LONDON, February 8, 1758.
MY DEAR FRIEND: I received by the same post your two letters of the 13th
and 17th past; and yesterday that of the 27th, with the Russian manifesto
inclosed, in which her Imperial Majesty of all the Russias has been
pleased to give every reason, except the true one, for the march of her
troops against the King of Prussia. The true one, I take it to be, that
she has just received a very great sum of money from France, or the
Empress queen, or both, for that purpose. ‘Point d’argent, point de
Russe’, is now become a maxim. Whatever may be the motive of their march,
the effects must be bad; and, according to my speculations, those troops
will replace the French in Hanover and Lower Saxony; and the French will
go and join the Austrian army. You ask me if I still despond? Not so much
as I did after the battle of Colen: the battles of Rosbach and Lissa were
drams to me, and gave me some momentary spirts: but though I do not
absolutely despair, I own I greatly distrust. I readily allow the King of
Prussia to be ‘nec pluribus impar’; but still, when the ‘plures’ amount
to a certain degree of plurality, courage and abilities must yield at
last. Michel here assures me that he does not mind the Russians; but, as
I have it from the gentleman’s own mouth, I do not believe him. We shall
very soon send a squadron to the Baltic to entertain the Swedes; which I
believe will put an end to their operations in Pomerania; so that I have
no great apprehensions from that quarter; but Russia, I confess, sticks
in my stomach.
Everything goes smoothly in parliament; the King of Prussia has united
all our parties in his support; and the Tories have declared that they
will give Mr. Pitt unlimited credit for this session; there has not been
one single division yet upon public points, and I believe will not. Our
American expedition is preparing to go soon; the dis position of that
affair seems to me a little extraordinary. Abercrombie is to be the
sedantary, and not the acting commander; Amherst, Lord Howe, and Wolfe,
are to be the acting, and I hope the active officers. I wish they may
agree. Amherst, who is the oldest officer, is under the influence of the
same great person who influenced Mordaunt, so much to honor and advantage
of this country. This is most certain, that we have force enough in
America to eat up the French alive in Canada, Quebec, and Louisburg, if
we have but skill and spirit enough to exert it properly; but of that I
am modest enough to doubt.
When you come to the egotism, which I have long desired you to come to
with me, you need make no excuses for it. The egotism is as proper and as
satisfactory to one’s friends, as it is impertinent and misplaced with
strangers. I desire to see you in your every-day clothes, by your
fireside, in your pleasures; in short, in your private life; but I have
not yet been able to obtain this. Whenever you condescend to do it, as
you promise, stick to truth; for I am not so uninformed of Hamburg as
perhaps you may think.
As for myself, I am very UNWELL, and very weary of being so; and with
little hopes, at my age, of ever being otherwise. I often wish for the
end of the wretched remnant of my life; and that wish is a rational one;
but then the innate principle of self-preservation, wisely implanted in
our natures for obvious purposes, opposes that wish, and makes us
endeavor to spin out our thread as long as we can, however decayed and
rotten it may be; and, in defiance of common sense, we seek on for that
chymic gold, which beggars us when old.
Whatever your amusements, or pleasures, may be at Hamburg, I dare say you
taste them more sensibly than ever you did in your life, now that you
have business enough to whet your appetite to them. Business, one-half of
the day, is the best preparation for the pleasures of the other half. I
hope, and believe, that it will be with you as it was with an apothecary
whom I knew at Twickenham. A considerable estate fell to him by an
unexpected accident; upon which he thought it decent to leave off his
business; accordingly he generously gave up his shop and his stock to his
head man, set up his coach, and resolved to live like a gentleman; but,
in less than a month, the man, used to business, found, that living like
a gentleman was dying of ennui; upon which he bought his shop and stock,
resumed his trade, and lived very happily, after he had something to do.
Adieu.