land to take the command of Byng's squadron. think of him going post to Edinburgh.

Only

Adieu, my dear Tom, may all honours and success attend and believe me, most faithfully, yours. you,

R. LYTTELTON.

MR. PITT TO MR. GEORGE GRENVILLE.

Lincombe, August 25, 1746.

MY DEAR GRENVILLE,-As Jemmy' informs me you designed to give me the pleasure of hearing from you soon, I write this to notify my intention to leave this place in two or three days, by which means your letter would not find me before I shall embrace you in town. I propose to take our Wotton friends in my way, and if I can, Barrington.

I have a request to you, which I desire you will allow me to take for granted, by not hearing a refusal, for which there cannot be time while I stay here. My request is, that Mr. Hoare' may copy a gentleman's picture, which he lately drew, and which he will touch at London or elsewhere, as occasion offers. I hope to find you looking just as you did when he and I had you under consideration. I will defer all further discourse till we meet. W. PITT.

and talents, acquired in the highest degree the favour and confidence of his sovereign.

1 James Grenville.

2 Williame Hoare, a fashionable portrait-painter, for many years resident at Bath, where he was much employed by the visitors. He painted a portrait of Mr. Pitt, which was formerly at Stowe. He was one of the original members of the Royal Academy, and a constant exhibitor there until his death in 1792. His son, Prince Hoare, was afterwards the Foreign Secretary to the Royal Academy.

MR. PITT TO MR. GEORGE GRENVILLE.

Bath, October 29, 1746.

MY DEAR GRENVILLE,-I join most heartily with you in your grief for the loss of a man of more worth and honour than most he has left behind him. Poor Lady Suffolk bears this terrible stroke' with all the composure that strength of mind can give. This turn of mind may, perhaps, be better for her health in the beginnings of her affliction; but, I believe, there is less resource from time for her, than if she gave way to more violent marks of it. In the midst of your concern for the dead, let me assure you that I am most sincerely touched with your kind attention to the living; your friendship will ever be deemed by me among the first of public honours and private comforts. In the gloomy scene which I fear is opening in public affairs for this disgraced country, there is nothing to rest upon but the pleasure of esteeming and sharing the esteem of those who deserve to have lived in better days. I had postponed my leaving this place till towards the meeting of Parliament, before I received the favour of yours. I am better considerably, but not so much as I appear, having still some of the same impressions upon the old part. I desire you will embrace for me the Wotton Grenvilles: the Lincoln's Inn Fields Grenville will have a letter from me before this reaches you. Believe me most unalterably and affectionately yours. W. PITT.

The death of her husband the Honourable George Berkeley.

ADMIRAL ANSON' TO MR. GEORGE GRENVILLE.

Plymouth, November 4, 1746.

DEAR SIR,-My not finding your brother' here has given me a great deal of uneasiness, but cannot conceive any accident has happened to him, for D'Anville's ships were in no condition to attack him, if they happened to meet with him, and he must have got to the eastward of the ships that fell in with the Barbadoes convoy ; his being short of water, and the finding the winds contrary, must have obliged him to put into Ireland, and the easterly winds have kept the packet from getting to England, which must be the reason we have not heard of him. I find you have destined him for the Canarys, with Captain Montague; nobody can wish them more success than I do; but I differ in opinion with you, for, by the scheme the enemy pursues, they will not put it in the power of two or four ships to part them, for their convoys are strong, and no French or Spanish trade permitted to sail unprotected; but I know what you intend him will be more agreeable to him than any other station, and therefore resign my right and title to him, though you cannot esteem him more than Your obliged and faithful humble Servant,

G. ANSON.

1 Admiral George Anson was appointed to the command of an expedition and voyage round the world. He sailed from England in September, 1740 and anchored at Spithead on his return in June, 1744. In December following he was made Lord of the Admiralty and came into Parliament for the borough of Heydon, In the spring of 1747, he was sent to cruize off the coast of France, and falling in with the enemy's fleet off Cape Finisterre, after a gallant action he entirely disabled them. In June, 1747, Anson was raised to the Peerage by the title of Baron Anson, and was subsequently First Lord of the Admiralty. He died in June, 1762.

2

Captain Thomas Grenville, at this time in command of the Defiance.

THE DUKE OF BEDFORD TO MR. GEORGE GRENVILLE.

2

Bath, November 11, 1746.

DEAR SIR,-I have long intended to have returned you thanks for your letter of the 24th of last month, and at the same time have given you my opinion in relation to what you mention in it about the undertaking early next Spring-our intended expedition against Canada. But I really have had occasion to write so many letters, and have had so much business, that I have put it off from day to day in the hopes of finding a leisure time. I hope by this time all your fears for Accadie are vanished, as I cannot think it possible, by the accounts we have had, that Duc d'Anville can have made any impression there. As by the ill success of that squadron, I think our original scheme is as entire as ever, I enclose to you my thoughts on that head in the copy of a letter I wrote by last night's post to Mr. Stone, in answer to one I had just received from him by order of the Duke of Newcastle, desiring me to transmit to him my opinion about the destination of the troops now in Ireland, under the command of General St. Clair. I hope this will have its effect in keeping the troops this winter in Ireland, and that all proper measures will be immediately concerted for setting the expedition forward very early next Spring*. BEDFORD.

3

1 John, fourth Duke of Bedford, at this time First Lord of the Admiralty.

2 The letter here referred to is printed in the Bedford Correspondence, vol. i. p. 155.

3 It is printed in the Bedford Correspondence, vol. i. p. 182.

4 6

'The favourite plan of the Duke of Bedford was to send an expedition to North America, and conquer Canada. In conformity with his

THE DUKE OF BEDFORD TO MR. GEORGE GRENVILLE 3.

Bath, November 24, 1746.

DEAR SIR,-I agree with you in all your reasonings in your letter of the 19th instant with regard to the neeessity of determining immediately whether the expedition designed against Canada shall proceed early in the Spring, in order to be beforehand with the enemy, as well in recovering what possibly we may have lost this year (I mean Annapolis Royal) as in attacking them in their own settlements on the River of St. Lawrence. I am likewise sensible that in case it shall be determined to go on with this expedition, that it is absolutely necessary to dispatch a sloop forthwith with orders to the several Governors on the Continent to assure, in His Majesty's name, their respective Assemblies, that a considerable force both of troops and ships shall be sent from hence to North America, as soon as the season of the year will permit, in order to attempt the reduction of Canada, and at the same time to require the several Governments to furnish their quotas for this expedition.

But the day before yesterday I received a letter from the Duke of Newcastle, with an account that (notwithstanding all the arguments I had made against it in my letter to him of the 10th instant, and of which I enclosed you a copy) it was determined unanimously in request, preparations were made on a sufficient scale for the purpose. Had he been allowed to order the sailing of the expedition which was prepared, it is most probable the conquest of Canada, would not have been reserved for the Seven Years' War. But the indecision or timidity of the Duke of Newcastle delayed, and finally broke up, the expedition." -Lord John Russell's Introduction to the Bedford Correspondence, vol. i. p. xlviii.

1 Part of this letter is printed in the Bedford Correspondence, vol. i. p. 196.