*It is surely infinite condescension for a Senator to bestow his attention on the affairs of a Juryman. A Senator? Yes, sir, at last Quod nemo promittere Divum auderet, volvenda dies en! attulit ultro.* About ten days ago Eliot spent an hour with me, talked sensibly of his will, and his children, and requested that I would be Executor to the one and Guardian to the other. I consented to accept an office which indeed I consider as an essential duty of social life. We parted. *Yesterday morning, about half an hour after seven, as I was destroying an army of Barbarians, I heard a double rap at the door, and my Cornish friend was soon introduced. After some idle conversation he told me, that if I was desirous of being in Parliament, he had an independent seat very much at my service.* You may suppose my answer, but my satisfaction was a little damped when he added that the expence of the election would amount to about £2400, & that he thought it reasonable that we should share it between us. I paused, and, recovering myself, hinted something of Parental extravagance, and filial narrowness of circumstances and want of ready money, and that I must beg a short delay to consider whether I could with prudence accept of his intended favour, on which I set the highest value. His answer was obliging, that he should be very much mortified if a few hundred pounds should prevent it, and that he had been afraid to offend me by offering it on less equal terms. His behaviour gave me courage to propose an expedient, which was instantly accepted with cordiality and eagerness, that when his second son John (who is now thirteen) came of age I would restore to him my proportion of the money.
I am not disposed to build Castles in Spain, but I think my conduct prudent. Before that time my own honest industry or the deaths of old Ladies may make me a richer man: or else I can offer (some years hence) a fair and liberal bargain, that I will settle Beriton on John, in case I have no children, with the proviso that on the birth of a child, I shall pay him the money with legal interest. The agreement will be easy for me, and advantageous to them. *This is a fine prospect opening upon me, and if next spring I should take my seat, and publish my book, it will be a very memorable Era in my life. I am ignorant whether my Borough will be Leskeard[255] or St. Germains. You despise Boroughs, and fly at nobler game. Adieu.*
212.
To J. B. Holroyd, Esq.
Bentinck Street, Sept. 14th, 1774.
You must not suppose that I mean to keep up with you this Prussian firing of four times in a minute, a letter every other day. I shall now hold my tongue for some time. Burtenshaw's end I like better than his beginning. Your expedient is excellent, honourable and safe: therefore execute it without delay, and think no more about the whole business. I receive your congratulations; as to consequences, your scheme has the most apparent, mine the most real generosity, but there is not any hurry for either.—Clarke is returned, very indifferent the first day, but now perfectly well, at least for the present. Wilbraham is likewise come up to make some preparations and to buy a little gold chain (vulgo a ring) for his squirrel. Both salute you.—The World may now be in flames when it pleases, provided the Sun fire office be safe; your Man was with me this morning; a very compleat puppy!—Not a word of My Lady! is she quite lively and spleepy? Nor a word about the Journey to town; there never was a more rational proposal, indeed there never was. From My Lady I pass to the cheese. It was divine in every respect but immortality. I fear the season is too far advanced for another—Enquire.