Benjamin Flower at Harlow to Eliza Flower at the Creaks, 69 Cornhill, London, Tuesday, 16 June 1807.

                                                                     Harlow, June 16.  1807

My Dear Love

   The evening proved very pleasant, and I arrived safely at home about ten oclock: the moon shone bright by the time the sun had set.  I found all quite well at home, our two dear girls fast asleep: this morning we were all three employed before we got up in exploring the bag which afforded the usual satisfaction: we have had a pleasant walk together this evening.  I found Jane & Mary last night busy in preparing for washing, and Jane was somewhat surprised you had said nothing about the matter. To day there has been the usual party of ladies with their beau Mr Godstone: they have had as fine a day as they could have for drying.

   I have received a letter from Burdon enclosing a Communication on the Subject of Reform for this month’s Review. He expresses great concern at my Review not answering my expectations.  After expressing his doubts of H. Tooke and some other public characters he is pleased to say—“In short—I must say without flattery you are the only public man of whose integrity I never had any doubt; but depend upon it, this world is not a world for honest men to thrive in;—rogues only fatten & flourish.” I would not have written this quotat­ion to any one but you, but I know you like to hear your own Ben flattered a little now and then.  Burdon kindly enquires after you and the children: for himself he says, he “feels every day & every hour the loss he has sustained.”

   Miss Jennings wrote this morning to say she would spend Thursday or Friday with us.  I have written to her informing her you are in London and putting her off till next week.  I will thank you to call at Conders & desire him to send the pamphlets to Miss Gurney, Keene’s Row Walworth, by Coach and ask him what they come to doing up, as I want to include the charge in my bill.

   You will inform me if you have called at Burton’s. I hope to send you a longer letter in my next but I have had a busy day in writing Reviews of Books, two of which I have nearly dispatched.  Farewell With Love to Mary, and Res­pects to all friends.   I remain

                                             Yrs ever B   Flower

You will write to me by Thursday night’s Post, about my coming to London.   I will write to you by Mr Cowell on Thursday.

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Politics, Religion, and Romance: The Letters of Benjamin Flower and Eliza Gould, 1794-1808 (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 2008),  pp. 328-30 (a more annotated text than that which appears on this site). 

References above include William Burdon (1764-1818), miscellaneous writer from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, earned a B.A. and M.A. from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, residing as a fellow there from 1788-96; Horne Tooke (1736-1812) was initially a minister in the Church of England who entered politics as a result of his support for the controversial populist John Wilkes during the famous Middlesex election of 1768; William Burton; Mary Gould, Eliza’s sister, was visiting once again.

Flower’s Political Review and Monthly Register appeared in nine volumes between 1807 and 1811. The motto, affixed to the title page, read, “What is morally wrong can never be politically right.” As he noted in his opening editorial, religion and government necessarily formed “the two chief concerns of a rational creature; the one embracing his interest in time, and the other his interests for eternity . . . Although divine revelation was never designed to instruct us in the science of civil government, or in the nature of the different modes by which it may be administered, it clearly lays down and powerfully enforces those principles and virtues, which if understood and practised, would lead men to peace, to freedom and to happiness” (1807).  In his preface to vol. 5 (1809), Flower described the primary ideals he hoped to impart in his periodical: “On the commencement of this work we professed our opinion, that the only radical, safe, and constitutional remedy for the continually increasing grievances of which we have so just a right to complain, and to insist on their removal, is a more frequent, and a more equal representation of the people; by which measure alone, the House of Commons would become the constitutional and effectual guardian of the just prerogatives of the crown, and of the inalienable rights of those, whose servants and repres­entatives they profess to be.  In the Preface to our last Volume, we again expressed our firm conviction, that nothing short of such a Reform ‘can afford us a rational prospect that our crying grievances will be redressed, our oppressive burdens lightened, and our deplorable situation ameliorated;’ and that no Party, whatever might be their professions, if they are the enemies, or even the lukewarm friends of such Reform, are deserving of the confidence or the support of the people.”  

In the Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford, is a bound volume containing eight political pamphlets owned by Elizabeth Gurney  (shelfmark 19.d.2).  Among the pamphlets is Flower’s Reflections on the Preliminaries of Peace between Great Britain and the French Republic (3rd. ed., 1802) which was sold by Martha Gurney.  This may be one of the pamphlets mentioned in the above letter, for on the title page Flower wrote, “To Miss Gurney-with the Authors Respects.”