be counterfeited!  If ever I had a friend, if ever there was a friend, he was one to me; if ever there were love and gratitude, I have both for him—­before I received your letter, James was convinced for all this—­but my dear child, you let slip an expression which sure I never deserved—­but I will say no more of it. thank you for the verses on Buondelmonti(784)—­I did not know he was dead—­for the prayer for Richcourt, for the Pope’s letter, and for the bills of lading for the liqueurs.

You will have heard all the torments exercised on that poor wretch Damien, for attempting the least bad of all murders, that of a king.  They copied with a scrupulous exactness horrid precedents, and the dastardly monarch permitted them!  I don’t tell you any particulars, for in time of war, and at this distance, how to depend on the truth of them?

This is a very long letter, but I will not make excuses for long ones and short ones too—­I fear you forgive the long ones most easily!

(776) “April 6, Mr. Pitt dismissed.  Mr. Fox and I were ordered from the King, by Lord Holderness to come and kiss his hand as paymaster of the army, and treasurer of the navy.  We wrote to the Duke of Cumberland our respectful thanks and acceptance of the offices; but we thought it would be more for his Majesty’s service,.not to enter into them publicly till the Inquiry was over.”  Doddington, p. 352.-E.

(777) the King.

(778) On the 19th of April, the House of Commons went into a committee on the state of the navy, and the causes which had led to the loss of the island of Minorca.-E.

(779) The Duke of Cumberland.

(780) Third son of William third Duke of Devonshire.  He was made a field-marshal in 1796, and died in 1803.-D.

(781) Second son of Charles second Duke of Richmond.  He died in March, 1805.-D.

(782) Charles Fitzroy, second Duke of Grafton, lord chamberlain.

(783) Lepidus, Duke of Newcastle; Octavius and Anthony, Pitt and Fox.-D.

(784) A Florentine Abb`e and wit; author of several poetical pieces.-E.

372 Letter 217 To Sir Horace Mann.  Arlington Street, May 5, 1757.

You may expect what you please of new ministries, and revolutions, and establishments; we are a grave people, and don’t go so rashly to work-at least when we have demolished any thing rashly, we take due time before we repair it.  At a distance you may be impatient.  We, the most concerned, wait very tranquilly to see the event of chaos.  It was given out that nothing would be settled till the Inquiries were at an end.  The world very obediently stayed for the time appointed.  The Inquiries are at an end, yet nothing is in more forwardness.  Foreign nations may imagine (but they must be at a great distance!) that we are so wise and upright a people, that every man performs his part, and thence every thing goes on in its proper order without any