t Mr. Vertue's MSS., and, I believe, the work will not
give much offence; besides, if it does, I cannot help it; when I publish
anything, I give it to the world to think of it as they please. H. Oh!
if it is an antiquarian work, we shall not clash; mine is a critical
work; I don't know whether I shall ever publish it. It is rather an
apology for painters. I think it is owing to the good sense of the
English that they have not painted better. W. My dear Mr. Hogarth, I
must take my leave of you, you now grow too wild--and I left him. If I
had stayed, there remained nothing but for him to bite me. I give you my
honour this conversation is literal, and, perhaps, as long as you have
known Englishmen and painters, you never met with anything so
distracted. I had consecrated a line to his genius (I mean, for wit) in
my Preface; I shall not erase it; but I hope nobody will ask me if he is
not mad. Adieu!

_INTENDED MARRIAGE OF THE KING--BATTLES IN GERMANY--CAPTURE OF
PONDICHERRY--BURKE._

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ.

STRAWBERRY HILL, _July_ 22, 1761.

For my part, I believe Mademoiselle Scuderi[1] drew the plan of this
year. It is all royal marriages, coronations, and victories; they come
tumbling so over one another from distant parts of the globe, that it
looks just like the handywork of a lady romance writer, whom it costs
nothing but a little false geography to make the Great Mogul in love
with a Princess of Mecklenburgh, and defeat two marshals of France[2] as
he rides post on an elephant to his nuptials. I don't know where I am. I
had scarce found Mecklenburg Strelitz with a magnifying-glass before I
am whisked to Pondicherry--well, I take it, and raze it. I begin to grow
acquainted with Colonel Coote,[3] and figure him packing up chests of
diamonds, and sending them to his wife against the King's
wedding--thunder go to the Tower guns, and behold, Broglie and Soubise
are totally defeated; if the mob have not much stronger heads and
quicker conceptions than I have, they will conclude my Lord Granby is
become nabob. How the deuce in two days can one digest all this? Why is
not Pondicherry in Westphalia? I don't know how the Romans did, but I
cannot support two victories every week. Well, but you will want to know
the particulars. Broglie and Soubise united, attacked our army on the
15th, but were repulsed; the next day, the Prince Mahomet Alli Cawn--no,
no, I mean Prince Ferdinand, returned the attack, and the French thre