I long for some of your conversation in country air, and am ever, with the greatest truth and esteem, sir, Your, &c., Steele shall write to you by the next post. J. ADDISON. DEAR SIR, ADDISON TO WORTLEY MONTAGU. Whitehall, May 1st, 1708. I am infinitely obliged to you for your kind letter, but am afraid that the present posture of affairs in our office will not let me have the happiness I proposed to myself of passing part of the summer in your company. My brother Hopkins is aiming at the House of Commons, and therefore desired me to take out my month in the country as soon as I can, that he may be at leisure to push his interest there in its season. At the same time I am very much disposed to go to the Bath, where I hope to put myself in good humour for the rest of the year, and gain as much benefit by the waters as a friend of mine did about a twelvemonth ago. I wish your inclination would determine you to the same place, or that, going thither or coming back, I might have the honour of waiting on you; for I hope you don't think it a compliment when I assure you that I value your conversation more than any man's living, and am with the greatest truth and esteem, Sir, your most affectionate friend, and most obedient servant, I think of setting out the latter end of the next week with Col. Frowde in a coach that we shall hire for ourselves to the Bath. SIR, ADDISON TO AMBROSE PHILLIPS. [Cockpit,] July 8th, 1708. I am very much obliged to you for your two kind letters, and glad that all things are likely to go on to your satisfaction. I have just time to congratulate with you on our last great victory, and can add nothing to your account of it published this night by authority. The enclosed letter I received for you, but paid postage because it did not come I have not under my cover any otherwise, as you see. made the use that I designed of your kind offer of lodgings on occasion; the same reason obliges me to be shorter in my letter to you than otherwise I might have been. I am, with the greatest sincerity, Sir, your most affectionate And most humble servant, J. ADDISON. ADDISON TO [? AMBROSE PHILLIPS.]1 DEAR SIR, July 15th, 1708. I am The enclosed will, I hope, make amends for the cover to it. I send you with it a Ballad fresh from the Kit: but which has the good fortune to please the Wits. always in haste, but with great truth and esteem, Sir, your most faithful Humble servant, J. ADDISON. ADDISON TO THE EARL OF MANCHESTER. MY LORD, Cockpit, July 23rd, 1708, O. S. I make bold to congratulate your Lordship on the appearance of so honourable a conclusion, as your Lordship is putting to your dispute with the senate of Venice. had the pleasure to-day of hearing your Lordship's conduct in this affair very much applauded by some of our first peers. We had an unlucky business, about two days ago, that befell the Muscovite ambassador, who was arrested going out of his house, and rudely treated by the bailiffs.2 He was This letter has no superscription, and is merely endorsed, Joseph Addison, 1708, resp. July 18. It was presumed by its late possessor to have been addressed to Ambrose Phillips, but without any apparent authority. The endorsement is in the same hand-writing as the letter dated Sept. 4th, 1708, which is evidently not to Phillips, and like this may have been to Steele. 2 The Russian ambassador appears to have demanded, in reparation of the indignity offered him, the lives of the bailiffs by whom his privileges had been violated; but this mode of adjudicating such matters not being according to English custom, he was obliged to content himself with apologies. The affront however caused so great a sensation in Russia, that it was deemed necessary to send an Ambassador Extraordinary (Lord Whitworth) to appease the Czar. then upon his departure for his own country, and the sum under a hundred pounds that stopped him; and what makes the business the worse, he has been punctual in his payments, and had given order that this very sum should be paid the day after. However, as .he is very well convinced that the government entirely disapproves such a proceeding, there are no ill consequences apprehended from it. Your Lordship knows that the privileges of ambassadors are under very little regulation in England, and I believe that a bill will be promoted in the next parliament for setting them. upon a certain foot; at least, it is what we talk of in both offices on this occasion. DEAR SIR, I am, my Lord, &c. ADDISON TO WORTLEY MONTAGU. [Cockpit,] August 17th, 1708. The last time I had the honour to see you, I was in so much haste that I could not tell you I had been talking of you tête à tête to my Lord Halifax that day, who expressed himself with a great deal of friendship and esteem. I have not yet made the grand experiments. We think here as you do in the country, that France is on her last legs. By a mail just now arrived, we hear that the Duke of Marlborough had made a movement to prevent the junction of the two armies under the Dukes of Vendome and Berwick. They give out that they will resign all rather than lose Lille, and they are of opinion at the army that we are at the point of a general action, which our friends are very eager upon. There has been an action between the Marshal de Villars and the Duke of Savoy, which the French tell to their advantage; but as soon as our letters come from Switzerland, we hope to have a better account of it: for the French letters own that, immediately after their pretended success, the Duke of Savoy took Exilles. I am, dear sir, your most faithful, DEAR SIR, ADDISON [? TO STEELE.']` [Whitehall,] Sept. 4th, 1708. I send you enclosed an extract of the news that arrived this morning. I am heartily sorry for your sufferings,2 and hope Providence will extricate you at last to your satisfaction. Remember still . . . ne cede malis sed contrà audentior ito Quà sua te fortuna feret. . . . I wish it lay in my power to make your fortune to my wishes, and I am sure you would be as easy as any man in England. Pray let me know the meaning of an obscure expression in the beginning of your last letter, for you may assure yourself I shall not easily pardon you if you conceal any reasons from me why I should have more of your friendship than I am vain enough to think I have already. I despatched your letter to Geneva, but have one lying by me to Mr. Ambrose Philips, but do not know how to fill up the superscription; if you will do it and return it to me, I will hereafter forward it frank. I am, with great truth and esteem, J. ADDISON. STEELE TO MR. KEALLY3 [DUBLIN]. [London,] Jan. 20th, 1709. DEAR SIR, I have your very kind letter of the 1st instant, and am sorry you had not intelligence sooner of Mr. Addison's being Secretary of The original of this letter is now in the possession of Richard Monckton Milnes, Esq., M. P., and has been obligingly communicated to the publisher, for the purposes of the present edition. It is without address, but judging from the date and the contents, it seems very likely to have been to Steele. But as Steele slept at Addison's on the 3rd inst., and appears to have been in daily communication with him, such a letter at the date is somewhat unlikely. The difference however between old and new style may reconcile the difficulty. 2 Mr. Steele appears to have been in great difficulties about this time. He writes, Nov. 26th, 1708, to his lady, "I am, by applying to my adversary, prepared for ending my present calamity; but was denied by my friend (probably Addison)." And on Nov. 30th, "I am making it my business to find out Mr. Huggins, in order to withdraw his officer. Be of good cheer; for I find friendship among the lowest when disappointed by the the highest." It was Mrs. Vandeput his landlady who was then suing him, and "honest Glover" who lent him the money. It appears that he had in the previous year paid Mr. Addison a thousand pounds, borrowed of him some time before, but no doubt by bond on which he was liable for the interest. Steele's Epist. Corr., p. 144, 169, 170, 208. 3 In Steele's Correspondence this gentleman is in one instance addressed State for Ireland.' The same messenger who carried an account of it to the Lords Justices, had a letter for you in Dublin, wherein I told you the happiness your old acquaintance proposed to himself in your friendship and conversation. I have communicated your friendly design to the secretary, relating to his being chosen a member. He gives you his hearty thanks, and desired me to tell you that he believed that matter already provided for. Since he had the honour to be named himself for this post in Ireland, a brother of his 2 has been chosen by the directors of the East India Company Governor of Fort St. George, in the room of Mr. Pitt. I had hopes of succeeding him in this office; but things are ordered otherwise, in favour of the North Britons, one of whom is come into that employment very suddenly. In the mean time something additional will be given to, dear sir, Your most affectionate friend, RICHARD STEELE. SIR, JEAN LE CLERC TO ADDISON. Amsterdam, February 12th, 1709. I did myself the honour to write to you at the beginning of the present year, to beg you would be so good as to inform me of a particular affair, of which it behoved me to get the earliest intelligence; and yet I have no answer from you. I have only been inas Joseph Keally, Esq., Dublin, and in one of Addison's letters he is addressed, Joseph Keally, Esq., of Keally Mount, Kilkenny. In the Historical Register, Sep. 25, 1714, we find Thomas Keighly, Joseph Addison, Henry Boyle, Dr. Wm. King, Abp. of Dublin, Sir Geo. Ashe, Bp. of Clogher, all apparently of the same party, nominated members of the Privy Council in Ireland. Addison had just been appointed chief secretary to Lord Wharton. Steele writes to his lady, Dec. 6, 1708, "Your rival Addison will be removed, and if I can succeed him in his office, (Under Secretary of State,) it will answer all purposes." And on the 14th Dec. he writes, " Mr. Addison is just now gone to Lord Wharton; and I wait his return to know my own next steps. My heart is as much disturbed as yours can be on the same occasion, &c." Steele's Epist. Corr., p. 171, &c. 2 Mr. Gulston Addison, an eminent merchant residing at Fort St. George, was, on the 20th Dec. 1709, appointed Governor and Director of that place, in the room of Thos. Pitt, Esq. See note p. 429. 3 The North Briton who succeeded him in Lord Sunderland's office as Under Secretary of State, was Robert Pringle, Esq. A celebrated scholar and critic, editor of Livy and other classics, author of several considerable works in divinity, and conductor of the Bibliothèque Universllee; choisie; and others, amounting to 83 vols. He resided for some time in England, and spoke the language well. |