ead, is certain; so is Lord Holland--and so is not
the Bishop of Worcester [Johnson]; however, to show you that I am at
least as well informed as greater personages, the bishopric was on
Saturday given to Lord North's brother--so for once the Irishman was in
the right, and a pigeon, at least a dove, can be in two places at once.

_RIOTS AT BOSTON--A LITERARY COTERIE AT BATH--EASTON._

TO THE HON. H.S. CONWAY AND LADY AYLESBURY.

ARLINGTON STREET, _Jan._ 15, 1775.

You have made me very happy by saying your journey to Naples is laid
aside. Perhaps it made too great an impression on me; but you must
reflect, that all my life I have satisfied myself with your being
perfect, instead of trying to be so myself. I don't ask you to return,
though I wish it: in truth, there is nothing to invite you. I don't want
you to come and breathe fire and sword against the Bostonians,[1] like
that second Duke of Alva,[2] the inflexible Lord George Germaine....

[Footnote 1: The open resistance to the new taxation of the American
Colonies began at Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, where, on the
arrival of the first tea-ship, a body of citizens, disguised as Red
Indians, boarded the ship and threw the tea into the sea.]

[Footnote 2: The first Duke of Alva was the first Governor of the
Netherlands appointed by Philip II.; and it was his bloodthirsty and
intolerable cruelty that caused the revolt of the Netherlands, and cost
Spain those rich provinces.]

An account is come of the Bostonians having voted an army of sixteen
thousand men, who are to be called _minutemen_, as they are to be ready
at a minute's warning. Two directors or commissioners, I don't know what
they are called, are appointed. There has been too a kind of mutiny in
the Fifth Regiment. A soldier was found drunk on his post. Gage, in his
time of _danger_, thought rigour necessary, and sent the fellow to a
court-martial. They ordered two hundred lashes. The General ordered them
to improve their sentence. Next day it was published in the _Boston
Gazette_. He called them before him, and required them on oath to abjure
the communication: three officers refused. Poor Gage is to be scapegoat,
not for this, but for what was a reason against employing him,
incapacity. I wonder at the precedent! Howe is talked of for his
successor.--Well, I have done with _you_!--Now I shall go gossip with
Lady Aylesbury.

You must know, Madam, that near Bath is erected a new Parnassus,