BIB_ID
105951
Accession number
MA 9964
Creator
Dalrymple, Alexander, 1737-1808.
Display Date
Place not identifed, undated.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 31.6 x 19.8 cm
Notes
A note on the recto identifies this as a "Copy of [a] Confidential Letter." It is believed to be in Dalrymple's hand. The letter continues a number of corrections and substitutions. It is not signed.
This letter was removed from an extra-illustrated version of Letters of James Boswell Addressed to the Rev. W.J. Temple (London: Richard Bentley, 1857) that had been enlarged to three folio volumes with the addition of autograph letters and 258 portraits "as collected by E. Hornby." It was in Volume II, on page 135. Other letters from the volumes are now catalogued as MA 981.1-109.
This letter was removed from an extra-illustrated version of Letters of James Boswell Addressed to the Rev. W.J. Temple (London: Richard Bentley, 1857) that had been enlarged to three folio volumes with the addition of autograph letters and 258 portraits "as collected by E. Hornby." It was in Volume II, on page 135. Other letters from the volumes are now catalogued as MA 981.1-109.
Summary
Asking for his correspondent's assistance and discretion; stating his aim: "You know my wish has been and continues to be, a situation on the Coast, that might ultimately lead to the Chief Station there. This pursuit, I protest to you, does not arise from avarice ; and I can, with equal justice, say, that it is not founded on ambition. It proceeds entirely, from a desire of realizing what I have already acquired in business. I trust, that I may say, without vanity, that I could prove as good a servant to the Company, and as profitable a friend to the public, as any man, whose influence may place him in the Chair;" asking his correspondent to put certain proposals to a "Mr. S.," including that he be appointed "by the Bengal Supervisors [as] an efficient member of the Madras Government" and that he then, supported "by my friends in both ends of the town," be "carried forward to the first Station;" offering to secure certain sums (the numbers have been left blank); enjoining his correspondent to absolute secrecy: "No person on earth except we three shall ever know of the transactions. I should even wish this letter, of which I have no copy, were consigned immediately to the flames ; if you do not think it necessary to keep it, as a satisfactory pledge of my liberally performing all the articles it contains."
Catalog link
Department