| Description | (2 pcs.)
Soho Feb 6 1799
Dear Sir
I did not receive yours of ye 2d till yesterday, too late to answer by that post, moreover I was just going to see Dr Withering at his request, (whom I have not seen but once for nearly 6 Mo past) Mrs. W. had 2 fits last week & is yet confind to her Bed, but the Dr. seemd in tolerable Spirits, 'though much thiner than when I last saw him. I find the Dr. relys upon our assistance at Lady day & I think we must not disapoint him, although I perceive I shall become very poor my self about that time, from the great quantities of Copper I have lately purchased, from ye sale of my pence being arested by ye Frost & Snow, & from ye unavoidable delay I am exposed to by the removal of my Presses from the Old to the new Mint & still more from Mr Sages late regulations by wch. he obliges me to throw all the Coin into heaps of 20 Ton each for he will not examine & pass a less quantity & proposes to come down from Town once a fortnight for that purpose which renders it difficult for me to keep my Acct. Clear & my weights properly checkt
In regard to the letter you sent me from Mr. Weston I must say it was also as much unexpected by me as by you: But I must acknowledge that ever since the close of our Trial I have thought we ought to make him some handsome present, which I had in my mind when I wrote you that we should show our particular friends some ponderous tokens of our Gratitude but I must own I did not see the matter in the same point of light in wch Mr Weston has placed it by his letter.
If we had not been drive by the Precarious tenor of our Patent to have given up so many Thousands as we have done, if we had not been harrassed by so many expensive Lawsuits, if our Minds had not been so much deranged for so many Years past by these things, but had been left undisturbd in the improvment of our business & our Profits, I say if these evils could have been averted We should have been better able to have rewarded Mr Weston wth. Thousands than we now are by hundreds.-Yet nevertheless I am so fully convinced of his Merits, his Zeal, his Abilities his indefatigable exertion & the great attention & sincerity he has shewn in our Cause that I think him entitled to a handsome mark of our esteem & approbation. But the quantum I cannot in a Moment bring to an equapoise in my own Mind.
Mr Weston says that he has devoted half his time in the best 7 Years of his Life to our business, suppose then we were to add the sum of 7 hundred pounds for such 7 Years over and above his ordinary acct. or if you think of a handsomer sum I shall concur in it for I think he merits it and am only restraind by the immense losses & deductions aforementiond & from the still uncertainty of what we may yet recover from Cornwall or from Maberly from saying 1000
I have been hinderd this morng & shall loose the Post if I write more than my affect. regards to both your Sons, & remain ever Yours
most sincerly
M: Boulton |