of their allies, take Lorraine and Alsace from France. You will call
me 'l'Abbe de St. Pierre'; but I only say what I wish; whereas he thought
everything that he wished practicable.

Now to come home. Here are great bustles at Court, and a great change of
persons is certainly very near. You will ask me, perhaps, who is to be
out, and who is to be in? To which I answer, I do not know. My conjecture
is that, be the new settlement what it will, Mr. Pitt will be at the head
of it. If he is, I presume, 'qu'il aura mis de l'eau dans son vin par
rapport a Mylord B-----; when that shall come to be known, as known it
certainly will soon be, he may bid adieu to his popularity. A minister,
as minister, is very apt to be the object of public dislike; and a
favorite, as favorite, still more so. If any event of this kind happens,
which (if it happens at all) I conjecture will be some time next week,
you shall hear further from me.

I will follow your advice, and be as well as I can next winter, though I
know I shall never be free from my flying rheumatic pains, as long as I
live; but whether that will be more or less, is extremely indifferent to
me; in either case, God bless you!

LETTER CCLXXXVIII

BLACKHEATH, August 1, 1766.

MY DEAR FRIEND: The curtain was at last drawn up, the day before
yesterday, and discovered the new actors, together with some of the old
ones. I do not name them to you, because to-morrow's Gazette will do it
full as well as I could. Mr. Pitt, who had carte blanche given him, named
everyone of them: but what would you think he named himself for? Lord
Privy Seal; and (what will astonish you, as it does every mortal here)
Earl of Chatham. The joke here is, that he has had A FALL UP STAIRS, and
has done himself so much hurt, that he will never be able to stand upon
his leg's again. Everybody is puzzled how to account for this step;
though it would not be the first time that great abilities have been
duped by low cunning. But be it what it will, he is now certainly only
Earl of Chatham; and no longer Mr. Pitt, in any respect whatever. Such an
event, I believe, was never read nor heard of. To withdraw, in the
fullness of his power and in the utmost gratification of his ambition,
from the House of Commons (which procured him his power, and which could
alone insure it to him), and to go into that hospital of incurables, the
House of Lords, is a measure so unaccountable, that nothing but proof
positive coul