Whitehall, Nov. 22nd, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I went this morning to Nepean, to speak about sending you the official accounts of the King's health. He assured me that he had regularly done so for the last week, and that he would continue it. He sends a messenger to-morrow, so that this letter will be very short.
You will receive the St. James's account of this day from Nepean. I have not yet seen it, but am assured that all the private accounts are favourable. So are, as far as I can learn, the declared opinions of every medical man except those who are employed: and of those, Warren only speaks unfavourably. The rest say nothing.
The indecency of any language held on your side of the water cannot exceed that of the universal tone of Opposition within these last four or five days. So long as they considered the case as desperate, they were affecting a prodigious concern and reverence for the King's unhappy situation. Now that people entertain hopes of his recovery, they are using the utmost industry to combat this idea—circulating all the particulars of everything which he does or says under his present circumstances, and adding the most outrageous falsehoods.
I think I can say with confidence, that no enmity against an individual, much less against a person in such a rank as his, could induce me to retail the different acts of frenzy which he may commit in a state of delirium or insanity.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Don't use your new cypher, for I doubt whether mine is not rendered useless. I will write to you about it to-morrow.
P.S.—The cypher will be better set by the last letter of the word en clair, immediately preceding the cyphered part of the letter. I will use it in that manner when I write.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 23rd, 1788.
My dear Brother,