which I like better.  Very shining ministers, like the sun, are apt to scorch when they shine the brightest:  in our constitution, I prefer the milder light of a less glaring minister.  His successor is not yet, at least publicly, ‘designatus’.  You will easily suppose that many are very willing, and very few able, to fill that post.  Various persons are talked of, by different people, for it, according as their interest prompts them to wish, or their ignorance to conjecture.  Mr. Fox is the most talked of; he is strongly supported by the Duke of Cumberland.  Mr. Legge, the Solicitor-General, and Dr. Lee, are likewise all spoken of, upon the foot of the Duke of Newcastle’s, and the Chancellor’s interest.  Should it be any one of the last three, I think no great alterations will ensue; but should Mr. Fox prevail, it would, in my opinion, soon produce changes by no means favorable to the Duke of Newcastle.  In the meantime, the wild conjectures of volunteer politicians, and the ridiculous importance which, upon these occasions, blockheads always endeavor to give themselves, by grave looks, significant shrugs, and insignificant whispers, are very entertaining to a bystander, as, thank God, I now am.  One knows something, but is not yet at liberty to tell it; another has heard something from a very good hand; a third congratulates himself upon a certain degree of intimacy, which he has long had with everyone of the candidates, though perhaps he has never spoken twice to anyone of them.  In short, in these sort of intervals, vanity, interest, and absurdity, always display themselves in the most ridiculous light.  One who has been so long behind the scenes as I have is much more diverted with the entertainment, than those can be who only see it from the pit and boxes.  I know the whole machinery of the interior, and can laugh the better at the silly wonder and wild conjectures of the uninformed spectators.  This accident, I think, cannot in the least affect your election, which is finally settled with your friend Mr. Eliot.  For, let who will prevail, I presume, he will consider me enough, not to overturn an arrangement of that sort, in which he cannot possibly be personally interested.  So pray go on with your parliamentary preparations.  Have that object always in your view, and pursue it with attention.

I take it for granted that your late residence in Germany has made you as perfect and correct in German, as you were before in French, at least it is worth your while to be so; because it is worth every man’s while to be perfectly master of whatever language he may ever have occasion to speak.  A man is not himself, in a language which he does not thoroughly possess; his thoughts are degraded, when inelegantly or imperfectly expressed; he is cramped and confined, and consequently can never appear to advantage.  Examine and analyze those thoughts that strike you the most, either in conversation or in books; and you will find that they owe at least half their merit to the turn and expression of them.  There is nothing truer than that old saying, ‘Nihil dictum quod non prins dictum’.  It is only the manner of saying or writing it that makes it appear new.  Convince yourself that manner is almost everything, in everything; and study it accordingly.