re it,
having so much time before you.

I send you here inclosed the copy of the Report of the three general
officers, appointed to examine previously into the conduct of General
M----t; it is ill written, and ill spelled, but no matter; you will
decipher it. You will observe, by the tenor of it, that it points
strongly to a court-martial; which, no doubt, will soon be held upon him.
I presume there will be no shooting in the final sentence; but I do
suppose there will be breaking, etc.

I have had some severe returns of my old complaints last week, and am
still unwell; I cannot help it.

A friend of yours arrived here three days ago; she seems to me to be a
serviceable strong-bodied bay mare, with black mane and tail; you easily
guess who I mean. She is come with mamma, and without 'caro sposo'.

Adieu! my head will not let me go on longer.

LETTER CCXV

BATH, December 31, 1757

MY DEAR FRIEND: I have this moment received your letter of the 18th, with
the inclosed papers. I cannot help observing that, till then, you never
acknowledged the receipt of any one of my letters.

I can easily conceive that party spirit, among your brother ministers at
Hamburg, runs as high as you represent it, because I can easily believe
the errors of the human mind; but at the same time I must observe, that
such a spirit is the spirit of little minds and subaltern ministers, who
think to atone by zeal for their want of merit and importance. The
political differences of the several courts should never influence the
personal behavior of their several ministers toward one another. There is
a certain 'procede noble et galant', which should always be observed
among the ministers of powers even at war with each other, which will
always turn out to the advantage of the ablest, who will in those
conversations find, or make, opportunities of throwing out, or of
receiving useful hints. When I was last at The Hague, we were at war with
both France and Spain; so that I could neither visit, nor be visited by,
the Ministers of those two Crowns; but we met every day, or dined at
third places, where we embraced as personal friends, and trifled, at the
same time, upon our being political enemies; and by this sort of badinage
I discovered some things which I wanted to know. There is not a more
prudent maxim than to live with one's enemies as if they may one day
become one's friends; as it commonly happens, sooner or later, in the
vicissitudes