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lived too long for our comfort,-shall we close our eyes in peace? You and I, that can amuse ourselves with our books and papers, feel as much indignation at the turbulent as they have scorn for us. It is hard at least, that they who disturb nobody, can have no asylum in which to pursue their innocent indolence. Who is secure against Jack Straw and a whirlwind? How I abominate Mr. Bankes and Dr. Solander, who routed the poor Otaheitans out of the centre of the ocean, and carried our abominable passions among them! Not even that poor little speck could escape European restlessness. Och! I have seen many tempestuous scenes, and outlived them! The present prospect is too thick to see through, -it is well hope never forsakes us. Adieu.

Yours, most sincerely,

H. W.

EDMUND BURKE TO HIS UNCLE, MR. NAGLE.

Wimpole Street, Cavendish Square, 11 October, 1759. DEAR SIR,

My brother has been beforehand with me in almost every thing I could say. My conduct stands in need of as many apologies as his, but I am afraid our apologies might be almost as troublesome as our neglects. All I can say is, that I have been, I think it is now eleven years from the county of Cork, yet my remembrance of my friends there is as fresh as if I had left it yesterday. My gratitude for their favours, and my

love for their characters is rather heightened, as the oftener I think of them they must be—and I think of them very often. This I can say with great truth. Believe me, dear sir, it would be a great pleasure to me to hear as often from you as it is convenient. Do not give yourself any sort of trouble about franks; I value very little that trifling expense, and I should very little deserve to hear from my friends, if I scrupled to pay a much higher price for that satisfaction. If I had any thing that you could have pleasure in, to send you from hence, I should be a punctual correspondent; there is nothing here, except what the newspapers contain, that can interest you; but nothing can come from the Blackwater which does not interest me very greatly. Poor Dick is on the point of quitting us; however, he has such advantageous prospects where he is going, that I part from him with the less regret. One of the first merchants here has taken him by the hand, and enabled him to go off with a very valuable cargo. He has another advantage and satisfaction in his expedition,-one of our best friends here goes at the same time in one of the first places in the island.

Mrs. Burke is very sensible of your goodness, and desires that I should make you her acknowledgments. We equally wish it were in our power to accept of your kind invitation; and that no greater obstacle intervened to keep us from seeing Ballyduffe, but the distance. We are too good travellers to be frighted at that. I have made a much longer journey than the land part of it this summer. However, it is not impossible

but we may one day have the pleasure of embracing you at your own house. I beg you will salute for us the good houses of Ballydwalter, Ballylegan, and Ballynahaliok, et nati natorum, et qui nascuntur ab illis. Our little boys are very

well, but I should think them still better, if they (or the one that is on his legs) were running about the Bawn at Ballyduffe, as his father used to do. -Farewell, my dear uncle, and believe me your affectionate kinsman and humble servant,

EDMUND BURKE.

I forgot to say any thing of the irregularity which you have found in the papers for some time passed. The summer has made the town thin of members of parliament, so that we were sometimes at a loss; but now we shall be pretty secure on that head, and you shall have your papers more regularly.

EDMUND BURKE TO AGMONDISHAM

VESEY, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Sunning Hill, September 10th, 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 may 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.

EDMUND BURKE TO HIS UNCLE, MR. NAGLE.

October 14th, 1765.

MY DEAR SIR, SINCE I heard from you, our little party at Queen Anne Street has been reinforced by a person who loves you as well as I do, poor Richard of Grenada. He left that island in no very good state of health, and after a great deal of vexation from, but also after a great and perfect triumph over his enemies, and a set of the greatest villains that ever existed. He has a leave of absence for six months; and is, I think, already as completely reestablished in health, strength, and spirits, as we could wish. We all join in giving you joy on the occasion of our friend Katty's match; and only wish her that she may be as happy in a husband as her mother was; and much as we regard her, we cannot wish her better. Pray remember our hearty congratulations to the young couple.

I am sincerely concerned for the match that Garret Atty was so unfortunate as to make; and did from the beginning expect no better issue of it, in a country circumstanced as ours is; assure my uncle, that there is no one step on earth in my power that I would not gladly take to give ease to his mind, which must be cruelly agitated; I most sincerely pity him; but I believe, when he reflects how newly, and almost as a stranger, I am come about these people, and knows the many industrious endeavours which malice and envy (very unprovoked indeed) have used to ruin

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