17.  I took some good walks in the Park to-day, and then went to Mr. Harley.  Lord Rivers was got there before me, and I chid him for presuming to come on a day when only Lord Keeper and the Secretary and I were to be there; but he regarded me not; so we all dined together, and sat down at four; and the Secretary has invited me to dine with him to-morrow.  I told them I had no hopes they could ever keep in, but that I saw they loved one another so well, as indeed they seem to do.  They call me nothing but Jonathan; and I said I believed they would leave me Jonathan as they found me; and that I never knew a Ministry do anything for those whom they make companions of their pleasures; and I believe you will find it so; but I care not.  I am upon a project of getting five hundred pounds,[17] without being obliged to anybody; but that is a secret, till I see my dearest MD; and so hold your tongue, and do not talk, sirrahs, for I am now about it.

18.  My head has no fits, but a little disordered before dinner; yet I walk stoutly, and take pills, and hope to mend.  Secretary St. John would needs have me dine with him to-day; and there I found three persons I never saw, two I had no acquaintance with, and one I did not care for:  so I left them early and came home, it being no day to walk, but scurvy rain and wind.  The Secretary tells me he has put a cheat on me; for Lord Peterborow sent him twelve dozen flasks of burgundy, on condition that I should have my share; but he never was quiet till they were all gone, so I reckon he owes me thirty-six pounds.  Lord Peterborow is now got to Vienna, and I must write to him to-morrow.  I begin now to be towards looking for a letter from some certain ladies of Presto’s acquaintance, that live at St. Mary’s,[18] and are called in a certain language, our little MD.  No, stay, I don’t expect one these six days, that will be just three weeks; an’t I a reasonable creature?  We are plagued here with an October Club, that is, a set of above a hundred Parliament men of the country, who drink October beer at home, and meet every evening at a tavern near the Parliament to consult affairs, and drive things on to extremes against the Whigs, to call the old Ministry to account, and get off five or six heads.[19] The Ministry seem not to regard them; yet one of them in confidence told me that there must be something thought on, to settle things better.  I’ll tell you one great State secret:  the Queen, sensible how much she was governed by the late Ministry, runs a little into t’other extreme, and is jealous in that point, even of those who got her out of the others’ hands.  The Ministry is for gentler measures, and the other Tories for more violent.  Lord Rivers, talking to me the other day, cursed the paper called the Examiner, for speaking civilly of the Duke of Marlborough; this I happened to talk of to the Secretary, who blamed the warmth of that lord and some others, and swore that if their advice were followed they would be blown up in twenty-four hours.  And I have reason to think that they will endeavour to prevail on the Queen to put her affairs more in the hands of a Ministry than she does at present; and there are, I believe, two men thought on, one of them you have often met the name of in my letters.  But so much for politics.