em
through all their Latin readings and construing them into English,
will daily converse with them, and ground them in the principles
and the utterance of that tongue which belongs to the nation which
alone promises them an asylum upon earth. For many reasons, I
should prefer a clergyman of their own persuasion, and of our
country. But though I have always known that their number was
small, I did not conceive it to be so inconsiderable as I now find
it. But some English subject must be found to be about these boys
at all hours. It would be a terrible thing to condemn these poor
creatures to an universal exile, and to be perpetual vagrants,
without a possibility of being in a state of effectual
communication with the natives of any country or incorporating
themselves with any people. God forbid that, under the pretext of a
benefit, I should be the cause of their utter ruin.

The Bishop of Leon has written me a letter which, in my present
state of health (by no means the best), gives me a good deal of
uneasiness. Hitherto, I have received the boys without any inquiry,
as they were successively sent to me by the worthy prelate;
considering them as the objects of his selection amongst the
candidates for this situation. To my astonishment, in a letter
which I received from him last Saturday he tells me that all the
vacancies are filled: but that he has had nothing in the world to
do with the matter, and that he is no more than a simple clerk.
Your Lordship will see by the letters that I have the honour to
enclose for your perusal, that after filling up all the places, the
pleasure of rejecting the rest of the candidates is reserved for
me. He has contrived matters so, that others have all the grace of
obliging, and all the pleasure of being useful; and that all which
is harsh and odious is thrown upon me, as a reward for all the
trouble and expense I have been at in this business. On this I
shall make no further remark.

By the letters, your Lordship will see that the Bishop of Leon
tells the applicants, that the selection is to be made by certain
Lords Commissioners. I never have been apprised by the Bishop of
the existence of any Commission, or of any Commissioners for the
purpose of a choice. If such a thing at all exists, I should have