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I see by the Dutch papers that are come today that the Dutch despair
of saving their Prince William. This will be a great loss to them: as she is
one of the most capital ships they have or can have, a 74.
Affairs seem to wear but a very unfavourable aspect in Minorca. Barre's
character of Murray is that he is obstinate and wrong headed, but brave to
desperation. He has seen a letter from Draper to a person here who is a Government
man. Draper says that the effective man in garrison are but 1500
regulars consisting upon Barre's computation of 2 battalions English, 3 of Hannoverians: upon paper 2400. The Spanish
account spoke of 400 of the latter deserting: God forbid it should be
true. Draper writes that with infinite perseverance he has succeeded in putting
& keeping himself upon good terms with the general but that he is the only
man in the island who is so: reckoning as well the army as the inhabitants. Barre who has
been in the island speaks of Fort St Philips as being excessively strong: the
garrison cover'd every where in a surprizing manner: that the fault of it if it
has any is that of its being over-worked: the fonterrems so intricate that a
man must have a better head than the Governor to understand them.
This morning (Wednesday) I rec'd yours of Saturday Sept. 29.
As to all that concerns my adventures in the family, & the footing I am
upon, I must be as concise as possible: there would be no end in giving the
details, and as there are things there is no danger of my forgetting, there is
no occasion for it. What I fill my letters with in preference are anecdotes
concerning persons, places, number, weight & measure, which relating to
persons I have no personal acquaintance with and therefore making
but a faint impression, might be lost if they were not quickly consigned
to paper: temporary ones more especially as for example
the foregoing. The greater part however are inevitably lost, either on account
of their being but imperfectly heard (for my hearing is in reality
very dull) or but imperfectly related the relators having their reasons for
not being perfectly explicit, or in short but imperfectly remembered. A disadvantage
I labour under is the want of power to cross-examine. A thousand
considerations intervene to limit the exercise of this power, which however
I do exercise at least as much as is agreable to the deponents: the fear of being
troublesome: the fear of galling them, by obliging them either to give an answer apparently
evasive, or to betray something which would subject them either to disrepute or
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Identifier: | JB/539/247/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 539.
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1781-10-02 |
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539 |
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247 |
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002 |
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Correspondence |
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Jeremy Bentham |
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