me.

must be obliged to hold during the duke's government, if I happen to outlive it, which for your comfort, considering my health, is not very likely. I have not been a troublesome petitioner to his grace, and intend to be less; and, as I have always done, will principally consider my lord duke's honour. I have very few friends in want. I have kindred enough, but not a grain of merit among them, except one female, who is the only cousin I suffer to see When I had credit for some years at court, I provided for above fifty people in both kingdoms, of which not one was a relation. I have neither followers, nor fosterers, nor dependers; so that if I lived now among the great, they might be sure I would never be a solicitor, out of any regard but merit and virtue: and in that case, I would reckon I was doing them the best service in my power and if they were good for anything, I would expect their thanks; for they want nothing so much as an honest, judicious recommender, which, in perfect modesty, I take myself to be. Dr. Sheridan is gone to his school in the country, and was only delayed so long on account of some very unnecessary forms, contrived by his grace's most cautious deputies.

My letter is but just begun; the larger half remains:* and your ladyship is to make a fresh use of your secretary's employment. The Countess of Kerry, my long friend and mistress, commanded me to attend her yesterday: she told me, that Mr. Deering, late deputy-clerk of the council, being dead, she had thoughts of soliciting the same office for her younger son, Mr. John Fitzmaurice. Her eldest son, Lord Fitzmaurice, has for some years

* This is ludicrously said, as being a common blundering expression of the Irish.-S.

The case

been plagued with a wife and no wife.* has been tried in both kingdoms, and he stands excommunicated and forced to live abroad, which is a very great misfortune to the Earl of Kerry and his lady; and they have nothing left to comfort them but their younger son, who has lately married very honestly and indisputably. He is a young gentleman of great regularity, very well educated, but has no employment; therefore his parents would be very desirous he should have one, and this, of deputyclerk of the council here, would be a very proper introduction to business. It is understood here, that the purchase of the deputy-clerk's office is the usual perquisite of the chief clerk, with the consent of the chief governor; with which my Lord and Lady Kerry would very readily and thankfully fall in. And as the Earl of Kerry's is one of the most ancient and noble families of the kingdom, his younger, and only son of which he has any hopes, might well pretend to succeed in so small an office, upon an equal foot with any other person. I own this proposal of mine is more suitable to the corruption of the times, than to my own speculative notions of virtue; but I must give some allowance to the degeneracy of mankind, and the passion I have to my Lady Kerry, &c.

D. never writes to me. No man alive can convince Talalderahla; and when we come next, it is the same thing with Berby and Barnard. Plurality of dinners and dignities he has ; and so Mandragoras confirms it to all members in an episode of sage and brandy.

* The great-grandfather of the present Marquis of Lansdowne. When the claim upon his hand, here alluded to, was terminated by the death of the female who maintained it, his lordship formed an alliance becoming his rank, by marrying a daughter of the Earl of Cavan.

FROM MRS. DONNELLAN.

May 10, 1735.

SIR, I SHOULD before this have returned you thanks for the favour of your letter, but that I feared too quick a correspondence might be troublesome to you. When I receive a very great honour and favour, I think it ungenerous immediately to sue for another, though I have the highest sense of the obligation.

You say you want me to assert your right over our sex; and your letter is so powerful a bribe, that I fear I shall give them up to you, though I am a great asserter of their rights and privileges. As to the employments you assign me, I readily undertake them all, though I know myself very unfit for some of them; but I have such high examples on my side, that I am not at all ashamed of pretending to more than I can do. I think I can be a very good nurse; you shall teach me to be your companion; and, for a housekeeper, I will assure you I know to a farthing the lowest price of everything, though I am ever so ignorant of the matter.

Mrs. Pendarves has, as you say, forsaken us; by my Lord Lansdown's death, her brother Mr. Granville is become possessed of eight hundred pounds a year, and twenty thousand pounds in money; which was so settled that my Lord Lansdown could not touch it. Mr. Granville is a man of great worth, and a very kind brother, and has it now in his power to provide for their sister Miss Granville, whom Mrs. Pendarves is extremely fond of; this you may imagine has been a cordial to her for Lord Lansdown's death, though she had a great regard for him. I tell her when she has married and settled

her brother and sister, if she does not settle herself, she must think of her friends in Ireland; and she promises me she will.

It is so much my interest, sir, to believe you sincere, that I will not doubt it; I will rather think you want judgment, (which is very hard for me to do,) or why should not I (which is still more pleasing) believe I have really those good qualities you ascribe to me? It will only make me vain; and who can be humble when praised by you?

I think your indignation against our absenters very just, though some of my family suffer by it; but we are resolved to be no longer of the number, and propose leaving London this month. Poor Mrs. Barber has been confined with the gout these three months; and I fear we shall leave her so: her poems are generally greatly liked: there are, indeed, a few severe critics (who think that judgment is only shewn in finding faults) that say they are not poetic; and a few fine ladies, who are not commended in them, that complain they are dull.

I am very sorry Dr. Delany has given up his house in Dublin; for one cannot, as often as one may wish it, command time and a coach to visit him at Delville. I hope though to be admitted into the new apartment, and to have the happiness of meeting you there.

My brother is highly honoured in the character you give him, which, though he is my brother, I must say I think a very just one: he will deliver you this letter, and with it my best thanks for all your favours; being, Sir, with the highest gratitude, Your most obliged obedient servant,

H. DONNELLAN. My best respects attend Dr. Delany and Dr. Helsham.

TO MR. POPE.

May 12, 1735.

YOUR letter was sent me yesterday by Mr. Stopford,* who landed the same day, but I have not yet seen him. As to my silence, God knows it is my great misfortune. My little domestic affairs are in great confusion by the villainy of agents, and the miseries of this kingdom, where there is no money to be had nor am I unconcerned to see all things tending towards absolute power in both nations, (it is here in perfection already,) although I shall not live to see it established. This condition of things, both public, and personal to myself, has given me such a kind of despondency, that I am almost unqualified for any company, diversion, or amusement. The death of Mr. Gay and the Doctor, have been terrible wounds near my heart. Their living would have been a great comfort to me, although I should never have seen them; like a sum of money in a bank, from which I should receive at least annual interest, as I do from you, and have done from my Lord Bolingbroke. To shew in how much ignorance I live, it is hardly a fortnight since I heard of the death of my Lady Masham, my constant friend in all changes of times. God forbid that I should expect you to make a voyage that would in the least affect your health: but in the meantime how unhappy am I, that my best friend should have perhaps the only kind of disorder, for which a sea-voyage is not in some degree a remedy. The old Duke of Ormond said, he would not change his dead son

* Afterwards Bishop of Cloyne.