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Talbot to Mun, 22 September 1748, from Writtle.

Dear Mun,

You do not receive so speedy an answer to yours of the 18th because it was to be forwarded to me here at Writtle, where I am repairing Lingard’s old house on the green. I lose no time, however, in giving you my thoughts on this subject.

The gentleman certainly expresses extraordinary gratitude for the trouble he has given you, much owing, no doubt, to what your friend B[isset] must have said in your favour, without which ‘tis not easy to think how the service done can have excited him to say so much. But to consider the letter : here is no offer of any benefice vacant already, without which a man would hardly be expected to quit and come over [to Ireland] to live in expectation, with or without his family. The drift then is that you should take the matter into consideration, whether, if there was a certainty of being preferred even in the degree he mentions and calls small, and to which he promises his assistance, likely to be very effectual and sincere, whether, I say, you would think proper to make so great a change if you should resolve for it, then a visit to B[isset] might be proper beforehand, in case letters to and fro should not be thought sufficient, or in case it were necessary to show yourself, or some such motives. But if you determine against it, then a visit is too costly to be undertaken merely for its own sake.

I have read somewhere that there is no man but who at some time or other of his life has had an opportunity of raising his fortune; how know we but this may be yours? You say yourself, “Here’s a large scene opening to honour and riches, if true happiness, etc.” Whether you have enough of all these, your own perception must alone determine. Riches are instruments to good or evil as they are made use of. No man need refuse to be honestly rich.