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MS untraced; text is taken from William Knight, Memorials of Coleorton, 2 vols (London, 1887). Previously published: William Knight, Memorials of Coleorton, 2 vols (London, 1887), II, pp. 166–170.
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 write to you with an especial ill grace, because having left undone that which I ought to have done, I have now to do that which of all things there is the most discomfort in doing.
M. Dutens,
At any other time I should have been sure of Mr. Canning’s good offices. It is now so little likely that he can have a minute to bestow upon me, that I shall send the letter I have written to him to his friend Gifford, to be delivered or thrown into the fire at his discretion. I have written also to Lord Lonsdale. The readiness with which he endeavoured to serve me on a former occasion, and the friendliness with which he would have urged his application, – if I had not discovered its unfitness, – made this as much a matter of due respect in the present case, as of self-interest. My friend Williams Wynn gave me the first information of the vacancy, and will omit no means within his reach. And when I have requested you to befriend me, if it be in your power so to do, I shall have no omission for which to reproach myself, in case the office should again be conferred upon a Frenchman, or any other person equally unfit.
It would be too much like castle-building to say with what pride and diligence I would discharge the duties which ought to be annexed to the office. As much as possible I will now put it out of mind, and the state of affairs as well as my own occupations give me matter enough for thought.
You know that I am no desponding politician. My disposition is naturally as joyous as a skylark in spring. I have carried a boy’s heart into middle age; and besides this unbroken cheerfulness, my philosophy and my faith teach me always to look on to the best. But I very much dread that we are on the brink of one of those ages of calamity, the good of which is not perceived till generations have passed by. The sinking down of Jacobinism into the lowest class, who have been prepared for it by the inevitable effects of the manufacturing system, is an evil of which I have long been aware, but its progress has been more rapid than I apprehended, and the whole extent of the danger now stares us in the face. Nothing but the army at this moment preserves us from a war of the poor against the rich, and God knows how long the army may be depended upon. The abuse of liberty has always been punished by the loss of liberty. Whether we shall see ours endangered (at least) to prevent a civil war, or forfeited as the cost of one, seems to me the alternative which we have to apprehend. Of this I feel certain, that the present state of the press is sufficient to overthrow the Government, and must overthrow it, without some speedy remedy be applied.
If these will be averted, I am one of those persons who believe that the Church of England would be most seriously
endangered by what is called Catholic Emancipation. To a Catholic Establishment in Ireland (the inevitable consequence) I could almost
consent from utter hopelessness respecting that unhappy country; but in England, the downfall of the Church would prove fatal to the
whole system upon which our prosperity has been built. I think I can even see the process by which it would be brought down. The State
will want money. M. Wellesley will do as in India – carry on the war to a
triumphant and decisive conclusion, – but he will be careless at what expense. The tithes offer a ready resource. The Catholic members
(under the next Duke of Norfolk England will have many such),
Make my respects to Lady Beaumont, – and believe me, my dear sir, yours with great respect,