Are you gone to Howick? You must have great pleasure, the greatest pleasure, in going there triumphant and all-powerful. It must be, I fear, a hasty pleasure, and that you cannot be long spared.
One of your greatest difficulties is the Church; you must
positively, in the course of the first session, make a provision for the
Catholic clergy of Ireland, and make it out of the revenues of the Irish
Protestant Church. I have in vain racked my brains to think how this can be
avoided, but it cannot. It will divide the Cabinet and agitate the country, but
you must face the danger
MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 339 |
We are all well. Cholera has made one successful effort at Taunton, and not repeated it, though a month has elapsed. Lord John Russell comes here on Saturday, and the Fazakerleys on Friday; so we shall be a strong Reform party for a few days. My butler said, in the kitchen, “he should let the country people peep through the shutters at Lord John for a penny apiece.” A very reasonable price. I wonder what he would charge for Lord Grey, if he should come here.
The cholera will have killed by the end of the year about
one person in every thousand. Therefore it is a thousand to one (supposing the
cholera to travel at the same rate) that any person does not die of the cholera
in any one year. This calculation is for the mass; but if you are prudent,
temperate, and rich, your chance is at least five times as good that you do not
die of the cholera,—in other words, five thousand to one that you do not die of
cholera in a year; it is not far from two millions to one that you do not die
any one day from cholera. It is only seven hundred and thirty thousand to one
that your house is not burnt down any one day. Therefore it is nearly three
340 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
An enormous harvest here, and every appearance of peace and plenty. God bless you, dear Lady Grey! My very kind regards to Lord Grey and Georgina.