May I be allowed to hope that, whatever may be your decision on the arrangement I have ventured to suggest, you will excuse the liberty I have taken, and attribute my conduct to the motive by which alone I am influenced, viz., an earnest and anxious desire to establish speedily and beyond all question the success of a measure on which not only my whole reputation is at stake, but which, in case of failure, or even of partial success, is sure to be used as a ground of attack against the Government by which it has been adopted.
Let me beg that you will not take the trouble to answer this letter till you return to town. In bringing the matter under your notice before the completion of the official arrangements referred to above, the immediate object which I have in view is accomplished.
I have, &c.,
Rowland Hill.
FOOTNOTES
[1] See p. 235.
[2] See pp. 234, 292.
[3] “Life of John Sterling,” p. 198. Edition of 1857.
[4] See “Miscellanies,” by J. A. Symonds, M.D. Edited by his son.