dalous aspersion that had been published in relation to the recall of the Fleet.

We expect every hour an account of the death of the Empress of Russia', she having been taken so ill, that there was not the least hopes of her recovery.

The Duke has kept retired in an ill humour at Windsor, until this day, when he came to town on account of the celebrity2.

The Hanoverian Regency and His Royal Highness are very much displeased with each other. There is no talk of giving away his regiment.

I forgot to mention that when Conway was presented, the King spoke to him, but he did not to Cornwallis3. I have, &c. CHAS. JENKINSON.

MR. JENKINSON TO MR. GRENVILLE.

Whitehall, October 27, 1757.

DEAR SIR,-By a Cartel ship, arrived from Calais, we have an account that the plague had broken out at Lisbon, and that orders had been given to prevent the entrance of the ports of France to any ships that come from that most unfortunate city. Though we hope that this affair is not quite so bad as it is represented, yet our ministers have been very busy all last night and to

1 The Czarina did not die before 1762. 2 The Coronation-day.

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3 Colonel Edward Cornwallis, brother to Lord Cornwallis. He was M.P. for Westminster, and a Groom of the Bedchamber. Walpole says of him, that he was as cool as Conway, and as brave, and indifferent to everything but to being in the right. He held fame cheap, and smiled at reproach." He died in 1776.

day, considering of proper regulations to prevent its being communicated to this kingdom.

A commission is to be given to Sir John Ligonier to command the Army; and this circumstance, as well as others, makes me think that there is no probability of a reconciliation between His Royal Highness and the King, and, indeed, the friends of the former are extremely angry with the latter; they say that he has a mind to throw the blame of the loss of the Electorate upon His Royal Highness, and they talk in rather an indelicate manner on the occasion.

I have, &c.

CHAS. JENKINSON.

MR. PITT TO MR. GRENVILLE.

Hayes, October 29, 1757.

DEAR GRENVILLE,-I can begin this short epistle by imparting the happy news of the alarming report concerning Lisbon being disproved, letters having come from that place of as late a date as the 14th, which mention nothing of any distemper raging there. Our glad tidings, my dear Grenville, are confined to the class of negatives; and when so spoiled a game as the public affairs will produce any actual positive good, God knows.

Our fleets are abroad, and those of France, I believe, all out of their ports. The King of Prussia keeps the field, and his cause is still alive. An event or two may Immense expense I

yet change the gloomy prospect. see is unavoidable, and the heavier load of national dishonour threatens to sink us with double weight of misfortune. But I will leave this melancholy theme to

your meditations, instead of troubling you with mine, though pernoctant nobiscum peregrinantur, rusticantur.

The purpose of my letter was to desire the pleasure of your company at dinner on the King's birthday, in case you are not promised to the Duke of Newcastle, or elsewhere. I understand you propose leaving Wotton about the 6th of November, and by that day, according to Lord Temple's sarcastical Chronicle, it will be as much as you can do to disengage. Proud of his gravel as of the Appian Way, his Lordship does intimate that you are knee-deep in the delightful scenes of Wotton. I will still figure to myself far other things, and suppose not the mud nymphs, but the fair-haired naiads claim your rural hours. I conclude your bridge is finished, and is really, with its accompaniments, delightful: we pass ours, namely, that of Westminster, as frequently as we can. We see our little people and draw the village air by snatches at most. My health by this help, thank God, holds out, under constant unpleasing labours. Hayes most affectionately greets Wotton collectively. Your ever affectionate brother,

W. PITT.

MR. JENKINSON TO MR. GRENVILLE.

Whitehall, October 29, 1757.

DEAR SIR,-I have the pleasure to acquaint you that yesterday brought us letters from Lisbon, which make not the least mention of the plague, from whence we conclude that the news of it must have been false, though it has left us at a loss to think how the French could be deceived in it, as it is hardly to be supposed that they meant purposely to deceive us.

I met this day a French gentleman whom I knew about three years ago, and who had been five years an officer in the marine of France. He told me that he had been at Rochfort, and he gave me a detail of the fortifications of that place, agreeing exactly with what Col. Clerk says of it, that it is enclosed only with a single wall, that it has a dry ditch, and that it may be approached by land without taking Fouras, &c. This evidence I thought was of some consequence, as there is a Mons. Bonneville who pretends to have been at Rochfort, whom Mr. Conway took with him, and who contradicts the account that Clerk gave of the place, and on whose opinion it is thought the Generals a good deal relied.

I hope another week will give me the pleasure of seeing you in town. I have, &c. CHARLES JENKINSON. While I was writing my ears were saluted with the cry of a ballad on the Ditch of Rochfort, which I send you.

MR. PITT TO MR. GRENVILLE.

St. James's Square, 4 o'clock (November 15, 1757). THE King of Prussia has gained a complete victory over the Prince Soubise, near Weisenfels, in Saxony. The battle' was the 5th of November. 4000 French killed, but 600 or 800 Prussians killed and wounded; of the latter, the King's brother, Prince Henry, wounded slightly in the shoulder. Cannon, standards, colours, drums in abundance. The King of Prussia in full pursuit of the enemy, towards the Unstrut, a deep and

1 Of Rosbach.

rapid river. Richelieu said to be retiring with precipitation from Halberstadt. Prussian army 20,000 men. Soubise's, including troops of the empire, 50,000 men. Heaven be praised for this great event! And now to dinner with a better appetite.

EARL TEMPLE TO MR. GRENVILLE.

Stowe, November 24, 1757.

I AM very glad, my dear brother, to hear from all parts so happy a confirmation of the King of Prussia's unexampled success: it is an event that will cost France very dear, but I think too we shall not come off cheap; however, it is, perhaps, our last stake. I intend to be in town on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning, pay my affectionate duty at the birthday, join, in all human probability, my affirmative yea to the anniversary ode in prose on Thursday, and then return to the gravel of Stowe 'till after Christmas. Many observations occur upon all the glorious, and all the infamous events, of this year: I will trust none of them to paper. I will only send my affectionate compliments to Mrs. G., &c.

EARL TEMPLE TO MR. GRENVILLE.

Tuesday, December 13, 1757. DEAR BROTHER,-Jemmy charitably sent me the certain account of the Prince of Bevern's complete victory; the Austrians were Soubised, and I waited with impatience to enjoy all the Gazette particulars of last Saturday. No Gazette! but behold a dd ex