in his opinion, they would be guilty, by delaying a declaration of war against Spain. This circumstance was the actual cause of Mr Pitt's retirement from office.

Dutens' Memoirs, v. 1, p. 245.

A Baronet of considerable notoriety addressing himself to lord Thurlow, poured out a torrent of invective and raillery against the clergy, and ended his sublime oration with: "What do you think my lord, are they not a batch of hypocrites and greedy gluttons." All that you have said, Sir F. only proves that clergymen are men. Where they once do violence to good morality, you do it fifty times. But to rail against the clergy is an old stale trick; and they who do not esteem them, don't know them.' Lyn. Arro. Vill.

MR Pitt and the duke of Newcastle frequently differed in opinion; but Mr Pitt always carried his point, in spite of the duke. A curious scene occurred on one of these occasions:-It had been proposed to send admiral Hawke to sea, in pursuit of M. de Conflans. The season was unfavourable, and even dangerous for a fleet to sail, being the month of November. Mr Pitt was at this time confined to his bed by the gout; and was obliged to receive all visitors in his chamber, in which he could not bear to have a fire. The duke of Newcastle waited upon him in this situation, to discuss the affair of this fleet, which he was of opinion ought not to sail in such a stormy season. Scarcely had he entered the chamber when, shivering

with cold, he said: "What! have you no fire?* "No," replied Mr Pitt; "I can never bear a fire when I have the gout." The duke sat down by the side of the invalid, wrapped up in his cloak, and began to enter upon the subject of his visit. There was a second bed in the room; and the duke, being unable to endure the cold, at length said: "With your leave, I'll warm myself in this other bed;" and without taking off his cloak, he actually stepped into lady Esther Pitt's bed, and then resumed the debate. The duke was entirely against exposing the fleet to hazard in the month of November, and Mr Pitt was as positively determined that it should put to sea. "The fleet must absolutely sail," said Mr Pitt, accompanying his words with the most animated gestures. "It is impossible," said the duke, making a thousand contortions; "it will certainly be lost." Sir Charles Frederick, of the ordnance department, arriving just at that time, found them both in this laughable posture; and had the greatest difficulty in the world to preserve his gravity, at seeing two ministers of state deliberating upon an object so important in such a ludicrous situation.

The fleet, however, did put to sea, and Mr Pitt was justified by the event; for admiral Hawke defeated M. de Conflans, and the victory was more decisive in favour of the English than any other that was obtained over France during the war.

Dutens' Memoirs, v. 1, p. 231.

BURTON departed this life, at, or very near the time which he had some years before foretold, from

the calculation of his own nativity, and which, says Wood, "being exact, several of the students did not forbear to whisper among themselves, that rather than there should be a mistake in the calculation, he sent his soul to heaven through a slip about his neck." This may not be true; but it seems obscurely hinted in the following epitaph, written by himself, a short time before his death. Paucis notus, paucioribus ignotus Hic jacet Democritus junior, Cui vitam dedit et mortem

Melancholia.

Ob. 8 Id. Jan. A. C. MDCXXXIX.
Burton's Life, prefix'd to Anat. Melan.

THE Count de Torre Palma, ambassador for Spain, thought he had discovered, while at the court of Vienna, that his dispatches were intercepted. One day particularly he remarked to his secretary, that such a packet must have been opened; and he was convinced of it a moment afterwards, by finding a dispatch which was not signed, the hand-writing of which his secretary knew to be German and not Spanish, and which he declared was written by one of the clerks in the office of foreign affairs. He even produced some papers that had been given in reply to some of their memorials, which left no doubt of the fact; and they naturally imagined that, in the hurry with which these things were generally done at the offices, the copy of the dispatch had been put into the envelope instead of the original. The ambassador, without loss of time, waited immediately upon the prince

66

de Kaunitz. He was admitted. "I have to request, sir," said he, "that you will order your clerks to restore my dispatch, of which they have only sent me the copy, and have kept the original." Sir," replied the prince, without appearing at all embarrassed, "I beg a thousand pardons for the trouble you have had; these careless fellows are making such blunders every day." Then ringing the bell, and calling one of his secretaries: "Go, and fetch the ambassador's dispatch, sir, of which he has only received the copy, and learn not to commit such blunders another time." When the dispatch was produced, "sir," said the prince, as he restored it to him, "I am mortified that their stupidity should have occasioned you so much trouble:" and conducted him very politely to the door, without appearing to attach any importance to the mistake which had produced the visit.

Dutens' Memoirs, v. 1, p. 191.

MADAME Buonaparte's passion for gambling brought her into many difficulties during her husband's wanderings in the deserts of Africa. She borrowed money as long as she had any credit, which, owing to the disasters near Aboukir, was but a short time. She then pawned all her diamonds, plundered by general Buonaparte in Italy, and presented to her, to the amount of 1,200,000 livres, or 50,000l. Money was then scarce in France, and she got only 150,000 livres, 6000l. upon them. What was her surprise, when her husband usurped the consulate, to receive them back as a present from Talleyrand, who had previously

refused her the loan of a louis-d'or. This crafty intriguer had by his spies advanced the money, with intent to keep those diamonds so cheaply possessed, should the general perish, and to shew his disinterested gallantry in restoring them, should the Corsican ever rule France. The conduct of general Moreau towards her was very different

Revolutionary Plutarch, Sd edit. v. 1, p. 39.

THE Marquis de Breille and myself were speaking of the avarice of the famous duke of Marlborough; and I told him that I could not believe a story which I had been told, of his having one night, when alone in a room with some person, extinguished one of two candles which were burning in his chamber. It is nevertheless true," said the Marquis; "I was the person: Prince Eugene had sent me to inform him of some disposition he had made for an attack the next morning. The duke of Marlborough was then asleep, and they awoke him: I was admitted to his bed side; a valet-de-chambre placed two candles upon the night table, and withdrew. At the beginning of the conversation, which seemed as if it would last for some time, the duke, while he was listening to me, and without saying a word, put the extinguisher upon one of the lights, and continued attending to what I had been directed to relate to him."

Dutens' Memoirs, v. 1, p. 176..

ALEXY Bestucheff, grand chancellor of the Russian empire, was the son of a Scottish officer, named Best, whom Peter the Great brought with