1794

Thomas Beddoes to James Watt Jr, [?6/7 November 1794]

My dear Sir

I like your advertisement well & in some respects better than my own & Mrs Beddoes says it is much improved – I propose a few emendations, yet viz for ‘native of an hospital’ do. ‘n of a temporary hospital’ – for ‘donⁿ will be required & solicited – for one cancer &c say ‘one cancer <of the breast> of longstanding has been completely cured in the Bath hospital & another <cancerous patient> has been so much <benefited> that great hopes are entertained of a perfect recovery. <On other malignant ulcers success has been obtained. In> A few cases of confirmed consumption, as far as c^d be judged,’ a cure has been effected, & in others great relief has been experienced’ —

I acquiesce perfectly in your father’s proposal as to Mr Gladwell’s apparatus & I beg the same plan may be pursued as to another that is or will be immediately ordered for Mr Tobyn – the son of a rich Bristol merchant – Tomorrow or next day you will have 2 dozen of ‘Considerations’ with 2 doz of ‘letters to Dr Darwin’ & 40 Proposals – The Wedgwoods are pushing subscriptions with great alacrity – & others in other districts – I am not deficient in London correspondents & wish you w^d address 2 or 3 proposals to some people there –

I was very anxious as will yourself for the issue of the state trial though I said Hardy must be acquitted, there being no evidence of high treason. There c^d be no possibility of the present ministry continuing in office, were there any persons to replace them: Is there any thing libelous or improper in the subjoined address to poor Hardy? –

Sir

<While> Every man, who holds state corruption in the abhorrence it deserves & values freedom as the greatest of blessings, is rejoicing at your honourable acquittal, we, who profess these sentiments, cannot refuse ourselves the satisfaction of congratulating you on so interesting an occasion. Innocence & merit were never, in the most deplorable days of humanity, circumvented by more dangerous snares. You were threatened by a mass, miscalled evidence, which if it c^d not convinced the judgement, was well calculated to confound the understanding of the arbiters of your fate. You were not overwhelmed though you had fallen on times on account of the atrocities committed by a sanguinary faction in France the very name of reform was odious here, & when the men who receive the unrighteous wages of political prostitution seemed as dear to the present generation of Englishmen as the defenders of liberty were to our predecessors.

These & other considerations like these afford ample matter of patriotic exultation. But above all we rejoice that you have escaped the dangerous malice of a man, who began in craft & was proceeding to cruelty, who, like the French Robespierre, <having gained authority>, by feigning to be an advocate for the people, turned against his <the> associates <of his first councils> & sought their blood; who had he succeeded <like Robespierre> in securing his authority <power> by terror, w^d like Robespierre have held all good men in a <state of> silent dejection; who by deluding the weak & bribing the corrupt has reduced his confiding country to the extremity of danger, while a wise statesman w^d have employed the powerful influence of his station in to maintain Europe in peace & Britain in prosperity. – All we have to lament is that cruel domestic calamity occasioned by the precariousness of your situation, which must by much impair the satisfaction arising from your just deliverance

Address: Mr J. Watt / at Mr Boultons / Soho / Birmingham
Endorsement: Dr Beddoes / 16 October 1794 / advertisement of Pneumatic Institution / acquittal of Hardy / proposed address to him
MS: LoB MS 3219/6/02/B/56