asperation of British public. D. A. arrived at
home between ten and eleven that night, thank God, and found all well
and happy.

I think you see _The Times_, and if so, you will have seen a very
graceful and good account of the Birmingham readings. It was the most
remarkable thing that England could produce, I think, in the way of a
vast intelligent assemblage; and the success was most wonderful and
prodigious--perfectly overwhelming and astounding altogether. They wound
up by giving my wife a piece of plate, having given me one before; and
when you come to dine here (may it be soon!) it shall be duly displayed
in the centre of the table.

Tell Mrs. Cerjat, to whom my love, and all our loves, that I have highly
excited them at home here by giving them an account in detail of all
your daughters; further, that the way in which Catherine and Georgina
have questioned me and cross-questioned me about you all,
notwithstanding, is maddening. Mrs. Watson has been obliged to pass her
Christmas at Brighton alone with her younger children, in consequence of
her two eldest boys coming home to Rockingham from school with the
whooping-cough. The quarantine expires to-day, however; and she drives
here, on her way back into Northamptonshire, to-morrow.

The sad affair of the Preston strike remains unsettled; and I hear, on
strong authority, that if that were settled, the Manchester people are
prepared to strike next. Provisions very dear, but the people very
temperate and quiet in general. So ends this jumble, which looks like
the index to a chapter in a book, I find, when I read it over.

Ever, my dear Cerjat, heartily your Friend.

[Sidenote: Mr. Arthur Ryland.]

TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _January 18th, 1854._

MY DEAR SIR,

I am quite delighted to find that you are so well satisfied, and that
the enterprise has such a light upon it. I think I never was better
pleased in my life than I was with my Birmingham friends.

That principle of fair representation of all orders carefully carried
out, I believe, will do more good than any of us can yet foresee. Does
it not seem a strange thing to consider that I have never yet seen with
these eyes of mine, a mechanic in any recognised position on the
platform of a Mechanics' Institution?

Mr. Wills may be expected to sink, shortly, under the ravages of letters
from all parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland, proposing readings. He