tractable; for those
gentlemen, though all men of honor, are of Sosia's mind, 'que le vrai
Amphitrion est celui ou l'on dine'. The Tories and the city have engaged
to support Pitt; the Whigs, the Duke of Newcastle; the independent and
the impartial, as you well know, are not worth mentioning. It is said
that the Duke intends to bring the affair of his Convention into
parliament, for his own justification; I can hardly believe it; as I
cannot conceive that transactions so merely electoral can be proper
objects of inquiry or deliberation for a British parliament; and,
therefore, should such a motion be made, I presume it will be immediately
quashed. By the commission lately given to Sir John Ligonier, of General
and Commander-in-chief of all his Majesty's forces in Great Britain, the
door seems to be not only shut, but bolted, against his Royal Highness's
return; and I have good reason to be convinced that that breach is
irreparable. The reports of changes in the Ministry, I am pretty sure,
are idle and groundless. The Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt really agree
very well; not, I presume, from any sentimental tenderness for each
other, but from a sense that it is their mutual interest: and, as the
late Captain-general's party is now out of the question, I do not see
what should produce the least change.

The visit made lately to Berlin was, I dare say, neither a friendly nor
an inoffensive one. The Austrians always leave behind them pretty lasting
monuments of their visits, or rather visitations: not so much, I believe,
from their thirst of glory, as from their hunger of prey.

This winter, I take for granted, must produce a piece of some kind or
another; a bad one for us, no doubt, and yet perhaps better than we
should get the year after. I suppose the King of Prussia is negotiating
with France, and endeavoring by those means to get out of the scrape with
the loss only of Silesia, and perhaps Halberstadt, by way of
indemnification to Saxony; and, considering all circumstances, he would
be well off upon those terms. But then how is Sweden to be satisfied?
Will the Russians restore Memel? Will France have been at all this
expense 'gratis'? Must there be no acquisition for them in Flanders? I
dare say they have stipulated something of that sort for themselves, by
the additional and secret treaty, which I know they made, last May, with
the Queen of Hungary. Must we give up whatever the French please to
desire in America, b