All England is again occupied with Admiral Byng; he and his friends were quite persuaded of his acquittal.  The court-martial, after the trial was finished, kept the whole world in suspense for a week; after great debates and divisions amongst themselves, and despatching messengers hither to consult lawyers whether they could not mitigate the article of war, to which a negative was returned, they pronounced this extraordinary sentence on Thursday:  they condemn him to death for negligence, but acquit him of disaffection and cowardice (the other heads of the article), specifying the testimony of Lord Robert Bertie in his favour, and unanimously recommending him to mercy; and accompanying their sentence with a most earnest letter to the Lords of the admiralty to intercede for his pardon, saying, that finding themselves tied up from moderating the article of war, and not being able in conscience to pronounce that he had done all he could, they had been forced to bring him in guilty, but beg he may be spared.  The discussions and difference of opinions, on the sentence is incredible.  The cabinet council, I believe, will be to determine whether the King shall pardon him or not:  some who wish to make him the scapegoat for their own neglects, I fear, will try to complete his fate, but I should think the new administration will not be biassed to blood by such interested attempts.  He bore well his Unexpected sentence, as he has all the outrageous indignities and cruelties heaped upon him. last week happened an odd event, I can scarce say in his favour, as the world seems to think it the effect of the arts of some of his friends:  Voltaire sent him from Switzerland an accidental letter of the Duc de Richelieu bearing witness to the Admiral’s good behaviour in the engagement.(755) A letter of a very deferent cast, and of great humour, is showed about, said to be written to Admiral Boscawen from an old tar, to this effect: 

“Sir., I had the honour of being at the taking of Port Mahon, for which one gentleman(756) was made a lord; I was also at the losing of Mahon, for which another gentleman(757) has been made a lord:  each of those gentlemen performed but one of those services; surely I, who performed both, ought at least to be made a lieutenant.  Which is all from your honour’s humble servant, etc."(758)

Did you hear that after their conquest, the French ladies wore little towers for pompons, and called them des Mahonnoises?  I suppose, since the attempt on the King, all their fashions will be `a l’assassin.  We are quite in the dark still about that history:  it is one of the bad effects of living in one’s own time, that one never knows the truth of it till one is dead!