BIB_ID
80364
Accession number
MA 3586
Creator
Bentham, Jeremy, 1748-1832.
Display Date
1789 March 1.
Credit line
Gift of Mrs. Knight Woolley, 1981.
Description
1 item (1 page, with address) ; 23 x 36.4 cm
Notes
Petty was member of Parliament for Wycombe from 1786 to 1802 and is often referred to as "Wycombe."
Addressed, with fragment of a seal: "To / the Earl of Wycombe."
Docketed.
The papers Bentham makes reference to in this letter may be part of his Essay on Political Tactics; he had sent another section of this essay, via Wycombe, to Abbé Morellet in late February 1789.
Addressed, with fragment of a seal: "To / the Earl of Wycombe."
Docketed.
The papers Bentham makes reference to in this letter may be part of his Essay on Political Tactics; he had sent another section of this essay, via Wycombe, to Abbé Morellet in late February 1789.
Provenance
Sold at Sotheby's, 1981 September 22, lot 395. Purchased as the gift of Mrs. Knight Woolley on the Fellows Fund, 1981.
Summary
Telling Wycombe that he has lost the opportunity for "high honour" with his abrupt return from Paris; writing that he must now rely on him to forward the enclosed papers (no longer with the letter), instead of presenting them in person; asking, "if the Neckers do not relish the matter," that Wycombe forward the papers to Abbé Morellet, with whom Lord Shelburne (Petty's father, William Petty) has arranged for their publication: "But would they care to send them to him? or would he care they should know of his being concerned in such a business?--These are questions which you only can decide"; welcoming him back to "poor Old England"; writing of Suzanne Necker: "You can tell Madame Necker, should any apology be necessary to a woman for making her a personage, why I thought of her in priority to her husband. I know from you, of her reading English, and my English--which is [m]ore than I know of him. Besides Ld. L. had the goodness to give me a letter [fo]r her, though I had no opportunity of delivering it."
Catalog link
Department