385. W. W. to ROBERT SOUTHEY

• MS. untraced.
• Mem. Grosart. LY i. 343.

[mid-Dec. 1828]

My dear S.,

I am ashamed not to have given your message about the Icôn to my brother. I have no excuse, but that at that time both my body and my memory were run off their legs. I am very glad you thought the answer² appeared to you triumphant, for it had struck me as, in the main points, knowledge of the subject, and spirit in the writing, and accuracy in the logic, one of the best controversial tracts I ever read.

I am glad you have been so busy; I wish I could say so much of (p. 687) pg 687myself. I have written this last month, however, about 600 verses, with tolerable success.

Many thanks for the Review: your article¹ is excellent. I only wish that you had said more of the deserts of government in respect to Ireland; since I do sincerely believe that no government in Europe has shown better dispositions to its subjects than the English have done to the Irish, and that no country has improved so much during the same period. You have adverted to this part of the subject, but not spoken so forcibly as I could have wished. There is another point that might be insisted upon more expressly than you have done—the danger, not to say the absurdity, of Roman Catholic legislation for the property of a Protestant church so inadequately represented in Parliament as ours is. The Convocation is gone;² clergymen are excluded from the House of Commons; and the Bishops are at the beck of Ministers. I boldly ask what real property of the country is so inadequately represented: it is a mere mockery.

• Most affectionately yours,      
• W. W.