e writer finally to
leave England--the result, as is well known, of a trial for libel in
which Landor was cast in heavy damages which were far beyond his
diminished means to pay. He acted very wrongly, and still more
imprudently, in attempting to expose what he honestly deemed
misconduct of a nature that outraged all the generous feelings of his
nature, by the publication of a very gross libel. The passages in the
letter in question which refer to this business, then in the stage
preceding his conviction, abundantly testify to the fact that the
sentiments which had impelled him to act as he did were wholly and
solely those of generous indignation at wrong done, in no-wise against
himself, but against another, whom he deemed to be oppressed and
unprotected. But I think, on the whole, that no good purpose would be
served by raking up the matter afresh. And (for Landor in his wrath
was at no time a Chrysostom) the letter bristles with assertions and
accusations couched in language which might, for aught I know, make
the publication of it a repetition of the offence for which he
suffered. The other matters touched on are not uninteresting
manifestations of opinion:

"My DEAR FRIEND," he writes: "Whether I am ill or well it is always
with equal pleasure that I see the trace of your hand. Surely, I must
have written to you since I sent the scenes of _Anthony and Octavius_.
But I am too apt to believe that what I _ought_ to have done I _have_
done. You ask me what I think of the Neapolitan abominations." [The
allusion is to some one or other of the many acts of grievous tyranny
which were at that time perpetrated by the Neapolitan Bourbon
government in its terrified attempts to protect itself against the
rising indignation of the people.] "We countenance them. The despots
are in _Holy Alliance_ against constitutions." [Surely, Landor's old
antagonism to former English governments led him into error and
injustice when he accuses England of "countenancing" the tyrannies of
the Neapolitan government. How much Gladstone's celebrated letter and
English sentiment in all quarters contributed toward the overthrow of
that tyranny was not then known as well as it is now.] "On the other
side of this," he continues, "you will find a few verses I wrote on
Agesiloa Milano, the finest and bravest patriot on record." [Agesilao
Milano, whose name was just then in every mouth in Italy, was one of
the numerous victims of Austrian severity, who