Christina, Duchess of Kingston, is arrived, in a great fright, I believe, for the Duke’s nephews are going to prove her first marriage, and hope to set the Will aside.  It is a pity her friendship with the Pope had not begun earlier; he might have given her a dispensation.  If she loses her cause, the best thing he can do will be to give her the veil.

I am sorry all Europe will not furnish me with another paragraph.  Africa is, indeed, coming into fashion.  There is just returned a Mr. Bruce,[1] who has lived three years in the Court of Abyssinia, and breakfasted every morning with the Maids of Honour on live oxen.  Otaheite and Mr. Banks are quite forgotten; but Mr. Blake, I suppose, will order a live sheep for supper at Almack’s, and ask whom he shall help to a piece of the shoulder.  Oh, yes; we shall have negro butchers, and French cooks will be laid aside.  My Lady Townshend [Harrison], after the Rebellion, said, everybody was so bloodthirsty, that she did not dare to dine abroad, for fear of meeting with a rebel-pie—­now one shall be asked to come and eat a bit of raw mutton.  In truth, I do think we are ripe for any extravagance.  I am not wise enough to wish the world reasonable—­I only desire to have follies that are amusing, and am sorry Cervantes laughed chivalry out of fashion.  Adieu!

[Footnote 1:  When Bruce’s “Travels” were first published, his account of the strange incidents which had occurred to him was very generally disbelieved and ridiculed; “Baron Munchausen” was even written in derision of them; but the discoveries of subsequent travellers have confirmed his narrative in almost every respect.]

DISCONTENT IN AMERICA—­MR. GRENVILLE’S ACT FOR THE TRIAL OF ELECTION PETITIONS—­HIGHWAY ROBBERIES.

TO SIR HORACE MANN.

STRAWBERRY HILL, Oct. 6, 1774.

It would be unlike my attention and punctuality, to see so large an event as an irregular dissolution of Parliament, without taking any notice of it to you.  It happened last Saturday, six months before its natural death, and without the design being known but the Tuesday before, and that by very few persons.  The chief motive is supposed to be the ugly state of North America,[1] and the effects that a cross winter might have on the next elections.  Whatever were the causes, the first consequences, as you may guess, were such a ferment in London as is seldom seen at this dead season of the year.  Couriers, despatches, post-chaises, post-horses, hurrying every way!  Sixty messengers passed through one single turnpike on Friday.  The whole island is by this time in equal agitation; but less wine and money will be shed than have been at any such period for these fifty years.

[Footnote 1:  “America”—­the discontents in that country were caused by Mr. Charles Townshend’s policy, who, before his death, had revived Mr. Grenville’s plan of imposing taxes on the Colonies, and by the perseverance in that policy of Lord North, who succeeded him at the Exchequer, and who had also been First Lord of the Treasury since the resignation of the Duke of Grafton.]