per
[a great liberal and brother of my father] if we should not?

At Chesterford your friend, Mr. Smith, the representative for Norwich,
took the mail; and after a nap, talked very unrestrainedly with me on
the present state of France, on Buonaparte, the criminal law, and the
wisdom of the Justices at sessions. I was determined--like Horace's
whetstone, which can sharpen other things, though blunt itself, to put
an edge on him--to say something deep and decisive on some of the
subjects, but I got nothing from him but working-day talk. Perhaps
(like the character with the Greek name in the _Rambler_, who tells
his guest, showing him his fine things, that they were only brought
into service when persons of consequence visited him) he disdained to
pull out his best to me, yet I rather judge that he is only clever to
the party at Norwich; and as Oberon, though but six inches high, is
yet tall for a fairy, he is a great Apollo to the blue and whites [the
colours of the liberal party at Norwich]. For corroboration of any
opinion of theirs, I should always, like the Recorder of London, think
it right to ask the cook.

There's my letter, a type of the miracle of the creation and the lie
to the great Epicurean maxim, that 'Nothing can be made out of
nothing;' for as one of those, that, as the song runs, 'None can love
like,' would exclaim, 'by Jasus, I had not a word to say, and yet I
have spoke three whole pages!'

My duty to my father, and if you please, my best regards to Mrs.
Watson [my mother's sister], on condition she has no more hysterics;
and that is, as she pleases, more than perhaps she is aware of. She
is not naturally melancholy, and may soon accustom her mind to like
hope better than remembrance. My best love to Harriet [his sister], I
should, as I promised her, have written to her if I had not written to
you, but one letter will serve both; pray assure her how grateful I am
to her for all her anxious care and attention to me; I will not even
allow that Charles [his eldest brother, who was then the secretary to
Sir James Cockburn at Bermudas] loves her more than I, or esteems her
more, or will be more glad (as I told him in my letter) than I was to
see that she was better in health than she had been for years; 'twill
make him happy indeed, for the possibility of losing her is alarming
to him, and if sh