LONDON, APRIL, 1730. "... Hotham is no such conjurer as they fancy in Berlin;--singular enough, how these English are given to undervalue the Germans; whilst we in Germany overvalue them" (_avons une idee trop vaste,_ they _trap petite_). 'There is, for instance, Lord Chesterfield, passes here for a fair-enough kind of man (BON HOMME), and is a favorite with the King [not with Walpole or the Queen, if Nosti knew it]; but nobody thinks him such a prodigy as you all do in Germany,'--which latter bit of Germanism is an undoubted fact; curious enough to the English, and to the Germans that now read in extinct Books. Hotham, as we said, got to Berlin on the 2d of April. From Berlin comes thereupon, at great length, sordid description by Grumkow, of that initiatory Hotham Dinner, April Third, with fearful details of the blazing favor Hotham is in. Which his Majesty (when Hotham hands it to him, in due time) will read with painful interest; as Reichenbach now does;--but which to us is all mere puddle, omissible in this place. To which sad Strophe, there straightway follows due Anti-strophe, Reichenbach croaking responsive;--and we are to note, the rooks always speak in the third person and by ambiguous periphrasis; never once say "I" or "You," unless forced by this Editor, for brevity's sake, to do it. Reichenbach from his perch thus hoarsely chants:-- TO THE HERR GRUMKOW AT BERLIN. LONDON, 11th APRIL. 'Reichenbach EST COUP-DE-FOUDRE,--is struck by lightning,--to hear these Berlin news;'--and expresses, in the style of a whipt dog, his sorrows, uncertainties and terrors, on the occasion. "Struck with lightning. Feel myself quite ill, and not in a condition to write much today. It requires another head than mine to veer round so often (_changer si souvent de systame_). In fine, _Nosti est au bout de son latin_ (is at his wit's end, poor devil)! Both Majesties have spoken openly of the favorable news from Berlin; funds rose in consequence. New Minister [Walpole come to the top of the Firm, Townshend soon to withdraw, impatient of the bottom] is all-powerful now: O TEMPORA, O MORES!" "I receive universal congratulations, and have to smile" in a ghastly manner. "The King and Queen despise me. I put myself in their way last Levee, bowing to the ground; but they did not even condescend to look." _'Notre grand petit-maitre,'_ little George, the Olympian Jove of these parts, "passed on as if I had not been there." 'Chesterfield, they say, is to go, in great pomp, as Ambassador Extraordinary, and fetch the Princess over. And'--Alas, in short, Once I was hap-hap-happy, but now I'm MEEserable!