‘My dear Mr. Rogers,—It is such an age since I have written to you that I am really under obligations to my honored friend, the Chief Justice of Massachusetts, who has asked of me for his son-in-law, Mr. Herman Melville, the favor of one or two letters to London. This gentleman (I am sorry to say) is not known to me personally. He is known to you and the entire reading world by his “Typee” and “Omoo,” and another work of the same class, which I have not yet seen. I understand Mr. Melville’s character to be altogether such as warrants me in commending him to your kind notice. His brother, who was Secretary of Legation under Mr. M’Lane, was, I think, known to you. Few of our writers have been as successful at home as Mr. Herman Melville, and I am happy to perceive that his productions are well known on your side of the water.
‘Mr. Melville is going to pass a few months in England and France, and while he is in London I want him to see a few of those choicest spirits, who even at the present day increase the pride which we feel in speaking the language of Shakespeare and Milton. In a word, my dear friend, I want you to admit him to the freedom of No. 22 St. James’s Place.
‘I need not tell you how constantly we think of you,
how often we speak of you, how regularly we do the honors of your portrait to
all who come to us. I should be delighted to hear, under your own hand and
seal, the confirmation of the good accounts I have of you from
| LORD GLENELG | 343 |
