impossible.

Lord North's speech I shall be very impatient to read, for hear, I
fear, that I shall not; I see little probability of my going out for
some time. I wish that I had gone from Matson to Castle H.; I might
perhaps be there now, and have escaped this martyrdom. You say
nothing of your coming here, and will not, I daresay, come the
sooner, for my impatience to see you and the children. I must live
upon that unexpected pleasure; but whom I shall collect to eat my
minced pies on William's birthday, I do not as yet know.

The business of Parliament does not begin till Monday; till then, it
will be nothing but hearsay, speculation, &c., &c. Some tell me that
the present Ministry is determined to try the number of those who
will support them, and are not afraid of being overrun with Rats;
nous verrons. Lord Stafford(254) was to have come to me yesterday,
when the Council was up, but it was too late.

(248) Captain John Willett Payne, known as "Jack Payne," was
secretary to the Prince of Wales.

(249) The Marquis of Lothian (1737-1815) belonged to the "fast set."
He commanded the first regiment of Life Guards, and was a favourite
of George III., whom he deserted at the division caused by his first
attack of insanity; at the King's recovery he was transferred to
another regiment.

(250) T. Townsend.

(251) Frederick, Duke of York.

(252) Mrs. Fitzherbert (1756-1837). It was the occasion of much
curiosity during her life and after if she were legally the wife of
the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. The marriage took place
in her own house, her brother and uncle being present; a clergyman
of the Church of England performed the ceremony. But by the Marriage
Act of 1772 a marriage by a member of the Royal Family under
twenty-five, without the King's consent, was invalid, and by the Act
of Settlement a marriage by the heir-apparent to a Roman Catholic
was also invalid. In 1787 the Prince, in order to obtain money from
Parliament, without doubt gave Fox authority to deny the marriage in
the House of Commons, though he pretended great indignation toward
Fox to Mrs. Fitzherbert. On the Prince's marriage to the Princess
Caroline, Mrs. Fitzherbert ceased for a time to live with him, but
acting on the advice of her confessor, returned to him, and gave a
breakfast to announce it to the fashionable world, where she was a
favourite. About 1803 she broke off all connection with the Prince,
retiring from the Court wi