'. If they have
raised a battery, as I suppose they have, it is a masked one, for nothing
has transpired; only they confess that they intend a most vigorous
attack. 'D'ailleurs', there seems to be a total suspension of all
business, till the meeting of the parliament, and then 'Signa canant'. I
am very glad that at this time you are out of it: and for reasons that I
need not mention: you would certainly have been sent for over, and, as
before, not paid for your journey.

Poor Harte is very ill, and condemned to the Hot well at Bristol. He is a
better poet than philosopher: for all this illness and melancholy
proceeds originally from the ill success of his "Gustavus Adolphus." He
is grown extremely devout, which I am very glad of, because that is
always a comfort to the afflicted.

I cannot present Mr. Larpent with my New-Year's gift, till I come to
town, which will be before Christmas at farthest; till when, God bless
you! Adieu.

LETTER CCLXXXIII

LONDON, December 27, 1765.

MY DEAR FRIEND: I arrived here from Bath last Monday, rather, but not
much better, than when I went over there. My rheumatic pains, in my legs
and hips, plague me still, and I must never expect to be quite free from
them.

You have, to be sure, had from the office an account of what the
parliament did, or rather did not do, the day of their meeting; and the
same point will be the great object at their next meeting; I mean the
affair of our American Colonies, relatively to the late imposed
Stamp-duty, which our Colonists absolutely refuse to pay. The
Administration are for some indulgence and forbearance to those froward
children of their mother country; the Opposition are for taking vigorous,
as they call them, but I call them violent measures; not less than 'les
dragonnades'; and to have the tax collected by the troops we have there.
For my part, I never saw a froward child mended by whipping; and I would
not have the mother country become a stepmother. Our trade to America
brings in, 'communibus annis', two millions a year; and the Stamp-duty is
estimated at but one hundred thousand pounds a year; which I would by no
means bring into the stock of the Exchequer, at the loss or even the risk
of a million a year to the national stock.

I do not tell you of the Garter given away yesterday, because the
newspapers will; but, I must observe, that the Prince of Brunswick's
riband is a mark of great distinction to that family; which I belie