Autograph letter signed : [London], to Thomas Rickman, 1804 June 2.

Commenting on Rickman's Ode [Ode on the Emancipation of the Blacks in San Domingo], on the publication of his poem "Good Tidings" and on Thomas Paine; giving specific editorial comments on the Ode and saying "I had inclination enough to poetize the subject myself, but on searching for a clue, for some foundation as to characters, motives and the 'guilty or not guilty' between the different European Nations, and the Blacks, I became hopeless of genuine information, and finding the subject jostled hard on politicks, I gave it up;" telling him of the publication of his poem "Good Tidings;" commenting on their relationship to Thomas Paine, saying "Whatever degrees of Vanity may exist between P., You, and myself, I feel no kind of inclination to canvass so unprofitable a subject, but a great desire to guard against his or any other foible that may beset me. Whatever may have conduced to set me so much before the public, as I am, I feel chiefly desirous to maintain a consistancy of Character. God knows, I have had enough said to me, and about me, to make a man vain. My publicity is often my greatest trouble & calls for firmness at points where I have least to supply."