LONDON, March 15, 1768.
MY DEAR FRIEND: This letter is supplemental to my last. This morning
Lord Weymouth very civilly sent Mr. Wood, his first ‘commis’, to tell me
that the King very willingly gave you leave of absence from your post for
a year, for the recovery of your health; but then added, that as the
Court of Vienna was tampering with that of Saxony, which it seems our
Court is desirous to ‘contrequarrer’, it might be necessary to have in
the interim a ‘Charge d’Affaires’ at Dresden, with a defalcation out of
your appointments of forty shillings a-day, till your return, if I would
agree to it. I told him that I consented to both the proposals, upon
condition that at your return you should have the character and the pay
of Plenipotentiary added to your present character and pay; and that I
would completely make up to you the defalcation of the forty shillings
a-day. He positively engaged for it: and added, that he knew that it
would be willingly agreed to. Thus I think I have made a good bargain for
you, though but an indifferent one for myself: but that is what I never
minded in my life. You may, therefore, depend upon receiving from me the
full of this defalcation, when and how you please, independently of your
usual annual refreshment, which I will pay to Monsieur Larpent, whenever
you desire it. In the meantime, ‘Cura ut valeas’.
The person whom Mr. Wood intimated to me would be the ‘Charge d’Affaires’
during your absence, is one Mr. Keith, the son of that Mr. Keith who was
formerly Minister in Russia.