I am afraid our correspondence will be extremely disjointed, and the length of time before you get my letters will make you very impatient, when all the world will be full of events; but I flatter myself that you will hear every thing sooner than by my letters; I mean, that whatever happens will be on the Continent; for the danger from Dunkirk seems blown over. We declared war on Saturday: that is all I know, for every body has been out of town for the Easter holidays. To-morrow the Houses meet again: the King goes, and is to make a speech. The Dutch seem extremely in earnest, and I think we seem to put all our strength in their preparations.
The town is persuaded that Lord Clinton (916) is gone to Paris to make peace - he is certainly gone thither, nobody knows why. He has gone thither every year -all his life, when he was in the Opposition; but, to be sure, this is a very strange time to take that journey. Lord Stafford, who came hither just before the intended invasion, (no doubt for the defence of the Protestant religion, especially as his father-in-law, Bulkeley,(917), was colonel of one of the embarked regiments,) is gone to carry his sister to be married to a Count de Rohan,(918) and then returns, having a sign manual for leaving his wife there.
We shall not be surprised to hear that the Electorate(919) has got a new master; shall you? Our dear nephew of Prussia will probably take it, to keep it safe for us.
I had written thus far on Monday, and then my lord came from New Park: and I had no time the rest of the day to finish it. We have made very loyal addresses to the King on his speech, which I suppose they send you. There is not the least news, but that my Lord Carteret's wedding has been deferred on Lady Sophia's falling dangerously ill of a scarlet fever; but they say it is to be next Saturday. She is to have sixteen hundred pounds a-year jointure, four hundred pounds pin-money, and two thousand of jewels. Carteret says, he does not intend to marry the mother and the whole family. What do you think my lady intends? Adieu! my dear Sir! Pray for peace.
(916) Hugh Fortescue, afterwards Earl of Clinton and Knight of the Bath. Not long after he received that order he went into Opposition, and left off his riband and star for one day, but thought better of it, and put them on the next. He was created Lord Fortescue and Earl of Clinton in 1746, and died in 1751.)
(917) Mr. Bulkeley, an Irish Roman Catholic, married the widow Cantillon, mother of the Countess of Stafford. He rose high in the French army, and had the cordon bleu: his sister was second wife of the first Duke of Berwick.
(918)Afterwards Duke of Rohan Chabot.-D.
(919) Of Hanover.-D.
367 Letter 136 To Sir Horace Mann. London, April 15, 1744.
I could tell you a great deal of news, but it would not be what you would expect. It is not of battles, sieges, and declarations of war; nor of invasions, insurrections, and addresses. It is the god of love, not he of war, who reigns in the newspapers. The town has made up a list of six and thirty weddings, which I shall not catalogue to you; for you would know, them no more than you do Antilochum, fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cloanthum.