I have to acknowledge your kind letter, dated the 3rd, received this hour; but I am sorry to say that it has occasioned me great anxiety about your health. You are not wont to cry before you are hurt; and I am apprehensive that you are worse even than you allow. Pray keep quiet and take care of yourself. My Review shows you that you are worth preserving and that the world yet loves you. If you become seriously worse, I entreat you to let me know it, and I will fly to you with a physician; an Italian one is only a preparation for the anatomist. I will not tell your sister of this, if you will tell me true. I had hopes that this letter would have confirmed my expectations of your speedy return, which has been stated by Mr. Kinnaird, and repeated to me by Mr. Davies, whom I saw yesterday, and who promises to write. We often indulge our recollections of you, and he allows me to believe that I am one of the few who really know you.
Gifford gave me yesterday the first act of ‘Manfred,’ with a delighted countenance, telling me it was wonderfully poetical, and desiring me to assure you that it well merits publication. I shall send proofs to you with his remarks, if he have any; it is a wild and delightful thing, and I like it myself hugely.
I had a letter from Mrs.
Leigh yesterday, enclosing one for your Lordship. Mrs.
Leigh promises me a visit by the end of the month. The public
very generally accord with your opinion of the critique in the Quarterly, and it has
actually, as your friend Heber said,
produced a sensation. It is equally honourable to Scott’s head and heart, and I rejoice much in my sagacity
in soliciting him to write it. Gifford
said to me, “Lord Byron is much
obliged to you.” Scott was much satisfied with it
himself, and still more by the praise which has followed it; and this will be
raised and confirmed by your approbation which, in substance, I
| MANUSCRIT VENU DE STE. HELENE. | 383 |
Mr. Gifford, who is at my elbow, and to whom I have just read your letter—at least that part of it referring to the Review and to the Procession—desires me to present his sincere regards to you, and to assure you how much he joins in my anxieties and regrets at your Lordship’s illness. However, I flatter myself with hoping that your next will tell us it has very materially abated.
I have just received, in a way perfectly unaccountable, a MS. from St. Helena—with not a word. I suppose it to be originally written by Buonaparte or his agents.—It is very curious his life, in which each event is given in almost a word—a battle described in a short sentence. I call it therefore simply Manuscrit venu de Ste. Hélène d’une manière inconnue.* Lord Holland has a motion on our treatment of Buonaparte at St. Helena for Wednesday next; and on Monday I shall publish. You will have seen Buonaparte’s Memorial on this subject, complaining bitterly of all; pungent but very injudicious, as it must offend all the other allied powers to be reminded of their former prostration.
I long to be admitted to a sight of the Miniature—how many have I seen? Wedderburn Webster is again at work; he is composing a pamphlet on the subject of the recent suspensions of the Habeas Corpus Act.
