‘My dear Rogers,—I unfortunately allowed the messenger to go back to-day without an answer to your very kind note; but I hope you will not think me the less obliged to you for it.
‘I have no doubt that there are plenty of people at work
to do all possible mischief; and as far as I am myself concerned, I care little
about it. But in a situation of so much embarrassment and danger, it requires a
degree of malignity, not common, to risk all the confusion which, in their
desire to overthrow the government, they are exerting themselves to produce.
You are quite right. If the question of Reform was settled, all our foreign
politics would go right; and the King of
Holland, whose obstinacy is encouraged by the belief
| EARL GREY: JOANNA BAILLIE | 77 |
‘If our house had not been full we should have asked you to come to meet the Hollands. They leave us on Saturday, and we go ourselves to town, for good, on Monday; when I hope we shall frequently have the pleasure of seeing you. Holland is suffering from a threatening of gout. Lady Grey desires to be most kindly remembered to you.
