To the Dutchess of Portland.

DEAR MADAM,

Sunday the 13th of November.

YOUR Grace, who is always indulgent to your friends, will easily pardon the omissions of a sickly correspondent. I am infinitely obliged to your kind concern for my health, and, to shew you that I am not obstinate, I am really preparing to go to Bath this week, and with less reluctance, as I have lately been severely ill. I suppose Lord Tichfield is by this time returned to school; my brothers tell me extraordinary things of his genius and industry: they go next week to Cambridge, very happy, no doubt, to enter into the world, which, in distant prospect, appears well, and at their age they have little apprehension of the disappointments they may meet with. Hope, like other blossoms, puts forth fairest in the spring. I return your Grace thanks for your congratulations on my brother's success; he

carried his election for Canterbury very triumphantly, but in speaking to the people (for the corporation is very large) he fatigued himself, and lost his voice. for some time, and is now drinking Bristol water. I agree with your Grace in finding King James's Life very dull; he was a most royal pedant; his speeches, and his proclamations, were dictated by the goddess of Dullness; and what provokes one the more, is the high conceit he entertained of his foolish head; he thought himself equal to Solomon, and superior to Queen Elizabeth; most enormous errors ! and such as nothing but the breath of flattery could have blown up in his mind. I think the English history, from his time, grows very disagreeable. In some reigns the kingdom is in the most terrible confusion, in others, it appears mean and corrupt; in King Charles the Second's time what a figure we make with French measures and French mistresses! But when our times are written, England will recover its glory; such conquests abroad, such prosperity at home, such prudence,

in council, such vigour in execution, so many men clothed in scarlet, so many five tents, so many cannon that do not so much as roar, such easy taxes, such flourishing trade! can posterity believe it? I wish our history, from its incredibility, may not get bound with the fairy tales; and serve to astonish children, and make nursery maids moralize. One thing gives me great pleasure to reflect upon, as I cannot help being interested in the honour of the times we live in, and that is, that though some of our admirals, and many of our captains, have been suspected of heinous offences, yet they have all been acquitted, and proved innocent, when the matter was nearly enough inspected. Then our friendship to our dear dulcinea, the Queen of Hungary, is most heroical; and indeed our undeserved fidelity to all our allies, is not a little to be admired. I always honoured the liberal character of Sir Timothy Treatall; it was good in a private person, but how great in a whole nation, and how fine would it appear on the theatre of the

world; scene the first, act the first, enter England Treatall; what next? why again England Treatall! and so on; noble Treatall for ever! Such a play can never be hissed; Envy herself would never shake her locks at it. How will this noble disinterestedness outshine the narrow prudence, and unroyal frugality of Queen Elizabeth! She gathered the fruit of the olive, and forgot the noble leaf of the laurel; her low aim was to make her people rich and easy, by which she turned half the kingdom to low mechanics, and scarlet and fine linen were to be found no where but in her palaces; indeed, when she was at war she made something more than fireworks of it, but still she had the mean object of peace in her head, and had no taste for modern glory and her attention to the useful and necessary was unprince-like. Adversity, and a private education, might have done something towards this, and it is all one can say to excuse her; and, to our singular felicity, her successors have not copied her in any of these political errors.

I was made very happy on Friday by hearing Lady Sandwich was arrived safe; it is mortifying to me that I must still lose the happiness of conversing with her; but I am rejoiced that she will liein in England, for I could not endure to think of her being in such circumstances at a distance from all her friends, and amongst a set of people whom I should not imagine the most agreeable or tender. I shall write again to your Grace as soon as I'am settled at the Bath. This weather promises us a bad journey, and I am afraid we shall find the roads in their worst condition. Mr. Montagu tells me he has heard charming things of Lord Titchfield, and which I think promise great future happiness to you. I may sincerely affirm I share your content; and that every year may improve your happiness is the most earnest wish of

your Grace's much obliged, affectionate, and faithful,

E. MONTAGU.