The Press.
London, England, 1857-04-25 00:00:00

Wales, and died mad, 9 Feb., 1781. She was buried at
Kensington. " If the new servant of the Princess is the
Miss l'itt I know, lam sorry for it. lam afraid I know
her very well....she hos wit, but—."—Lady Mary IV.
Montagu to her daughter, Sept. 10, 1733. Compare
Walpole's " Memoirs of George III.," vol. i., p. 85, and
Walyule's note on letter to Mann of Oct. 27, 1733.
CUNNINGHAM.

That characterisation of " Dame Anne Pitt"
(as she was eAlled in the Civil List) is too
curt. Lord Bolingbroke said that he had
never met any person with such natural
eloquence ; and she had talents far above
ordinary women. Her insight into the defects
of her great brother proved her to be a woman
of deep penetration. The tact of her dying
mad is circumstantial evidence (with other
facts) that the Great Commoner may be sup-
posed to have been not sane on some occa-
sions.

Alluding to the death of Mr. Pelham, Wal-
pole writes, "He is certainly dead far from
" rich," and Mr. Cunningham subjoins:—

Walpole, almost the only author who has treated the
memory of Mr. Pe'ham with disrespect, mentions to his
honour, " that he lived without abusing his power, and
died poor." See " MCmoires," vol. i. p. 322. Bv this ex-
pression, says Coze, the reader will be reminded of a
curious coincidence, in the concluding lines of the
eulogiuni inscribed on the base of Mr. Pitt's statue, by his
friend and pupil, the Right Honourable George Canning,
"Dispensing, fur more than twenty years, the favours of
the Crown, ho lived without ostentation, and he died
poor."—lVilloter. And will remind others of the alder-
man who suggested an alteration in Canning'a epitaph on
Pitt of the expression poor into " indifferent circuit).
wances."—Ct7NNINGHAJI.

That is a superfluous note. The phrase of
Canning, " He died poor," is an imitation, or
rather translation, from ancient eloquence.
On a monument in " the City" it was, certainly,
a nobly bold expression.
The following note is worth having. On
the mention of Sir Thomas Bootle's name in
the text the editor says :

Sir Thomas Bootle, knight, Chancellor and Keeper of
the Great Seal, to Frederick, Prince of Wales. He died
23 December, 1753. He had lent the Prince large sums
of m mey which were never repaid: King George 111. re.
membering, it is said, his father's debt, promised a peerage
to Sir Thomas's great nephew, Edward Bootle Wilbraham,
but never made road his promise. But the promise was
kept in the t ext reign, when in 1828 Edward Bootle
Wilbraham, Esq., was created Baron Skelmersdale, of
Skelmersdale in the county of Lancaster.—CUNNINGHANI.
But it must be recollected that the Wilbraham
family supported Mr. Pitt's Government, and
voted with the Liverpool and Wellington
Ministries—considerations which might have
aided in the (alleged) promise having been
kept.
With his mixture of wit and affectation,
Walpole writes :

Gray says ( very justly), that learning never should be
encouraged, it only draws out fools from their obscurity :
and you know I have always thought a running footman
as meritorious a being as a learned man. Way is there
more merit in having travelled one's eyes over so many
reams of papers, than in having carried one's legs over so
many acres or ground?

It was a trick of Walpole to be witty in a
question. " Why cannot we see history with
as much impartiality as we read it ?" is one
of his questions called to mind by the inter-
rogation in the foregoing passage. On " the
running footman" allusion Mr. Cunningham
subjoins :

Like running footmen before coaches,
To tell the tun whet Lord approaohas.—Swift.
Vpirn snrprised that Mr. Croker (mutiny so well in-
formed in the manners and customs of the English) failed
in finding ont the meaning of a leading coach (see Lord
Hervey's Memoirs.)—C UN N ING HAM.

There is no necessary connection between a
" leading coach " and a " running footman."
We have not the passage from Lord Hervey's
letters before us, but we think that Mr.
Croker will not he much pleased with that
note ; and it might have been better taste in
Mr. Cunningham to have avoided the mention
of his triumphant " surprise."
The new letters in this volume are not of
much importance. Here is the commence-
ment of one to Harry Conway:—

Dear Harry,—When I left London, I piqued myself
upon paying my court to Lady Caroline [Fitzroy] by
some present that should make her think me a reasonable
creature, and capable of entertaining myself without
music, which I don't love, and without seeing a thousand
people for whom I don't care a straw; but having been so
unfortunate as neither to kill a brace of partridges, nor
hook a dish of whitings, I am reduced to flatter her in a
way as extraordinary as the other of recommending one's
self by being natural and unaffected, to a woman who has
been bred up in the kingdom of lierveys,! Diveses, and