| Description | (4 ff.) (Press-copy. The wrapper is labelled, "Copies of my letters to Mr. and Miss Gascoigne, Feb. 10, 1786," but no letter to Miss Gascoigne is present.)
Dear Sir,
Your several letters of the 2d and 23d December and of the 17th and 19th ultimo are before me.
Previous to my entering upon the subject of them, it is necessary I should prevent you from drawing erroneous inferences from my long silence by assureing you it did not arise from any disrespect, but from absence, and from incessant hurry since my return from Cornwall and Wales, where I resided nearly the last six months of the last year. Besides the accumulation of letters and business in my long absence, I have been much interupted with my house full of visitors on sundry affairs, as well as by some business of a publick nature and of importance to my self; insomuch that I have been obliged to decline obedience to two summons's from the Lords of Council: in short, I could not command one hour for my self since my return, and that is the only and true reason why I have not wrote to you sooner.
And now, sir, let me say a word or two for my self, after which I will enter upon the business and dutys of my assigneeship to the estate of Mr. S. Garbett.
Amongst the other motives to induce me to direct Mr. Hog to sign your discharge, you appeal to my feelings as a man. Permit to say that, so far as relates to my feelings, I assure you most sincerely I should be happy to see you fairly discharg'd by your creditors, I should be happy to see smileing prosperity again beam upon you, and happy to see you enjoy the remainder of your life in ease and comfort with your amiable family; and I do assure you that, so far as it is in my power to contribute to the attainment of those blessings, I certainly shall exert my self; but take notice, I mean only so far as is consistant with the duty I owe to my own character and to the trust reposed in me by the creditors of Mr. S. G., for I would not sacrifice the character of an honest man to save my brother or my son. These sentiments arise from immutable principles in my own breast, and therefore 'tis in vain to appeal to my passions, or to exercise any dexteritys upon me.
I very well remember what I said to you at Carron. I then spoke from my feelings, and still retain the same desires to see you fairly discharged.
You bid me lay my hand on my heart and say if there is any new matter that has occur'd since I was in Scotland: to which I answer, I did not then know that you had taken £2923 8s. 7d. from the funds of Carron Co. without permission, of which money the class of creditors which Mr. Baxter and I are trustees for are entitled to more than one half, and I have great reason to believe that you have also put Carron Co. to great expence and hazard in raising the same, because I am told you were at that time circulating bills for their support and selling ordinance debentures; and I am also told that about £2140 of the money remain'd unpaid at the last ballancing of Carron Co.'s books, besides the expence of continuing it in circulation, and interest thereon from the times you took it, viz. in the years 1780, 1781, and 1782, to say nothing of a doubtfull debt that you have given in part of payment.
You assert you have done everything any single creditor or the managers of the estate require.
Can you lay your hand on your heart and say that you don't know it was Mr. Baxter's, Mr. Hog's, and my request that a clark of our appointing might have free access to all Carron Co.'s books and papers, and that Mr. Hog might have the power of voteing upon the shares in the Carron Co. which are the property of the persons he represents? and can you say that in conformity to our request you have, since I left Scotland, done everything in your power to obtain those points? and also done everything in your power to obtain and to carry into effect general arbitrations, as we desired, between Carron Co. and the creditors of S. G., F. G., and C. G.? But in order to bring this point to the direct issue you put it upon, I take the liberty to use your own words, and as a single creditor require you will now join Messrs. Samuel and Francis Garbett in voteing that a clark of the trustees' appointing may have free access to all Carron Co.'s books and papers, and also to vote either for a general arbitration or a submission to the judgment of the publick characters nominated in Carron Co.'s articles of copartnery, with the express design of preventing lawsuits. This it is peculiarly your duty to acquiesce in, because a lawsuit between Carron Co. and Mr. Garbett relative to the estate of Daldarse (upon complications of your forming) hat been before the Court of Sessions since the year 1778 and may yet continue at law many years.
Can you lay your hand on your heart and say that you have not sent machinery to Russia for boreing of cannon? and that you have not sent an original pattern or patterns to that country proper to cast cannon from? and that you have not been in a correspondence relative to establishing the casting of cannon in Russia? that you have not, with that view, put Carron Co. to expence in many instances?
Can you lay your hand on your heart and say that you did not in the last year, knowingly and wilfully and against remonstrances, allow metal to be cast into guns contrary to conditions that were distinctly settled by Mr. Garbett, and which you, Mr. Tibbats, and Mr. Rigg solemnly promised should be religiously adhered to, in order to prevent further disgrace on Carron works? and can you say that doing so was not a breach of faith upon a point that you admitted was essential to observe for that purpose? And can you say Carron Co. have not been scandalized in Holland in consequence thereof?
"Lay your hand on your heart and say" whether you did not a few months ago express in writing ungenerous reflections on Mr. Francis Garbett? (who has been ruin'd by business you have drawn him into soon after his age render'd him legally capable of acting, and which business, with a multitude of embarassing and complicated circumstances, were solely of your contriving and guiding); such new indications of what that eminently worthy man must experience from you if you were free of retaliation is now matter that has shock'd me.
He has lately been attacked by your most intimate friend, and would have been sent to prison if he had not been bailed by three gentlemen who could each make oath that he was worth 7000£ after paying all his debts. Is it reasonable that you, who have brought him to ruin, should have your discharge and be at free liberty to continue your cruelty by hallooing your friends upon him?
To conclude this disagreeable subject: first, pay, with legal interest (at least), the money you have taken without leave of your creditors; second, vote the shares which stand in your name in Carron Co. for general arbitration, and diligently endeavour to carry such arbitration into effect; third, get your injured brother and my worthy friend effectually discharged from all who give you a discharge; and then, but not till then (after what is passed since I saw you) can you reasonably expect me to conform to your wishes.
Be assured that I indulge no resentment of my own or others against you, that I contend only for justice, and in so doing I hope you will think I behave like my self.
[Edited transcript.] |