had been brought forward by the mi, nitters to oppofe Walpole; but was foon reduced to beg his affistance on onet of their ways and means. Craggs caught his death by calling at the gate of lady March‡, who was ill of the smallpox ; and being told fo by the porter, went home directly, fell ill of the fame diftemper, and died. His father, the elder Craggs, whofe very good fenfe Sir R. Walpole much admired, foon followed his fon, and his fudden death was imputed to grief; but having been deeply dipped in the iniquities of the South Sea, and wishing to prevent confifcation and fave his ill acquired wealth for his daughters, there was no doubt of his having difpatched himself. When his death was divulged, Sir Robert owned that the unhappy man had in an oblique manner hinted his refolution to him. The reconciliation of the royal family was fo little cordial, that I queftion whether the prince did not refent Sir Robert Walpole's return to the king's fervice. Yet had Walpole defeated a plan of Sunderland that would in futurity have exceedingly hampered the fucceffor, as it was cal culated to do; nor do I affect to afcribe Sir Robert's victory directly to zeal for the prince: perfonal and juft views prompted his oppofition, and the commoners of England were not lefs indebted to him than the prince. Sunderland had devifed a bill to reftrain the crown from ever adding above fix peers to a number limited *. The actual peers were far from difliking the meafure; but Walpole, taking fire, inftantly communicated his diffatisfaction to all the great commoners, who might for ever be excluded from the peerage. He fpoke, he wrote, he perfuaded, and the bill was rejected by the commons with difdain, after it had paffed the house of Lords. But the hatred of fome of the junto at court had gone farther, horridly farther. On the death of George the Firft, Queen Caroline found in his cabinet a propofal of the Earl of Berkeley +, then, I think, first lord of the admiralty, to feize the prince of Wales, and convey him to Ame. rica, whence he should never be heard of more. This deteftable project, copied probably from the Earl of Falmouth's offer to Charles the fe cond with regard to his Queen, was in the hand writing of Chailes Stanhope, elder brother of the Earl of Harrington, and fo deep was the impreffion defervedly made on the mind of George the fecond by that abominable paper, that all the favour of lord Harrington, when fecretary of ftate, could never obtain the smallest boon to his brother, though but the fubordinate tranfcriber. George the firft was too humage to listen to fuch an atrocious deed. It was not very kind to the confpirators to leave fuch an inftrument behind him;-and if virtue and confcience will not check bold bad men from paying court by deteftable offers, the king's careleffnefs or indifference in fuch an inftance ought to warn them of the little gratitude that fuch machinations can in. fpire or expect. Among those who had preferred the fervice of the king to that of the heir apparent, was the duke of Newcaftle; who, having married his fifter to lord Townshend, both his royal highnefs and the viscount had I think it was the fixpenny tax on offices. expected Queen Anne's creation of twelve prers at once, to obtain a majority in the Houfe of Lords, offered an oftenfible plea for the restriction. † James Berkeley Earl of Berkeley, knight of the garter, &c. William Stanhope, firft Earl of Harrington of that family. Thomas Holles Pelham duke of Newcaftle, lord chamberlain, then fecretary of ftate, expected would have adhered to that connection-and neither forgave his desertion. I am aware of the deful tory manner in which I have told my ftory, having mentioned the reconciliation of the king and prince before I have given any account of their public rupture, The chain of my thoughts led me into the preceding details, and, if I do not flatter myfelf, will have let you into the motives of my dramatis perfonæ better than if I had more exactly observed chronology; and as I am not writing a regular tragedy, and profess but to relate facts as I recollect them; or (if you will allow me to imitate French writers of tragedy) may I not plead that I have unfolded my piece as they do, by introducing two courtiers to acquaint one another, and by bricole the audience, with what had paffed in the penetralia before the tragedy commences? The exordium thus duly prepared, you must suppose, ladies, that the fecond act opens with a royal chriftening. The princess of Wales had been delivered of a fecond fon. The prince had intended his uncle the duke of York bishop of Ofnaburg, fhould with his majefty be godfathers. Nothing could equal the indignation of his royal highness when the king named the duke of Newcastle for fecond fponfor, and would hear of no other. The chriftening took place as ufual in the princefs bedchamber. Lady Suffolk, then in waiting as woman of the bedchamber, and of oft accurate memory, painted the fcene to me exactly. On one fide of the bed stood the godfathers and godmother; on the other the prince, and the princefs' ladies. No fooner had the bishop clofed the ceremony, than the prince, croffing the feet of the bed in a rage, ftepped up to the duke of Newcastle, and, holding up his hand and fore finger in a menacing attitude, faid, • You are a rascal, but I shall find you; meaning in broken English, I fhall find a time to be revenged.'What was my aftonishment,' conti. nued lady Suffolk, when, going to the princefs' apartment the next morning, the yeomen in the guard-chamberpointed their halberts at my breast, and told me I must not pafs! I urged, that it was my duty to attend the princess. They faid, no matter; I must not pafs that way.' In one word, the king had been fo provoked at the prince's outrage in his prefence, that it had been determined to inflict a ftill greater infult on his royal highness. His threat to the duke was pretended to be understood as a challenge; and to prevent a duel he had actually been put under arreft -as if a prince of Wales could ftoop to fight with a fubject. The arreft was foon taken off; but at night the prince and princefs were ordered to leave the palace, and retired to the house of her chamberlain, the earl of Grantham, in Albemarle-street. As this trifling work is a mifcellany of detached recollections, I will, ere I quit the article of George the first, mention two fubjects of very unequal import, which belong peculiarly to his reign. The first was the deprivation of Atterbury, bishop of Rochester. Nothing more offenfive to men of prieftly principles could eafily have happened: yet, as in a country of which the conftitution was founded on rational and liberal grounds, and where thinking men had fo recently exerted themfelves to explode the prejudices attached to the perfons of kings and churchmen, it was impoffible to defend the bishop's treafon, but by denying it; or to condemn his condemnation, but by fuppofing illegali ties in the process: both were vehe mently ftate, and lafly firft lord of the treasury under George the fecond: the fame king to whom he had been fo obnoxious in the preceding reign. He was obliged by George the third to refign his poft. mently urged by his faction, as his innocence was pleaded by himself. That punifhment and expulfion from his country may ftagger the virtue even of a good man, and exafperate him against his country, is perhaps natural, and humanity ought to pity it. But whatever were the prepoffeffions of his friends in his favour, charity must now believe that Atterbury was always an ambitious, turbulent priest, attached to the house of Stuart, and confequently no friend to the ci vil and religious liberties of his country or it must be acknowledged, that the disappointment of his ambition by the queen's death, and the profcription of his minifterial affociates, had driven on attempts to restore the expelled family, in hopes of realizing his afpiring views. His letters pub lifhed by Nichols breathe the impe tuous spirit of his youth. His exclamation on the queen's death, when he offered to proclaim the pretender at Charing-crofs in pontificalibus, and fwore, on not being fupported, that there was the best cause in England loft for want of fpirit, is now believed alfo. His papers depofited with king James's in the Scottish college, at Paris, proclaimed in what fentiments he died; and the fac fimiles of his letters published by Sir David Dalrymple, leave no doubt of his having in his exile entered into the fervice of the pretender. Culpable as he was, who but must lament that fo claffic ་ a mind had only affumed fo elegant and amiable a femblance as he adopted after the disappointment of his profpects and hopes? His letter in defence of the authenticity of lord Clarendon's hiftory, is one of the moft beautiful and touching fpecimens of eloquence in our language. It was not to load the character of the bishop, nor to affect candour, by applauding his talents, that I introduced mention of him; much less to impute to him any confcioufness of the intended crime that I am going to relate. The perfon against whom the blow was fuppofed to be meditated, never in the moft diftant manner fufpected the bishop of being privy to the plot-No: animofity of parties, and malevolence to the champions of the houfe of Brunfwic, no doubt fuggefted to fome blind zealots the perpetration of a crime, which would neceffarily have injured the bishop's caufe, and could by no means have prevented his difgrace. Mr Johnstone, an ancient gentleman, who had been secretary of state for Scotland, his country, in the reign of king William, was a zealous friend of my father, Sir Robert, and who, in that period of affaffination plots, had imbibed such a tincture of fuf. picion that he was continually noti fying fimilar machinations to my father, and warning him to be on his guard against them. Sir Robert, intrepid and unfufpicious*, used to rally *At the time of the Prefton rebellion, a Jacobite who fometimes furnished Sir Robert with intelligence, fitting alone with him one night, fuddenly putting his hand into his hofom and rifing, faid, Why do not I kill you now? Walpole starting up replied, Because I am a younger man and a ftronger.' They fat down again and difcuffed the person's information. But Sir Robert afterward had reafons for thinking that the fpy had no intention of affaffination, but had hoped, by intimidating, to extort money from him. Yet if no real attempt was made on his life, it was not from want of fuggeftions to it. One of the weekly journals pointed out Sir Ro bert's frequent paffing Putney-bridge late at night, attended but by one or two feryants, on his way to Newpark, as a proper place: and after Sir Robert's death, the fecond earl of Egmont told me, that he was once at a consultation of the oppofition, in which it was proposed to have Sir Robert murdered by a mob, of which the earl had declared his abhorrence. Such an attempt was actually made in 1733, at the time of the famous excife-bill. As the minifter defcended the ftairs of the House of Commons on the night he carried the bill, he was guarded on one fide by his fe cond rally his good monitor; and, when ferious, told him, that his life was too conftantly expofed to his enemies to make it of any ufe to be watchful on any particular occafion; nor, though Johnstone often hurried to him with intelligence of fuch defigns, did he ever fee reason, but once, to believe in the foundness of the information. That once arrived thus: A day or two before the bill of pains and penalties was to pass the House of Commons against the bishop of Rochefter, Mr Johnstone advertised Sir Robert to be circumfpect; for three or four perfons meditated to affaffinate him as he fhould leave the house at night. Sir Robert laughed, and forgot the notice. The morning after the debate Johnftone came to Sir Robert with a kind of good-natured infult, telling him, that though he had fcoffed his advice, he had for once followed it, and by fo doing preserved his life. Sir Robert understood not what he meant, and protested he had not given more credit than ufual to his warning. 'Yes,' faid Johnstone, but you did; for · you did not come from the houfe laft night in your own chariot.' Walpole affirmed that he did. But his friend perfifting in his affeveration, Sir Robert called one of his footmen, who replied, I did call up your honour's carriage; but colonel Churchill being with you, and his chariot driving up firft, your honour stepped into that, and your own came home empty.' Johnstone triumphing on his own veracity, and pushing the examination farther, Sir Robert's coachman recollected, that as he left Palace-yard three men much muffled had looked into the empty chariot. The mystery was never farther cleared up; and my father frequently faid, it was the only inftance of the kind in which he had ever feen any appearance of a real defign. The fecond fubject that I promised to mention, and it fhall be very briefly, was the revival of the order of the Bath. It was the measure of Sir Robert Walpole, and was an artful bank of thirty-fix ribbands to fupply a fund of favours in lieu of places. He meant too to ftave off the demands for garters, and intended that the red fhould be a ftep to the blue; and accordingly. took one of the former himself. He offered the new order to old Sarah duchefs of Marlborough, for her grandson the duke, and for the duke of Bedford, who had married one of her grand daughters*. She haughtily replied, they fhould take nothing but the garter. Madam,' faid Sir Robert coolly, they who take the bath will the fooner have the garter.' The next year he took the latter himself with the duke of Richmond, both having been previously inftalled knights of the revived inftitution. Before I quit king George the first, I will relate a ftory very expreffive of his good-humoured prefence of mind. On one of his journies to Hanover his coach broke. At a distance in view was a chateau of a confiderable German nobleman. The king fent to borrow affistance. The poffeffor came, conveyed the king to his house, and begged the honour of his majefty's accepting a dinner, while his carriage was repairing; and, while the dinner was preparing, begged leave to amufe his majefty with a collection of pictures, which he had formed cond fon Edward, and on the other by general Charles Churchill; but the crowd behind endeavoured to throw him down, as he was a bulky man, and trample him to death; and that not fucceeding, they tried to ftrangle him by pulling his red cloak tight-but fortunately the ftrings broke by the violence of the tug. *Wriothefly duke of Bedford had married lady Anne Egerton, only daughter of Scroop duke of Bridgwater, by Lady Elizabeth Churchill, daughter of John duke of Marlborough. formed in feveral tours to Italy. But what did the king fee in one of the rooms but an unknown portrait of a perfon in the robes and with the regalia of the fovereigns of Great Britain! George asked whom it reprefented. The nobleman replied with much diffident but decent refpect, that in various journies to Rome he had been acquainted with the chevalier de St George, who had dore him the honour of fending him that picture. Upon my word,' faid the king inftantly, it is very like to the family.' It was impoffible to remove the embarraffment of the proprietor with more good breeding. (To be continued.) OBSERVATIONS OF A FOREIGNER ON THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF GREAT BRITAIN. Of the many Foreigners auho vifit this Country, few commit their remarks to the Prefs, yet we ourselves are perpetually publishing Tours into various Parts of Europe, and delivering their Manners and Cuftoms as fomething new and unbeard-of, to the World. It becomes a mutter, therefore, of great Curiosity, to enquire whether there be not fomething in our Manners, at which a Foreigner may ftare, as we do at thofe of his Country, because they are uncommon?" One Opportunity has at length arrived of reading Ourfelves with the Eyes of a Stranger. M. Saint Fond, a learned Frenchman, who travelled in England and Scotland, in 1783 4, for the Purposes of Natural Hiftory, has juft publifhed his Tour, and from it we have felected fome Paffages which, we doubt not, will afford our Readers much Entertainment. We have added a few explanatory Notes. Dinner of an Academic Club. ABOUT forty members of the Royal Society have been, for more than twenty-five years, in the habit of dining annually in one of the taverns of London. Each member has the right of bringing to this club two vifitors, whom he chooses, among foreigners, or the friends of the royal fociety of his own acquain tance. The prefident may bring a greater number, and can felect whoever he pleafes for his guefts. We fat down to table at five o'clock, Sir Jofeph Banks prefided, and filled the place of honour. No napkins were laid before us; indeed there ́ were none used; the dinner was quite in the English ftile. A member of the club, who is a clergyman (I believe it was the aftronomer Mafkelyne) made a fhort prayer, and bleffed the company and the food. The dishes were of the folid kind, fuch as roaft beef, boiled beef, and mutton prepared in various man ners, with abundance of potatoes and other vegetables, which each perfon feafoned as he pleased with the dif. ferent fauces which were placed on the table. The beef- fteaks and the roaft beef were at first fufficiently drenched by large quantities of ftrong beer, called porter: it was drank out of cylindrical pewter pots, which are, by fome, thought preferable to glaffes, perhaps because they enable one to fwallow a whole point at a draught. This prelude being finished, the cloth was removed, and a handsome and well-polifhed table was covered, as if it were by magic, with a number of fine crystal decanters, filled with the beft port, madeira, and claret; this laft is the wine of Bourdeaux. Several glaffes were diftributed to each perfon, and the libations com menced |