ships.  De la Clue, not knowing which way he had gone, thought he could steal through the Straits to join Conflans, according to his original orders.  But Boscawen caught him off Cape Lagos, and gave him a decisive defeat, capturing five sail of the line, and among them the flagship L’Ocean (80).  Before the end of the year Hawke almost destroyed the fleet of Conflans, capturing five and driving the rest on shore; while Thurot, who at first had a gleam of success, making one or two descents on the northern coast of Ireland, and even capturing Carrickfergus, had, in the end, worse fortune than either of his superior officers, being overtaken at the mouth of Belfast Lough by Captain Elliott with a squadron of nearly equal force, when the whole of the French squadron was taken and he himself was killed (the Editor’s “History of the British Navy,” c. 12).]

I cannot help smiling at the great objects of our letters.  We never converse on a less topic than a kingdom.  We are a kind of citizens of the world, and battles and revolutions are the common incidents of our neighbourhood.  But that is and must be the case of distant correspondences:  Kings and Empresses that we never saw, are the only persons we can be acquainted with in common.  We can have no more familiarity than the Daily Advertiser would have if it wrote to the Florentine Gazette.  Adieu!  My compliments to any monarch that lives within five hundred miles of you.

A YEAR OF TRIUMPHS.

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ.

STRAWBERRY HILL, Oct. 21, 1759.

Your pictures shall be sent as soon as any of us go to London, but I think that will not be till the Parliament meets.  Can we easily leave the remains of such a year as this?  It is still all gold.[1] I have not dined or gone to bed by a fire till the day before yesterday.  Instead of the glorious and ever-memorable year 1759, as the newspapers call it, I call it this ever-warm and victorious year.  We have not had more conquest than fine weather:  one would think we had plundered East and West Indies of sunshine.  Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for victories.  I believe it will require ten votes of the House of Commons before people will believe it is the Duke of Newcastle that has done this, and not Mr. Pitt.  One thing is very fatiguing—­all the world is made knights or generals.  Adieu!  I don’t know a word of news less than the conquest of America.  Adieu! yours ever.

[Footnote 1:  The immediate cause of this exultation was the battle (September 14th) and subsequent capture of Quebec.  On the other side of the world Colonel Forde had inflicted severe defeats on the French and Dutch, and had taken Masulipatam; and besides these triumphs there were our naval successes mentioned in the last letter, and the battle of Minden.]

P.S.—­You shall hear from me again if we take Mexico or China before Christmas.

2nd P.S.—­I had sealed my letter, but break it open again, having forgot to tell you that Mr. Cowslade has the pictures of Lord and Lady Cutts, and is willing to sell them.