To the Earl of ----.
Silleri, July 10.
I have the pleasure to tell your Lordship I have married my daughter
to a gentleman with whom I have reason to hope she will be happy.
He is the second son of an Irish baronet of good fortune, and has
himself about five hundred pounds a year, independent of his
commission; he is a man of an excellent sense, and of honor, and has a
very lively tenderness for my daughter.
It will, I am afraid, be some time before I can leave this country,
as I chuse to take my daughter and Mr. Fitzgerald with me, in order to
the latter's soliciting a majority, in which pursuit I shall without
scruple tax your Lordship's friendship to the utmost.
I am extremely happy at this event, as Bell's volatile temper made
me sometimes afraid of her chusing inconsiderately: their marriage is
not yet declared, for some family reasons, not worth particularizing to
your Lordship.
As soon as leave of absence comes from New York, for me and Mr.
Fitzgerald, we shall settle things for taking leave of Canada, which I
however assure your Lordship I shall do with some reluctance.
The climate is all the year agreable and healthy, in summer divine;
a man at my time of life cannot leave this chearing, enlivening sun
without reluctance; the heat is very like that of Italy or the South of
France, without that oppressive closeness which generally attends our
hot weather in England.
The manner of life here is chearful; we make the most of our fine
summers, by the pleasantest country parties you can imagine. Here are
some very estimable persons, and the spirit of urbanity begins to
diffuse itself from the centre: in short, I shall leave Canada at the
very time when one would wish to come to it.
It is astonishing, in a small community like this, how much depends
on the personal character of him who governs.
I am obliged to break off abruptly, the person who takes this to
England being going immediately on board.
I have the honor to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's, &c.
Wm. Fermor.