Henry Kirk White to his Mother. MY DEAR MOTHER, London, December 24, 1805. You will, no doubt, have been surprised at not having heard from me for so long a time, and you will be no less so to find, that I am writing this at my aunt's in this far-famed city. I have been so much taken up with our college examinations of late, that I could not find time to write, even to you; and I am now come to town, in order to give myself every relaxation and amusement I can; for I had read so much at Cambridge, that my health was rather affected, and I was advised to give myself the respite of a week or a fortnight, in order to recover strength. I arrived in town on Saturday night, and should have written yesterday, in order to remove any uneasiness you might feel on my account, but there is no post on Sunday. I have now to communicate some agreeable in telligence to you. Last week being the close of the Michaelmas term, and our college examination, our tutor, who is a very great man, sent for me, and told me he was sorry to hear I had been ill: he understood I was low spirited, and wished to know whether I frightened myself about college expenses. I told him, that they did contribute some little to harass me, because I was yet uncertain what the bills of my first year would amount to. His answer was to this purpose: "Mr. White, I beg you will not trouble yourself on this subject: your emoluments will be very great, very great indeed, and I will take care your expenses are not very burthensome. Leave that to me." He advised me to go to my friends, and amuse myself with a total cessation from reading. After our college examination (which lasted six days) was over, he sent for me again, and repeated what he had said about the expenses of the college: and he added, that, if I went on as I had begun, and made myself a good scholar, I might rely on being provided for by the college; for, if the county should be full, and they could not elect me a fellow, they would recommend me to another college, where they would be glad to receive a clever man from their hands; or, at all events, they could always get a young man a situation as a private tutor in a nobleman's family, or could put him in some handsome way of preferment. "We make it a rule, (he said,) of providing for a clever man, whose fortune is small; and you may therefore rest assured, Mr. White, that, after you have taken your degree, you will be provided with a genteel competency by the college." He begged I would be under no apprehensions on these accounts: he shook hands with me very affectionately, and wished me a speedy recovery. These attentions from a man like the tutor of St. John's, are very marked; and Mr. Catton is well known for doing more than he says. I am sure, after these assurances from a principal of so respectable a society as St. John's, I have nothing more to fear; and I hope you will never repine on my account again. According to every appearance, my lot in life is certain. * * * * HENRY KIRKE WHITE. Edmund Burke to his Uncle, Mr. Nagle. Wimpole Street, Cavendish Square, Oct, 11, 1759. DEAR SIR, My brother has been beforehand with me in almost every thing I ld say. My conduct stands in need of as many apologies as his, but I am afraid our apologies might be almost as troublesome as our neglects. All I can say is, that I have been, I think it is now eleven years from the county of Cork, yet my remembrance of my friends there is as fresh as if I had left it yesterday. My gratitude for their favours, and my love for their characters, is rather heightened, as the oftener I think of them they must be-and I think of them very often. This I can say with great truth. Believe me, dear sir, it would be a great pleasure to me to hear as often from you as it is convenient. Do not give yourself any sort of trouble about franks; I value very little that trifling expense, and I should very little deserve to hear from my friends, if I scrupled to pay a much higher price for that satisfaction. If I had any thing that you could have pleasure in, to send you from hence, I should be a punctual correspondent; there is nothing here, except what the newspapers contain, that can interest you; but nothing can come from the Blackwater which does not interest me very greatly. Poor Dick is on the point of quitting us; however, he has such advantageous prospects where he is going, that I part from him with the less regret. One of the first merchants here has taken him by the hand, and enabled him to go off with a very valuable cargo. He has another advantage and satisfaction in his expedition,—one of our best friends here goes at the same time in one of the first places in the island. Mrs. Burke is very sensible of your goodness, and desires that I should make you her acknowledgments. We equally wish it were in our power to accept of your kind invitation; and that no greater obstacle intervened to keep us from seeing Ballyduffe, but the distance. We are too good travellers to be frighted at that. I have made a much longer journey than the land part of it this summer. However, it is not impossible but we may one day have the pleasure of embracing you at your own house. I beg you will salute for us the good houses of Ballydwalter, Ballylegan, and Ballynahaliok, et nati natorum, et qui nascuntur ab illis. Our little boys are very well, but I should think them still better, if they (or the one that is on his legs) were running about the Bawn at Ballyduffe, as his father used to do.-Farewell, my dear uncle, and believe me your affectionate kinsman and humble servant, EDMUND BURKE. I forgot to say any thing of the irregularity which you have found in the papers for some time passed. The summer has made the town thin of members of parliament, so that we were sometimes at a loss; but now we shall be pretty secure on that head, and you shall have your papers more regularly. Edmund Burke to his Uncle, Mr. Nagle. MY DEAR SIR, SINCE I heard from you, our little party at Queen Anne Street has been reinforced by a person who loves you as well as I do, poor Richard of Grenada. He left that island in no very good state of health, and after a great deal of vexation from, but also after a great and perfect triumph over his enemies, and a set of the greatest villains that ever existed. He has a leave of absence for six months; and is, I think, already as completely re-established in health, strength, and spirits, as we could wish. We all join in giving you joy on the occasion of our friend Katty's match; and only wish her that she may be as happy in a husband as her mother was; and much as we regard her, we cannot wish her better. Pray remember our hearty congratulations to the young couple. I am sincerely concerned for the match that Garret Atty was so unfortunate as to make; and did from the beginning expect no better issue of it, in a country circumstanced as ours is; assure my uncle, that there is no one step on earth in my power that I would not gladly take to give ease to his mind, which must be cruelly agitated; I most sincerely pity him; but I believe, when he reflects how newly, and almost as a stranger, I am come about these people, and knows the many industrious endeavours which malice and envy (very unprovoked indeed) have used to ruin me, he will see that so early a request to suspend the operation of the laws, upon my bare word, against the finding of a jury of the greatest county of the kingdom, and that upon the most unpopular point in the world, could have no other effect than to do me infinite prejudice, without the least possibility of succeeding in the object I aimed at. This, I am sure, your own good sense will point out to both of you, and will satisfy my uncle that no vain and timorous delicacy, but the real conviction I have of the inefficacy of the application with regard to him, prevents my taking a warm and active part in this affair. My brother tells me that poor Barret is likely to do well in Grenada; he is industrious and active; he must indeed struggle with some difficulty and much labour at first,but it is the road, and the only road, to an estab |