To the Earl of Belmont.
HOW happy would it be for mankind,
if every person of your Lordship's
rank and fortune governed themselves by
the same generous maxims!
It is with infinite pain I see Lord T —
pursuing a plan, which has drawn on him
the curse of thousands, and made his estate
a scene of desolation: his farms are in the
hands of a few men, to whom the sons of
the old tenants are either forced to be servants,
or to leave the country to get their
bread elsewhere. The village, large and
once populous, is reduced to about eight
families; a dreary silence reigns over their
deserted fields; the farm houses, once the
seats of chearful smiling industry, now useless,
are falling in ruins around him; his
tenants are merchants and ingrossers, proud,
lazy, luxurious, insolent, and spurning the
hand which feeds them.
Yesterday one of them went off largely
in his debt: I took that occasion of pressing
him on his most vulnerable side, and remonstrating
the danger of trusting so much of
his property in one hand: but I am afraid
all I can say will have no effect, as he has,
by this narrow selfish plan, a little encreased
his rents at present, which is all he has in
view, without extending his thoughts to that
future time, when this wretched policy, by
depopulating the country, will lower the
price of all the fruits of the earth, and lessen,
in consequence, the value of his estate.
With all my friendship for Lord T — ,
I cannot help observing in him another
fault greatly below his rank and understanding,
I mean a despicable kind of pride, which
measures worth by the gifts of fortune, of
which the largest portion is too often in the
hands of the least deserving.
His treatment of some gentlemen, whose
fortunes were unequal to their birth and merit
yesterday, at his table, almost determined
me to leave his house: I expostulated warmly,
though not impolitely, with him on the
subject, and almost got him to confess his error.
My friendship for him makes me feel
sensibly what must lessen his character in the
eyes of all whose esteem is desirable. I wish
him to pass a month at Belmont, that he
may see dignity without pride, and condescension
without meanness; that he may see
virtue in her loveliest form, and acknowledge
her genuine beauty.
I am, my Lord, &c.
H. Mandeville.
