most sweetened.  Oh! where is the Dove with the olive-branch?  Long ago I told you that you and I might not live to see an end of the American war.  It is very near its end indeed now—­its consequences are far from a conclusion.  In some respects, they are commencing a new date, which will reach far beyond us.  I desire not to pry into that book of futurity.  Could I finish my course in peace—­but one must take the chequered scenes of life as they come.  What signifies whether the elements are serene or turbulent, when a private old man slips away?  What has he and the world’s concerns to do with one another?  He may sigh for his country, and babble about it; but he might as well sit quiet and read or tell old stories; the past is as important to him as the future.

[Footnote 1:  Charles Fox and William Pitt were the second sons of the first Lord Holland and the first Lord Chatham, Fox being by some years the older.  They were both men of great eloquence; but in this (as in every other point) Pitt was the superior, even by the confession of Lord Macaulay.  As Prime Minister from 1783 to 1801, and afterwards in 1804-5, Pitt proved himself the greatest statesman, the man more in advance of his age than any of his predecessors or successors; while Fox’s career was for the most part one of an opposition so rancorous, and so destitute of all patriotism, that he even exulted over the disasters of Burgoyne and Cornwallis, and afterwards over the defeat of the Austrians at Marengo in 1800, avowedly because the Austrians were our allies, and it was a heavy blow to Pitt and his policy.]

Dec. 3.

I had not sealed my letter, as it cannot set out till to-morrow; and since I wrote it I have received yours, of the 20th of November, by your courier.

I congratulate you on the success of your attempts, and admire the heroic refusal of the General.[1] I shall certainly obey you, and not mention it.  Indeed, it would not easily be believed here, where as many pence are irresistible....

[Footnote 1:  General the Hon. James Murray was governor of Minorca, which was besieged by the Spaniards, and was offered a vast bribe by the Duc de Crillon, the commander of the besiegers, to give up Port St. Philip.]

Don’t trouble yourself about the third set of “Galuzzi.”  They are to be had here now, and those for whom I intended them can buy them.  I have not made so much progress as I intended, and have not yet quite finished the second volume.  I detest Cosmo the Great.  I am sorry, either that he was so able a man, or so successful a man.  When tyrants are great men they should miscarry; if they are fools, they will miscarry of course.  Pray, is there any picture of Camilla Martelli, Cosmo’s last wife?  I had never heard of her.  The dolt, his son, I find used her ill, and then did the same thing.  Our friend, Bianca Capello, it seems, was a worthless creature.  I don’t expect much entertainment but from the Life of Ferdinand