(190) Benjamin Keene, afterwards knight of the bath, ambassador at Madrid, was exceedingly abused by the Opposition in Sir Robert Walpole’s time, under the name of Don Benjamin, for having made the convention in 1739. [Mr. Pelham, in a letter to Mr. Pitt of the 12th of October 1750, announcing the signing of the treaty with Spain, says, “I hope and believe, when you see it and consider the whole, you will be of opinion, that my friend Keene has acted ably, honestly, and bravely; but, poor man! he is so sore with old bruises, that he still feels the smart, and fears another thrashing.”  See Chatham Correspondence, vol. i.  P. 50.)

(191) It alluded to the quarrel between the Pope and the Venetians.  Marforio asked Pasquin, “Perche si triste?"- -"Perche mon avremo pi`u Comedia, Pantalone `e partito."-D.

84 letter 32 To Sir Horace Mann.  Arlington Street, Nov. 19, 1750.

I stayed to write to you, till I could tell you that I had seen Mr. Pelham and Mr. Milbank, and could give you some history of a new administration—­but I found it was too long to wait for either.  I pleaded with your brother as I did with you against visiting your friends, especially when, to encourage me, he told me that you had given them a very advantageous opinion of me.  That is the very reason, says I, why I don’t choose to see them:  they will be extremely civil to me at first; and then they will be told I have horns and hoofs., and they will shun me, which I should not like.  I know how unpopular I am with the people with whom they must necessarily live; and, not desiring to be otherwise, I must either seek your friends where I would most avoid them, or have them very soon grow to avoid me.  However, I went and left my name for Mr. Pelham, where your brother told me he lodged, eight days ago; he was to come but that night to his lodgings, and by his telling your brother he believed I had not been, I concluded he would not accept that for a visit; so last Thursday, I left my name for both—­to-day is Monday, and I have heard nothing of them—­very likely I shall before you receive this—­I only mention it to show you that you was in the wrong and I in the right, to think that there would be no empressement for an acquaintance.  Indeed, I would not mention it, as you will dislike being disappointed by any odd behaviour of your friends, if it were not to justify myself, and convince you of my attention in complying with whatever you desire of me.  The King, I hear, commands Mr. Pelham’s dancing; and he must like Mr. Milbank, as he distinguished himself much in a tournament of bears at Hanover.