176 



SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 



Nor can I understand, with what reason either Mr. Percival 

 (whom I am singular enough to regard as the best and wisest 

 minister of this reign) or the present administration, can be said 

 to have pursued the plans of Mr. Pitt. The love of their coun- 

 try, and perseverant hostility to French principles and French 

 ambition are indeed honourable qualities common to them and 

 to their predecessor. But it appears to me as clear as the evidence 

 of facts can render any question of history, that the successes of 

 the Percival and of the existing ministry have been owing to their 

 having pursued measures the direct contrary to Mr. Pitt's. Such 

 for instance are the concentration of the national force to one 

 object : the abandonment of the subsidizing policy, so far at least 

 as neither to goad or bribe the continental courts into war, till the 

 convictions of their subjects had rendered it a war of their own 

 seeking ; and above all, in their manly and generous reliance on 

 the good sense of the English people, and on that loyalty which 

 is linked to the very heart of the nation by the system of credit 

 and the interdependence of property." 



" In these labours I employed, and in the belief of partial 

 friends wasted, the prime and manhood of my intellect. Most 

 assuredly, they added nothing to my fortune or my reputation. 

 The industry of the week supplied the necessities of the week. 

 From (Government or the friends of Government I not only 

 never received remuneration, or ever expected it ; but I was never 

 honoured with a single acknowledgment, or expression of satis- 

 faction. Yet the retrospect is far from painful or matter of 

 regret." 



Two years after he had abandoned the Morning Post, he set 

 off for Malta, where he most unexpectedly arrived on a visit to 

 his friend Dr. Stodart, then king's advocate in that island, and 

 was intoduced by him to the Governor, Sir Alexander Ball, who 

 appointed him his secretary. He remained in the island fulfilling 

 the duties of his situation, for which he seems to have been but 

 indifferently qualified, a very short period. One advantage, 

 however, he derived from his official employ : that of the pension 

 granted by Government to those who have served in similar 

 situations. On his way home he visited Italy ; entered Rome, 

 and examined its host of ancient and modern curiosities, and added 

 fresh matter for thought to his rapidly accumulating store of ideas. 

 Of this visit he gives several anecdotes ; among them one res- 

 pecting the horns of Moses on Michael Angelo's celebrated statue 

 of that lawgiver, intended to elucidate the character of French- 

 men. 



" My companion who possessed more than his share of the 

 hatred, which his countrymen bore to the French, had just 

 observed to me, "a Frenchman^ Sir/ is the only animal in the 



