published in this country which is so difficult to be met with as the
tract on the Convention of Cintra; and if it were now reprinted, it
would come before the public with almost the unimpaired freshness of a
new work.'[8] In agreement with the closing statement, at the sale of
the library of Sir James Macintosh a copy fetched (it has been reported)
ten guineas. Curiously enough not a single copy was preserved by the
Author himself. The companion sonnet to the above, 'composed while the
author was engaged in writing a tract occasioned by the Convention of
Cintra, 1808,' must also find a place here:

'Not 'mid the world's vain objects that enslave
The free-born soul--that world whose vaunted skill
In selfish interest perverts the will,
Whose factions lead astray the wise and brave--
Not there; but in dark wood and rocky cave,
And hollow vale which foaming torrents fill
With omnipresent murmur as they rave
Down their steep beds, that never shall be still,
Here, mighty Nature, in this school sublime
I weigh the hopes and fears of suffering Spain;
For her consult the auguries of time,
And through the human heart explore my way,
And look and listen--gathering where I may
Triumph, and thoughts no bondage can restrain.'[9]


_(c) Letter to Major-General Sir Charles W. Pasley, K.C.B., on his
'Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire,' with
another--now first printed--transmitting it_.