Don’t tell me I am grown old and peevish and supercilious—­name the geniuses of 1774, and I submit.  The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic.  There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru.  At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra; but am I not prophesying, contrary to my consummate prudence, and casting horoscopes of empires like Rousseau?  Yes; well, I will go and dream of my visions.

29th.

...  The Parliament opened just now—­they say the speech talks of the rebellion of the Province of Massachusetts; but if they-say tells a lie, I wash my hands of it.  As your gazetteer, I am obliged to send you all news, true or false.  I have believed and unbelieved everything I have heard since I came to town.  Lord Clive has died every death in the parish register; at present it is most fashionable to believe he cut his throat.  That he is dead, is certain; so is Lord Holland—­and so is not the Bishop of Worcester [Johnson]; however, to show you that I am at least as well informed as greater personages, the bishopric was on Saturday given to Lord North’s brother—­so for once the Irishman was in the right, and a pigeon, at least a dove, can be in two places at once.

RIOTS AT BOSTON—­A LITERARY COTERIE AT BATH—­EASTON.

TO THE HON.  H.S.  CONWAY AND LADY AYLESBURY.

ARLINGTON STREET, Jan. 15, 1775.

You have made me very happy by saying your journey to Naples is laid aside.  Perhaps it made too great an impression on me; but you must reflect, that all my life I have satisfied myself with your being perfect, instead of trying to be so myself.  I don’t ask you to return, though I wish it:  in truth, there is nothing to invite you.  I don’t want you to come and breathe fire and sword against the Bostonians,[1] like that second Duke of Alva,[2] the inflexible Lord George Germaine....

[Footnote 1:  The open resistance to the new taxation of the American Colonies began at Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, where, on the arrival of the first tea-ship, a body of citizens, disguised as Red Indians, boarded the ship and threw the tea into the sea.]

[Footnote 2:  The first Duke of Alva was the first Governor of the Netherlands appointed by Philip II.; and it was his bloodthirsty and intolerable cruelty that caused the revolt of the Netherlands, and cost Spain those rich provinces.]