our wise resolution of last Thursday is changed, and Lord Cornwallis will be examined; Sir William Howe's inquiry will proceed, and we shall be oppressed by the load of information. You have heard of the Jersey invasion; every body praises Arbuthnot's decided spirit. Conway went last night to throw himself into the island.

CXVIII.—EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO J. B. HOLROYD, ESQ.

May, 1779.

Alas! alas! fourteen ships of the line: you understand by this, that you have not got a single long-boat. Ministry are more crestfallen than ever I knew them, with the last intelligence; and I am sorry to say, that I see a smile of triumph on some opposition faces. Though the business of the West Indies may still produce something, I am much afraid that we shall have a campaign of immense expense, and little or no action. The most busy scene is at present in the house of commons; and we shall be involved, during a great part of next month, in tedious, fruitless, but, in my opinion, proper inquiries. You see how difficult it would be for me to visit Brighton; and I fancy I must content myself with receiving you on your passage to Ireland. Indeed, I much want to have a very serious conversation with you. Another reason, which must in a great measure pin me to Bentinck-street, is the Decline and Fall. I have resolved to bring out the suite in the course of next year; and, though I have been tolerably diligent, so much remains to be done, that I can hardly spare a single day from the shop. I can guess but one reason which should prevent you from supposing that the picture in Leicester Fields was intended for the Sheffield library; viz. my having told you some time ago that I was under a formal engagement to Mr. Walpole.* Probably I should not have been in any great hurry to execute my promise, if Mr. Cadell had not strenuously urged the curiosity of the public, who may be willing to repay the exorbitant price of fifty guineas. It is now finished, and my friends say, that, in every sense of the word, it is a good head. Next week it will be given to Hall the engraver, and I promise you a first impression. Adieu. Adieu. I embrace my lady, and infants.

CXIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME.

1779.

When do you come to town? You gave me hopes of a visit, and I want to talk over things in general with you, before you march to the extremities of the west, where the sun goes to sleep in the sea. Mrs. Trevor told me your destination was Exeter; † and I suppose that nothing but truth can proceed from a pretty mouth. I have been, and am still very diligent; and, though it is a huge beast, (the Roman Empire,) yet, if I am not mistaken, I see it move a little. You seem surprised that I was able to get off Bath: very easily, * The portrait, one of the best of Sir Joshua's, is in the library at Sheffield-place. + With the Sussex militia, of which Mr. Holroyd was major.

the extreme shortness of our holidays was a fair excuse; her recovery of health, spirits, &c. made it less necessary, and she accepted my apology, which was however accompanied with an offer, if she chose it, in the prettiest manner possible. A load of business in this house, (I write from it,) will be the amusement of the spring; motions, inquiries, taxes, &c. &c. We are now engaged in Lord Pigott's affair, brought on by a motion from the admiral, that the attorney general should prosecute Mr. Stratton and council; all the masters, Charles, Burke, Wedderburne, are of the same side, for it; Lord North seems to make a feeble stand, for the pleasure of being in a minority. The day is hot and dull; will be long: some curious evidence; one man who refused three lacks of rupees, (thirty-seven thousand five hundred pounds,) merely not to go to council; our mouths watered at such royal corruption; how pitiful is our insular bribery! A letter from aunt Hester. Adieu.

CXX. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO J. HOLROYD, ESQ.

July 2nd, 1779.

The inclosed will inform you of an event,* not the most disagreeable of those which I have lately experienced. I have only to add, that it was effected by the firm and sincere friendship of the attorney general. So many incidents have happened, that I hardly know how to talk of news. You will learn that the lords have strangely castrated the new Militia Bill. The Ferrol squadron, eight or nine ships, have joined the French. The numbers stand on our side thirty-two, on theirs thirty-seven; but our force is at least equal, and the general consternation much dispelled. If you do not Hibernize, you might at least Bentinckize. I embrace, &c. Parliament will be prorogued to-morrow.

CXXI. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO MRS. GIBBON, BATH.

Bentinck-street, September 17th, 1779. Dear Madam,—I am well and happy; two words which you will accept as the substance of a very long letter; and even as a sufficient excuse for a very long silence. Yet I really do intend to behave better; and to prevent the abominable consequence of hours and days and posts stealing away, till the sum total amounts to a formidable account, I have a great mind to enter into an agreement, of sending you regularly every month, a miniature picture of my actual state and condition on the first day of the aforesaid month.

I am glad to hear of the very beneficial effects you have derived from your recent friendship with the goats; and as I cannot discover in what respect this poor country is more prosperous or secure than it was last year, I must consider your present confidence as a proof that you view the prospect through a purer medium, and a glass of a more cheerful colour. I find myself so much more susceptible +At Abergavenny.

* His appointment as lord of trade.

of private friendship than of public spirit, that I am very well satisfied with that conclusion. My summer has been passed in the town and neighbourhood, which I still maintain to be the best society, and the best retirement; the latter, however, has been sometimes interrupted by the colonel of dragoons* with a train of serjeants, trumpets, recruits, &c. &c. My own time is much and agreeably employed in the prosecution of my business. After doing much more than I expected to have done within the time, I find myself much less advanced than I expected: yet I begin to reckon, and as well as I can calculate, I believe, that in twelve or fourteen months I shall be brought to bed, perhaps of twins; may they live, and prove as healthy as their eldest brother. With regard to the little foundling which so many friends or enemies chose to lay at my door, I am perfectly innocent, even of the knowledge of that production; and all the faults or merits of the History of Opposition must, as I am informed, be imputed to Macpherson, the author or translator of Fingal. Dear madam, most truly yours.

CXXII. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO COLONEL HOLROYD, AT COVENTRY.

London, Monday, February 7th, 1780.

When the attorney general informed me of the express he had just sent down to Coventry, I had not the least doubt of your embracing the bolder resolution. You are indeed obliged to him for his real friendship, which he feels and expresses warmly; on this occasion I hope it will be successful, and that in a few days you will find yourself among us at St. Stephen's in the heat of the battle. But you know that I am a dastardly, pusillanimous spirit, more inclined to fear than to hope, and not very eager in the pursuit of expensive vanity. On this vacancy the celerity of your motions may probably prevent opposition; but at the general election, your enemy, the corporation, will not be asleep, and I wish, if it be not too late, to warn you against any promises or engagements which may terminate in a defeat, or at least a contest of ten thousand pounds. Adieu. I could believe (without seeing it under her paw) that my lady wishes to leave Coventry. No news! foreign or domestic. I did not forget to mention the companies, but find people, as I expected, torpid. Burke makes his motion Friday; but I think the rumours of a civil war subside every day: petitions are thought less formidable; and I hear your Sussex protest gathers signatures in the country.

CXXIII. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO MRS. GIBBON, BATH.

Bentinck-street, March 10th, 1780.

Dear Madam,-When you awakened me with your pen, it was my intention to have shown some signs of life by the next post. But so uncertain are all human affairs, that I found myself arrested by a mighty unrelenting tyrant, called the gout; and though my feet were the part on which he chose to exercise his cruelty, he left me

* Colonel Holroyd at that time was raising a regiment of light dragoons.

neither strength nor spirits to use my hand in relating the melancholy tale. At present I have the pleasure of informing you, that the fever and inflammation have subsided; but the absolute weakness and monstrous swelling of my two feet confined me to my chair and flannels; and this confinement most unluckily happens at a very nice and important moment of parliamentary affairs. Col. H. pursues those affairs with eager and persevering zeal; and has the pleasure of undertaking more business than any three men could possibly execute. He is much obliged to you for your kind congratulation. Mrs. Eliot is in town; but I am quite ignorant (not more so than they are themselves) of their intentions. I will write again very soon. I am, dear madam, most truly yours.

CXXIV. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO MRS. GIBBON, BATH.

June 6th, 1780.

Dear Madam,-As the old story of religion has raised most formidable tumults in this town, and as they will of course seem much more formidable at the distance of an hundred miles, you may not be sorry to hear that I am perfectly safe and well my known attachment to the Protestant religion has most probably saved me. Measures, and effectual measures, are taken to suppress those disorders, and every street is filled with horse and foot. Mrs. Holroyd went out of town yesterday morning; the colonel remains, and shows his usual spirit. I am sincerely yours.

CXXV. THE SAME TO THE SAME.

London, June 8th, 1780.

Dear Madam,-As a member of parliament, I cannot be exposed to any danger, as the house of commons has adjourned to Monday sen'night; as an individual, I do not conceive myself to be ob noxious. I am not apt, without duty or necessity, to thrust myself into a mob and our part of the town is as quiet as a country village. So much for personal safety; but I cannot give the same assurances of public tranquillity; forty thousand Puritans, such as they might be in the time of Cromwell, have started out of their graves; the tumult has been dreadful; and even the remedy of military force and martial law is unpleasant. But government with fifteen thousand regulars in town, and every gentleman (but one) on their side, must extinguish the flame. The execution of last night was severe; perhaps it must be repeated to-night: yet upon the whole the tumult subsides. Colonel Holroyd was all last night in Holborn among the flames, with the Northumberland militia, and performed very bold and able service. I will write again in a post or two. I am, dear madam, ever yours.

CXXVI. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO MRS. GIBBON, BATH.

June 10th, 1780.

Dear Madam,-I should write with great pleasure, to say that this audacious tumult is perfectly quelled; that Lord George Gordon is sent to the Tower; and that instead of safety or danger, we are now at leisure to think of justice; but I am now alarmed on your account, as we have just got a report, that a similar disorder has broken. out at Bath. I shall be impatient to hear from you; but I flatter myself that your pretty town does not contain much of that scum which has boiled up to the surface in this huge cauldron. I am, dear madam, most sincerely yours.

CXXVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME.

Bentinck-street, June 27th, 1780.

Dear Madam,-I believe we may now rejoice in our common security. All tumult has perfectly subsided, and we only think of the justice which must be properly and severely inflicted on such. flagitious criminals. The measures of government have been seasonable and vigorous; and even opposition has been forced to confess, that the military power was applied and regulated with the utmost propriety. Our danger is at an end, but our disgrace will be lasting, and the month of June 1780, will ever be marked by a dark and diabolical fanaticism, which I had supposed to be extinct, but which actually subsists in Great Britain, perhaps beyond any other country in Europe. Our parliamentary work draws to a conclusion; and I am much more pleasingly, though laboriously engaged in revising and correcting for the press, the continuation of my History, two volumes of which will actually appear next winter. This business fixes me to Bentinck-street more closely than any other part of my literary labour; as it is absolutely necessary that I should be in the midst of all the books which I have at any time used during the composition. But I feel a strong desire (irritated, like all other passions, by repeated obstacles) to escape to Bath. Dear madam, most truly yours.

CXXVIII. EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. TO COLONEL HOLROYD.

July 25th, 1780. As your motions are spontaneous, and the stations of the Lord Chief* unalterably fixed, I cannot perceive the necessity of your sending or receiving intelligence. However, your commands are obeyed. You wish I would write, as a sign of life. I am alive; but, as I am immersed in the Decline and Fall, I shall only make the sign. It is made. You may suppose that we are not pleased with the junction of the fleets; nor can an ounce of West India loss be compensated by a pound of East India success; but the circuit will roll down all the news and politics of London. I rejoice to hear that the Sussex regiment of dragoonst are such well-disciplined cannibals; but I want to know when the chief cannibal † Commanded by Colonel Holroyd.

* Lord Mansfield.