especially as Cadell offers to accommodate with such
money as their house can save to pay off what presses. I hope to save,
rather than otherwise, and if I leave my literary property to my
children, it will make a very good thing for them, and Abbotsford must
in any event go to my family, so, on the whole, I have only to pray for
quiet times, for how can men mind their serious business--that is,
according to Cadell's views--buying _Waverley Novels_ when they are
going mad about the Catholic question. Dined at Mr. Nairne's, where
there was a great meeting of Bannatynians, rather too numerous, being on
the part of our host an Election dinner.

_March_ 7.--Sent away proofs. This extrication of my affairs, though
only a Pisgah prospect, occupies my mind more than is fitting; but
without some such hope I must have felt like one of the victims of the
wretch Burke, struggling against a smothering weight on my bosom, till
nature could endure it no longer. No; I will not be the sport of
circumstances. Come of it what will, "I'll bend my brows like Highland
trows" and make a bold fight of it.

"The best o't, the warst o't,
Is only just to die."[268]

And die I think I shall, though I am not such a coward as _mortem
conscire me ipso_. But I 'gin to grow aweary of the sun, and when the
plant no longer receives nourishment from light and air, there is a
speedy prospect of its withering.

Dined with the Banking Club of Scotland, in virtue of Sir Malachi
Malagrowther; splendid entertainment, of course. Sir John Hay in the
chair.

_March_ 8.--Spent the morning in reading proofs and additions to
_Magnum_. I got a note from Cadell, in which Ballantyne, by a letter
enclosed, totally condemns _Anne of Geierstein_--three volumes nearly
finished--a pretty thing, truly, for I will be expected to do it all
over again. Great dishonour in this, as Trinculo says,[269] besides an
infinite loss. Sent for Cadell to attend me next morning that we may
consult about this business. Peel has made his motion on the Catholic
question, with a speech of three hours. It is almost a complete
surrender to the Catholics, and so it should be, for half measures do
but linger out the feud. This will, or rather ought to, satisfy all men
who sincerely love peace, and therefore all men of property. But will
this satisfy Pat, who, with all his virtues, is certainly not the most
sensible person in the world? Perhaps not; and if not, it is but
fighting th