Political Ignorance of the English.—We are in general in England ignorant of foreign affairs and of the interests, views, pretensions, and policy of other courts. That part of knowledge never enters into our thoughts, nor makes part of our education; for which reason we have fewer proper subjects for foreign commissions than any other country in Europe; and, when foreign affairs happen to be debated in Parliament, it is incredible with how much ignorance. The harvest of foreign affairs being then so great, and the laborers so few, if you make yourself master of them, you will make yourself necessary: first as a foreign, and then as a domestic minister for that department. [Feb. 9, 1748.]
My Lord's Dislike of Valets.—I would neither
have your new man nor him whom you have already,
put out of livery, which makes them both impertinent
and useless. I am sure that as soon as you
shall have taken the other servant, your present man
will press extremely to be out of livery, and valet
de chambre, which is as much as to say, that he will
curl your hair and shave you, but not condescend to
do anything else. Therefore I advise you never to
have a servant out of livery; and though you may
not always think proper to carry the servant who
