[Footnote 2:  Necker’s measure, to which Walpole alludes, was the imposition of a property tax of 5 per cent. on all classes, even on the clergy.]

I have told you that politics absorb all private news.  I am going to a ball this evening, which the Duke and Duchess of Bolton give to their Royal Highnesses of Gloucester, who have now a very numerous Court.  It seems very improper for me to be at a ball; but you see that, on the contrary, it is propriety that carries me thither.  I am heartily weary both of diversions and politics, and am more than half inclined to retire to Strawberry.  I have renounced dining abroad, and hide myself as much as I can; but can one pin on one’s breast a label to signify, that, though one is sensible of being Methusalem in constitution, one must sometimes be seen in a crowd for such and such reasons?  I do often exaggerate my pleas of bad health; and, could I live entirely alone, would proclaim myself incurable; but, should one repent, one becomes ridiculous by returning to the world; or one must have a companion, which I never will have; or one opens a door to legatees, if one advertises ill-health.  Well!  I must act with as much common sense as I can; and, when one takes no part, one must temper one’s conduct; and, when the world is too young for one, not shock it, nor contradict it, nor affix a peculiar character, but trust to its indifference for not drawing notice, when one does not desire to be noticed.  Rabelais’s “Fais ce que tu voudras” is not very difficult when one wishes to do nothing.  I have always been offended at those who will belong to a world with which they have nothing to do.  I have perceived that every age has not only a new language and new modes, but a new way of articulating.  At first I thought myself grown deaf when with young people; but perceived that I understood my contemporaries, though they whispered.  Well!  I must go amongst those I do not comprehend so well, but shall leave them when they go to supper.

THE GORDON RIOTS.

TO SIR HORACE MANN.

STRAWBERRY HILL, June 5, 1780.

Not a syllable yet from General Clinton.  There has been a battle at sea in the West Indies, which we might have gained; know we did not, but not why:  and all this is forgotten already in a fresher event.  I have said for some time that the field is so extensive, and the occurrences so numerous, and so much pains are taken to involve them in falsehoods and mystery, and opinions are so divided, that all evidences will be dead before a single part can be cleared up; but I have not time, nor you patience, for my reflections.  I must hurry to the history of the day.  The Jack of Leyden of the age, Lord George Gordon,[1] gave notice to the House of Commons last week, that he would, on Friday, bring in the petition of the Protestant Association; and he openly declared to his disciples, that he would not carry it unless a noble army of martyrs, not fewer than forty thousand, would accompany him.  Forty thousand, led by such a lamb, were more likely to prove butchers than victims; and so, in good truth, they were very near being.  Have you faith enough in me to believe that the sole precaution taken was, that the Cabinet Council on Thursday empowered the First Lord of the Treasury to give proper orders to the civil magistrates to keep the peace,—­and his Lordship forgot it!