I am now in the hey-day of my power. At the last General Committee they proposed and carried (without my knowing anything about it) a resolution that I should have £50 per month to spend for the House, and wrote to the Treasurer to advance it me. Whereupon I wrote to the Treasurer to refuse it me. Lady----, who was my greatest enemy, is now, I understand, trumpeting my fame through London. And all because I have reduced their expenditure from 1s. 10d. per head per day to 1s. The opinions of others concerning you depend, not at all, or very little, upon what _you_ are, but upon what _they_ are. Praise and blame are alike indifferent to me, as constituting an indication of what myself is, though very precious as the indication of the other's feeling....
Last General Committee I executed a series of Resolutions on five subjects, and presented them as coming from the Medical Men:--
1. That the successor to our House Surgeon (resigned) should be a dispenser, and dispense the medicines in the house, saving our bill at the druggist's of £150 per annum.
2. A series of House Rules, of which I send you the rough copy.
3. A series of resolutions about not _keeping_ patients, of which I send you the foul copy.
4. A complete revolution as to Diet, which is shamefully abused at present.
5. An advertisement for the Institution, of which I send the foul copy.
All these I proposed and carried in Committee, without telling them that they came from _me_ and not from the Medical Men; and then, and not till then, I showed them to the Medical Men, without telling _them_ that they were already passed _in committee_.
It was a bold stroke, but success is said to make an insurrection into a revolution. The Medical Men have had two meetings upon them, and approved them all _nem. con._, and thought they were their own. And I came off with flying colours, no one suspecting my intrigue, which of course would ruin me were it known, as there is as much jealousy in the Committee of one another, and among the Medical Men of one another, as ever what's his name had of Marlborough.
I have also carried my point of having good, harmless Mr.----as Chaplain; and no young curate to have spiritual flirtations with my young ladies.