NOTES

The Gentlemen trading to the East-Indies, &c.The publisher’s advertisement burlesques a practice of the bookseller John Almon (1737-1805), friend and biographer of John Wilkes, and between the years 1761-81 publisher-in-ordinary to the Whig Opposition. Almon had extensive connections in the American colonies and was the compiler ofThe Remembrancer, 1775-84, a valuable collection of materials relating to the Revolution. In his satire on the French ministry,The Green Box of Monsieur de Sartine, 1779, Tickell represents a French spy in London reporting ruefully:

News-papers, pamphlets, parliamentary debates, remembrancers, and all the infinite variety of periodical libels, under the conduct of our good friend Mr. Almon, leave but a scanty and beaten field of politics for private discovery (pp. 12-13).

Sir Francis Molyneux.Sir Francis Molyneux (d. 1812), Knt.; succeeded his father as seventh Baronet, 1781.

the Speaker.Sir Fletcher Norton (1716-1789), Knt.; M.P. for Guildford; Speaker of the House of Commons, 1770-80; cr. Baron Grantley of Markenfield, 1782.

the merit of those speeches.Since the speech from the throne rarely contains more than generalities, Tickell was able to approximate its substance fairly closely. In the debate on the opening day John Wilkes had the temerity to say that there were only two particulars in the King’s speech to which he could assent: “They are, that we are called together in a conjuncture, which demands our most serious attention, and that a restoration of the blessings of peace ought to be our first wish” (Parliamentary History, XIX, 1334).

the new Attorney General.Alexander Wedderburn (1733-1805), M.P. for Bishop’s Castle; succeeded Edward Thurlow as Attorney-General, June 1778; elevated to the Chief Justiceship of the Common Pleas as Baron Loughborough of Loughborough, 1780; cr. Earl of Rosslyn, 1801. In the spring of 1778 Sir Fletcher Norton, by a threat of impeachment, had blocked Wedderburn’s intrigue to obtain the Chief Justiceship; see Walpole to Mason, 31 May 1778 (Letters, ed. Toynbee, X, 254).

Lord Granby.Charles Manners (1754-1787), second son of the Marquis of Granby famous as a military hero; M.P. for Cambridge University; succeeded his grandfather as fourth Duke of Rutland, 1779.

Pulteny.Sir William Pulteney (1684-1764), Earl of Bath; long the leader of the “patriot” opposition during Sir Robert Walpole’s administration, but politically ruined by his acceptance, upon Walpole’s fall, of an earldom.

Cavendish ... Meredith ... Young.Three supporters of the Whig Opposition: John Cavendish (1732-1796), fourth son of the third Duke of Devonshire, M.P. for York, friend and correspondent of Burke; Sir William Meredith (1725?-1790), third Baronet, M.P. for Liverpool; Sir George Yonge (1731-1812), fifth Baronet, M.P. for Honiton.

that inestimable character of our own times.William Pitt (1708-1778), first Earl of Chatham. The “Great Commoner’s” acceptance of a peerage in 1766 occasioned a storm of popular indignation.

Admiral Keppel ... Vice Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser.Augustus Keppel (1725-1786), second son of the second Earl of Albemarle; M.P. for Windsor; Admiral of the Blue and Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, 1778; cr. Viscount Keppel, 1782. Sir Hugh Palliser (1723-1796), first Baronet; M.P. for Scarborough and a Lord of the Admiralty; Vice-Admiral of the Blue, 1778.

The allusions are to the indecisive action off Ushant between the Channel fleet under Keppel, with Palliser as third in command, and the Brest fleet under D’Orvilliers, 27 July 1778; see Introduction, p. 10. On the third day of the session an altercation broke out in the House of Commons between the two admirals, and a few days later Palliser applied to his colleagues at the Admiralty Board for a court-martial on Keppel. After a protracted trial the court declared Palliser’s charges “malicious and ill-founded.” This verdict so delighted the populace that street riots ensued in which the Admiralty was attacked and Palliser’s house in Pall-Mall was gutted. Palliser was obliged to resign all his public appointments. See Sir G. O. Trevelyan,George the Third and Charles James Fox: The Concluding Part of the American Revolution, New York, 1912-14, I, ch. v.

Philip Stevens, Esq.Philip Stephens (1723-1809), M.P. for Sandwich and First Secretary to the Admiralty; cr. a baronet, 1795.

Mr. George Sutton.George Manners-Sutton (1751-1804), nephew of the famous Marquis of Granby; M.P. for Newark.

Mr. Welbore Ellis.Welbore Ellis (1713-1802), M.P. for Weymouth and Treasurer of the Navy; cr. Baron Mendip of Mendip, 1794; see Introduction, p. 12.

David Hartly, Esq.David Hartley the younger (1732-1813), son of the philosopher; M.P. for Kingston-upon-Hull; publishedLetters on the American War, 1777-79, which critically reviewed the history of British colonial policy; friend and correspondent of Franklin (whose letters he sometimes read in the House of Commons); British plenipotentiary at Paris to negotiate peace with America, 1783. He was the Cassandra of the House and a tireless advocate of peace, but his long-windedness made him disliked. InThe Abbey of Kilkhampton, 1780, Sir Herbert Croft’s satirical garland of epitaphs, Hartley’s epitaph reads as follows (Part II, p. 124):

Here rests,If we may trust the Silence of his Grave,D.... H....y, Esq.His abilities were the Subject of Admiration, and thepublic Utility was the generous Object they hadin view,But⸺he wastroublesome.

Mr. Bamber Gascoyne.Bamber Gascoyne (1725-1791), M.P. for Truro and a Lord of Trade and Plantations. Of this footnote and the speech by Hartley,The London Magazineobserved:

The description of a certain fat member heading the dinner troop and drawing them out of the house, upon a dry, metaphysical, long winded speaker getting up, is truly characteristic; and strangers frequenting the gallery may congratulate themselves on this happy stroke, for it has partly silenced the tedious declaimer, who never considered that if each speaker claimed the same right, to pay no regard to time, a whole session might be passed in adjourned debates fromthreein the afternoon tothreein the morning, day after day (XLVII, 566).

Sir John Irwin.Sir John Irwin (1728-1788), K.B.; M.P. for East Grinstead; Major-General and Commander-in-Chief in Ireland; famous for his sartorial elegance and convivial habits.

Mr. Selwyn.George Augustus Selwyn (1719-1791), M.P. for Gloucester; the celebrated wit and club-man. Though he sat in Parliament for about thirty years, Selwyn was notoriously apathetic towards politics. But since he returned two members besides himself, and always woke up in time to give his vote for the ministers when a division was called, Selwyn was amply rewarded by successive administrations. He was, wrote Sir George Otto Trevelyan,

at one and the same time surveyor-general of crown lands—which he never surveyed—registrar in chancery at Barbadoes—which he never visited—and surveyor of the meltings and clerk of the irons in the mint—where he showed himself once a week in order to eat a dinner which he ordered, but for which the nation paid (The Early History of Charles James Fox, New York, 1881, pp. 94-95).

his Honour Mr. Brudenell.James Brudenell (1725-1811), second son of the third Earl of Cardigan; M.P. for Marlborough; cr. Baron Brudenell of Deene, 1780; succeeded his brother as fifth Earl of Cardigan, 1790.

Mr. Wilkes.John Wilkes (1727-1797), M.P. for Middlesex; the radical politician and hero of the London populace. He had a reputation for facetious wit, and he made a practice of sending his speeches in advance to the newspapers. Wilkes was another, like Fox and Burke, who enjoyed Tickell’s anticipation of his speech. Boswell reported Wilkes as saying to Tickell in April 1779: “Much obliged for your speech for me. If you’ll make me another for next session, I’ll be damn’d if I don’t speak it” (Private Papers of James Boswell, XIII, 231).

Here Sir Grey Cooper caught at a pen.Sir Grey Cooper (1726?-1801), third Baronet; M.P. for Saltash and a Secretary of the Treasury. The allusion is to Lord North’s habit of sleeping through Whig speeches and answering them from the notes of his favorite secretary. The following lines are fromThe London Magazine, XLVIII, 1779, 186:

Whilst B[ur]ke and B[arr]é strain their throatsThe mildSir Greyis taking notes;And, wise as owl, is seencomposing,For the good Premier, who isdozing:Whilst to each patriot’s loudest roarN[or]th answers with a well-tim’dsnore.Till by some shriller trebles vex’d,He discants on thegood Knight’stext.

Whilst B[ur]ke and B[arr]é strain their throats

The mildSir Greyis taking notes;

And, wise as owl, is seencomposing,

For the good Premier, who isdozing:

Whilst to each patriot’s loudest roar

N[or]th answers with a well-tim’dsnore.

Till by some shriller trebles vex’d,

He discants on thegood Knight’stext.

magic plates.Hartley had invented an arrangement of thin iron strips to be placed as a lining under floors and above ceilings to prevent fire. An anonymous handbill of four quarto pages, dated July 1776 and calledAn Account of Some Experiments Made with the Fire-Plates, Together with a Description of the Manner of Application, and an Estimate of the Expence, contains newspaper accounts of unsuccessful attempts to burn a house near Reading equipped with Hartley’s plates.

the Noble Lord, who presided in the American department.George Sackville Germain (1716-1785), called Lord George Germain, third son of the first Duke of Dorset; M.P. for East Grinstead and Secretary of State forColonies; cr. Viscount Sackville, 1782. As minister in charge of military operations in America, Germain bore the brunt of frequent and savage onslaughts by Opposition. His famous Kentish holiday, which delayed dispatches to Sir William Howe in New York, was long supposed to have caused Burgoyne’s defeat at Saratoga; Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice,Life of William, Earl of Shelburne, 1875-76, I, 358-359; but cf. Troyer Steele Anderson,The Command of the Howe Brothers during the American Revolution, New York, 1936, ch. xiv. Germain’s resignation was forced in January 1782, two months before North’s government fell.

the Earl of Bute.John Stuart (1713-1792), third Earl of Bute; favorite of George III in the early years of the reign; First Lord of the Treasury, 1762-63, but forced to resign on account of his unpopularity, to which the anti-Scots propaganda of Wilkes largely contributed. Lord North was popularly regarded as the political heir of Lord Bute.

one North Briton.George Johnstone; see last note on this page.

Mr. Laurens.Henry Laurens (1724-1792), of South Carolina; President of Congress, 1777-78. The quoted phrases that follow are from Johnstone’s letter to Laurens, 10 June 1778, soliciting a private interview. This letter, with Laurens’ answer, was promptly made public by Congress.

Ethan Allen.Ethan Allen (1738-1789), famous for his partisan exploits as leader of the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont; surprised and took Fort Ticonderoga, May 1775; a captive in England, Canada, and New York, September 1775-May 1778; author of a deistic treatise,Reason the Only Oracle of Man, Bennington, Vermont, 1784.

Dr. Adam Ferguson.Adam Ferguson (1723-1816), LL.D.; Professor of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh; secretary to the British commissioners to treat with America, 1778.

Sir John Dalrymple.Sir John Dalrymple (1726-1810), fourth Baronet; author of the ToryMemoirs of Great Britain and Ireland.From the Dissolution of the Last Parliament of Charles II until the Sea-Battle off La Hogue, 1771, the design of which (according to Horace Walpole) was “to degrade & blacken the brightest names in English Story, & more particularly the Protomartyrs of the Revolution, Lord Russel & Algernon Sydney” (Satirical Poems Published Anonymously by William Mason with Notes by Horace Walpole, ed. Paget Toynbee, Oxford, 1926, p. 115).

the great Sidney.Algernon Sidney (1622-1683), son of the second Earl of Leicester; tried before Jeffreys and executed, December 1683, for complicity in the Rye House Plot to murder Charles II and the Duke of York.

Governor Johnson.George Johnstone (1730-1787), M.P. for Appleby; formerly Governor of West Florida; one of North’s commissioners to treatwith America; see Introduction, p. 9. His conduct as commissioner was quarrelsome, clumsy, and ineffectual; Carl Van Doren,Secret History of the American Revolution, New York, 1941, pp. 96-104. Of his speech on the opening day of the session Walpole reported:

Governor Johnston made a strange, unintelligible speech (it was impossible for him to make a clear one without condemning himself); he endeavoured to wipe off some of his attempt to bribe some of the Congress, yet owned at much as he denied, condemned and approved the march to Philadelphia, and rather insinuated blame on Keppel than on anybody else. He was soon after called upon in several newspapers to say, whether he did not still retain his pay of Commissioner, though he had so long quitted the office. He made no answer—consequently was by that sinecure retained by the Court (Last Journals, II, 209).

Mons. D’Estaign.Jean-Baptiste-Charles-Henri-Hector, Comte d’Estaing (1729-1794), French admiral in command in American waters, 1778-80.

a noble Lord opposite to me.Richard, Lord Howe; see below, note to p. 34.

D’Estaign’s fleet ought to have been attacked.In August Howe pursued D’Estaing to Newport, but a storm prevented an engagement.

Byron’s squadron.John Byron (1723-1786), Vice-Admiral; sailed from Plymouth with a squadron in pursuit of D’Estaing, June 1778; his ships joined Howe’s fleet piecemeal during the summer.

Lord Howe.Richard Howe (1726-1799), fourth Viscount Howe in the peerage of Ireland; M.P. for Dartmouth; Vice-Admiral; Commander-in-Chief on the North American station, 1776-78; resigned his command because of discontent with the ministry, September 1778; cr. an English peer, 1782, and Earl Howe, 1788.

Mr. Rigby.Richard Rigby (1722-1788), M.P. for Tavistock and Paymaster of the Forces. Reputed to have derived immense profits from his office during the American war, Rigby served as the model for Disraeli’s corrupt politician of the same name inConingsby, 1844.

Mr. T. Townsend.Thomas Townshend (1733-1800), nephew of the third Viscount Townshend; M.P. for Whitchurch, 1754-83; cr. Baron Sydney of Chislehurst, 1783, and Viscount Sydney, 1789, the city in Australia being named for him. He was one of the most voluble and pertinacious speakers in debates. His contemptuous reference in the House of Commons to Johnson’spension earned Townshend a passing glance in Goldsmith’sRetaliation, where Burke is said to be,

Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throatTo persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote.

Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat

To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote.

the blunders of Administration, with respect to Falkland’s Islands, &c.Townshend views with alarm an assortment of the events, momentous and trivial, that had agitated the public mind in the preceding decade.

As toFalkland’s Islands, west of the southern tip of South America, a dispute over their possession nearly brought on war between Great Britain and Spain in 1770-71. After a display of force by Spain and a demand for restitution by the British government, diplomatic exchanges resulted in a conciliation that was unpopular in England (The Annual Registerfor 1771, “History of Europe,” chs. i-v). At the request of the ministers, Dr. Johnson wrote a spirited defence of their conduct,Thoughts on the Late Transactions respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771.

TheMiddlesex Electionwas a remarkable exploit in the career of John Wilkes, who in 1768 returned from France still an outlaw for his offence inNorth BritonNo. 45, and was elected to Parliament for the county of Middlesex. Expelled before he could take his seat, he was thrice re-elected and as many times expelled. After his fourth victory at the polls Parliament declared his opponent, the ministerial candidate, duly elected. This breach of electoral rights led to street-rioting, protracted debates in and out of Parliament, and, eventually, the formation of a Radical party. See Horace Bleackley,Life of John Wilkes, 1917, chs. xii-xiii.

The revolt ofCorsicaunder Pasquale Paoli against the French, who had purchased the island from Genoa in 1768, won wide public sympathy in England. The leading advocate of British intervention in favor of the Corsicans was James Boswell. See Chauncey Brewster Tinker,Nature’s Simple Plan, Princeton, 1922, ch. ii.

Themassacre in St. George’s Fields, 10 May 1768, occurred when a crowd of London citizens waiting for Wilkes to attend the opening of Parliament taunted a detachment of foot-guards into firing on them. Several persons were killed and about a dozen wounded. This “massacre” was the forerunner and partly the inspiration of that in King Street, Boston, two years later.

Mr. Horne’s imprisonmentresulted from the zeal of that radical parson in the cause of America. The Rev. John Horne (1736-1812), afterwards Horne Tooke, wrote and circulated an advertisement for the Constitutional Society, June 1775, stating that 100l.was to be raised for “the relief of the widows, orphans, and aged parents of our beloved American fellow-subjects, who, faithful to the character of Englishmen, preferring death to slavery, were, for that reason only, inhumanly murdered by the king’s troops” at Lexington and Concord on the 19th of April. In July 1777 Horne was brought totrial before Lord Mansfield, found guilty, and in November sentenced to a year’s imprisonment and a fine of 200l.(The Annual Registerfor 1777, “Appendix to the Chronicle,” pp. 234-245).

Thefatal example of the Justitiais an allusion to theJustitiahulk, a convict-ship stationed at Woolwich by an act of 1776 for the purpose of dredging the Thames.

Thefrequent exhibition of the Beggar’s Operaevidently alludes to remarks by Townshend that had excited mirth in a debate on a bill for licensing a play-house in Birmingham, 29 April 1777. Townshend opposed the bill because, he said,

He had heard from good authority that the theatre licensed at Manchester, in consequence of a similar application, had done a great deal of mischief already: nor could it be wondered at, if we consider what pieces are sometimes represented, which, not being new, are not subject to the controul of the Lord Chamberlain: the Beggar’s Opera, for instance, which had brought more unhappy people to the gallows, than any one thing he could name. As to the country gentlemen, surely this was not such an age of domestic retirement, but what they might find sufficient amusement in visiting their neighbours in the summer, without wanting to frequent a theatre.... Considering, then, the circumstances of Birmingham as a great manufacturing and trading town, depending on the industry and frugality of the poorer class of people, he was of opinion it would be highly improper to license any theatre there (Parliamentary History, XIX, 202).

Is Omiah to pay us another visit?Omiah or Omai, a native of Otaheite (Tahiti), was brought to England in 1774 by Captain Tobias Furneaux of theAdventure. As the first South Sea Islander ever seen in England, Omiah made a stir in fashionable and literary society, sat for his portrait to the most eminent artists, and was the subject of countless newspaper paragraphs and several pamphlet poems. There are well-known lines by Cowper on Omiah in the first book ofThe Task, 1785:

The dream is past; and thou hast found againThy cocoas and bananas, palms and yams,And homestall thatch’d with leaves. But hast thou foundTheir former charms? And, having seen our state,Our palaces, our ladies, and our pompOf equipage, our gardens, and our sports,And heard our music; are thy simple friends,Thy simple fare, and all thy plain delights,As dear to thee as once?

The dream is past; and thou hast found again

Thy cocoas and bananas, palms and yams,

And homestall thatch’d with leaves. But hast thou found

Their former charms? And, having seen our state,

Our palaces, our ladies, and our pomp

Of equipage, our gardens, and our sports,

And heard our music; are thy simple friends,

Thy simple fare, and all thy plain delights,

As dear to thee as once?

Sir Harry Clinton.Sir Henry Clinton (1738?-1795), K.B.; Major-General; succeeded Sir William Howe as Commander-in-Chief in America, May 1778.

Mr. Vyner.Robert Vyner (1717-1799), M.P. for Lincoln. He was, said Nathaniel Wraxall, a gentleman of large property in Lincolnshire, whose person suggested “the portraits of ‘Hudibras’” (Historical and Posthumous Memoirs ... 1772-1784, ed. H. B. Wheatley, 1884, V, 203).

his offer of fifteen shillings in the pound.In a debate on the budget, 3 May 1775, Vyner defended the motives of the country gentlemen in supporting the ministers’ coercive American policy. He said, in part:

In support of such a cause ... he was willing to pay not only 4s. but 14s. in the pound: and as he entertained not a single doubt but we should prevail in the contest, we ought to oblige America to pay the expence she had wantonly put us to, and which would likewise enable us to bring back our quondam peace establishment, that of a land-tax of 2s. in the pound (Parliamentary History, XVIII, 625).

a great statesman had once boasted, &c.William Pitt the elder, during the Seven Years’ War.

Mr. Van.Charles Van, prior to his death, in April 1778, M.P. for Brecon.

Hon. T. Luttrel.Temple Simon Luttrell (d. 1803), third son of the first Earl of Carhampton; M.P. for Milborne Port. A florid orator, Luttrell was always pertinacious in debates on naval affairs. Tickell’s parody perhaps reflects an interminable speech on the state of the navy, 11 March 1778, in which Luttrell described the timber used for ship-repairs as so “singularly spungy and porous” that “your seamen ... are frequently set afloat in their hammocks, from the water soaking in, over-head, through the planks,” related an instance of a seaman’s driving his fist, “without much pain to his knuckles,” through the hull of a man-of-war, and entered into a detail of the twenty-four invasions of Great Britain and Ireland since the Norman Conquest (Parliamentary History, XIX, 874-892).

the noble Earl who is now at the head of that department.John Montagu (1718-1792), fourth Earl of Sandwich; First Lord of the Admiralty. Sandwich was notorious for the dissoluteness of his private life.

Regattaites.Not a tribe or nation, but participants in the summer regattas on the Thames. InThe Annual Registerfor 1775 appears “Some Account of the new Entertainment, called aRegatta, introduced fromVeniceintoEngland, in the Course of the Year 1775,” from which the following sentences are extracted:

Before five o’clock, Westminster bridge was covered with spectators, in carriages and on foot, and men even placed themselves in the bodies of the lamp-irons. Plans of the regatta were sold from a shilling to a penny each, and songs on the occasion sung, in whichRegattawas the rhyme forRanelagh, andRoyal Familyechoed toLiberty.... Before six o’clock it was a perfect fair on both sides the water, and bad liquor, with short measure, was plentifully retailed.... The Thames was now a floating town. All the cutters, sailing-boats, &c. in short, every thing, from the dung-barge to the wherry, was in motion (“Appendix to the Chronicle,” pp. 216, 217).

the Captain of the Licorne.TheLicornefrigate, encountered and detained by Admiral Keppel on the 17th of June, yielded Keppel information respecting the strength of the French fleet.

the wretched deficiency in our late naval equipments.War-profiteering is not of recent origin; in the Eighteenth Century the loose organization of finance and supply in both services gave large opportunities to contractors and commissaries. “You must not think of persuading us that you are no gainer,” Lord Loudoun remarked to Benjamin Franklin when the latter sought reimbursement for outlays in connection with Braddock’s expedition in 1755; “we understand better those affairs, and know that every one concerned in supplying the army finds means, in the doing it, to fill his own pockets” (Franklin,Writings, ed. A. H. Smyth, New York, 1905-07, I, 430). Satirists frequently exposed this form of parasitism. Samuel Foote produced a comedy calledThe Commissaryin 1765. In Sheridan’sThe Camp, 1778, the commissary Gage supplied a regiment with lime (which he dug himself, at no expense) instead of hair-powder. It did very well, he reported, while the weather was fine, but when a shower came up the troops’ heads were all slacked in an instant. “I stood a near chance of being tied up to the halberts; but I excused myself by saying, they looked only like raw recruits before; but now they appeared like old veterans of service” (I, i).

Mr. Penton.Henry Penton (1736-1812), M.P. for Winchester and a Lord of the Admiralty.

a certain Great Personage.On their tour of the militia camps at Winchester and Salisbury in September, the King and Queen “alighted at Mr. Penton’s house [in Winchester], where they were waited on by the Mayor and Corporation” (The Annual Registerfor 1778, “Appendix to the Chronicle,” p. 235).

Mr. Burke.Edmund Burke (1729-1797), M.P. for Bristol. The dominant theme of Burke’s speech, “the ruin of this declining empire” was a favorite one among anti-ministerial orators, pamphleteers, and poets during the Revolution. Soon after the appearance, in 1781, of the second and third volumes of Gibbon’sDecline and Fall, Thomas Powys, M.P. for Northamptonshire,read extracts from that work in a debate on a motion for putting an end to the American war. Powys ventured to say that the description of Rome in the Fifth Century by Mr. Gibbon,

whose enrolment in the administration was the only accession of which his Majesty’s ministers had to boast, ... was so strong, so expressive, so applicable, that though it was said to belong to Rome, he could not help thinking that it alluded to a nearer country, and a nearer period (Parliamentary History, XXII, 805).

the pageantry of domestic warfare.An allusion to the vogue of the militia encampments as places of fashionable resort.

important depredations at—Martha’s Island.Early in September Major-General Grey, under orders from Sir Henry Clinton, invested Martha’s Vineyard and carried off “a considerable and most desirable contribution, consisting of 10,000 sheep, and 300 oxen, for the public service at New York” (The Annual Registerfor 1779, “History of Europe,” p. 2).

Mr Dunning.John Dunning (1731-1783), M.P. for Calne; the leading Whig lawyer in the House of Commons; cr. Baron Ashburton of Ashburton, 1782.

Mr. Sollicitor-General.James Wallace (d. 1783), M.P. for Horsham; succeeded Wedderburn as Solicitor-General, June 1778.

Mr Fox.Charles James Fox (1749-1806), third son of the first Baron Holland; M.P. for Malmesbury and leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. Either out of personal regard for Fox or at the request of Lord North, Tickell does not burlesque Fox’s oratory. It is stated in the review ofAnticipationinThe Town and Country Magazinethat Fox’s speech actually “was noticed by that gentleman in the house, who, at the same time, lamented his incapacity of making so good an harangue upon the occasion” (XI, 1779, 45). According to a note in Horace Walpole’s copy ofAnticipation, “Charles Fox said, ‘he has anticipated many things I have intended to say, but I shall say them nevertheless.’”

General Lee.Charles Lee (1731-1782), Lieutenant-Colonel in the British army; appointed Major-General by Congress, 1775; court-martialed and suspended from service for disobedience to orders and misbehavior before the enemy during the battle of Monmouth Court House, June 1778.

the Prince of Brunswick.Either Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick (1721-1792), Commander of the English and Hanoverian forces in the Seven Years’ War; or his nephew, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand (1735-1806), Hereditary Prince of Brunswick, who commanded a division in his uncle’s army. Clinton served in Germany, 1760-63, acting for a time as aide-de-camp to the Hereditary Prince.

the noble Lord who planned that expedition.Lord George Germain; see above, note to p. 31.

Monsieur Vaugelin.Not further identified. The name is unusual and may be misspelled.

Colonel Tufnell.George Foster Tufnell. (1725-1798), M.P. for Beverly and Colonel of the East Middlesex Militia.

their Bavarian contest.The War of the Bavarian Succession, 1778-79, occasioned by the extinction of the electoral house of Bavaria upon the death of Maximilian Joseph.

Lord North.Frederick, Lord North (1732-1792), eldest son of the first Earl of Guilford; M.P. for Banbury; First Lord of the Treasury, 1770-82; succeeded as second Earl of Guilford, 1790; see Introduction,passim.

a great Character.William Pitt, Lord Chatham.

Col. Barré.Isaac Barré (1726-1802), M.P. for Calne. Barré, who had served with Wolfe in America, was a devoted friend of the colonists and in Parliament was regarded as a master of invective and the special antagonist of Lord North. North had his revenge inAnticipation; see Introduction, p. 12.

the Indians, headed by Col. Butler, began their rapine in Cherry Valley.John Butler (1725-1796), Indian agent under the Johnsons in the Mohawk Valley; Lieutenant-Colonel of Militia, 1768; Major in command of Butler’s Rangers, 1777. Under his leadership parties of Loyalists and their Indian allies of the Six Nations systematically harried the back settlements in New York and Pennsylvania during the Revolution. Their raids reached a peak of frequency and destructiveness in the early summer of 1778, the notorious “Wyoming Massacre” occurring 3-4 July. None of the settlements mentioned by Barré had been attacked at the time his informant is supposed to have written; but rumors were rife on the frontier as well as at the Poughkeepsie headquarters of theContinental Army; and the worst fears of the settlers were realized when Butler’s son, Captain Walter Butler, together with the Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, sacked the village of Cherry Valley on the 11th of November. See Howard Swiggett,War out of Niagara: Walter Butler and the Tory Rangers, New York, 1933, chs. vi-vii.

Gen. Carlton.Guy Carleton (1724-1808), Lieutenant-General; Governor of Quebec, 1775-78; requested his recall because of differences with Lord George Germain, May 1777; cr. Baron Dorchester of Dorchester (Oxford), 1786.

Miss Macrea.Jane MacCrea, daughter of a Tory clergyman residing near Fort Edward on the upper Hudson, was scalped by a marauding party of Burgoyne’s Indian allies, 27 July 1777. This incident, about which a mass of romantic legend soon grew up, proved highly embarrassing to Burgoyne and the Administration.

no Secretary of War in this house.“Ld Barrington [William Wildman Barrington (1717-1793), second Viscount] was out of Parliament, and no successor was then appointed” (note by Horace Walpole in his copy ofAnticipation). Barrington, Secretary at War since 1765, had given notice of his retirement in the previous May; in December Charles Jenkinson was named his successor.

Mons. Neckar.Jacques Necker (1732-1804), Director-General of Finances in the French government, 1777-81; famous for his fiscal and administrative reforms.

Monsieur Bouillé.The island of Dominica, ceded by France to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris, 1763, was retaken, 7 September 1778, by the French under the command of the Marquis de Bouillé (1739-1800), Governor of Martinique.

the Pacte de Famille.The defensive alliance formed in 1761 among the Bourbon states of France, Spain, and the Two Sicilies.

Count Almodovar.Pedro Jiménez de Góngora, Marquès (later Duque) de Almodóvar (d. 1794), Spanish Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s, 1778-79.

Don Francisco Buccarelli.Spanish Governor of Buenos Aires who ordered the expedition against the Falkland Islands that led to the surrender of the English garrison at Port Egmont, June 1770, and aroused great indignation in England; see above, note to p. 36, on Falkland’s Islands. Probably a member of the family of Bucareli y Ursúa, of Seville, several of whom held high military and colonial posts at that period.

Count Cobentzel.This may refer either to Johann Philipp, Graf von Cobenzl (1741-1810), Austrian statesman who drafted the Peace of Teschen, 1779; orto his cousin, Johann Ludwig Joseph, Graf von Cobenzl (1753-1809), Austrian Ambassador to the Court of Catherine II, 1779-97.

Baron Reidesdel.Joseph Herman, Baron Riedesel (1740-1785), Prussian diplomat, traveler, and archeologist.

Duke de Chartres.Louis-Philippe-Joseph de Bourbon (1747-1793), Duc de Chartres, son of the Duc d’Orléans, whom he succeeded, 1785; later known as Philippe Égalité.

Monsieur de Sartine.Antoine-Raimond-Jean-Gualbert-Gabriel de Sartine (1729-1801), Comte d’Alby, French statesman; Lieutenant-General of Police, 1759-74; Minister of Marine, 1774-80. He was satirized in Tickell’sGreen Box of Monsieur de Sartine, 1779; see Bibliography, pp. 88-90.

Il alte se volto, &c.This defies translation. Tickell perhaps deliberately garbled Barré’s Italian.

Alderman Oliver’s letter.Richard Oliver (1734?-1784), Alderman of Billingsgate Ward and M.P. for the City of London; remembered for his defiance of the House of Commons in the case of the printer Millar, for which he was committed to the Tower, 1771. On 6 September 1778 Oliver wrote a letter, soon published in the papers, declining nomination as Lord Mayor and quitting his seat in Parliament in view of a prospective visit to his property in Antigua, W.I., which he feared stood in danger of seizure by France;The Annual Registerfor 1778, “Chronicle,” pp. 200-201.

Mr. H. Stanley.Hans Stanley (1720?-1780), M.P. for Southampton, Governor of the Isle of Wight, and Cofferer of the Household. He had lived for some years in France and was regarded as an authority on the affairs of that nation.

Mr. Byng.George Byng (1735-1789), nephew of the third Viscount Torrington; M.P. for Wigan. An ardent supporter of Fox, he here acts in the role of party whip.

Mr. Robinson.John Robinson (1727-1802), M.P. for Harwich and a Secretary of the Treasury. A favorite of George III’s, Robinson managed the Treasury boroughs and served as the King’s personal agent in Parliament. InThe Castle of Infamy, 1780, an anonymous satirist describes

how Rob[in]son’s quick EyeControll’d thepension’d, plac’d, expectant Fry....At his shrewd Look, his pregnant Nod, or Wink,The Spirits of all Parties rise or sink.

how Rob[in]son’s quick Eye

Controll’d thepension’d, plac’d, expectant Fry....

At his shrewd Look, his pregnant Nod, or Wink,

The Spirits of all Parties rise or sink.

the Fermeurs Generaux.TheFermiers-Générauxwere the body of French officials who, under theAncien Régime, leased as a concession the collection of taxes.

Gen. Conway.Henry Seymour Conway (1721-1795), second son of the first Baron Conway; M.P. for Bury St. Edmunds; General; Governor of Jersey; cousin and correspondent of Horace Walpole.

Admiral Barrington.Samuel Barrington (1729-1800), fifth son of the first Viscount Barrington; Rear-Admiral; Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies until superseded by Byron in January 1779.

Count Broglio.Victor-François, Duc de Broglie (1718-1804), Marshal of France; appointed Commander-in-Chief on the Coasts on the Ocean, May 1778.

Mr Sawbridge.John Sawbridge (1732?-1795), Radical M.P. for the City of London; an intimate of John Wilkes’, and active in founding the Society of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights.

Sister Macauly.Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay (1731-1791), afterwards Mrs. Graham, sister of the foregoing; republican bluestocking; wroteThe History of England from the Accession of James I to That of the Brunswick Line, 1763-83, much praised and damned in its day for its republicanism; visited America and stopped with Washington for ten days, 1785. Dr. Johnson took satisfaction in having exposed her principles by once desiring her to invite her footman to sit at table with her;Boswell’s Johnson, ed. Hill and Powell, I, 447.

Warley-Common.In Essex, where one of the militia camps was situated.

a majority of 261 to 148.The motion for the amendment to the address was rejected on the opening day of the session by a vote of 226 to 107, an indication that the House was less crowded than had been expected.

Mr Charles Townshend.Charles Townshend (1728-1810), nephew of the third Viscount Townshend; M.P. for Yarmouth; cr. Baron Bayning of Foxley, 1797.

Mr Charles Turner.Charles Turner (1726?-1803), M.P. for York; cr. a baronet, 1782. He was a staunch Whig and according to Nathaniel Wraxall “one of the most eccentric men who ever sat in Parliament” (Historical and Posthumous Memoirs, II, 267).

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