Autograph letter signed : London, to an unidentified recipient, 1803 January 19.

Responding to a letter; saying that he sees "no channel to the Gentleman in question: nor if I did, should I think it quite safe to make such a request. It could not be made unconditionally. I mean -- without something like an engagement that what he is desired to forbear stating should certainly be stated elsewhere. And who is empowered to give any thing like an assurance to this effect?"; discussing further how the matter should be handled, and his concerns for a negative outcome: "I am [...] apprehensive of a disappointment now -- because if upon all the circumstances of the present moment, & after all that has passed, this occasion is lost, I am persuaded it is irretrievable."