TO THE SAME.

St. Petersburg, Aug. 14th, N. S. 1756. DEAR SIR;

After writing me the most friendly letter in the world, you conclude with desiring me to honour you with a line as often as my leisure will permit. In obedience, therefore, to your commands, I answer your letter by the very first post; and, I begin by telling you, that to my great astonishment, I have received a letter from Mr. Hanbury, which is neither passionate nor brutal. At the end of which, he desires I would write him an answer in calmness and temper, which I shall not fail to do very soon: it would be very extraordinary in any body but him, to desire further time to settle accounts with me, when he himself had insisted upon not receiving my Midsummer rents. I am very willing that he should go on to receive the

produce of my estate, till next Christmas inclu

sive; but, then, I hope my accounts will be ready, and that he will pay the balance into your hands, for I do not like the sketch of our account which he has sent me by any means; I shall send it to you by the first courier that goes from hence, with a remark or two upon it. I beg you will return my thanks to Major Chambre; I always looked upon him as my sincere friend, and I am sure when he reflects or explains himself to me, he will find that there can be no person more proper to look after my estate, than he whose grandson will one day enjoy it. I therefore beg, that you would continue in your resolutions of settling my accounts, and of receiving the balance of my brother Hanbury next Christmas.

You do not say one word to me in your letter about the Morgan family, though you know how concerned I am for their welfare, and how strongly I am attached to their interest; I think colonel Morgan always looked upon me as his friend, and I certainly always was so.

My brother Hanbury tells me in his letter that he has made immense purchases in Monmouthshire, which will give him great power; and among other he says, he has bought the whole Castle of Caldicot, which I am the less surprised at, because I never heard of a Castle being sold by piecemeals.

I wish I had been in the country at the time of Mr. Edwin's death, I would have endeavoured to make your neighbour act with more steadiness. Sure Major Mathews will not carry his election;* he is a most disagreeable man and far from being popular, I have heard from other hands that Mr. Morris acted with great spirit at Bristol. I think my brother Hanbury found means to quarrel with him as soon as he came to settle in our country, I have always heard, that he was a hot and injudicious man; and it was a very wrong step in our family to

* The successful candidates were Capel Hanbury and William Morgan, Esqrs.

let him purchase Trostrey; if I had been in England that would never have happened.

You will be glad to hear that the warm Summer has done my health a great deal of good, and if it had not, I should not have been able to have endured this climate much longer; but I now hope to be able to finish the business the king has entrusted me with, still flattering myself that I shall have performed my task by next Christmas. What would I give that you could spend three or four months with me in this country; it is certainly well worth seeing, and the Greek clergy would make you stare. Half the parish priests cannot read, and the study of their youth is, to get the service by heart; but these things must be kept for long nights at Coldbrook.

Be assured my dear friend of my constant wishes for your welfare, and that I set a just and true value upon your friendship.

What a dismal conclusion of our affairs in

the Mediterranean, one would think it was hardly possible for a man to be so guilty, as I believe Mr. Byng to be. This is certain, that if after his scandalous engagement with the French fleet, he had only sailed towards PortMahon, and lay before that place, the French could never have taken Fort St. Philip. But what can all the other captains in the fleet say for not opposing Byng's return to Gibraltar, and what can the land officers say, who thrust themselves into a sea council of war, and encouraged Byng to make a scandalous retreat, to abandon his countrymen in Fort St. Philip, to the mercy of the French, and to bring an everlasting disgrace upon his country.

Give my best services to all the community at Newland, particularly to Mrs. Birt.

You say my brother Hanbury talked in plaintive style. I vow and protest, that I cannot imagine what he can found any complaint upon; ever since my going out of England, his behaviour to me and my children, has been as bad