Horace Walpole

“ We then seized their ships—and did nothing more; yes, we engaged some German mercenaries, as if the Duke of Newcastle had thought that the Rhine and the Ohio were the same river. Had we, like the French, waved expressions of war, till we had mustered a mighty force in America, where our superiority is exceedingly great; had we increased our Navy before we seized theirs; had we at least imitated their arts as well as their invasions, we might have dictated in the new world, and lived without hostilities in the old. ”

“ About this time we were on the point of a rupture with Holland. That country was sunk in power and reputation, laboured with debts and factions, was influenced by no genius, and had lost all military spirit. In such a situation, no wonder they were not desirous of again beholding the Armies of their neighbour King on the frontiers of Flanders; the only spot where those universal aspirers, the French, know how to shine. Animated by no zeal of a common cause, the Dutch, who were determined not to engage on our side, thought the second step of prudence was to profit of our calamities. ”

“ He raised the siege of Prague, and retired to Leutmeritz. Daun had the good sense to know that his country was not to be saved by the rules of romance. Rashness might immortalize a Monarch whose crown and life were at stake, and were at the same time less objects than his glory: a subject would be unpardonable, and of all subjects an Austrian had the least chance of pardon, who should suffer his fame to weigh one moment against his duty.
The French in the meantime advanced in such formidable numbers, that the Duke of Cumberland was obliged to retire and leave Hanover at their mercy. ”

“ The sums which were never refused to him, and for which, not being a Briton, he could not be called to account, will perhaps outweigh the glory he procured to our arms, the benefits that resulted from his success, or the share which he made us take in saving the King of Prussia from destruction. Should the last-named Prince prove oftener our enemy than our Ally, we must comfort ourselves with having guarded the Protestant religion in Germany—for the Protestantism of its chief, it was too ridiculous to be made, as it was, even a serious object by the mob! ”

“ He was as free from vice as Pitt, more unaffected, and formed to convince, even where Pitt had dazzled. The Duke of Cumberland had most expressive sense, but with that connexion between his sense and sensibility, that you must mortify his pride before you could call out the radiance of his understanding. Being placed at the head of armies without the shortest apprenticeship, no wonder he miscarried: it is cruel to have no other master than one’s own faults. ”

“ The Empress-Queen had drained her own and her husband’s dominions to collect a decisive force: yet the vivacity of the King of Prussia, instead of entrenching wholly on the defensive, though he disposed various Armies to keep the Russians at bay and to cover Saxony, led him to a hardy step: after besieging and taking Schweidnitz in thirteen days, he instantaneously appeared in Moravia, the short road to Vienna. Daun had thought him preparing to attack Bohemia, when, to his surprise, he heard the King had opened the siege of Olmutz. ”

“ In the meantime, as if to show how long a great nation can carry on itself without any Government, there were no Ministers, even in the midst of a formidable war, but those baby politicians, the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Holderness: the former with much importance declaring, that he would retain the Treasury but till some new system should be completed: yet he was delighted with the plaything of power, and wished his holidays might be protracted. ”

“ It was entertaining, it was sublime, it was hyperbole, it was ridiculous, according as the profusion of ideas crowded from him. He embraced systems like a legislator, but was capable of none of the detail of a magistrate. Sir Robert Walpole was much the reverse: he knew mankind, not their writings; he consulted their interests, not their systems; he intended their happiness, not their grandeur. Whatever was beyond common sense, he disregarded. Lord Mansfield, without the elevation of Lord Granville, had great powers of eloquence. ”

“ With Newcastle he had determined never to connect: Fox’s behaviour on the case of Mr. Byng had rooted out his esteem, and the coldness discovered by Fox on Walpole’s refusing to concur in all his politics, had in a manner dissolved their friendship. Of Pitt he retained the best opinion; but the wanton exposure of so many lives at the affair of St. Cas, and in those other visionary attempts on the coast of France, had painted Pitt on his mind as a man whose thirst of glory was inconsistent with humanity ”

“ Those seeds of jealousy, combining with Rigby’s devotion to Fox, gave rise to the succeeding animosities between the Duke and Pitt. What was more remarkable was, that the letters from the Castle acquitted the Papists of being authors of the sedition; yet, a short time before, the Duke had quarrelled with the Primate for saying he had no apprehensions from that quarter. Whatever was pretended, there was much reason for believing that the insurrection had deeper foundation than in a mere jealousy of an union with England. ”

“ A young Prince, warm, greedy of military glory, yet resigning all his passions to the interested dictates of a father’s pleasure, and then loaded with the imputation of having acted basely without authority: hurt with unmerited disgrace, yet never breaking out into the least unguarded expression; preserving dignity under oppression, and the utmost tenderness of duty [65] under the utmost delicacy of honour—this an uncommon picture—for the sake of human nature, I hope the conduct of the father is uncommon too! ”

“ The King of Prussia, too impetuous to await their cautious approach, flew with about 30,000 men to meet them; and finding Daun strongly entrenched on a hill, thought ardour and his name sufficient to dislodge them. He returned seven times to the attack after as many repulses, performed actions of extravagant bravery himself; and when forced at last, by an impregnable situation, by superior numbers, and by equal valour, to abandon his purpose, he crowned the splendour of the enterprise by modestly confessing how unadvisedly he had undertaken it. ”

“ Pelham, the purchaser of opponents, was dead, and as Shebbear’s pen, though not without force, could not find the way to be hired by the Duke of Newcastle. The most remarkable part of this trial was the Chief Justice Mansfield laying down for law, that satires even on dead Kings were punishable. Whatever obsolete statutes may pronounce, can any thing be more foreign to the genius of English constitution, nay, to the practice even of arbitrary countries? Why are tyrants sacred, when once dead? ”

“ Under these was Wolfe, a young officer who had contracted reputation from his intelligence of discipline, and from the perfection to which he had brought his own regiment. The world could not expect more from him than he thought himself capable of performing. He looked on danger as the favourable moment that would call forth his talents.
Sir Edward Hawke commanded the fleet—a man of steady courage, of fair appearance, and who even did not want a plausible kind of sense; but he was really weak, and childishly abandoned to the guidance of a Scotch secretary. ”

“ Descriptions of battles and victories I have always avoided, as not coming within the scope of my purpose, and from my ignorance in military transactions. Even the glorious campaigns which will be the chief subjects of the two years I am going to write of, will be but slightly touched: their consequences alone are my object. Intrigues of the Cabinet, or of Parliament, scarce existed at that period. All men were, or seemed to be, transported with the success of their country, and content with an Administration which outwent their warmest wishes, or made their jealousy ashamed to show itself. ”

“ Though no man knew the secrets of Government better, no man knew the manœuvre of business less. He was no speaker in Parliament, had no interest there, and though universally beloved and respected where known, was by no means familiarized to the eyes of the nation. He declined as long as modesty became him; engaged with spirit, the moment he felt the abandoned state in which his master and benefactor stood.
A trifling incident showed the ridiculous light in which the new establishment appeared: it was the 8th of June when Fox’s Administration was notified: the House of Commons was very thin ”

“ All men were curious to see the new Administration. None was formed. Lord Egremont had consented to accept the Seals of Secretary of State, but soon desired to be excused. He had miscarried with Lord Granville, had not succeeded better by assiduous court to Newcastle, and now attaching himself to Fox, had his hopes soon blasted with this blossom of an Administration. Doddington, who had gone in and out too often to lose any reputation by one more promotion or disgrace, was ready to take anything. ”

“ When the Duke could tear himself from his favourite passion, the Army, one may judge how sharply he must have been wounded. When afterwards the King, perfidiously enough, broke that famous convention, mankind were so equitable as to impute it to the same unworthy politics, not to the disapprobation he had pretended to feel on its being made. ”

“ Dearly did the Prussians buy their victory; but in such a crisis what was too dear a price for Frederic to pay? His loss was computed at 13,000 men. The Austrians had not suffered less; in prisoners abundantly. Four Generals, 216 officers, and 8000 private men taken, with possession of the field, were decisive in favour of the Prussians. The recovery of all Saxony, but Dresden, made the victory indisputable.
Prince Ferdinand’s campaign was not alike resplendent in action or variety. His army had been reinforced, but was still inferior to the French commanded by Marshal Broglio. ”

“ The astonishment of Laudohn was not less, when, at three in the morning, he found himself opposed to the whole force of the King of Prussia. He was fallen into the snare, and it was too late to retreat. For three hours he sustained the redoubled onsets of the Prussian; but the King, who fought to avoid a battle, as well as to gain one, exerted such desperate heroism, that at length he totally routed the Austrians. They fled, leaving the Monarch in possession of every mark of victory, but expecting each moment to have it ravished from him. ”

“ Melancholic, apprehensive of assassination, desirous of resigning his Crown, averse to the war from principles of humanity, perplexed by factions, and still resigned to the influence of his mistress, every measure was confirmed by him with reluctance or obtained by intrigues; yet they had imprinted such terrors of invasion upon us, that Mr. Pitt, concluding their own coasts might be ill-provided, while they menaced ours, determined to strike a hardy stroke, that should at once invert the system of fear, and restore our reputation by carrying the war into the quarters of the enemy. ”

“ At that moment the Austrian cavalry, so judiciously furnished by Daun, and as ably put in motion by Laudohn, rushed upon the enfeebled victors, broke their ranks, drove them back in disorder, and ravished from them in few moments the fruit of their glorious ardour and intrepidity.
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A total defeat of the Prussians ensued, notwithstanding the undaunted valour of their monarch, who could not recover by despair what he had let slip out of his hands by presumption. Yet, to that intemperance in action succeeded the coolest prudence and judgment. ”

“ For the economic part, to push expense was the best economy—for blood, we had lost none; never had been so bloodless a war; not fifteen hundred men had fallen in America. That the city of London had raised more men than Ireland in a twelvemonth. He hoped it would be related to the Irish Parliament that they had been censured in the English. He did justice to the merit of General Amherst, whose campaign, if in Vegetius, all the world would admire: it was in America, and nobody regarded it. ”

“ In fact, Pitt had neither all the talents he supposed in himself, nor which he seemed to possess from the vacancy of great men around him. Thinly, very thinly, were great men sown in my remembrance: I can pretend to have seen but five; the Duke of Cumberland, Sir Robert Walpole, Lord Granville, Lord Mansfield, and Pitt. ”

“ Being told that General Conway, whose miscarriage at Rochfort it was supposed Lord George had inflamed, would be of the Court-Martial against him, he said, he should wish for no man sooner for his judge—the highest compliment that could be paid to Conway’s integrity and candour. ”

“ He would not ask a question on the victory, the news of which were arrived that morning—he did not wish to relax, because the King of Prussia was successful. That King, who saw all, did all, knew all, did everything, was everything! If you would deal with such great masses, and not take little things, and think they would make a great one, there might still be hopes—don’t go on subsidizing little Princes here and there, and fancy that all together they will make a King of Prussia. That Prince had never asked a subsidy, at least while he had had any part in the Administration ”

“ Pitt’s anticipation of Saunders’s renown was prophetic. That Admiral was a pattern of most steady bravery, united with the most unaffected modesty. No man said less or deserved more. Simplicity in his manners, generosity, and good-nature, adorned his genuine love of his country. His services at Quebec had been eminent. Returning thence, he heard that Monsieur Conflans had taken the opportunity of Sir Edward Hawke’s retiring to Gibraltar to refit, and had sailed out of Brest. ”

“ Sir John Philipps brought a Bill into the House of Commons to oblige the members to give in particulars of their qualifications, and to swear to the truth of them. A known Jacobite, who and whose friends had taken the oaths to King George, ought to have been sensible that perjury was not the crime at which most men stuck in that age: nor could it be hoped that they who made a seat in Parliament the foundation of their fortune would not overleap any obstacle to obtain one. Pitt, James Grenville, and Beckford promoted the Bill. ”