serves. But no more My heart bleeds for them. of this. I shall endeavour to drive away as many of these gloomy reflections as I can. I shall constantly be writing, if sickness will give leave, and take the chance of meeting any ship sailing for England. I will endeavour to persuade myself that everything is going on well in my absence, and that my absence is not the occasion of any accidental ill, I will look back on the last year, and try to think that, as that year has not been productive of any calamity in my family, another may roll over us, and not be marked with any misfortune. In short, I hope I may be equal to many things, which I own I am not at this moment; therefore, my dearest George, believe me to be, Yours most affectionately, etc. To G. Selwyn, Esq., Chesterfield Street, London. [Lord Cornwallis, whose approaching departure from England is referred to in this letter, was Charles, second Earl, and afterward first Marquis Cornwallis. He was born December 31, 1738, and was educated at Eton. His unfortunate military career in America, whither he was now proceeding, is matter of history; and whether he is most to be blamed or pitied for his inglorious and memorable surrender, we are not called upon to decide. Subsequently, in 1786, Lord Cornwallis was sent to India in the double capacity of gov ernor-general and commander-in-chief, where he sufficiently retrieved his lost credit, by his successful war against the Sultan of Mysore. In 1798 (the year of the rebellion in Ireland, and of the invasion of that country by the French) he not only distinguished himself, while lord lieutenant, by the promptitude with which he met the one, and quelled the other, but rendered himself almost universally respected and beloved. In regard to the particular passage in Lord Carlisle's letter in which he anticipates the probable anguish with which Lord Cornwallis would part with his wife and children, an affecting incident has been recorded. Lady Cornwallis, on the first tidings of her husband's appointment to serve in America, flew to his uncle, Doctor Cornwallis, Archbishop of Canterbury, and so deeply affected him by the anguish which she displayed at the thoughts of their separation, that by his means the king was induced to make an arrangement which superseded the appointment of Lord Cornwallis. The latter, however, sacrificing his private feelings to the calls of duty and honour, immediately waited on the king, and expostulated so warmly on the injury which might accrue to his reputation, that the appointment was allowed to go forward. He departed on his expedition; and the following year Lady Cornwallis died, as there is every reason to believe, a martyr to the effects of their melancholy separation. Lord Cornwallis died at Gawnepoore, in Benares, on the 5th of October, 1805, whither he had recently arrived after his second appointment as Governor-General of India.] The Earl of Carlisle to George Selwyn. Trident, May 1, 1778. MY DEAR GEORGE:-I begin a letter to you from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. About thirteen hundred miles of that unfriendly element, the sea, separates us at this moment, and perhaps, before I shall have an opportunity to send this to you, three thousand miles will be between us. This is the first of May; but alas! we have no chimney-sweepers and garlands; no milkmaids dancing before us! We have no music but the winds, and nothing seems inclined to dance but our vessel. Seasickness is, I flatter myself, got the better of. It gave me less uneasiness than almost any person in the ship: Storer and Eden have suffered cruelly. Conceive our dinner, and judge of our comforts. To keep ourselves close to the table, it is necessary to hold by the legs, and by so doing you must abandon your plate, which, perhaps, is flung by the violence of the ship's motion either into your own or your neighbour's lap. The conveyance of a glass to your mouth is no easy matter; but it requires infinite dexterity in 'Anthony Morris Storer, Lord Carlisle's schoolfellow at Eton, and William Eden, afterward the first Lord Auckland. |