Briefwisseling en aantekeningen. Deel 2

684
Willem Bentinck aan de gravin van Portland

[B.M., Eg. 1714]

Den Haag, 23 februari 1751

By your letter to mister Favel¹⁾ I see he had inform'd you of what had passed about mister Schultens. Those who are not thoroughly inform'd might perhaps think, that I should have done better to follow the torrent of the court in that affair²⁾. But I am sure that those who see the consequences both of the choice between the two competitors and of yielding in that circumstance will judge quite otherwise (Wenst eer en plicht altijd voorop te stellen).

The affair of the postoffice is agoing on, tho' gently. And every thing that is to be done well, must be done gently in this country. Hitherto I don't foresee it will produce any profit to me. Neither do I desire to push at it for myself. You will may be think I push generosity too farr. But the circumstances I am in with relation to the publick and with the Prince and Princess make it absolutely necessary for me to make a publick distinction between myself and the greedy rapacious people with which the

1) Zie Bentinck II, nr. 397.

2) Zie Archives IV, I, p. 508 vlg.

[p. 504]

Prince is surrounded. So that my design is, and my resolution finally taken, to carry the thing to an end, without asking a shilling, nor taking the least step directly nor indirectly for myself.