BLACKHEATH, June 30, 1758.
MY DEAR FRIEND: This letter follows my last very close; but I received
yours of the 15th in the short interval. You did very well not to buy any
Rhenish, at the exorbitant price you mention, without further directions;
for both my brother and I think the money better than the wine, be the
wine ever so good. We will content our selves with our stock in hand of
humble Rhenish, of about three shillings a-bottle. However, ‘pour la
rarity du fait, I will lay out twelve ducats’, for twelve bottles of the
wine of 1665, by way of an eventual cordial, if you can obtain a ‘senatus
consultum’ for it. I am in no hurry for it, so send it me only when you
can conveniently; well packed up ‘s’entend’.
You will, I dare say, have leave to go to Cassel; and if you do go, you
will perhaps think it reasonable, that I, who was the adviser of the
journey, should pay the expense of it. I think so too; and therefore, if
you go, I will remit the L100 which you have calculated it at. You will
find the House of Cassel the house of gladness; for Hanau is already, or
must be soon, delivered of its French guests.
The Prince of Brunswick’s victory is, by all the skillful, thought a
‘chef d’oeuvre’, worthy of Turenne, Conde, or the most illustrious human
butchers. The French behaved better than at Rosbach, especially the
Carabiniers Royaux, who could not be ‘entames’. I wish the siege of
Olmutz well over, and a victory after it; and that, with good news from
America, which I think there is no reason to doubt of, must procure us a
good peace at the end of the year. The Prince of Prussia’s death is no
public misfortune: there was a jealousy and alienation between the King
and him, which could never have been made up between the possessor of the
crown and the next heir to it. He will make something of his nephew,
‘s’il est du bois don’t on en fait’. He is young enough to forgive, and
to be forgiven, the possession and the expectative, at least for some
years.
Adieu! I am UNWELL, but affectionately yours.