“Parliamentary Reform is no longer a doubtful matter;
in some shape or other it must come; and,
| 118 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 56. |
“It has been said that the King meant by his own prerogative to issue writs for Birmingham, Manchester, and perhaps Leeds and Sheffield. I wish he would, because it is better this should be done as an act of grace than of yielding; and it would be wholesome to exert the prerogatives in a way that would be popular. The qualification might be fixed at a reasonable standard, and then let the cry for universal suffrage take its course.
“A curious circumstance has come to my knowledge,
showing that the Liberals were ready to strike a blow before the Ordinances
gave a good colour to their cause. A Frenchman employed in
Child’s banking-house in their foreign
correspondence, at 170l. a-year, asked leave (before the
Ordinances were fixed) to go to Paris, and was refused: he said he must go;
they said, if so, they must fill up his place. He then told them that he was
one of the national guard; that he was bound, as such, by a secret oath to
repair to Paris whenever he might be summoned, and wherever he might be,
disregarding all other objects: the summons had reached him, and go he must. He
went
| Ætat. 56. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 119 |
“Has any thought been given at the Admiralty to the effect which steam navigation must produce upon naval war? I fear we shall have to make our experiments in actual war, and learn that as we did engineering in Spain.
“By good fortune our enemies are as ignorant in it as ourselves. God bless you!
