[850] From 1798 on, Bentley’s _Diary_ is replete with ill-tempered and abusive references to Morse. _Cf._ for example, vol. ii, pp. 278, 291, 296, 302, 329, 334, 384, 391; vol. iii. pp. 9, 32, 141, 149, 217, 218, 342, 357 _et seq._, 431; vol. iv, pp. 209, 241. Bentley’s enthusiastic devotion to Freemasonry and his rancorous republicanism were largely responsible for his personal feeling towards Morse; but there also appears to have been a disagreeable and petty personal element in the situation. Bentley was peevish and spiteful towards Morse because he believed that the latter had stirred up one of the creditors of the elder Bentley to attempt to collect a debt from the son. _Cf._ Bentley, _Diary_, vol. iv, pp. 241 _et seq._ Even before the Illuminati agitation broke out in New England, Bentley found it impossible to repress his low opinion of Morse as a geographer and as a man. _Cf. ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 64, 70. [851] _Cf._ _Ebeling MSS._: Ebeling’s letter to Bentley, March 13, 1799. [852] _Ibid._: Ebeling’s letter to Bentley, March 23, 1799. [853] _Ibid._ [854] In view of the fact that Ebeling had instructed Bentley that his letter was not to be given to the public, and that if by any chance it should find its way into print, it was to be expurgated and presented to the public only in part, he felt aggrieved at Bentley for paying attention to none of his instructions. Ebeling’s great fear seems to have been that his mention of living personages in European politics would be likely to create serious embarrassments. Nevertheless, he assured Bentley that he was not disposed to be deeply hurt over the appearance of the letter in the American press. _Cf. ibid._: Ebeling’s letters to Bentley, July 28, 1800, July 1, 1801. [855] Morse had ample justification for thinking himself thoroughly ill-used in this situation. The embarrassment that he experienced over the appearance of the letter in the _Aurora_ and the _Bee_ was enhanced by the fact that the account of the Ebeling-Morse letter published in the _American Mercury_, which tallied with the _Aurora-Bee_ letter, was due to a confidence that Morse had given to a man whom he supposed to be friendly to his cause. A certain Samuel Huntington had visited him, to whom Morse read the letter he had received from Ebeling. Trusting to his memory, Huntington afterwards sent a communication to the _American Mercury_, purporting to contain a true account of the epistle that Morse had read to him. _Cf._ _Bentley Correspondence_, vol. i, 40: J. Eliot’s letter to Bentley, July 26, 1802. _Cf._ _The Mercury and New-England Palladium_ [successor to the _Massachusetts Mercury_], April 28, 1801.