of their new sovereign
in the last conflict with the Dutch, can we blame them for
their determination? It is rather singular, however, that,
resolved as they are to be served only by themselves, they
should have sent for 50,000 Frenchmen to clear their country of
a handful of Hollanders, who have generally been considered the
most unwarlike people in Europe, but who, if they had had fair
play given them, would long ere this time have replanted the
Orange flag on the towers of Brussels, and made the Belgians
what they deserve to be--hewers of wood and drawers of water.
And now, my dear Sir, allow me to reply to a very important
part of your letter. You ask me whether I wish to purchase a
commission in the British Service, because in that case you
would speak to the Secretary at War about me. I must inform
you, therefore, that my name has been for several years upon
the list _for the purchase_ of a commission, and I have never
yet had sufficient interest to procure an appointment. If I can
do nothing better I shall be very glad to purchase; but I will
pause two or three months before I call upon you to fulfil your
kind promise. It is believed that the militias will be embodied
in order to be sent to that unhappy country Ireland, and,
provided I can obtain a commission in one of them and they are
kept in service, it would be better than spending L500 upon one
in the line. I am acquainted with the colonels of the two
Norfolk regiments, and I dare say that neither of them would
have any objection to receive me. If they are not embodied I
will most certainly apply to you, and you may say when you
recommend me that, being well grounded in Arabic, and having
some talent for languages, I might be an acquisition to a corps
in one of our Eastern colonies. I flatter myself that I could
do a great deal in the East provided I could once get there,
either in a civil or military capacity. There is much talk at
present about translating European books into the two great
languages, the Arabic and Persian. Now I believe that with my
enthusiasm for those tongues I could, if resident in the East,
become in a year or two better acquainted with them than any
European has been yet, and more capable of executing such a
task. Bear this in mind, and if, before you