Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 1 (of 2)

The Russian Ambassador in London.

Footnote_254_254

Probably the Cambridges of Twickenham.

Footnote_255_255

ibbon was M.P. for Liskeard.

Footnote_256_256

Parliament was dissolved on September 30, "six months before its natural death… The chief motive is supposed to be the ugly state of North America, and the effects that a cross winter might have on the next elections" (Walpole to Mann, October 6, 1774). The result of the elections was, on the whole, favourable to Lord North.

Footnote_257_257

Lord G. Cavendish and Godfrey Bagnal Clarke were elected members for Derbyshire.

Footnote_258_258

Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, with Lord G. H. Lennox, was returned for Sussex.

Footnote_259_259

On March 7, 1770, a Bill for regulating the proceedings of the House of Commons on controverted elections was introduced, and became law in April, 1770. It was subsequently known as the Grenville Act, from its chief supporter, George Grenville. The decision of controverted elections was under the Act transferred from the committee of the whole House to a select committee specially chosen for each case. Originally passed for five years, it was made perpetual in 1774.

Footnote_260_260

John Wilkes was elected Lord Mayor, October 8, 1774.

Footnote_261_261

Sir James Peachy, Bart., was bottom of the poll for Sussex.

Footnote_262_262

I.e. Mr. Isaac Holroyd and Miss Sarah Holroyd.

Footnote_263_263

The new Parliament met November 29, 1774.

Footnote_264_264

Lord Clive died November 22, 1774.

Footnote_265_265

Sir Fletcher Norton was re-elected speaker, November 29, 1774.

Footnote_266_266

James Whitshed, M.P. for Cirencester.

Footnote_267_267

The Address was carried on December 5, 1774. An amendment, claiming the fullest information on American affairs, was moved in the Lower House by Lord John Cavendish.

Footnote_268_268

David Hartley, M.P. for Kingston-upon-Hull.

Footnote_269_269

Sir W. Maine, Bart., of Gatton Park, Surrey, M.P. for Canterbury.

Footnote_270_270

Sir Thomas Miller, Bart., of Chichester, M.P. for Lewes.

Footnote_271_271

Benjamin Lethieullier, at this time M.P. for Andover, whom Gibbon met at Up Park in 1762, was brother to Lady Featherstonhaugh, and a relation of Smart Lethieullier, the antiquary.

Footnote_272_272

Israel Mauduit, pamphleteer and woollen-draper, best known for his Considerations on the Present German War (1760), was agent for Massachusetts Bay. It was on his application that Wedderburn was heard before the Privy Council, in answer to the petition for the recall of Hutchinson and Oliver.

Footnote_273_273

"Lawyer Batt," whose name often occurs in these letters, was John Thomas Batt, of Newhall near Salisbury, successively a Master in Chancery, and a Commissioner for the auditing of the Public Accounts. He was a "prime favourite" of Miss Burney, and a friend of Walpole, Lord Malmsbury, and Sir J. Reynolds.

Footnote_274_274

Delegates from eleven Colonies met at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, and constituted themselves a Congress. A Declaration of Rights was drawn up, in which it was shown that recent Acts of Parliament had infringed those rights. Resolutions were passed to suspend all imports from, or exports to, Great Britain and Ireland and their dependencies, till American grievances were redressed. An association was formed to carry out these resolutions and on October 26 Congress dissolved.

Footnote_275_275

Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts, and Andrew Oliver, Lieutenant-Governor, had corresponded with a private friend in England, Thomas Whately, formerly secretary to George Grenville. Their letters were purloined and placed in the hands of Franklin, who sent copies to the House of Assembly of Massachusetts. The House petitioned for their recall in consequence of the language they had used in these letters. The petition was dismissed by the Privy Council. Hutchinson, however, returned home early in 1774. He had already published (1764-68) two volumes of his History of the Colony of Massachusetts. He died in 1789, at the age of seventy-eight. The third volume of his history was published from his manuscripts in 1828.

Footnote_276_276

The work in question is La verdadera Hystoria del rey Don Rodrigo: compuesta por Abulcacim Tarif Abentarique. Nuevamente traduzida de la lengua Arabiga por M. de L[una]. In two parts. Granada, 1592-1600, 8vo. It was really written by Miguel de Luna, and, as Gibbon points out, the Arabic MS. is imaginary. The book was translated into English as The Life of Almanzor, translated into Spanish by M. de Luna. London, 1693. 8vo.

Footnote_277_277

Probably a nephew of Mr. Benjamin Way, of Denham, Mrs. Holroyd's brother, who married Miss Elizabeth Cooke.

Footnote_278_278