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. 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 was surprized to learn at the Hotel that you were gone – & am vexed to have seen you so little during your stay.
Since your departure I have received letters from Wm Taylor at
Paris. interesting inasmuch as they differ from the common newspaper accounts, & are the observations of an observing man. he says
that the public conversation is free, worthy of a free people, & that at the coffee houses the measures of government are discussed
acutely & severely but without ill-will or acrimony. The temper of the people disposes them to peace. Order is worth more than
Liberty. – In changing governments we do not change men. – New Constitutions are periodical publications – & each costs something.
These & like proverbial maxims are the favourite texts in Paris. My friends says that the French
are less officious in politeness than formerly. that manners & morals of a more English character are fashionable. that young men
talk of the “Religion of our fathers” as if they meant to learn the Catechism. that the tide in fact is setting in to those opinions of
morality, religion & politics which pervade the works of Burke.
I am sorry & ashamed to think of the trouble you will have in clearing off our things – & would apologize if I
knew how to find a fitting apology for what is unavoidable. the prints will travel safely if wrapt in the linen, & so laid in the
large chest. a half-workd hearthrug of Ediths industry will also go in that
chest. there is a small mahogany machine which you would perhaps puzzle you to know its use – it is for
making fringe. that we must not lose – it may come in the chest or trunk if there be one. every thing else to be sold except linen
& silver things. Mrs Jenkinst
Stephens Court. New Palace Yard. the chest (which must be quite full) & trunk if there be one must go to Bristol, directed to Mrs Fricker 29. Stokes Croft. We have
some spirits there, which will well pay the expence of their removal to Bristol. Some few things such as would rust chiefly were left
with the next door neighbour.
I believe I have left nothing unsaid upon this business.
The Morning Post of yesterday promised to give some news to day which they thought the most interesting that had appeared in that paper for twenty years. We were all full of wonder & expectation. Lo! the newspaper came & announced – that the sale of the Morning Post now exceeded that of every other newspaper. very impudent – & I suppose very true.
Have you seen a periodical work called the Beauties of England & Wales?
There is War in the City. the Sheriffs & the Mayor. he did not give them tickets nor their Chaplain – & they
declare that they are obliged to resent what is an insult to the established Religion & the established Orders of Society.
Do you think of visiting Paris? curiosity will probably lead you where it is leading every body. I should think of it myself if I had leisure enough & was rich enough. that not being the case I do not allow my curiosity to be very strong, & persuade myself with some truth that nothing on the banks of the Seine can equal the shores of Keswick & Killarney.
Remember me to your mother – & to Mr Colman.
Direct under cover to
Rt Honble
&c &c &c
Westminster