The wit, the elegant acquirements, and the frank good-humour of the new ambassador at once charmed a semi-barbarous court. He had the advantage of succeeding a dull and inefficient minister, and the voluptuous Elizabeth, and her great officers seemed to contend for the delight of serving or pleasing him.

Within six weeks after his arrival at St. Petersburgh, a celerity almost unexampled in such negotiations; he obtained the signature of the empress to the convention, transmitted it to Hanover, where George the second, in his anxiety for the success of the treaty, had planted himself with his secretary of state to forward its progress; and, after long waiting, received in answer, instead of the approbation with which he had very reasonably flattered himself, a cold letter, in which, while his services in the negotiation were scarcely recognised, he was blamed with severity for having neglected some mere forms in the conduct of it. This singular conduct did not long remain unexplained: he

had no sooner quitted England than it was discovered that the empress Maria Theresa had been induced by her fears of the power and activity of the king of Prussia, to withdraw herself silently from the Convention, while Frederick, on his part, had secretly offered terms to England, which George's ministers had eagerly accepted.

Sir Charles now received orders to re-open the Convention on principles in many respects directly opposite to those which he had so lately proposed. An object of ridicule at St. Petersburgh, and of unjust displeasure at home, he solicited with earnestness to be recalled, when the king of Prussia, from some views of a new policy, suggested by the altered complexion of affairs, desired that he might be continued at his post, and the permission of his own sovereign to return was accompanied by an expression, in very gracious terms, of the same inclination. Touched by this unexpected condescension, he remained for several weeks

at St. Petersburgh, vainly endeavouring to detach the empress from the coalition which she had determined to form with Austria and France; when his health suddenly failed, the powers of his mind evidently became debilitated; and he resolved to return in the autumn of 1757 without delay to England.

During his journey, these disorders rapidly increased, and at Hamburgh, he was clearly in a state of insanity; was entrapped there by a wretched female, who prevailed on him to give her a security for two thousand pounds, and a promise of marriage, his lady being still living. On his sea voyage, he had a dangerous fall into the hold of the ship, and the copious bleedings which were deemed necessary on that account probably relieved the distraction of his intellect. Soon after his arrival, he seemed to be perfectly recovered: retired to his Monmouthshire mansion, Coldbrook-house; and resumed his former amusements there with pleasure, and even with energy. We have a letter from him to his

friend Mr. Keith, written there during this interval, in which, while he rescues the character of an admirable woman from oblivion, he quits those of the wit and the statesman to delight our feelings as the father and the friend.

By a letter," says he, "which I wrote to Baron Wolfe some time ago, and which I don't doubt he showed you, you have been informed already of the wretched state of my health, both at Hamburgh and since my return to England; but I am now as perfectly well as ever I was in my life, and improving this charming place, where I hope to see you one day, to talk over things that nobody but you and I in England understand. My beloved Lady Essex, who, I assure you, has a great friendship for you, and who I believe esteems you as much as any man in the world who is not of her own family, will, I hope, be very soon here, to pass away the best part of the Summer with me. I leave you to imagine my happiness in seeing her to behold what I love much the best in the world endowed with every exterior

charm, and an inside that at least equals her beautiful person. Her knowledge of the court and of the world is prodigious. She has many acquaintances among her own sex, and two of the most exemplary women we have in England for her friends-I mean Lady Caroline Fox, and the Countess of Dalkeith. She is distinguished more than any woman that comes to court by the king, and for good breeding and good sense has hardly her equal in England; but one thing, which perhaps you don't know about her, is that she shines full as much in the character of a good housewife as she does in that of a fine lady; and that all the accounts of my lord's estates, and the expenses of his house, are neatly kept in books by her own. hand. In short, she has exceeded all my hopes, and requited my fondest wishes about her; and I will not imagine this description to be tedious to you, because I am sure the friend will feel and read with pleasure what the father feels with transport, and writes with truth.”

This period of a tranquillity which he had never before enjoyed, and of his capacity to