he says;
"The secretaryship of our Legation at Washington was vacant the other
day, and I instantly asked for it; but in the very kindest letter Lord
Clarendon showed how the petition was impossible. First, the place was
given away. Next, it would not be fair to appoint out of the service.
But the first was an excellent reason;--not a doubt of it." The validity
of the second was probably not so apparent to him as it is to one who
has himself waited long for promotion. "So if ever I come," he
continues, "as I hope and trust to do this time next year, it must be in
my own coat, and not the Queen's." Certainly in his own coat, and not in
the Queen's, must Thackeray do anything by which he could mend his
fortune or make his reputation. There never was a man less fit for the
Queen's coat.

Nevertheless he held strong ideas that much was due by the Queen's
ministers to men of letters, and no doubt had his feelings of slighted
merit, because no part of the debt due was paid to him. In 1850 he wrote
a letter to _The Morning Chronicle_, which has since been republished,
in which he alludes to certain opinions which had been put forth in _The
Examiner_. "I don't see," he says, "why men of letters should not very
cheerfully coincide with Mr. Examiner in accepting all the honours,
places, and prizes which they can get. The amount of such as will be
awarded to them will not, we may be pretty sure, impoverish the country
much; and if it is the custom of the State to reward by money, or titles
of honour, or stars and garters of any sort, individuals who do the
country service,--and if individuals are gratified at having 'Sir' or
'My lord' appended to their names, or stars and ribbons hooked on to
their coats and waistcoats, as men most undoubtedly are, and as their
wives, families, and relations are,--there can be no reason why men of
letters should not have the chance, as well as men of the robe or the
sword; or why, if honour and money are good for one profession, they
should not be good for another. No man in other callings thinks himself
degraded by receiving a reward from his Government; nor, surely, need
the literary man be more squeamish about pensions, and ribbons, and
titles, than the ambassador, or general, or judge. Every European state
but ours rewards its men of letters. The American Government gives them
their full share of its small patronage; and if Americans, why not
Englishmen?"

In this a great subject is discusse