MY DEAR FRIEND: I have this moment received your letter of the 22d past;
and I delayed answering your former in daily, or rather hourly
expectation of informing you of the birth of a new Ministry; but in vain;
for, after a thousand conferences, all things remain still in the state
which I described to you in my last. Lord S. has, I believe, given you a
pretty true account of the present state of things; but my Lord is much
mistaken, I am persuaded, when he says that THE KING HAS THOUGHT PROPER
TO RE-ESTABLISH HIS OLD SERVANTS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF HIS AFFAIRS; for he
shows them all the public dislike possible; and, at his levee, hardly
speaks to any of them; but speaks by the hour to anybody else.
Conferences, in the meantime, go on, of which it is easy to guess the
main subject, but impossible, for me at least, to know the particulars;
but this I will venture to prophesy, that the whole will soon centre in
Mr. Pitt.

You seem not to know the character of the Queen: here it is. She is a
good woman, a good wife, a tender mother; and an unmeddling Queen. The
King loves her as a woman; but, I verily believe, has never yet spoke one
word to her about business. I have now told you all that I know of these
affairs; which, I believe, is as much as anybody else knows, who is not
in the secret. In the meantime, you easily guess that surmises,
conjectures, and reports are infinite; and if, as they say, truth is but
one, one million at least of these reports must be false; for they differ
exceedingly.

You have lost an honest servant by the death of poor Louis; I would
advise you to take a clever young Saxon in his room, of whose character
you may get authentic testimonies, instead of sending for one to France,
whose character you can only know from far.