COMPLETE EDITION Or WALPOLE'S CORRESPONDENCE.

THE object of this publication is to comprise in one series the entire correspondence of Honaeu WALPOLE. It will contain all the letters included in his miscellaneous works; and in the different

collections that have from time to time appeared, as well as epistles

that have been published incidentally in other volumes, and some which " have hitherto existed only in manuscript." The notes of WALPOLE will of course be retained, as will those which Lord DOVER appended to his edition of the letters to Sir Iloaaeo MANN: the present editor has added a good many, and he speaks of those of' " various editors ;" whence we infer this to be a " variorum" as well as complete edition.

The order of the letters is chronological, without regard to the kind of personal arrangement involved in most of the previous publications, which arose from the epistles having been addressed to particular individuals. The advantage of this plan is obvious; its principal and perhaps its only defect is the intermingling of styles, and in some sense of subjects. The subject, indeed, is of

little consequence ; for the cold, fashionable, witty, and gossipy WALPOLE made his topics as various as a sale catalogue : he bad, like

Foosses auctioneer, " as much to say on a riband as a Raphael ;" and, unless some selfish feeling was concerned, probably cared as little about the events he narrated or the reputations he sported with, as a knight of the hammer for a lot after he has knocked it

down. But almost every man whose letters are worth printing adapts his mode of mind to the character of the person he is

writing to, and to the terms they are on,—a state of feeling which not only influences his style and the treatment of his subjects, but may extend to their selection. Hence, in consecutive perusal, we expect the reader will sometimes be almost startled when he passes from one correspondent to another without noticing the change in the address.

The contents of the volume before us consist of a preface, partly explanatory of the plan of the publication, and partly critical;

the best parts being taken from Lord DOWER, whose Life of lloaacE WALPOLE follows. The somewhat garrulous and theble " Re- miniscences of the Courts of George the First and Second" come

next ; appended to which are some illustrative extracts from the un- published Letters of SARAH Dutchess of Manstionoron, exhibit- ing as much onesidedness, but more race and vigour than WasooLE

displayed, when he sat down in his seventy-first year to pen his remembrances of the two first BausswicKs, for the amusement of the Miss BERRY ES' After these introductions the Correspondence be- gills; extending in the present volume from 1735 to 1743; and em- bracing the whole of the letters to WEST, and a good number of those to Sir 110R ACE MANN, with ft few to MONTAGU and others. Besides the never-failing topics of' Waseoso—anecdote, gossip,

vertu, character, and criticism somewhat flippant when the subject is at all elevated—the most important subjects arc his travels in France and Italy, and his father's last Parliamentary campaign.

HORACE returned from the grand tour in 1741, just in time to take a seat in the new Parliament, which overthrew Sir Roomer WAL-, POLE, in despite of the confidence of the King, the discordant mate-

rials of which the Opposition was composed, and the long experi- ence, great resolution, and unquestionable abilities of the Minister. The narrative has an intrinsic interest for all times ; just now it pos- sesses an additional attraction, from the analogy it offers in some points to the opening Parliamentary campaign. The address of the Whig Ministry, ninety-nine years ago, passed with some hard speeches, but without a division ; PULTNEY putting by the more ardent of the Opposition with the jest, that "dividing was not the way to multiply." The next day war began on the election peti- tions, then admittedly decided as party questions ; and the " streamers of victory did not fly so gallantly." Here is

HORACE WALPOLE ON A MAJORITY or SEVEN.

" It was the day of receiving petitions. Mr. Pultney presented an immense piece of parchment, which he said he could but just lift it was the 'West- minster petition, and is to be heard next Tuesday, when we shall all have our brains knocked out by the mob; so if you don't hear from me next post, you will conclude may head was a little out of order. After this we went -upon a Cornish petition, presented by Sir WiIIi.,iii Yonge, which drew on a debate and a division : when lo! we were but 222 to 215: how do you like a majority of seven ? The Opposition triumphs highly, and with reason. One or two such victories, as Pyrrhus the member for Macedon said, will be the ruin of us. I look upon it now, that the question is, Downing Street or the Tower: will you conic and see a hotly, if one should happen to lodge at the latter ? "

A few days afterwards matters were worse ; the majority of seven had dwindled to a minority. This is the account of the great party struggle of a century ago ; written on the same day, and as fresh as when first written.

" Wednesday Night. 11 o'clock. 1651, December 1741. '• Remember this day ! " Nous von& de la minorite ! entens-tu ? he! My dear child, since you will have these ugly words explained, they just mean that we are meta-

morphosed into the minority. This was the night of choosing a Chairman of the Committee of Elections. Gyles Earle (as in the two last Parliaments)

.s named by the Court ; Dr. Lee, a civilian, by the Opposition—a man of a fair character. Earle was formerly a dependent on the Duke of Argyle ; is of remarkable covetousness and wit, which he has dealt out largely against the Scotch and the Patriots. It was a day of much expectation ; and both sides Lad raked together all probabilities. 1 except near twenty, who are in town, but stay to vote on a second question, when the majority may be decided to either party. Have you not read a such in story ? Men who would not care to find themselves on the weaker side, contrary to their intent. In short, the determined sick were dragged out of their beds: zeal came in a greatcoat. There were two vast dinners at two taverns for either party : at six we met in the House. Sir William Yonge, seconded by my uncle Horace, moved for Mr. Earle. Sir Paul Methuen and Sir Watkyn Williams Wynne proposed Dr. Lee, and carried him by a majority of four-242 against 238; the greatest number, I believe, that ever lost a question. You have no idea of their buzzes; unless you can conceive how people must triumph after defeats for twenty years together. We had one vote shut out, by coming a mament too late ; one that (pitted us, for having been ill-used by the Duke of Newcastle but yesterday; for which, in all probabilitv, he will use him well to-morrow-1 mean for quitting us. Sir Thomas 'Lowther, Lord Harrington's uncle, was fetched down by him, and voted against us. Young Ross, son to a Commissioner of the Customs, and saved from the dishonour of not liking to go to the West Indies when it was his turn, by Sir B's giving him a lieutenancy, voted against us ; and Toni Hervey, who is always with us, but is quite mad ; and being asked why he left us, replied, ' Jesus knows my thoughts ; one day I blas- pheme, and pray the next.' So you see what accidents were against us, or we Lad carried our point. They cry, Sir R. miscalculated. How should he cal- culate, when there are mer. like Ross and fifty others he could name ? It was not very pleasant to be stared in the face to see how one bore it : you can guess at my bearing it, who interest myself so little about. any thing. I have had a taste of what 1 am to meet from all sorts of people. any moment we Lad lost the question, 1 lvent from the heat of the House into the Speaker's chamber, and there were some fifteen others of us : an under-doorkeeper thought a question was new put, when it was not ; and, without giving us no- tice, clapped the door to. I asked him how he dared lock us mit without call- ing us? he replied insolently, ' It was his duty, and he would do it again.' One of the party went to him, commended him, and told him he should be punished if he acted otherwise. Sir It. is in great spirits, and still sanguine."

This " sanguine" constitution, the protection of the Court, and probably the hopes of dividing the Opposition by his arts of cor- ruption, induced the great Whig tactician to protract the struggle for two months, with various success; sometimes getting a re- spectable majority—or what the modern Whigs would consider a glorious majority, sometimes not daring to divide. The most stre- nuous battle took place unexpectedly, on a day when, according to IloaAen WALPOLE, eight of the Ministerial Members had gone out of town, which the Opposition calculated upon as insuring them the majority. " On this Thursday, of which I was telling you, at three o'clock, Mr. Pult- ney rose up and moved for a Secret Committee of twenty-one. This inquisi- tion, this council of ten, was to sit and examine whatever persons and papers they should please, and to meet when and where they pleased. He protested much on its not being intended against any person, but merely to give the King advice ; and on this foot they fought it till ten at night, when Lord Perceval blundered out what they had been cloaking with so much art, and de- clared that he should vote for it as a committee of accusation. Sir Robert immedietely rose, and protested that he should not have spoken but for what Le had heard last, but that now he must take it to himself. He purtray-ed the malice of the Opposition, who for twenty years had not been able to touch him, and were now reduced to this inflimous shift. Ile defied them to accuse Lim, ithd only desired that if they should, it might be in an open and fair man- Lee; desired no favour but to be acquainted with his accusation. He spoke of Mr. Doddington, who had called his Administration infamous, as of a person of great self-mortification, who for sixteen years had condescended to bear part of the odium. For Mr. Pultnev, who had Just spoken a second time, Sir R. said Le had begun the debate with great calmness, but to give him his due, lie had made amends ibr it in the end. In short, never was Innocence so triumphant.

" There were several glorious speeches on both sides : Mr. Pultney'S two, W. Pitt's and George Granville's, Sir Robert's, Sir W. Yonge's, Harry Fox's, Mr. Chute's, and the Attorney-General's. My friend Coke, foe the first time, spoke vastly well, and mentioned how great Sir Robert's character is abroad. Sir Francis Dashwood replied, that he had found quite the reverse from Mr. Coke, and that foreigners always spoke with contempt of the Chevalier de Walpole. This was going too file, and he was called to order ; but got oil well enough, by saying that he knew it was contrary to rule to name any member, but that he only mentioned it as spoken by an impertinent Frenchman. "But of all speeches, none ever was so WI of wit as Mr. Pultney's lust. He said.—‘ 1 have heard this Committee represented as a most dreadful spectre : it has been likened to all terrible things ; it has been likened to the King; to the

Inquisition ; it will be a Committee of Safety ; it is a Committee dDanger ; I don't know what it is to be. One gentleman, I think, called it a cloud! (this was the Attorney) a cloud I remember Hamlet takes Lord Polunius by the hand and shows him a cloud, and then asks him if he does not think it is like a whale.' Well, in short, at eleven at night we divided, and threw out this famous Committee by 253 to '250, the greatest number that ever was in the House, and the greatest number that ever lost a question.

" It was a most shocking sight to see the sick and dead brought in on both sides! Men on crutches, and Sir William Gordon from his bed, with a, blister on his head and flannel hanging out from under his wig. 1 could scarce pity him, br Lis ingratitude. The day before the Westminster petition, Sir Charles 1Vager gave his son a ship, and the next day the &they Caine down and voted against Elm. The son has since been cast away ; but they concealed it from the father,

that he might not absent himself. However, as we have our. good-natured men too 011 our side, one of his own countrymen went and told lnin of it in the

House. The old loan, who looked like Lazarus at his resuscitation, bore it

with great resolution, and said, he knew why he was told of it, but when he thought his country in danger lie would not go away. As be is so near death

that it is indifferent to him whether he died two thousand years ago or to-mor- row, it is unlucky for him not to have lived when such insensibility would have been a Roman virtue."

The majority of three was only an expiring flicker. In three weeks Sir ROBERT WALPOLE resigned. The greatest novelty in the present volume consists of time ex- tracts from the letters of "old Marlborough," as IlottAcE WAL- rOLE used to call the Dutchess. had he been able to peep into her letter-bag, he would have seen her embalming the personal frailties of his own family, and might have feund how he liked his own arts exercised against himself: Every one knows that Sir ROBERT WALroLE's second wife was Miss SKERRITP, his mistress.

This is the Dutcheses account of the wedding, and of the spirit of the nobility of those days—" pride that licks the dust."

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE'S SECOND WEDDING.

Ills wedding was celebrated as if' he had been King of France, and the apartments furnished in the richest manner; crowds of people of the first quality being presented to the bride, who is the daughter of a clerk that sung the psalms in a church where Dr. Sacheverell was. After the struggle among the Court ladies who should have the honour of presenting her, which the Dutchess of Newcastle obtained, it was thought more proper to have her pre- sented by one of' her own family ; otherwise it would look as if she had no alliances ; and therefore that ceremony was performed by (the oiler) Horace Walpole's wife, who was daughter to my tailor, Lumbar. 1 read in print lately, that an old gentleman, very rich, had married a maiden lady with two fatherless children ; but the printer did not then know the gentleman's name.

I think I did not tell you that the Duke of Dorset waited on my Lady Walpole to congratulate her marriage, with the same ceremony as if it bad been one of the Royal Family, with his white staff, which has not been used these many years but when they attend the Crown. * * *

Monday next is fixed for presenting Mrs. Skerritt at Court; and there has been great solicitation from the Court lollies who should do it, in which the Dutchess of Newcastle has succeeded ; and all the apartment is made ready for Sir Robert's lady, at his house at the Cockpit. I never saw her in my life, bat at auctions; but I remember I liked her as to behaviour very well, and I be- lieve she has a great deal of' souse; and I am not one of time number that wonder HO much at this match, for the King of France married Madame de Maintenoo, and many men have done the same thing. But as to the public, I do believe never was any man so great a villain as Sir Robert.

Independent of the curious glimpse the following sketch by the the same hand gives us of .Anny management and Court morality in " the good old times," the passage has a literary interest from its hero. The Lord Fanny (of' Popit) was Lord llnavny, Nvliont the poet perpetually ridiculed in passing, reserving his most elaborate satire of the literary lord for the character of Sporus.

London, 20 December 1737.

" I saw one yesterday that dined with my Lord Fanny, who, as soon as he had dined, was sent for to come up to his Majesty, and there is all the appear- ance that can be of great favour to his Lordship. I mentioned him in my last, and I will now give you on account of some things concerning his character that I believe you don't know. 'What I am going to say I am sure is as true as if I had been a tran,aetor in it myself: And I will begin the relation with Mr. Lepelle, my Lord Penny's wife's lilt her ; having made-her a cornet in his regiment as soon as she was burn, which is no more wrong to the design of' an army than if she had been a son ; and slle spaid many yeas after she was a Maid of Honour. She was extreme tbrward and pert ; and my Lord Sunderland got her a pension or the late Ring, it being too ridiculous to con- tinue her any longer an officer in the army. And into the bargain, she was to be a spy ; but what she could tell to deserve a pension I cannot conirehend. However, King, George the First used to talk to her very much ; and thi: en- couraged my Lord Fanny and her to undertake a very extraordinary project; and she went to the drawing-room every ni■dit, and publicly attacked his Ma- jesty in a most vehement manner, insomuch that it was the diversten of mmii the town; which alarmed the Dutchess of Kendal (the King's head mistress) and the Ministry that governed her, to that degree, lest the hin7, should be put in the opposer's hands, that they determined to buy my Lady II— off; and Hwy gave her 4,000/. to desist, which she did; and my Lord Fanny bought a good house with it, and furnished it very well."

A preliminary advertisement states that the letters or the Dutebess of' MAR LBOS01:n II were copied from a large volume ip the possession of Mr. DAL YM PLE, the Geographer to the East India Company. If' the remainder resemble those before us, we should suggest their publication. Indeed, the correspondence of the Dutchess, and a judicious selection from her works, if not the whole of them, would be of much more value than several books relating to her rera that have appeared lately. True or false, sue has more matter than WALPOLE, and is as amusing. It' she had her prejudices, so haul he ; if she was unscrupulous, we suspect he was not very particular in sharpening a point to pierce an enemy ; if she was virulent, there was cold, insinuating, worldly maliciousness in him ; and if HommAen (as all must admit) had more art, SARAH had more earnestness.