y courts.
The letter is dated from and bears date,

5, Hare Court, Temple.
6th March, 1824.

To the same,--

"I did not return to Town till Sunday morning, when I found your
letter at my chambers. I hope you will accept, as a sufficient
excuse, the extreme fatigue and languor which I felt all yesterday for
not answering it immediately.

I lament exceedingly, that my father should not have been early enough
in his application to the Lieutenant of the County, in whose gift, by
the frame of the bill, the appointment is placed, and in whose hand, I
fear, by the act itself it will remain.

I cannot conjecture to whom it has been promised by Col. Wodehouse. To
Alderson is not at all probable, from the part he has taken against
the Wodehouse's, who are the most bigoted and relentless Tories in
existence. To Preston [another provincial barrister in Norwich, and
the late Jermy, who was shot by Rush], ought not to be probable,
because he is not competent either in law or common sense to fill the
office; and the favour to him would be an injury to the public. My
father has every claim to it, and I think that it would have been no
more than what was due from Col. Wodehouse, both to the county and my
father, to offer it to him before he promised it to another.

I wish you might be right in your surmise, that the patronage will be
placed in another quarter; but, of that there is the faintest chance,
I should advise you to press my father to exert himself to procure the
appointment, as it will be an office of the most agreeable kind,
affording considerable profit at very little trouble. I, myself, know
not a soul in the world who could influence any one of the present
government: and any enquiries or attempt by me would have, in all
probability, an adverse operation. I am of no importance whatever to
any party, but my opinions, humble and insignificant as they are, have
been noticed and recorded; and I am down in the black book for
persecution, rather than in the red for favour. Of little note and
importance as I am, such is the consciousness, in their own infirmity,
in those who rule us, that the very lowest who have denounced their
system, are objects of their hatred, for they are the objects of their
fear; and those who have put them to the pain of apprehension, are
marks for their revenge. I should think that