. By the
letters of an ingenuous writer, it is said, you can gain a clearer
insight into his character, disposition, and mental powers, than by long
association or familiar discourse; these letters have been kindly given
me by my mother, with whom Henry constantly corresponded, and whom he
always treated with marked respect and affection, which was fully
reciprocated. They were addressed to her at Norwich, where she with my
father resided, and the first bears date,

_London_, 3_rd_ _Nov._ 1815.

"My Dear Madam,

"And it came to pass that when they emptied their sacks, lo! ev'ry
man's money was in the mouth of his sack." I have had the same
measure from you which Joseph's liberality heaped on his brethren; and
if you will but believe that my proposal to you, to be allowed to be a
purchaser of half the preserved raspberry, was not a covert mode of
begging it as a gift; I thank you without any regret, and am very much
obliged to you. I thank you, too, very much for the pheasant which
flew into the window of the mail coach, and startled me in St.
Stephen's Street. George, who is a good lad, had put on his best
legs, and soon overtaking the mail, threw it in '_sans ceremonie_.' It
was a pleasant disturbance from no very pleasant reverie, which my
mind set out on the moment the coach set out from the inn; and which
would, but for this agreeable interruption, have lasted me at least as
long as the first stage. For the rest of the good things which you
gave me while I was in Norwich, and sent me laden away with, I must
thank you _en masse_; for to thank you one by one for them, would
force me to write a long letter, which I have not the least intention
in the world of doing. I was outside the mail, and for a long way the
only passenger. We learned at Newmarket, that the coachman, who drove
the coach, which was overturned the preceding night, lay very much
hurt. His viscera are bruised, and his only chance of life is in cool
veins well emptied by the lancet. 'Tis right that he on whose care
the safety of others depends should be most prominently exposed to the
danger of ill conduct or neglect; I wish heartily that this liability
could be transferred from those who sit on the coach box, to those who
sit in the cabinet and hold the reins of the hard driven state! we
should then have had more peace and less taxes. Ask Mr. Samuel Coo