ed to his bed. To-day I
have all the Townshends and Brodericks to dine here, and Mie Mie
goes after dinner to the Opera with Lady Payne, so I must be dressed
to be her beau, which, if it was not for the pleasure of being
assistant to her, would be souffrir le martyre.

We shall adjourn next week, I believe, till after the Queen's
birthday. There was a talk yesterday of changes in the Admiralty,
but without foundation. Lord Lisbourne, who dined with us yesterday
at Lord Ashburnham's, did not seem to think that there would be a
change of any sort. I hope he means as to men then only; for if
measures and conduct are not to be changed we are completely undone,
supposing anything of that now left to do.

The Duke of Newcastle's youngest son is at Lisbon for his health,
and not likely to live. What is become, or will become, of his
eldest God knows. His Grace's pride has settled everything upon Sir
H(enry) Clinton, for the sake of the name, and Oatlands is to be
sold and no vestiges left, of his infinite obligations either to
Lord Torrington or to the Pelhams. He is 200,000 pounds in debt, and
will, if Lord Lincoln marries, of which nobody doubts, have probably
6,000 pounds a year to pay in jointures to Lady Harrington, and Lady
Hertford's daughters, and when this and the usual charge upon the
maintenance of great houses is defrayed, he will leave nothing to
Sir Henry but the expense of his own monument. He is a complete
wretch, and no one ever deserved more to be so.

(185) Henry Laurens (1723-1783), President of the American Congress
in 1777; he resigned in 1778, and was appointed Ambassador to
Holland, but was captured by the English at sea and imprisoned in
the Tower. After his release he was sent by Washington to Paris to
negotiate for a new loan, and in 1783 he signed there the
preliminaries of peace with Franklin, Adams, and Jay.

(186) Jean Frederic Phe'lippeaux, Comte de Maurepas (1701-1781),
Minister of Marine under Louis XV., but banished through the
influence of Mme. de Pompadour; recalled by Louis XVI., he was made
first minister, and though himself more courtier than statesman,
succeeded in his policy of the recognition of the United States, and
brought into the Ministry such men as Turgot, Malesherbes, and
Necker.

Earlier in this year Walpole had written to Sir Horace Mann: "Mr.
Fox is the first figure in all the places I have mentioned, the hero
in Parliament, at the gaming table, at Newmarket." The