lliant success from first to last! The Queen
had taken it into her head in the morning to go to Chatham, and had
carried Phipps with her. He wrote to me asking if it were possible to
give him a quarter of an hour. I got through that time before the
overture, and he came without any dinner, so influenced by eager
curiosity. Lemon and I did every conceivable absurdity, I think, in the
farce; and they never left off laughing. At supper I proposed your
health, which was drunk with nine times nine, and three cheers over. We
then turned to at Scotch reels (having had no exercise), and danced in
the maddest way until five this morning.

It is as much as I can do to guide the pen.

With loves to Mrs. Stanfield and all,
Ever most affectionately yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.]

TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Saturday, June 30th, 1855._

MY VERY DEAR MACREADY,

I write shortly, after a day's work at my desk, rather than lose a post
in answering your enthusiastic, earnest, and young--how young, in all
the best side of youth--letter.

To tell you the truth, I confidently expected to hear from you. I knew
that if there were a man in the world who would be interested in, and
who would approve of, my giving utterance to whatever was in me at this
time, it would be you. I was as sure of you as of the sun this morning.

The subject is surrounded by difficulties; the Association is sorely in
want of able men; and the resistance of all the phalanx, who have an
interest in corruption and mismanagement, is the resistance of a
struggle against death. But the great, first, strong necessity is to
rouse the people up, to keep them stirring and vigilant, to carry the
war dead into the tent of such creatures as ----, and ring into their
souls (or what stands for them) that the time for dandy insolence is
gone for ever. It may be necessary to come to that law of primogeniture
(I have no love for it), or to come to even greater things; but this is
the first service to be done, and unless it is done, there is not a
chance. For this, and to encourage timid people to come in, I went to
Drury Lane the other night; and I wish you had been there and had seen
and heard the people.

The Association will be proud to have your name and gift. When we sat
down on the stage the other night, and were waiting a minute or two to
begin, I said to Morley, the chairman (a thorough