sheriff, and a lie raised to excuse their barbarity to said the young Pretender was so sweet a us." Take notice, that the Duke's charg- Prince that flesh and blood could not ing this on Lord Kilmarnock (certainly resist following him; and, lying down to on misinformation) decided this unhappy try the block, he said, “If I had a thouman's fate! . . . At last he came to the sand lives, I would lay them all down here scaffold, certainly much terrified, but in the same cause.” He said, if he had not with a resolution that prevented his taken the sacrament the day before, he behaving in the least meanly or unlike would have knocked down Williamson, a gentleman. He took no notice of the the lieutenant of the Tower, for his ill crowd, only to desire that the baize might usage of him. He took the axe and felt be lifted up from the rails, that the mob it, and asked the headsman how many might see the spectacle. He stood and blows he had given Lord Kilmarnock, Jacobites, captured and brought to trial after

and gave him three guineas. Two clergythe Battle of Culloden.

men who attended him coming up, he said,

new

"No, gentlemen, I believe you have reserve with almost everybody, and have already done me all the service you can.” a seeming reserve with almost nobody; for Then he went to the corner of the scaffold, it is very disagreeable to seem reserved, and called very loud for the warder, to and very dangerous not to be so. Few give him his periwig, which he took off, people find the true medium; many are and put on a nightcap of Scotch plaid, ridiculously mysterious and reserved upon and then pulled off his coat and waistcoat trifles, and many imprudently communiand lay down; but, being told he was on cative of all they know. the wrong side, vaulted round, and im- The next thing to the choice of your mediately gave the signal by tossing up friends is the choice of your company. his arm, as if he were giving the signal Endeavour, as much as you can, to keep for battle. He received three blows, but company with people above you. There the first certainly took away all sensation. you rise, as much as you sink with people He was not a quarter of an hour on the below you; for (as I have mentioned scaffold; Lord Kilmarnock above half a before) you are whatever the company one. Balmerino certainly died with the you keep is. Do not mistake, when I intrepidity of a hero, but with the insensi

say company above you, and think that bility of one too. As he walked from his I mean with regard to their birth; that prison to execution, seeing every window is the least consideration; but I mean and top of house filled with spectators, he with regard to their merit, and the light cried out, “Look, look! how they are all in which the world considers them. piled up like rotten oranges!”

There are two sorts of good company: one, which is called the beau monde, and

consists of those people who have the lead PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, EARL

in courts and in the gay part of life; the OF CHESTERFIELD

other consists of those who are distin

guished by some peculiar merit, or who TO HIS SON, PHILIP STANHOPE

excel in some particular and valuable art or science. For my own part, I used to

think myself in company as much above PEOPLE will, in a great degree, me, when I was with Mr. Addison and and not without reason, form their opin- Mr. Pope, as if I had been with all the ion of you upon that which they have of princes in Europe. your friends, and there is a Spanish You may possibly ask me whether a proverb which says very justly, “Tell me man has it always in his power to get into whom you live with, and I will tell you the best company? and how? I say, who you are." One may fairly suppose Yes, he has, by deserving it; provided that a man who makes a knave or a fool he is but in circumstances which enable his friend has something very bad to do him to appear upon the footing of a gentleor to conceal. But, at the same time man. Merit and good breeding will make that you carefully decline the friendship their way everywhere. Knowledge will of knaves and fools, if it can be called introduce him, and good breeding will friendship, there is no occasion to make endear him, to the best companies; for, either of them your enemies, wantonly as I have often told you, politeness and and unprovoked; for they are numerous good breeding are absolutely necessary bodies, and I would rather choose a secure to adorn any or all other good qualities neutrality, than alliance, or war, with or talents. Without them no knowledge, either of them. You may be a declared no perfection whatsoever, is seen in its enemy to their vices and follies, without best light. The scholar, without good being marked out by them as a personal breeding, is a pedant; the philosopher a one. Their enmity is the next dangerous cynic; the soldier a brute; and every thing to their friendship. Have a real man disagreeable.

October 9, 1747