Produced by David Widger
LETTERS TO HIS SON 1766-71
By the EARL OF CHESTERFIELD
on the Fine Art of becoming a
and a
LONDON, February 11, 1766
MY DEAR FRIEND: I received two days ago your letter of the 25th past; andyour former, which you mention in it, but ten days ago; this may easilybe accounted for from the badness of the weather, and consequently of theroads. I hardly remember so severe a win ter; it has occasioned manyillnesses here. I am sure it pinched my crazy carcass so much that, aboutthree weeks ago, I was obliged to be let blood twice in four days, whichI found afterward was very necessary, by the relief it gave to my headand to the rheumatic pains in my limbs; and from the execrable kind ofblood which I lost.
Perhaps you expect from me a particular account of the present state ofaffairs here; but if you do you will be disappointed; for no man living(and I still less than anyone) knows what it is; it varies, not onlydaily, but hourly.
Most people think, and I among the rest, that the date of the presentMinisters is pretty near out; but how soon we are to have a new style,God knows. This, however, is certain, that the Ministers had a contestedelection in the House of Commons, and got it but by eleven votes; toosmall a majority to carry anything; the next day they lost a question inthe House of Lords, by three. The question in the House of Lords was, toenforce the execution of the Stamp-act in the colonies 'vi et armis'.What conclusions you will draw from these premises, I do not know; but Iprotest I draw none; but only stare at the present undecipherable stateof affairs, which, in fifty years' experience, I have never seen anythinglike. The Stamp-act has proved a most pernicious measure; for, whether itis repealed or not, which is still very doubtful, it has given suchterror to the Americans, that our trade with them will not be, for someyears, what it used to be; and great numbers of our manufacturers at homewill be turned a starving for want of that employment which our veryprofitable trade to America found them: and hunger is always the cause oftumults and sedition.
As you have escaped a fit of the gout in this severe cold weather, it isto be hoped you may be entirely free from it, till next winter at least.
P. S. Lord having parted with his wife, now, keeps another w—-e, at agreat expense. I fear he is totally undone.
LONDON, March 17, 1766.
MY DEAR FRIEND: You wrong me in thinking me in your debt; for I neverreceive a letter of yours, but I answer it by the next post, or the nextbut one, at furthest: but I can easily conceive that my two last lettersto you may have been drowned or frozen in their way; for portents andprodigies of frost, snow, and inundations, have been so frequent thiswinter, that they have almost lost their names.
You tell me that you are going to the baths of BADEN; but that puzzles mea little, so I recommend this letter to the care of Mr. Larpent, toforward to you; for Baden I take to be the general German word for baths,and the particular ones are distinguished by some epithet, as Weissbaden,Carlsbaden, etc. I hope they are not cold baths, which I have a very illopinion of, in all arthritic or rheumatic cases; and your case I take tobe a c