Under this impression, then, I shall continue to believe it a loan, until I have the honor of hearing from your lordship again.
"Your anxiety, my Lord, to ascertain the state of your property and the condition of your tenantry is certainly honorable to yourself, as being a direct proof of the generous interest you feel in their welfare.

It is fortunate in this instance, that your lordship should apply to a man who has had the opportunities of becoming acquainted with both.

True, I am a simple-minded man, my Lord, and if I possess one quality more than another it is a love of truth, and a slow, but straightforward perseverance in whatever is right.

It is to this, always under Providence, that I owe everything.

I grant indeed, that it ill becomes me to speak in this manner of myself, but my object in doing so is, that as I am about to enter into communications touching your lordship's tenants and property, you may be induced to place the fullest confidence in whatever I shall say.