I

SIR,

463. TO MR. GILMORE.

MAY 24, 1722.

HAVE yours of to-day, consisting of a declaration, that you shall be forced to do what you otherwise would not, by reason of my paying you fifteen pounds instead of thirty pounds; and that thirty pounds, you say, will still leave me in your debt eighty pounds by balance, ending in April. I should seem insensible, and not to know the nature of my own actions, if I should not on this occasion acquaint you that I am become your creditor, from a great opinion of your talents, and making an expence in support of them at all hazards; and that all the adversity which befell the Fishpool, happened from your having been persuaded to throw yourself into the hands of Mr. Dale, by the minister of your parish, who introduced you to me.

If you calmly consider, you will very well know that you have never had any disappointments from me, but what have been abatements of what I was inclined to do for you, out of free-will and respect to you, with very hazardous hopes of gain to myself; and those abatements occasioned by unforeseen distress in my health and fortune, on which occasions you have always sent me a declaration of your being ready to join with any body else in mortification of

me.

I have said all this as it is extorted from me by your reproaches; but I have at the same time, in spite of all particularity towards me, a great sense

of

of your merit, and an ambition of producing it for the good of the world as well as ourselves. If your labours come to nothing, I am, by a condition imposed on me by myself, a considerable loser; and if they turn to advantage, I am sure I have proportionate pretence to gain.

I thank God, I am from great torment restored to present ease; and hope the next dressing will give authority to my physician to allow me the use of my legs: and nothing shall be wanting, within the rules of honour, justice, and discretion, to promote the present Project *.

I am, Sir, &c.

RICH. STEELE.

464. TO MR. ALEXANDER SCURLOCK.

of

YORK-BUILDINGS, MAY 26, 1722.

DEAR COUSIN AND COUNSELLOR,

AFTER I have condoled with you upon the death poor Jonathan, I must acknowledge the receipt of yours, with thirty pounds drawn on Mr. Horn by Mr. Philips, which, with thirty pounds sent me before, and the forty which Marmaduke Williams sent in your absence, complete an hundred pounds which I desired of you.

Had you sent it me at once, it had been better to me than two hundred pounds: but I must submit to the inconveniencies which a certain easiness and irregularity in my own affairs subject me to.

* "The Fish-pool went into Brunsden's dock, Nov. 1, 1722.

Thus I only complain of myself; and hope, by the blessing of Almighty God, to put my affairs and keep them so much within my income, as not to put my friends in any future pain or trouble for me. I am, Sir,

To the several balances from the 9th £. s. d.

Paid Mr. Rich in full of all demands

for cloaths and scenes, left in Drury. lane Theatre, 1961. 128. od. Sir Richard's fourth part

In cash

£.700 18 2

466. A CERTIFICATE, DRAWN BY
SIR RICHARD STEELE.

NOV. 17, 1722.

FRANCIS CARTERET served under Colonel Lane at Worcester fight, from which he escaped with great danger and difficulty; afterwards under the Duke of Monmouth, at the raising of the siege of Mons, as lieutenant and quarter-master. Being reduced, he worked many years as a dyer, and had his house burnt three several times; in the second of which fires, he lost in the flames his wife, two children, two men servants, and a maid; all his goods, and the goods of several customers, to a great value. Being utterly ruined, he was forced to enlist in the Guards, where he served about twenty years. He is now in the 86th year of his age; having an aged wife, both sick and lame; and is in a most distressed and miserable condition.

I know the said Carteret; and believe the above contents to be true, RICH. STEEle.

SIR,

467. FROM MR. J. R.

1722.

WESTMINSTER-ABBEY, next after the place

that holds the Crowned-heads, and their chief favourites and ministers, has dedicated the largest and most embellished piece of its holy ground to men of great genius; and the most pompous monu

ments there, if we only except those that contain the remains of Majesty itself, are sacred to the ashes of the Poets *. But of all monuments, those are the most lasting that appear in books. Writings will last, when marble and brazen tombs are mouldered away, and decayed. It is for this reason, care has been taken to engrave the monuments, and collect the characters and epitaphs of all the great men, that nothing may be wanting for the preservation of their memories to latest posterity.

The address of the following papers is certainly due to one of the greatest men of genius whom Heaven still preserves from those silent mansions, that he may be profitable to the whole world, and continue to do daily honour to his species. All English mankind have received so much pleasure and profit from your ingenious and instructive writings, that, by the votes of the living, the address would be entirely due to Sir RICHARD STEELE and if we could raise the ashes of the mighty dead who lie there, we should have their suffrages too on the same side.

The greatest Princes, the best and learnedest Divines, and the most ingenious Poets, that Britain can boast of, would undoubtedly, if we could recall them to the fresh enjoyment of a moment's life, seal in that very moment such their last will in your favour.

You would certainly deserve, in the first place, the votes of all the magnanimous heroic Princes of Britain on your side. The noble and generous

* STEELE has not yet a monumental stone in that Temple of Worthies; nor had ADDISON till the present year.

foundation