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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 25. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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I have received yours with the ten £, & am in no hurry for more, but when my the next payment is made at
the Exchequer I shall be obliged to you to pay Hydes souchong, & four pounds of 13/s green.
I cannot but wish M Wellesley were Minister at this time. We
want a man capable of acting with vigour abroad & with decision at home; & I do not see what should at this time hinder either
him, or the Grenvilles, or both, from coming into power. The war I can
contemplate without fear, & even with confidence, – the consequence at home I cannot. On this subject you know
what my apprehensions are: there are but few persons who agree with me in believing to how tremendous an extent the principle of
disaffection is diffused among the populace; the men in power either are ignorant of the danger, or like the ostrich they shut their
eyes to it. Do you remember what the parts were which Gifford cut out of my
paper upon the state of the lower orders?H Gallery of the H of Commons should be cleard whenever Burdett,
or any man like him rose. If they speak out of the house, or print what they have said <in> it, there is no privilege to cover
them. Government ought to restrain the license of the press as far as the laws allow them; & to counteract it by as much influence
as possible. They are as insecure with a <Jacobine> press arrayed against them, as Louis XVIII
Abroad, the prospect is better, tho Buonaparte will find allies in Belgium & in Italy & in
Switzerland. Still the great powers are now perfectly aware of his character, & of their own interest. The question is a very
simple one, – it is whether you will suffer a Mamaluke Governmentwill formidable & restless of the
European states. No sophistry can now conceal from the French this plain, that under the Bourbons they were enjoying peace, a regular
government, & prosperity, under Buonaparte the whole evil of war, & solely for thro his means. I only fear that they
will allow him to act on the offensive, whereas every principle of policy requires that France should be made the theatre of war; – I
talk not of the finger of Providence, – but am accustomed to contemplate the moral order of events, which is perceptible to me, upon
the great scale, throughout the course of human history. And I felt with indignation that an outrage had been committed against the
feelings of mankind when Buonaparte was not merely suffered to live, but honourably provided for as a Prince;adhesion to Buonaparte. And if the war in
its progress should cut off this generation of ruffians from the earth, as I hope & trust it will, I (who am no Methodist, &
far too heretical to subscribe to the Church which nevertheless I would most zealously uphold in the present state of things,) – should
certainly see in such a catastrophe a proof of that all-disposing Wisdom, in which I believe & trust.
____
I must not forget to ask you to learn for me what encouragement Government mean to give for emigrants to Canada. My
motive for enquiring is for Miss Barker who has a brother here, a very fit subject
for such deportation; & another in Staffordshire who in a better sense, would be a very good one to profit by it.
God bless you. I am feel certain workings of the spirit towards sending out something in the way of a
political ode. By the bye I have recovered Greek enough in teaching Herbert, to
be at this time reading Pindar.
Did you receive a portion of Brazilxxx
Printer waits for it.