LETTER CLXXI.

TO THE SAM E.

THE wishes you formed in my favour on the renewal of the year, call forth the justest gratitude and most lively sensibility. It is impossible that they can be more ardent or extensive than the vows I address to Heaven for every thing that can be profitable to you in this world and that to come. I entreat you to revive me in the precious memory of your amiable Canons. It is impossible for me to express with how much friendship I shall always your affectionate servant.

be

ROME, this 18th Feb. 1765.

LETTER CLXXII,

TO THE SAME.

YOUR last letter so rejoiced and comforted me, that I was quite delighted with receiving such va

luable

luable proofs of your friendship, which were the more flattering to me, as I deserved them the less, and I communicated my satisfaction to several of our friends.

Though I delayed to answer you, I have never lost sight of that attachment which has united us for a number of years, and nothing but business and the duties of my office has prevented me from giving you constant assurances; for neither time nor distance can in the smallest degree alter the sentiments which I owe to you.

I likewise remember you at the altar in the presence of Him who ought to be the origin and the bond of all true friendships; so that if you are distant from my sight, you are by no means absent from my heart. It will be a sincere joy to my soul when I have the pleasure of seeing you, hearing you, and embracing you.

Who knows **** non est abbreviata manus Domini; the arm of the Lord is not shortened.

I am rejoiced to hear that you are pleased with your new dignity at Ebrac, but for my own satisfaction I wish to know what are its duties and privileges.

I received

I received your letter which came by the way of Naples. Adieu, my dear Edmund; preserve me in your remembrance ;. love me as I love you, and never cease to recommend me in your prayers and holy sacrifices to God. It is the best and surest way to prove the sincerity of your friendship, and to excite in me that gratitude and affection with which I am, &c.

ROME, 11th October, 1765.

LETTER CLXXIII.

TO THE SAME.

I Have just received your valuable letter of the 29th current, and presume that you have at this instant in your hands, one from the Cardinal Secretary of State, to whom I gave notice of your departure for Rome, notwithstanding the approaching rigours of winter. If our dear friend the Abbé Balbey, to whom I send my affectionate compliments, be not confined to his Church by his duty

as

as Canon, you could do nothing better than to take him for the companion of your journey. It would then give us pleasure to repeat with one voice the old Proverb, that though mountains never meet, men may.

I make it before hand a real pleasure and true happiness to embrace you a third time at Rome. Your journey cannot fail of being attended with the utmost success if my prayers are heard.

The Holy Father is at present at his countryhouse of Castlegandolfo; and this season stops the course of our different affairs, but the case is not thus with my friendship for you, which nothing can interrupt, and equals the esteem with which I am, from my whole soul, your affectionate ser

vant.

ROME, 14th October, 1766.

LETTER

LETTER CLXXIV.

TO THE REV. F. ***, AT MILAN.

REVEREND FATHER,

I Believe that I have done away all the prejudices which Cardinal ✶✶✶✶ had against you. One thing certain is, that I pleaded your cause with more zeal than if it had been my own. He will write into Spain in your favour, and I have no doubt but the Spaniards, whose magnanimity is equal to their justice, will grant you whatever you have a right to demand. You should be very careful in choosing a proper time to make your application, for it frequently happens, that we are refused only because we have not waited the favourable moment.

The time that you must stay at Milan will procure an opportunity for your seeing very fine things, which pleased me much at the time I lived there. It is a city where the inhabitants live free and chearful