“I perceive that the papers, yea, even Perry’s, are somewhat ruffled at the injudicious preference of the Committee. My friend Perry has, indeed, ‘et tu Brute’-d me rather scurvily, for which I will send him, for the M. C., the next epigram I scribble, as a token of my full forgiveness.
“Do the Committee mean to enter into no explanation of their proceedings? You must see there is a leaning towards a charge of partiality. You will, at least, acquit me of any great anxiety to push myself before so many elder and better anonymous, to whom the 20 guineas (which I take to be about two thousand pounds Bank currency) and the honour would have been equally welcome. ‘Honour,’ I see, ‘hath no skill in paragraph-writing.’
“I wish to know how it went off at the second reading, and whether any one has had the grace to give it a glance of approbation. I have seen no paper but Perry’s, and two Sunday ones. Perry is severe, and the others silent. If, however, you and your Committee are not now dissatisfied with your own judgments, I shall not much embarrass myself about the brilliant remarks of the journals. My own opinion upon it is what it always was, perhaps pretty near that of the public.
“P.S. My best respects to Lady H., whose smiles will be very consolatory, even at this distance.”
