Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/280

 Thursday, February 15.—This morning, the letter to the Duke of Wellington was written.


 * Jôon, February 13, 1838.

My dear Duke,

If you merit but half the feeling and eloquent praise I heard bestowed upon you shortly before I saw you for the first time, you are the last man in the world either to be offended or to misconstrue my motives in writing to you upon the subject in question, or not to know how to account for the warmth of the expressions I may make use of, which are only characteristic of my disposition.

Your Grace's long, residence in the East will have taught you that there is no common rate character in England an adequate judge what manner of living best answers among a semi-barbarous people, and how little possible it is to measure one's expenses where frequent revolutions and petty wars are carried on without any provision for the sufferers, from its being considered the duty of every one to assist them as his humanity may dictate or as his circumstances may afford.

Acre besieged for seven months! some days, 7,000