and wherever I am, a little of English society in the morning must be part of my medicine. Had Anthony Maitland been going out immediately to the Mediterranean, I would not have declined the offer which Lord Lauderdale most kindly said he would have made, of taking both me and my brother; in so comfortable a way, I would have ventured on the experiment of a voyage, though hitherto my sickness has always lasted the whole time I was upon the water. I am in hopes, that by warm clothing and moderate journeys, I may perform the land journey without fatigue or exposure to cold. All this while, I have never said a word about your indisposition. I trust the threatening proved a false alarm, and that I shall find you on Thursday quite well again. Morpeth, Sunday Evening. I have had two days of travelling, and am nothing the worse for it; coming very leisurely, and taking every precaution against cold. The weather has been delightfully mild. I am becoming quite expert in the selfishness and egotism of an invalid. Your accounts of Foscolo are so interesting, that I am quite impatient to see him. Thank Lord Holland for his most kind letters. God bless you, my dear Lady Holland. Affectionately yours, FRA. HORNER. Mr. Horner spoke of the King, Ferdinand, in very strong terms of reprobation. He described him as being hated and despised throughout the Spanish nation; and expressed a hope that the people of Spain might be excited to reassert their rights, and depose Ferdinand. The Spanish Ambassador applied to the government, (much to the amusement, it is said, of the Foreign Secretary,) to have the member punished for speaking of his Catholic Majesty in such terms. - ED. ble LETTER CCLXXIX. FROM SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY. Knill Court, 6th Oct. 1816. Many thanks to you, my dear Horner, for the trou you have taken respecting the portrait. You have a good deal disappointed me by not saying any thing about yourself. I was in hopes, though your own health is a subject which does not, I believe, occupy much of your thoughts, that I should have heard from you that you had quite got rid of the cough with which you left town, and that you had no remains of that languor which I think I lately observed in you. I have often longed to tell you, and I avail myself of this opportu nity of doing it, that I do not think you nearly as careful of yourself as you ought to be. If you took little account of your health for your own sake, and for that your friends, yet your regard for the public good should induce you to pay the utmost attention to it. You will not, I am sure, suspect me of flattery, though your modesty may question the soundness of my judg ment, but it is my most sincere opinion, that there is no public man whose life it is of such importance to the country should be preserved as yours. Lady Romilly desires to be most kindly remembered to you. of Ever, my dear Horner, Most sincerely yours, SAMUEL ROMILLY. LETTER CCLXXX. TO HIS FATHER. My dear Sir, Great Russell Street, 11th Oct. 1816. We arrived to-day soon after twelve, and I have already seen Dr. Warren. He wishes me to see Dr. and wherever I am, a morning must be pa Maitland been going nean, I would not Lauderdale most taking both m way, I would Voyage, tho the whole that by perform cold. in Α ́ without communicating d to me formerly, or what sicians at Edinburgh, in order opinion, and afterwards confer have accordingly written to Dr. him to name a time when I may to me there is a nicety in the case; pression, I suppose, to one Dr. Thomson I found your kind letter, that there was an anomaly in it. You shall hear Besides others from all the family. We are much comexactly what they tell me. A by knowing that they are all well. My kind love to them My dear Sir, Most affectionately yours, FRA. HORNER. I ought to tell you that Dr. W. thought me looking better than when I left town. LETTER CCLXXXI. TO HENRY HALLAM, ESQ. My dear Hallam, Holland House, 14th Oct. 1816. I have heard of your kind inquiries and your friendly anxiety; if I were not under orders to be very taciturn, and almost constantly in a state of repose, I should have made a point of seeing you; but I fear I shall not have that pleasure before I go abroad. I have made up my mind to a system of exclusive attention to my health, for some time. From all I hear, Pisa, or some one of the small towns in that part any, will be the best residence for me during the e or four months of winter; if my health improves, shall be tempted to go farther south about the end of March, for I do not mean to come back till the east winds have ceased to blow here. It will be, as you know, a great act of kindness to write to me as often as you have leisure. I shall be anxious and nervous about public matters at home, till this lowering winter is over, and most of all about the state of the public mind, which I look upon as very diseased at present, and much inclined to give ear to quack doctors, and to try the experiment of violent prescriptions. As the people never dies, we shall get through the actual malady, and become prosperous again; but I dread what sacrifices we may be tempted to make of essential principles of policy, and especially of those which guard and consecrate property. Upon the subject of the public debts, I look upon the whole body of country gentlemen to be altogether unprincipled; as eager and sharpset for rapine, as the Jacobins ever were for their acres. Then you have a very feeble ministry; and, between their financial difficulties on the one hand, and the clamours of the idle-headed reformers on the other, I fear they will be base enough to make compromises that will produce no real ease to the state, but which will leave the lasting mischief of bad example and violated principle. Never were virtue and good sense on the part of the House of Commons more fervently to be prayed for. If, under such a conjuncture as the present, they shall compel the reduction of the army, and at the same time strengthen the government with an efficient system of taxation, abstaining from all predatory inroads upon property of any description, they will make our and wherever I am, a little of English society in the morning must be part of my medicine. Had Anthony Maitland been going out immediately to the Mediterranean, I would not have declined the offer which Lord Lauderdale most kindly said he would have made, of taking both me and my brother; in so comfortable a way, I would have ventured on the experiment of a voyage, though hitherto my sickness has always lasted the whole time I was upon the water. I am in hopes, that by warm clothing and moderate journeys, I may perform the land journey without fatigue or exposure to cold. All this while, I have never said a word about your indisposition. I trust the threatening proved a false alarm, and that I shall find you on Thursday quite well again. Morpeth, Sunday Evening. I have had two days of travelling, and am nothing the worse for it; coming very leisurely, and taking every precaution against cold. The weather has been delightfully mild. I am becoming quite expert in the selfishness and egotism of an invalid. Your accounts of Foscolo are so interesting, that I am quite impatient to see him. Thank Lord Holland for his most kind letters. God bless you, my dear Lady Holland. Affectionately yours, FRA. HORNER. Mr. Horner spoke of the King, Ferdinand, in very strong terms of reprobation. He described him as being hated and despised throughout the Spanish nation; and expressed a hope that the people of Spain might be excited to reassert their rights, and depose Ferdinand. The Spanish Ambassador applied to the government, (much to the amusement, it is said, of the Foreign Secretary,) to have the member punished for speaking of his Catholic Majesty in such terms. ED. |