Part 112 (1/2)
MY DEAR C----,
You will wonder what is become of us, and I am afraid you will think me very unworthy the trouble you took in writing to us and sending your pamphlet. A thousand little things have occurred to prevent my calling upon Mrs. Wordsworth, who is ever ready to write for me, in respect to the question that you have so ably handled. Since the night when the Reform Bill was first introduced, I have been convinced that the inst.i.tutions of the country cannot be preserved.... It is a mere question _of time_. A great majority of the present parliament, I believe, are in the main favourable to the preservation of the Church, but among these many are ignorant how that is to be done. Add to the portion of those who with good intentions are in the dark, the number who will be driven or tempted to vote against their consciences by the clamour of their sectarian and infidel const.i.tuents under the Reform Bill, and you will have a daily augmenting power even in this parliament, which will be more and more hostile to the Church every week and every day. You will see from the course which my letter thus far has taken, that I regard the prayer of the Pet.i.tioners to whom you are opposed as formidable still more from the effect which, if granted, it will ultimately have upon the Church, and through that medium upon the Monarchy and upon social order, than for its immediate tendency to introduce discord in the universities, and all those deplorable consequences which you have so feelingly painted as preparatory to their destruction.
I am not yet able to use my eyes for reading or writing, but your pamphlet has been twice read to me....
G.o.d bless you....
Affectionately yours, WM. WORDSWORTH.[131]
[130] _Memoirs_, ii. 263-4.
[131] _Ibid._ ii. 267-8.
84. _The Poems of Skelton_.
LETTER TO THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.
Rydal Mount, Kendal, Jan. 7. 1833.
MY DEAR SIR,
Having an opportunity of sending this to town free of postage, I write to thank you for your last obliging letter. Sincerely do I congratulate you upon having made such progress with Skelton, a writer deserving of far greater attention than his works have hitherto received. Your edition will be very serviceable, and may be the occasion of calling out ill.u.s.trations, perhaps, of particular pa.s.sages from others, beyond what your own reading, though so extensive, has supplied. I am pleased also to hear that 's.h.i.+rley' is out.
I lament to hear that your health is not good. My own, G.o.d be thanked, is excellent; but I am much dejected with the aspect of public affairs, and cannot but fear that this nation is on the brink of great troubles.
Be a.s.sured that I shall at all times be happy to hear of your studies and pursuits, being, with great respect,
Sincerely yours, WM. WORDSWORTH.[132]
85. _The Works of James s.h.i.+rley_.
LETTER TO THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.
Rydal Mount, March 20. 1833.
MY DEAR SIR, I have to thank you for the very valuable present of s.h.i.+rley's works, just received. The preface is all that I have yet had time to read. It pleased me to find that you sympathised with me in admiration of the pa.s.sage from the d.u.c.h.ess of Newcastle's poetry; and you will be gratified to be told that I have the opinion you have expressed of that cold and false-hearted Frenchified c.o.xcomb, Horace Walpole.
Poor s.h.i.+rley! what a melancholy end was his! and then to be so treated by Dryden! One would almost suspect some private cause of dislike, such as is said to, have influenced Swift in regard to Dryden himself.
[132] _Memoirs_, ii. 274-5.
s.h.i.+rley's death reminded me of a sad close of the life of a literary person, Sanderson by name, in the neighbouring county of c.u.mberland. He lived in a cottage by himself, though a man of some landed estate. His cottage, from want of care on his part, took fire in the night. The neighbours were alarmed; they ran to his rescue; he escaped, dreadfully burned, from the flames, and lay down (he was in his seventieth year) much exhausted under a tree, a few yards from the door. His friends, in the meanwhile, endeavoured to save what they could of his property from the flames. He inquired most anxiously after a box in which his ma.n.u.scripts and published pieces had been deposited with a view to a publication of a laboriously-corrected edition; and, upon being told that the box was consumed, he expired in a few minutes, saying, or rather sighing out the words, 'Then I do not wish to live.' Poor man!
though the circulation of his works had not extended beyond a circle of fifty miles' diameter, perhaps, at furthest, he was most anxious to survive in the memory of the few who were likely to hear of him.
The publis.h.i.+ng trade, I understand, continues to be much depressed, and authors are driven to solicit or invite subscriptions, as being in many cases the only means for giving their works to the world.
I am always pleased to hear from you; and believe me,
My dear Sir,