My dear Frank,—I received the
melancholy news conveyed to me by your letter the day before yesterday, and
should have expressed to you my feelings sooner had not a particular engagement
on that day, and the circumstance of the post not going out yesterday from
Shrewsbury, prevented me from so doing. It is impossible for me to express to
you how much I lament the event which has deprived you of a kind and
affectionate father, and myself of an
old, sincere, and valued friend. My obligations to your father are so well
known to you that, was it not for fear of the accusation of ingratitude, it
would be needless for me to mention them in this place. From the period of time
which was passed by me at sea my education would have been deplorable had I not
received from him that fostering aid and assistance which enabled me to appear
at the university little inferior in my classical studies to those whose
education had been con-PECUNIARY EMBARRASSMENT. 147
