show that I must have sympathised with you in admiration of the man, and
sorrow for our loss. Yet, considering the matter coolly, there was
little to regret. The state of Lord Nelson's health, I suppose, was
such, that he could not have lived long; and the first burst of
exultation upon landing in his native country, and his reception here,
would have been dearly bought, perhaps, by pain and bodily weakness, and
distress among his friends, which he could neither remove nor alleviate.
Few men have ever died under circumstances so likely to make their
deaths of benefit to their country: it is not easy to see what his life
could have done comparable to it. The loss of such men as Lord Nelson
is, indeed, great and real; but surely not for the reason which makes
most people grieve, a supposition that no other such man is in the
country. The old ballad has taught us how to feel on these occasions:

I trust I have within my realm
Five hundred good as he.

But this is the evil, that nowhere is merit so much under the power of
what (to avoid a more serious expression) one may call that of fortune,
as in military and naval service; and it is five hundred to one that
such men will not have attained situations where they can show
themselves, so that the country may know in whom to trust. Lord Nelson
had attained that situation; and, therefore, I think (and not for the
other reason), ought we chiefly to lament that he is taken from us.

Mr. Pitt is also gone! by tens of thousands looked upon in like manner
as a great loss. For my own part, as probably you know, I have never
been able to regard his political life with complacency. I believe him,
however, to have been as disinterested a man, and as true a lover of his
country, as it was possible for so ambitious a man to be. His first wish
(though probably unknown to himself) was that his country should prosper
under his administration; his next that it should prosper. Could the
order of these wishes have been reversed, Mr. Pitt would have avoided
many of the grievous mistakes into which, I think, he fell. I know, my
dear Sir George, you will give me credit for speaking without arrogance;
and I am aware it is not unlikely you may differ greatly from me in
these points. But I like, in some things, to differ with a friend, and
that he should _know_ I differ from him; it seems to make a more healthy
friendship, to act as a relief to those notions and feelings which we
have in