date

Feb 1808 L d Eldon's Bill Letter
Feb 1808

L d Eldon's Bill

Letter V

[...?] necessary principle?

Let Reason be fruitful, (said one of our Lord Chancellors once) Let Reason be fruitful Custom barren.

But who was the Lord Chancellor? It was Chancellor Bacon not Lord Eldon not as yet Lord Redisdale[?] not /nor yet/ Ponsenby, nor yet Lord Erskine. It was Lord Bacon.

Under such husbandmen not to speak of Et cetera the elder nor Et cetera the younger, Reason would breed like a free martin: Custom like a doe-rabbit.

If like other breeders, whose fecundity does not suit the /accord with/ the countenance of the husbandman, Reason would submitt to no operation /no less as [...?...?] that which in one of the letters St. Everard[?] recommends to a young protege of his for the improvement of his voice/ nor indeed the might expect to be received with open arms: that little operation once over precedent /the operation over conditions/ performed on that condition the might then laugh and grow fat, which lolling on a couch, the sackloth[?] to be crammed with sinecures, cut out in large collars[?]. [...?] fashion, from the haunches of John bull, the most patient and most stupid of his name.
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