the servant, and some good fortune, to bring it to you. Notwithstanding all this, I was able to attend dinner the second day, though it blew hard, and am now so little affected by the rolling of the ship, that I hardly know, when I am reading, whether there is any motion or not. Such a child

of habit is man!

Close confinement must have its moments of melancholy. A walk after supper upon deck; the dashing of the sea; the noise of the winds, send me sometimes to bed, with thoughts which would not be productive of rest, unless they were got the better of by a little resolution. You will allow the contrast is strong between my present situation, and that I was in some days ago. You know the wife and children that I have torn myself from, and I need say no more upon this subject. Lord Coventry's unfeeling and injurious insinuation will have no more effect upon you than it had upon me.

The Earl of Carlisle to George Selwyn.

PHILADELPHIA, Wednesday, June 10th. We arrived at this place after a voyage of six weeks, on Saturday last, and found everything here in great confusion; the army upon the point of leaving the town, and about three thousand of the miserable inhabitants embarked on board our ships, to convey them from a place where they conceive they would receive no mercy from those who will take possession after us, to follow the army,

and starve when we can no longer continue to feed them. But I will dwell no longer upon calamities which nothing but an acceptance of the terms we offer can prevent.

Our letters are sent to Congress this morning; I will endeavour to procure you a copy, if the vessel does not sail too soon. For many reasons, which I dare not commit to paper, we have thought fit to bring forward at once all the powers delegated I hope by the next mail to be able to talk more freely on the subject, but dare not at this

to us.

moment.

I am lodged in one of the best houses in the town; and indeed it is a very excellent one, perfectly well furnished. I am not, I own, quite at my ease, for coming into a gentleman's house without asking his leave, taking possession of all the best apartments, and placing a couple of sentries at his door, using his plate, etc., etc., are very repugnant to my disposition. I make him and his wife a visit every day; talk politics with them; and we are the best friends in the world. They are very agreeable, sensible people, and you never would be out of their company.

I have this morning, at five o'clock, been taking a ride into the country, about ten miles; grieved am I to say, eight miles beyond our possessions. Our lines extend only two, and the provincial army is posted very strongly about six and twenty miles distant. This is market-day, and, to protect

the people bringing in provisions, which otherwise they would not dare to do, large detachments, to the amount of above two thousand men, are sent forward into the country. We also profited by this safeguard, and I attended the general, Sir Henry Clinton, as far as Germantown; a place as remarkable, and as much an object of curiosity to those who have any respect for the present times, as Edgehill or Naseby Field is to those whose veneration is only excited by their greatgrandfathers.'

We have had no answer from the Congress. They may send us one to New York, for which place we must instantly embark. The weather is much more hot here than in any part of Italy; but, as well as I remember, you do not mind heat. I flatter myself everything is to your satisfaction where you are, and that the difficulties of the journey were much increased in the description."

'Lord Carlisle alludes to the celebrated attack made by the Americans under Washington on the British camp at Germantown, after a night march of sixteen miles from their own quarters at Shippack Creek. At three o'clock, on the morning of the 1st of October, 1777, the English patrols were the first to discover the approach of the American forces, when the army was immediately alarmed and collected in arms. The Americans conducted the attack with great gallantry, and, at first, with considerable success, but were subsequently routed at all points, and pursued for several miles by the royal forces.

2

George Selwyn had recently repaired to Milan, with the view of inducing the parents of "Mie Mie" to restore her to his charge.

I am very well, but a good deal worn by business and anxiety. Things go ill, and will not go better. We have done our duty, so we ought not to be involved with those who have lost this country.

I am, my dear George, yours most affectionately and sincerely, etc.

P. S. Storer desires to be remembered.

JAMES HARE, ESQ.

JAMES HARE, another friend and correspondent of Selwyn, was the grandson of Bishop Hare, and the son of an apothecary at Winchester. He was educated at Eton, and afterward at Oxford; and at the former seminary was the contemporary and chosen companion of Fox, Lord Carlisle, Lord Fitzwilliam, and Storer. His intimacy with these eminent men continued unimpaired in after life, and he was deservedly regarded as one of the brightest ornaments of that circle of men of wit, pleasure, and literary accomplishments, with whom Fox delighted to surround himself. His good humour was imperturbable; his wit was never illnatured; and his vivacity never flagged. Indeed, so universally was his society courted, and so popular was he in all circles, that the Duchess of Gordon gave him the name of the "Hare and many Friends."

So high an opinion had been formed of Hare's talents by his contemporaries at Eton, that, when Fox was complimented on the success of his maiden speech in the House of Commons, "Wait," was his reply, "till you hear Hare speak." However, when the latter took his seat in Parliament as member for Knaresborough (which town he represented for several years), the result of his attempts to distinguish himself as an orator signally disappointed the expectations of his friends. "Not one among Fox's friends and companions was supposed to possess more wit than Hare; but his talents, brilliant as they were, did not qualify him to take a part in debate, however highly estimated they might be at a festive meeting, or in private society. In social life, however, there was, perhaps, no one of his contemporaries whose manners were more fascinating, or whose conversational powers ranked higher than those of Hare." "In all the graces of conversation," says a contemporary writer, "in vivacity, in boundless wit, in social elocution, gaiety of mind, happiness of allusion and combination; in the brightest conversations of an imagination fraught with the treasures of ingenuity, erudition, classical discrimination, and sound judgment, Hare was almost unrivalled; yet, in public speaking, he totally disappointed the ideas which his school-companions had entertained and diffused of him in early