Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, place not specified, to James Gillman, 1824 October 15 : autograph manuscript signed.

Acknowledging receipt of a parcel and commenting on "...Mr. Sutton's Scheme of action;" saying "... namely, to do every thing by his own weight, but in order to have it seen and felt that he was every thing, to call up a shew of opposition and difficulty - a bustle of Canvas, a display of impartiality, a magistratical duplicity of character, R. Sutton, Esq're, the confidential Trustee and Publicist of a rich and munificent Company, and Mr. Sutton, the kind and patronizing Neighbour, on whose single vote with whatever small weight that might carry, you might rely. Feeling the full delicacy and responsibility of the Trust placed in him, he could not interfere with the free-agency of his Brother Wardens - to canvas in his own person would be an inconsistency, a resumption in effect of a power which he had previously declined - but if the individual members of his Family exerted their influence, he could have no objection - &c &c -. Such having been my prenotions of the matter, I need not tell you, that you have acted throughout well and wisely, with prudence and yet with dignity - To say what would be effective, you had only to say what was true. I rely exclusively on you; and it is in that reliance, that I now go to solicit the votes of others. For what I shall always consider as owing to you, I am wiling to owe to you in the way, you yourself point, and which is most agreeable to your sense of propriety, and to the respect due both to the members of the Court and to the office itself : since the credit of success rises with the keenness of the Competition. -;" relating news of mutual friends, the weather and his health; commenting on hydrophobia and expressing his hope that Gillman "...will not give up the design;" offering his thoughts on the brain, the nervous system, and sensibility; adding, in a postscript, his concerns and those of Mrs. Gillman for the anxiety he is suffering on account of "...Mr. Rowlandson's sudden & alarming attack."