MY DEAR FRIEND: You are now two letters in my debt; and I fear the gout
has been the cause of your contracting that debt. When you are not able
to write yourself, let your Secretary send me two or three lines to
acquaint me how you are.
You have now seen by the London “Gazette,” what changes have really been
made at court; but, at the same time, I believe you have seen that there
must be more, before a Ministry can be settled; what those will be, God
knows. Were I to conjecture, I should say that the whole will centre,
before it is long, in Mr. Pitt and Co., the present being an
heterogeneous jumble of youth and caducity, which cannot be efficient.
Charles Townshend calls the present a Lutestring Ministry; fit only for
the summer. The next session will be not only a warm, but a violent one,
as you will easily judge; if you look over the names of the INS and of
the OUTS.
I feel this beginning of the autumn, which is already very cold: the
leaves are withered, fall apace, and seem to intimate that I must follow
them; which I shall do without reluctance, being extremely weary of this
silly world. God bless you, both in it and after it!