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Bodleian Library, Eng. Lett. c. 24. 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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There is one name in your list of Respectables which sheds a mildew over the whole – it is Malthus.t Georges fields, – than it shall be for that man. It is a more beastly abomination to have conceived the principle
of his book, than to have committed all the fundamental faults of all the Schrams.
There are many of the Sons of the feeble in the catalogue. Nothing but Giffards friendship could have made him annex Dr Irelands sermons upon Massinger to his
edition of that x dramatist.& thoroughly taken so philosophical & practical a view of it. Tell Giffard this, & if he does not profit by it it is his own fault.
Grosvenor Bedford, – there is a fair face to this business, – but believe you me, the lower parts will be found as foul
as Duessas.xxx he has done once before, & will be ready to do again if it xxx xxx he finds it necessary for his own
continuance in place, mark you me Grosvenor, this weather cock which he is about to set up will veer just as the wind from the treasury
blows. And all must be flattery & falsehood now, – every thing will be managed in the best of all possible manners under this best
of all possible administrations. If Ireland be mentioned no hint must be given at the utter & almost irreclaimable barbarity of its
population, – when our finances are to be spoken of, not a word of the burthen of taxation must be dropt, – when the state of our army
is alluded to not an innuendo will be permitted against the Duke of York,& the disgrace which he has brought upon the army, & the ruin which he may
perhaps bring upon the nation must be kept out of sight, for the Duke of York is the Kings favourite, & his Ministry are the Kings
Ministry, & the Review is the Ministrys Review. – Grosvenor I must put on my gloves when I write, for it will be a dirty business.
But The principle which justifies me is this, – that their influence will give currency & weight to my own opinions
upon other subjects, – & tho my opinions h all hang together, all the hanging which they imply will
not be perceived.
All politicians by profession are alike, they wish for the good of their country just so far as it is subservient to their own purposes & no further, – there is a great deal of good which may be done without infringing upon this sine qua non, & it is in the hope of promoting that good that I have mentioned Rickman & Poole to you, & that I am willing to write myself, – with my gloves on.
Enough about this. I have looked at the business on all sides & in all point of view, & am ready to do my duty
in that department into which it shall please Mr Gifford to appoint
<call> me; right honestly, & as ably as I can. And now I shall neither say nor think more about it, till duly apprized of
what I am to do.
By these comments on your letter you will perceive that its contents have arrived & that his Majestys pensioner has
received the half notes.xxx salary of 400 £ a year, which
will <would> leave me a net income of more than 250. Whether it will ever be in Wynns power to do this God knows. My own decided opinion is that things are leading to a
Revolution x in the country, tho there is nobody in the country that wishes it.
Fare you well. More Kehama as soon as I can transcribe it.