I must change this tone, to tell you of the most dismal calamity that ever happened.  Lady Molesworth’s house, in Upper Brook-street was burned to the ground between four and five this morning.  She herself, two of her daughters, her brother,(284) and six servants Perished.  Two other of the young ladies jumped out of the two pair of stairs and garret windows:  one broke her thigh, the other (the eldest of all) broke hers too, and has had it cut off.  The fifth daughter is much burnt.  The French governess leaped from the garret, and was dashed to pieces.  Dr. Molesworth and his wife, who were there on a visit, escaped; the wife by jumping from the two pair of stairs, and saving herself by a rail; he by hanging by his hands, till a second ladder was brought, after a first had proved too short.  Nobody knows how or where the fire began; the catastrophe is shocking beyond what one ever heard:  and poor Lady Molesworth whose character and conduct were the most amiable in the world, is universally lamented.  Your good hearts will feel this in the most lively manner.(285)

I go early to Strawberry to-morrow, giving up the new Opera, Madame de Boufflers, and Mr. Wilkes, and all the present topics.  Wilkes, whose case has taken its place by the side of the seven bishops, calls himself the eighth—­not quite improperly, when One remembers that Sir Jonathan Trelawney, who swore like a trooper, was one of those confessors.

There is a good letter in the Gazetteer on the other side, pretending to be written by Lord Temple, and advising Wilkes to cut his throat, like Lord E * * * as it would be of infinite service to their cause.  There are published, too, three volumes of Lady Mary Wortley’s letters, which I believe are genuine, and are not unentertaining.  But have you read Tom Hervey’s letter to the late King?  That beats every thing for madness, horrid indecency, and folly, and yet has some charming and striking passages.  I have advised Mrs. Harris to inform against Jack, as writing in the North Briton; he will then be shut up in the Tower, and may be shown for old Nero.(286) Adieu!

(283) Wilkes was discharged on the 6th of May, by Lord Chief Justice Pratt, who decided that he was entitled to plead his privilege as a member of parliament; the crime of which he was accused, namely, a libel, being in the eyes of the law only a high misdemeanour, whereas the only three cases which could affect the privilege of a member of parliament were treason, felony, and breach of the peace.-E.

(284) Captain Usher.  Lady Molesworth was daughter of the Rev. W. Usher, archdeacon of Clonfret, and second wife of Richard third Viscount Molesworth, who was aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough at the battle of Ramilies, and saved his grace’s life in that engagement.-E.

(285) The King upon hearing of this calamity, immediately sent the young ladies a handsome present; ordered a house to be taken and furnished for them at his expense; and not only continued the pension settled on the mother, but ordered it to be increased two hundred pounds per annum.