hardly at all, of the natives. * * *

"In * *'s Life, I perceive an attack upon the then Committee of
D.L. Theatre for acting Bertram, and an attack upon Maturin's
Bertram for being acted. Considering all things, this is not very
grateful nor graceful on the part of the worthy autobiographer;
and I would answer, if I had _not_ obliged him. Putting my own
pains to forward the views of * * out of the question, I know that
there was every disposition, on the part of the Sub-Committee, to
bring forward any production of his, were it feasible. The play he
offered, though poetical, did not appear at all practicable, and
Bertram did;--and hence this long tirade, which is the last chapter
of his vagabond life.

"As for Bertram, Maturin may defend his own begotten, if he likes
it well enough; I leave the Irish clergyman and the new Orator
Henley to battle it out between them, satisfied to have done the
best I could for _both_. I may say this to _you_, who know it.

"Mr. * * may console himself with the fervour,--the almost
religious fervour of his and W * *'s disciples, as he calls it. If
he means that as any proof of their merits, I will find him as much
'fervour' in behalf of Richard Brothers and Joanna Southcote as
ever gathered over his pages or round his fire-side.

"My answer to your proposition about the fourth Canto you will have
received, and I await yours;--perhaps we may not agree. I have
since written a poem (of 84 octave stanzas), humorous, in or after
the excellent manner of Mr. Whistlecraft (whom I take to be Frere),
on a Venetian anecdote which amused me:--but till I have your