William Wilberforce, Elmdon House, Birmingham, to Joseph Butterworth, Bedford Square, 8 November 1814.

Wilberforce writes that his eyes are not good.  “I return you immediately Mr H’[all]s Letter & would not have kept it so long but for my not knowg you wished to have it again, which however I might well suppose.  I have sometimes had uneasy feelings, lest yr Son would have tho’t me uncivil (& I can truly say that to him I am inclind to manifest more yn Civility both for his Fathers sake & his own)….

Text: Wilberforce Papers, Series II (Microfilm), reel 16, fol. 53, Bodleian Library, Oxford.