onable motive to acts of sheer insanity. The
feeblest parts of the book are those in which Lord George and his
secretary appear.

He left for Scotland after the middle of June, but he took work with
him. "You may suppose," he wrote from Edinburgh on the 30th, "I have not
done much work; but by Friday night's post from here I hope to send the
first long chapter of a number and both the illustrations; from Loch
Earn on Tuesday night, the closing chapter of that number; from the same
place on Thursday night, the first long chapter of another, with both
the illustrations; and, from some place which no man ever spelt but
which sounds like Ballyhoolish, on Saturday, the closing chapter of that
number, which will leave us all safe till I return to town." Nine days
later he wrote from "Ballechelish," "I have done all I can or need do in
the way of _Barnaby_ until I come home, and the story is progressing (I
hope you will think) to good strong interest. I have left it, I think,
at an exciting point, with a good dawning of the riots. In the first of
the two numbers I have written since I have been away, I forget whether
the blind man, in speaking to Barnaby about riches, tells him they are
to be found in _crowds_. If I have not actually used that word, will you
introduce it? A perusal of the proof of the following number (70) will
show you how, and why." "Have you," he wrote shortly after his return
(29th July), "seen No. 71? I thought there was a good glimpse of a
crowd, from a window--eh?" He had now taken thoroughly to the interest
of his closing chapters, and felt more than ever the constraints of his
form of publication. "I am warming up very much" (on the 5th August from
Broadstairs) "about _Barnaby_. Oh! if I only had him, from this time to
the end, in monthly numbers. _N'importe!_ I hope the interest will be
pretty strong,--and, in every number, stronger." Six days later, from
the same place: "I was always sure I could make a good thing of
_Barnaby_, and I think you'll find that it comes out strong to the last
word. I have another number ready, all but two slips. Don't fear for
young Chester. The time hasn't come----there we go again, you see, with
the weekly delays. I am in great heart and spirits with the story, and
with the prospect of having time to think before I go on again." A
month's interval followed, and what occupied it will be described
shortly. On the 11th September he wrote, "I have just burnt into
Newgate,