Prussia's death is no
public misfortune: there was a jealousy and alienation between the King
and him, which could never have been made up between the possessor of the
crown and the next heir to it. He will make something of his nephew,
's'il est du bois don't on en fait'. He is young enough to forgive, and
to be forgiven, the possession and the expectative, at least for some
years.

Adieu! I am UNWELL, but affectionately yours.

LETTER CCXXVI

BLACKHEATH, July 18, 1758.

MY DEAR FRIEND: Yesterday I received your letter of the 4th; and my last
will have informed you that I had received your former, concerning the
Rhenish, about which I gave you instructions. If 'vinum Mosellanum est
omni tempore sanum', as the Chapter of Treves asserts, what must this
'vinum Rhenanum' be, from its superior strength and age? It must be the
universal panacea.

Captain Howe is to sail forthwith somewhere or another, with about 8,000
land forces on board him; and what is much more, Edward the White Prince.
It is yet a secret where they are going; but I think it is no secret,
that what 16,000 men and a great fleet could not do, will not be done by
8,000 men and a much smaller fleet. About 8,500 horse, foot, and
dragoons, are embarking, as fast as they can, for Embden, to reinforce
Prince Ferdinand's army; late and few, to be sure, but still better than
never, and none. The operations in Moravia go on slowly, and Olmutz seems
to be a tough piece of work; I own I begin to be in pain for the King of
Prussia; for the Russians now march in earnest, and Marechal Dann's army
is certainly superior in number to his. God send him a good delivery!

You have a Danish army now in your neighborhood, and they say a very fine
one; I presume you will go to see it, and, if you do, I would advise you
to go when the Danish Monarch comes to review it himself; 'pour prendre
langue de ce Seigneur'. The rulers of the earth are all worth knowing;
they suggest moral reflections: and the respect that one naturally has
for God's vicegerents here on earth, is greatly increased by acquaintance
with them.

Your card-tables are gone, and they inclose some suits of clothes, and
some of these clothes inclose a letter.

Your friend Lady------is gone into the country with her Lord, to
negotiate, coolly and at leisure, their intended separation. My Lady
insists upon my Lord's dismissing the------, as ruinous to his fortune;
my Lord insists, in his turn, upon my