into a correspondence with Henry Coleridge
in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (May, June, July and August) concerning
some statements about Coleridge's connection with the _Morning Post_
and _The Courier_ which were made in Gillman's _Life_, Stuart, in the
course of straightening out his relations with Coleridge, referred
thus to Lamb:--

But as for good Charles Lamb, I never could make anything out of
his writings. Coleridge often and repeatedly pressed me to settle
him on a salary, and often and repeatedly did I try; but it would
not do. Of politics he knew nothing; they were out of his line of
reading and thought; and his drollery was vapid, when given in
short paragraphs fit for a newspaper; yet he has produced some
agreeable books, possessing a tone of humour and kind feeling,
in a quaint style, which it is amusing to read, and cheering to
remember.

For further remarks concerning Lamb's journalism see below when we
come to _The Albion_ and his connection with it.

Page 250, line 6. _Perry, of the Morning Chronicle._ James Perry
(1756-1821) the editor of the _Morning Chronicle_--the leading Whig
paper, for many years--from about 1789. Perry was a noted talker and
the friend of many brilliant men, among them Porson. Southey's letters
inform us that Lamb was contributing to the _Chronicle_ in the summer
of 1801, and I fancy I see his hand now and then; but his identifiable
contributions to the paper came much later than the period under
notice. Coleridge contributed to it a series of sonnets to eminent
persons in 1794, in one of which, addressed to Mrs. Siddons, he
collaborated with Lamb (see Vol. IV.).

Page 250, line 14. _The Abyssinian Pilgrim_. For notes to this passage
about the New River see the essay "Amicus Redivivus."

Page 250, foot. _In those days ..._ This paragraph began, in the
_Englishman's Magazine_, with the following sentence:--

"We ourself--PETER--in whose inevitable NET already Managers and
R.A.s lie caught and floundering--and more peradventure shall
flounder--were, in the humble times to which we have been
recurring, small Fishermen indeed, essaying upon minnows; angling
for quirks, not _men_."

The phrase "Managers and R.A.s" refers to the papers on Elliston and
George Dawe which had preceded this essay, although the Elliston essay
had not been ranged under the heading "Peter's Net." The George Dawe
paper is in Vol. I. of this editio