LITERARY AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 411 



heard that Ebony is declining, in spite of these Hoods and Ains- 

 worths, etc., etc. 



"... showed me a lot of Edinburgh daguerreotypes — the Cand- 

 lishes, etc.; that of Sir D. Brewster is by far the best specimen of 

 the art I had ever seen. It is so good, that I should take it very 

 kind if you would sit to the man whom Brewster patronizes for me* 

 I should like also to have Sheriff Cay. This art is about to revolu- 

 tionize book -illustration entirely. 



" There is very great uneasiness here about this ten hours' affair. 

 I really expect to see the Government displaced sooner or later by 

 this coalition of Johnny Russell with Ashley, Oastler, and the Times. 

 Your old friend, Sir James Graham, is terribly unpopular with both 

 sides of the House. Yet I think his demeanor in private society 

 infinitely more agreeable than Peel's, who, somehow, is not run upon 

 in the same style by any party. Inglis takes kindly to the name of 

 Jack Cade. "We shall have him H. B.'d, of course. Ashley speaks 

 well, he has a fine presence, good voice, and his zeal gives him real 

 eloquence now and then ; but he has slender talents, and his head 

 has been quite turned by the popularity he has acquired. I seriously 

 fear he will go mad. He lives and moves in an atmosphere of fanat- 

 icism, talks quite gravely about the Jews recovering Jerusalem, the 

 Millennium at hand, etc., etc. 



" Brougham goes to Paris this week to {inter alia) take counsel 

 with Guizot and Dupin about a great humbug (I believe), his new 

 Society for the Amendment of the Law; and, learning that Lynd- 

 hurst, Denman, etc., approved, I agreed to be a member on 

 Brougham's request, and went to a meeting yesterday, where he 

 was in the chair. What a restless, perturbed spirit ! * * * * * 



" Xothing could surprise me now-a-days. The Government have 

 allowed B. to be their saviour so often in the H. of Lords, that they 

 may by and by find it impossible to refuse him even the Seals. I 

 am, you see, idle, and in gossiping vein this morning, having 

 just got rid of a d — d thick Quarterly, I fear, a dull one. Ever 

 affectionately yours, J. G. Lockhart." 



In the next letter, which is the last of this correspondence that 

 has been preserved, it will be seen how pain and inward yearning 



* My father did so, and the frontispiece to the present Memoir is engraved from Mr. Hill"s 

 calotype, by the artist's kind permission. 



