<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0248" id="link2H_4_0248"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCXLVI </h2>
<h3> BLACKHEATH, June 25, 1759 </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: The two last mails have brought me no letter from you or
your secretary. I will take this as a sign that you are better; but,
however, if you thought that I cared to know, you should have cared to
have written. Here the weather has been very fine for a fortnight
together, a longer term than in this climate we are used to hold fine
weather by. I hope it is so, too, at Hamburg, or at least at the villa to
which you are gone; but pray do not let it be your 'villa viciosa', as
those retirements are often called, and too often prove; though, by the
way, the original name was 'villa vezzosa'; and by wags miscalled
'viciosa'.</p>
<p>I have a most gloomy prospect of affairs in Germany; the French are
already in possession of Cassel, and of the learned part of Hanover, that
is Gottingen; where I presume they will not stop 'pour l'amour des belles
lettres', but rather go on to the capital, and study them upon the coin.
My old acquaintance, Monsieur Richelieu, made a great progress there in
metallic learning and inscriptions. If Prince Ferdinand ventures a battle
to prevent it, I dread the consequences; the odds are too great against
him. The King of Prussia is still in a worse situation; for he has the
Hydra to encounter; and though he may cut off a head or two, there will
still be enough left to devour him at last. I have, as you know, long
foretold the now approaching catastrophe; but I was Cassandra. Our affairs
in the new world have a much more pleasing aspect; Guadaloupe is a great
acquisition, and Quebec, which I make no doubt of, will still be greater.
But must all these advantages, purchased at the price of so much English
blood and treasure, be at last sacrificed as a peace-offering? God knows
what consequences such a measure may produce; the germ of discontent is
already great, upon the bare supposition of the case; but should it be
realized, it will grow to a harvest of disaffection.</p>
<p>You are now, to be sure, taking the previous necessary measures for your
return here in the autumn and I think you may disband your whole family,
excepting your secretary, your butler, who takes care of your plate, wine,
etc., one or at most two, maid servants, and your valet de chambre and one
footman, whom you will bring over with you. But give no mortal, either
there or here, reason to think that you are not to return to Hamburg
again. If you are asked about it, say, like Lockhart, that you are 'le
serviteur des Evenemens'; for your present appointments will do you no
hurt here, till you have some better destination. At that season of the
year, I believe it will be better for you to come by sea than by land, but
that you will be best able to judge of from the then circumstances of your
part in the world.</p>
<p>Your old friend Stevens is dead of the consumption that has long been
undermining him. God bless you, and send you health.</p>
<p>[Another two year lapse in the letters. D.W.] LETTER CCXLVII</p>
<p>BATH, February 26, 1761.</p>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: I am very glad to hear that your election is finally
settled, and to say the truth, not sorry that Mr.——has been
compelled to do, 'de mauvaise grace', that which he might have done at
first in a friendly and handsome manner. However, take no notice of what
is passed, and live with him as you used to do before; for, in the
intercourse of the world, it is often necessary to seem ignorant of what
one knows, and to have forgotten what one remembers.</p>
<p>I have just now finished Coleman's play, and like it very well; it is well
conducted, and the characters are well preserved. I own, I expected from
the author more dialogue wit; but, as I know that he is a most scrupulous
classic, I believe he did not dare to put in half so much wit as he could
have done, because Terence had not a single grain; and it would have been
'crimen laesae antiquitatis'. God bless you!</p>
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<h2> LETTER CCXLVIII </h2>
<h3> BATH, November 21, 1761. </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: I have this moment received your letter of the 19th. If I
find any alterations by drinking these waters, now six days, it is rather
for the better; but, in six days more, I think I shall find with more
certainty what humor they are in with me; if kind, I will profit of, but
not abuse their kindness; all things have their bounds, 'quos ultra
citrave nequit consistere rectum'; and I will endeavor to nick that point.</p>
<p>The Queen's jointure is larger than, from SOME REASONS, I expected it
would be, though not greater than the very last precedent authorized. The
case of the late Lord Wilmington was, I fancy, remembered.</p>
<p>I have now good reason to believe that Spain will declare war to us, that
is, that it will very soon, if it has not already, avowedly assist France,
in case the war continues. This will be a great triumph to Mr. Pitt, and
fully justify his plan of beginning with Spain first, and having the first
blow, which is often half the battle.</p>
<p>Here is a great deal of company, and what is commonly called good company,
that is, great quality. I trouble them very little, except at the pump,
where my business calls me; for what is company to a deaf man, or a deaf
man to company?</p>
<p>Lady Brown, whom I have seen, and who, by the way, has got the gout in her
eye, inquired very tenderly after you. And so I elegantly rest, Yours,
till death.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0250" id="link2H_4_0250"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCXLIX </h2>
<h3> BATH, December 6, 1761. </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: I have been in your debt some time, which, you know, I am
not very apt to be: but it was really for want of specie to pay. The
present state of my invention does not enable me to coin; and you would
have had as little pleasure in reading, as I should have in writing 'le
coglionerie' of this place; besides, that I am very little mingled in
them. I do not know whether I shall be able to follow, your advice, and
cut a winner; for, at present, I have neither won nor lost a single
shilling. I will play on this week only; and if I have a good run, I will
carry it off with me; if a bad one, the loss can hardly amount to anything
considerable in seven days, for I hope to see you in town to-morrow
sevennight.</p>
<p>I had a dismal letter from Harte, last week; he tells me that he is at
nurse with a sister in Berkshire; that he has got a confirmed jaundice,
besides twenty other distempers. The true cause of these complaints I take
to be the same that so greatly disordered, and had nearly destroyed the
most august House of Austria, about one hundred and thirty years ago; I
mean Gustavus Adolphus; who neither answered his expectations in point of
profit nor reputation, and that merely by his own fault, in not writing it
in the vulgar tongue; for as to facts I will maintain that it is one of
the best histories extant.</p>
<p>'Au revoir', as Sir Fopling says, and God bless you!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0251" id="link2H_4_0251"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCL </h2>
<h3> BATH, November 2, 1762. </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: I arrived here, as I proposed, last Sunday; but as ill as
I feared I should be when I saw you. Head, stomach, and limbs, all out of
order.</p>
<p>I have yet seen nobody but Villettes, who is settled here for good, as it
is called. What consequences has the Duke of Devonshire's resignation had?
He has considerable connections and relations; but whether any of them are
resigned enough to resign with him, is another matter. There will be, to
be sure, as many, and as absurd reports, as there are in the law books; I
do not desire to know either; but inform me of what facts come to your
knowledge, and of such reports only as you believe are grounded. And so
God bless you!</p>
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