no
commercial excitement or crisis, no political agitation; and that so
favourable an opportunity, in all respects, might not occur again for
years and years. I should be one of the most unhappy of men if I were
to go, and yet I cannot help being much stirred and influenced by the
golden prospect held before me."

He yielded nevertheless to other persuasion, and for that time the visit
was not to be. In six months more the Civil War began, and America was
closed to any such enterprise for nearly five years.

FOOTNOTES:

[237] It is pleasant to have to state that it was still flourishing when
I received Mr. Lawes's letter, on the 18th of December 1871.

[238] From the same letter, dated 1st of July 1861, I take what follows.
"Poor Lord Campbell's seems to me as easy and good a death as one could
desire. There must be a sweep of these men very soon, and one feels as
if it must fall out like the breaking of an arch--one stone goes from a
prominent place, and then the rest begin to drop. So, one looks, not
without satisfaction (in our sadness) at lives so rounded and complete,
towards Brougham, and Lyndhurst, and Pollock" . . . Yet, of Dickens's own
death, Pollock lived to write to me as the death of "one of the most
distinguished and honoured men England has ever produced; in whose loss
every man among us feels that he has lost a friend and an instructor."
Temple-Hatton, 10th of June 1870.

[239] If space were available here, his letters would supply many proofs
of his interest in Mr. George Moore's admirable projects; but I can only
make exception for his characteristic allusion to an incident that
tickled his fancy very much at the time. "I hope" (20th of Aug. 1863)
"you have been as much amused as I am by the account of the Bishop of
Carlisle at (my very particular friend's) Mr. George Moore's schools? It
strikes me as the funniest piece of weakness I ever saw, his addressing
those unfortunate children concerning Colenso. I cannot get over the
ridiculous image I have erected in my mind, of the shovel-hat and apron
holding forth, at that safe distance, to that safe audience. There is
nothing so extravagant in Rabelais, or so satirically humorous in Swift
or Voltaire."

[240] Eight years later he wrote "Holiday Romance" for a Child's
Magazine published by Mr. Fields, and "George Silverman's
Explanation"--of the same length, and for the same price. There are no
other such instances, I suppose, in the history of lit