1777 JOHN WHITE'S BOOK 11 



'til you gave the challenge before I attacked you with an 

 epistle. 



As yet I have not seen your work ; but shall peruse it 

 with pleasure as soon as brother Thomas brings it. But he 

 is going at present to bathe on the coast of Dorset for a few 

 weeks. 



As I hoped and expected to see you derive some credit 

 and emolument from your labours, I was sorry to hear 

 that the whole pursuit is thrown aside for the present in 

 some degree of disgust and chagrin. One thing I could 

 never understand, and that is, that you say in a former 

 letter, "that having so near a relation a bookseller, should 

 you not agree with him about terms, no other publisher 

 would meddle with your work, because your relation is 

 one of the first editors in the natural history way": now 

 the force of this argument I could never see: for Cadel[l] 

 or any other man would be influenced alone by his own 

 judgment; and if he saw merit in the work, and an in- 

 teresting subject, would little regard, I should think, another 

 person's sentiments. Unless you have experienced the 

 inconvenience that you thought you foresaw, your suspicions 

 were probably wrong. 



The roof of my great parlor is finished ; and my walls in a 

 few days will be up to their proper pitch ; so that we shall 

 soon proceed to rearing. You do well in removing the earth 

 that lies above your floors : I have taken away much for the 

 same reason. 



I have not seen the clergy-act, but am assured that it has 

 nothing to do with residence: there is nothing compulsive 

 in it : but it enables the clergy to borrow money on their 

 livings, which they may lay out on the repairs of their 

 houses, &c., and so exempt their representatives at their 

 deaths for heavy dilapidations. For the money borrowed 

 the resident incumbent is to pay five per cent, and some 

 small proportion of the principal off annually ; a non-resident 



