Adieu!  Was ever such a long letter?  But ’tis nothing to what I shall have to say to you.  I shall scold you for never telling us any news, public or private, no deaths, marriages, or mishaps; no account of new books:  Oh, you are abominable!  I could find it in my heart to hate you, if I did not love you so well; but we will quarrel now, that we may be the better friends when we meet:  there is no danger of that, is there?  Good-night, whether friend or foe!  I am most sincerely

Yours.

DEBATE ON PULTENEY’S MOTION FOR A COMMITTEE ON PAPERS RELATING TO THE WAR—­SPEECHES OF PULTENEY, PITT, SIR R. WALPOLE, SIR W. GEORGE, ETC.—­SMALLNESS OF THE MINISTERIAL MAJORITY.

TO SIR HORACE MANN.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Sir H. Mann was an early friend of Walpole; and was Minister at Florence from 1740-1786.]

[Illustration:  SIR HORACE MANN.]

Friday, Jan. 22, 1742.

Don’t wonder that I missed writing to you yesterday, my constant day:  you will pity me when you hear that I was shut up in the House of Commons till one in the morning.  I came away more dead than alive, and was forced to leave Sir R. at supper with my brothers:  he was all alive and in spirits.[1] He says he is younger than me, and indeed I think so, in spite of his forty years more.  My head aches to-night, but we rose early; and if I don’t write to-night, when shall I find a moment to spare?  Now you want to know what we did last night; stay, I will tell you presently in its place:  it was well, and of infinite consequence—­so far I tell you now.

[Footnote 1:  Sir Robert Wilmot also, in a letter to the Duke of Devonshire, written on the 12th, says, “Sir Robert was to-day observed to be more naturally gay and full of spirits than he has been for some time past.”]

Our recess finished last Monday, and never at school did I enjoy holidays so much—­but, les voila finis jusqu’au printems!  Tuesday (for you see I write you an absolute journal) we sat on a Scotch election, a double return; their man was Hume Campbell[1], Lord Marchmont’s brother, lately made solicitor to the Prince, for being as troublesome, as violent, and almost as able as his brother.  They made a great point of it, and gained so many of our votes, that at ten at night we were forced to give it up without dividing.  Sandys, who loves persecution, even unto death, moved to punish the sheriff; and as we dared not divide, they ordered him into custody, where by this time, I suppose, Sandys has eaten him.

[Footnote 1:  Hume Campbell, twin brother of Hugh, third Earl of Marchmont, the friend of Pope, and one of his executors.  They were sons of Alexander, the second earl, who had quarrelled with Sir Robert Walpole at the time of the excise scheme in 1733.  Sir Robert, in consequence, prevented him from being re-elected one of the sixteen representative Scotch peers in 1734; in requital for which, the old earl’s two sons became the bitterest opponents of the minister.  They were both men of considerable talents; extremely similar in their characters and dispositions, and so much so in their outward appearance, that it was very difficult to know them apart.]