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that I would engage the best two men that ever the Royal Gardens produced; as a collector of plants only; and at the same not overlook commerce, & the other branches of Natural history? I am now of opinion, that could I use the eloquence of Cicero, or could form the ideas of Colombus, I should not at the present be heard, witness your answers that I craved, having not been received. I have never asked for your interest, unless I had merit to support it. I must be condemned without tryal, (I now perceive) because I would not work for 9 shillings a week at Kew; but perhaps, it may be for a name? no, that surely must not be it, or else Mr. Smith would not have gained his birth from Dr. Pitcairn's. Mr. Gerish from Mr. Grimwood's &c. The latter Gentlemen cannot be the Market gardener that you mentioned that knowed nothing of Botany. I never heard you mention nothing of a Bot. Bay expedition, until you received my letters dated Novr 28 '97. Therefore, let you send who you will, I have great authority to say, that I stimulated you to it: nor shall I hesitate to say, that you cannot sincerely say, that you have yet employed a person that can fulfil it. I hear Mr Gerish is going to settle there; but whatever person employs me, shall not bind me over to a foreign settlement for life; it is my intention for to travel when my age will support such a task, and not lost my vigour of life in a Royal Garden, until I am deemed proper without undergoing a tryal; for them, probably my natural faculties might be upon the decline so much for pining merit !!!
"You might certainly discover some valuable drug in dying or as medicine for your own advantage. (letter July 16th '98). Such a doing must yield an advantage to the public." "You are certainly however eminently capable of searching the woods with diligence, and advantage for dying drugs and other matters likely to be advantageous to manufacture and trade, and that many such things remain unknown in the unexplored wilds of a country larger than all Europe is a matter of infinite probability; if the Gentlemen of Manchester will make a subscription to maintain you in that employment &c." You have now said that I am a fit person to improve Manufacture and trade, is not that of more utility to the realm, that the decorating of the Stone Greenhouse, as Garden, I may say, the Gardens of pleasure add wealth to the nation, or does the nation add wealth to them? I shall answer they are of utility, but they desire their source from the flourishing state of the nation. If my memory does not fail me the Minister has said in the Senate, that the Nation was maintained by commerce, what you have now said of me is a matter of public utility, and ought not such an object be a thought of Legislature? Therefore as you belong to the Privy Council, I think it was more proper for you to have communicated your thoughts to that learned body, than to have uttered them to me, for to apply to a few manufacturers to put them in force. When you said this, perhaps, your meaning was good, but if I had mentioned it, it would have degraded your character more than you are aware of, the answer very likely would have been, tell him what we want is a good trade. It ought to be the wisdom of Government to add source of wealth to the Nation, more that a few individuals; for what is Government for? but to protect the people, ingenious Mechanics, Artists, and what is of utility to the realm.