ree days ago, to Monsieur Munchausen, HE (meaning you) SETS OUT VERY
WELL, AND I LIKE HIS LETTERS; PROVIDED THAT, LIKE MOST OF MY ENGLISH
MINISTERS ABROAD, HE DOES NOT GROW IDLE HEREAFTER. So that here is both
praise to flatter, and a hint to warn you. What Lord Holderness
recommends to you, being by the King's order, intimates also a degree of
approbation; for the BLACKER INK, AND THE LARGER CHARACTER, show, that
his Majesty, whose eyes are grown weaker, intends to read all your
letters himself. Therefore, pray do not neglect to get the blackest ink
you can; and to make your secretary enlarge his hand, though 'd'ailleurs'
it is a very good one.

Had I been to wish an advantageous situation for you, and a good debut in
it, I could not have wished you either better than both have hitherto
proved. The rest will depend entirely upon yourself; and I own I begin to
have much better hopes than I had; for I know, by my own experience, that
the more one works, the more willing one is to work. We are all, more or
less, 'des animaux d'habitude'. I remember very well, that when I was in
business, I wrote four or five hours together every day, more willingly
than I should now half an hour; and this is most certain, that when a man
has applied himself to business half the day, the other half, goes off
the more cheerfully and agreeably. This I found so sensibly, when I was
at The Hague, that I never tasted company so well nor was so good company
myself, as at the suppers of my post days. I take Hamburg now to be 'le
centre du refuge Allemand'. If you have any Hanover 'refugies' among
them, pray take care to be particularly attentive to them. How do you
like your house? Is it a convenient one? Have the 'Casserolles' been
employed in it yet? You will find 'les petits soupers fins' less
expensive, and turn to better account, than large dinners for great
companies.

I hope you have written to the Duke of Newcastle; I take it for granted
that you have to all your brother ministers of the northern department.
For God's sake be diligent, alert, active, and indefatigable in your
business. You want nothing but labor and industry to be, one day,
whatever you please, in your own way.

We think and talk of nothing here but Brest, which is universally
supposed to be the object of our great expedition. A great and important
object it is. I suppose the affair must be brusque, or it will not do. If
we succeed, it will make France put some water to