BLACKSTONE WILLIAM: (1723-1780) English jurist and politician, author of the influential treatise Co

BLACKSTONE WILLIAM: (1723-1780) English jurist and politician, author of the influential treatise Co

‘Time, I hope, will reconcile all reasonable Men to the Measures

of the most amiable Prince that ever yet filled the British Throne’

 

BLACKSTONE WILLIAM: (1723-1780) English jurist and politician, author of the influential treatise Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-70). A fine A.L.S., W Blackstone, two pages, 4to, Wallingford, 7^th August 1763, to [William Petty, 2^nd Earl of Shelburne] 'My Lord'. Blackstone acknowledges receipt of his correspondent's letter and sends 'Thanks with great sincerity on behalf of Lord Abingdon, Captain Bertie, & myself, for Your Lordship's successful interposition with Lord Sandwich which I hope the young Gentleman's conduct in the Command you have so obligingly procured Him will never give You reason to be sorry for', continuing 'If I knew when the important Business, that now falls under Your Lordship's care, will permit You to retire to Wycombe, I would endevor (if possible) to pay You my Respects for one Night. But Your Lordship's Department is an Object of such interesting Consequence, that I almost despair of that Pleasure. That success may attend every Branch of His Majesty's Government is my ardent Wish, for the King's sake & for your own; but I own my peculiar Wish is for Prosperity at the Board where Your Lordship at present presides; as well because it appears to me the most momentous in its Consequences to the Nation, as for the Pleasure it must give Yourself to do so effectual Service to yr. Crown & the Public, & the Reputation that must arise from so unwearied an Attention as Your Lordship bestows upon the Duties of Your Office. Time, I hope, will reconcile all reasonable Men to the Measures of the most amiable Prince that ever yet filled the British Throne' and concludes by expressing a desire to meet Shelburne in the winter 'with hearty Sentiments of Union; without which it requires but little Penetration to foresee that Actum est de Rege et Republica'. A letter of good content and association. With blank integral leaf. Some very light, minor age wear, and a few small traces of former mounting, otherwise VG

 

William Petty (1737-1805) 2^nd Earl of Shelburne. Irish-born British statesman who, at the time of the present letter, was First Lord of Trade. Shelburne would later become the first Home Secretary in 1782 and then Prime Minister (1782-83) during the final months of the American War of Independence.