religion, but reprobating
the conduct of the Irish Catholics, and pointing out the necessary
effects which that conduct must have on the Catholic Question, would
have a powerful effect, and might really serve king and country. Nothing
the agitators desire so much as to render the broil general, as a
quarrel between Catholic and Protestant; nothing so essential to the
Protestant cause as to confine it to its real causes. Southey, as much a
fanatic as e'er a Catholic of them all, will, I fear, pass this most
necessary landmark of debate. I like his person, admire his genius, and
respect his immense erudition, but--_non omnia_. In point of reasoning
and political judgment he is a perfect Harpado--nothing better than a
wild bull. The circumstances require the interference of _vir gravis
pietate et moribus_, and you bring it a Highland piper to blow a
Highland charge, the more mischievous that it possesses much wild power
of inflaming the passions.

"Your idea that you must give Southey his swing in this matter or he
will quit the _Review_,--this is just a pilot saying, If I do not give
the helm to such a passenger he will quit the ship. Let him quit and be
d--d.

"My own confidence is, you know, entirely in the D. As Bruce said to the
Lord of the Isles at Bannockburn, 'My faith is constant in thee.' Now a
hurly-burly charge may derange his line of battle, and therein be of the
most fatal consequence. For God's sake avail yourself of the
communication I opened while in town, and do not act without it. Send
this to the D. of W. If you will, he will appreciate the motives that
dictate it. If he approves of a calm, moderate, but firm statement,
stating the unreasonable course pursued by the Catholics as the great
impediment to their own wishes, write such an article _yourself_; no one
can make a more impressive appeal to common sense than you can.

"The circumstances of the times are--_must_ be--an apology for
disappointing Southey. But nothing can be an apology for indulging him
at the expense of aggravating public disturbance, which, for one, I see
with great apprehension.

"It has not yet come our length; those [to] whom you allude ought
certainly to be served, but the D. is best judge how they may be _best_
served. If the D. says nothing on the subject you can slip your
Derwentwater greyhound if you like. I write hastily, but most anxiously.
... I repeat that I think it possible to put the Catholic Question as it
now s