LETTER то SIR WILLIAM WINDHAM. I WAS well enough acquainted with the gene ral character of mankind, and in particular with that of my own countrymen, to expect to be as much out of the minds of the tories during my exile, as if we had never lived and acted together. I depended on being forgot by them, and was far from imagining it poffible that I fhould be remembered, only to be condemned louldly by one half of them, and to be tacitly cenfured by the greatest part of the other half. As foon as I was feparated from the pretender and his intereft, I declared myfelf to be fo, and I gave directions for writing into England what I judged fufficient to put my friends on their guard against any furprise concerning an event which it was their intereft, as well as mine, that they should be very rightly informed about. As foon as the pretender's adherents began to clamor against me in this country, and to disperse their scandal by circular letters every where else, I gave directions for writing into England again. Their groundless articles of accufation were refut-ed, and enough was faid to give my friends a general idea of what had happened to me, and at least to make them fufpend the fixing any opinion till fuch time as I fhould be able to write more fully and plainly to them myself. To condemn no perfon unheard is a rule of natural equity, which we fee rarely violated in Turky, or in the country where I am writing: that it would not be fo with me in Great Britain, I confess that I flattered myfelf. I dwelt fecurely in this confidence, and gave very little attention to any of thofe fcurrilous methods which were taken, about this time, to blast my reputation. The event of things has fhewn, that I trusted too much to my own innocence, and to the justice of my old friends. It was obvious, that the Chevalier and the Earl of Mar hoped to load me with the imputation of treachery, incapacity, or neglect; it was indifferent to them of which. If they could ascribe to one of those their not being fupported from France, they imagined that they should justify their precipitate flight from Scotland, which many of their fastest friends exclaimed againft; and that they fhould varnish over that original capital fault, the drawing the Highlanders together in arms at the time and in the manner in which it was done. The Scotch, who fell at once from all the fanguine expectations with which they had been footh ed, and who found themselves reduced to despair, were easy to be incenfed: they had received no fupport whatever; and it was natural for them rather to believe, that they failed of this fupport by my. fault, than to imagine their general had prevailed on them to rife in the very point of time when it was impoffible that they fhould be fupported from France, The France, or from any other part of the world. Duke of Ormond, who had been the bubble of his own popularity, was enough out of humor with the general turn of affairs to be easily fet against any particular man. The emiffaries of this court, whole commiffion was to amufe, had impofed upon him all along, and there were other bufy people who thought to find their account in having him to themselves. I had never been in his fecret whilft we were in England together: and from his first coming into France he was either prevailed upon by others, or, which I rather believe, he concurred with others to keep me out of it. The perfect indifference I fhewed whether I was in it or no, might carry him from acting feparately, to act against me. The whole tribe of Irish and other Papifts were ready to feise the first opportunity of venting their fpleen against a man, who had conftantly avoided all intimacy with them; who acted in the fame cause, but on a different principle, and who meant no one thing in the world lefs than raising them to the advantages which they expected. That these feveral perfons, for the reasons I have mentioned, fhould join in a cry against me, is not very marvellous: the contrary would be fo to a man who knows them as well as I do. But that the English tories fhould ferve as echoes to them, nay, more, that my character fhould continue doubtful at beft amongst you, when those who firft propa gated the flander are become afhamed of railing without proof, and have dropped the clamor, this I own that I never expected, and I may be allowed to fay, that as it is an extreme furprife, fo it fhall be a leffon to me. The whigs impeached and attainted me. They went farther-at leaft in my way of thinking that step step was more cruel than all the others-by a partial representation of facts, and pieces of facts, put together as it beft fuited their purpofe, and publifhed to the whole world, they did all that in them lay to expose me for a fool, and to brand me for a knave. But then I had deserved this abundantly at their hands, according to the notions of partyjuftice. The tories have not indeed impeached nor attainted me; but they have done, and are still doing fomething very like to that which I took worfe of the whigs, than the impeachment and attainder and this, after I have fhewn an inviolable attachment to the fervice, and almoft an implicit obedience to the will of the party; when I am actually an out-law, deprived of my honors, ftripped of my fortune, and cut off from my family and my country for their fakes. Some of the perfons who have seen me here, and with whom I have had the pleasure to talk of you, may, perhaps, have told you, that far from being oppreffed by that ftorm of misfortunes in which I have been toffed of late, I bear up against it with firmnefs enough, and even with alacrity. It is true, I do fo: but it is true likewife, that the last burst of the cloud has gone near to overwhelm me. From our enemies we expect evil treatment of every fort, we are prepared for it, we are animated by it, and we fometimes triumph in it: but when our friends abandon us, when they wound us, and when they take, to do this, an occafion where we ftand the moft in need of their fupport, and have the best title to it, the firmeft mind finds it hard to refift. Nothing kept up my fpirits when I was firft reduced to the very circumftances I now defcribe, fo much as the confideration of the delufions under which I knew that the tories lay, and the hopes I entertained of being able foon to open their eyes, and |