"Though I am very impatient to see you, I would not have you, by
hastening to come down, lose any part of your interest. I am surprized
you say nothing of where you stand. I had a letter from Mrs. Hewet last
post, who said she heard you stood at Newark, and would be chose without
opposition; but I fear her intelligence is not at all to be depended on.
I am glad you think of serving your friends; I hope it will put you in
mind of serving yourself. I need not enlarge upon the advantages of
money; every thing we see, and every thing we hear, puts us in
remembrance of it. If it was possible to restore liberty to your
country, or limit the encroachments of the prerogative, by reducing
yourself to a garret, I should be pleased to share so glorious a poverty
with you; but as the world is, and will be, 'tis a sort of duty to be
rich, that it may be in one's power to do good; riches being another
word for power, towards the obtaining of which the first necessary
qualification is impudence, and (as Demosthenes said of pronunciation in
oratory) the second is impudence, and the third, still, impudence. No
modest man ever did or ever will make his fortune. Your friend Lord
H[alifa]x, R. W[alpo]le, and all other remarkable instances of quick
advancement, have been remarkably impudent. The Ministry is like a play
at Court; there's a little door to get in, and a great crowd without,
shoving and thrusting who shall be foremost: people who knock others
with their elbows, disregard a little kick of the shins, and still
thrust heartily forwards, are sure of a good place. Your modest man
stands behind in the crowd, is shoved about by every body, his cloaths
tore, almost squeezed to death, and sees a thousand get in before him,
that don't make so good a figure as himself.

"I don't say it is impossible for an impudent man not to rise in the
world; but a moderate merit, with a large share of impudence, is more