Letter – John Erasmus Blackett to Diana Beaumont – 27 Sep 1804

Mrs Beaumont under cover to				Newcastle 27th September 1804

Colonel Beaumont The Duke of Atholl’s Blair, Perth, N.B.



Dear Madam,

      I have been favoured with your Letter of the 22nd Inst & I am happy to find that you & Colonel Beaumont approve of the Sales that I have made; since my letter to you I have sold 1,500 P[iece]s Com[mon] Lead @ £29per Fo[dder] to Easterby & Co. you need not fear of their rivalling you in the Litharge Trade; what they make is of an inferior Quality & sold at a lower Price; we have ready Sale for all the Litharge we make & we don’t let them have any Lead of the kind that makes the best Litharge. I have lately sold 100 Casks Litharge to two of the London Houses at £31 the Ton.

	The Reform which Mr Cockshutt recommends to  be made at the Mines is very judicious & proper & I have no doubt will be attended  with Advantage to the Concern, but until such Time as the Salaries of the Agents were advanced to put them above doing what is found fault with (which I have frequently recommended to be done) this Reform could not with Propriety be carried into Execution; for considering the great Advance of every Article of Life, your Agents could not possibly mentain their Families on their present Salaries.

	I cannot agree with Mr Cockshutt in what is proposed as to the making of Red Lead & Sheet Lead at Dukesfield; the Measure of the Lead Owners (particularly the principal ones) interfering with the Manufacturers, has always been thought improper & prejudicial to their Interests, & I am convinced of it: any Advantage that might for a Time arise from that Measure, would certainly be very much counterbalanced by the Prejudice that it must do to your Concern with the London Buyers who are Manufacturers of Lead: they certainly would never purchase your Lead if they could have it of the Lead Company, the Hospital or any other Lead Owners etc. in Case of your making Red Lead & Sheet Lead, you will be under the Necessity of reducing much the greater part of your Lead for those Purposes, as you would not have Sale for your Lead.

      I send you enclosed the State of your Acco[un]t with your London Bankers so far as relates to your Concerns at this Place; what Money Mr Bowns may have drawn for I am ignorant of. Mr Cockshutt will I hope excuse me in not answering his Letter as I hope to have soon the Pleasure of seeing him.

      I am etc. 	J. E. B.