Mr. Brydone had, in Ratisbon days, remarked on Hugh Elliot's singular power of communicating to others some of his own high spirit and ardent desire to serve his country.

66

That he continued to urge on his friends the duty of exertion in public life, is shown in the following extract from a letter to Lord J. Clinton, who was just completing a tour of the chief capitals of Europe, having, according to the regular routine, assisted at Prussian reviews, Viennese assemblies, and Parisian balls, and fallen desperately in love with Princess Frederick of Brunswick :-" My dear Lord-Rank, fortune, abilities, are yours; do not run the dull, idle, tasteless course of your contemporaries; the times, your country, ask for exertion. Pray, remember that Britain is your theatre, and your situation enables you to play the part on it you are fitted for—that of a warm, steady, and judicious patriot. We are exiles without influence; you may touch the mainspring."

Lord J. Clinton's letters are easily and pleasantly written, but do not display any conspicuous talent. On the 8th December, soon after having taken his seat in Parliament, he writes "As I have attended my duty to Parliament some days, I can give you some little account of our miserable situation. Opposition paint it in very strong colours. Government allow that it is critical. Charles Fox, with his usual vehemence of oratory, declares that he sees the inconvenience of clogging the wheels of Government by Opposition at this moment; but at the same time says he thinks it his

duty so to do, that we may by this means get rid of such a weak, wicked, etc., ministry. Government is

daily excessively abused, but at the close of the debate has always a very considerable majority; people have not a better opinion of Opposition than of Government, and therefore choose to side with the latter; perhaps also, the loaves and fishes make converts. Yesterday there was a debate in the House of Lords, during which Opposition used every argument to encourage America.

I will now tell you what I think of our manner of living here. I cannot say that I much like it; people look so very cold and uninteresting, that I never go into company without returning de très mauvaise humeur. The women are very beautiful, but few of them have des physiognomies intéressantes; and they know they are handsome, and expect great adoration.

"I wish you were here; absence is the most powerful cure for love. Some other object presents itself, and what with politics and present occupations, you grow by degrees much cooler for the one that is miles distant. You will say, 'This man does not know what love is!' I maintain, however, that my way of treating the subject is the pleasantest and the most philosophical."1

After hearing of the debates which had lately taken 1 Lord John Clinton is mentioned in Madame d'Arblay's diary among the frequenters of Mrs. Thrale's society; and is described in 1780 as 66 a very well-informed and modest-mannered boy, ugly, lively, and amiable." He died of consumption at Lisbon in 1781; and it is hinted in the letters that his fate was hastened by a disappointment in love.

place in Parliament, on the conduct of Admiral Keppel and Sir Hugh Palliser, and of General Burgoyne and Sir H. Clinton, Mr. Elliot wrote to this correspondent as follows-"I am surprised at the weakness of the minister, in permitting talking generals and wrangling admirals to lower the dignity of the House in the eyes of all Europe, by making it a mere receptacle of abuse, peevishness, disappointment, and jealousy. What a perversion of the nature of the House, to make it a court of appeal to judge of the propriety or impropriety of Burgoyne's being admitted to an audience in presence of the King! Burgoyne's want of conduct as a general is so apparent, that I am at a loss to account for his not being dismissed the service. Can anything be more trifling in this important moment than to throw away time in cavilling about signals, and wakes, and a seacannonade, which, by its consequence, does not deserve the name of a battle?2 Nothing, in my idea, can be more trifling, except the learned and humane discussions of Opposition on the degree of mercy we are to show a victorious enemy! There is too much wrangling at home. Our most sacred, or what ought to be our most sacred secrets, are sacrificed to what is called the honour of a few individuals. Courts-martial and inquiries are the best spies foreigners can wish for."

"It is a remarkable feature of these times," says

1 In a debate on the 26th May.-Walpole's last Journals, vol. ii.

p. 272.

2 Debates on the conduct of Admiral Keppel and Sir Hugh Palliser. Debate of 4th December-Lord Rockingham's motion on Sir H. Clinton's proclamation.

Lord Mahon, "that the leading admirals and generals of the war were also, for the most part, members of Parliament; that throughout the spring of 1779, we find not only Admiral Keppel and Sir Hugh Palliser, but also Lord and Sir William Howe, and General Burgoyne, able themselves to allege their grievances or defend their conduct. In some of these cases there were committees of inquiry, and examination of witnesses, but in none any clear or positive parliamentary result. These altercations, in the full details, could not fail to interest, because they inflamed the party spirit of the day."

CHAPTER THE SIXTH.

1778 to 1779.

IN the course of 1778 the Dowager Lady Elliot's illness took so serious a turn that her life was despaired of. She, however, rallied sufficiently to be removed to Bristol, where it was hoped that the air and waters might produce temporary amendment, though recovery was no longer deemed possible.

Writing from Clifton in September, Isabella says— "The summer has passed very calmly and serenely. We are living in a beautiful country, and I have learnt philosophy enough neither to reflect too much upon what is past, or look too much into futurity. Bob is of the greatest consolation to us. You will hear with pleasure that he has been preaching with great success here. He preached at the cathedral (of Bristol), and acquitted himself so well that the mayor desired him to preach the assize sermon, which is their great day in the year. His sermon was a very good one, and his manner and delivery were much admired; but I own it seemed not a little strange to me to hear Bob lecturing the judge and corporations with just dignity."

Bob was a poet as well as a preacher, and some of