LETTER 128.

To Captain Fitzgerald.

Yes, I give permission; you may come this afternoon:  there is something amusing enough in your dear nonsense; and, as my father will be at Quebec, I shall want amusement.

It will also furnish a little chat for the misses at Quebec; a tete a tete with a tall Irishman is a subject which cannot escape their sagacity.

      Adieu!  Yours,
          A. F.

LETTER 129.

To Mrs. Temple, Pall Mall.

Silleri, April 20.

After my immense letter to your love, my dear, you must not expect me to say much to your fair ladyship.

I am glad to find you manage Temple so admirably; the wisest, the wildest, the gravest, and the gayest, are equally our slaves, when we have proper ideas of petticoat politics.

I intend to compose a code of laws for the government of husbands, and get it translated into all the modern languages; which I apprehend will be of infinite benefit to the world.

Do you know I am a greater fool than I imagined?  You may remember I was always extremely fond of sweet waters.  I left them off lately, upon an idea, though a mistaken one, that Fitzgerald did not like them:  I yesterday heard him say the contrary; and, without thinking of it, went mechanically to my dressing-room, and put lavender water on my handkerchief.

This is, I am afraid, rather a strong symptom of my being absurd; however, I find it pleasant to be so, and therefore give way to it.

It is divinely warm to-day, though the snow is still on the ground; it is melting fast however, which makes it impossible for me to get to Quebec.  I shall be confined for at least a week, and Emily not with me:  I die for amusement.  Fitzgerald ventures still at the hazard of his own neck and his horse’s legs; for the latter of which animals I have so much compassion, that I have ordered both to stay at home a few days, which days I shall devote to study and contemplation, and little pert chit-chats with papa, who is ten times more fretful at being kept within doors than I am:  I intend to win a little fortune of him at piquet before the world breaks in upon our solitude.  Adieu!  I am idle, but always

      Your faithful
          A. Fermor.

LETTER 130.

To the Earl of ——.

Silleri, April 20.

’Tis indeed, my Lord, an advantage for which we cannot be too thankful to the Supreme Being, to be born in a country, whose religion and laws are such, as would have been the objects of our wishes, had we been born in any other.

Our religion, I would be understood to mean Christianity in general, carries internal conviction by the excellency of its moral precepts, and its tendency to make mankind happy; and the peculiar mode of it established in England breathes beyond all others the mild spirit of the Gospel, and that charity which embraces all mankind as brothers.