I was in hopes to have spent a quiet old-age; but all Europe is getting into a blaze, and that lightheaded old fool, La Fayette, wants, I see, to crusade it for Poland. Swing is retiring. He is only formidable when he takes you unawares. He was stopped in his way from Kent before he reached us. I can give you no plan for employing the poor. I took great pains about these matters when I was a magistrate, but have forgotten all my plans. There are too many human beings on the earth: every two men ought to kill a third.
I should not be surprised if there were a dissolution of Parliament. I think the Tories will try to make a last rally with this Parliament, yet the fools ought to see that there is nothing between Lord Grey and Cobbett.
314 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
—— spent a fortnight with us; he was remarkably well and contradictory—clear of gout and of assent.
Read the ‘Collegians,’ an admirable novel, but an old one, of two or three years’ standing.