I will not allow you to subscribe for more than one copy,

nor will I let your sister’s name

and your brother James’s be given in. A very serious objection to this mode of publication is, that it leads those friends, who are friends indeed, to tax themselves most unreasonably. When these four copies are stricken off the list, you will then have done more to serve me in this matter than any other individual. And this I knew you would do. For none of you, I thank God, are among those persons with whom to be out of sight is to be out of mind.

The person who has been expelled by the Conference preachers at Beverley is, I have no doubt, the Mark Robinson whose letter you saw;

but he has not communicated this affair to me, and I only know of it what the newspapers have stated. Concerning the Irish schism, some pamphlets were sent me some time ago by a Dublin bookseller, who is one of the Church Methodists, – Martin Keene, I think, is his name;

and I have had thought of making a paper in the “Q.R.’” which should comprise a brief history of Methodism from the time of Wesley’s death.

If you remember, I obtained “Kelham’s Life,”

through your good offices, from Nottingham, where it was published. I have since got at some of his writings, and am tolerably well informed upon that schism. But there are one or two other points on which I want information. Upon these I applied to Mark Robinson, but he has not supplied me, being, I suppose, wholly engrossed with his own affairs.

I suppose you have heard of the atrocious libel upon me in the “Morning Chronicle,” called forth by my letter;

in atrocity it exceeds everything of the kind that I have ever seen. I have written to Turner, and shall be guided by his opinion, whether to bring an action against the publisher, founded upon the last charge,

and overlooking the other lies (foul and malignant as they are) because they are nothing when compared to this accusation of obscene impieties. I think that at last I have found out on what it is founded, – on some extracts from a Roman Catholic book of devotions to the Virgin Mary, in the first volume of the “Omniana.”

It is my fortune, my dear Neville, to have some of the best friends in the world, and some of the most diabolical enemies; and to despise the one as heartily as I esteem and love the other.

I noticed the advertisement, and hope it may be of some use. But the only effectual way of checking this rascally piracy must be by meeting it with a cheap edition, which may be always upon sale in the provincial towns.

I should like to have some of my own poems printed in that manner, – the only manner by which anything can ever obtain a popular sale; but the publisher would not like the immediate outlay, would despise the small return, and not perceive the ultimate advantage. So my books must wait for this till they are set afloat in this form after my death, by the same unprincipled spirit of trade which is now interfering with the “Remains.”

A vile spirit it is, Neville!

You will never believe any advertisement concerning my works unless it says, “This day is published.” Murray advertised my second volume for last month.

248 pages of it are printed, and it will extend to 800, so you see how far it is from the conclusion. Were I to pursue it uninterruptedly, my progress might be very rapid, but this is never my practice; if I did, it would be apparent in the want of skill, gracefulness, and animation, which must always be betrayed when a writer works in haste. So soon as my interest in the narrative flags, or as I find any difficulty in connecting it or carrying it on, I lay it aside; at present it is in good progress. I am also advancing in the last canto of my “Tale of Paraguay,”

which, to my great relief and joy, will soon be finished; and then I shall take up my New England poem in good spirits, and pursue it vigorously.

My daughters

will return as soon after the beginning of February as an opportunity of convoy may present itself. We are beginning to look with some impatience for that time. Did I tell you that my brother Henry has bought a part of Watson Taylor’s house in Harley Street,

which he is now dividing off and fitting up, that he may remove into it, having outgrown the house in Queen Anne Street? God bless you, my dear Neville,