[Another day] Captain C---- entered into conversation with us in the most familiar manner, and treated the duke's character without any ceremony. "This wiseacre," said he, "is still a-bed; and, I think, the best thing he can do is to sleep on till Christmas; for when he gets up, he does nothing but expose his own folly. Since Grenville was turned out, there has been no minister in this nation worth the meal that whitened his periwig. They are so ignorant they scarce know a crab from a cauliflower; and then they are such dunces, that there's no making them comprehend the plainest proposition. In the beginning of the war, this poor half-witted creature told me, in a great fright, that thirty thousand French had marched from Acadia to Cape Breton. "Where did they find transports?" said I. "Transports!" cried he, "I tell you they marched by land."--"By land, to the island of Cape Breton?"--"What! is Cape Breton an island?"--"Certainly."--"Hah! are you sure of that?" When I pointed it out on the map, he examined it earnestly with his spectacles; then taking me in his arms, "My dear C----," cried he, "you always bring us good news. Egad, I'll go directly, and tell the king that Cape Breton is an island." [22] This scene is, of course, fiction, but it was published only three years after Newcastle's death, and that it is absolutely true to life every student of the period admits. THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF ADMIRAL BYNG. I. HORACE WALPOLE TO SIR HORACE MANN. ARLINGTON STREET, _January 30, 1757_.