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<h2> LETTER CCLXXXVII </h2>
<h3> BLACKHEATH, July 11, 1766. </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: You are a happy mortal, to have your time thus employed
between the great and the fair; I hope you do the honors of your country
to the latter. The Emperor, by your account, seems to be very well for an
emperor; who, by being above the other monarchs in Europe, may justly be
supposed to have had a proportionably worse education. I find, by your
account of him, that he has been trained up to homicide, the only science
in which princes are ever instructed; and with good reason, as their
greatness and glory singly depend upon the numbers of their
fellow-creatures which their ambition exterminates. If a sovereign should,
by great accident, deviate into moderation, justice, and clemency, what a
contemptible figure would he make in the catalogue of princes! I have
always owned a great regard for King Log. From the interview at Torgaw,
between the two monarchs, they will be either a great deal better or worse
together; but I think rather the latter; for our namesake, Philip de Co
mines, observes, that he never knew any good come from l'abouchement des
Rois. The King of Prussia will exert all his perspicacity to analyze his
Imperial Majesty; and I would bet upon the one head of his black eagle,
against the two heads of the Austrian eagle; though two heads are said,
proverbially, to be better than one. I wish I had the direction of both
the monarchs, and they should, together with some of their allies, take
Lorraine and Alsace from France. You will call me 'l'Abbe de St. Pierre';
but I only say what I wish; whereas he thought everything that he wished
practicable.</p>
<p>Now to come home. Here are great bustles at Court, and a great change of
persons is certainly very near. You will ask me, perhaps, who is to be
out, and who is to be in? To which I answer, I do not know. My conjecture
is that, be the new settlement what it will, Mr. Pitt will be at the head
of it. If he is, I presume, 'qu'il aura mis de l'eau dans son vin par
rapport a Mylord B——-; when that shall come to be known, as
known it certainly will soon be, he may bid adieu to his popularity. A
minister, as minister, is very apt to be the object of public dislike; and
a favorite, as favorite, still more so. If any event of this kind happens,
which (if it happens at all) I conjecture will be some time next week, you
shall hear further from me.</p>
<p>I will follow your advice, and be as well as I can next winter, though I
know I shall never be free from my flying rheumatic pains, as long as I
live; but whether that will be more or less, is extremely indifferent to
me; in either case, God bless you!</p>
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<h2> LETTER CCLXXXVIII </h2>
<h3> BLACKHEATH, August 1, 1766. </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: The curtain was at last drawn up, the day before
yesterday, and discovered the new actors, together with some of the old
ones. I do not name them to you, because to-morrow's Gazette will do it
full as well as I could. Mr. Pitt, who had carte blanche given him, named
everyone of them: but what would you think he named himself for? Lord
Privy Seal; and (what will astonish you, as it does every mortal here)
Earl of Chatham. The joke here is, that he has had A FALL UP STAIRS, and
has done himself so much hurt, that he will never be able to stand upon
his leg's again. Everybody is puzzled how to account for this step; though
it would not be the first time that great abilities have been duped by low
cunning. But be it what it will, he is now certainly only Earl of Chatham;
and no longer Mr. Pitt, in any respect whatever. Such an event, I believe,
was never read nor heard of. To withdraw, in the fullness of his power and
in the utmost gratification of his ambition, from the House of Commons
(which procured him his power, and which could alone insure it to him),
and to go into that hospital of incurables, the House of Lords, is a
measure so unaccountable, that nothing but proof positive could have made
me believe it: but true it is. Hans Stanley is to go Ambassador to Russia;
and my nephew, Ellis, to Spain, decorated with the red riband. Lord
Shelburne is your Secretary of State, which I suppose he has notified to
you this post, by a circular letter. Charles Townshend has now the sole
management of the House of Commons; but how long he will be content to be
only Lord Chatham's vicegerent there, is a question which I will not
pretend to decide. There is one very bad sign for Lord Chatham, in his new
dignity; which is, that all his enemies, without exception, rejoice at it;
and all his friends are stupefied and dumbfounded. If I mistake not much,
he will, in the course of a year, enjoy perfect 'otium cum dignitate'.
Enough of politics.</p>
<p>Is the fair, or at least the fat, Miss C——with you still? It
must be confessed that she knows the arts of courts, to be so received at
Dresden, and so connived at in Leicester-fields.</p>
<p>There never was so wet a summer as this has been, in the memory of man; we
have not had one single day, since March, without some rain; but most days
a great deal. I hope that does not affect your health, as great cold does;
for, with all these inundations, it has not been cold. God bless you!</p>
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