My dear friend:  I received by the same post your two letters of the 13th and 17th past; and yesterday that of the 27th, with the Russian manifesto inclosed, in which her Imperial Majesty of all the Russias has been pleased to give every reason, except the true one, for the march of her troops against the King of Prussia.  The true one, I take it to be, that she has just received a very great sum of money from France, or the Empress queen, or both, for that purpose.  ’Point d’argent, point de Russe’, is now become a maxim.  Whatever may be the motive of their march, the effects must be bad; and, according to my speculations, those troops will replace the French in Hanover and Lower Saxony; and the French will go and join the Austrian army.  You ask me if I still despond?  Not so much as I did after the battle of Colen:  the battles of Rosbach and Lissa were drams to me, and gave me some momentary spirts:  but though I do not absolutely despair, I own I greatly distrust.  I readily allow the King of Prussia to be ‘nec pluribus impar’; but still, when the ‘plures’ amount to a certain degree of plurality, courage and abilities must yield at last.  Michel here assures me that he does not mind the Russians; but, as I have it from the gentleman’s own mouth, I do not believe him.  We shall very soon send a squadron to the Baltic to entertain the Swedes; which I believe will put an end to their operations in Pomerania; so that I have no great apprehensions from that quarter; but Russia, I confess, sticks in my stomach.

Everything goes smoothly in parliament; the King of Prussia has united all our parties in his support; and the Tories have declared that they will give Mr. Pitt unlimited credit for this session; there has not been one single division yet upon public points, and I believe will not.  Our American expedition is preparing to go soon; the dis position of that affair seems to me a little extraordinary.  Abercrombie is to be the sedantary, and not the acting commander; Amherst, Lord Howe, and Wolfe, are to be the acting, and I hope the active officers.  I wish they may agree.  Amherst, who is the oldest officer, is under the influence of the same great person who influenced Mordaunt, so much to honor and advantage of this country.  This is most certain, that we have force enough in America to eat up the French alive in Canada, Quebec, and Louisburg, if we have but skill and spirit enough to exert it properly; but of that I am modest enough to doubt.

When you come to the egotism, which I have long desired you to come to with me, you need make no excuses for it.  The egotism is as proper and as satisfactory to one’s friends, as it is impertinent and misplaced with strangers.  I desire to see you in your every-day clothes, by your fireside, in your pleasures; in short, in your private life; but I have not yet been able to obtain this.  Whenever you condescend to do it, as you promise, stick to truth; for I am not so uninformed of Hamburg as perhaps you may think.