Volume I Part 13 (1/2)
_To Mr Alexander Spencer_.
”_June_ 22, 1841.
”I almost thought I should have had another gossip with you ere this--_je vous dirai pourquoi_,--don't laugh, though I'll forgive you even if you should,--but I received a requisition asking me to allow myself to be put in nomination for Trinity College at the coming election. As I write hurriedly, I can only say that although the matter gave me more surprise than satisfaction, yet on thinking over it, weighing all the _pros_ and _cons_, reflecting that, although unsuccessful now, I might, if well supported, be luckier at a later period; and finally, thinking that politics are about the best trade going, I said rather more yea than nay: all the calculations of my friends say that Shaw must be beaten, and [ ] has no hope, if contested.
The B. of Exeter is most warm in my cause, and says, 'Start for Trinity, for if unsuccessful there, your colours are shown and you'll get another s.h.i.+p.'
”Now I have gone cautiously to work. I have said, Tell me what can you do for me? say what forces can you bring into the field in my support?
what are my chances? what are my expenses?
”The medicals would stand by me well, so would a large section of my Bar friends. The parsons are, however, the main body. What would they do? I can't guess.
”Meanwhile I am on the tenter-hooks: each post may decide me one way or the other, and, to confess the fact, I have enormous confidence in my good luck. I never pushed it yet without a fortunate result, and I am more than ever inclined to test its constancy.
”I write these few and very hurried lines solely to apprise you of what is going forward. Before this reaches you the whole may have ended in smoke, or I may be on my way over.
”If the latter, I shall of course be as anxious as may be; only believe one thing: rash as I may seem when determined to make a spring, I take time enough, before I gird for the effort, to reflect upon the consequences and calculate the results. With my warmest regard to you and yours.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
_June_ 1841.
”I send you the last four vols, of Capefigue. Are you doing anything further for M'Glashan, and what? What would you think of translating some of the _feuilletons_ of the French papers? they are either short stories or clever [? literary] criticisms. I could always give you a supply of the freshest. Do tell me what you think of this, and for once in your life, my dear friend, speak a little of yourself and your own concerns.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
”_July_ 2,1841.
”I send you some _feuilletons_ which, if you translate, I should take.
The 'Cha.s.se au [ ]' is admirable.
”I have been applied to to write a Life of Napoleon on a great scale, based on Capefigue's work. (Don't speak of this to Curry.) I look for a big sum, but the negotiation hangs.”
_To Mr Alexander Spencer._
”Quartier Leopold, Brussels, _July_ 3, 1841.
”The opportunity of sending my letter having failed me at the time I expected, I reopen my package to add a few more words. I have read your kind letter with much attention, and a most sincere grat.i.tude for the evidence of an interest I never doubted. Circ.u.mstances have rendered the pursuit hopeless at present, but the future chances I should look to with some anxiety and hope,--and I'll tell you why. Should I succeed in getting in, I know from the opinion of those high in position how much the work of even an inferior person is looked for and prized by a party, and to what uses can be put the man who has acquired a certain readiness at reply [some words undecipherable here], the way of publication, and what [? friends] a.s.sist him.
”I do not mean to say that even the ambition of such a position in society would repay one who likes his ease for the wear and tear, anxiety, turmoil, and annoyance of political existence, but what I mean is this, that an equal quant.i.ty of work directed to the interests of a party is better paid and better advantaged than when executed for a publisher. And when I see the men of my own standing--and I could name a dozen such who neither have done anything as yet, nor can they in future--well off, promoted, placed, and provided for, simply because they took up public life as a trade, _vice_ a profession, I am well disposed to think that with a very long acquaintance and a strong troop of what the world calls friends, some character, and a strong determination to get on,--why, I think the game a good one.
”Well as you know me, you as well as John make one mistake about me. I am not--I never was--a sanguine man. I have pumped up false enthusiasm many a time till it has imposed even upon myself, and when success came people said I predicted it, but, my dear friend, I never was fortunate yet without being the man most astonished at my own good luck. This I mention that you may know that it is no piece of soft unction I am flattering myself with, but a cold cautious calculation in which for a certain outlay of labour, directed in a way I like, I look for a certain amount of income. But enough of myself, my hopes, fears, plots, perplexities....