“I have just got your packet. I am obliged to Mr. Bowles, and Mr. Bowles is obliged to me, for having restored him to good-humour. He is to write, and you to publish, what you please,—motto and subject. I desire nothing but fair play for all parties. Of course, after the new tone of Mr. Bowles, you will not publish my defence of Gilchrist: it would be brutal to do so after his urbanity, for it is rather too rough, like his own attack upon Gilchrist. You may tell him what I say there of his Missionary (it is praised, as it deserves). However, and if there are any passages not personal to Bowles, and yet bearing upon the question, you may add them to the reprint (if it is reprinted) of my first Letter to you. Upon this consult Gifford; and, above all, don’t let any thing be added which can personally affect Mr. Bowles.
“In the enclosed notes, of course what I say of the democracy of poetry cannot apply to Mr. Bowles, but to the Cockney and water washing-tub schools.
“I hope and trust that Elliston won’t be permitted to act the drama? Surely he might have the grace to wait for Kean’s return before he attempted it; though, even then, I should be as much against the attempt as ever.
“I have got a small packet of books, but neither Waldegrave, Oxford, nor Scott’s novels among them. Why don’t you republish Hodgson’s Childe Harold’s Monitor and Latino-mastix? they are excellent. Think of this,—they are all for Pope.
