I
was entirely out of the way of serving or of hurting any statesman or
any party, when the ministers so generously and so nobly carried into
effect the spontaneous bounty of the crown. Both descriptions have acted
as became them. When I could no longer serve them, the ministers have
considered my situation. When I could no longer hurt them, the
revolutionists have trampled on my infirmity. My gratitude, I trust, is
equal to the manner in which the benefit was conferred. It came to me,
indeed, at a time of life, and in a state of mind and body, in which no
circumstance of fortune could afford me any real pleasure. But this was
no fault in the royal donor, or in his ministers, who were pleased, in
acknowledging the merits of an invalid servant of the public, to assuage
the sorrows of a desolate old man.
It would ill become me to boast of anything. It would as ill become me,
thus called upon, to depreciate the value of a long life spent with
unexampled toil in the service of my country. Since the total body of my
services, on account of the industry which was shown in them, and the
fairness of my intentions, have obtained the acceptance of my sovereign,
it would be absurd in me to range myself on the side of the Duke of
Bedford and the Corresponding Society, or, as far as in me lies, to
permit a dispute on the rate at which the authority appointed by _our_
Constitution to estimate such things has been pleased to set them.
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