Horace Walpole wrote on Nov. 13, 1776
(_Letters_, vi. 39l):--'Yesterday I heard drums and trumpets in
Piccadilly: I looked out of the window and saw a procession with
streamers flying. At first I thought it a press-gang, but seeing the
corps so well-drest, like Hussars, in yellow with blue waistcoats and
breeches, and high caps, I concluded it was some new body of our allies,
or a regiment newly raised, and with new regimentals for distinction. I
was not totally mistaken, for the Colonel is _a new ally_. In short,
this was a procession set forth by Mr. Bate, Lord Lyttelton's chaplain,
and author of the old _Morning Post_, and meant as an appeal to the town
against his antagonist, the new one.' In June, 1781, Bate was sentenced
to a year's imprisonment 'for an atrocious libel on the Duke of
Richmond. He was the worst of all the scandalous libellers that had
appeared both on private persons as well as public. His life was
dissolute, and he had fought more than one duel. Yet Lord Sandwich had
procured for him a good Crown living, and he was believed to be
pensioned by the Court.
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