.S. A gentleman named D'Alton (not your Dalton) has sent me a
National Poem called 'Dermid.' The same cause which prevented my
writing to you operated against my wish to write to him an epistle
of thanks. If you see him, will you make all kinds of fine speeches
for me, and tell him that I am the laziest and most ungrateful of
mortals?

"A word more;--don't let Sir John Stevenson (as an evidence on
trials for copy-right, &c.) talk about the price of your next poem,
or they will come upon you for the _property tax_ for it. I am
serious, and have just heard a long story of the rascally tax-men
making Scott pay for his. So, take care. Three hundred is a devil
of a deduction out of three thousand."

[Footnote 81: This and the following letter were addressed to me in
Ireland, whither I had gone about the middle of the preceding month.]

[Footnote 82: He had lately become one of the members of the
Sub-Committee, (consisting, besides himself, of the persons mentioned in
this letter,) who had taken upon themselves the management of Drury Lane
Theatre; and it had been his wish, on the first construction of the
Committee, that I should be one of his colleagues. To some mistake in
the mode of conveying this proposal to me, he alludes in the preceding
sentence.]

[Footnote 83: The following is the enclosure here referred to:--

"Darlington, June 3. 1815.

"My Lord,

"I have lately purchased a set of your works, and am quite vexed
that you have not cancelled the Ode to Buonaparte. It certainly was
prematurely written, without thought or reflection. Providence has
now brought him to reign over millions again, while the same
Providence keeps as it were in a garrison another potentate, who,
in the language of Mr. Burke, 'he hurled from his throne.' See if
you cannot make amends for your folly, and consider that, in almost
every respect, human nature is the same, in every clime and in
every period, and don't act the part of a _foolish boy_.--Let not
Englishmen talk of the stretch of tyrants, while the torrents of
blood shed in the East Indies cry aloud to Heaven for retaliation.
Learn, good sir, not to cast the first stone. I remain your
Lordship's servant,

"J. R * *."
]

* * * * *

LETTER 223. TO MR. MOORE.

"July 7. 1815.

"'Grata superveniet,'