LETTER XXXII

MR. JAMES HARLOWE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
HARLOWE-PLACE, FRIDAY NIGHT, SEPT. 15.


SIR,

I hope, from the character my worthy cousin Morden gives you, that you
will excuse the application I make to you, to oblige a whole family in
an affair that much concerns their peace, and cannot equally concern any
body else. You will immediately judge, Sir, that this is the
executorship of which my sister has given you the trouble by her last
will.

We shall all think ourselves extremely obliged to you, if you please to
relinquish this trust to our own family; the reasons which follow
pleading for our own expectation of this favour from you:

First, because she never would have had the thought of troubling you,
Sir, if she had believed any of her near relations would have taken it
upon themselves.

Secondly, I understand that she recommends to you in the will to trust
to the honour of any of our family, for the performance of such of the
articles as are of a domestic nature. We are, any of us, and all of us,
if you request it, willing to stake our honours upon this occasion; and
all you can desire, as a man of honour, is, that the trust be executed.