William Wilberforce, Elmdon House, Coventry, to John Ryland, Jr., Bristol, 24 November 1823.

My dear sir

  It will always give me pleasure to be useful to you in any way, and I should have answered your letter this morning but for my having been called from home at an early hour and not having returned till Evening.  The subject is quite new to me, and I have no books at this place or indeed any means of attaining information on the subject.  But I will consider if I can have your doubt satisfied, and if it be necessary to have the Law altered in such a way as to render it no longer open to the objection you state.  At all Events when Parliament shall reassemble if I am then alive and well, I trust I shall be able to ascertain the actual state of the Law, and the probablity of an acceptable settlement.

I hope you continue in good health and shall be glad that you inform me how you are whenever you have occasion to write to me.  I thank God I am myself pretty well, and 

  I remain

  with real Esteem and Regard

  My dear Sir

  Your faithful Servt

  W Wilberforce

P.S.  A complaint in my Eyes obliges me to dictate

The Revd Dr Ryland

Text: Wilberforce-Ryland Letters, shelfmark MS. G97a, Bristol Baptist College Library, fol. 12 (letter is not in Wilberforce’s hand).