Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 4.djvu/388

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YOUNG.
"Deanery of St. Paul's, July 8, 1758.

"Good Dr. Young,
"I have long wondered, that more suitable notice of your great merit hath not been taken by persons in power. But how to remedy the omission I see not. No encouragement hath ever been given me to mention things of this nature to his Majesty. And therefore, in all likelihood, the only consequence of doing it would be weakening the little influence, which else I may possibly have on some other occasions. Your fortune and your reputation set you above the need of advancement; and your sentiments, above that concern for it, on your own account, which, on that of the Publick, is sincerely felt by

"Your loving Brother,
"Tho. Cant."


At last, at the age of fourscore, he was appointed, in 1761, Clerk of the Closet to the Princess Dowager.

One obstacle must have stood not a little in the way of that preferment after which his whole life seems to have panted. Though

he