| Description | ("No. 3." Includes a transcript of a letter from Mr. Loggins to Boulton, 26 Nov. 1790.) 3 ff.
Soho, 14th February 1791.
Monsr. Swediaur.
Dear Sir,
I shall rejoice to hear that you are safe arived and in good health at Paris.
As I think it material to tell you all the facts that pass here, as well as all that passes in my mind upon the subject of Bls. Cn. and Dx. , I shall not be spareing of my letters to you, as I hope you will not to me, although I am to-day, and have been every since you went, troubled with wakeing night, and head aches by day.
For several days past Mr. Dx hath been most remarkable obsequious, and yesterday shew'd me a letter he had just received from one of his friends at Paris adviseing him to return instantly, if he wished to be appointed engraver to the Mint, and he begs I would consent to his going, otherwise he says he shall loose an opportunity that never can be regain'd. He promises to return in three weeks to Soho and to do any thing I may require. He says he should be glad to see me contract for the manufacturing part, so that he is employ'd as the engraver. But I have no faith in his sincerity. I think I can keep him here another week, but I don't think I can keep him longer. I therefore beg you will not loose a moment in seeing the Bishop and Mirabau , &c.; also see Dupree and learn his ideas about the appointment of an engraver. As we know not how things may turn, I recommend that you are cautious in what you say about Dx., that you may not give him an opportunity of takeing any advantage of you or your words. You may justify my character without calling him a rogue, but leave the party to draw their own inferance. If they choose to appoint him engraver I must say that he is well qualify'd for that department, but he is so tedious and trifling, and so unlike a man of business for great works, that I think him as well qualify'd to be the Controler General as to undertake the coining of all their money. I wrote yesterday to Motteux, and requested him to allow me to enter into a corespondence with his friends Messrs. Mon-n Frere , the result of which I will write you per next post.
You should endeavour to perswade the gentlemen that it is of infinite greater consequence to their country to manufacture their bells into their wants than to sell them as a raw material to be worked up in other countries into the wants of the French and then resold again to France.
I wish to know who Pradaux connections are, and whether they are proper persons to be connected with. I own I very much prefer Mott-x and his friends.
I think I shall pay to Droz £400 and retain £400 as an hostage for his return to finish all that he may leave undone, but I fear it will not be in my power to retain him longer than to next Sunday or thereabouts.
One advantage they would have in contracting with me is that I could send them the machinery ready made, whereas if the[y] wait for D's erecting it I am sure it will be two years, and then the chances of haveing good machinery are against them. The following transcript from Mr. Loggin the attorney's letter should be added to those in the thin marbled cover'd book I gave you.
I shall consider all my subsequent letters as a continuance of this and shall not sign till the last. Pray send me that news paper* in which Mr. Van Linder published my paper on Coining Mill. (*Le Moniteur d'Aujourdhui.)
Transcript of Mr. Loggin's letter, 26th November 1790, to M. Boulton.
"The objection made to the legality of the award was, that the arbitrators had delegated a power to gentlemen at Birmingham to judge and certify as to the compleat execution of the works to be done by Droz; but the council thought the award might still be supported upon the necessity and justice of making [such ] a reference, as it was the obvious intention of the arbitrators by this measure to prevent all future cause of difference. Lord Kenyon said he regretted that, in point of [fact], there was ground to impeach the award, as where such parties were concerned he was sure the most compleat justice must have been done. He said he had the honor of knowing all the parties, and he spoke in very high terms of them, adding that he thought Droz had been improperly advised in making the present application to the Court, and that however ingenious he might be, his ingenuity would ultimately weigh very little against the integrity and opulence of Mr. Boulton.
"Lord Kenyon said many handsome things of you, Mr. Garbett, Dr. Withering, and Mr. Galton (the three gentlemen mention'd in the award), and he and Judge Buller desire it might be understood to be the wish and recommendation of the Court that your and Mr. Droz' difference might be yet amicably adjusted.
"It will require consideration how you ought to act towards Dx., who appears to be very much your enemy, but I need not say that any attempts to secure the friendship of a bad man are generaly unsuccessfull, and that it is often the safest way to set a rascal at defiance." |