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"Was not there a time when the Clergy made a third Estate
"with us? I have been surprized that learned men in France
"have not made a point of examining the progress of this
" & other questions in our History, more correctly than they
"have done.
Saltham 20th. Jany 1789 —
"Dear Mr Bentham,
"First, as to your attack upon my
"hand- writing, it is not my fault - I was very ill educated,
" & never learned to write - The people I have envied most
"through life have been those who can write well, & yet write
"so carelessly that Lady Lansdown, Miss Vernon & myself are
"sometimes half an hour marking out a particular word -
"but I can't express how much I am obliged to you, when,
"though you compare the number of words for a Bill in Chancery
"you don't compare the stuff also to one, but upon the contrary
are so good as to say, that two sheets of mine have half
"the stuff of one of yours. You have a proof that your ideas
"are never lost upon me, by producing them at 10 years distance.
"If I did not quote you to yourself, you may be sure that I
"shall be proud to quote so great an authority to everybody
"else, as I hope to do have your sanction upon the other subject,
"you mention, such as Colony holding, the Invasion of Holland,
"the Swedish Declaration, & the Turkish War, of which I am
"afraid it is too true that we have the merit of combining -
"no wonder that the whole Island from the Land's End to the
"Orkneys should join in lamenting the event which has checked
such a progress of Glory. I was at a loss where I took
"up my ideas in opposition to the general sense, but I now
"find the Fountain, & I am confirmed in them in consequence.
"But I cannot help thinking that you do not give a very
"good reason for turning Republican, when you say that the
"two Republican Parties, the Foxites & the Pittites join only in
"what is unjust, unprincipled & impolitic. Seeing this happen,
"as I have done upon other questions, viz the East Indies, where they
"only joined in every villain, & prosecuting the only
man
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Identifier: | JB/009/108/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 9.
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1789-01-20 |
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009 |
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108 |
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001 |
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correspondence |
1 |
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recto |
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[[watermarks::[feathers] i&m 1837]] |
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arthur moore; richard doane |
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1837 |
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copy of letter 636, vol. 4; also partly printed in bowring x, 196 |
3409 |
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