Be that as it may, the general is to be the sacrifice.  The difficulty will be extreme with regard to the Hessians, for they are in English pay.  The King of Prussia will be another victim:  he says we have undone him, without mending our own situation.  He expected to beat the Prince de Soubize by surprise, but he, like the Austrians, declined a battle, and now will be reinforced by Richelieu’s army, who is doomed to be a hero by our absurdities.  Austrians, French, Russians, Swedes, can the King of Prussia not sink under all these!  This suspension has made our secret expedition forgot by all but us who feel for particulars.  It is the fashion now to believe it is not against the coast of France; I wish I could believe so!

As if all these disgraces were foreign objects not worth attending to, we have a civil war at home; literally so in many counties.  The wise Lords, to defeat it, have made the Militia-bill so preposterous that it has raised a rebellion.  George Townshend, the promoter of it for popularity, sees it not only most unpopular in his own county, but his father, my Lord Townshend, who is not the least mad of your countrymen, attended by a parson, a barber, and his own servants, and in his own long hair, which he has let grow, raised a mob against the execution of the bill, and has written a paper against it, which he has pasted up on the doors of four churches near him.  It is a good name that a Dr. Stevens has given to our present situation, (for one cannot call it a Government,) a Mobocracy.  I come to your letters which are much more agreeable subjects.  I think I must not wish you joy of the termination of the Lorrain reign, you have lately taken to them, but I congratulate the Tuscans.  Thank you extremely for the trouble you have given yourself in translating my inscription, and for the Pope’s letter:  I am charmed with his beautiful humility, and his delightful way of expressing it.  For his ignorance about my father, I impute it to some failure of his memory.  I should like to tell him that were my father still minister, I trust we should not make the figure we do—­at least he and England fell together!  If it is ignorance, Mr. Chute says it is a confirmation of the Pope’s deserving the inscription, as he troubles his head so little about disturbing the peace of others.  But our enemies need not disturb us-we do their business ourselves.  I have one, and that not a little comfort, in my politics ; this suspension will at least prevent further hostilities between us and the Empress-Queen, and that secures my dear you.