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The Life of William Roscoe
Chapter XV. 1817-1818
William Roscoe to the Marquis de Lafayette, [August? 1818]
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Preface
Vol I. Contents
Chapter I. 1753-1781
Chapter II. 1781-1787
Chapter III. 1787-1792
Chapter IV. 1788-1796
Chapter V. 1795
Chapter VI. 1796-1799
Chapter VII. 1799-1805
Chapter IX. 1806-1807
Chapter X. 1808
Chapter XI. 1809-1810
Vol II. Contents
Chapter XII. 1811-1812
Chapter XIII. 1812-1815
Chapter XIV. 1816
Chapter XV. 1817-1818
Chapter XVI. 1819
Chapter XVII. 1820-1823
Chapter XVIII. 1824
Chapter XIX. 1825-1827
Chapter XX. 1827-1831
Chapter XXI.
Appendix
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“The letter with which you have honoured me has afforded me the sincerest pleasure; not merely as it gratifies me with a direct communication from one whom I have ever regarded with the sincerest admiration and respect, but as it
182LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE.
proves, that after a series of events, such as few persons have ever experienced, you still preserve your health and spirits uninjured, and enjoy the happiness of looking back on those events with the consciousness of one who has steered a direct and steady course, under circumstances almost too much for human fortitude to sustain. Grieving as I do for the defeated efforts and blighted prospects of liberty,—of that rational and temperate liberty, which equally rejects the anarchy of the many, or the despotism of the few,—it is with tenfold pleasure that I can yet turn towards one of her firmest adherents, and console myself in the idea, that such an example will not be lost to the world. No, my dear Sir, the salt hath not lost its savour, nor is the cause of the human race hopeless. A few works, surviving the wreck of ages, have preserved to mankind the memorials of science and of art; and a few names, illuminating the page of history, will afford a strong and steady light to ages yet to come.

“Instead of continually lamenting what we have lost, it is, perhaps, wiser to avail ourselves as well as we can of the little that has been saved. The former can only open those wounds which it is desirable should be for ever closed; the latter affords us a consolatory hope, that the favourable appearance at present observable in France may be realised; that a limited monarchy, recognising the rights of the people, may be es-
LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE.183
tablished; and that sacrifices, such as no other nation ever made, may not have been made in vain.

“In expressing these wishes for the prosperity of your country, I am sensible how nearly I sympathise with your own;—to express them to you in person would be a still greater happiness; but, although the distance which separates us is not great, I fear I must not flatter myself with the hope of seeing you in your retirement. It will, however, afford me a consolation, that I have been favoured with the kind assurances contained in your letter, which I enjoyed the more, as I feel, that as far as a concordance of sentiment and the most sincere and habitual attachment can lay claim to them, I may hope to merit a continuance of them.”