“. . . . . The days pass so rapidly with me because of their uniformity, that I am made sensible of their lapse only by looking back, and feeling with surprise, and sometimes with some sorrow, and some shame also, the arrears which they have brought upon me in their unheeded course.
“See how the day is disposed of! I get out of bed as the clock strikes six, and shut the house-door after me as it strikes seven. After two hours with Davies*, home to breakfast, after which Cuthbert engages me till about half-past ten, and when the post brings no letters that either interest or trouble me (for of the latter I have many), by eleven I have done with the newspaper, and can then set about
* Mr. Davies, the late Dr. Bell’s secretary, was then lodging in Keswick, within five minutes’ walk of Greta Hall. |
| Ætat. 58. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 231 |
“To make any amendment of the Poor Laws what it ought
to be, one leading principle should be, that while relief is withheld from the
worthless pauper, or administered only in such measure as to keep him from
famishing, it should be afforded to the deserving poor (as it could then be
afforded) more liberally; and that none should be condemned to a workhouse but
those who deserve it as a punishment. It should be made apparent that all
industrious labourers, all of good character, would gain by the proposed
alteration. For every possible artifice and exertion will be used to make the
people believe that this is a law passed by the rich against the poor; and
there never was a time when it was more easy to stir
| 232 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 58. |
“It is needless to say how gladly I would use any endeavours in my power towards effecting your wishes with regard to the Poor Commission, or in other ways. They are worth little, I well know, but, however little, they shall be zealously made when we know in what channel they must be directed. We may see great changes, and, perhaps, great troubles, before the appointments are made; for, though Louis Philippe has won one great battle for us, we may yet have another to fight at home. . . . .
“God bless you, my dear old Friend!
