“A zealous admirer of the British Constitution in Church and State, being generally pleased with Mr. Southey’s ‘Book of the Church,’ and professing himself quite delighted with the summary* on the last page of that work, and entertaining no doubt that the writer of that page really felt what he wrote, and, consequently, would be ready, if he had an opportunity, to support the sentiments there set forth, has therefore been anxious that Mr. Southey should have a seat in the ensuing Parliament; and having a little interest, has so managed that he is at this moment in possession of that seat under this single injunction:—

“I heard accidentally at Brussels that I had been returned for the borough of Downton, and on my arrival here, on Wednesday last, I found a letter, announcing, in the most gratifying and honourable manner, that this distinction had been conferred upon me, through the influence of the writer, whose name had not been affixed; had that however been doubtful, the writing was recognised by my old and intimate friend Mr. John May.

“Our first impulses in matters which involve any question of moral importance, are, I believe, usually right. Three days allowed for mature consideration, have confirmed me in mine. A seat in Parliament is neither consistent with my circumstances, inclinations, habits, or pursuits in life. The return is null, because I hold a pension of 200l. a-year during pleasure. And if there were not this obstacle, there would be the want of a qualification. That pension is my only certain income; and the words of the oath (which I have looked at) are too unequivocal

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for me to take them upon such grounds as are sometimes supplied for such occasions.

“With regard to the mode of getting out of Parliament, I am very willing that others should decide for me, in the total indifference with which I regard the question. Being aware of the nullity of the return, I abstain from franking*, and this is all that it concerns me to do. As for the impediment arising from the pension, nothing could have been easier than to have removed it, by having the pension made for life instead of during pleasure, or transferred to my wife. Herries could have done this, or you could have had it done, for it was in fact asking nothing but the alteration of a few words; with regard to the qualification, no one could have censured me if I had gone into Parliament, and as so many others do, with one prepared for the nonce. I am so sure that my life will be seen in its proper light, when it is at an end, that misrepresentations, however malicious, serve only to make me smile; and I am amused at thinking that many persons will be as

* This resolution he steadily persevered in, notwithstanding the entreaties of his family for “one frank” in memory of his temporary M-P.-ship, and the persecution of autograph collectors.

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much surprised at discovering what manner of man Southey really was, as all the world was when Madame d’Eon was found to be of the masculine gender.

“This odd affair, however, will be of some use; it keeps my name fresh before the public, and in a way too which raises it in vulgar estimation. Had I arrived here in a chaise instead of coming in the mail, the people would have drawn me home in triumph; and there was a consultation about chairing me, which ended in the true conclusion that, perhaps, I should not like it. The General* had these honours (except the chairing) yesterday afternoon. They drew him from the turnpike to his own landing-place, and he made a speech from the boat. How he must have enjoyed this, and how we should have enjoyed it, if that very hour had not been one of the bitterest of our lives. God bless you!

“I have read your long letter with much interest. The question of political economy may stand over till I find a proper place for touching upon it. Concerning the Irish question you quote the Edinburgh

* General Peachey, then newly elected M.P. for Taunton.

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Register; the question is pursued in the fourth volume of that work. There is just now a much more urgent question relating to Ireland. I know not how man and beast are to be saved from perishing there by famine without parliamentary assistance, promptly and efficiently administered. The pasturage is wholly destroyed by drought, the potatoes nearly so. As late as last week they had had no rain.

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“I spoke to Lockhart about the Georgics, and he was very glad to hear of your father for the subject, and of the subject for your father. God bless you!

“You seem right in thinking that Upper Canada is the country to which Government should direct

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such emigrants as may be at its disposal. But when the full necessity of widely colonising shall be generally perceived and felt, I hope something like a spirit of enterprise may be excited in adventurers of the middle and higher ranks, and that men may be found who will be ambitious of founding a settlement and a family in a new world. New Holland is the country for them. I doubt whether all history can supply such another instance of stupid misgovernment as has been exhibited in stocking that country with male convicts, without any reference to the proportion of the sexes. You ought with all speed to ship off ‘in good condition’ as many female volunteers as the Magdalen, the hospitals, and the streets can supply.

“I was at Lowther for three days last week, and met Lord Beresford there. The priests in Ireland, he says, are loaded and primed, and have their fingers upon the trigger. God bless you!

“The Benedictine Order was established long before the twelfth century,—early in the sixth,—and swallows up all other rules in the Western world. It was in the twelfth that the two great Mendicant orders (the Franciscan and Dominican) were established. By help of those orders, and of that said Wadding whereon you pun, I shall make a ramp

* “I have thought, as I read the Edinburgh Annual Register, how apt you were to state a strong reason as a conclusive one. To every extensive measure weighty objections exist, whatever reasons there may be to overrule them. Had you been a statesman instead of an author, the habits of your mind would have been more scrutinising as to the merits, more inquisitive as to the defects of what, upon the whole, you should see cause to approve. If not, you would have been very far from what is called, in official phrase, ‘a safe man.’”—H. T. to R. S., Nov. 10. 1826. I may quote here, as applicable to these remarks, a passage from a letter of my father’s written some years later:—“What —— —— complains of in Sadler’s speeches and in his book, is exactly what you have complained of in certain of my compositions; that confidence which a man feels whose opinions are established upon his religious belief, and who looks to the moral consequences in everything, and will no more admit of any measures which oppose that belief, or lead to consequences injurious to it, than a mathematician will listen to anything that contradicts an axiom, or a logician to a train of reasoning which starts from a false postulate.”—R. S. to H. T., April 8. 1829.

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among the Roman Catholics. Do but imagine how Butler and Bishop Bramston (who is an old acquaintance of mine) will look when I set Sister Providence upon her head before them!

“The Register was perhaps the most successful occupation for myself in which I was ever engaged. It led me to look into the grounds of my own opinions—to modify some, to change others, and to confirm other some. If you remember it, when you are reading the Peninsular War, you will perceive that imperfect information had led me sometimes wrong, and that sometimes I had erred in forming my own opinion. But on the whole it is very satisfactory to find how much more frequently I was right in combining facts and forming conclusions. Do you know that the Whigs held a Council of War, and resolved to have me brought as a culprit before the House of Commons for certain remarks in that Register upon some of their worshipful body; but their decision was reversed upon an appeal, I suppose, from Whig drunk to Whig sober. It was a great pity, for I should have had good advisers and good friends, have made my own cause good, and have punished them to my heart’s content.

“Thank you for your new History, which I have read with great attention, great pleasure, and great advantage. It places Wolsey in a worse light than that in which Cavendish had led me to view him; but Cavendish saw only the better parts of his character, and was necessarily ignorant of the crooked policy which you have exposed. I am pleased to see how nearly your estimate of Harry’s character accords with mine; and not less pleased to think that my inquiries should have in some degree stimulated you to undertake and accomplish so great an undertaking as this volume. I could wish that the style had in some places been less ambitious.

“On Wednesday next I shall write to the Speaker, and lay down my M.P.-ship. No temptation that could have been offered would have induced me to sacrifice the leisure and tranquillity of a studious and private life. Free from ambition I cannot pretend to be, but what ambition I have is not of an ordinary kind: rank, and power, and office I would decline without a moment’s hesitation, were they proffered for my acceptance; and for riches, if I ever perceive the shadow of a wish for them, it is not for their own sake, but as they would facilitate my pursuits, and render locomotion less inconvenient. The world, thank God, has little hold on me. I would fain persuade myself that even the desire of posthumous

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fame is now only the hope of instilling sound opinions into others, and scattering the seeds of good. All else I have outlived. I have suffered severely since we parted. Little, indeed, when I breakfasted with you last did I apprehend the affliction which was impending over me, and which had even then begun its course. But the will of God be done! My bodily health has not recovered the shock, nor will it speedily, I fear. I am, however, now in full activity of mind, and feel the perfect leisure which winter brings with it in this place as a relief and comfort. . . . .

“I hope and trust you will find courage and health to go on till the end of Elizabeth’s reign,—a reign in which I am sure you will make great discoveries. Remember me most kindly to your family, and believe me always,

“On Wednesday, I received a note from Harry, saying that a plan had been formed for purchasing a qualification for me; that Sir Robert Inglis had just communicated this to him, and was then gone to Lord R. to ask him to keep the borough open: that he (Harry) doubted whether a sufficient subscription could be raised, but supposed that under these circumstances I should not refuse the seat; and desired my answer by return of post, that he might be authorised to say I would sit in Parliament if they gave me an estate of 300l. a-year!

“I rubbed my eyes to ascertain that I was awake, and that this was no dream. I heard Cuthbert his Greek lesson, and read his Dutch one with him. I corrected a proof sheet. And then, the matter having had time to digest, I wrote in reply, as follows:—

“An estate of 300l. a-year would be a very agreeable thing for me, Robert Lackland, and I would willingly change that name for it: the convenience, however, of having an estate is not the question which I am called upon to determine. It is (supposing the arrangement possible,—which I greatly

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doubt), whether I will enter into public life at an age when a wise man would begin to think of retiring from it: whether I will place myself in a situation for which neither my habits, nor talents, nor disposition are suited; and in which I feel and know it to be impossible that I should fulfil the expectations of those who would raise the subscription. Others ought to believe me, and you will, when I declare that in any public assembly I should have no confidence in myself, no promptitude, none of that presence of mind, without which no man can produce any effect there. This ought to be believed, because I have them all when acting in my proper station, and in my own way, and therefore cannot be supposed to speak from timidity, nor with any affectation of humility. Sir Robert Inglis and his friends have the Protestant cause at heart, and imagine that I could serve it in Parliament. I have it at heart also; deeply at heart; and will serve it to the utmost of my power, ‘so help me God!’ But it is not by speaking in public that I can serve it. It is by bringing forth the knowledge which so large a part of my life has been passed in acquiring; by exposing the real character and history of the Romish Church, systematically and irrefragably (which I can and will do) in books which will be read now and hereafter; which must make a part, hereafter, of every historical library; and which will live and act when I am gone. If I felt that I could make an impression in Parliament, even then I would not give up future utility for present effect. I have too little ambition of one kind, and too much of another to

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make the sacrifice. But I could make no impression there. I should only disappoint those who had contributed to place me there; and in this point of view it is a matter of prudence, as well as in all others, of duty, to hold my first resolution, and remain contentedly in that station of life to which it has pleased God to call me. If a seat in Parliament were made compatible with my circumstances, it would not be so with my inclinations, habits, and pursuits; and therefore I must remain Robert Lackland.

“To-day (Friday) Harry has received this letter from me; and I have received the following one from him:—

“‘My dear Robert,

“‘Lord R.’s answer to Sir Robert Inglis is nearly in the following words:—“Mr. —— was returned upon public grounds solely, without previous communication, or even acquaintance. It has since been seen under his handwriting that the situation was not to his taste, and did not accord with his habits of life.”

“‘I believe these are the very words of Lord

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R.’s answer to an excellent letter from Inglis. Thus ends your very singular adventure. If you could have got an estate by it, the story would have told better. As it is, the estimation in which you are held by many great and good men, has been proved in the most satisfactory manner. Sir Robert did not tell me the names of those who had expressed their willingness to subscribe, nor with whom the scheme had originated (not with himself), but he seemed sanguine of success.

“For some time I have been intending to thank you for your very kind intentions and exertions in my behalf, and to explain, more clearly than could be done in a hasty reply to my brother’s letter, the motives upon which my decision in that matter was formed. The event has proved that it was fortunate, but I wish you to be satisfied that it was rightly made,—I might say deliberately also, for though little expecting to be invited in such a manner, I have often said, and always felt, that no prospects of ambition or advantage should induce me to enter into public life.

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“If I had taken a seat in Parliament when it was at my option, the express condition was that of doing my duty there; and of this a pretty regular attendance must have been an indispensable part. But early and regular hours are necessary for my constitution, which is not strong, has always been accustomed to this, and has been shaken. And though I have neither the habits nor the feelings of a valetudinarian, some management is required to keep me as well as I am, and the loss of sleep is what I could not bear. Separate from my family I must have been during the session: this would have interfered with the education of my little boy, would have been some loss to my daughters, and would have still more depressed the spirits of my wife, which are constitutionally low, and have received shocks from which I fear there is little hope of their recovering. The motives, therefore, must be very strong which could overpower these considerations: in these times I know of no public duties which could be strong enough; nor is there anything on the score of private advantage, which should lead me to change the whole system of my life. It is very

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possible that, being in Parliament, I might have made my way into some minor office, which would have given me a good income: this is even likely, because I have friends who would have helped me when they saw me in a situation where I could help myself, and because my capability and fitness for such business might have been acknowledged. But in that case no leisure would have been left for my own pursuits, and all hope must have been given up of completing those projects, upon which and in preparing for which the greater part of my life has been employed. Thus I should have done worse than buried my talent; I should have thrown it away.

“This is an egotistic letter. I felt, however, that some such exposition was due to you; lest I should

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seem either to have acted unreasonably, or to feel unthankfully. But be assured in this whole odd episode of my life, there is nothing which I shall remember with more pleasure than the very kind and friendly part which you have taken in it.

“I must not forget that I have a favour to ask. An old friend, for whom I have a very high and well founded regard, is to be balloted for at the Athenaeum on the 9th of February. Kenyon is his name. Upon the list of members I see the names of Mr. Dealtry and Mr. H. S. Thornton. Will you say to them that I should be greatly obliged by their votes on this occasion, and that they could not be bestowed upon a man better qualified in all respects for the admission which he is seeking?”

“You need not be assured that I am very glad accident should have enabled me to put you in the way of being usefully, though arduously, employed*, and in a station where I hope you may make your

* Mr. James White had been appointed to the incumbency of St. George’s, Manchester, through my father’s recommendation.

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own way to something better. To be sure nothing can be less agreeable than the description which you give both of your fold and your flock; the only setoff against this is the reflection, that the worse the people are, the more good you may do them. When once it is known that you perform the service impressively, like a man whose heart is in his work, you will not preach to empty benches.

“Concerning schools, no person can be more unfitted for advising you on that business (or, indeed, on any other) than I am. But of this I am sure, that in such a parish as yours an infant-school is the most useful and necessary establishment that could be formed. The people of this country are not yet aware of the consequence of youthful depravity; how widely it extends, and how early it begins. In any attempts of this kind you will have the mothers with you. And, indeed, at all attempts at moral

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reformation the women are so immediately interested, that their good will is sure to attend upon any endeavours at bettering the condition of their children, or preserving their sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers from vice. Do not, however, aim at too much, and thereby exhaust yourself, even if you do not otherwise defeat your own purpose. Fill your church, and establish, as soon as you can, an infant-school; and as you feel what more is wanted, you will discover by what means to bring it about.

“But enough of this. I have no acquaintance in

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Manchester to whom I can introduce you; but going there in what may be called a public character, you will soon find acquaintance, and I have no doubt friends. There is this advantage in large cities (and a great one it is), that you are sure of finding some persons there with whom it is both pleasant and profitable to associate.

“I will undertake the arrangement of the Garrick Papers, very willingly, for the lucre of gain, and not for the love of the subject; for the sake of being well paid, and not for the sake of being well talked of. But I will do it for lucre, for goodly remuneration, and ‘most sweet guerdon,’ which you know is better.

“It will take me more time to do this than it would any other person, for this simple reason—that I should take more pains about it; not in the composition, but in making myself thoroughly acquainted with all the literary points on which it would be necessary to touch. On the other hand, my general acquaintance with English literature is such, that there is no point upon which I have not some stock of knowledge at command. Less than a

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thousand guineas the booksellers ought not to think of offering, nor I of taking; and if there be a chance of getting more, let it be intimated that I rate my name and services as they ought to be rated. There’s a magnanimous sentence! And with that sentence I leave the subject to work in the proper quarter, and to sleep with me till I hear of it again. Observe that I suppose the Life to be included in the two volumes, not to form one by itself. . . . .

“If Colburne could see my table at this time he would think my studies were not the most appropriate for the task which he wishes me to undertake. Here is a volume of Jackson’s Works (folio)—in my judgment the most valuable of all our English divines; there is a Portuguese poem, in twenty books, upon the Virgin Mary. Here is the English translation of Father Paul’s History of the Council of Trent. Here is a Latin folio upon the Divi Tutelares of Popish Christendom, by the Jesuit Macedo, who had so much to do with Queen Christina’s conversion. Here is a volume of Venema’s Hist. Eccl. Institutiones. Here is the Report upon Emigration, and there is a thick, dumpy, and almost cubical small quarto containing some 1400 closely-printed pages in Latin—De Miraculis Mortuorum, by an old German Physician, who was moriturus himself when he composed the work. Miracula here are to be understood in the sense of phenomena. The book is exceedingly curious, and would furnish the Master of the Rolls

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with much matter both of amusement and cogitation, if it should ever fall in his way. I will therefore add that the author’s name is Garmannus, and the date of the book 1709. Here is a volume of the Acta Sanctorum on another table, and one of Baronius on the floor.

“From this apparatus you will conclude that I have a second volume of Vindiciae in hand.

“I have a melancholy letter from Leyden. Mrs. Bilderdijk has been for fifteen weeks confined to her chamber, and mostly to her bed, and it is not intimated that she is recovering. B., himself, speaks of his own health and faculties as sensibly impairing day by day. The only hopeful sign is the warmth and animation with which he writes. I wish I could go to see him this year; but that is not possible, and therefore I can hardly hope to meet him again in this world. I am now reading his fragment of the Deluge, and shall go through the rest of his

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works, in full intention of making them known, sooner or later, and, with your help, to the English readers.

“My old acquaintance (those, I mean, who were elders when I was a young man) are dropping on all sides. One very remarkable one is just gone to his rest after a pilgrimage of fourscore years. Edward Williams, the Welsh bard, whom, under his Welsh name of Iolo*, some lines in Madoc were intended to describe and gratify. He was the most eccentric man I ever knew, in whose eccentricity there was no affectation, and in whose conduct there was nothing morally wrong. Poor fellow! with a wild head and a warm heart, he had the simplicity of a child and the tenderness of a woman, and more knowledge of the traditions and antiquities of his own country than it is to be feared will ever be possessed by any one after him. I could tell you some odd anecdotes of him which ought not to be lost.

“I enclose to you a letter of thanks, which you will have the goodness to let your man leave at the United Service Club. Captain Mangles was thrown in my way here by mere chance last summer as the stage-coach companion of ——, a Quaker of a new description from Philadelphia, who brought letters to me. The Quaker was ambitious of being what Shakspeare tells us the Prince of Darkness is: so he wore black and drank healths, and was superfine in his manners, and had with him the greatest curiosity of its kind that I have ever seen,—a Quaker album, in which the spirit had moved all his Quaker acquaintance to bestow the highest eulogiums upon the happy owner, and to pray for his spiritual welfare. But the gem of the book was a composition by His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex.

“The Quaker did not know the name of his travelling companion, but from his account I knew who he must be, and accordingly made the Quaker introduce him here. And the end of this is, that Captain Mangles has sent me a copy of his travels, which were printed for private distribution, and of which he could not lay his hands on a copy till now. . . . .

“I am now going to the Emigration paper, and I have taken up Oliver Newman, where I shall be in

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medias res; a little way farther, and then it will become an object to complete it.

“I know not how I have lost sight of you so long, nor whether this may find you at Florence, nor what may have befallen you in the interval since we have communicated. No such affliction, I hope, as has befallen me, in the loss of my youngest daughter. Seven months have elapsed since we suffered this bereavement. She was the flower of my family,—and a lovelier flower this earth never produced. It was long before I could recover heart for anything, and sometimes I fear that my spirits will never again be what they have been. My wife’s, I have but too much cause to apprehend, have received a shock from which they will not recover. Yet we have much left for which to be thankful; and, above all, I am thankful for that settled and quiet faith which makes me look on to the end of my journey as a point of hope.

“My friend Kenyon talks of going to Italy this year, and if he goes, I shall get him to carry my last book.

“Last summer, like the one preceding, I travelled for my health. On the first occasion I came back with erysipelas (the effect of an accident), which

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undid the good that had been done; and the shock which awaited my return the second time in like manner counteracted the benefit I had found.

“You will not wonder when you call to mind in how many things the two nations resemble each other, that Dutch poetry should in its character of thought and feeling resemble English, much more than the English resembles that of any other nation, ancient or modern. Their poets have been as numerous, in proportion to the country, as their painters, and not a few of them as skilful in their art. One has two things to get over in the language, its ugli-

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ness and its difficulty: I wish I could overcome the latter as well as I have got over the first.

“While I am writing the post has brought news that Lord Liverpool has had an apoplectic stroke, which is likely to be fatal, but which certainly incapacitates him from ever taking any farther part in public affairs. How often do I wish that you were in England. The curious state of things in this country can hardly be understood, even by an Englishman, at a distance; the strange complexity and contrariety of interests, the strange coalitions, the ferment of opinions, and the causes which are at work to bring about greater changes in the constitution of society, than even the last half century has produced. No guess can as yet be formed as to the effect that this accident will produce upon the administration. Canning’s health is broken, and in my judgment it would be fortunate for his reputation if this cause should prevent him from taking possession of the premiership. Every one had confidence in Lord Liverpool; there are none who will have confidence in him; with all his brilliancy of talent, with all his personal good qualities, (and they are such that he is liked wherever he is known,) he must ever be distrusted as a statesman. New scenes are opening upon us, new men will come forward, and some of the old ones be seen in new characters; but for statesmen, such as they are and long have been in England, there will always be an abundant supply. What can be expected as long as St. Pitt and St. Fox have their red letter days in the political calendar?

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“It is not the habit of my mind to despise nor to undervalue the sort of knowledge which I do not possess, but I know enough of political economy to have perceived in the father of the British school (Adam Smith), that the wealth of nations is every thing in that school,—and the morality and happiness of nations nothing; and in the other writers which have fallen in my way, I have found their knowledge so little, and their presumption so great, as to excite in me a greater degree of contempt than I usually feel for anything in the shape of a book.

“To all that you say in its general import I agree; but when you tell me that a tax of 1000l. per week laid upon capitalists would have the sure effect of throwing 1000 weekly labourers out of

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employ, it appears to me that you suppose a connection between cause and effect, as certain as those in chemical and mechanical combinations, and overlook the infinite number of modifying and disturbing circumstances which often in chemical, and more often in political experiments, occasion some wholly unexpected result.

“I shall very soon methodise some of my views, tending to this proposition, that the prime object of our policy should be to provide for the well-being and employment of the people. Whatever lessens wages and throws men out of employ is so far an evil. There may be evil that leads to good, and good that leads to evil, and both may be instanced in the effects of machinery. If you like to see my speculations as they go through the press, let Murray direct the proofs of my Colloquies to you, and I will perpend any comments that you make upon their contents. . . . .

“I have been asked to write for the Foreign Quarterly, and replied, as willingly as for John Murray, at the same price. An attempt was then made to wheedle me into giving them an article for their first number at ten guineas a sheet. Or, if that failed, then they would screw up their price to 50l. for the article. I answered not in the style of Jupiter Tonans but more meo, that I wrote such things for lucre, and for nothing else, and that if they had screwed their price to the sticking point, I certainly should not lower mine to meet it. . . . This brought an apology for tradesmanlike dealing, and a hope that I would be pleased to accept the 100l. To which I con-

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descended, saying that the manner of dealing belonging to the race, was to be looked upon in the individuals as a sort of original sin.

“In Scotland the general condition of the clergy is above the standard in England. In villages and remote places, indeed, the manse is generally the best house, perhaps the only good one, and appears like a mansion in comparison with the dwellings about it. Still the Kirk has been injured by spoliation, and the manner in which Episcopacy was betrayed there at the Revolution is one of the stains upon that portion

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of our history. It would have been better for the Scotch if a proportion of their clergy had been drawn from the higher ranks. There would have been less bigotry in the Kirk and more learning, of which there has been a lack. I doubt whether the Kirk has produced half a dozen works worthy of preservation. Sure I am that I could name a score of English divines, any one of whose writings would weigh down in sterling worth, all that has ever come from the Kirk of Scotland since Episcopacy was abolished, for Leighton was of their Episcopal Church.

“Among all the ups and downs which you have witnessed in this country, in the course of five and twenty years, you have never, I think, seen things more in what lawyers call hotch-potch than they are at present. Who is right and who wrong I have

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little means of knowing, and as little curiosity to know. But I think Canning an unsafe minister, and doubt whether any administration which he can form can stand, with such strong interests and strong feelings as will be arrayed against it.

“The prospect is discouraging enough both at home and abroad. I cannot but apprehend that we have got ourselves into a situation in Portugal, from which it will not be easy to withdraw without some loss of reputation. Every one who knows the Portuguese must know that they are neither in a humour or in a state to receive a new constitution; and if Don Miguel likes a journey to Madrid better than a voyage to Brazil, we shall find ourselves fooled by France, laughed at by Spain, and on no desirable terms with Portugal.

“Then at home we have to contend with the effects of the liberal system in trade, with the march of intellect, and the consequences of the manufacturing system. The new Ministry will not sleep upon roses. Canning, I think, will not last long, whether he maintains his ascendancy or not. At the time of Lord Londonderry’s death his friends, I know, thought that his health would not stand the wear and tear of public business, if it should be of a harassing kind; and, therefore, they rather wished he had gone to India at that time.

“I mean to take my family to Harrogate about the latter end of next month, for three or four weeks. The place is ugly; but there are interesting objects to be seen, and if my womankind are the better for the waters and the excursion, I shall be

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content to drink stinking water instead of the ordinary wine on the other side of the Channel. . . . .

“. . . . . Machiavelli has shown you why Mitford (had there been no French Revolution) would have sided with the tyrants instead of the democracies of Greece in his history. Read the history of any despotism, and your feelings become republican; read that of any republic, and you become monarchical. The happiest age of the world, as far as its happiness depends upon earthly governments, was that of the Antonines, and the reign of Augustus before it; and we all know to what these reigns led, not accidentally, but by the sure effects of such a system. As far as relates to government and religion, this country is the most favoured under heaven: not only above all others at this time, but above all others of any time. But our prosperity was hardly won, and is not two centuries old. The Venetian was the most durable of European Governments, and an infernal one it was, though it was the object of admiration to the Liberals of the Great Rebellion.

“The great works of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Spanish Moors were not erected in

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barbarous ages, but in times of very high civilisation. Taxation, probably, was not far short of its present amount; the Moors had a tenth of all produce and rents, and wars cost the government nothing, so that there was revenue to spare. God bless you!

“I do not see how these ministerial changes can affect my brother Tom’s future prospects. . . . My means have always been precarious. My books are less productive than they were ten years ago; very materially so, as Longman could tell you. Their novelty is gone by, and with all the reputation which I have fairly won I have never been a fashionable, still less a popular, author. At the end of the first twelve months’ sale my profits upon the Tale of Paraguay fell short of eighty pounds. I have, God be thanked, been able to make a moderate provision for my family, but not by anything that I have laid by; solely by my life insurance, my books, copyrights, and papers. In other respects I am in a worse situation than I was ten or fifteen years ago. My poems had then a much greater sale, and I stood upon better ground in the Quarterly Review. . . . . I am writing a paper at present for

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the first number of a Foreign Quarterly; possibly it is the last that I may ever write for a review. There was an engagement which might have enabled me at once* to have come to this resolution, but the last year’s failure compelled the publisher to recede from it. I do not, however, expect any difficulty in renewing it elsewhere, and have no fear that that Providence which has hitherto made the labour of the day sufficient for its support, will withdraw from me its continued blessing. . . . . I have always done for my brother Tom all I could, and not seldom to my own embarrassment in so doing. . . . .

“The question about National Education you will see discussed in my Colloquies, when they are completed. Here is the gist of the question. The human mind is like the earth, which never lies idle. You have a piece of garden ground. Neglect it, and it will be covered with weeds, useless to yourself and noxious to your neighbours. To lay it out in flowers and shrubbery is what you do not want. Cultivate it then for common fruits and culinary plants. So with poor children. Why should they be made worse servants, worse labourers, worse mechanics, for being taught their Bible, their Christian duties, and the elements of useful knowledge? I am no friend of the London University, nor to Mechanics’ Institutes. There is a purpose in all these things of excluding religion, and preparing the way for the overthrow of the Church. But God will confound their devices; and my principle is, that where a religious foundation is laid, the more education the

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better. Will you have the lower class Christians or brutes? . . . .