Diplomatic Text
101.
deal Nov: 30. 1799
Your Time my dear Friend, is so
Constantly, & so laudably employed, that I feel my
self much obliged for your bestowing any of your
few leisure minutes in a kind Remembrance of me.
It was very friendly in Mr Dickenson
to write to Miʃs A. Clarke on the Subject of the
Expences of a Lawyer. I do not think what you relate
of her Answer is very Satisfactory, to us who wish
her so well. Her saying she has paid a great Deal, &
“that 30£ will cover the Remainder, seems very unac
-countable, considering her Income, & one would
think must reduce her to very uncomfortable diʃ
ficulties.
I am obliged to you for your Transcript.
But my opinion ofagainst continental Attempts is very strong:
& though I heartily grieve for the sad Event of the
last, I was much more concerned, than disappointed.
I have read the Bp. of Lincoln's Theologic
al Elements,[1] & think it a very useful Work, particu-
larly to young Clergymen.
I have just been reading
“Secret Anecdotes of the deportation” to Guaiana.
which I see is translated into English.[2] It is very af
-fecting, & the Piety & Resignation of the poor
Priests, is very edifying. Indeed I fear very few
of the ------ other Exiles had any more Religion than
those Who transported them. Their Treatment
however was very unjust, as they were condemn'd
without any Tryal. Under all their different forms
of Government, the French seem to be equally lawleʃs.
Those whom the Consuls have sent to the same
miserable Banishment, have been treated in
exactly in the same Manner, as those who
were exiled by the directory. Can you gueʃs
how this new Revolution will end? No: nor
any one else. One thing, as far as we can pre
sume to judge, seems probable, that a Government
without any principles of Religion to God, or of
Justice or Humanity to man, can stand no longer
than to fullfil their office of serving as a Scourge
to a guilty World.
I beg to be kindly remem-
bered to Mr dickenson & Louisa, & am
my dear Friend
your obliged & affectionate E. Carter.
[3]
101.
For
Mrs Dickenson[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Elements of Christian Theology (1799), 2 vols, by George Pretyman (1750-1827).
2. The translation that Carter mentions is Secret anecdotes of the revolution of the 18th Fructidor, and new memoirs of the persons deported to Guiana / written by themselves, 3rd edn. Printed for J. Wright, London, 1799, though she apparently read the French original.
3. This page is blank.
4. The direction is written vertically.
Normalised Text
deal November 30. 1799
Your Time my dear Friend, is so
Constantly, & so laudably employed, that I feel my
self much obliged for your bestowing any of your
few leisure minutes in a kind Remembrance of me.
It was very friendly in Mr Dickenson
to write to Miss Anna Clarke on the Subject of the
Expenses of a Lawyer. I do not think what you relate
of her Answer is very Satisfactory, to us who wish
her so well. Her saying she has paid a great Deal, &
“that 30£ will cover the Remainder, seems very unaccountable
, considering her Income, & one would
think must reduce her to very uncomfortable difficulties
.
I am obliged to you for your Transcript.
But my opinion against continental Attempts is very strong:
& though I heartily grieve for the sad Event of the
last, I was much more concerned, than disappointed.
I have read the Bishop of Lincoln's Theological
Elements, & think it a very useful Work, particularly
to young Clergymen.
I have just been reading
“Secret Anecdotes of the deportation” to Guaiana.
which I see is translated into English. It is very affecting
, & the Piety & Resignation of the poor
Priests, is very edifying. Indeed I fear very few
of the other Exiles had any more Religion than
those Who transported them. Their Treatment
however was very unjust, as they were condemned
without any Trial. Under all their different forms
of Government, the French seem to be equally lawless.
Those whom the Consuls have sent to the same
miserable Banishment, have been treated
exactly in the same Manner, as those who
were exiled by the directory. Can you guess
how this new Revolution will end? No: nor
any one else. One thing, as far as we can presume
to judge, seems probable, that a Government
without any principles of Religion to God, or of
Justice or Humanity to man, can stand no longer
than to fulfil their office of serving as a Scourge
to a guilty World.
I beg to be kindly remembered
to Mr dickenson & Louisa, & am
my dear Friend
your obliged & affectionate Elizabeth Carter.
For
Mrs Dickenson
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Houghton Library Repository, Harvard University
Archive: Elizabeth Carter and Hannah More letters to Mary Hamilton
Item title: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 101
Correspondence Details
Author(s): Elizabeth Carter
Date of creation: 30 November 1799
Date sent: 30 November 1799
Place sent: Deal
Recipient(s): Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter commends John Dickenson's having written to Miss A. Clarke on her legal expenses and finds Clarke's answer unsatisfactory. She thanks Hamilton for a ‘transcript’ [possibly to do with military preparations for another invasion of the Continent] but is against such ideas. She has read a theological work intended for candidates for ordination, and a French work on the deportation of priests and others to Guiana, which leads her to comment bitterly on how 'lawless' successive French revolutionary governments have been.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1799 November 30.
Length: 2 sheets, 361 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).
All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.
Acknowledgements: XML version first created without transcription as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1. Transcription added after the funded period under the supervision of David Denison and Nuria Yáñez-Bouza.
Transliterator: Pete Morris, Artificial Intelligence and Ideas Adoption (AIIA), The University of Manchester Library (Plain text transliteration submitted 26 February 2026)
Cataloguer: Bonnie B. Salt, Archivist, Houghton Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 3 November 2026
