Note 74 — {55} NOTES68

In my Mr. C.'s treatment of Sir Francis Burdett, INGRATITUDE seems the crowning vice. The benevolent and patriotic baronet, deceived by him as many others have been, lent him a large sum of money, which just as he was setting out for America he declined paying, under the pretext that as government had by their oppressive measures injured him, he did not consider himself bound to discharge his debts till it suited his convenience! Sir Francis, alluding to this letter, remarked, that he did not know whether such a principle had ever before been acted upon, but he believed it was the first time it had ever been openly professed! As those letters are I find, very imperfectly recollected by many of Mr. C.'s readers, if he will reprint them in his Weekly Register, they will consider it as a favour.

Mr. C. commenced his notice of the worthy baronet by reviling him, and all men of his principles; in his usual style he afterwards veered about to the opposite point of the compass, and panegyrised him in the highest terms; but although he had partly gained his ends, finding that he could not completely transform Sir Francis into one of his tools, and by his means, accomplish his darling, but uniformly defeated project, of procuring a seat in the House of Commons, he in his rage, and under that prophetic impulse with which "The angel he so long has served," not unfrequently inspires him, pledged himself that in the course of a few months he would so expose the baronet, as to hurry him to his fate:—That of committing suicide, and of being buried in a cross road, with a stake driven through his body! If Dr. Young's sentiment—"He that's ungrateful has no crimes but ONE" be correct, Mr. C.'s character appears to have reached its climax.—B. Flower.