heir lives, and worn out their constitutions
in her service. No man will wonder, when he recollects from whom your
lordship has the honour to be descended, that one of these offices is in
your possession. This, my lord, was the subject of your generous and
disinterested professions. You told your countrymen, that with this
office you were ready to part. If a reformation so extensive were
thought necessary, you were determined, not merely to be no obstacle to
the design, but to be a volunteer in the service. You came forward in
the eye of the world, with your patent in your hand. You were ready to
sacrifice that parchment, the precious instrument of personal wealth and
private benevolence, at the shrine of patriotism.

Here then, my lord, you stood pledged to your country. What were we not
to expect from the first patriot of modern story? Your lordship will
readily imagine that our expectations were boundless and indefinite.
"Glorious and immortal man!" we cried, "go on in this untrodden path. We
will no longer look with drooping and cheerless anxiety upon the
misfortunes of Britain, we have a resource for them all. The patriot of
Stowe is capable of every thing. He does not resemble the vulgar herd of
mortals, he does not form his conduct upon precedent, nor defend it by
example. Virtue of the first impression was never yet separated from
genius. We will trust then in the expedients of his inexhaustible mind.
We will look up to him as our assured deliverer.--We are well acquainted
with the wealth of the proprietor of Stowe. Thanks, eternal thanks to
heaven, who has bestowed it with so liberal a hand! We consider it as a
deposit for the public good. We count his acres, and we calculate his
income, for we know that it is, in the best sense of the word, our own."

My lord, these are the prejudices, which Englishmen have formed in your
favour. They cannot refuse to trust a man, descended from so illustrious
progenitors. They cannot suspect any thing dark and dishonourable in the
generous donor of 2700_l_. a year. Let then the commentators against
whom I am providing, abjure the name of Briton, or let them pay the
veneration that is due to a character, in every view of the subject, so
exalted as that of your lordship.

I have the honour to be,

MY LORD,

with the most unfeigned respect,

your lordship's

most obedient,

most devoted servant.

INSTRUCTIONS

TO A

STATESMAN.

MY LORD,