I had laid aside my paper, and intended to have wrote no more till somebody came to me to give me new information.  But I have had my apothecary at my bedside, who has been giving me an account of the examination of the physicians by the Privy Council.(253) The physicians, one and all, declared his Majesty to be, at present, unfit for public business; but when Mr. Burke, who was a leading man, and the most forward in asking questions, put this to them, whether there was any hope of his Majesty’s recovering, they did not scruple to say that they had more reason to hope it than not.  Dr. Warren was the most unwilling to subscribe to this opinion, but did not refuse his assent to it.  It was, to be sure, the answer which Mr. Burke wished and expected.  He told me that the Party, as he heard, is very angry with Mr. Fox, and will not believe the indisposition, which confines him to his bed, not to be a feigned one.

This is my apothecary’s news, but if it was the barber’s only, I should tell it to you.  I wish to find it all true, but not a little also that Mr. F(ox) has displeased some of his friends; for if he has, and that should not be Lord Carlisle, I shall have the better opinion of him.  Lord C. has held out to me, in his last letter, the language of a man of sense, of honour, and of feeling, but the misfortune is that all he says, from the sincerity of his mind and heart, will be adapted (adopted?) by those who have not one of his qualities, and yet are compelled to talk as he does, to serve their own purposes.

As to Mr. Fox, although I am at variance with him, and am afraid shall for ever be so, for reasons which I do not choose now to urge, although I am determined never to be connected with him by the least obligation, I am free to confess that I am naturally disposed to love him, and to do justice to every ray of what is commendable in him; and I will go so far as to protest, that, if he acts upon this occasion with a decent regard to the K(ing), and his just prerogatives, I will endeavour to erase out of my mind all that he has done contrary to his duty, and “would mount myself the rostrum” in his favour.  To gain his pardon from the people would be now unnecessary, that is, with some of them; with the best of them, I know it would be impossible.

Lord North’s speech I shall be very impatient to read, for hear, I fear, that I shall not; I see little probability of my going out for some time.  I wish that I had gone from Matson to Castle H.; I might perhaps be there now, and have escaped this martyrdom.  You say nothing of your coming here, and will not, I daresay, come the sooner, for my impatience to see you and the children.  I must live upon that unexpected pleasure; but whom I shall collect to eat my minced pies on William’s birthday, I do not as yet know.

The business of Parliament does not begin till Monday; till then, it will be nothing but hearsay, speculation, &c., &c.  Some tell me that the present Ministry is determined to try the number of those who will support them, and are not afraid of being overrun with Rats; nous verrons.  Lord Stafford(254) was to have come to me yesterday, when the Council was up, but it was too late.