ook of yours," says the critic, "is a singular production. It is
ill-written, deficient in grammar, and often in English; and yet it
interests and even amuses. Now, the subjects of it are all, I suppose,
gone _ad plures_; otherwise it would be intolerable. The writer richly
deserves a licking or a cudgelling to every page, and yet I am ashamed
to say I have travelled unwearied with him through the whole, divided
between a grin and a scowl. I never saw nor heard of such an animal as a
splenetic, bustling kind of a poco-curante. By the way, if you happen to
hear of any plan for making me a king, be so good as to say that I am
deceased; or tell any other good-natured lie to put the king-makers off
their purpose. I really cannot submit to be the only slave in the
nation, especially when I have a crossing to sweep within five yards of
my door, and may gain my bread with less ill-usage than a king is
obliged to put up with. If half that is here told be true, Lord Holland
seems to me to tread on

'ignes
Suppositos cineri doloso'

in retouching any part of the manuscript. He is so perfectly kind and
good-natured, that he will feel more than any man the complaints of
partiality and injustice; and where he is to stop, I see not. There is
so much abuse that little is to be gained by an occasional erasure,
while suspicion is excited. He would have consulted his quiet more by
leaving the author to bear the blame of his own scandal."

Notwithstanding this adverse judgment, Mr. Murray was disposed to buy
the Memoirs. Lord Holland drove a very hard bargain, and endeavoured to
obtain better terms from other publishers, but he could not, and
eventually Mr. Murray paid to Lord Waldegrave, through Lord Holland, the
sum of L2,500 on November 1, 1821, for the Waldegrave and Walpole
Memoirs. They were edited by Lord Holland, who wrote a preface to each,
and were published in the following year, but never repaid their
expenses. After suffering considerable loss by this venture, Mr.
Murray's rights were sold, after his death, to Mr. Colburn.

The last of the _memoires pour servir_ to which we shall here refer was
the Letters of the Countess of Suffolk, bedchamber woman to the Princess
of Wales (Caroline of Anspach), and a favourite of the Prince of Wales,
afterwards George II. The Suffolk papers were admirably edited by Mr.
Croker. Thackeray, in his "Lecture on George the Second," says o