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British Library, Add MS 47891. 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 great pleasure in telling you that the Grate is arrived, that it is fixed, & bids fair, as far as can yet be
judged to remedy the great evil of a smoky chimney.
Your friendthan <at> once than it will make by its own merits in ten years. The party knew this, & they knew
likewise that it would not be very creditable to make an attack upon what <may> truly be called the freedom of the press, in the
person of a man whose principles were so clearly declared, & who xxxxx xxxx whose name would have exercised the
attention of the public & who would have been so well able to have vindicated himself. So they wisely gave up their intention but
that the thing should have been intended is a fine proof of their regard for the liberty of the press. I think it very likely that Lord Holland prevented them from exposing themselves to the certain shame which
must have recoiled upon them. Many reasons would induce him to this; he feels as I do respecting Spain & if his hopes are not as
strong as mine, it is, if I may be allowed to say so, because he is more of a professional politician, & less of a philosopher –
because he confines xx his views to the tangible resources of a country, & does not take national character into the
account.
Of the various administrations which we have seen in Spain, & of the majority of the higher orders I think
precisely as you do, but I cannot think that the sacrifices which the people have made are unavailing. Four years have now elapsed,
& in spite of all this gross misconduct, of all these hopes, of all this treachery, – the country is unsubdued & the spirit of
the people unbroken. No human foresight can see any termination to the struggle – but while it it is prolonged whatever
cause the chapter of incidents may produce, must be in favour of Spain. A war in the North xx may operate as a diversion,
the French Peninsular may at last be unable longer to bear this dreadful & continual waste of men in a contest not merely
inglorious, but infamous; – & the hand of God or of man may at any moment rid the world of Buonaparte. For we must never forget
that the enormous military power of France is held by the tenure of his single life. Look too at the relative reputation of the British
& French troops compared to what things were <it was> before the struggle. – The new regency has two men in it
from whom I expect much, the Duke del Infantadobe made against us, & there we shall continue to baffle them. My hearts desire is that the Ministry would attempt
more, – that they would double Earl Wellingtons force, & enable
him to attack the French wherever find them. A year of vigorous war would decide the contest.
Mr Spedding I have no doubt would enter with zeal into this combination against
the Rate,xxxxxxx receit. Curwen
I am sorry we must not see Wade.