1754. Ensenada's business. Keene had presented a memorial to Wall, about some strong orders which had been sent from Spain to America, and which, if executed, might have produced fatal consequences. Wall had never heard of these orders, and upon inquiry found reason to suspect that they had been issued without the king of Spain's knowledge. Upon which he went to Court, and in a private audience asked the king whether those strong protestations of friendship which he had made by his Catholic Majesty's orders to our king when he left England were not his real sentiments; to which the king of Spain replied they were, and that he was resolved to live upon the best footing with England. To this Wall answered that it would be impossible to succeed in that design when such orders were issued as he then had in his hands, which he immediately showed to the king of Spain, who upon seeing them, declared that they had been given without his privity or command, and then asked Wall who had issued them. Wall directly named Ensenada, and pushed the affair with such success that Ensenada was arrested the next morning, and conveyed under a strong guard to the castle of Granada. All his papers have been secured, and his first cousin, whose name is Hortenada* (and who they say was a very able person), is sent to the castle of Valladolid. Ordenaña is the name given by Coxe. Upon this event Wall wrote a note to Keene, which is a curious specimen of English.See Memoirs of Kings of Spain. St. Contest is dead, and there are nine or ten successors talked of, but none with any certainty. I must divert your Grace with a piece of history that I stumbled upon since I saw you, and which I hope will make the Duchess of Bedford laugh. During the civil wars, your Grace will remember that the two Universities sent their plate to king Charles the First. Cromwell intended to have surprised and seized the Cambridge plate upon the road, but failing in his attempt, he was so exasperated that he seized some of the heads of houses and sent them prisoners to London, and afterwards they were confined on board a ship in the Thames; while they were there, Cromwell threatened to transport them to America, which one Mr. Rigby hearing of, bargained with a merchant to sell them for slaves in the colonies, and actually petitioned the House of Commons for leave to do so. I believe your Grace and I are acquainted with one of that name who would readily deal in such merchandise, and to a good purchaser would readily throw a chancellor of one of the Universities* into the bargain. I cannot possibly finish this letter without asking a favour of your Grace and my lady Duchess, which is, your countenance and protection for Lady Essex. They are of great benefit to any on whom you are pleased to bestow them, but to one of her age and in her situation, they are invaluable. I will answer 1754. *The Duke of Newcastle. 1754. for her determination to deserve it by every thing THE DUKE of bedFORD TO GENERAL WALL. Woburn Abbey, August 11. 1754. Give me leave, my dear General, to make one of the many friends you have left in England, who join in congratulations on your advancement in his Catholic Majesty's service, and the high esteem you are so deservedly held in at the Court of Madrid. As I have had the good fortune to have enjoyed a personal correspondence with you, both both as a minister and as a friend, I cannot but most sincerely rejoice in every thing that is honourable and agreeable to you, especially as I am convinced your credit in Spain will be conducive to the keeping up that harmony between the two nations which I know you desire, and which is undoubtedly the true interest of them both. In addition to all this, the secing one whom I have the honour to call my friend, in so honourable an employment, cannot but give me the most sensible pleasure, as I am, with the greatest truth &c., BEDFORD. THE DUKE OF BEDFORD TO SIR CHARLES HANBURY 1754. WILLIAMS. Dear Sir, London, January 28. 1755. I should before this time have acknowledged the receipt of your letter from Warsaw of the 18th of the last month, had I not been apprehensive of its missing you on the road, the gazette having informed me, which is the only intelligence I have, that you have been detained at Warsaw longer than you intended to stay there, by indisposition. I hope that you are entirely free from it by this time, and that your exit from Sarmatia to a hospitable country will entirely re-establish your health. I did fully intend, as I told Lady Essex at Woburn, to have wrote to you soon after Lord Essex and her Ladyship had left us, but an unlucky fall in return from hunting, having very much hurt my right hand, disabled me for some time from writing to you, and likewise from returning their visit, which the Duchess and I had firmly purposed to do before our coming to London for the meeting of the Parliament. * I have no news to send you from hence but what you must be better apprised of than me. We are all alarmed with a French war, but upon what foundation I know not. Twenty men-of-war are ordered to be equipped, press-warrants are sent out, and two regiments of foot are ordered from Ireland. 1755. There are no affairs of moment depending in parliament, nothing but elections in the House of Commons, and a most profound drowsiness in ours. The Colchester petition is now hearing in the Committee, in which our friend Rigby is a principal manager, and will probably initiate in it his colleague Dick Vernon in those various modes of oratory you have mentioned, yawning, huzzaing, &c. The ballad which I believe Mr. Rigby sent you, though wrote with no pretence to wit, yet as a plain narrative will be instructive as to the only event of moment which has happened during this session of parliament, I don't think there will be an opportunity for that author to exercise his pen again soon, as every thing is, I believe, likely to jog on quietly during the remainder of the sessions. As I have nothing interesting or entertaining to send you from hence, I will detain you no longer than to assure you how much I am, &c. BEDFORD. MR. RIGBY TO THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. Eight o'clock, Speaker's Chamber, March 24. *We are defeated by the Tories going against us. The numbers were 207 against 183. * On the contested election for St. Michael's, Cornwall. The contest lay in fact between Fox and Newcastle. Lord Clive was unseated by this decision. Walpole in his Memoirs gives a long |