Your most obedient humble servant,
EDMUND BURKE.
Tuesday, 18th July, 1780.
I really feel uneasy on this business, and should consider it as a sort of personal favor, if you do something to limit the extent and severity of the law on this point. Present my best compliments to Lord North, and if he thinks that I have had wishes to be serviceable to government on the late occasion, I shall on my part think myself abundantly rewarded, if a few lives less than first intended should be saved [taken?]; I should sincerely set it down as a personal obligation, though the thing stands upon general and strong reason of its own.[21]
FOOTNOTES:
[20] One of the Secretaries of the Treasury.
[21] It appears by the following extract from a letter written by the Earl of Mansfield to Mr. Burke, dated the 17th July, 1780, that these Reflections had also been communicated to him:—"I have received the honor of your letter and very judicious thoughts. Having been so greatly injured myself, I have thought it more decent not to attend the reports, and consequently have not been present at any deliberation upon the subject."