(824) De la Destruction des J`esuites."-E.

(825 This seems to imply that Mr. Walpole thought, that if the Opposition had taken up the cause of the Princess Dowager when she had been abandoned by the ministers, the latter might have been removed, and the former brought into power.-C.

(826) He alludes to the infidelity of D’Eon to the Duke of Nivernois.  See ant`e, p. 253, letter 181.-C.

Letter 252 To The Earl Of Hertford.  Arlington Street, Monday evening, May 20, 1765. (page 399)

I scarce know where to begin, and I am sure not where I shall end.  I had comforted myself with getting over all my difficulties:  my friends opened their eyes, and were ready, nay, some of them eager, to list under Mr. Pitt; for I must tell you, that by a fatal precipitation,(827) the King,—­when his ministers went to him last Thursday, 16th, to receive his commands for his speech at the end of the sessions which was to have been the day after to-morrow, the 22d,—­forbid the Parliament to be prorogued, which he said he would only have adjourned:  they were thunderstruck, and asked if he intended to make any change in his administration? he replied, certainly; he could not bear it as it was.  His uncle(828) was sent for, was ordered to form a new administration, and treat with Mr. Pitt.  This negotiation proceeded for four days, and got wind in two.  The town, more accommodating than Mr. Pitt, settled the whole list of employments.  The facilities, however, were so few. that yesterday the hero of Culloden went down in person to the Conqueror of America, at Hayes, and though tendering almost carte blanche,—­ blanchissime for the constitution, and little short of it for the whole red-book of places,—­brought back nothing but a flat refusal.  Words cannot paint the confusion into which every thing is thrown.  The four ministers, I mean the Duke of Bedford, Grenville, and the two Secretaries, acquainted their master yesterday, that they adhere to one another, and shall all resign to-morrow, and, perhaps, must be recalled on Wednesday,—­must have a carte noire, not blanche, and will certainly not expect any stipulations to be offered for the constitution, by no means the object of their care!

You are not likely to tell in Gath, nor publish in Ascalon, the alternative of humiliation to which the crown is reduced.  But alas! this is far from being the lightest evil to which we are at the eve of being exposed.  I mentioned the mob of weavers which had besieged the Parliament, and attacked the Duke of Bedford, and I thought no more of it; but on Friday, a well disciplined, and, I fear too well conducted a multitude, repaired again to Westminster with red and black flags; the House of Lords, where not thirty were present, acted with no spirit;—­examined Justice Fielding, and the magistrates, and adjourned till to-day.  At seven that evening, a prodigious multitude assaulted Bedford-house, and began to pull