380 Letter 224 To Sir Horace Mann.  Strawberry Hill, June 20, 1757.

I renounce all prophesying; I will never suppose that I can foresee politically; I can foresee nothing, what ever I may foretell.  Here is a ministry formed of all the people who for these ten weeks have been giving each other exclusion!  I will now not venture, even to pronounce that they cannot agree together.  On Saturday last, the 18th, Lord Hardwicke carried to Kensington the result of the last negotiations between Newcastle and Pitt, and the latter followed and actually kissed hands again for the seals.(794) Here is the arrangement as far as I know it, the most extraordinary part of which is, that they suffer Mr. Fox to be paymaster—­oh! no, it is more extraordinary that he will submit to be so.  His grace returns to the treasury, and replaces there his singular good friend Mr. Legge.  Lord Holderness “comes to life again as secretary of state; Lord Anson reassumes the admiralty, not with the present board, nor with his own, but with Mr. Pitt’s, and this by Mr. Pitt’s own desire.  The Duke of Dorset retires with a pension of 4000 pounds a-year, to make room for Lord Gower, that he may make room for Lord Temple.  Lord George Sackville forces out Lord Barrington from secretary at war, who was going to resign with the rest, for fear Mr. Fox should, and that this plan should not take place.  Lord Hardwicke, young disinterested creature! waits till something drops.  Thus far all was smooth; but even this perfection of harmony and wisdom meets with rubs.  Lord Halifax had often and lately been promised to be erected into a secretary of state for the West Indies.  Mr. Pitt says, “No, I will not part with so much power.”  Lord Halifax resigned on Saturday, and Lord Dublin succeeds him.  The two Townshends are gone into the country in a rage; Lord Anson is made the pretence; Mr. Fox is the real sore to George, Lord G. Sackville to Charles.  Sir George Lee, who resigned his treasurership to the Princess against Mr. Pitt, and as the world says, wanting to bring Lord Bute into Doctors’ Commons,(795) is succeeded by Lord Bute’s brother M’Kinsy; but to be sure, all this, in which there is no intrigue, no change, no policy, no hatred, no jealousy, no disappointment, no resentment, no mortification, no ambition, Will produce the utmost concord!  It is a system formed to last; and to be sure it will!  In the mean time, I shall bid adieu to politics; my curiosity is satisfied for some months, and I shall betake myself to employments I love better, and to this place, which I love best of all.  Here is the first fruit of my retirement; behind a bas-relief in wax of the present Pope I have writ the following inscription: