You will have heard all the torments exercised on that poor wretch Damien, for attempting the least bad of all murders, that of a king. They copied with a scrupulous exactness horrid precedents, and the dastardly monarch permitted them! I don't tell you any particulars, for in time of war, and at this distance, how to depend on the truth of them?
This is a very long letter, but I will not make excuses for long ones and short ones too—I fear you forgive the long ones most easily!
(776) "April 6, Mr. Pitt dismissed. Mr. Fox and I were ordered from the King, by Lord Holderness to come and kiss his hand as paymaster of the army, and treasurer of the navy. We wrote to the Duke of Cumberland our respectful thanks and acceptance of the offices; but we thought it would be more for his Majesty's service,.not to enter into them publicly till the Inquiry was over." Doddington, p. 352.-E.
(777) the King.
(778) On the 19th of April, the House of Commons went into a committee on the state of the navy, and the causes which had led to the loss of the island of Minorca.-E.
(779) The Duke of Cumberland.
(780) Third son of William third Duke of Devonshire. He was made a field-marshal in 1796, and died in 1803.-D.
(781) Second son of Charles second Duke of Richmond. He died in March, 1805.-D.
(782) Charles Fitzroy, second Duke of Grafton, lord chamberlain.
(783) Lepidus, Duke of Newcastle; Octavius and Anthony, Pitt and Fox.-D.