LETTER LXXXI 137 



Hurry is over at Selbourne, & Affairs a little settled, if a Change 

 of Scene will be agreable to You, we shall be glad to have your 

 Company at Sunbury. Our Respects attend the Family, for 

 whom we at present feel a more than common Tenderness : But 

 I am, My dear Gil, Constantly & afftely Your's, 



J. M. 



Letter 81. 



Soho Square, 



Novr 29, 1758. 

 Dear Gil : 



Tho' I have talked wth your Brother Ben : and wth Mr 

 Cane, I can form at present no Judgement upon what Plea You 

 can keep your Fellowship wth your Estate, so that I cannot give 

 advice of any Value to your present Purposes. I cannot but 

 conclude from my Knowledge of You, that the Reasons must 

 appear very strong to You ; & that You could not be tempted by 

 Interest to do anything contrary to the Statutes of the Univer- 

 sity, or of your particular Society ; and not only so, but that You 

 can never forget that Fellowships are a Sort of temporary 

 Establishments for men of good Learning and small Fortunes, 

 'till their Merits or some fortunate Turn pushes them into ye 

 World, and enables them to relinquish to Men under the same 

 Predicament. I am in no Doubts about what You owe to the 

 present Society in this Respect ; I speak only as to ye general 

 Intent of your Founders & Benefactors, & as to what You owe to 

 Yourself ; in which Views I dare say You would be cautious of 

 appealing to a Visitor unless the Affair was absolutely clear & 

 creditable on your Side. For Visitatorial Decrees being (tho' 

 statutable) something tyrannical, must make the Person appeal- 

 ing ill looked upon by his Brethren unless the Case turns out 

 quite fair & clear on his Side. But what I now say is a Caution 

 which is unnecessary, because I have had a long Experience of 

 the Candour and Honesty of your Disposition, & can make 

 nothing agst the Reasons that You must have, & which are 

 quite unknown to Me. I have a good deal of Curiosity to see 

 your Letter to ye Society.* You certainly at present owe them 



• This letter is not now extant. It must have contained a statement of 

 his pecuniary position, since by the College statutes the Fellowship would 

 have been vacated if he had possessed an inherited fortune yielding a larger 

 income than its total emoluments. It is certain that this was not the case ; 

 for, though White's position at his father's death as tenant in tail in posses- 

 sion of a portion of his mother's settled property (he only received £20 from 

 his father) had apparently given him the reputation of wealth, he had to sell 

 the estates at once in order to defray a mortgage and the (proportionately) 

 very large suma charged on them in favour of the numerous younger children ; 



