“I came home at twelve this morning*, that I might write to you fully by this post, and found on my table a handbill of such a nature that I deemed it my duty to lose no time in sending it to the Home Office; it invites a subscription for arming the people against the police. Before this could be done, in came a caller, then another; and it is now three o’clock. Would that it were possible for me to convince you of what it is so desirable for you to be convinced of,—not merely that your system must make its way universally (for you have never doubted that), nor that your own just claims will one day be universally acknowledged (for this also you cannot doubt), but that such efforts as you now weary and vex yourself with making, and as you wish me to assist in, cannot possibly promote the extension of the system. . . . .
“The best thing that I can do, after touching upon the necessity of national education in the Christmas number (of the Quarterly Review), will
* From breakfasting out. |
| Ætat. 57. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 123 |
“I am entering far more into general society than in
any of my former visits to London, for the purpose of seeing and hearing all
within my reach. The Duchess of Kent sent for
me to dinner on Wednesday last; there was a large party, not one of whom I had
ever seen before. With the Duchess, who seems a very amiable person, I had a
very little conversation, though quite as much as she could possibly bestow
upon me; but with Prince Leopold, the only
person to whom I was introduced, I had a great deal. I see men who are going
into office, and men who are going out, and I am familiar enough with some of
them to congratulate the latter, and condole with and commiserate the former. I
meet with men of all persuasions and all grades of opinion, and
| 124 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 57. |
“My table is now covered with notes, pamphlets, and piles of seditious papers. You may imagine how I long to be at home and at rest. To-day I dine with Mr. Croker, who is likely to be prominent in opposition. The Duke will not; neither, by what I hear, will Sir R. Peel. But I do not think it possible that the present administration can hold together long; and Peel, who is now without an equal in the Commons, has only to wait patiently till he is made minister by common consent of the nation.
“Farewell, my dear Sir; and believe me always,
