May 28th. To Chelsey to plead with my Lord Montagu and beg his intercession in the matter of Col. Nicholls’s “administrative review” of the New England colonies.
Arrived much apprehensive, owing to the coolness he has shewn me since my remonstration with him for his lubricity with the trollop Becke.
Found him in an agreeable mood and pinkish flush, doubtless from carnal exertion. The strumpet was “at market.” Was sore tempted to ask my lord if she was there to buy or sell but did not.
Informed my lord about Nicholls, begging him to keep confidential the manner of my learning of it.
My lord readily agreed that the Navy is not at present equipt to fight another war with the Hollanders. But he said, “What would you have me do? If ’tis the will of the King, and his brother, and Downing, and Lady Castlemaine, Africa House, the Admiralty, Navy Office, every d——d merchant in London, and the rest of the War Party?”
I replied, “If Nicholls causes a war with Holland, our Navy will be sunk to the bottom of your Narrow Seas—and every other sea. Where will England be then? And where will you be? At the bottom, with the ships.”
He admitted this not the most desirous of outcomes. But pacing the floor with no little agitation, said the thing was beyond his ability to influence or repair.
I remonstrated anew that he must not so blithely abrogate responsibility, being the Admiral in whom the King himself once reposed more trust and confidence than any other.
He retorted, “What do you mean, sir, by ‘once’?”
I suggested, perhaps too candidly, that his ability to influence great matters might be ameliorated if he spent more time at Court than in Mrs. Becke.
My lord, not pleased, called me a “flippant fellow” and said I had “the tongue of a moray.”
Exprest my continued affection for him (etc.), averring that my concern sprang only from love for country and himself. But pointed out—pointedly—that war with Holland would propel him posthaste from his present bower of pudendal bliss to the quarterdeck of a warship, facing a fleet far more numerous and better equipt than his.
This prospect did much sober my lord, as indeed the prospect of death tends to.
He said he would approach his majesty but must mull how best to do this.
Took my leave, begging him to be discreet as to how he came by knowledge of Nicholls’s true mission.