494 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810. 



to the more brilliant allurements of power, and re- 

 putation, and distinction. 



" I have no doubt, that if you continue to work in 

 your profession only, that you must make a great for- 

 tune, and come to the head of it ; but, in so doing, 

 you submit to great slavery, and you forego a great 

 many of the greatest gratifications, to the enjoyment 

 of which you are sufficiently alive. If you go into 

 Parliament, and devote yourself to politics, which 

 most probably you then will do, you have the most 

 favourable opportunity opening to you from the 

 present state of the House of Commons in general, 

 and that of your own party in particular ; and there 

 is no office in the country to which you may not look 

 in a short time without any presumption on your 

 part, or any disposition to compliment on mine ; but, 

 in pursuing that line, you will probably be two- 

 thirds of your life in opposition ; and if your private 

 fortune and expectations be equal to the expenses 

 which now or hereafter you may wish to incur, you 

 will, like Fox, be standing in the full enjoyment of 

 high consideration and great fame. 



" I have not overlooked the middle course to 

 which alone your letter points, and to that I should 

 less object if I thought you were sure of being able 

 steadily to pursue it, and not to be seduced into 

 abandoning the profession entirely by the persuasions 

 of your friends, and the temptations which the pre- 

 sent state of politics must hold out to your vanity 

 and ambition. 



