ENPages
(seq. 1)
Pall Mall, {october} 1, 1766.
Sir,
I beg you to accept my[best?] acknowledgments for along, [?], [interesting?] Letter, dated july 25, though written on a melancholy occasion; & for other matters which accompanied that Letter. The Death of that able, good, public Man, {Doctor} Mayhew, my old & much esteemed Friend, hath grieved me exceedingly. He seems to have died through over-strain of application and Philanthropy.
I pray God to soften the afflictions of his Widow, that accomplished, excellent Lady, and to endue her with fortitude equal to her Loss.
The Resolution taken by her, not to publish any posthumous work of his, appears to me to be judicious. I guess not diskindly, at what the hint thrown out to you
(seq. 2)
by the late worthy Doctor alluded.
It is true I valued, honored him exceedingly; and not long since repeatedly wrote him, that I was his assured friend, which he would have experienced, particularly, in case he had been ordered here on the Stamp-act, as was more than once whispered, with what Truth I know not.
Not a Book has been sent more to the College at Cambridge, as I recollect, through request or intimation of that excellent Man, for he made no request of that sort, though it would have been complied with; nor will non[e?] be sent less that he is dead: nor did he, or anyone know, in any degree, till lately, the Plan adopted by me in regard to Books intended to be presented to that College.
I confess to bear propensity, affection toward the People of
North America; those of Massachusetts & Boston in particular, believing them to be a good, & brave People. Long may they continue such, and the Spirit of Luxury, now consuming Us to the very marrow here at home, kept out from them!
One likelyest means to that End will be, to watch well over their Youth, by bestowing on them a reasonable, manly Education; and selecting [therets?], the wrist, [abbet?], not accomplished often, that Art or Wealth can obtain : for nations rise and fall by Individuals not Numbers, as I think all History proveth.
With Ideas of this kind have I worked for the Public Library at Cambridge in {North} England; neither caring too exactly to remember how the last, best Library in all America was lost there; nor, a sober, retired Person, without a by-view,
(seq. 3)
4. not long to be unearthed, acting, surely, from Vanity; [not?] sparing toward it Expence, Labor, or TIME.
It is certain, the last winter I passed in Town, against [Indination?] Health & Conveniency, on account of the Stamp-Act; and this Summer, with much preceeding time, time the most valuable on all things, on account of that Library.
If any good hath followed from this procedure, or should follow from it, I shall be content.
After sustaining a thirteen Years unremitted Campaign, day week, month, year following Year, successive to each other; altering though not broken in Constitution, yet verging, it might be, toward a Mayhew's fate, without his Magnanimity: I now seek relaxation, quiet, and am going into [Dorsetshire?], where I have some Estate though no House, the [ensuing?] Winter or Spring,
5. Spring, it is probable, to settle there.
I am the more confirmed in this Measure, by observing the [Baseness?] of the Times and their Tendencies ; together with the total defection of the higher Classes to all Public Virtue: and, with deepest concern I write, the recent, unparallelled [Prostitution?], and Apostacy, of the once magnanimous, almost divine W.P, who now is lost, wholly, in Parchment and BVTISM.
He has defected more flagrantly that Pultney, Earl of Bath; and been drawn-in, unaccountably, by the Favorite, to range under him; for so in fact he doth, at a time that all things, by the good Spirit of the People of England and the Colonies, were centering in himself. And there is reason to believe, that he has been tampered with by that Favorite for Years past; and only kept from [?] him as now, above a twelve month, by
(seq. 4)
Earl Temple,
The Thane exults prodigiously on the occasion; and he [like?] his Mungrels, are, in reality, in full scent [and?] cry to run him down, thought with some present appearing shows of deference [and] Power toward him, lest he should retreat again, before he had done dirty work in public enough, to render his character in all respects utterly irretrievable. Unhappy man, to have survived his own matchless Administration! and his Speech for the repeal of the Stamp Act! He is at this time trying to strengthen his Ministry every way, coute que coute to the Nation, in Treasure of Effect. A great opposition notwithstanding, it is probable, he will have to content with; and it can [subsist?] no longer than the [Fiat?] of the Favorite. The general opinion us, that it will not endure; and that he will die broken-hearted in [Somersetshire]. Let Earl Cheat'em act as he pleases, he cannot alter right [and] wrong; and by right will I abide so long as I can distinguish it. Much of this in confidence. I have not attended the Meetings of the Society instituted for promoting arts {and} commerce in the Strand for Years past; something having happened there , which made me deem it right to keep away from them. But every other service in my Power I renderm gladly, to the noble Society. The article relating to it in Your Letter was copied directly, {and} sent to {Doctor} Templeman. I am, with great Respect, Sir,
Your much obliged, and most {obedient} {humble} servant [Thomas} Hollis
Edmund Quincy {Junior} {Esquire}
