gh all his admiring fondness. To-day, she was less
animated than she generally is--almost grave at times--but not sad; and
I think that "Grandpapa" loved her better in this tranquil mood, than
in those of more eager enjoyment. I believe I read his meaning, that, in
her highest flow of spirits, he dreads the wear and tear consequent on
so much excitement; while in her more sombre days he indulges the hope
that she is storing up in repose the energies of future exertion. How it
takes off the egotism of sickness to have some one whose ever-watchful
care is busy for our benefit! how it carries away the load of "self,"
and all its troubles! while I.... But I must not dwell on this theme,
nor disturb that deep sense of gratitude I feel for all that I possess
of worldly advantage, were it no more than this blessing, that on
quitting life I leave it when my sense of enjoyment has mellowed into
that most lasting and enduring one, the love of quiet, of scenery, of
converse with old friends on by-gone events--the tranquil pleasures of
age tasted without the repining of age!

Lucy bantered me to-day upon my inordinate love of ease, as she called
it, forgetting that this inactivity was at first less from choice than
compulsion; now, it is a habit, one I may as well wear out, for I
have no time left to acquire new ones. She even tried to stimulate my
ambition, by alluding to my old career and the rewards it might have
opened to me. I could have told her that a father or an uncle at the
"Council" was of more avail than a clever despatch or a well-concluded
treaty; that some of our ablest Ministers are wasting life and energy at
small, obscure, and insignificant missions, where their functions never
rise beyond the presentation of letters of congratulation or condolence,
attendance on a court ball, or a _Te Deum_ for the sovereign's birthday;
while capacities that would be unnoticed, if they were not dangerous,
have the destinies of great events in their keeping. True, there is
always the Foreign Office as the "_Cour d'Appel_" and, whatever may be
the objections--grave and weighty they certainly are at times--against
those parliamentary interrogations by which the Minister is compelled to
reveal the object and course of his dealings with foreign nations, there
is one admirable result,--our foreign policy will always be National.
No Minister can long pursue any course in defiance of the approval of
Parliament; nor can any Parliament, in