A sad account of Elmsley which M^rs Hughes sent me about ten days ago is all I had heard of him since your former letter, till that of to day arrived. It came originally from M^rs Wynn, – & the inference I drew from it was that a paralytic stroke had deprived him of his intellect. Had there been any better tidings I thought Wynn himself would have communicated them, – but all I have seen of his handwriting for some months has been upon your cover this day. What the ground is for hope I cannot tell, as I am quite at a loss to guess even at the nature of the disease, – but it is plain that Kidd has hoped, – & the vis vitae

appears to have been unusually strong, that even on that ground hope may be entertained

I am convinced that both the will & the power exist in the quarter where you & I wish to find them, & might reasonably look for one & expect to find the other. But I think that he is not fully aware of his own power, unless it be exerted in the immediate straight course of office, & that his will is palsied by a sort of indolence, – which makes (or used to make) him always late upon a journey, or in whatever he had to do, – & always disposed rather to be doing anything else, than that which ought then to be done. If this had not been the case, Elmsley – whom it would always have been an honour to have preferred, would not have gone without preferment so long, – nor have obtained so poor a preferment at last.

There are cases in which Procrastination is worse than a thief, – it is a murderer.

But the kindness of his heart & the steadiness of his attachments are his own, – the drawbacks are constitutional & accidental: – a regular political life, to which he has been trained from his youth up, tends to sear all feelings; – the statesmen of this country are a bad caste, & of all that caste the Grenvilles are the coldest the proudest & the most selfish.

Nature has been very bountiful to him in his affections <& dispositions>, – for he had nothing good to inherit on either side.

His attachment to me I believe to be unabated, many as are the causes which might have weakened or worn it out. Difference of rank & circumstances I do not take into the account, – because they existed at the beginning, far more than at present – when I have won for myself (tho not a fortune) a station in society. But there is little sympathy in our taste, & in some of our opinions – the most decided opposition, – & that too upon xx points to which he has pledged himself with most warmth: & which I considerable as demonstrably most perilous to the xx vital interests of these kingdoms.

Yet these differences have not lessened his regard for me, – nor has any estrangement been produced by long absence, & the unfrequency even of epistolary intercourse. During the last twenty years we have not seen so much of each other as we did in any one month at Oxford.

I had some time ago an instance of the manner in which friendly feelings are neutralized by political considerations. You know that I think not only of a Book of the State,

but of a Hist. of English Literature & Manners.

For both these works I want the publications of the Record Committee,

– & cannot <could not> afford to buy them, – when they were to be sold. They are now I believe at the disposal of the Commissioners, – certainly at somebodys disposal, & I asked Wynn if he could get them for me. His reply was that if he did, it would give Mr Hume,

or some such person, a handle for attacking him. – Now I should have thought he would have been well pleased with an attack against which he might have repelled so triumphantly, – & I am very sure that he would not have wanted persons who would, even in that house, warmly have approved such a disposal of books, – which are lying useless in thx some warehouse.

- I can enter into your Canterbury feelings – D^r Hughes having sent me last week Woolnoths Description of that Cathedral,

– as an expression on his part xx that I have deserved well of the Church. Talking of the Church I have heard that the Venerable Archdeacon Hook expects the Defender of the Faith to make him a Bishop.

– When I write to his Right Honour I shall tell him this. – My best remembrances to Henry & Miss Page –