s closely connecting itself with
religion. Now after all, if we are to be preserved from utter confusion,
it is religion and morals, and conscience, which must do the work. The
religious part of the community, especially those attached to the Church
of England, must and _do_ feel that neither the Church as an
establishment, nor its points of Faith as a church, nor Christianity
itself as governed by Scripture, ought to be left long, if it can be
prevented, in the hands which manage our affairs.

But I am running into unpardonable length. I took up the pen principally
to express a hope that your Lordship may have continued to see the
question in the light which affords the only chance of preserving the
nation from several generations perhaps of confusion, and crime, and
wretchedness.

Excuse the liberty I have taken,
And believe me most faithfully,
Your Lordship's
Much obliged,
W. WORDSWORTH.[93]

[93] _Memoirs_, ii. 135.

57. _Of Ireland and the Poor Laws, &c._

LETTER TO G. HUNTLY GORDON, ESQ.

Rydal Mount, Dec. 1. 1829.

MY DEAR SIR,

You must not go to Ireland without applying to me, as the guide-books
for the most part are sorry things, and mislead by their exaggerations.
If I were a younger man, and could prevail upon an able artist to
accompany me, there are few things I should like better than giving a
month or six weeks to explore the county of Kerry only. A judicious
topographical work on that district would be really useful, both for the
lovers of Nature and the observers of manners. As to the Giant's
Causeway and the coast of Antrim, you cannot go wrong; there the
interests obtrude themselves on every one's notice.

The subject of the Poor Laws was never out of my sight whilst I was in
Ireland; it seems to me next to impossible to introduce a general system
of such laws, principally for two reasons: the vast numbers that would
have equal claims for relief, and the non-existence of a class capable
of looking with effect to their administration. Much is done at present
in many places (Derry, for example) by voluntary contributions; but the
narrow-minded escape from the burthen, which falls unreasonably upon the
charitable; so that assessments in the best-disposed places are to be
wished for, could they be effected without producing a greater evil.

The great diffic