There is a most dreadful account of an earthquake in Lisbon,(642) but several people will not believe it.  There have been lately such earthquakes and waterquakes, and rocks rent, and other strange phenomena, that one would think the world exceedingly out of repair.  I am not prophet enough to believe that such convulsions relate solely to the struggles between Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, or even portend any between the Georges and Jameses.  You have already heard, I suppose, that Pitt, Legge, and George Grenville, are dismissed, and that Sir George Lyttelton is chancellor of the exchequer.  My Lord Temple says that Sir George Lyttelton said he would quit his place when they did, and that he has kept his word!  The world expects your cousin to resign; but I believe all efforts are used to retain him.  Joan, the fair maid of Saxe-Gotha, did not speak to Mr. Fox or Sir George when they kissed her hand last Sunday.  No more places are vacated or filled up yet.

It is an age since I have heard from Mr. Bentley; the war or the weather have interrupted all communication.  Adieu! let me know at your leisure, when one is likely to see you.

(642) The dreadful earthquake, on the 1st of November, which laid nearly the whole city in ruins.  The number of inhabitants who lost their lives was variously reported, but generally estimated at about ten thousand.-E.

294 Letter 163 To Sir Horace Mann.  Arlington Street, Dec. 4, 1755.

Long before you receive this, my dear Sir, you will have learned general, if not particular accounts of the dreadful desolation at Lisbon:  the particulars indeed are not yet come hither; all we have heard hitherto is from France, and from Sir Benjamin Keene at Madrid.  The catastrophe is greater than ever happened even in your neighbourhood, Naples.  Our share is very considerable, and by some reckoned at four millions.  We are despatching a ship with a present of an hundred thousand pounds in provisions and necessaries, for they want every thing.  There have been Kings of Spain who would have profited of such a calamity; but the present monarch has only acted as if he had a title to Portugal, by showing himself a father to that people.(643)

We are settled, politically, into a regular opposition.  Mr. Pitt, Mr. Legge, and George Grenville have received their dismissions, and oppose regularly.  Sir George Lyttelton, who last year with that connexion, is made chancellor of the exchequer.  As the subsidies are not yet voted, and as the opposition, though weak in numbers, are very strong in speakers, no other places will be given away till Christmas, that the re-elections may be made in the holidays.

There are flying reports that General Johnson, our only hero at present, has taken Crown Point, but the report is entirely unconfirmed by any good authority.  The invasion that I announced to you, is very equivocal; there is some suspicion that it was only called in as an ally to the subsidiary treaties:  many that come from France say, that on their coasts they are dreading an invasion from us.  Nothing is certain but their forbearance and good breeding-the meaning of that is very uncertain.