(1775,) Oct. 11, Wednesday m(orning).—­I went last night after I had sent my letters to the post, which by the way was not till past ten, to Lady Betty’s.  There were with her Lady Julia, Gregg, and a Mr. Owen at whist.  There were Hare, Delme,(125) and his odd-looking parson, who came to town to christen the child.  I went from thence and supped at Lady Hertford’s, with Lord Fr(ederick) Cavendish, Mrs. Howe, and the Beau Richard, who is returned from Jamaica.  His friend Colonel Kane has got the start of him since he went dans la carriere politique, mais le bon Colonel est un peu plus intriguant que son camarade; celui-ci est certainement un charactere bien sauvage, un melange d’irlandois et de Creol, et avec tout cela, un fort honnete garcon. . . .

You pant after news from America; there are none pour le moment.  But you may depend upon it, if that little dispute interests you, I will let you know, quand le monde sera rassemble, tout ce que j’apprens, et de bon lieu.

Charles assures us that nothing is so easy as to put an end to all this, but then there must be a change of Ministry, quelconque, no matter what, as a preliminary assurance to the Insurgents; and then for the inference, under any change he can’t allow himself to take an employment, and lay more money upon shark(s?).  But there will be no change yet, I am confident, and when there is, he will as much want another.

They now doubt of Southwell’s peerage,(126) after all the bustle in our country.  All the claimants for new peerages oppose it with their clamours, as if this was a creation, and taking it for granted that the King is to accept their interpretations instead of his own.  I suppose, if he fulfilled all his engagements upon that score, there would be an addition to the House of Lords equal to the present number.

Ergo, if I was King, I should expunge the whole debt, and begin sur nouveaux fraix.  I think that I should have answer ready to make to my Minister against those promises.  I should tell him, if my affairs required a Sir G. Hawke or who(m) you please to be made a peer, it should be down (done) sur le champ, but I would not be hampered by engagements.  Qu’en pensez-vous, Seigneur?  I take it for granted that Lord Gower will be here soon.  I have desired Gregg to wait on him with an account of all that has passed in your affairs during my regency, because Gregg will be better able to state the matter to him, and to explain the necessity I have been under, by an unexpected increase of demands, of transcending the bounds of the deed, as well as to satisfy him upon your own domestic economy, which is certainly by all accounts irreprehensible.

(125) Peter Delme, married in 1769 to Lady Elizabeth Howard, Lord Carlisle’s sister; he was called Peter the Czar, in allusion to his great wealth, which, however, he and Lady Betty very much reduced by high play.  He shot himself in Grosvenor Square, April 10, 1770.