managed to absorb all considerations; in the Chap. YIV most extravagant eulogies on the found wisdom ._J, of the King, and the immaculate virtues of his 1761. mother. The faction further contrived to amuse the King's people, with two other circumstances this year, marriage. One was the King's marriage, the other, his coronation; which gave them opportunity to proceed in their measures, unobseived by the nation. The court had not for many years been adorned with the presence of a Queen. The novelty operated with the most powersul attraction. The whole nation caught the contagion. The faction could not have contrived any measure more fortunate to engage the public attention; while unobserved, they pursued their own designs, with the utmost alacrity *. However, * Respecting the choice of the Princess, there was some years afterwards an extraordinary controversy in the public prints, which merits more notice than many of those fugitive papers usually deserve; We shall select only two, which contain the principal sacts; It should be previously observed, that in the sirst arrangement of the Queen's establishment, General Græme was made secretary to the Queen; and in 1765, he was made comptroller; but in February 1770, he was dismissed from her Majesty's service. On the fourth day of October, 1777, the following paragraph appeared in the public prints: "It were to be wished, that in introducing General G—e to the public notice, a little more pains had been takeii to explain the ease and independence that gentlemen was called from, as well as his appointment as negociator and ambassador. The world has hitherto had the misfortune of beholding this officer only in the light of a simple individual; bred Chap- However, there were some persons who irhd 3^" gined, that they law an analogy, between the "T-eT' sending in a foreign service: employed once as a private agent, tot sind out where a negotiation might be set on foot,'and rewarded liberally for the discovery. It remains also to know the independent patrimony he was originally seised of, and how he may have spent it in her Majesty's service. These, and other circumstances being cleared up, will have the effect: of rescuing from oblivion, an illustrious character, whose merit has apparently not been enough considered. [This paragraph, at the beginning, seems to allude to some prior publication; but notwithstanding a diligent search j nothing can be sound, except a short paragraph, slating j that General Grtcme had resigned his employment.'] To the Printer, &c. I TAKE the earliest opportunity to comply with the wi/tl. of the paragraph writer in your paper of to-day, respecting General Græme. At the time he was first sent to Mecklenburgh, he. was possessed of a samily estate of six hundred pounds a year, and twenty thousand pounds in money. Your correspondent, though he takes up the ludicrous stile, as master of his subject, is certainly very ill informed- General Grænie was sent three several times to Germany; once as a ^private agent, and twice as a public one: First, to find out a Princess, then to bring her over; and lastly, to carry the Garter to the Prince, her brother. The expences of these journics were considerable: He gave in no bill of them—the others employed did. His liberal rewards were a regiment* which cost him seven thousand pounds in raising; the ofsice of secretary to the Queen, for which he drew only one half of the salary, being rode for the other half; and some time aster he waB made comptroller of the Queen's houfhold. He retired from her Majesty's service with" not one milling of ready money, and his estate so much encumbered, that he has little more than his regiment to support him. Vice or extravagance he has never been accused of. Let common sense put all this together, and I defy the most; obsequious courtier to say, that he has been indemnisied, much less rewarded. He tvent, when a boy, into the Scotch Brigade, in the service ef sending back the Princes of Brunswick, and the Cha». sending back the Insanta of Spain, in the early XIX* Pa,t 17S1; of the States of Holland, &c. then reckoned samous for their O. At). To the Printer, &c, October 12, 1777. TO rescue merit from obscurity is highly laudable. Thi* praise will deservedly belong to the letter-writtet, who celebrates the Virtues and disappointments of General G- e» when he has thrown the necessary light upon some sew points. He grants, tha; this gentleman was bred in the Dutch service, and that he was at first a private agent—" to find out a Princess :"—\ It were to be wished he had chose another p rase, for this will hardly be received as a compliment by the samily it is applied to)—But then the second commission was public, "to bring her over." Here, either the letter-writer* or the public, is in a great e"rfof: For the universal belies has been, that the late Lord Harcourt was the nvnister commissioned to bring her over *, Again, the paying of seven thousand pounds for a regiment, is a new fort of trafsic, even in this commercial country, and merits a full illustration; yet even admitting of its sull extent, as this happened so many years ago, the General must, i:pon a moderate computation, be a very considerable gainer upon that bargain, besides the T*ry unusual savour, of being adopted from a foreign service' over £* // is toell inown, that Lord Harcourt was the person that vtient to Mecklenburgh in a public character, hut that circumflance does not invalidate the fail, of General Grume being the considential man ; for, according to the maxims of government, which the saction had laid down for the new reign, there were always an ostensible man, and a considential man, in every s>tuation: and this anecdote shews* the very early period at which the theory of duplicity was brought intopra8iee.\ Cha*. part of the reign of Lewis the Fifteenth. Bat XIX. this speculation was founded in a great mistake; i-51* for the cases differed materially, particularly in this point—the Princess of Brunswick returned voluntarily; whereas the Infanta was sent back by force. And the French King w3s thereupon married to the daughter of Stanislaus, King of Poland, who at the time of this marriage, was only a private gentleman. It is true, that eight years subsequent, he was, by the interest of France, raised to the throne of Poland; but in less than a month a'fteswafds he was dispossessed of his kingdom, by his rival,* the Elector of Saxony. There is a surther, and, if possible, a more important difference in this pretended analogy. —Several of the great families in France disapproved of this union of their Sovereign with the daughter of a private gentleman; whereas, none of the families in England, ever difapproved of the choice made for, or by the King of Great Britain; and although the Queen os France, by her placid demeanor, qualisied the acidity, over the heads of a multitude of brave and deserving officers in bur own. Another point to be cleared up is, his having spent in^the public service, so large a patrimony as his estate of six hundred pounds a year, and twenty thousand pounds in money, besides the emoluments of a regiment, a half secretaryship, and a whole comptroller/hip. The hungry courtiers surely did not ride him in all of these—estate, and money and all: For Germany (though it is a great gulph) could n«ver have swallowed any thing like this in three journies. The bills, had they been given in, (which it is really a pity they were not) could scarcely, we stiould think, have amounted to onetfenth part of the General's patrimony alone. Yours, &c. D. \vhich her birth alone occasioned; yet her unexceptionable conduct was not sufficient to prevent some harsh remarks on that policy, which, faid,they, sends our Kings in quest of foreigners tor wives, in whom their private happiness is as little consulted as the public welsare; and in which alliances/we sometimes import not the best, but the worst blood on the continent. There was likewise, a third circumstance thisNegotuyear, which commenced prior to either the tfon witli King's marriage tr coronation, and which claim-"""' ed a considerable share of the pubiic attention, This was a negotiation for peace, desired byFrance; and carried on in London by M. Busy, and in Paris by Mr. Hans Stanley. The reader will sind in the Appendix, all the important documents of the negotiation. M. Bujjy arrived in London, in May 1761, and Mr. Stanley at Paris in the same month. This negotiation continued until August, at which time the court of France had prevailed on the King of Spain to join them in the war. Mr. Pitt had suspected for some lime, that this junction was in contemplation; and upon the delivery of a memorial by M. Busy, on the interests of Spain, (when there was a Spanish minister at our court) he Was consirmed in his suspicions. He saw that a war with Spain was inevitable; and he immediately made preparation for it. He had ordered an attack to be made on the French island of Martinico, and the other islands belonging to that power, in the West Indies. And it was now Vol. I. P his |