was unknown to Blake.  I hear that letters have been sent to both with very severe reprimands.  I am told, and I believe it is true, that we are negotiating with the Corsican, I will not say rebels, but asserters of their natural rights; to receive them, and whatever form of government they think fit to establish, under our protection, upon condition of their delivering up to us Port Ajaccio; which may be made so strong and so good a one, as to be a full equivalent for the loss of Port Mahon.  This is, in my mind, a very good scheme; for though the Corsicans are a parcel of cruel and perfidious rascals, they will in this case be tied down to us by their own interest and their own danger; a solid security with knaves, though none with fools.  His Royal Highness the Duke is hourly expected here:  his arrival will make some bustle; for I believe it is certain that he is resolved to make a push at the Duke of N., Pitt and Co.; but it will be ineffectual, if they continue to agree, as, to my certain knowledge, they do at present.  This parliament is theirs, ‘caetera quis nescit’?

Now that I have told you all that I know or have heard, of public matters, let us talk of private ones that more nearly and immediately concern us.  Admit me to your fire-side, in your little room; and as you would converse with me there, write to me for the future from thence.  Are you completely ‘nippe’ yet?  Have you formed what the world calls connections? that is, a certain number of acquaintances whom, from accident or choice, you frequent more than others:  Have you either fine or well-bred women there?  ‘Y a-t-il quelque bon ton’?  All fat and fair, I presume; too proud and too cold to make advances, but, at the same time, too well-bred and too warm to reject them, when made by ’un honnete homme avec des manieres’.

Mr.------is to be married, in about a month, to Miss------.  I am very
glad of it; for, as he will never be a man of the world, but will always
lead a domestic and retired life, she seems to have been made on purpose
for him.  Her natural turn is as grave and domestic as his; and she seems
to have been kept by her aunts ‘a la grace’, instead of being raised in a
hot bed, as most young ladies are of late.  If, three weeks hence, you
write him a short compliment of congratulation upon the occasion, he, his
mother, and ‘tutti quanti’, would be extremely pleased with it.  Those
attentions are always kindly taken, and cost one nothing but pen, ink,
and paper.  I consider them as draughts upon good-breeding, where the
exchange is always greatly in favor of the drawer.  ‘A propos’ of
exchange; I hope you have, with the help of your secretary, made yourself
correctly master of all that sort of knowledge—­Course of Exchange,
‘Agie, Banco, Reiche-Thalers’, down to ‘Marien Groschen’.  It is very
little trouble to learn it; it is often of great use to know it. 
Good-night, and God bless you!

LETTER CCIX