“Sir,—There is so much tenderness mixed with the justice of your criticism, that, while I submit to the greatest part of it as unanswerable, I feel anxious to exculpate myself in those points where I believe it is in my power.
“You accuse me of trusting to newspapers for my authority. I have no other authority (no more, I believe, has half England) for any occurrence which I do not see: it is by newspapers that I am told that the French are at present victorious; and I have no doubt but you will allow that (in this particular, at least) they speak truth.
“2ndly. There appears an inconsistency in my having said to you, ‘I have no view to any public good in this piece,’ and afterwards alluding to its preventing future massacres: to this I reply that it was your hinting to me that it might do harm which gave me the first idea that it might do good.
“3rdly. I do not shrink from
Labour, but I shrink from ill-health, low spirits, disappointment, and a long
train of evils which attend on Laborious Literary work. I was ten months,
unceasingly,
| LETTER TO SHERIDAN. | 75 |
