Had I received your letter two days since, I should have
said your arguments and theory were perfectly convincing, and that the most
obstinate sceptic must have yielded to them; but I have come across a person in
that interval who gives me information which puts us all at sea again. That the
Bluecoat boy should be the larva of the Quaker in Great Britain is possible,
and even probable, but we must take a wider view of the question; and here, I
confess, I am bewildered by doubts and difficulties. The Bluecoat is an
indigenous animal—not so the Quaker; and now be so good as to give your whole
mind to the facts I have to communicate. I have seen and talked much with
Sir R. Ker Porter on this
interesting subject. He has travelled over the whole habitable globe, and has
penetrated with a scientific and scrutinizing eye into regions hitherto
unexplored by civilized man; and yet he has never seen a Quaker baby. He has
lived for years in Philadelphia (the national nest of Quakers); he has roamed
up and down Broadways and lengthways in every nook and corner of Pennsylvania;
and yet he never saw a Quaker baby; and what is new and most
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 515 |
