o hostilities are intended towards me;
nous verrons. I can never be used by any set of Ministers so ill, or
with such indignity, as by those who are removed. . . .(227) said
last night that the executions were now near(ly) over. I will open
my mind to you. I think both his and Richard's language in all this
transaction has been to the last degree indecent, and I am sure,
unless these two are better advised, they will do their chief more
disservice than any ill-conduct of his own. When people of low birth
have by great good luck and a fortunate concurrence of events been
able to obtain, from lively parts only, without any acquisitions
which can be useful to the public, such situations as are due only
to persons of rank, weight, and character, it is surely an easy task
not to be insolent. It is all I require of them; I envy no man his
good fortune, ever so undeserved, while he shows no disposition to
offend others. But with all this I have not been provoked enough to
express my resentment, or mean enough to deprecate that of others.

(227) An erasure.

I was last night at supper with Charles, but not one syllable passed
between us. He knows that I see him in a situation where I cannot
wish to see any one who has aspired to it and obtained it by the
means which he has used. No one admires more or thinks more justly
of his abilities than I do; no one could have loved him more, if he
had deserved it; what his behaviour has been to the public, to his
friends, and to his family is notorious. Facts are too stubborn, and
to those I appeal, and not to the testimonies of ignorant and
profligate people. However, if hereafter you can reconcile yourself
to him and to his behaviour towards you, I will forgive him, and
although I desire to lay myself under no obligation to him, I will
remember only that he is the child of those whom I loved, without
interest or any return.

George wonders to see me write so much to you; he is so well that I
will carry him to school on Monday, without consulting any person.
. . . He has read more Latin to me than I have to him, for my breath
as been affected by the cold, or I should have read more with him;
but he has hammered out his Latin with the dictionary and what
assistance I can give him, and construes it wonderfully well. He
will be at school till the 25th of next month, and then I propose
exercise abroad, and the Modern History of Europe at home, and
French; for to speak the truth he is def