,
because what men of keen feelings and literary pursuits must
have felt, cannot be unknown to you, and you may not have
the same access to know the impression made upon the general
class of society.

I have to thank you for the continuation of the History of
Brazil--one of your gigantic labors; the fruit of a mind so
active, yet so patient of labor. I am not yet far advanced
in the second volume, reserving it usually for my hour's
amusement in the evening, as children keep their dainties
for _bonne bouche_: but as far as I have come, it possesses
all the interest of the commencement, though a more
faithless and worthless set than both Dutch and Portuguese I
have never read of; and it requires your knowledge of the
springs of human action, and your lively description of
"hair-breadth 'scapes," to make one care whether the hog
bites the dog, or the dog bites the hog. Both nations were
in rapid declension from their short-lived age of heroism,
and in the act of experiencing all those retrograde
movements which are the natural consequence of selfishness
on the one hand, and bigotry on the other.

I am glad to see you are turning your mind to the state of
the poor. Should you enter into details on the subject of
the best mode of assisting them, I would be happy to tell
you the few observations I have made--not on a very small
scale neither, considering my fortune, for I have kept about
thirty of the laborers in my neighborhood in constant
employment this winter. This I do not call charity, because
they executed some extensive plantations and other works,
which I could never have got done so cheaply, and which I
always intended {p.166} one day to do. But neither was it
altogether selfish on my part, because I was putting myself
to inconvenience in incurring the expense of several years
at once, and certainly would not have done so, but to serve
mine honest neighbors, who were likely to want work but for
such exertion. From my observation, I am inclined greatly to
doubt the salutary effect of the scheme generally adopted in
Edinburgh and elsewhere for relieving the poor. At
Edinburgh, they are employed on public works at so much a
day--tenpence, I believe, or one shilling, with an advance
to those who have families. This rat