<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0082" id="link2H_4_0082"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER LXXX </h2>
<h3> LONDON, September 5, O. S. 1749. </h3>
<p>DEAR BOY: I have received yours from Laubach, of the 17th of August, N.
S., with the inclosed for Comte Lascaris; which I have given him, and with
which he is extremely pleased, as I am with your account of Carniola. I am
very glad that you attend to, and inform yourself of, the political
objects of the country you go through. Trade and manufactures are very
considerable, not to say the most important ones; for, though armies and
navies are the shining marks of the strength of countries, they would be
very ill paid, and consequently fight very ill, if manufactures and
commerce did not support them. You have certainly observed in Germany the
inefficiency of great powers, with great tracts of country and swarms of
men; which are absolutely useless, if not paid by other powers who have
the resources of manufactures and commerce. This we have lately
experienced to be the case of the two empresses of Germany and Russia:
England, France, and Spain, must pay their respective allies, or they may
as well be without them.</p>
<p>I have not the least objection to your taking, into the bargain, the
observation of natural curiosities; they are very welcome, provided they
do not take up the room of better things. But the forms of government, the
maxims of policy, the strength or weakness, the trade and commerce, of the
several countries you see or hear of are the important objects, which I
recommend to your most minute inquiries, and most serious attention. I
thought that the republic of Venice had by this time laid aside that silly
and frivolous piece of policy, of endeavoring to conceal their form of
government; which anybody may know, pretty nearly, by taking the pains to
read four or five books, which explain all the great parts of it; and as
for some of the little wheels of that machine, the knowledge of them would
be as little useful to others as dangerous to themselves. Their best
policy (I can tell them) is to keep quiet, and to offend no one great
power, by joining with another. Their escape, after the Ligue of Cambray,
should prove a useful lesson to them.</p>
<p>I am glad you frequent the assemblies at Venice. Have you seen Monsieur
and Madame Capello, and how did they receive you? Let me know who are the
ladies whose houses you frequent the most. Have you seen the Comptesse
d'Orselska, Princess of Holstein? Is Comte Algarotti, who was the TENANT
there, at Venice?</p>
<p>You will, in many parts of Italy, meet with numbers of the Pretender's
people (English, Scotch, and Irish fugitives), especially at Rome;
probably the Pretender himself. It is none of your business to declare war
to these people, as little as it is your interest, or, I hope, your
inclination, to connect yourself with them; and therefore I recommend to
you a perfect neutrality. Avoid them as much as you can with decency and
good manners; but when you cannot, avoid any political conversation or
debates with them; tell them that you do not concern yourself with
political matters: that you are neither maker nor a deposer of kings; that
when you left England, you left a king in it, and have not since heard
either of his death, or of any revolution that has happened; and that you
take kings and kingdoms as you find them; but enter no further into
matters with them, which can be of no use, and might bring on heats and
quarrels. When you speak of the old Pretender, you will call him only the
Chevalier de St. George;—but mention him as seldom as possible.
Should he chance to speak to you at any assembly (as, I am told, he
sometimes does to the English), be sure that you seem not to know him; and
answer him civilly, but always either in French or in Italian; and give
him, in the former, the appellation of Monsieur, and in the latter, of
Signore. Should you meet with the Cardinal of York, you will be under no
difficulty; for he has, as Cardinal, an undoubted right to 'Eminenza'.
Upon the whole, see any of those people as little as possible; when you do
see them, be civil to them, upon the footing of strangers; but never be
drawn into any altercations with them about the imaginary right of their
king, as they call him.</p>
<p>It is to no sort of purpose to talk to those people of the natural rights
of mankind, and the particular constitution of this country. Blinded by
prejudices, soured by misfortunes, and tempted by their necessities, they
are as incapable of reasoning rightly, as they have hitherto been of
acting wisely. The late Lord Pembroke never would know anything that he
had not a mind to know; and, in this case, I advise you to follow his
example. Never know either the father or the two sons, any otherwise than
as foreigners; and so, not knowing their pretensions, you have no occasion
to dispute them.</p>
<p>I can never help recommending to you the utmost attention and care, to
acquire 'les Manieres, la Tournure, et les Graces, d'un galant homme, et
d'un homme de cour'. They should appear in every look, in every action; in
your address, and even in your dress, if you would either please or rise
in the world. That you may do both (and both are in your power) is most
ardently wished you, by Yours.</p>
<p>P. S. I made Comte Lascaris show me your letter, which I liked very well;
the style was easy and natural, and the French pretty correct. There were
so few faults in the orthography, that a little more observation of the
best French authors would make you a correct master of that necessary
language.</p>
<p>I will not conceal from you, that I have lately had extraordinary good
accounts of you, from an unexpected and judicious person, who promises me
that, with a little more of the world, your manners and address will equal
your knowledge. This is the more pleasing to me, as those were the two
articles of which I was the most doubtful. These commendations will not, I
am persuaded, make you vain and coxcomical, but only encourage you to go
on in the right way.</p>
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