foreigner at Paris who had a madness of wearing the orders of different countries. He was forbidden to assume the Saint Esprit, but indulged in every other knighthood. I have seen him at the theatres by turns Knight of the Garter, Bath, Thistle, Elephant, &c. &c. We had once a mad Queen Elizabeth here, who on the first day of the session, as my father was coming down from St. James's, gave him her speech and ordered him to read it to her Parliament ;-it was not Mrs. Pitt, I assure you, nor Lady Mary Coke.

Strawberry Hill, 10th.

It looks very much now as if the war would very soon make itself. A French squadron is sailed westward, and Captain Digby has been despatched with another in pursuit of it.* Seamen are not apt to be so formal and dilatory as plenipotentiaries. The passions too begin to awaken. The City grows moody again; the Stocks fall; the Ministers are warmly pressed in both Houses. The new loan of six millions does not take kindly. The bended knee to America does not please. Dr. Franklin boasts that Philadelphia will be starved into a Burgoynism. Lord Temple seems to snuff confusion and is come forth again, and spoke against the conciliatory bills.+ Last year he entrapped John the Painter: I suppose he solves these inconsistencies

* It appears, by a letter from Dr. Franklin, dated Passy, February 21, that several American ships, loaded with stores for the Congress, were about to sail, under the convoy of a French squadron.—ED.

+ Lord Temple is stated, in a letter from Mr. Vaughan to Dr. Franklin, to have "reprobated the concessions, and equally the mad, foolish ministers, who could neither keep peace, make war, nor negotiate peace

by constancy to self. In that light, how uniform has his whole life been; though every brother and every friend has been sacrificed to his passions! I, who sit aloof from the conflict, see these things as they are; and should behold them with indifference, if the general want of principle were not a worse indication of approaching ruin than the concomitant circumstances. All men see a prospect of rising on confusion no man reflects that want of virtue cannot correct what the want of it has occasioned.

Adieu!

LETTER CCLXXXI.

March 17, 1778.

I HAVE Scarce a moment's time to write, and it is only—what an only!-to tell you that the French Ambassador notified to Lord Weymouth on Friday, that his Court had concluded a treaty of commerce and amity with the independent States of America ; but had had the attention not to make it an exclusive treaty: so, we may trade with America, if America will condescend to trade with us. I doubt there were some words of France not being disposed to be molested in their commerce with their new friends. consequence of that declaration, Lord Stormont's recall was sent off that night. To-day the Ministers are to acquaint both Houses with the insult; and, I

In

again: he wanted a treaty without Parliament, and preliminaries settled before concession."-ED.

suppose, intend to be addressed with vows of support.* The Stocks, not being members of Parliament, do not vote for war, nor behave like heroes.-Alas! I am ashamed of irony. Neither do I love to send my auguries through every post-house. However, every one must know that a French war is not exactly a compensation for the loss of America. We, the herd, the Achivi, must take the beverage our rulers brew for us; and we that can, must console ourselves with not having contributed to the potion. I believe it will be a bitter one; but I should be still less tranquil, if I had furnished a drop.

I have received your melancholy letter on poor Lady Lucy's death, and had written to you on it before, nor will open the wound again. Our situation will remove that cloud, and fill your mind with others.

Europe is going again to be a theatre of blood, as America has been. The Emperor and Prussia are going, I think have begun a war! 'Tis endless to moralize; human life is forced to do so, but en pure perte. The system changes, not the consequences. Force was the first great arbitress of human affairs. The shrewd observed, that Art could counteract and controul Strength and for a long time Policy ruled. But, Policy having exhausted all its resources, and having been detected in them all, Impudence restored Force,

* A message from the King, together with a copy of the Declaration delivered by the French Ambassador to Lord Weymouth, had this day been presented to both Houses, and an Address of Thanks agreed to. Orders were also sent to our Ambassador, Lord Stormont, to withdraw from the Court of France.-ED.

which is now sole governess. She seized and shared Poland, and now sets up the same right to Bavaria. We tried the plan in America, but forgot we had not that essential to the new jus gentium, an hundred thousand men, and that our Bavaria* was on t'other side of the Atlantic. I hope the ocean, that was against us there, will be our friend at home !

Adieu ! This is a new chapter in our correspond ence. I will write as events rise; you must excuse me if I have not always time, as I have not at present, to make my letters long in proportion to the matter.

LETTER CCLXXXII.

March 27, 1778.

THE war is not yet arrived, though it is certainly at next door, for France laid an embargo on all our vessels in their ports; one may call it, seized them, Lord Stormont himself, though got to Boulogne, is forced to stay there for want of conveyance, or must come round by Holland. This made us stare a little two days ago; but last night I heard that this hostility is conditional, and only a boisterous way of wrenching out of our hands the Kouli Khan, a French ship that we had taken, and that Monsieur de Noailles had reclaimed without success. I doubt we shall take and give so many of these slaps, that the declaration

* The Emperor and the King of Prussia were at war; the Emperor claiming part of the domains of the late Elector of Bavaria.

of war may, to save trouble, be reserved to the peace; and then, as Hamlet says,

the funeral baked meats

Will coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

There was a report, too, that Spain would send us a notification of having made a treaty with the Americans also; but this is contradicted, and their new Ambassador, Almadovar, is said to have received orders to come to us forthwith. In short, rumours of wars beget a thousand other reports. The town has expected a restoration of Lord Chatham; but that notion has subsided too. The best thing I do know is, that we are very seriously occupied in defending ourselves. No more troops are to go to America; we are collecting our whole force; the new-raised regiments will have been an advantageous addition, as they were not embarked; and the militia, which is complete in every county but two, is to take the field. As to America, it will certainly retain its seat among the sovereignties of this world: so, Columbus's invasion begins to be set aside; and one quarter of the globe will not be held in commendam by another! Imagination could expatiate widely on that chapter-but what have I to do with a new era in the annals of mankind?

Our own old continent, that has so long been ravaged by ambition, is not yet abandoned to the comfort of decay. Yet one now hears that hostilities between the Emperor and Prussia have not commenced, as was said. I doubt that imperial philosopher, who scattered so many humane apophthegms last year at Paris, is a little