We have now almost finished our tedious Sessions; and I hope to make you my acknowledgement when you return, somewhat more at leisure. The news from America is not very pleasing. Indeed I know of no News but that of Peace which can be so, to any well-disposed mind. General Howe has been driven from Boston, partly by scarcity, partly by a sharp Cannonade and Bombardment. He therefore made his disposition so well that they had not induced his return soon enough to give him any disturbance. He has collected everything with him and he has retired to the only place we have now on that extensive coast, Halifax, where, I doubt, for some little time at least he will not be much better commanded in point of provision though he will be practically out of reach of an enemy. Mrs. Burke joins me with all the rest of the family in faithful pledge to you, in the best compliments to yourself and to your most agreeable Miss Gregory.
I am, with the most sincere regard and highest esteem
Dear Madam,
Your sincere friend
and very obliged and humble servant,
Edm. Burke.
Passing to the nineteenth century, which was to witness the eclipse of the art of letter-writing as well as the disappearance of the frank, we come to the age of Keats, Shelley, Byron and Lamb. It was at the beginning of this eventful epoch that Goethe wrote the lines to Blücher, which form one of the shortest autographs I possess, but not the least curious or valuable:—
In Harren
und Krieg
in Sturz
und Sieg
bewust und gros
So riss er uns
Von Feinden los
HOLOGRAPH LINES BY GOETHE ON BLÜCHER, CIRCA 1812-13.
My friend, Mr. G. L. de St. M. Watson, gives me a forcible metrical translation:
In warring or tarrying,
In victory or woe,
He towers; and through him
We're freed from the foe.
