had made the capture--and thus, when the last letters came away, the
repeal was likely to pass in both houses, and tyranny once more
despairs.

This is the quintessence of the present situation in England. To how
many _North Britons_, No. 45, will that wretched Scot furnish matter?
But let us talk of your _Cardinal Duke of York_[1]: so his folly has
left his brother in a worse situation than he took him up! _York_ seems
a title fated to sit on silly heads--or don't let us talk of him; he is
not worth it.

[Footnote 1: Cardinal York was the younger brother of Charles Edward. He
lived in Italy; and, after the death of his brother, assumed the title
of King of England as Henry IX. After the confiscation of the greater
part of the Papal revenues by Napoleon, his chief means of livelihood
was a pension of L4,000 a year allowed him by George IV. out of his
private purse.]

I am so sorry for the death of Lady Hillsborough, as I suppose Mr.
Skreene is glad of his consort's departure. She was a common creature,
bestowed on the public by Lord Sandwich. Lady Hillsborough had sense and
merit, and is a great loss to her family. By letters hither, we hear
miserable accounts of poor Sir James Macdonald; pray let him know that I
have written to him, and how much I am concerned for his situation.

This Court is plunged into another deep mourning for the death of old
Stanislaus,[1] who fell into the fire; it caught his night-gown and
burnt him terribly before he got assistance. His subjects are in
despair, for he was a model of goodness and humanity; uniting or rather
creating, generosity from economy. The Poles had not the sense to
re-elect him, after his virtues were proved, they who had chosen him
before they knew him. I am told such was the old man's affection for his
country, and persuasion that he ought to do all the good he could, that
he would have gone to Poland if they had offered him the crown. He has
left six hundred thousand livres, and a _rente viagere_ of forty
thousand crowns to the Queen, saved from the sale of his Polish estates,
from his pension of two millions, and from his own liberality. His
buildings, his employment of the poor, his magnificence, and his
economy, were constant topics of admiration. Not only the court-tables
were regularly and nobly served, but he treated, and defrayed his old
enemy's grand-daughter, the Princess Christina, on her journey hither to
see her sister the Dauphiness. When mesdames hi