Letter received by Edmund Malone from Banks, 27 March 1791 (Series 78.03) - No. 0001

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Mar. 27, '91

My dear Sir

I am required by your Colleagues in the Come. [Committee] appointed to provide money for erecting a monument to the memory of Johnson to request your opinion respecting the most proper place for it erection that​ Westminster Abbey or St. Pauls, if you favor us with your sentiments it you will indulge us very much & I have no doubt it they will have considerable​ great weight in our decision which we hope to make on the 9th day of April next. 

Sir Joshua who prefers St. Pauls says that the honor as well as the interest of the arts are materialy at stake & will receive great advantage if we set the example of a monument in a church which has hither to lain fallow for the harvest of the Chisel, that Westminster is already so crowded it would be a deadly sin against [indecipherable] to increase the squeeze of tombs there & that St. Pauls is the most honorable station for the monument of a great man.  Burke says waggishly this is Barronicy from Peter to give to Paul but he supports Sir Joshua Fully & Firmly.

On the other hand the supporters of St. Peter say they are engaged to the body of Johnson to the Public & to the Dean & Chapter to erect it there that they ardently wish to put​ make an end of a business that has been kept in suspense so very long & lastly that they fear their Funds between 7 & 800 Pounds will be very short of the necessary expense of such a monument as the Dean & Chapter of St. Pauls will require which they understand is to be of colossal dimensions, to their last agreement, however Sir Joshua has answered by declaring that if by [indecipherable] sollicitation in which he expects