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LETTER XXIV.

LORD CHESTERFIELD TO SOLOMON DAYROLLES, ESQ.

DEAR DAYROLLES,

Bath, Feb. 23, O. S. 1748.

ME voici, mon cher enfant (here I am, my dear boy), enjoying liberty and idleness, but attended with a great cold, which I got upon the road, in the coldest weather, and the deepest snow, that I ever remember. This has hindered me from drinking the waters hitherto : but that is no great matter, as I came here more for the sake of quiet and absence from London, while I was the only subject of conversation there, than for any great occasion that I had for the waters.

Without affectation, I feel most sensibly the comforts of my present free and quiet situation; and if I had much vanity in my composition, of which I really think that I have less than most people, even that vanity would be fully gratified, by the voice of the public upon this occasion. But, upon my word, all the busy tumultuous passions have subsided in me; and that not so much from philosophy, as from a little reflection upon a great deal of experience. I have been behind the scenes, both of pleasure and business. I have seen all the coarse pulleys and dirty ropes which exhibit and move all the gaudy machines; and I have seen and smelt the tallow candles which illuminate the whole decoration, to the astonishment and admiration of the ignorant audience.

Since my resignation, my brother, as you will

have seen in the newspapers, is appointed commissioner of the Admiralty, which he never would have been as long as I had continued in, the resolution being taken to exclude all those who might otherwise have been supposed to have come in upon my interest. As I retire without quarrelling, and without the least intention to oppose, I saw no reason why my brother should decline this post; and I advised him to accept of it, and the rather as it was the king's own doing.

George Stanhope too, I am told, is now to have the rank of colonel given him, which I could never procure him; so that it seems I have a much bet ter interest out of place than I had in.

All goes well at Leipzig; the boy applies and improves more than I expected. Count and countess Flemming, who saw him there, and who carried him to the duchess of Courlande's, gave me a very good account of him; and assured me, that he was by no means the awkward English oaf, but passablement décrotté (tolerably polished). He shall stay there a year longer, and then go to Turin. If you should accidentally hear, or can procure, any memoirs of his private character, pray let me know them.

Remember the cautions which I gave you in one of my former letters. When lord Sandwich goes to the congress, you will have a great deal to do, and play a considerable part at the Hague; which, I know, you are able to acquit yourself of very well. This, I think, will put you en train d'être Monsieur l'Envoyé, upon lord Sandwich's return to his post here, which will be before it is very long: for, however little peace is at present intended,

necessity will soon make it by the means of the maréchaux de Sexe et Lowendahl; and then, being upon the place, I think you may reasonably ask, and probably obtain, the character and appointments of envoy.

May you have all you wish! Adieu. Yours.

LETTER XXV.

LORD CHESTERFIELD TO DR. R. C.

MY DEAR LORD, Bath, March 1, 1748. I THANK you for your kind letter, by which I am glad to find that yoù approve of my resignation, and of my resolution to enjoy the comforts of a private life indeed, I had enough both of the pageantry and hurry of public life, to see their futility, and I withdraw from them uti conviva satur (as a satisfied guest). This conviction from experience secured me from regret: those who have only seen the gaudy outside of great stations, languish for their hidden charms, which in my mind soon satiate after possession.

I am very glad to hear that I shall have the pleasure of seeing you and your family here this summer: I know that I cannot see a truer nor a warmer friend, which, I assure you, you may say too when you see me. I suppose that you will stop in your way in Nottinghamshire to see your son, whom as you return you will probably take with you to Ireland.

I have been here now a fortnight, and have found good by the waters; not that I had any great occasion for them, but, to say the truth, I came here chiefly to be out of the way of being talked to, and talked of, while my resignation was the only object of conversation in town.

Adieu, my dear lord: I cannot tell you how sincerely and affectionately I am yours, &c.

LETTER XXVI.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

MY DEAR LORD,

November 30, 1751.

My reproach by Dr. Thomas, I insist upon it, was a very just one, and your excuse a very lame one : indifferent as I am grown about most things, you could not suppose that I was become so, where the health and happiness of you and your family were concerned; on the contrary, I find, that in proportion as one renounces public, one grows more sensible to private, social cares. My circle, thank God, is so much contracted, that my attention can, and does, from its centre extend itself to every point of the circumference. I am very glad to hear that your son goes on so well; and as he does go on so well, why should you move him? The Irish schools and universities are indisputably better than ours, with this additional advantage, that having him within your reach will be much better for him than a better place out of it: a man no more liveth by Latin and Greek, than by bread

alone; but a father's care of his son's morals and manners is surely more useful, than the critical knowledge of Homer and Virgil, supposing that it were, which it very seldom is, acquired at schools: I do not therefore hesitate to advise you, to put your son to the best school, that is, the nearest to your usual place of residence, that you may see and examine him often and strictly, and watch his progress, not only in learning, but in morals and manners, instead of trusting to interested accounts of distant schoolmasters.

His grace of Tuam's recovery has, I find, delayed, if not broke, a long chain of ecclesiastical promotions, of which the first link is the only one I interest myself'in; I mean the translation of that good man and citizen, the bishop of Meath*, to Tuam; the more he gets, the more Ireland gets; that being your case too, pray, how goes the copper-mine? Fruitful, and yet inexhaustible, I hope. If it will but supply you with riches, I will answer for your making the best use of them.

I hear with great pleasure that Ireland improves daily, and that a spirit of industry spreads itself, to the great increase of trade and manufactures. I think I interest myself more in that country than in this; this is past its perfection, and seems gradually declining into weakness and caducity; that seems but tending to its vigour and perfection, and engages one's expectations and hopes; one loves a promising youth, one only esteems an old man; the former is a much quicker sentiment than the latter: both those sentiments conspire, I as

* Dr. Maul,

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