has left of maxims for debating in the House of Commons proves how deeply and carefully he had made that subject his study.*

Philip Stanhope, the illegitimate son of Lord Chesterfield, also took part in this debate, having been most studiously trained and most anxiously exhorted by his father, but he failed, and never raised his voice in public again.

Dr. Lee (now become Sir George) spoke as representative of the Princess Dowager's sentiments, and as such was explicit against the Court. He said it was easy for the Ministers to produce unanimity by pursuing British measures, -a high-sounding empty phrase, as was thought at the time, but, as it proved soon afterwards, a true prediction.

Murray with a master's touch painted the merits of the King, who might have ensured tranquillity to the evening of his life had he studied only his own repose; but His Majesty disdained such tranquillity as would entail greater difficulties on his successor and on his people.

At length, after many other more or less interesting speeches, up rose Pitt, as Horace Walpole, who was present, well describes him, haughty, defiant, conscious of recent injury and of supreme abilities. "He surpassed "himself, and then I need not tell you that he surpassed "Cicero and Demosthenes. What a figure would they "with their formal, laboured, cabinet orations make by "the side of his manly vivacity and dashing eloquence "at one o'clock in the morning, after sitting in that heat "for eleven hours! He spoke above an hour and a half "with scarce a bad sentence." †-Such descriptions must make us more than ever regret the utter absence, or what is even worse-the glaring imperfection, of reports

66

*This volume is entitled "Parliamentary Logic," and abounds in useful hints. How shrewd, for example, is the following: "State "what you censure by the soft name of those who would apologise "for it." (p. 23.) Or this: "In putting a question to your adversary, let it be the last thing you say." (p. 24.) It is not strictly true that Hamilton never spoke a second time; there are two other harangues of his on Irish affairs, which he delivered at Dublin, and which are printed after the Logic (p. 137. and 165. ed. 1808). † H. Walpole to R. Bentley, November 16. 1755.

1755.

THE RHONE AND THE SAONE.

57

in that age. Of this splendid declamation against the treaties of subsidy by far the greater part has perished; one celebrated passage, however, on the coalition between Newcastle and Fox is happily preserved. "It strikes 66 me now!" exclaimed Pitt, raising his hand suddenly to his forehead, "I remember that at Lyons I was taken "to see the conflux of the Rhone and Saone, the one a 66 gentle, feeble, languid stream, and though languid of 66 no depth *, - the other a boisterous and impetuous tor"rent, - but different as they are they meet at last, "and long," he added with bitter irony, "long may they "continue united to the comfort of each other, and to the glory, honour, and security of this nation!"†

66

Fox, tired and unanimated, replied only in a few words. But the triumph of the division by no means followed the palm of oratory; 311 Members voted for the Address, and only 105 against it. Next morning Fox received the Seals; a few days later Pitt, Legge, and George Grenville were dismissed from their places. The successor of Legge, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, was Sir George Lyttleton, in former years the friend and confederate of Pitt, but of late gradually estranged from him. Lord Barrington became Secretary at War in the place of Fox.

It has often been alleged without contradiction- and sometimes been urged as a reproach - that Pitt thus expelled from office consented to accept a pension of 1,000l. a year from the Crown. Some letters, however, which have hitherto remained unpublished, prove beyond all question, that the sum thus received was no pension from the Crown, but only a gift of friendship from Lord Temple, who most earnestly pressed it through his sister on his brother-in-law's acceptance. ‡

*Any one who gazes on the Saone, in almost any part of its course, will be struck with the aptness of Cæsar's description: "Flumen est Arar, quod per fines duorum et Sequanorum in "Rhodanum influit incredibili lenitate, ita ut oculis, in utram partem "fluat, judicari non possit." (De Bell. Gall. lib. i. c. 12.)

† Lord Orford's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 414. The two rivals were still, it appears, on familiar terms. After the debate Fox asked Pitt, "Who is the Rhone?" Pitt answered, "Is that a fair question ?"

Earl Temple to Lady Hester Pitt, November 20. and 21. 1755. See Appendix.

From these struggles of party we must now turn to contemplate-and how little do they seem by its side! — a tremendous convulsion of nature. On the morning of the 1st of November in this year, at the same period, though in less or greater degree, a far-spreading earthquake ran through great part both of Europe and Barbary. In the north its effects, as usual with earthquakes in that region, were happily slight and few. Some gentle vibrations were felt as far as Dantzick. At the hot wells of Töplitz in Bohemia the chief spring having first grown turbid and muddy, and having stopped altogether for one minute, suddenly threw up so great a quantity of water that within half an hour all the baths in the town ran over; and for some months afterwards it was observed that this spring supplied more water than usual, and that water hotter and more impregnated with its medicinal qualities.* In many parts of England the water of ponds and rivers was observed violently to swell, and then, after some minutes, to subside without any apparent cause, or else to rise in ridges like uneven land, although no wind was blowing, and the air continued still and calm. Thus, for example, near Guildford, an old man led a horse to water at a small pond which is fed by springs, and "while the horse was drinking, the water 66 ran away from the horse and moved towards the south "with swiftness, and in such quantity as left the bottom "of the pond bare, then returned with that impetuosity "which made the man leap backwards to secure himself." In Madrid a violent shock was felt, but no buildings, and only two human beings, perished. In Fez and in Morocco, on the contrary, great numbers of houses fell down, and great multitudes of people were buried beneath the ruins. But the widest and most fearful destruction was reserved for Lisbon. Already, in the year 1531, that city had been laid half in ruins by an earth

*Letter from Father Joseph Steplin to Dr. Short, Jan. 30. 1756. Dr. Swithin Adee to Mr. Webb, Nov. 25. 1755. This and the other testimonies I have quoted on this subject will be found collected and printed in the Fhilosophical Transactions for 1755, p. 351444.

1755.

THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE.

59

59

quake.* The 1st of November 1755 was All Saints' Day, a festival of great solemnity; and at nine in the morning all the churches of Lisbon were crowded with kneeling worshippers of each sex, all classes, and all ages, when a sudden and most violent shock made every church reel to its foundations. Within the intervals of a few minutes two other shocks no less violent ensued, and every church in Lisbon-tall column and towering spire—was hurled to the ground. Thousands and thousands of people were crushed to death, and thousands more grievously maimed, unable to crawl away, and left to expire in lingering agony. The more stately and magnificent had been the fabric the wider and more grievous was the havoc made by its ruin. About one fourth, as was vaguely computed, of all the houses in the city toppled down. The encumbered streets could scarce afford an outlet to the fugitives; "friends," says an eye-witness, "running from their “friends, fathers from their children, husbands from "their wives, because every one fled away from their "habitations full of terror, confusion, and distraction."† The earth seemed to heave and quiver like an animated being. The sun was darkened with the clouds of lurid dust that arose. Frantic with fear a headlong multitude rushed for refuge to a large and newly built stone pier which jutted out into the Tagus, when a sudden convulsion of the stream turned this pier bottom uppermost, like a ship on its keel in the tempest, and then engulphed it. And of all the living creatures who had lately thronged it,--full three thousand, it is said, not one, even as a corpse, ever rose again. From the banks of the river other crowds were looking on in speechless affright, when the river itself came rushing in upon them like a torrent, though against wind and tide. It rose at least fifteen feet above the highest spring tides, and then again subsided, drawing in or dashing to pieces every thing within its reach, while the very ships in the harbour were violently whirled around. Earth and water

66

* Paulus Jovius, Hist., lib. xxix. He adds, "Nemoque jam totâ prope Lusitaniâ tectis suis confideret, subsultante scilicet solo." † Dr. Sacheti to Dr. De Castro, Fields of Lisbon, Dec. 1. 1755. Mr. J. Latham to his uncle in London, Zusqueira, Dec. 11. 1755,

alike seemed let loose as scourges on this devoted city. "Indeed every element," says a person present, "seemed "to conspire to our destruction..... for in about two "hours after the shock fires broke out in three different 66 parts of the city, occasioned from the goods and the "kitchen fires being all jumbled together." At this time also the wind grew into a fresh gale, which made the fires spread in extent and rage with fury during three days, until there remained but little for them to devour. Many of the maimed and wounded are believed to have perished unseen and unheeded in the flames; some few were almost miraculously rescued after being for whole days buried where they fell, without light or food or hope. The total number of deaths was computed at the time as not less than 30,000, while the survivors no longer venturing to sleep in houses, even where houses still remained, encamped around the city in tents, or if tents were wanting, laid themselves down in the open air. Several of the greatest granaries (for Lisbon was then the storehouse of corn to all the country round) had been consumed by the flames, and the horrors of famine rose in dismal perspective to the view. Nor was even this the worst; some bands of wretches and outcasts rendered desperate by their misery, and freed from the control of laws, took advantage of the public confusion to rob and murder the few who had saved any property. The Royal Family had accidentally escaped the danger by being at the country palace of Belem; but the richest Sovereign in Europe beheld himself in a single day reduced to the poorest. He wrote to his sister, the Queen of Spain. "Here am I, a King without a capital, with"out subjects, without raiment!" The first step toward the restoration of order was the King's command to

*Mr. Wolfall to Mr. Parsons, Lisbon, November 18. 1755. So great was still the confusion on the 18th that Mr. Wolfall adds, "I procured this paper by mere accident, and I write this on a garden

86

"wall."

† Lord Orford's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 430. "The palace in town," says Mr. Wolfall," tumbled the first shock, but the natives insist that "the Inquisition was the first building that fell." (November 18. 1755.) A strong symptom how unpopular that tribunal had already grown in Portugal.