To Henry Mandeville, Esq;
London, September 19.
THIS event in Russia is most extraordinary:
but these sudden and
violent revolutions are the natural consequences
of that instability which must ever
attend despotic forms of government:
Happy Britain! where the laws are equally
the guard of prince and people, where liberty
and prerogative go hand in hand, and
mutually support each other; where no invasion
can ever be made on any part of the
constitution, without endangering the whole:
where popular clamor, like the thunderstorm,
by agitating, clears and purifies the
air, and, its business done, subsides.
If this letter finds you at Lord T — 's,
I would have you return immediately to
Belmont, where I shall be in a few days.
Lady Mary is already there, and intends to
execute the design Lord Belmont mentioned
to you, which makes your presence there
absolutely necessary.
The tide of fortune, my dear Harry,
seems turning in your favor; but let it not
harden your heart to the misfortunes of
your fellow-creatures, make you insolent
to merit in the vale of humbler life, or tempt
you to forget that all you possess is the
gift of that Beneficent Power, in whose sight
virtue is the only distinction.
The knowledge I have of your heart
makes these cautions perhaps unnecessary;
but you will forgive the excessive anxiety
of paternal tenderness, alarmed at the near
prospect of your tasting the poison most
fatal to youth, the intoxicating cup of
prosperity.
May Heaven, my dearest Harry, continue
you all you are at present! Your father
has not another wish!
Adieu!
J. Mandeville.
