The following letter, without address, appears to have been written to Dr. Carlyle. "_Lisle Street, 15th Sept. 1763._ "DEAR DOCTOR,--The case of poor Blacklock gives me great distress; and so much the more, as I am afraid it is not in the power of any human being to relieve him.[165:1] His unhappiness seems to proceed from the infirmity of his body, and the delicacy, not to say weakness, of his mind. He has wrote to me letters full of the bitterest anguish, on account of the treatment he meets with from his parishioners. I believe it is not good; but it is impossible not to think it exaggerated by his imagination: and I am of your opinion that the same persecution, partly real, partly imaginary, would follow him in every other settlement. I had concerted with Baron Mure a very likely scheme for his removal; but to what purpose would this serve, if the same complaints must return in his new situation? I agree with you, that a small pension, could it be obtained, might bestow on him some degree of tranquillity; but how to obtain it I profess I do not know, as I suppose you will readily believe. That door was never very wide for men of letters; and is become still narrower than ever." He proceeds, in terms similar to those already recorded, to state his satisfaction in the connexion with Lord Hertford, and continues:-- "I go to a place of the world which I have always admired the most; and it is not easy to imagine a reception better than I have reason to expect. What, then, can be wanting to my happiness? I hope, nothing; or if any thing, it will only be an age and temper better adapted to vanity and dissipation. I beg of you to embrace Mrs. Carlisle in my name, and to assure her of my sincere respects. "I write no politics, having now become a politician. Please address yourself to John Hume for information on that head. Let him explain to you his patron's situation!!!! Pray, is there any body such an idiot at present as to be a partisan of the Douglas?"