This letter goes by my lord Castledurrow, who is a gentleman of very good sense and wit. I suspect, by taking his son with him, that he designs to see us no more. I desire to present my most humble service to your lady, with hearty thanks of her remembrance of me. I am, sir, your most humble faithful servant. TO WILLIAM PULTENEY, ESQ. March 7, 1737. SIR,I must begin by assuring you that I did never intend to engage you in a settled correspondence with so useless a man as I here am; and still more so by the daily increase of ill health and old age; and yet I confess that the high esteem I preserve for your public and private virtues urges me on to retain some little place in your memory for the short time I may expect to live. That I no sooner acknowledged the honor of your letter is owing to your civility, which might have compelled you to write while you were engaged in defending the liberties of your country with more than an old Roman spirit; which has reached this obscure enslaved kingdom so far as to have been the constant subject of discourse and of praise among the whole few of what unprostituted people here remain among us. I did not receive the letter you mentioned from Bath; and yet I have imagined, for some months past, that the meddlers of the post-offices here and in London have grown weary of their curiosity by finding the little satisfaction it gave them. I agree heartily in your opinion of physicians; I have esteemed many of them as learned, ingenious men; but I never received the least benefit from their advice or prescriptions. And poor Dr. Arbuthnot was the only man of the faculty who seemed to understand my case, but could not remedy it. But to conquer five physicians, all eminent in their way, was a victory that Alexander and Cæsar could never pretend to. I desire that my prescription of living may be published (which you design to follow) for the benefit of mankind, which, however, I do not value a rush, nor the animal itself, as it now acts; neither will I ever value myself as a Philanthropus, because it is now a creature (taking a vast majority) that I hate more than a toad, a viper, a wasp, a stork, a fox, or any other that you will please to add. Since the date of your letter we understand there is another duke provided for, and to his own atkartico, as any private clergyman He engaged me to present his best respects and acknowledgments to 721 Your modesty, in refusing to take a motto, goes too far. The sentense is not a boast, because it is every man's duty in morals and religion. Indeed we differ here from what you have been told of the duke of Dorset's having given great satifaction the last time he was with us; particularly in his disposal of two bishoprics, and other church as well as civil preferments. I wrote a lady in London, his grace's near relation and intimate, that she would no more continue the office of a go-between (as she called herself betwixt the duke and me, because I never design to attend him again; and yet I allow him to be as agreeable a person in conversation as I have almost anywhere met. I sent my letter to that lady under a cover addressed to the duke; and in it I made many complaints against some proceedings, which I suppose he has seen. I never made him one request for myself; and if I spoke for another, he was always upon his guard, which was but twice, and for trifles, but failed in both. The father of our friend in France may outlive the son; for I would venture a wager that if you pick out twenty of the oldest men in England, nineteen of them have been the most worthless fellows in the kingdom. You tell me with great kindness as well as gravity that I ought this spring to take a trip to England, and your motive is admirable, that shifting the scene was of great service to you, and therefore it may be so to me. I answer as an academic, Nego consequentiam. And besides, comparisons are odious You are what the French call plein de vie. As you are much younger, so I am a dozen years older than my age makes me, by infirmities of mind and body; to which I add the perpetual detestation of all public persons and affairs in both kingdoms. I spread the story of Mrs. Mapp while it was new to us; there was something humorous in it throughout that pleased everybody here. Will you engage for your friend Carteret that he will oppose any step toward arbitrary power? he has promised me, under a penalty, that he will continue firm, and yet some reports go here of him that have a little disconcerted me. Learning and good sense he has to a great degree, if the love of riches and power do not overbalance. chief support of liberty to your country, and let all the people say Amen. I am, with the truest respect and highest esteem, sir, yours, &c. TO MR. GIBSON. March 23, 1737. MR. GIBSON, I desire you will give my hearty thanks to Mr. Richardson for the fine present he has made me; and I thank you for your care in sending it to me in so good a condition. I have invited several friends to dine upon it with me to-morrow, when we will drink his health. He has done everything in the genteelest manner, and I am much obliged to him. I am your friend and servant. TO JOHN BARBER, Esq. ALDERMAN OF LONDON. DEAR MR. ALDERMAN, Dublin, March 30, 1737. You will read the character of the bearer, Mr. Lloyd, which he is to deliver to you, signed by the magistrates and chief inhabitants of Colrane. It seems your society has raised the rents of that town, and your lands adjoining, about three years ago, to four times the value of what they formerly paid; which is beyond all I have ever heard even among the most screwing landlords of this impoverished kingdom; and the consequence has already been that many of your tenants in the said town and lands are preparing for their removal to the plantations in America; for the same reasons that are driving some thousands of families in the adjoining northern parts to the same plantations; I mean the oppression by landlords. My dear friend, you are to consider that no society can, or ought in prudence or justice, let their lands at so high a rate as a squire who lives upon his own estate, and is able to distrain in an hour's warning. All bodies corporate must give easy bargains, that they may depend upon receiving their rents, and thereby be ready to pay all the incident charges to which they are subject. Thus bishops, deans, and chapters, as well as other corporations, seldom or never let their lands even so high as at half the value; and when they raise those rents which are scandalously low it is ever by degrees. I have many instances of this conduct in my own practice, as well as in that of my chapter. Although provided for, and to his own satisfaction, as any private clergyman He engaged me to present his best respects and acknowledgments to you. Your modesty, in refusing to take a motto, goes too far. The sentence is not a boast, because it is every man's duty in morals and religion. Indeed we differ here from what you have been told of the duke of Dorset's having given great satisfaction the last time he was with us; particularly in his disposal of two bishoprics, and other church as well as civil preferments. I wrote a lady in London, his grace's near relation and intimate, that she would no more continue the office of a go-between (as she called herself) betwixt the duke and me, because I never design to attend him again; and yet I allow him to be as agreeable a person in conversation as I have almost anywhere met. I sent my letter to that lady under a cover addressed to the duke; and in it I made many complaints against some proceedings, which I suppose he has seen. I never made him one request for myself; and if I spoke for another, he was always upon his guard, which was but twice, and for trifles, but failed in both. The father of our friend in France may outlive the son; for I would venture a wager that if you pick out twenty of the oldest men in England, nineteen of them have been the most worthless fellows in the kingdom. You tell me with great kindness as well as gravity that I ought this spring to take a trip to England, and your motive is admirable, that shifting the scene was of great service to you, and therefore it may be so to me. I answer as an academic, Nego consequentiam. And besides, comparisons are odious You are what the French call plein de vie. As you are much younger, so I am a dozen years older than my age makes me, by infirmities of mind and body; to which I add the perpetual detèstation of all public persons and affairs in both kingdoms. I spread the story of Mrs. Mapp while it was new to us; there was something humorous in it throughout that pleased everybody here. Will you engage for your friend Carteret that he will oppose any step toward arbitrary power? he has promised me, under a penalty, that he will continue firm, and yet some reports go here of him that have a little disconcerted me. Learning and good sense he has to a great degree, if the love of riches and power do not overbalance. chief support of liberty to your country, and let all the people say Amen. I am, with the truest respect and highest esteem, sir, yours, TO MR. GIBSON. &c. March 23, 1737. MR. GIBSON, I desire you will give my hearty thanks to Mr. Richardson for the fine present he has made me; and I thank you for your care in sending it to me in so good a condition. I have invited several friends to dine upon it with me to-morrow, when we will drink his health. He has done everything in the genteelest manner, and I am much obliged to him. I am your friend and servant. TO JOHN BARBER, Esq. ALDERMAN OF LONDON. Dublin, March 30, 1737. DEAR MR. ALDERMAN, You will read the character of the bearer, Mr. Lloyd, which he is to deliver to you, signed by the magistrates and chief inhabitants of Colrane. It seems your society has raised the rents of that town, and your lands adjoining, about three years ago, to four times the value of what they formerly paid; which is beyond all I have ever heard even among the most screwing landlords of this impoverished kingdom; and the consequence has already been that many of your tenants in the said town and lands are preparing for their removal to the plantations in America; for the same reasons that are driving some thousands of families in the adjoining northern parts to the same plantations; I mean the oppression by landlords. My dear friend, you are to consider that ne society can, or ought in prudence or justice, let their lands at so high a rate as a squire who lives upon his own estate, and is able to distrain in an hour's warning. All bodies corporate must give easy bargains, that they may depend upon receiving their rents, and thereby be ready to pay all the incident charges to which they are subject. Thus bishops, deans, and chapters, as well as other corporations, seldom or never let their lands even so high as at half the value; and when they raise those rents which are scandalously low it is ever by degrees. I have many instances of this conduct in my own practice, as well as in that of my chapter. Although |