pleasure; and at your next meeting you will drink Lord Verney and my old friend (and indeed yours) Will Burke. It was on Lord Verney's interest I was chosen at that borough. I am with unalterable affection, my dear uncle, your affectionate, EDM. BURKE. SIR, LETTERS OF THANKS. Charles James Fox to the Rev. Gilbert Wakefield. I RECEIVED, a few days ago, your obliging letter, together with the very beautiful book which accompanied it. The dedication of such an edi. tion of such an author is highly gratifying to me; and to be mentioned in such a manner, by a person so thoroughly attached to the principles of liberty and humanity, as you, sir, are known to be, is peculiarly flattering to me. SIR, I am, with great regard, sir, Your obedient humble servant, Mr. Fox to Mr. Wakefield. C. J. Fox. St. Anne's Hill, Monday. I RECEIVED, on Saturday, the second volume of Lucretius, together with a pamphlet of yours upon Porson's Hecuba, for which I beg leave to return you my thanks. I had received, some time since, your letter, announcing to me the present of the Lucretius; but delayed answering it till I got the book, which my servant had not then an opportunity of sending me, lest there might be some mistake from your mentioning Park Street, instead of South Street, for my residence. * * I feel it to be unpardonable in me to take advantage of your civility, in sending me your books, to give you all this trouble; but I could not refuse myself so fair an opportunity of getting my doubts upon these passages cleared. I am, with great regard, sir, Your most obedient servant, C. J. Fox. MADAM, From Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Boswell. July 22, 1777. THOUGH I am well enough pleased with the taste of sweetmeats, very little of the pleasure which I received at the arrival of your jar of marmalade arose from eating it. I received it as a token of friendship, as a proof of reconciliation, things much sweeter than sweetmeats, and upon this consideration I return you, dear madam, my sincerest thanks. By having your kindness I think I have a double security for the continuance of Mr. Boswell's, which it is not to be expected that any man can long keep, when the influence of a lady so highly and so justly valued operates against him. Mr. Boswell will tell you that I was always faithful to your interest, and always endeavoured to exalt you in his estimation. You must now do the same for me. We must all help one another; and you must now consider me as, dear madam, your most obliged and most humble servant, S. JOHNSON. Edmund Burke to Agmondisham Vesey, Esq. DEAR SIR, : Sunning Hill, September 10, 1760. I CANNOT express how much I am obliged to you for your kind and successful endeavours in my favour of whatever advantage the remittance was, the assurance you give me of my father's reconciliation was a great deal more pleasing, and both, indeed, were rendered infinitely more agreeable to me by passing through your hands. I am sensible how very much I am indebted to your goodness upon this occasion. If one has but little merit, it is some consolation to have partial friends. Lord Lyttleton has been at Hagley for this month past, or near the matter; where, for the first time, he receives his friends in his new house. He was so obliging to invite me: I need not say that I am much concerned to find I shall not be able to obey his lordship's commands, and that I must lose, for this year at least, the sight of that agreeable place, and the conversation of its agreeable owner. Mrs. Montagu is, I believe, at Tunbridge, for she told me, on her leaving town, that she intended to make a pretty long stay there. May I flatter myself with the hopes of seeing you this winter in London? I cannot so easily forget the evenings I have passed, not to be most desirous of renewing them. I wish most heartily that Mrs. Vesey's health may be so well established, that she may be able to bear the late sitting up, for I foresee that must be the case whenever she comes to London,it is a fine she must pay for being so agreeable. Mrs. Burke looks upon herself to be very unhappy that she had not the honour of being known to Mrs. Vesey, but is in hopes that she will this winter be so fortunate. Once more I give you thanks for your kind interposition.-Believe me, dear sir, your much obliged humble servant, EDMUND BURKE. Hon. Horace Walpole to Miss H. More. March 6, 1784. MR. WALPOLE thanks Miss More a thousand times not only for so obligingly complying with his request, but for letting him have the satisfaction of possessing and reading again and again her charming and very genteel poem, the "Bas Bleu." He ought not, in modesty, to commend so much a piece in which he himself is flattered; but truth is more durable than blushing, and he must be just, though he may be vain. The ingenuity with which she has introduced so easily very difficult rhymes, is admirable; and though there is a quantity of learning, it has all the air of negligence, instead of that of pedantry. As she commands him, he will not disobey; and so far from giving a single copy, he gives her his word that it shall not go out of his hands. He begs his particular compliments to Mrs. Garrick, and is Miss More's most devoted, Much obliged humble servant, H. WALPOLE. Mrs. Carter to Mrs. H. More. MY DEAR FRIEND, 1799. Ir must have appeared very strange, that I have not sooner thanked you for your kind and most valuable present; but indeed, through my almost continual headaches, which have affected my spirits, I have found writing a difficult task. To you who are secure of the approbation of angels, human applause is of small consequence; but you must be pleased for the sake of others, that your most excellent work is so universally read and admired, and I trust will on many produce a suitable effect. It is surely a hopeful symptom, that though you and the Bishop of London so strongly oppose the false maxims and absurd conduct of this giddy and nonsensical world, your endeavours are treated with the greatest attention and respect. Of Mrs. Montagu, I am happy to be able to give a more comfortable account. She is in perfect good health and spirits, though she has totally changed her mode of life, from a conviction that she exerted herself too much last year, and that it brought on the long illness by which she suffered so much. She never goes out except to take the air of a morning; has no company to dinner, (I do not call myself company,) lets in nobody in the evening, which she passes in hearing her servant read, as, alas! her eyes will not suffer her to read to herself. I flatter myself that this pause of exertion will restore her to us, and will help to prolong her life; and that a taste for the comfort of living quietly, will for the future prevent her from mixing so much with the tumults of the world as to injure her health. I beg to be kindly remembered to your good sisters. Adieu, my dear friend; may God restore your health, and long continue you an example and an instructor to the world. I am, Ever your most obliged and affectionate, |