‘You have titles enough of your own to pass your name to posterity, and I am pleased that you have got spirit enough to hope that there will be such a thing as a civilised posterity to attend to things of this kind. ‘I have the honour to be, ‘With very high respect and esteem, ‘Your most obedient, humble servant, ‘EDMUND BURKE.’ Mr. Burke died July 7 [_note by A. Y._]. From John Symonds, Esq., on public affairs, very gloomy, with much condemnation of Mr. Pitt. ‘St. Edmund’s Hill: June 8, 1797. ‘At the time, my dear sir, that I received your letter I was travelling over Italy, in order to figure in your “Annals of Agriculture;” but the state of that country has been so much _bouleversé_, that my head has been turned in reflecting upon it, as is most probably the case with the greater part of its inhabitants. ‘You ask me what plan I could propose to save the country. Arm, undoubtedly, as you say; but how to do it most effectually I pretend not to determine. You justly reprobate volunteering infantry. ‘Charles Cole tells me you have something in the press upon this subject. To fill the army or navy with defenders or volunteers, is the way to pave the way to our ruin. But I should begin with proposing a scheme which would probably be heard with disdain, and which has been rejected by the King: recall Lord Camden; appoint Lord Moira, Lord Lieutenant, with full powers to emancipate the Roman Catholics. He is much respected in Ireland as well as in England, for the opinion formed of him from his civil and military knowledge and moral character. I have heard Lord Bishop Douglas, who is no mean estimator of mankind, often say, that he wished he could see Lord Moira one of the Secretaries of State. ‘Were the Catholics satisfied, Ireland might bid defiance to the French, and, perhaps, some regular infantry might thence be sent to England, which, the Duke of Grafton said lately in the House of Lords, was much wanted here. But it is in vain to speak or write about Ireland. We govern there by a faction—the Beresfords, Fitzgibbons, and Fosters—whose emoluments, including their relations and dependents, fall not short of 100,000_l._ per annum; some think much more. Now the Polignacs under the old government had not more than 50,000_l._ per annum, including a bishopric. This the Duchess of Liancourt one day made out to me upon paper, yet she was willing enough to exaggerate the profits of that family; especially as the old duchess just before had been cast in a lawsuit with one of them.