ondon republicans, and _you_ amongst the number, cooled
down yet? I suppose not, because your French brethren are acting
very nobly. The abolition of slavery and of the punishment of death
for political offences are two glorious deeds, but how will they get
over the question of the organisation of labour! Such theories will
be the sand-bank on which their vessel will run aground if they don't
mind. Lamartine, there is not doubt, would make an excellent
legislator for a nation of Lamartines--but where is that nation? I
hope these observations are sceptical and cool enough.--Believe me,
my dear sir, yours sincerely,

'C. BELL.'

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_November_ 16_th_, 1848.

'MY DEAR SIRS,--I have already acknowledged in a note to Mr. Smith
the receipt of the parcel of books, and in my thanks for this
well-timed attention I am sure I ought to include you; your taste, I
thought, was recognisable in the choice of some of the volumes, and a
better selection it would have been difficult to make.

'To-day I have received the _Spectator_ and the _Revue des deux
Mondes_. The _Spectator_ consistently maintains the tone it first
assumed regarding the Bells. I have little to object to its opinion
as far as Currer Bell's portion of the volume is concerned. It is
true the critic sees only the faults, but for these his perception is
tolerably accurate. Blind is he as any bat, insensate as any stone,
to the merits of Ellis. He cannot feel or will not acknowledge that
the very finish and _labor limae_ which Currer wants, Ellis has; he
is not aware that the "true essence of poetry" pervades his
compositions. Because Ellis's poems are short and abstract, the
critics think them comparatively insignificant and dull. They are
mistaken.

'The notice in the _Revue des deux Mondes_ is one of the most able,
the most acceptable to the author, of any that has yet appeared.
Eugene Forcade understood and enjoyed _Jane Eyre_. I cannot say that
of all who have professed to criticise it. The censures are as
well-founded as the commendations. The specimens of the translation
given are on the whole good; now and then the meaning of the original
has been misapprehend