Letter – Benjamin Johnson to Thomas Wentworth Beaumont – 2 May 1824

Mr Beaumont									May 2nd 1824

I cannot learn that Sir J Swinburn or any of his friends have come forward in any shape to answer your speech and the received opinion is that it is unanswerable … Sir J S has lost much of his popularity before and seems now to have sunk so far in the estimation of every one (save those bound to him from self interest) that any thing he may attempt to thwart your virtue at a future election can only cause disappointment to himself and show him the estimation the public hold him in .. I have not in any <....> heard your speech mentioned but with great approbration being <....> for in just vindication of yourself against an infamous libel which everyone is now convinced had not the shadow of foundation. It is always spoken of as explaining all that was necessary for the public to be acquainted with and conveyed in the most gentlemany and delicate manner possible … The proposition to remove the dam has been made to the parties interested .. I have not begun to take down the Cupola.