[18] The letter produced by Mr. Townshend was given to him by Sir Edward Turner, who, on receiving it, said, “I am surprised he writes to me; I don’t know the gentleman,”--yet Mr. Fox had been the chief manager in the Oxford election, and had had the principal hand in bringing Sir Edward into the House. [19] In the year 1751. [20] See the Memoirs for that year. [21] Duke of Newcastle. [22] It was the morning of Mr. Fox’s first levée. [23] To the club at Arthur’s, formerly White’s. [24] At Holland-house. [25] Page 41. CHAPTER III. Earthquake at Lisbon--Debates on a Bill for distributing Prizes taken at Sea to the Captors--Speeches of Charles Townshend--George Granville, Fox, and Pitt--Debates on the Army Estimates--Speeches of Pitt, Fox, Charles Townshend, Lord George Sackville, and Beckford--Debates on the new Militia Bill, introduced by George Townshend--Speech of Pitt--Homage of Sir George Lyttelton to Pitt. Towards the end of November came letters from Sir Benjamin Keene, confirming the dreadful accounts of the earthquake at Lisbon, on the first of the month--a catastrophe most terrible, and completed by the flames, that laid waste the remains of that miserable city. The Royal Family had escaped death by being at a villa without the town; but the richest sovereign in Europe beheld himself in a moment reduced to the most deplorable indigence. He wrote to his sister the queen of Spain, “Here I am, a King, without a capital, without subjects, without raiment!” The horror of the survivors was increased by the murders committed by robbers and assassins, to whom even this tragedy was a theatre of gain. The shocks and vibration of the earth continued for many months. It seemed some great and extraordinary convulsion of nature: many towns in Portugal and Spain, were destroyed, at least greatly damaged; but some degree of the concussion was felt even from Dantzic to the shores of Africa. In England it occasioned very novel phenomena: in some counties the waters of ponds and lakes were heaved up perpendicularly. 28th.--Mr. Fox read to the House of Commons Sir Benjamin Keene’s letter, and delivered a Message from his Majesty, desiring to be enabled to assist the distressed Portuguese and the English residing at Lisbon, to which the House immediately assented, and one hundred thousand pounds, part in money, part in provisions and utensils, were destined to that service, and dispatched as soon as possible.[26]