ich he applies them" (Norwich,
July 10, 1826). As Cato owed Lucan's panegyric to the firmness he had
shown in adhering to the losing cause, and to his steadfastness to the
principles he had adopted, so I considered the Bishop's application of
the lines to me as highly complimentary' ('Life and Times,' vol. ii. pp.
437-8). It seemed only due to the subject of WORDSWORTH'S invective and
opposition to give _his_ view of the struggle and another's worthy of
all respect. Unless the writer has been misinformed, WORDSWORTH and
BROUGHAM came to know and worthily estimate each other when the
exacerbations and clamours of provincial politics had long passed away,
and when, except the 'old gray head' of WELLINGTON, none received more
reverence from the nation than that of HENRY BROUGHAM. In the
just-issued 'Memoirs of the Reigns of George IV. and William IV.' by
GREVILLE, BROUGHAM and WORDSWORTH are brought together very pleasingly.
(See these works, vol. iii. p. 504.)
The Author's personal relations to the Lowthers semi-unconsciously
coloured his opinions, and intensified his partisanship and glorified
the commonplace. But with all abatements these 'Two Addresses' supply
much material for a right and high estimate of WORDSWORTH as man and
thinker. As invariably, he descends to the roots of things, and almost
ennobles even his prejudices and alarms and ultra-caution. There is the
same terse, compacted, pungent style in these 'Two Addresses' with his
general prose. Bibliographically the 'Two Addresses' are even rarer and
higher-priced than the 'Convention of Cintra.'
_(e) Of the Catholic Relief Bill_, 1829.
To the great names of EDMUND SPENSER and Sir JOHN DAVIES, as Englishmen
who dealt with the problem of the government of Ireland, and found it,
as more recent statesmen have done, to be in infinite ways 'England's
difficulty,' has now to be added one not less great--WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
If at this later day--for even 1829 seems remote now--much of the
present letter to the Bishop of London (BLOMFIELD) is mainly of
historical noticeableness, as revealing how 'Catholic Emancipation'
looked to one of the foremost minds of his age, there are, nevertheless,
expressions of personal opinion--_e.g._ against the Athanasian Creed in
its 'cursing' clauses, and expositions of the Papacy regarded
politically and ecclesiastically in its domination of Ireland, that have
a message for to-day strangely congruous with that of the magnificent
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