In her next letter to her husband Mrs. Montagu says--
“Emin dines with Lady Medows to-day, if joy can give appetite,
he will make a good meal, for by the solicitation of Lady
Yarmouth,[183] Mr. Pitt has received him, and promised to see what
can be done for him, as great minds are akin. Mr. Pitt was much
pleased with him. Emin repeated to me his discourse to Mr. Pitt,
and it was full of Asiatick fire and figure--if it did not touch
the man, it must the Orator. Mr. Pitt made him great compliments. I
hope they will be realized, and they surely will if Lady Yarmouth
continues her desire to serve him.”
[183] Amelia S. de Walmoden, created 1740, Baroness Yarmouth,
mistress of George II.
[Page heading: EMIN JOINS MARLBOROUGH]
Emin was sent to join the English army under the Duke of Marlborough in
their attempted invasion of France at St. Malo, and wrote on June 11
to say that “Captain Howe had burnt 73 ships and from 10 to 16 guns,
besides small vessels.” After this expedition, Emin joined the army
with the King of Prussia.
[Page heading: AFFAIRS IN PARLIAMENT]
Writing to Dr. Stillingfleet on June 13, after alluding to the attack
on St. Malo, Mrs. Montagu says--
“So much for war and war’s alarms; as to our civil occurences, they
have been so boisterously carried I need not change the tone of my
narrative; the Judges, the Lord Keeper, the Chief Justice, and the
late Lord Chancellor gave their opinions against the Habeas Corpus
bill.[184] Lord Temple, much in wrath, insulted the Judges in some
of his questions; Lord Lyttelton warmly and sharply reproved him
upon which words rose high, the House of Lords interfered. The last
day of this bill, Lord Mansfield and Lord Hardwicke[185] spoke so
full to the matter, even Tory Lords, and these most violent in
their wishes for it, declared they were convinced the new bill was
dangerous to liberty in many respects, in many absurd; so that
had there been a division there would not have been four votes
for it, but Mr. Pitt’s Party discreetly avoided a division. This
affair has not set the legislative wisdom of the House of Commons
in a very high light, but the great Mr. Beckford,[186] whom no
argument can convince, no defeat make ashamed, nor mistake make
diffident, did on the motion for a vote of credit stand up in the
House of Commons and say he would not oppose that measure, as he
had an opinion of the two Commoners in the administration, but in
the Peers that composed it, he had no confidence, and ran in foul
abuse of them and then ended with a severe censure of the House
of Lords in general. Lord Royston[187] answered him that this was
unparliamentary where personal, and indecent in regard to the
House of Peers in general, to which Mr. Pitt answered with great
heat that he was sorry to hear such language from a gentleman who
was to be a Peer; he set forth the great importance and dignity of
Mr. Beckford personally, and above all the dignity and importance
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