Joy, joy, joy!

to you, to me; joy to the individual virtuous Protestant; joy to the great Protestant Cause.

I have been almost out of my wits ever since I received your delightful letter, in which [unclear] insanity my dear Colleague Miss Frowd has joined – That dear amiable Richard Bright of Devonshire brought the first news of a great Majority; and tho’ I could scarcely doubt of our success, yet I applied the words once used to me by my old friend D^r. Johnson ‘My dear I must always doubt of that which has not yet happened’

Nothing short of this great event could have induced me to hold a pen. I have been confined to my bed, and still am by a severe cough and and cold, my good doctor attends me daily, and rejoyces in our joy, but he would scold me for writing – I cannot answer the particulars of your letter – not being sufficiently /stout/ to say more than that I am your ever affectionate