I have received an anonymous letter from Ireland, dated Dublin the 6th inst.  I call it anon(ymous), because I believe the name of R. Thomas to be feigned.  The hand is a good one, and of a person of fashion.  He makes a demand of 500 pounds, which he says that he must have by my means.  The place I am to direct to is specified.  Ekins will carry over the letter.  I rather suppose it to be from a lunatic.  He talks of not selling his voice, but I have no more light into his scheme, or who the man is.

There is to be a great Drawing Room to-day, because Lord G(eorge) and his bride will be presented, and with them come La Noblesse, that is, the heads and tails of a hundred great families, to which these young people are allied.  Her head runs upon nothing but dress, and expense; she is rather plain, as I hear, but not disagreeable.  She has made great terms for herself; her pin money is 1,500.  She will give up no part of her fortune to her husband.  It is settled upon the children; a jointure in proportion.

I saw the Duke of Bedford coming out of Charles’s yesterday, so there is another Duke for him to lead by the nose.  For him he is, I suppose,-obliged to Ossory.  Young Pitt will not be subordinate; he is not so in his own society.  He is at the head of a dozen young people, and it is a corps separate from that of Charles’s; so there is another premier at the starting post, who, as yet, has never been shaved.  I hope George will have a little more patience, but he is, as I hear, the first speaker in his school, and by much the most beloved, which pleases me more than if I saw the seals in his hands.

(215) Basil, sixth Earl of Denbigh (1719-1800).  He was Master of the Royal Harriers, and was deprived of his office by Lord Rockinghham.

(216) Percy Charles Wyndham was returned March 11, 1782.

(217) Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes (1717-1787), Minister of Foreign Affairs under Louis XV.  His policy had been to humble England by assisting the United States.

(1782,) March 16, Saturday morning, 10 o’clock.—­We divided this morning between one and two; our majority was nine, the numbers 236 and 227.  I came home; my cough is so bad that I shall put off all my engagements to dinner, and stay at home, I believe, till I have got rid of it.  But there is to be another trial of skill on Wednesday.  Charles’s arrogance both in the House, and out of it, is insupportable.  I can neither think or speak of him with patience.  Gilbert voted with us, Sir J. Wrottesley against us, Lord Trentham went away, McDonald with us.  This is Denbigh’s way of calculation; he was positive that we should have 30, or at least 22.