with no belief that such remark
upon it as a person in his position could alone be expected to make
would be resented strongly by any sections of the American people. But
he was not long left in doubt on this head. He had spoken upon it twice
publicly, "to the great indignation of some of the editors here, who are
attacking me for so doing, right and left." On the other hand, all the
best men had assured him that, if only at once followed up in England,
the blow struck might bring about a change in the law; and, yielding to
the pleasant hope that the best men could be a match for the worst, he
urged me to enlist on his side what force I could, and in particular, as
he had made Scott's claim his war-cry, to bring Lockhart into the field.
I could not do much, but I did what I could.

Three days later he began another letter; and, as this will be entirely
new to the reader, I shall print it as it reached me, with only such
omission of matter concerning myself as I think it my duty, however
reluctantly, to make throughout these extracts. There was nothing in its
personal details, or in those relating to international copyright,
available for his _Notes_; from which they were excluded by the two
rules he observed in that book,--the first to be altogether silent as to
the copyright discussion, and the second to abstain from all mention of
individuals. But there can be no harm here in violating either rule,
for, as Sydney Smith said with his humorous sadness, "We are all dead
now."

"Carlton House, New York: Thursday, February Seventeenth, 1842. . . . As
there is a sailing-packet from here to England to-morrow which is
warranted (by the owners) to be a marvelous fast sailer, and as it
appears most probable that she will reach home (I write the word with a
pang) before the Cunard steamer of next month, I indite this letter. And
lest this letter should reach you before another letter which I
dispatched from here last Monday, let me say in the first place that I
_did_ dispatch a brief epistle to you on that day, together with a
newspaper, and a pamphlet touching the Boz ball; and that I put in the
post-office at Boston another newspaper for you containing an account of
the dinner, which was just about to come off, you remember, when I wrote
to you from that city.

"It was a most superb affair; and the speaking _admirable_. Indeed, the
general talent for public speaking here is one of the most striking of
the things that force