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Imley Park near Brackley
NorthamptonShire. Sunday June 6. 1779
Dear Sam
The beginning of your Letter of the 31st Ult wch. came to hand here
the 4th instt, afforded me some Satisfaction, to find you had adopted a
branch of the Practical Part wch I recommended to you, when I endeavourd
to impress upon your mind, what I conciev'd to be absolutely necessary
to qualify you for a Master in the profession of a Shipwright: so far
as It goes you have done well, but there are a thousand other
Particulars, equally necessary for you, to make yourself thoroughly
acquainted with, to give you a Pretense to understand the Profession as
a Master; & wch. it is impossible you shod be able to acquire, but
by being sometime in a Merchant's yard; & this indeed is in the
Power of Mr Randal to do for you, by permitting you to be a
while in his yard with his Partners, & Foremen &c, for surely you
cannot expect he wod give up a Sufficientcy of his own time to
give you the Information, it concerns you to acquire, nor wod
it be in his power to do it, was he ever so willing, he has
not knowledge enough of the Particulars of the Practise himself, his own Department,
as the Head Partner, & one who has the greatest command
of money is to see the Merchants at Change, to get business
and orders, & making Contracts for building & repairing Ships
& other Vessels, either for Merchants, or to get Contracts with the Proper
officers employ'd by Government for the Public Service — this he is
capable of doing by the Instruction & Information he occasionally
receives from such of the Partners as are most conversant in
procuring & working up the several Materials, of various sorts, of which
Ships &c are built, and who by their knowledge of the best
means of procuring them, & upon the most advantageous Terms
with regard to the Prices of Each particular, & of the Time which
it will require, in working up those materials, are capable of
making calculations, necessary to fix, & ascertain the sum
Total, of the Expence of building every such Ship &c as they
shall undertake or Contract to build, so as to give them a
suitable Profit for their Skill & trouble. This you ought to be
master of, & to be fully acquainted with, before you entertained
an Idea of setting foot out of your own Countrey & without this,
all is visionary, & mear Speculation; & without these requisits
there cannot, in my opinion be a greater absurdity than for
you to think of going to a Country, that cannot furnish you with
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Identifier: | JB/538/329/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 538.
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1779-06-06 |
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538 |
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329 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Jeremiah Bentham |
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