July 1762. A view of the prefent political difputes. very interesting subjects of an occafional addrefs, he thallow make it without farther preface or apology, and will repeat it as often as fuch fubjects arife, without either emulating or envying the diligence or fpirit of thofe who conftantly exhibit their fix pages a-week, and who, knowing that the public expects a bruifing-match, never fail, when they cannot bring their principals upon the stage, to amufe the company by fighting by-battles with one another. We have, fays he, lately feen a perfon, whom his Majefty thought fit to employ as a principal inftrument in the adminiftration of his government, refufe to ferve his royal and gracious mafter any longer, because he would not implicitly concur in his opinion, against his own judgment, and that of his whole council, one only excepted. If his Majefty had not taken this perfon at his word, he would "have made a public acknowledgment that he himfelf did not govern :" he was therefore fuffered to withdraw; but with fuch marks of kindness, as fuperior minds fhew to mistaken zeal; and the croud, whofe oracle he had been, faw their patriot retire with a pension, gazing after him with a kind of ftupid aftonishment, that expreiled fomething between cenfure and praife, till he, who had compelled the public attention by as much turbulence and noise, as the fragment of a rock falling into the water, at length fettled in filent obfcurity, like a ftone when it has reached the bottom. And furely no man could expect that he fhould have been continued in his poft, after the declaration he thought fit to make; fince to have continued him would, confeffedly, have been to admit a master, and not to employ a fervant. It is at once our happiness and honour, that the King fhould be indeed our governor, that our minifters fhould act merely as his fervants, and that he fhould be directed in the choice of them by his own judgment: but there is a faction, which, in the rage of difappointment at the abdication of their favourites, is labouring to bring the public affairs into a state of confufion and diflrefs, by fomenting popular difcontent, and clamouring against every other minifter, and every other measure, either with a weak and wicked hope of thrusting in their minions upon their own terms, in the tumult of public difcontent and diftraction, or of revenging their lofs by diftreffing their country; a method which they VOL. XXIV. 357 know will, more than any other, afflict him, who in every respect feels and acts as the father of it. Those who labour to spirit up intestine broils and divifions, at a time when our utmost united strength is neceffary to fupport us against the united force of foreign enemies, cannot furely be confidered as the friends of their country; for it is impoffible to give a stronger proof that their intereft is not that of the public. The artifices which they practife to attain their end, are indeed fo trite, their falfehoods so grofs, and their real intentions fo ill difguifed, that they must themfelves fecretly defpife the very credulity to which they owe their fuccefs, if indeed fuch credulity is to be found. Let the public therefore entirely difregard clamorous invective on one hand, and elaborate panegyric on the other, and keeping their eye fixed upon the conduct of thofe by whom his Majesty shall think proper to adminifter his government, judge for themfelves, whether they are faithful in their truft, wife in their coun fels, vigorous in their measures, and steady in their principles. If they are not, there will be no need of Monitors to mark the defects: they will not only be visible, but palpable; they will not only be seen, but felt. However, as many must look on at a distance, and frequently trust the report of others; if any fact is mifreprefented, either through favour on one fide, or malice on the other, I will state it fairly to the public; and when any fpecious falfehood is afferted, I will detect and expofe it. As to the fcandal and abufe, which, like much that has been lately published, is too grofs to be believed; as it becomes harmless from its very malignity, I fhall leave it to perish, and be forgotten, without any reprehenfion or notice. If this undertaking fhould be thought prefumptuous or affuming, let it be remembered, that truth may always be irrefragably defended againft falfehood, without abftrufe science, or logical fubtilty, the acuteness of uncommon penetration, or the auxiliary strength of uncommon learning. An honeft meaning, and an unprejudiced mind, will alone render the task eafy: they will alfo, in the opinion of good men, render it honourable, and fuccefsful among the ingenious, the difpaflionate, and the free. 3 B From SIR, From the GAZETTEER. WHen the change was in the T-y, I who had for twenty years warmly fupported the measures of the crown, under the administration of the late first 1-d and his b-r, was not a little startled by the representations made to us in the country, in fo much that I determined to fpend fome time in town to inform myfelf of facts. You have them as they appear to me: I wish they may be of ufe towards that unanimity at all times defirable, but at this time abfolutely neceffary. My first inquiry was, Did the N-e D-e refign, or was he difmiffed? I am told he refigned. My next queftion was, Have his G's friends refigned, or are they turned out? And I find, on the contrary, his great favourite put into the beft offices he ever enjoyed, and all his other friends as they were. But are they to continue? It feems agreed on all hands, that it is their own faults if they do not. One of them, of very great connections and strong attachments to his G-, told me, that before he went out of town, he waited upon the now fi-ft l- of the t-, to know if he fhould be enabled to act as he had always done before. He was affured he fhould find no alteration, and might depend on his affiftance. My friend's principles are as noble as his family. I asked how he came to go to the prefent fi-ft 1-d? He faid, his point was to fupport the k- and the g-t, and not particular men or families. My next inquiry was, What could induce the new 1-d, who now prefides at the b-d, to take the helm of an a-n, at one of the most dangerous and critical periods that ever m-r did? Was it for power? That, I am told, cannot be, be cause he had that in as great a degree as a man of his ftudious difpofition could with for. Was it for riches? That cannot be the motive, fay they, to a man far from covetous, and immenfely rich. Was it for honours? No: that he could have had for his family without running fuch risks. From what motive then? Can it be merely that of the patriot? I own, I doubt the existence of fuch a perfon at fo criti cal a time. Is it then duty (by time grown into a strong affection) to his f-n? Du ty, indeed, ftimulated by fuch love and friendship, will do great things: and really, when one comes to confider, a p-e fo young, left involved in one of the most extenfive and expenfive wars the nation ever was engaged in; deferted first by one, then another, of his principal m―rs, at a time fo uncommonly critical and dangerous to the ftate; whofe heart that is honeft does not feel for him and our country? In fuch a fituation it would be very natural for his M-y even to requeft a fervant, whose capacity and fidelity he had an opinion of, to undertake this arduous task. Such reafons, and fuch only, could induce fo wife a man to engage himself in a scene of life so hazardous, and at the fame time fo different from his philofophical turn. He had power, riches, and honours before; he risks them now in ferving the nation and the best of k-s. I conclude with a maxim never to be departed from by the friends of liberty: Be attached to meafures, not to men; mind what is done, not by whom. Are things well conducted? fupport them ftea dily and heartily: this would make the beft k-g the greateft; the freeft nation the happiest of any in the known world. I am, &c. RUSTICUS. On the prefent fpirit of party. PArty, I fear, is beginning, like long buried weeds, to fhew itself, while unanimity feemingly bloffomed over the face of the land. The leaft neglect will fuffer them to over-run the foil, and spoil the promised harvest. Difinterestedness is an antidote to faction: as party is feldom raised by integrity, rivalfhip in love, in the fovereign's favour, a fingle fentence ill taken, has occafioned defection; but avarice, avarice, oftener than any other caufe, occafions difcontent. How often have we not been alarmed with, The nation's in danger! Countrymen, take care of your liberties! And who are those who have made this uproar, but a fet of people that wanted to do just as they faw others behave? They faw many feathering their nefts, they grumbled at their own nakedness, and wanted to be in, that they might be as well fledged as their neighbours. Long has it been declaimed in every paper, and harangued at every public meeting, that places and penfions were obnoxious, at least the multiplicity of them; and that it is not right one man Ihould have too many in his gift, because by that means he might make fo many creatures, that July 1762. A defcription of Buckingham-house. that if hereafter he fhould act erroneously, his intereft would be too firmly fixed, either for the popular breath of clamour, or even the tempeft of complaint, to drive him from his anchorage. But although my countrymen, in the warmth of their hearts, exclaim against bribery and corruption, and against places and penfions, I do not fee but what every perfon is fond of getting a place or a penfion, and fond even of foliciting thofe very people, whom, behind their backs, they defpife. What can we say to these things, but only that they are fo, that they always were fo, and that, by all appearance, are very likely to continue fo? A defcription of BUCKINGHAM-HOUSE, Lately purchafed by the King for a palace for the Queen. [272.] In a letter from John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, who built it, to the Duke of Chandois. I Rife now in fummer, about feven o'clock, from a very large bed-chamber, entirely quiet, high, and free from the early fun, to walk in the garden; or, if rainy, in a faloon filled with pictures, fome good, but none difagreeable: there alfo, in a row above them, I have fo many portraits of famous perfons in feveral kinds, as are enough to excite ambition in any man lefs lazy, or lefs at eafe, than myfelf. Instead of a little dozing clofet, according to the unwholfome cuftom of most people, I chufe this fpacious room, for all my fmall affairs, reading books or writing letters; where I am never in the leaft tired, by the help of ftretching my legs fometimes in fo long a room, and of looking into the pleasanteft park in the world juft underneath it. Vifits, after a certain hour, are not to be avoided; fome of which I own a little fatiguing, (though thanks to the town's lazinels, they come pretty late), if the garden was not fo near, as to give a fea fonable refreshment between thofe ceremonious interruptions. And I am more forry than my coachman himself if I am forced to go abroad any part of the morning. For though my garden is fuch, as by not pretending to rarities or curiofities, has nothing in it to inveigle one's thoughts; yet by the advantage of fituation and prospect, it is able to fuggeft the nobleft that can be; in reprefenting at ence to view a vast town, a palace, and 359 a magnificent cathedral. I confefs, the laft, with all its fplendor, has lefs fhare in exciting my devotion, than the mot common fhrub in my garden: for though I am apt to be fincerely devout in any fort of religious affemblies, from the very best (that of our own church), even to those of Jews, Turks, and Indians, yet the works of nature appear to me the better fort of fermons; and every flower contains in it the most edifying rhetoric, to fill us with admiration of its omnipotent creator. After I have dined, (either agreeably with friends, or at worst with better company than your country-neighbours), I drive away to Marybone, a place of air and exercife; which fome constitutions are in abfolute need of: agitation of the body, and diverfion of the mind, being a compofition for health above all the skill of Hippocrates. The fmall diftance of this place from London, is just enough for recovering my weariness, and recruiting my fpirits, fo as to make me fitter than before I fet out, for either bufinefs or pleasure. At the mentioning the last of these, methinks I fee you fmile; but I confefs myself fo changed, (which you malicioufly, I know, will call decayed), as to my former inchanting delights, that the company I commonly find at home is agreeable enough to make me conclude the evening on a delightful terrace, or in any place free from late visits, except of familiar acquaintance. By this account you will fee, that most of my time is conjugally spent at home; and confequently you will blame my lazinefs more than ever, for not employing it in a new way, which your partiality is wont to think me capable of. Therefore I am obliged to go on with this trifling defcription, as fome excufe for my idleness. But how fuch a defcription itfelf is excufable, is what I fhould be very much in pain about, if I thought any body could fee it befides yourself, who are too good a judge of all things to miftake a friend's compliance in a private letter, for the leaft touch of vanity. The avenues to this houfe [See our plan of London, xxiii. 393.] are along St James's park, through rows of goodly elms on one hand, and gay flourishing limes on the other; that for coaches, this for walking; with the Mall lying between them. This reaches to my iron palifade, that incompaffes a fquare court, which has in the midst a great bason with sta3 B 2 tues tues and water-works; and from its entrance rifes all the way imperceptibly, till we mount to a terrace in the front of a large hall, paved with fquare white ftones, mixed with a dark-coloured marble; the walls of it covered with a fet of pictures done in the fchool of Raphael. Out of this, on the right hand, we go into a parlour thirty-three foot by thirtynine, with a niche fifteen foot broad for a buffette, paved with white marble, and placed within an arch, with pilafters of divers colours, the upper part of which is as high as the ceiling, which is painted by Ricci. From hence we pass through a fuit of large rooms into a bedchamber of thirtyfour foot by twenty-feven; within it a large closet, that opens into a green houfe. On the left hand of the hall are three ftone-arches, fupported by Corinthian pillars; under one of which we go up eight and forty steps ten foot broad, each ftep of one entire Portland ftone. These ftairs, by the help of two refting-places, are fo very eafy, there is no need of leaning on the iron baluster. The walls are painted with the story of Dido; whom though the poet was obliged to difpatch away mournfully, in order to make room for Lavinia, the better-natured painter has brought no farther than to that fatal cave, where the lovers appear juft entering, and languifhing with defire. The roof of this ftair-cafe, which is fifty-five foot from the ground, is of forty foot by thirty-fix, filled with the figures of gods and goddeffes. The midft is Juno, condescending to beg afliftance from Venus, to bring about a marriage, which the Fates intended fhould be the ruin of her own darling queen and people. By which that fublime poet wifely intimates, that we fhould never be over eager for any thing, either in our purfuits, or our prayers; left what we endeavour to afk too violently for our intereft, fhould be granted us by Providence, only in order to our ruin. The bas-reliefs and little fquares above, are all epifodical paintings of the fame flory: and the largenefs of the whole has admitted of a fure remedy against any decay of the colours from faltpetre in the wall, by making another of oak-laths four inches within it, and fo primed over like a picture. From a wide landing-place on the ftairs head, a great double door opens into an apartment of the fame dimenfions with that below, only three foot higher: notwithstanding which, it would appear too low, if the higher faloon had not been divided from it. The first room of this floor has within it a closet of original pictures, which yet are not fo entertaining as the delightful profpect from the windows. Out of the fecond room a pair of great doors give entrance into the faloon, which is thirty-five foot high, thirty-fix broad, and forty-five long. In the midft of its roof a round picture of Gentileschi, eighteen foot in diameter, reprefents the Mufes playing in concert to Apollo, lying along on a cloud to hear them. The rest of the room is adorned with paintings relating to Arts and Sciences; and underneath divers original pictures hang all in good lights, by the help of an upper row of windows, which drown the glaring. Much of this feems appertaining to parade, and therefore I am glad to leave it to defcribe the reft, which is all for conveniency. As firft, a covered paffage from the kitchen without doors; and another down to the cellars, and all the offices within. Near this a large and lightfome back-stairs leads up to fuch an entry above, as fecures our private bed-chambers both from noife and cold. Here we have neceffary drefling-rooms, fervants rooms, and closets, from which are the pleasantest views of all the house, with a little door for communication betwixt this private apartment and the great one. These stairs, and thofe of the fame kind at the other end of the house, carry us up to the highest story, fitted for the women and children, with the floors fo contrived, as to prevent all noise over my wife's head, during the mysteries of Lucina. In mentioning the court at first, I forgot the two wings in it, built on stone arches, which join the house by corridores, fupported on Ionic pillars. In one of these wings is a large kitchen thirty foot high, with an open cupola on the top: near it a larder, brewhoufe, and landry, with rooms over them for fervants. The upper fort of fervants are lodged in the other wing, which has also two wardrobes, and a ftore-room for fruit. On the top of all a leaden ciftern, holding fifty tuns of avater, driven up by an engine from the Thames, fupplies all the water-works in the courts and gar dens, July1762. A description of Buckingham-house. dens, which lie quite round the house; At the end of this broad walk you go up to a terrace four hundred paces long, with a large femicircle in the middle, from whence is beheld the Queen's two parks, and a great part of Surry; then going down a few fteps, you walk on the bank of a canal fix hundred yards long, and feventeen broad, with two rows of limes on each fide of it. On one fide of this terrace, a wall covered with roses and jeffamines is made low to admit the view of a meadow full of cattle juft under it, (no difagreeable object in the midst of a great city), and at each end a defcent into parterres, with fountains and water-works. From the biggest of these parterres we pafs into a little fquare garden, that has a fountain in the middle, and two greenhoufes on the fides, with a convenient bathing apartment in one of them; and near another part of it lies a flowergarden. Below all this, a kitchen-garden, full of the best forts of fruit, has feveral walks in it fit for the coldeft weather. Thus I have done with a tedious description. Only one thing I forgot, though of more fatisfaction to me than all the reft, which I fancy you guefs already; and it is a little clofet of books at the end of that green-houfe which joins the beft apartment; which befides their being fo very near, are ranked in fuch a method, that by its mark a very Irith footman may fetch any book I want. Under the windows of this closet and green-house, is a little wilderness full of 361 blackbirds and nightingales. The trees, though planted by myself, require lop ping already, to prevent their hindering the view of that fine canal in the park. [This Noble Duke, when Earl of Mulgrave, was Lord Chamberlain to K. James II. He was apt to comply in every thing that he thought might be acceptable; for he went with the King to mafs, and kneeled at it and being looked on as indifferent to all religions, the priests made an attack on him. He heard them gravely arguing for tranfubftantiation. He told them, "He was willing to receive inftruction: He had taken much pains to bring himself to believe in God, who made the world and all men in it: but it must not be an ordinary force of argument that could make him believe that man was quits with God, and made God again." He died in 1720. Lond Chron.] Plan of an hofpital for the maintenance and education of expofed and deferted children. THere is nothing in which the happi ness of a nation is more deeply concerned, than in the care of children; and especially of those whom their parents are either not able or willing to maintain and educate; and who, confequently, are either deprived of life, or exposed to all the miseries of want and vice. Moft nations have now attended to this material policy, and Paris, Lifbon, Amfterdam, Venice, London, Dublin, &c. have erected hospitals for exposed and deferted children. From the known humanity of this country, we may venture to affirm, that nothing is wanting but a little activity, and we are already well affured that fuch an hofpital will be favoured with the general good-will and allistance of all ranks of people. We think it neceflary to mention some of the principal arguments in favour of fuch a plan. The voice of morality and religion calls ftrongly for fuch a public and parental care. If those who most want our alliftance claim it moft, furely innocent newborn infants have the strongest right to it. When an unfeeling parent will not hear the cries of his child, the public ought to open its arms, and become its parent. Let us not accumulate inhumanity, by adding to the particular a general hardness of heart: fuch a national tenderness must be grateful to the fupreme being. Every ftate muft finds its account in fuch a fcheme. Children, who, on account of the early lofs of their parents, of their immorality or poverty, are aban doned |