"I am not able to send you any distinct account of the opening of the Parliament, for I have not yet been in the House of Commons; and if people would impute my absence to its true cause, a real indifference to all that passes there at present, I should continue for some time in the same ignorance. Mr. Woodfall has done me the honour of making me refuse an office that never was offered to me. If it had, your Lordship will do me the justice to believe, that you would not have received the first intimation of it from a newspaper. Whatever part I may take in this conjuncture, will never be decided without the fullest communication with you; and I am persuaded your Lordship's sentiments upon the present unfortunate occasion are so similar to those I feel, that no circumstance is likely to make us think differently. It is possible, I believe, even in these times, for a man to acquire some degree of credit without being enlisted in any party; and, if it is, the situation, I am sure, is more eligible than any other that either a Court or an Opposition have to bestow. "If Bath agrees with your Lordship, as I trust it does, I should not wish to see you in town; but I very much wish that it were in my power to make you a visit at Bath: I should then have the pleasure of hearing your sentiments upon the present state of affairs, which I assure you, without any sort of compliment, but in the plainest sincerity, will always have more weight with me than perhaps you will wish them to have; and I should likewise have the good fortune to escape hearing the sentiments of people who, in this town, have no other employment than to speculate for their neighbours." "Lincoln's Inn Fields, "14th November, 1770." Lord Clive's answer is equally creditable to his heart and understanding; "Bath, 18th November, 1770. "Dear Sir, "If the receipt of your very obliging and confidential letter had not roused me, I doubt much whether I should have prevailed upon myself to put pen to paper, though there is something within that tells me, I shall at last overcome a disorder so very distressing both to the mind (and to the body). Although the waters agree with me better than any place I have yet tried, yet by my feelings, a journey abroad I fear must be undertaken, before I can obtain a perfect recovery of my health.