LETTER CLXXIII

London, July 21, O. S. 1752

My dear friend:  By my calculation this letter may probably arrive at Hanover three or four days before you; and as I am sure of its arriving there safe, it shall contain the most material points that I have mentioned in my several letters to you since you left Paris, as if you had received but few of them, which may very probably be the case.

As for your stay at Hanover, it must not in all events be less than a month; but if things turn out to Your satisfaction, it may be just as long as you please.  From thence you may go wherever you like; for I have so good an opinion of your judgment, that I think you will combine and weigh all circumstances, and choose the properest places.  Would you saunter at some of the small courts, as Brunswick, Cassel, etc., till the Carnival at Berlin?  You are master.  Would you pass a couple of months at Ratisbon, which might not be ill employed?  ‘A la bonne heure’.  Would you go to Brussels, stay a month or two there with Dayrolles, and from thence to Mr. Yorke, at The Hague?  With all my heart.  Or, lastly, would you go to Copenhagen and Stockholm?  ‘Lei e anche Padrone’:  choose entirely for yourself, without any further instructions from me; only let me know your determination in time, that I may settle your credit, in case you go to places where at present you have none.  Your object should be to see the ‘mores multorum hominum et urbes’; begin and end it where you please.

By what you have already seen of the German courts, I am sure you must have observed that they are much more nice and scrupulous, in points of ceremony, respect and attention, than the greater courts of France and England.  You will, therefore, I am persuaded, attend to the minutest circumstances of address and behavior, particularly during your stay at Hanover, which (I will repeat it, though I have said it often to you already) is the most important preliminary period of your whole life.  Nobody in the world is more exact, in all points of good-breeding, than the King; and it is the part of every man’s character, that he informs himself of first.  The least negligence, or the slightest inattention, reported to him, may do you infinite prejudice:  as their contraries would service.

If Lord Albemarle (as I believe he did) trusted you with the secret affairs of his department, let the Duke of Newcastle know that he did so; which will be an inducement to him to trust you too, and possibly to employ you in affairs of consequence.  Tell him that, though you are young, you know the importance of secrecy in business, and can keep a secret; that I have always inculcated this doctrine into you, and have, moreover, strictly forbidden you ever to communicate, even to me, any matters of a secret nature, which you may happen to be trusted with in the course of business.