ulty that is complained of in the well-managed places is
the floating poor, who cannot be excluded, I am told, by any existing
law from quartering themselves where they like. Open begging is not
practised in many places, but there is no law by which the poor can be
prevented from returning to a place which they may have quitted
voluntarily, or from which they have been expelled (as I was told). Were
it not for this obstacle compulsory local regulations might, I think, be
applied in many districts with good effect.

It would be unfair to myself to quit this momentous subject without
adding that I am a zealous friend to the great principle of the Poor
Laws, as tending, if judiciously applied, much more to elevate than to
depress the character of the labouring classes. I have never seen this
truth developed as it ought to be in parliament.

The day I dined with Lord F.L. Gower at his official residence in the
Phoenix Park, I met there with an intelligent gentleman, Mr. Page, who
was travelling in Ireland expressly to collect information upon this
subject, which, no doubt, he means to publish. If you should hear of
this pamphlet when it comes out procure it, for I am persuaded it will
prove well worth reading. Farewell.

Faithfully yours,
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.[94]

58. _Of the Earl of Lonsdale: Virgil: Book-buying: Gifts of Books:
Commentaries_.

TWO LETTERS TO THE VENERABLE ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM.

Rydal Mount, Feb. 19. 1819.

DEAR WRANGHAM,

I received your kind letter last night, for which you will accept my
thanks. I write upon the spur of that mark of your regard, or my
aversion to letter-writing might get the better of me.

I find it difficult to speak publicly of good men while alive,
especially if they are persons who have power. The world ascribes the
eulogy to interested motives, or to an adulatory spirit, which I detest.
But of LORD LONSDALE, I will say to you, that I do not think there
exists in England a man of any rank more anxiously desirous to discharge
his duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call him.
His thought and exertions are constantly directed to that object; and
the more he is known the more is he beloved, and respected, and admired.

[94] _Memoirs_, ii. 155-6.

I ought to have thanked you before for your version of VIRGIL'S
ECLOGUES, which reached me at last. I have lately compared it line for
line with th