Britain; it would, perhaps, be folly in France to declare it now, while the Americans are giving full employment to our arms, and pouring into her lap their wealth and produce, which France is enjoying in peace. War, however, with France is not the less certain because it has not been declared." War broke out with France in the month of May, 1778, exactly a year after the delivery of Lord Chatham's prophetic speech.

POLITICAL GRATITUDE.

When Lord Chatham died,-which Walpole thought of no great consequence, but to himself,-the House of Commons chose to bury him and father his children. In this fit of gratitude, two men chose not to be involved, but voted against attending his funeral; one was the Archbishop of Canterbury (Cornwallis), who owed the tiara to him; the other, Lord Onslow, who formerly used to wait in the lobby to help him on with his great-coat.

The City wanted to bury Lord Chatham in St. Paul's; which, it was said, would literally be "robbing Peter (Westminster Abbey, St. Peter's) to pay Paul."

The Rev. Mr. Mason writes to Walpole: "Pray give me an account of the funeral, and, if you have time, order your gardener to pluck a bouquet of onions, and send it with my compliments to Lord John, that he may put them in his handkerchief to weep with greater facility."

BRIBING MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.

About the year 1767, one Roberts, who had been Secretary to the Treasury, and to Mr. Pelham, divulged some strange details of the mode in which the House of Commons was managed in his time, when a number of members received from him at the end of every Session a stipend in bank notes, the sums varying from 500l. to 800%. per annum. Roberts, on the day of the Prorogation, took his stand in the Court of Requests, and as the gentlemen passed, in going to or returning from the House, Roberts conveyed the money in a squeeze of the hand. The names of the recipients were entered in a book, which was preserved with the deepest secrecy, it being never inspected by any one except the King and Mr. Pelham. On the decease of that minister, in 1754, his brother, the Duke of Newcastle, and others of the succeeding Cabinet, were anxious to obtain information of the private state of the House, and besought Roberts to give up the book containing the names of the bribed. This Roberts refused to do, except by the king's command, and to his Majesty in person. Of this refusal the ministers acquainted the king, who sent for Roberts to St. James's, where he was introduced

into the closet, more than one of the ministers being present. George II. ordered him to return him the book in question, which injunction was complied with. At the same time, taking the poker in his hand, the king put it into the fire, made it red hot, and thrust the book into the flames, where it was immediately burnt. He considered it too confidential a register to be transferred to the new ministers, and as having become extinct with the administration of Mr. Pelham.

Another official person, who had been private secretary to the Earl of Bute, and seventeen years Treasurer of the Ordnance, testified to the Peace of 1763 having been carried by money: he secured above 120 votes, with 80,000l. set apart for the purpose, forty members receiving 1000l. and 5007. each.

THE RESULT OF THE AMERICAN WAR WITH GREAT

"I prophesied," said Colonel Barré, " on passing the Stamp Act, in 1765, what would happen thereon; and I now, in March 1769, I now fear I can prophecy further troubles; that if the whole people are made desperate, finding no remedy from Parliament, the whole continent will be in arms immediately, and perhaps these provinces lost to England for ever." This was in March 1769, and certainly a very remarkable prediction.-Professor Smyth's Lectures on Modern History.

About the time of the breaking out of the war in 1812, between Great Britain and the United States, a whale ascended the Delaware to Philadelphia, ninety miles from the ocean, and was caught. None has since been known to do so until the beginning of the rebellion of the Southern States in 1861, when another whale came up to Philadelphia, and was caught.

6

AMERICAN WAR.

When, in 1781, George III., in his speech, threatened the continuation of the American war, the Livery of London voted a severe remonstrance to the king, beseeching him to remove both his public and private counsellors, and using, Walpole says, "these stunning and memorable words, Your armies are captured, the wonted superiority of your service is annihilated, your dominions are lost.' Words that could be used to no other king; no king had ever lost so much without losing. all. If James II. had lost his crown, yet the crown lost no dominions." The king was, of course, very indignant; and the day before the sheriffs went to know when he would receive the address, he said to a young man who was hunting with

him, "I must go to town to-morrow to receive those fellows in furs; they will not be very glad to see me, nor I them.”

GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

In the Men and Times of the American Revolution, we find the following picture, by Ukanah Watson, of "How George the Third appeared when he declared the Independence of the United States:" "After waiting nearly two hours, the approach of the King was announced by a tremendous roar of artillery. He entered by a small door on the left of the throne, and immediately seated himself upon the chair of state, in a graceful attitude, with his right foot resting upon a stool. He was clothed in royal robes. Apparently agitated, he drew from his pocket the scroll containing his speech. The Commons were summoned, and after the bustle of their entrance had subsided, he proceeded to read his speech. I was near the King, and watched with intense interest every tone of his voice, and every emotion of his countenance. It was to me a moment of thrilling and dignified exultation. After some general and usual remarks, he contiuued :'I lost no time in giving the necessary orders to prohibit the further prosecution of offensive war upon the continent of North America. Adopting, as my inclination will always lead me to do, with decision. and effect whatever I collect to be the sense of my Parliament and my people, I have pointed all my views and measures, in Europe, as in North America, to an entire and cordial reconciliation with the colonies. Finding it indispensable to the attainment of the object, I did not hesitate to go to the full length of the powers vested in me, and offer to declare them '-Here he paused, and was in evident agitation; either embarrassed in reading his speech, by the darkness of the room, or affected by a very natural emotion. In a moment he resumed—and offer to declare them free and independent States. In thus admitting their separation from the Crown of these Kingdoms, I have sacrificed every consideration of my own to the wishes and opinions of my people. 1 make it my humble and ardent prayer to Almighty God, that Great Britain may not feel the evils which might result from so great a dismemberment of the empire, and that America may be free from the calamities which have formerly proved, in the mother country, how essential monarchy is to the injoyment of constitutional liberty. Religion, language, interests, and affections may, and I hope will, yet prove a bond of permanent union between the two countries.' It is remarked that George III. is celebrated for reading his speeches in a distinct, free, and impreseve manner. On this occasion he was evidently embarrassed; he hesitated, choked, and executed the painful duties of the occasion with an ill grace that does not belong to him."

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Washington was remarkably silent and serious, and when he banqueted his prisoner, Lord Cornwallis, spoke little, never smiled, but happening to ask if it was true that Lord Dunmore was returning to resume his government of Virginia, and being answered in the affirmative, the hero burst out into a fit of laughter. This was the Philosopher laughing at the Ass that has left mumbling thistles for clover that is out of his reach.-Walpole's Letters, 1782.

A KNOWING OLD CRONE.

At the time of the renewal of war, after the peace of Amiens, a gentleman, who was fishing in a sequestered spot not far from London, was accosted by an old woman of the neighbourhood, who entered into conversation with him on various matters. After a little, he asked her if she were not alarmed about Bonaparte's landing on the island. "Oh dear no!" she answered; "I am up to all that. He was expected here when I was a young woman, and he nearly came. At that time they called him the Pretender, and now they call him Bonaparte."

POLITICAL WINDOW BREAKING.

Upon the rejoicings on the acquittal of Admiral Keppel, Feb. 11, 1779, it happened at three in the morning that Charles Fox, Lord Derby, and his brother Major Stanley, and two or three more young men of quality, having been drinking at Almack's till that late hour, suddenly thought of making the tour of the streets, and were joined by the Duke of Ancaster, who was very drunk, and which showed it was no premeditated scheme-the latter was a courtier, and had actually been breaking windows. Finding the mob before Sir Hugh Palliser's house in Pall Mall, some of the young lords said, "Why don't you break Lord George Germaine's windows?" The populace had been so little tutored, that they asked who he was, and being encouraged, broke his windows. The mischief pleasing the juvenile leaders, they marched to the Admiralty, forced the gates, and demolished Palliser's and Lord Lilburne's windows. Lord Sandwich, exceedingly terrified, escaped through the garden, with his mistress, Miss Reay, to the Horse Guards, and there betrayed a most manifest panic.-Walpole's Last Journals, vol. ii. p. 343.

THE RIOTS OF 1780.

For Lord George Gordon's share in the riots of London, in 780, he was brought to trial in the Court of King's Bench, but,

principally through the powerful eloquence of Erskine, was acquitted.

Malone relates that Lord Mansfield told Mr. W. Gerard Hamilton, that what he most regretted to have lost by the burning of his house (at the time of the Riots, set on foot about three years before by that wicked canting hypocrite Lord George Gordon) was a speech that he had made on the question how far the privilege of Parliament extended; that it contained all the eloquence and all the law he was master of; that it was fairly written out; and that he had no other copy. Mr. Daines Barrington informed Malone that the book here alluded to contained eight speeches made in the House of Lords; all fairly written for the press, and non irreparably lost.

A person begging alms of Lord George Gordon, said, "God bless you, my Lord! you and I have been in all the prisons in London." What do you mean?" cried Lord George; "I never was in any prison but the Tower." "That is true, my Lord," said the other, "and I have been in all the rest.'

Lord George, in 1781, arranged to become a candidate for London in Parliament; but it was said that he dropped his pursuit on finding that the City did not choose to be burnt once a year for his amusement. Lord George asked Mr. Selwyn if he would choose him again for Luggershall?" He replied, "His constituents would not." “Oh,. yes, if you would recommend me, they would choose me if I came from the coast of Africa!" "That is according to what part of the coast you came from; they would certainly if you came from the Guinea coast."

When Walpole was told that the Abbé de Sieyes was busy in forming a new constitution for France, he replied: "We have one. monster who is going to create as much anarchy, that he too, I suppose, may form a new constitution! There has been in the papers a pathetic lamentation that Lord George Gordon is still in durance! So are the tigers and hyæna in the Tower, and I hope his Lordship will not find bail before they do!"

In 1788, Lord George having been twice convicted of libel, he was compelled to seek safety in flight, but being arrested in Holland, and sent back to England, he was committed to Newgate. It is singular to reflect, that after involving London in all the horrors of insurrection, anarchy, and conflagration, he should have escaped any punishment for these proceedings, which cost the lives of so many individuals, and the destruction of so many edifices; while he expiated, by a rigorous imprisonment to the end of his days in Newgate, the publication of a libel on the Queen of France, who herself perished on the scaffold. Lord George Gordon died in New