“Sir,
“Various statements having been made in certain quarters of the press concerning my departure for Australia, may I request you will do me the kindness to insert these few words. Considering the great appreciation I received on the publication of my earliest works from some of the noblest intellects of the time, and that during a long period I have experienced the same from nearly all the foremost men in literature, in science, and in art, it would be equally absurd and ungrateful in me to complain of neglect. But while I repudiate all personal complaints at those circumstances which from times immemorial (and memorial) have been the common inheritance of all poets who had a lofty aim and no adventitious aids, I may be permitted simply to record the fact of twenty years of public indifference. This has continued nearly unbroken, so far as my substantive works are concerned, in the face of more elaborate philosophical analysis and criticism, and far higher eulogies, than any poet could reasonably expect during his life. With this record I take my leave.
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“Let me add, however, that I bear with me a profound emotion towards those, whether strangers or friends (and they are not a few), by whom my writings have been received in the spirit in which they were composed.
“I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
