My Lord does not talk of’ going out of town yet; I don’t propose to be at Houghton till August.  Adieu!

(923) Charles Edward, and Henry his brother, afterwards the Cardinal of York.-D.

(924) The Honourable Philip Yorke, in his MS. Parliamentary Journal, says, “it was a warm and long d(.-bate, in which I think as much violence and dislike to the proposition was shown by the opposers, as in any which had arisen during the whole winter.  I thought neither Mr. Pelham’s nor Pitt’s performances equal on this occasion to what they are on most others.  Many of the Prince’s friends were absent; for what reason I cannot learn.  This was the parting blow of the session; for the King came and dismissed us on the 12th, and the Parliament broke up with a good deal of ill-humour and discontent on the part of the Opposition, and little expectation in those who knew the interior of the court, and the unconnected state of the alliance abroad, that much would be done in the ensuing campaign to allay it, or infuse a better temper into the nation."-E.

(925) Augustus. fourth Earl Berkeley, Knight of the Thistle.  He married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Drax, Esq, of Charborough, in Dorsetshire; and died in 1755.-D.

(926) Richard, sixth Viscount Fitzwilliam in Ireland, married Catherine, daughter and heiress of Sir Matthew Decker, Bart., and died in 1776.-E.

370 Letter 138 To Sir Horace Mann.  London, May 29, 1744.

Since I wrote I have received two from you of May 6th and 19th.  I am extremely sorry you get mine so late.  I have desired your brother to complain to Mr. Preverau:  I get yours pretty regularly.

I have this morning had a letter from Mr. Conway at the army; he says he hears just then that the French have declared war against the Dutch:  they had in effect before by besieging Menin, which siege our army is in full march to raise.  They have laid bridges over the Scheldt, and intend to force the French to a battle.  The latter are almost double our number, but their desertion is prodigious, and their troops extremely bad.  Fourteen thousand more Dutch are ordered, and their six thousand are going from hence with four more of ours; so we seem to have no more apprehensions of an invasion.  All thoughts of it are over! no inquiry made into it!  The present ministry fear the detection of conspiracies more than the thing itself:  that is, they fear every thing that they are to do themselves.

My father has been extremely ill, from a cold he caught last week at New-park.  Princess Emily came thither to fish, and he, who is grown quite indolent, and has not been out of a hot room this twelve- month, sat an hour and a half by the water side.  He was in great danger one day, and more low-spirited than ever I knew him, though I think that grows upon him with his infirmities.  My sister was at his bedside; I came into the room,-he burst into tears and could not speak to me — but he is quite well now; though I cannot say I think he will preserve his life long, as he has laid aside all exercise, which has been of such vast service to him. he talked the other day of shutting himself up in the farthest wing at Houghton; I said, “Dear, my Lord, you will be at a distance from all the family there!” He replied, “So much the better!”