loted yesterday: on our list were Sir Richard Corbet, Charles Hamilton, (Lady Archibald's brother,) Sir William Middleton, Mr. West, Mr. Fonnereau, Mr. Thompson, and Mr. Ellis. On theirs, Mr. Bance, George Grenville, Mr. Hooper, Sir Charles Mordaunt, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Stuart. On casting up the numbers, the four first on ours, and the three first on their list, appeared to have the majority: so no great harm will come from this, should it pass the Lords, which it is not likely to do. I have now told you, I think, all the political news, except that the troops continue going to Flanders, though we hear no good news yet from Holland.

If we can prevent any dispute between the two houses, it is believed and much hoped by the court, that the secret committee will desire to be dissolved if it does, there is an end of all this tempest!

I must tell you an ingenuity of Lord Raymond, an epitaph on the indemnifying bill-I believe you would guess the author:

Interr'd beneath this marble stone doth lie,

The Bill of Indemnity;

To show the good for which it was design'd,
It died itself to save mankind.

My Lady Townshend made me laugh the other night about your old acquaintance, Miss Edwin; who, by the way, is grown almost a Methodist. My Lady says she was forced to have an issue made on one side of her head, for her eyes, and that Kent advised her to have another on the other side for symmetry.

There has lately been published one of the most impudent things that ever was printed; it is called

The Irish Register, and is a list of all the unmarried women of any fashion in England, ranked in order, duchesses-dowager, ladies, widows, misses, &c. with their names at length, for the benefit of Irish fortune-hunters, or, as it is said, for the incor porating and manufacturing of British commodities. Miss Edwards is the only one printed with a dash, because they have placed her among the widows. I will send you this, Miss Lucy in Town, and the Magazines, by the first opportunity, as I should the other things, but your brother tells me you have had them by another hand. I received the cedrati, for which I have already thanked you. but I have been so much thanked by several people to whom I gave some, that I can very well afford to thank you again.

As to Stosch expecting any present from me, he was so extremely well paid for all I had of him, that I do not think myself at all in his debt: how. ever, you was very good to offer to pay him.

As to my Lady Walpole, I shall say nothing now, as I have not seen either of the two persons since I received your letter, to whom I design to mention her; only that I am extremely sorry to find you still disturbed at any of the little nonsense of that cabal. I hoped that the accounts which I have sent you, and which, except in my last letter, must have been very satisfactory, would have served you as an antidote to their legends; and I think the great victory in the House of Lords, and which, I assure you, is here reckoned_prodigious, will raise your spirits against them. I am happy you have taken that step about Sir Francis Dashwood; the credit it must have given you with the king, will more than counterbalance any little hurt you might apprehend from the cabal.

I am in no hurry for any of my things; as we shall be moving from hence ás soon as Sir Robert has taken another house, I shall not want them till I am more settled.

Adieu! I hope to tell you soon that we are all at peace, and then I trust you will be so! A thousand loves to the Chutes. How I long to see you all!

P. S. I unseal my letter to tell you what a vast and probably final victory we have gained to-day. They moved, that the Lords flinging out the bill of indemnity, was an obstruction to justice, and might prove fatal to the liberties of this country. We have sat till this moment, seven o'clock, and have rejected this motion by 245 to 193. The call of the house, which they have kept off from fortnight to fortnight, to keep people in town, was appointed for to-day. The moment the division was over, Sir John Cotton rose and said, "As I think the inquiry is at an end, you may do what you will with the call." We have put it off for two months. 'There's a noble postscript!

The same to the same.

Thursday, 6 o'clock.

You will hardly divine where I am writing to you in the Speaker's chamber. The house is examining witnesses on the Westminster election, which will not be determined to-day; I am not in haste it should, for I believe we shall lose it. A great fat fellow, a constable, on their side, has just deposed, that Lord Sundon and the high constable took him by the collar at the election, and threw him down stairs. Do you know the figure of Lord

Sundon? if you do, only think of that little old creature, throwing any man down stairs!

As I was coming down this morning, your brother brought me a long letter from you, in answer to mine of the 12th of November. You try to make me distrust the designs of Spain against Tuscany, but I will hope yet: hopes are all I have for anything now!

As to the young man, I will see his mother the first minute I can; and by next post, hope to give you a definitive answer, whether he will submit to be a servant or not: in every other respect, I am sure he will please you.

Your friend, Mr. Fane, would not come for us last night, nor will vote till after the Westminster election: he is brought into parliament by the Duke of Bedford, and is unwilling to disoblige him in this. We flattered ourselves with better success, for last Friday, after sitting till two in the morning, we carried a Cornish election in four divisions the first by a majority of six, then of twelve, then of fourteen, and lastly by thirty-six. You can't imagine the zeal of the young men on both sides: Lord Fitzwilliam, Lord Hartington, and my friend Coke on ours, are as warm as possible; Lord Quarendon and Sir Francis Dashwood are as violent on theirs the former speaks often and well. I am talking to you of nothing but parliament; why really all one's ideas are stuffed with it, and you yourself will not dislike to hear things so material. The opposition, who invent every method of killing Sir R., intend to make us sit on Saturdays; but how mean and dirty is it, how scandalous! when they cannot ruin him by the least plausible means, to murder him by denying him air and exercise.

:

But

There was a strange affair happened on Satur day; it was strange, yet very English. One Nourse, an old gamester, said, in the coffee-house, that Mr Shuttleworth, a member, only pretended to be ill. This was told to Lord Windsor, his friend, who quarrelled with Nourse, and the latter challenged him. My Lord replied, he would not fight him, he was too old. The other replied, he was not too old to fight with pistols. Lord Windsor still refused: Nourse, in a rage, went home, and cut his own throat. This was one of the odd ways in which men are made.

I have scarce seen Lady Pomfret lately, but I am sure Lord Lincoln is not going to marry her daughter. I am not surprised at her sister being shy of receiving civilities from you-that was English

too!

Say a great deal for me to the Chutes. How I envy your snug suppers! I never have such suppers! Trust ine, if we fall, all the grandeur, the envied grandeur of our house, will not cost me a sigh: it has given me no pleasure while we have it, and will give me no pain when I part with it. My liberty, my ease, and choice of my own friends and company, will sufficiently counterbalance the crowds of Downing-street. I am so sick of it all, that if we are victorious or not, propose leaving England in the spring. Adieu!

Yours, ever and ever.

The same to the same.

London, March 22, 1744.

I AM Sorry this letter must date the era of a new correspondence; the topic of which must be blood! Yesterday came advice from Mr. Thompson that