I am glad to see some Cymmrodorion Transactions advertised, & shall send for the volume.

– What a surprizing difference there is between the Welsh & the Scandinavian poems! partly because the Welsh were divided toto ab orbe.

While the Northern nations were more or less connected with it. I have felt this difference very strongly of late while reading the second volume of the Edda, published for the first time four years ago.

I am indeed gradually acquiring some insight into the northern languages, the better to qualify myself for writing a history of English literature & manners, – subjects which according to my present view, may best be united, as relieving & throwing light upon each other. My notes have been accumulating for many years.

Has O Connor published his second volume?

Foreign interference in the affairs of Spain would be desirable, if it could be effectual,

– which I think it could not be. Suppose a French army were to reach Madrid, rescue Ferdinand

head & all, & reestablish him as absolute king, or as a chartered one.

I neither see how he could support himself, nor who could support him; for the country would continue in a state of anarchy & he would find himself without a revenue. Spain can never be reduced to order till it has a strong government, but such a government must be able to maintain a strong army, & the resources by which this should be done are absolutely dry.

You I think are among those persons who will feel that xx it would have been unwise in me to have taken Giffords place. It would have given me a certain instead of a precarious income; – but the discomfort of a removal, the necessary increase of expenditure, & above all the great sacrifice which must have been made of worthier pursuits would heavily have overbalanced this advantage. This last consideration alone would be decisive. – John Coleridge is also a much fitter man than I should have been, he knows better how to deal with men, & he has more discretion.