y was a mere harmless,
defensive one. He assured me that there were none. Upon which I told him,
that as the King had already defensive alliances with those two
Empresses, I did not see of what use his accession to this treaty, if
merely a defensive one, could be, either to himself or the other
contracting parties; but that, however, if it was only desired as an
indication of the King's good will, I would give him an act by which his
Majesty should accede to that treaty, as far, but no further, as at
present he stood engaged to the respective Empresses by the defensive
alliances subsisting with each. This offer by no means satisfied him;
which was a plain proof of the secret articles now brought to light, and
into which the court of Vienna hoped to draw us. I told Wassenaer so, and
after that I heard no more of his invitation.

I am still bewildered in the changes at Court, of which I find that all
the particulars are not yet fixed. Who would have thought, a year ago,
that Mr. Fox, the Chancellor, and the Duke of Newcastle, should all three
have quitted together? Nor can I yet account for it; explain it to me if
you can. I cannot see, neither, what the Duke of Devonshire and Fox, whom
I looked upon as intimately united, can have quarreled about, with
relation to the Treasury; inform me, if you know. I never doubted of the
prudent versatility of your Vicar of Bray: But I am surprised at O'Brien
Windham's going out of the Treasury, where I should have thought that the
interest of his brother-in-law, George Grenville, would have kept him.

Having found myself rather worse, these two or three last days, I was
obliged to take some ipecacuanha last night; and, what you will think
odd, for a vomit, I brought it all up again in about an hour, to my great
satisfaction and emolument, which is seldom the case in restitutions.

You did well to go to the Duke of Newcastle, who, I suppose, will have no
more levees; however, go from time to time, and leave your name at his
door, for you have obligations to him. Adieu.

LETTER CCIV

BATH, December 14, 1756.

MY DEAR FRIEND: What can I say to you from this place, where EVERY DAY IS
STILL BUT AS THE FIRST, though by no means so agreeably passed, as
Anthony describes his to have been? The same nothings succeed one another
every day with me, as, regularly and uniformly as the hours of the day.
You will think this tiresome, and so it is; but how can I help it? Cut
off from socie