The first part of your letter

which I must notice is that which holds out a hope of seeing you here with Heber. You will I trust give me a day at least, – Eleven years I think have past since last we met,

– a large xx portion of even the longest life, – & we are both of an age which renders its lapse visible. I am now half an hundred years old, & what makes me in retrospect appear older than I am, have past, by some years, my silver wedding day.

One of your sons has chosen his path in the world & taken it,

– another you tell me is going to Oxford.

My only one is but beginning his accidence, – in his sixth year! Before he enters the world (– if he live to enter it,) his fathers head will in all likelihood be laid low. But he is a sweet, docile, hopeful creature, – so exactly at this time the living image of what his dear brother was when you were at Keswick in 1813, – that I regard him at times almost with as much apprehension as tenderness.

You mention Gifford. I left him in February last with the mournful impression that I had seen him for the last time. He will, I suspect, hold the reins of the Quarterly, till they drop from his hands. As long ago as when he first communicated to me his inability to continue the management, & his difficulty in finding a successor, I named both to him & Murray a person whom they both knew, & who had every qualification for the office, – John Coleridge – a nephew of S.T.C’s. Were they to search these kingdoms they could not find a man better qualified; he is an excellent scholar, thoroughly bred at Eton & at Oxford; – his talents they have tried & known; – a man of sound judgement, great discretion, excellent opinions, & high principle, – & what is of some importance, a lawyer by profession. The matter has been repeatedly all but settled with him, & yet it is not settled, nor likely to be so. The reasons I take to be these; – a natural unwillingness in Gifford formally to resign even in part a management which he can no longer direct; – a notion as natural in Murray that he may get the business done at a cheaper rate, & be in great measure his own manager: – an apprehension on the part of both that the Journal in John Coleridges hands would take its bias in some degree from me, – for I am considered by Murray as too bigoted, & by Gifford as too liberal; the certainty, alike unwelcome to both, that no articles would be admitted which could have no other effect than to wound the feelings & injure the fortunes of an obnoxious author: – that there would be none of that injustice & cruelty <(for example)> which was shown towards Keats,

– & lastly an overruling influence at the Admiralty.

I should like to see such a parallel as you suggest between the Great Rebellion & the French Revolution,

– drawn by your own hand. Very interesting it would be, & very important are the warnings which it would convey, if nations ever were warned by experience. – After I had written that sketch of Cromwells life some years ago in the QR.

I was disposed to have taken up the subject xxx at length: but Murray offered me so shabby shabby a price that it would have been degrading to have listened to such a proposal. At present I have some thoughts of undertaking a summary view of our civil history to the accession of the house of Hanover under the title of the Book of the State.

This would require three octavo’s, – & following it with the Age of George 3 – upon a larger scale, & with an introductory & connecting view of the two intermediate reigns.

If I have not determined upon this, it is because no such offer is made me as I am entitled to expect.

Meantime I have enough upon my hands both in prose & verse, & feel too that as the future becomes shorter, it is the part of prudence to finish what is begun, rather than to plan more edifices & lay new foundations, immemor sepulchri.