not take you up a quarter of an hour in a day. This letter is so long,
that it will hardly leave you that quarter of an hour, the day you
receive it. So good-night.




LETTER CXCVIII

LONDON, March 8, 1754

MY DEAR FRIEND: A great and unexpected event has lately happened in our
ministerial world. Mr. Pelham died last Monday of a fever and
mortification, occasioned by a general corruption of his whole mass of
blood, which had broke out into sores in his back. I regret him as an old
acquaintance, a pretty near relation, and a private man, with whom I have
lived many years in a social and friendly way. He meant well to the
public; and was incorrupt in a post where corruption is commonly
contagious. If he was no shining, enterprising minister, he was a safe
one, which I like better. Very shining ministers, like the sun, are apt
to scorch when they shine the brightest: in our constitution, I prefer
the milder light of a less glaring minister. His successor is not yet, at
least publicly, 'designatus'. You will easily suppose that many are very
willing, and very few able, to fill that post. Various persons are talked
of, by different people, for it, according as their interest prompts them
to wish, or their ignorance to conjecture. Mr. Fox is the most talked of;
he is strongly supported by the Duke of Cumberland. Mr. Legge, the
Solicitor-General, and Dr. Lee, are likewise all spoken of, upon the foot
of the Duke of Newcastle's, and the Chancellor's interest. Should it be
any one of the last three, I think no great alterations will ensue; but