Pall Mall, Jan. 27th, 1783.
My dear Brother,
Although Townshend has probably informed you, yet I could not
help writing a line by this messenger to congratulate you upon
the capture of a French seventy-four and frigate, with which the
war ends. They were taken near Barbadoes, by Hughes's squadron,
after a short action with the 'Ruby,' the headmost ship.
I have already written by the post. The Duke of Richmond's
resignation is not certain; and Townshend, Conway and Pitt
certainly approve and stay in.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
Some particulars concerning the arrangements for the new Order of
Knighthood will be read with curiosity. The pretensions of particular
individuals to the Ribband of St. Patrick do not properly form materials
for political history, and a few letters, in which such claims are
freely canvassed, have been excluded from our selection. But the
following, which touches upon the small preliminaries to which statesmen
are forced to condescend on these ceremonial occasions, possesses more
general interest of an illustrative kind.