Lord Althorp(156) is to be married before the 10th of March—­that is all that Lady Lucan would tell me.  I hear of no more news.  The Emperor is expected or it is hoped will assist us, at least with his mediation.  There is all my foreign politics.  The regaining America or having any kind of peace from that quarter is with me a perte de vue.  I wish the spring was a little advanced that I might walk out, for nothing but George can make me stir out of my room, except in fine weather, and I have a hundred places to call at.  I do not tease you, or ever will, about writing, but pray get some one person in your allegiance to write to me for you.  I want neither anecdotes, or sentiments, or politics, but I want to know frequently how you all do.  The Attorney General told me last night that there was no expecting an account of you but from me; j’eus honte de le detromper.  I am supposed to have letters constantly from my Lord Lieutenant, and I give myself so much air at least as not to deny it.

(153) For the better regulation of Civil Establishments, and of certain public offices, and for the limitation of pensions, and the suppression of certain useless, expensive, and inconvenient places.

(154) John Townshend (1757-1833); second son of the fourth Viscount and first Marquis of Townshend.  He was returned for the University of Cambridge in 1780, and lost his seat in 1784 when Pitt was elected.

(155) See Storer’s letterbelow:  “Anthony Storer to Lord Carlisle,” (1781), Feb. 28.

(156) George John, afterwards second Earl Spencer, K.G. (1758-1834); married March 6, 1781, Lavinia, daughter of the first Earl of Lucan.

Anthony Storer to Lord Carlisle.

(1781), Feb. 28.—­I have not wrote to you so often as perhaps I ought to do, and as I really wish, because in regard to everything that passes on this side the water at present, the newspaper is a very authentic chronicle.  The debates in Parliament are not frequent, and when they do happen Mr. Woodfall reports them very much at large, and almost always faithfully.  In regard to the chronique scandaleuse, there is no occasion for any report, as the Session seems a maiden one.  These two heads, which Selwyn does not in general interfere with, I should have thought fell under my department, and I should certainly [have] told you all I knew but for the reasons which I have given.  I take it for granted Selwyn writes to you principally about Lord Morpeth, as I perceive he is in general uppermost in his thoughts, and the subject on which he converses le plus volontiers avec moi.  Le seul bien qui nous rests, &c.

We had a debate on Monday, when Mr. Pitt for the first time made such a speech, that it excited the admiration very justly of every man in the House.  Except he had foreseen the particular species of nonsense which Lord Nugent was to utter, his speech could not be prepared; it was delivered without any kind of improper assurance, but with the exact proper self-possession which ought to accompany a speaker.  There was not a word or a look which one would have wished to correct.  This, I believe, in general was the universal sense of all those who heard him, and exactly the effect which his speech had on me, at the time I heard it.