I rejoice in the opportunity of presenting my best thanks to
you for your very kind reception of me at your delightful Castle, and for the
gratification which I derived from your amiable family. Long may your health
and happiness last. Our confidential communication has made a great impression
on my mind, and our friend Mr. Gifford
appeared no less struck by its palpable good sense and propriety. With regard
to the magazine, I have been obliged
to write peremptorily to Blackwood to
say that if the scurrilous part of the personality be continued, my name must
be removed. Hunt and Hazlitt merit every exposure and chastisement,
but it is not for me to inflict it in the way it has been done. Besides, it
lowers completely the tone and character of the journal, to which respectable
persons will cease to contribute, as they would soon find themselves exposed to
the abuse of such fellows in return. Indeed, I cannot conceive how our friends,
of so much character as well as genius, can condescend to the use of such
language. Barrow, as the head of all my
most respected friends, has told me that it would be utterly detrimental to my
character to continue my name any longer; and there is no occasion for its use,
for if the writers direct their minds to higher objects, to which they are
fully competent, the journal will sell ten times better. I have already raised
the sale 500 copies since I have joined in it. These personalities absolutely
tied up my hands, for it is now a constant reproach. I think you must be
equally aware of this. To be sure, I was not myself sensible of the effect,
until I took upon myself the
| VISIT TO ABBOTSFORD. | 15 |
I trust that you will have thought with every one here, that the number of the Quarterly is excellent. I don’t know if the subject of the ‘Translation of the Bible’* will yet have attracted you, but you will find it exceedingly interesting and most powerfully executed. I have got a copy of ‘Tales of the Dead,’ which I will take an early opportunity of sending to you, and perhaps you will send me a paper upon it. I am very much obliged by the two articles which you have contributed to our present number (No. 36). . . . There is no chance, I fear, that Sir John Malcolm will get the appointment which Sir Evan Nepean wants. Every one of his personal friends are out of the direction by rotation, and Elphinstone will get it. They are all alike deserving of it, and are the very best friends.
