l Lady Giffard
dies; and I will think of some such hand before I come over. I was
asking Smithers about all the people of Farnham. Mrs. White(4) has left
off dressing, is troubled with lameness and swelled legs, and seldom
stirs out; but her old hang-dog husband as hearty as ever. I was this
morning with Lord Treasurer, about something he would have altered
in the pamphlet;(5) but it can't be till the fourth edition, which I
believe will be soon; for I dined with the printer, and he tells me they
have sold off half the third. Mrs. Perceval(6) and her daughter have
been in town these three weeks, which I never heard till to-day; and
Mrs. Wesley(7) is come to town too, to consult Dr. Radcliffe. The Whigs
are resolved to bring that pamphlet into the House of Lords to have it
condemned, so I hear. But the printer will stand to it, and not own the
author; he must say he had it from the penny-post. Some people talk as
if the House of Lords would do some peevish thing, for the Whigs are now
a great majority in it; our Ministers are too negligent of such things:
I have never slipped giving them warning; some of them are sensible of
it; but Lord Treasurer stands too much upon his own legs. I fancy his
good fortune will bear him out in everything; but in reason I should
think this Ministry to stand very unsteady; if they can carry a peace,
they may hold; I believe not else.

4. Mr. Secretary sent to me to-day to dine with him alone; but we had
two more with us, which hindered me doing some business. I was this
morning with young Harcourt, secretary to our Society, to take a room
for our weekly meetings; and the fellow asked us five guineas a week
only to have leave to dine once a week; was not that pretty? so we broke
off with him, and are to dine next Thursday at Harcourt's (he is Lord
Keeper's son). They have sold off above half the third edition,
and answers are coming out: the Dutch Envoy refused dining with Dr.
Davenant,(8) because he was suspected to write it: I have made some
alterations in every edition, and it has cost me more trouble, for the
time, since the printing, than before. 'Tis sent over to Ireland, and I
suppose you will have it reprinted.

5. They are now printing the fourth edition, which is reckoned very
extraordinary, considering 'tis a dear twelvepenny book, and not bought
up in numbers by the party to give away, as the Whigs do, but purely
upon its own strength. I have got an under spur-leather to write