To Benjamin Franklin from James Hutton, 13 September 1783
From James Hutton
ALS: American Philosophical Society
13. Septr. 1783
Dear Old Friend
I am desired by a 50 years dear friend to recommend to you a Mr Blount & his Lady9 who intend residing some years in France, they are People of Fortune and Mr Blount is a man of Science & very ambitious for the Honour of your Acquaintance; He is of a very ancient and Respectable Family in Oxfordshire. Now I know your kind Regard for me, and there fore I beg the Favour of you to give Mr Blount the Happiness of your acquaintance. I can trust the Character given of him to me by my old 50 years Friend, as if I knew him myself. I give you again Joy of Peace.
Peace is my dear Delight—not Fleury’s more.1 It has pleasd God to take away our senses for a time may He restore them to us, when He sees what He has not seen yet that we may know when we are well. Now all is so far over I shall look for next Spring to have the Happiness of seeing you. Once more I am in earnest when I desire you to recieve Mr Blount as one who I am assured will answer the warmest Praises I could give him. You will I hope have opportunity of introducing him if He desires it, to some of your French Friends especially to our dear Du Pont.2 I am with all that old personal Friendship & Gratitude I have long felt for you Dear Old Friend your most obliged & affectionate Servant
James Hutton
Dr Franklin.
Addressed: To / Dr Franklin / Passy
9. Probably Joseph (b. 1752) and Mary Canning Blount. Joseph was from a Catholic family of Mapledurham, Oxfordshire, and died somewhere near Lyon during the French Revolution: Tony Hadland, Thames Valley Papists: from Reformation to Emancipation ([England], 1992), p. 142; Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland (2 vols., London, 1875), I, 115.
1. A line from Alexander Pope, The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace, Imitated in a Dialogue between Alexander Pope, of Twickenham in Com. Midd. Esq … (London, 1733), p. 13.
2. Du Pont de Nemours, an old friend of Hutton’s. The previous spring, BF had sent Hutton his book on Turgot: XXXIX, 543.