or his friends rather than for himself. Last December,
when I learned that a new edition of his poems was in press, I wrote to
him (it was my last letter) to say frankly that his Sonnet "To
Pennsylvanians" _was no longer just_, and to desire him _not to let_ it
stand so for after time. It was very gratifying to me on receiving a
copy of the new edition, which was not till after his death, to find the
'_additional note_' at the end of the fifth volume, showing by its being
printed on the unusual place of a fly-leaf, that he had been anxious to
attend to such a request. It was characteristic of that righteousness
which distinguished him as an author; and it has this interest (as I
conjecture) that it was probably the last sentence he composed for the
press. It is chiefly on this account that I mention it to you.'[7]

[7] _Memoirs_, ii. p. 114.

457. *_Feel for the Wrongs, &c._ [XIV.]

This Sonnet is recommended to the perusal of the Anti-Corn-Law-Leaguers,
the Political Economists, and of all those who consider that the evils
under which we groan are to be removed or palliated by measures
ungoverned by moral and religious principles.

458. _Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death_,[XX.]

Of these Sonnets the author thus wrote to John Peace, Esq., Bristol:

Rydal Mount, Feb. 23. 1842.

MY DEAR SIR,

I was truly pleased with the receipt of the letter which you were put
upon writing by the perusal of my 'Penal Sonnets' in the _Quarterly
Review_. Being much engaged at present, I might have deferred making my
acknowledgments for this and other favours (particularly your 'Descant')
if I had not had a special occasion for addressing you at this moment. A
Bristol lady has kindly undertaken to be the bearer of the walking-stick
which I spoke to you of some time since. It was cut from a holly-tree
planted in our garden by my own hand.

* * * * *

Your 'Descant' amused me, but I must protest against your system, which
would discard punctuation to the extent you propose. It would, I think,
destroy the harmony of blank verse when skilfully written. What would
become of the pauses at the third syllable followed by an _and_, or any
such word, without the rest which a comma, when consistent with the
sense, calls upon the reader to make, and which being made, he starts
with the weak syllable that follows, as from the beginning of a verse? I
am sure Milton would have suppor