story
of Pharaoh's daughter finding Moses in the bullrushes. The Princess
Royal is introduced as Pharaoh's daughter, and all the other ladies,
celebrated for their beauty--the Duchess of Devonshire, Lady Jersey,
etc. etc.; on briguera les places. The portraits will be originals,
and the whole, if well executed, will be a very pretty print. I
would have a pendent to it; and that should be of Pharo's sons,
where might be introduced a great many of our friends, and
acquaintance, from the other side of the Street. I am so taken up
with business this morning, that I did not endeavour to make a party
with Lord Gower to go and see George. Gregg has wrote me word that
he shall ride that way to-morrow.

(196) Lord George Sackville Germaine, on his resignation of the
Secretaryship of the Colonies, was, in February, 1782, created a
peer as Viscount Sackville of Drayton Manor, Northampton. Thereupon
the Marquis of Carmarthen brought forward a motion in the House of
Lords that it was derogatory to the honour of the House that any
person under the censure of a court martial should be raised to the
Peerage. The motion was defeated, but was repeated on February
18th after Lord Sackville had taken his seat. Though personal in its
form, this was simply a Parliamentary attack on the Ministry and the
Crown. Sackville had at the battle of Minden, in 1759, disobeyed the
orders of Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, the commander-in-Chief, by
refusing to advance with the cavalry. In the following year he was
dismissed by court martial from the army. The use made of an event
more than twenty years old illustrates the temper of the Opposition.
The subject is referred to in a subsequent letter, see p. 198.

(197) Welbore Ellis, appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies
March 8, 1782.

(198) William Beckford (1759-1844), son of the well-known member of
Parliament and Lord Mayor. As a boy of nine, he came into possession
of a property of a million. "Neither his genius nor his fortune
yielded what they would have produced to a wiser and better man.
. . . Hardly any other man has produced such masterpieces with so
little effort." He was the author of "Vathek," an Oriental romance,
and other works. He was an enthusiastic collector, and he made
Fonthill, where he lived in later life in eccentric seclusion, a
complete museum.

(1782,) Feb. 19, Tuesday morning.--I wish that I could repeat and
describe, as well as I can hear and attend to what is