flattered myself that I should have been apprised of it; of their
rules, of its proceedings, and of the times of its sitting. I
believe I am the very first person who, having had the honour of
proposing a plan to Government, and being permitted to have the
management of it, have been kept wholly out of the secret of the
appointment of its objects. The name of every boy sent to me was
unknown to me to the moment of his arrival; the names of those who
are to come are equally unknown. Not one circumstance relative to
any of them is come to my knowledge. The poorest country
schoolmaster would have been favoured with some better account of
his pupils.

I must beg leave to remark to your Lordship, that the account given
by the Bishop of Leon to the applicants is wholly different from
that which he gives to me. In his two last letters to me (one, and
the most explicit, of which I received just now) he tells me that
the selection and nomination is not in any Commissioners, but
solely in your Lordship, and that he is no more than a clerk. If I
had not received it from so good an authority, I could hardly have
believed that your Lordship, upon a mere abstract of petitions,
without further examination, or any consultation, even with the
Bishop of Leon, should have decided upon sixty out of perhaps
fourscore applications. But, as I am sure you always act with
equity and discretion, I am perfectly satisfied in your having
assumed this very delicate and critical of all trusts. I only wish
that I had been apprised of your Lordship's having taken on you
that office, as, though I should not have ventured to recommend a
single person, I really think I might, with all humility, have made
some useful suggestions, which your desire of all matters being
before you, that might guide you to a sure decision, would make you
willing to receive, even from a person so very inconsiderable as I
am in every point of view.

I am sure your Lordship wishes that, in the very reprehensible
situation in which I stand, I may be able to give some sort of
account of my trust; and when I have engaged with Government for
the education of sixty boys, I ought to know at whose hands, on
what authority, and on whose recommendation I receive them.
Certainly they are not recommended or chos