it is christianity only, that forms such friends. I wish his father may be duly affected by this instance and proof of your superiority to those ideas of you, which he has so unreasonably harboured. He is not in my favour now, nor will be upon any other terms. I laughed at the comments you make on your own feelings, when the subject of them was a newspaper eulogium. But it was a laugh of pleasure, and approbation such indeed is the heart, and so is it made up. There are few that can do good, and keep their own secret, none perhaps without a struggle. Yourself, and your friend, are no very common instances of the fortitude, that is necessary, in such a conflict. In former days, I have felt my heart beat, and every vein throb, upon such an occasion. To publish my own deed was wrong. I knew it to be SO. But to conceal it seemed like a voluntary injury to myself. Sometimes I could, and sometimes I could not succeed. My occasions for such conflicts indeed were not very numerous. Yours, VOL. 2. L W. C. LETTER XLIV. To the Revd. JOHN NEWTON. MY DEAR FRIEND, Jan. 25, 1784. This contention about East Indian patronage, seems not unlikely to avenge upon us, by its consequences, the mischiefs we have done there. The matter in dispute is too precious to be relinquished by either party; and each is jealous of the influence the other would derive from the possession of it. In a country, whose politics have so long rolled upon the wheels of corruption, an affair of such value must prove a weight in either scale, absolutely destructive of the very idea of a balance. Every man has his sentiments upon this subject, and I have mine. Where I constituted umpire of this strife, with full powers to decide it, I would tie a talent of lead about the neck of this patronage, and plunge it into the depths of the sea. To speak less figuratively, I would abandon all territorial interest in a country, to which we can have no right, and which we cannot govern with any security to the happiness of the inhabitants, or without the danger of incurring either perpetual broils; or the most insupportable tyranny at home. That sort of tyranny I mean, which flatters and tantalizes the subject with a show of freedom, and in reality allows him nothing more, bribing to the right and left, rich enough to afford the purchase of a thousand consciences, and consequently strong enough, if it happen to meet with an incorruptible one, to render all the efforts of that man, or of twenty such men, if they could be found, romantic, and of no effect. I am the king's most loyal subject, and most obedient humble servant. But by his majesty's leave, I must acknowledge I am not altogether convinced of the rectitude even of his own measures, or of the simplicity of his views; and if I were satisfied that he himself is to be trusted, it is nevertheless palpable that he cannot answer for his successors. At the same time he is my king, and I reverence him as such. I account his prerogative sacred, and shall never wish prosperity to a party, that invades it, and under that pretence of patriotism, would annihilate all the consequence of a character, essential to the very being of the constitution. For these reasons I am sorry that we have any dominion in the East; that we have any such emoluments to contend about. Their im mense value will probably prolong the dispute, and such struggles having been already made in the conduct of it, as have shaken our very foundations, it seems not unreasonable to suppose, that still greater efforts, and more fatal are behind; and after all, the decision in favour of either side, may be ruinous to the whole. In the mean time, that the Company themselves are but indifferently qualified for the kingship, is most deplorably evident. What shall I say therefore? I distrust the court, I suspect the patriots, I put the company entirely aside, as having forfeited all claim to confidence in such a business, and see no remedy of course, but in the annihilation, if that could be accomplished, of the very existence of our authority in the East-Indies. The late Docter Jortin Had the good fortune, To write these verses Have done into English. IN BREVITATEM VITÆ SPATII, HOMINIBUS CONCESSI. Hei mihi! Lege ratâ sol occidit atque resurgit, Rursus nocte vigent. Humiles telluris alumni, Nos domini rerum, nos, magna et pulchra minati, Reddit in ætherias, tumuli neque claustra resolvit. ON THE SHORTNESS OF HUMAN LIFE. Suns that set, and moons that wane, Rise, and are restored again. Stars that orient day subdues, Night at her return renews, |