Woronzoff is said to be entirely a Frenchman, and that Monsieur de l’Hopital governs both him and the court.  Sir C. W. is said, by his indiscretions, to have caused the disgrace of Bestuchef, which seems not impossible.  In short, everything of every kind is said, because, I believe, very little is truly known.  ‘A propos’ of Sir C. W.; he is out of confinement, and gone to his house in the country for the whole summer.  They say he is now very cool and well.  I have seen his Circe, at her window in Pall-Mall; she is painted, powdered, curled, and patched, and looks ‘l’aventure’.  She has been offered, by Sir C. W——­’s friends, L500 in full of all demands, but will not accept of it.  ’La comtesse veut plaider’, and I fancy ’faire autre chose si elle peut.  Jubeo to bene valere.

LETTER CCXXI

Blackheath, May 18, O. S. 1758.

My dear friend:  I have your letter of the 9th now before me, and condole with you upon the present solitude and inaction of Hamburg.  You are now shrunk from the dignity and importance of a consummate minister, to be but, as it were, a common man.  But this has, at one time or another, been the case of most great men; who have not always had equal opportunities of exerting their talents.  The greatest must submit to the capriciousness of fortune; though they can, better than others, improve the favorable moments.  For instance, who could have thought, two years ago, that you would have been the Atlas of the Northern Pole; but the Good Genius of the North ordered it so; and now that you have set that part of the globe right, you return to ‘otium cum dignitate’.  But to be serious:  now that you cannot have much office business to do, I could tell you what to do, that would employ you, I should think, both usefully and agreeably.  I mean, that you should write short memoirs of that busy scene, in which you have been enough concerned, since your arrival at Hamburg, to be able to put together authentic facts and anecdotes.  I do not know whether you will give yourself the trouble to do it or not; but I do know, that if you will, ‘olim hcec meminisse juvabit’.  I would have them short, but correct as to facts and dates.

I have told Alt, in the strongest manner, your lamentations for the loss of the House of Cassel, ‘et il en fera rapport a son Serenissime Maitre’.  When you are quite idle (as probably you may be, some time this summer), why should you not ask leave to make a tour to Cassel for a week? which would certainly be granted you from hence, and which would be looked upon as a ‘bon procede’ at Cassel.