1853
91.
TO RICHARD HUSSEY WALSH
[1853]
I can sincerely say that it is a clear, full, and, in my judgment, accurate exposition of the principles of the subject, and if you are as successful in treating all the other branches of political economy, as you have been in this important branch, your qualifications for teaching it are of a high order.
92.
TO JOHN CHAPMAN
Jan. 17. [1853]
Dear Sir
There is no subject on which I wish to write in the next number of the Westr. If I write anything on the present aspect of politics I am disposed rather to do so in the form of a pamphlet.
I am Dear Sir
yrs truly
J. S. Mill
93.
TO LORD MONTEAGLE
20 March 1853
Dear Lord Monteagle—
The suggestion in the paper you sent me is intended to meet a difficulty which has always appeared to me one of the chief stumbling blocks of representative government. Whoever could devise a means of preventing minorities from being, as they now are, swamped, and enabling them to obtain a share of the representation proportional to their numbers and not more than proportional, would render a great service. Whether the plan proposed would do this, and to what objections it may be liable, I should be sorry to be obliged to say without more consideration than I have yet given to it. One thing seems to me evident: that if this plan were adopted, no constituency ought to elect fewer than three members. For if the number be two, as the proposed plan would enable a minority to count for double its number, any minority exceeding one third could ensure half the representation; which, unless the minority can be presumed to consist of wiser or better persons than the majority, would be contrary to all principle.
One very strong recommendation of the plan of cumulative votes occurs to me, which is not mentioned in the Memorandum. If we suppose a voter to determine his vote by the personal merits of the candidates, and not solely by their being on the same side with himself in the common party divisions, it will frequently happen that he greatly prefers one of the candidates, and is comparatively indifferent to all the others, so that he would, if he could, give all his votes to that one. This wish is most likely to be felt by the best voters, and in favour of the best candidates, and it seems to me right that strength of preference should have some influence as well as the mere number of persons preferring. To allow the cumulative vote would be one of the best ways which occur to me of enabling quality of support to count as well as quantity. The candidates most likely to benefit by it would be those who were too good for the mass of the constituency; those for example, whose election was endangered by some honest but unpopular vote or opinion, and who for that very reason would probably be supported with redoubled zeal by the better minority, and their election made the first object.
I do not see the force of your objection respecting bribery. No doubt if a candidate depended solely on bribed votes, he would find it easier to succeed if every bribed voter could give two or three votes for him instead of one. But to carry an election by bribing everybody is only possible with smaller constituencies than ought to exist. In large or even moderate constituencies, the bribed are only the two or three hundred who in a nearly balanced state of parties turn the scale. Now in this case the minority can get no corrupt advantage from the cumulative vote unless they limit their aim to a part of the representation; and if they do this, the cumulative vote may probably enable them to attain their object without bribing. Thus, if there are two members to be returned, and the minority will be content with returning one, a minority exceeding a third would have no inducement to bribe, but only a minority of less than a third. At present the reverse is the case: a minority of less than a third has no chance of succeeding by bribery, while a minority of more than a third has. The cumulative vote therefore displaces, but does not seem to me to increase, the inducement to bribe.
The point is well worth consideration in framing a new Reform Bill, which, to be any real improvement, ought not to be a mere imitation and extension of the Reform Bill of 1832. There are, as it seems to me, three great and perfectly safe improvements, which could hardly be successfully resisted if a Government proposed them. One is to have no small constituencies: this might be done by grouping the small towns into districts. Another is to let in the principle of an educational qualification, by requiring from all voters, in addition to any property or ratepaying conditions that may be imposed, at least reading, writing, and arithmetic. The third is to open the franchise to women who fulfil the same conditions on which it is granted to men; in the same manner as they already vote for boards of guardians. They have as much interest in good laws as men have, and would vote at least as well. Electoral districts seem to me needless, and ballot would now be a step backward instead of forward.
I beg to apologise for not having answered sooner, but I did not like to give an opinion without consideration, and being pressed for time I was not able before to give the subject even the degree of consideration which I have now done.—I am, dear Lord Monteagle, very truly yours,
J. S. Mill
94.
TO JOHN CHAPMAN
April 25. [1853]
Dear Sir
I am obliged to you for your propositions with respect to publishing either notes to the Analysis, or my contributions to reviews, but in the first place I am engaged on a new work of my own, so that I have not time to spare, and if I had, I should hardly like to publish anything without first offering it to Mr Parker with whom I have been so many years connected as publisher.
I do not think it will be worth while to write anything on the politics of the day at the end of the session. The doings of the session, though useful, have been on too small a scale to afford subjects, and the two principal topics, the financial measures and the India question, will be decided and the interest gone, before the next publication of the review. For large views on any subject there is daily less and less public in this country.
I am yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
95.
TO GEORGE CORNEWALL LEWIS
May 4. [1853]
Dear Lewis
I shall be happy to review the last three volumes of Mr Grote’s History. I had engaged to review the 9th and 10th volumes for Mr Empson but finding that they hardly afforded sufficient material, I had agreed with him to put off writing until the volume now published could be included. I think with you that there is now matter enough for an article, though more might have been made of the subject if there had been a greater amount of dissertation and discussion in the volumes. I am glad you will not want the article for the July number.
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
96.
TO SIR WILLIAM MOLESWORTH
15 May [1853]
Dear Molesworth—
My opinions on these subjects are very much the same with yours except where they are mixed up with other subjects. I conceive that in the present state of the distribution of wealth in this country any additional land brought into the market is likely to be bought by rich people & not by poor. The present question however does not turn upon whether partition is an evil or a good —but upon whether to save the owner of a landed estate from the necessity of selling part of it (in this case a very small part) he ought to be exempted from paying his fair share of the taxes. This is so impudent a pretension that it hardly admits of any more complete exposure than is made by the simplest statement. The reason would seem just as well for dispensing them from paying any taxes whatever, or from paying their debts, for they may be unable to do either of these without selling their land. If the inheritors of land wish to keep it entire let them save the tax out of their income. Gladstone allows them several years to do it in. No large proprietor ought to have any difficulty in this, except those who are deeply mortgaged, & the sooner they can be induced to sell, the better. That is a proposition which may be very safely assumed in these days.
I do not know any writers who have discussed taxes on succession at much length, except some of the French Socialists, & they (besides that they are bad political economists) derive their arguments from premises not suited to the atmosphere of the H. o. C.
I am yrs vry truly
97.
TO GEORGE CORNEWALL LEWIS
July 10 [1853]
My dear Lewis
I think that when the India Bill has passed which it virtually has already, the time will be gone by for an article on the form of government. All questions respecting the form of government will be closed for some years to come & it seems to me that nothing practical can come of any writing on the subject—& there are very few readers who would be interested in the mere theory. What I should write on India at present would be only, or chiefly, on the administrative part of the subject. I should try to correct the ignorant and dishonest misrepresentations of the present mode of governing India, & at the same time to point out how it may be improved. I could write such an article for the Edinburgh if you would like to have it—but not in time for the January number.
yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
98.
TO LORD HOBART
Aug. 7 [1853]
My Lord—
Allow me to thank you for a copy of your pamphlet on the Law of Partnership. Such subjects are not often discussed with so much closeness of reasoning & precision of expression; & it is still more rare to find the question of justice separated from that of expediency & made paramount to it. I prefer to say “justice” rather than, in your words “natural justice”, both because Nature is often grossly unjust & because I do not think that the first spontaneous sentiment of justice always agrees with that which is the result of enlightened reflexion.
As you do me the honor to ask my opinion of your argument, I think that as much of it as is in defence of the commandite principle is sound, & conclusively stated. But you have not convinced me that either justice or expediency requires the unlimited liability of all who take part in the management, or in other words that there ought to be no compagnies anonymes. Justice, it appears to me, is fully satisfied if those who become creditors of the partnership know beforehand that they will have no claim beyond the amount of the subscribed capital. The points of additional information mentioned in pages 5 & 7 & which you say cannot be possessed by the public, do not seem to me required in justice, even if they were in point of expediency. Volenti non fit injuria: if a person chooses to lend either to an individual or a company knowing that the borrowers only pledge a certain sum & not their whole property for the debt, I cannot see that there is any injustice done merely because the lender cannot watch that certain sum & know at all times where it is & what is being done with it. I differ from you also though with somewhat less confidence on the question of expending. I do not doubt that the unlimited liability of railway directors would be some additional security for prudent management, but the additional security would I think be too dearly purchased by the renunciation of all power in the shareholders to control the directors or to change them. The publicity afforded by the periodical meetings of shareholders, by the necessity of laying before them the entire state of the concern & their power of verifying the statements, seems to me a far greater protection to the public as well as to shareholders than the liability of the directors to the full extent of their property especially considering how imperfect a check to rash speculation this is in private transactions.
Yr obt Servt
99.
TO GEORGE CORNEWALL LEWIS
Aug. 24 [1853]
My dear Lewis
I send what I have to say on Mr Grote’s History. It is as much a review of the book generally as of the last three volumes, but it gives a tolerably full account of their contents; and as the history of Athenian greatness is concluded in them, the occasion is a natural one for surveying the whole history.
If you print the article in the October number, I am very desirous to have a proof early if possible, as I shall be away from home in three or four weeks time.
Yrs very truly
J. S. Mill
100.
TO HARRIET MILL
[Aug. 24. 1853]
My own dearest one! how cold the old place looked & felt when I returned to it —I sat in the room usually warmed by her presence, & in the usual place, & looked at her vacant chair, wishing for the time when it will be again filled, & for the time, much sooner than that, when I shall see her dear handwriting—which is the pleasure of absence. I went to bed very early, after studying the big Physiology nearly all the evening.
It rained torrents in the night & in the morning Kate knocked at the door & said that the water had come in again—it had indeed, in at least a dozen places, reaching as far as the beau milieu of the room, so there is another plastering job inevitable—& it was every way unlucky as there was no getting at the place to bale out the water, which lay apparently so deep that no doubt the pipe was stopt up. There was nothing to be done but to go again to Smith’s & say that the place he had mended was worse than before—Again unluckily the old fellow was out, & not expected for a day or two but his son promised to go immediately, & take a ladder. It is very disagreeable having any workman there with nobody in the house, but it could not be helped.
I sent the article to Lewis today after revising it on all points. I have cut the knot of “the grandest passage” by making it “the most celebrated” & have altered the two “greatests” to greatest commonwealth & most distinguished citizen—in the other. The “political education” place which I said I would try to strengthen in ideas instead of in words, I have done so—I hope the proof will come in time for full consideration—& now dearest dearest angel adieu till tomorrow when I shall write again & perhaps shall have had the happiness of a word, though I will not let myself count upon it.
101.
TO HARRIET MILL
[Aug. 27, 1853?]
Ah my own dearest, if you knew the pleasure your precious letter would give, you would not think there needed a “better” tomorrow. How sweet of her in all the bustle & fatigue of arriving & the bother of not finding lodgings to write such a darling letter. I almost hope you have gone on to Teignmouth as there was nothing to be had facing the sea. As for me the whole time seems passed in waiting for her—but it will not be so during the longer absence for I shall have some steady job of writing to begin & finish which will prevent the time from seeming long & for amusement I have a scheme for looking over the plants. I shall look for some tomorrow if the weather lets me go out. It rained very much last night but it has not yet rained today. The time does not hang heavy darling, for I have always her to think of, & our nice home has now begun to recall her presence instead of only her absence. As for health I was not quite so well the last day or two as the three or four days before, but I have been better again this morning. Like all my former little ailments this sticks very close & varies very much from day to day. I shall be quite content if it goes off within a year. Meanwhile your dear love & kindness would make it quite a pleasure being unwell if only you would not be anxious my dearest dearest angel. I have seen nobody except Grote who called yesterday but have had a note from Adderley which I inclose with the answer I propose sending when dearest one has made it right. The men came yesterday but, Kate says, only staid about 10 minutes during which they cleared the pipe & “hammered down something.” The water has not come in since. Adieu with a thousand loves. If it is fine tomorrow & she gets this in time she can think of him somewhere about Reigate & Dorking.
[On a separate small piece of paper]
Druce has sent merely the inclosed. She will no doubt have said everything suitable from me to the madre & C.
adieu once more my own precious.
102.
TO HARRIET MILL
Monday [Aug. 29, 1853]
My own precious darling wife what sweet words! what good it did & does me to read that one word—she knows which—the sweetest word she can say—when she can say or write that, I know how she must be loving me & feeling all that it is happiest to think of & all that I most wish for. I needed it too, for words of love in absence are as they always were, what keeps the blood going in the veins—but for them whenever I am not anxious & triste à mourir for fear she should not be loving me, I should have only a sort of hybernating existence like those animals found in the inside of a rock. But her dear darling letters are only a less good than her still sweeter presence & voice & looks & spoken words. The time does not seem long & is now very nearly half over.
I wrote on Saturday & directed exactly as before—it is vexatious that she should not have received it on Sunday morning—I hope the reason was some of their Sunday nonsense & that she did not suppose I had not written.
I had a good walk yesterday—it was a fine bright day with a few short showers only two of which were at all heavy & an umbrella & a hedge sheltered me completely from those. I went to Reigate by the railway, then walked six hours with a good deal of climbing & after having tea & a leg & wing of cold chicken at Dorking felt quite able & inclined to walk to Betchworth between four & five miles more. There I took the railway, & walking across our heath home was hardly more tired than I often am in coming home from the office. I feel no worse for it as to the ailment & much the better for it otherwise. I saw the country well & it looked very beautiful but somehow our daily view seemed much pleasanter. I saw the comet too —it was like a reddish streak, much brightest at the lower end, as bright as a large star but without so definite an outline—the redness I suppose was because it was in twilight & near the horizon, like the red colour of the moon when newly risen! I hope you have seen or will see it, but it must be looked for much earlier than we did. I saw it before half past eight & it was then near setting. As it is going towards the sun, it sets every evening earlier after sunset & at last will be quite lost in the sun’s rays.
The note inclosed came on Saturday evening. The other from Henry Solly seems to me very impudent, putting together what it does not contain with what it does.
Mille amours e soavi pensieri—
103.
TO HARRIET MILL
Aug. [30] 1853
This is the first time since we were married my darling wife that we have been separated & I do not like it at all—but your letters are the greatest delight & as soon as I have done reading one I begin thinking how soon I shall have another. Next to her letters the greatest pleasure I have is writing to her. I have written every day since Friday except the day there was no post—I am glad the cause of your not getting Saturday’s letter was the one I guessed & that you did get it at last. This time I have absolutely nothing to tell except my thoughts, & those are wholly of you—As for occupation, after I get home I read as long as I can at the thick book —yesterday evening I fairly fell asleep over it, but I shall read it to the end, for I always like to get at the latest generalizations on any scientific subject & that in particular is a most rapidly progressive subject just at present & is so closely connected with the subjects of mind & feeling that there is always a chance of something practically useful turning up. I am very much inclined to take the Essay on Nature again in hand & rewrite it as thoroughly as I did the review of Grote —that is what it wants—it is my old way of working & I do not think I have ever done anything well which was not done in that way. I am almost sorry for the engagement with Lewis about India as I think it would have been a much better employment of the time to have gone on with some more of our Essays. We must finish the best we have got to say, & not only that, but publish it while we are alive—I do not see what living depositary there is likely to be of our thoughts, or who in this weak generation that is growing up will even be capable of thoroughly mastering & assimilating your ideas, much less of reoriginating them—so we must write them & print them, & then they can wait till there are again thinkers. But I shall never be satisfied unless you allow our best book, the book which is to come, to have our two names in the title page. It ought to be so with everything I publish, for the better half of it all is yours, but the book which will contain our best thoughts, if it has only one name to it, that should be yours. I should like every one to know that I am the Dumont & you the originating mind, the Bentham, bless her!
I hope the weather has improved as much with you as it has here—but it does not look settled yet. With all loving thoughts & wishes
J. S. Mill
104.
TO HARRIET MILL
Wednesday
[Aug. 31. 1853]
My dearest angel! she will have got this morning the letter I wrote yesterday after receiving hers. I am so sorry she should have had the teaze she mentions—it would have been so much better—knowing ce que c’est que ce monde-là & having forgotten to ask you the question, to have done exactly as usual.
Dieu merci the time of absence is nearly over now. The only new thing here is that on Monday evening, (the first time I went into the back garden,) I found the ground strewed with a good deal more than half of all the pears in the garden. Next morning I told Kate to pick them up but she said she had already done it. In the case of the only two trees where the pears were nearly or quite ripe, they were most of them half eaten, I suppose by birds. It is seldom such stormy weather in the fruit time as this year—but it has been tolerably fine for some days now—I have been hoping that you had the same benefit.
I went to Coulson this morning who finding me no better for the colchicum (though no worse) & not thinking that the symptoms are those of congestion or anything of that sort, was fairly puzzled & proposed to me to go with him tomorrow afternoon to Dr Golding Bird, as he did before to Prout —or rather I should say proposed to me to meet him there. I hope the result will be as successful as it was with Prout—at all events we shall have two opinions.
Adieu dearest dearest love. I shall hear tomorrow perhaps.
105.
TO GEORGE CORNEWALL LEWIS
Sept. 19. 1853
My dear Lewis
I am glad that you are so well pleased with the article on Grote. More might certainly have been said about the Sicilian history, & the Anabasis, but as those parts of the history do not illustrate anything very important, I proposed passing rapidly to those which did. I would however have given the quintessence of the chapter on Dion if it had been possible to do it in any moderate space.
You will see what I have done in consequence of your various suggestions. As you say, the tendency of [the] Athenian alliance must have been to favor democracy, but Grote has pointed out several instances in which one is surprised to find important members of the alliance under the government of oligarchies. I have made a little alteration in the paragraph about Greek slavery, but it might look too much like an apology for slavery.
I shall be very happy to look at the article you mention if you are able to send it at latest on Thursday, as we are going to the Continent on Saturday.
Very truly yours
J. S. Mill
106.
TO GEORGE CORNEWALL LEWIS
Sept. 23. [1853]
My dear Lewis
The article you sent seems to me very good. The writer evidently knows his subject, has taken pains to be right, & his praise & blame are in the right places. If it is read as I hope it may be by those who can influence matters at Madras, it is likely to do much good. As to its interfering with what I may write, there are only about two pages which could possibly do so, those in which the writer comments on the ryotwar system, in a manner from which I partly dissent but I do not think this any reason for omitting them as some difference of opinion between different articles seems to me to be even desirable.
very truly yrs
J. S. Mill
I have returned the article to Kent House.
107.
TO HARRIET MILL
Wedy evg
[28 December 1853]
My darling love
I am writing this in the warm salle à manger of the Hotel Bristol after a northern wintry day, not par façon de parler but literally, for the ponds were frozen hard all the way, & the little waterfalls by the road side not only hung with icicles but were encrusted with ice so as to seem frozen bodily—However I did not suffer from cold thanks to the wrapper & your dear kindness. As far as Toulon I did very well, I had the coupé & an educated Frenchman in it though looking below the gentleman class as so many of them do—he was d’un certain âge—we talked history, literature & at last politics, ending with the present state of things about which we perfectly agreed—he had some sense & some liberality. We got to Toulon about 10 & I had two hours to walk about—it is a cheerful rather busy town but was soon seen & the keen wind drove me at last into a café for the sake of fire. The two inns praised by Plana2 & Murray, the Croix d’or & de Malte, are close together in the little Place des [Foires2 ] which like all the other Places is planted with plane trees, which must be very agreeable in summer. From Toulon to Marseille there was no coupé to be had & I was in a full interior with four women superabounding in clothes which & the smallness of the diligence made me excessively cramped & uncomfortable during the seven hours we passed on the road of which however half an hour was spent in stopping to help another diligence which had broken a spring—a private carriage also stopped & parted with its fresh horses taking tired ones to help the carriage on. I was struck as one often is with the really fraternal & Christian feeling of the French on such occasions. The four women looked about the class of Mme Goutant but two of them had pillows edged with lace & all took immense pains to be comfortable—Happily they had talk enough with one another so that my silence did not look like the ill manners of ces anglais. You see dear I am writing like a dull & tired person but it is convenient to begin my letter now & I shall finish it & put it in the post at Arles where I shall have a pretty long stay—I shall go by the train which leaves here at 9 & gets to Arles at 11 & shall leave again at ½ past 3 to arrive at Avignon at 5. This seems a good inn as far as I can judge—I shall be able to say more tomorrow. I sat in the cramped diligence thinking of every ill that could happen to my precious one, but I have got over the black vision now. I saw Lily at the window & hope she saw me shake about a handkerchief. Mme Suzanne tried to make me pay 3 f. a night but when I objected gave it up readily saying I had parfaitement raison—this seems her way—to try it on & take it off quick if it does not fit. I remembered in the carriage that I had not asked a very essential question about Kate viz. how she has been provided with money hitherto whether by money left with her (& if so, how much) or given by Haji. Did you ever read a letter so unlike me, but you will be glad to have any news of me & you will like me to write feeling comfortable, alone by a good fire. The pen & ink do credit to the name of Bristol. I have just been reading Galignani which talks of excessively cold weather in England—Palmerston’s successor is not appointed but it is said that Graham is to succeed him & Fox Maule to take the Admiralty in the room of Graham. The papers are attacking Ld Aberdeen for want of spirit about Turkey & it is reported that Louis Napoleon has called on the English Govt to know its mind & say what that mind is.
Thursday 1 oclock. I am now writing in a much queerer place, the salle à manger of the Hotel du Forum at Arles with people dining all round me—I shall imitate them presently. The Bristol is dear—including service I paid 10 fr for bed, supper (tea, bifteck & potatoes) & breakfast. It is a very quiet place & the people civil, prompt & unobtrusive but the apartments begin up two flights of stairs, the entresol being wholly occupied by the salle à manger & the people who keep the house. This would be fatal if it were not very likely that the case is the same at the other inns. The stairs however are very easy. I came here by railway in two hours & have just done seeing this strange old place with its curious old cathedral & its ugly Roman amphitheatre—curious because so very perfect & making one see so exactly how those old rascals managed their savage exhibitions. It is still bitterly cold & the people here & at Marseilles seem to feel it as much as I do. One said “Il ne fera pas plus froid au Nord”. It is one satisfaction that I now know the winter travelling will not hurt me. My cough is if anything better. I think the chief thing which is amiss with me is what Gurney said, the action of the heart—it goes gallop, gallop, & flutter, flutter, especially in bed, though I have been only one day without taking the digitalis which was intended expressly against that. I have not cared much about the scenery as I came along—when at its best it is much like what we have seen & I feel sated with it. I think I never wrote her so long a letter so little worth reading but I write what comes first & what I have to tell. She knows under it all there is the deepest & strongest & truest love. Bless her, only good of my life.
108.
TO HARRIET MILL
Friday afternoon
Avignon
[Dec. 30. 1853]
2
I owe the having time to write today to my dearest one, to not having been able to get a place—You know how often in France one has to pass the day at an inn & travel at night—it is so with me now. When I got here at 7 yesterday (the train having kept me waiting at Arles an hour & a half beyond its time) I found no possibility of getting on this morning & the only certain place at all a coupé place at 5 this evening. I am promised to get to Lyons in 24 hours—I do not know by how many hours the promise will be broken—those who arrived from Lyons this morning had snow almost all the way & were many hours behind time. A traveller who arrived from Montpellier last evg says the thermometer there is 7 degrees (16 of Fahrenheit) below freezing & that snow is a foot deep in the streets of Beziers. There cannot be more wintry weather for travelling & all my wish is to get through it as fast as possible. I have given up the Meulins project unless I find when at Lyons that it is the shortest way, which may well be as the steamboats on the Saône are stopped by the ice & there is therefore little likelihood of a place by the diligence to Chàlon for some days—you see I may be detained a long while at Lyons. I have performed the painful duty of seeing this town in a really terrible north wind which roared all night most tempestuously. I was surprised at the great size of the place. The cathedral & still more its position, the buildings adjoining &c are well worth seeing—I had another motive for going out which was to buy something to put on my head at night for the hat is terribly in the way. I bought a decent cloth travelling cap. This inn (l’Europe) seems good, it has plenty of rooms au premier & an easy staircase, of the eating I only know a very good sweet omlet & excellent tea (as at Marseilles) besides good coffee & excellent butter which was the only thing bad at Marseilles the people saying in excuse that there is no good butter in the place. My occupation here is reading newspapers, especially Galignani of which the last received announces Palmerston’s reacceptance of office —of course he has been bought by the sacrifice of whatever in the reform bill he objected to. The bill is sure to be something poor & insignificant. The Daily News & Examiner are attacking Albert for interfering in politics. He seems to be generally blamed for the temporizing inefficient conduct of the ministry about Turkey & is supposed to be Austrian in disposition since the Belgian marriage —probably mere gossip & scandal of which there is always as much going in courts as elsewhere. How I long to know how my darling is—how delighted I shall be to get to Boulogne—but how long it may be first it is difficult to tell. I owe an apology to Hyères for they say this cold has lasted 8 or 10 days so that Hyères is really, comparatively, mild. If I am detained at Lyons I will write from there. Adieu my perfect one. A thousand loves & blessings & kisses—How I long for the first sight of that dear handwriting. What a pleasure to think she is not cold. But for the wrapper her kindness provided I should have been frozen & now my darling life, adieu with a myriad of blessings.
[P.S.] I hope the Spectator which I sent yesterday will arrive.
I forgot to mention before, that Notes & Queries are all complete.
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