Let us now inspect her personal character and pursuits. She is readily forgetful of private injury, but is a severe assertor of public justice. She does not excuse crime in any one; she leaves no one the hope of impunity; she cuts off from every one the liberty of offending. She, least of all princes, covets the property and wealth of her subjects, and requires her own revenues to be expended sparingly and economically upon every private pleasure, but royally and liberally either for any object of public convenience, or for the splendour of domestic magnificence. But the glory she derives from herself, and the adornments of talent and learning that she possesses, I have described to you in another letter. I will now only state in addition, that neither at court, nor in the universities, nor among our heads in church or state, are there four of our countrymen who understand Greek better than the queen herself. When she is reading Demosthenes or AEschines, I am very often astonished at seeing her so ably understand, I do not mean, the force of the words, the structure of the sentences, the propriety of the language, the ornaments of oratory, and the harmonious and elegant bearing of the whole discourse; but also, what is of more importance, the feeling and spirit of the speaker, the struggle of the whole debate, the decrees and inclinations of the people, the manners and institutions of every state, and all other matters of this kind. All her own subjects, and very many foreigners, are witnesses to her proficiency in other languages. I was one day present, when she replied at the same time to three ambassadors, the Imperial, French, and Swedish, in three languages; Italian to the one, French to the other, Latin to the third; easily, without hesitation, clearly, and without being confused, to the various subjects thrown out, as is usual, in their discourse.
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