a splendid number or two
will be a sufficient answer, and I accepted with due acknowledgment his
proposal of continued support. I cannot say I was afraid of his
withdrawing. Lockhart will have hard words with him, for, great as
Southey's powers are, he has not the art to make them work popularly; he
is often diffuse, and frequently sets much value on minute and
unimportant facts, and useless pieces of abstruse knowledge. Living too
exclusively in a circle where he is idolised both for his genius and the
excellence of his disposition, he has acquired strong prejudices,
though all of an upright and honourable cast. He rides his High Church
hobby too hard, and it will not do to run a tilt upon it against all the
world. Gifford used to crop his articles considerably, and they bear
mark of it, being sometimes _decousues._ Southey said that Gifford cut
out his _middle joints_. When John comes to use the carving-knife I fear
Dr. Southey will not be so tractable. _Nous verrons_. I will not show
Southey's letter to Lockhart, for there is to him personally no friendly
tone, and it would startle the Hidalgo's pride. It is to be wished they
may draw kindly together. Southey says most truly that even those who
most undervalue his reputation would, were he to withdraw from the
_Review_, exaggerate the loss it would thereby sustain. The bottom of
all these feuds, though not named, is _Blackwood's Magazine_; all the
squibs of which, which have sometimes exploded among the Lakers,
Lockhart is rendered accountable for. He must now exert himself at once
with spirit and prudence.[46] He has good backing--Canning, Bishop
Blomfield, Gifford, Wright, Croker, Will Rose,--and is there not besides
the Douglas?[47] An excellent plot, excellent friends, and full of
preparations? It was no plot of my making, I am sure, yet men will say
and believe that [it was], though I never heard a word of the matter
till first a hint from Wright, and then the formal proposal of Murray to
Lockhart announced. I believe Canning and Charles Ellis were the prime
movers. I'll puzzle my brains no more about it.

Dined at Justice-Clerk's--the President--Captain Smollett, etc.,--our
new Commander-in-chief, Hon. Sir Robert O'Callaghan, brother to Earl of
Lismore, a fine soldierly-looking man, with orders and badges;--his
brother, an agreeable man, whom I met at Lowther Castle this season. He
composes his own music and sings his own poetry--has much humour,
enhanced by a