“Your views are darker than mine, though I see the danger clearly and look it fairly in the face. The bill will be thrown out, unless many members who are opposed to it absent themselves from the division in cowardice; and to some extent this no doubt will happen, as even public opinion inflicts no punishment upon moral cowardice, though when the poor body offends, it is punished with disgrace or with death.
“What astonishes me is, that the Greys, Russells, &c., do not look at the known character and certain motives of the men whose support they are actually courting at this time. . . . .
“I should like a law excluding from Parliament all persons against whom a verdict has been given for libels, public or private, adultery, or fraud of any kind, and all who having been bankrupts had not afterwards paid their creditors in full.
“I am reading the Doctrine de Saint Simon, preparatory to a paper upon that subject. The subject is very curious, and the book written with great ability. God bless you!
