going so far as to indite a "Letter to _The Anti-Jacobin_ Reviewers,"
which was printed in Birmingham in 1799. Therein he defended Lamb with
some vigour: "The person you have thus leagued in a partnership of
infamy with me is Mr. Charles Lamb, a man who, so far from being a
democrat, would be the first person to assent to the opinions contained
in the foregoing pages: he is a man too much occupied with real and
painful duties--duties of high personal self-denial--to trouble himself
about speculative matters."]




LETTER 41


CHARLES LAMB TO ROBERT SOUTHEY

Dec. 27, 1798.

Dear Southey,--Your friend John May has formerly made kind offers to
Lloyd of serving me in the India house by the interest of his friend Sir
Francis Baring--It is not likely that I shall ever put his goodness to
the test on my own account, for my prospects are very comfortable. But I
know a man, a young man, whom he could serve thro' the same channel, and
I think would be disposed to serve if he were acquainted with his case.
This poor fellow (whom I know just enough of to vouch for his strict
integrity & worth) has lost two or three employments from illness, which
he cannot regain; he was once insane, & from the distressful uncertainty
of his livelihood has reason to apprehend a return of that malady--He
has been for some time dependant on a woman whose lodger he formerly