“My dear Milman,— . .
. I am not able to tell you whether Croker had any offer from Peel. His phrases are obscure on that head; but he seems to
dine daily with the new Ministers, and to be in good humour with them all.
Mahon had an offer of his old berth;
but I fancy that, the new Foreign Secretary being a peer,
Peel wished to take the Foreign department in the
House of Commons on himself, and therefore made a merit of declining.
Peel says he behaved very handsomely—and he has
gone with his wife to the Loire apparently in placidity—so I look for his
name by-and-by in a Gazette. Ashley has,
to Peel’s extreme regret, stood aloof altogether on
account of the Factory question—and the Carlton says
his dissent has already cost them
| 192 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. |
“I have had as usual a request
to give hints as to literary persons worthy of favour, and I hope some of my
hints, falling in with those of more potent voices, may be attended to
anon—e.g. as to Hayward, who ought to have a Police Magistracy or the like, if
he pleases, as soon as possible. I suppose nothing could tear him from Mayfair,
or a Colonial Bench might be adorned easily with his person. The Quarterly has
but few on its staff, and of these I don’t know any other that is very
likely to be served soon. In fact, we are a small band. Only Croker, yourself, and the Editor can be called
regular supporters—if I may put myself with you two. Sewell, I fear, may hardly do for us, unless
occasionally when I can tempt him out of his own beat, which he has pretty well
exhausted. I wish they would give him a good living, however—and have
said so—or a prebend, better still. Ford, Broderick, and one
or two more, though now and then useful, are hardly more than outlying
volunteers—old Barrow quite
effete. I wish I could find one or two really good and sturdy hands; for we are
all getting old, and I for one am often weary enough of the business of
article-making. I assure you I have had neither offer nor promise of anything
for myself—indeed, I never had anything like that,
| CENTRAL AMERICA | 193 |
“Poor Theodore is off the list of claimants. He has of course died deep in debt—they say £30,000—and he has left six children, and there is a subscription going on, I think favourably, in their behalf. Four girls—all young women! and the mother, who is said to have been married by T. H. a year ago. His exit was characteristic—but I’ll keep it till we meet.
“There is a deal of very curious reading in a new American book by Stephens on Central America—rediscovered cities, temples, statues, inscriptions, &c, &c; but, to take up that, one should have Lord Kingborough’s huge work digested. The images have a most Hindoo look some of them—others almost Egyptian. Mr. Catlin is going to head a party of a hundred, under the Yankee Government, for exploring a region said to contain similar monuments in the direction of the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps we shall see the cloud dispersed. Already Stephens gives us minute plans and sections of palaces which nobody seems to have disturbed since the days of Pizarro, and he appears to have strong belief in the existence at this moment of an unvisited and entire Indian kingdom, enclosed between two
| 194 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. |
