1771.] TO JOHN BARTRAM. 449 



am, dearest sir, with true affection and esteem, your obliged and 

 very faithful friend and servant, 



Michael Collinson. 



Manchester Buildings, June 28th, 1771. 



Dear Sir : 



Both your favours of the 29th April, and 3d of May, are come 

 to hand, for the last of which my best acknowledgments are due. 

 I have accepted the bill for ,200, and shall punctually discharge 

 it when due. I have also inclosed the account between us ac- 

 cording to the best lights I can obtain : for the furnishing of which 

 I am obliged to have recourse to the account you sent me in 

 October last, of the boxes sent in 1767, and 1768, for my father's 

 memorandums were so perplexed, that without yours and Gordon's 

 assistance I could have made nothing out. As I have a full confi- 

 dence in your honour, I can implicitly rely on what you say is 

 right ; and will to the best of my ability, faithfully on my side 

 discharge the demand upon me, which being so very considerable, 

 has, I confess, been a stroke upon me ; especially, being unac- 

 quainted with my dear father's concerns, and neither, for so con- 

 siderable a time, hearing anything from yourself, nor being able to 

 discover the account itself; which was somehow mislaid at the 

 time of my father's breaking up, in Grace Church Street. I really 

 judged the balance, if anything, to be but very trifling. 



The truth is, latterly my dear parent found those things a 

 trouble to him, which was none a few years since, as he evinced on 

 many occasions ; and which has occasioned me much confusion and 

 trouble. His situation, too, in point of circumstances, was likewise 

 mortifying. His business, at last, totally declined ; and you will- 

 sir, I am sure, from the goodness and humanity of your own heart, 

 and your long and unremitted friendship for him, be shocked when 

 I tell you, that he solicited a small pension for an age near seventy- 

 five great part of which was employed in pursuits advantageous 

 to his country and was refused ! 



I am very certain that the King's bounty is regularly, and will 

 always continue to be paid. My father received the half year to 

 Lady Day, 1768, which was the last payment due in his lifetime ; 

 and in the September following, the Deputy Privy Purse applied 

 to me to know whether I would receive the six months then due. 



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