<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0274" id="link2H_4_0274"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCLXXIII </h2>
<h3> BATH, November 10, 1764. </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: I am much concerned at the account you gave me of
yourself, in your last letter. There is, to be sure, at such a town as
Dresden, at least some one very skillful physician, whom I hope you have
consulted; and I would have you acquaint him with all your several attacks
of this nature, from your great one at Laubach, to your late one at
Dresden: tell him, too, that in your last illness in England, the
physicians mistook your case, and treated it as the gout, till Maty came,
who treated it as a rheumatism, and cured you. In my own opinion, you have
never had the gout, but always the rheumatism; which, to my knowledge, is
as painful as the gout can possibly be, and should be treated in a quite
different way; that is, by cooling medicines and regimen, instead of those
inflammatory cordials which they always administer where they suppose the
gout, to keep it, as they say, out of the stomach.</p>
<p>I have been here now just a week; but have hitherto drank so little of the
water, that I can neither speak well nor ill of it. The number of people
in this place is infinite; but very few whom I know. Harte seems settled
here for life. He is not well, that is certain; but not so ill neither as
he thinks himself, or at least would be thought.</p>
<p>I long for your answer to my last letter, containing a certain proposal,
which, by this time, I suppose has been made you, and which, in the main,
I approve of your accepting.</p>
<p>God bless you, my dear friend! and send you better health! Adieu.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0275" id="link2H_4_0275"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCLXXIV </h2>
<h3> LONDON, February 26, 1765 </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: Your last letter, of the 5th, gave me as much pleasure as
your former had given me uneasiness; and Larpent's acknowledgment of his
negligence frees you from those suspicions, which I own I did entertain,
and which I believe every one would, in the same concurrence of
circumstances, have entertained. So much for that.</p>
<p>You may depend upon what I promised you, before midsummer next, at
farthest, and AT LEAST.</p>
<p>All I can say of the affair between you, of the Corps Diplomatique, and
the Saxon Ministers, is, 'que voila bien du bruit pour une omelette au
lard'. It will most certainly be soon made up; and in that negotiation
show yourself as moderate and healing as your instructions from hence will
allow, especially to Comte de Flemming. The King of Prussia, I believe,
has a mind to insult him personally, as an old enemy, or else to quarrel
with Saxony, that dares not quarrel with him; but some of the Corps
Diplomatique here assure me it is only a pretense to recall his envoy, and
to send, when matters shall be made up, a little secretary there, 'a moins
de fraix', as he does now to Paris and London.</p>
<p>Comte Bruhl is much in fashion here; I like him mightily; he has very much
'le ton de la bonne campagnie'. Poor Schrader died last Saturday, without
the least pain or sickness. God bless you!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0276" id="link2H_4_0276"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCLXXV </h2>
<h3> LONDON, April 22, 1765 </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: The day before yesterday I received your letter of the 3d
instant. I find that your important affair of the ceremonial is adjusted
at last, as I foresaw it would be. Such minutiae are often laid hold on as
a pretense, for powers who have a mind to quarrel; but are never
tenaciously insisted upon where there is neither interest nor inclination
to break. Comte Flemming, though a hot, is a wise man; and I was sure
would not break, both with England and Hanover, upon so trifling a point,
especially during a minority. 'A propos' of a minority; the King is to
come to the House to-morrow, to recommend a bill to settle a Regency, in
case of his demise while his successor is a minor. Upon the King's late
illness, which was no trifling one, the whole nation cried out aloud for
such a bill, for reasons which will readily occur to you, who know
situations, persons, and characters here. I do not know the particulars of
this intended bill; but I wish it may be copied exactly from that which
was passed in the late King's time, when the present King was a minor. I
am sure there cannot be a better.</p>
<p>You inquire about Monsieur de Guerchy's affair; and I will give you as
succinct an account as I can of so extraordinary and perplexed a
transaction: but without giving you my own opinion of it by the common
post. You know what passed at first between Mr. de Guerchy and Monsieur
d'Eon, in which both our Ministers and Monsieur de Guerchy, from utter
inexperience in business, puzzled themselves into disagreeable
difficulties. About three or four months ago, Monsieur du Vergy published
in a brochure, a parcel of letters, from himself to the Duc de Choiseul;
in which he positively asserts that Monsieur de Guerchy prevailed with him
(Vergy) to come over into England to assassinate d'Eon; the words are, as
well as I remember, 'que ce n'etoit pas pour se servir de sa plume, mais
de son epee, qu'on le demandoit en Angleterre'. This accusation of
assassination, you may imagine, shocked Monsieur de Guerchy, who
complained bitterly to our Ministers; and they both puzzled on for some
time, without doing anything, because they did not know what to do. At
last du Vergy, about two months ago, applied himself to the Grand Jury of
Middlesex, and made oath that Mr. de Guerchy had hired him (du Vergy) to
assassinate d'Eon. Upon this deposition, the Grand jury found a bill of
intended murder against Monsieur de Guerchy; which bill, however, never
came to the Petty Jury. The King granted a 'noli prosequi' in favor of
Monsieur de Guerchy; and the Attorney-General is actually prosecuting du
Vergy. Whether the King can grant a 'noli prosequi' in a criminal case,
and whether 'le droit des gens' extends to criminal cases, are two points
which employ our domestic politicians, and the whole Corps Diplomatique.
'Enfin', to use a very coarse and vulgar saying, 'il y a de la merde au
bout du baton, quelque part'.</p>
<p>I see and hear these storms from shore, 'suave mari magno', etc. I enjoy
my own security and tranquillity, together with better health than I had
reason to expect at my age, and with my constitution: however, I feel a
gradual decay, though a gentle one; and I think that I shall not tumble,
but slide gently to the bottom of the hill of life. When that will be, I
neither know nor care, for I am very weary. God bless you!</p>
<p>Mallet died two days ago, of a diarrhoea, which he had carried with him to
France, and brought back again hither.</p>
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