f it had continued six weeks longer, it is
said would have forced this country into any measures."

"_Saturday, 17th._ I have been unwell to-day in some degree, so that I
have not been able to go out all day. It was a return of the colic. I
sent my letter of introduction to Dr. Lettsom with a request that he
would call on me, which he did and prescribed a medicine which cured me
in an hour or two, and this evening I feel well enough to resume my
letter.

"Dr. Lettsom is a very singular man. He looks considerably like the print
you have of him. He is a moderate Quaker, but not precise and stiff like
the Quakers of Philadelphia. He is a very pleasant and sociable man and
withal very blunt in his address. He is a man of excellent information
and is considered among the greatest literary characters here. There is
one peculiarity, however, which he has in conversation, that of using the
verb in the third person singular with the pronoun in the first person
singular and plural, as instead of 'I show' or 'we show,' he says 'I
shows,' 'we shows,' etc., upon which peculiarity the famous Mr. Sheridan
made the following lines in ridicule of him:--

"If patients call, both one and all
I bleeds 'em and I sweats 'em,
And if they die, why what care I--

"I. LETTSOM.

"This is a liberty I suppose great men take with each other....

"Perhaps you may have been struck at the lateness of the hour set by Mr.
Bromfield for dinner [5 o'clock!], but that is considered quite early in
London. I will tell you the fashionable hours. A person to be genteel
must rise at twelve o'clock, breakfast at two, dine at six, and sup at
the same time, and go to bed about three o'clock the next morning. This
may appear extravagant, but it is actually practised by the greatest of
the fashionables of London....

"I think you will not complain of the shortness of this letter. I only
wish you now had it to relieve your minds from anxiety, for, while I am
writing, I can imagine mama wishing that she could hear of my arrival,
and thinking of thousands of accidents that may have befallen me, and _I
wish that in an instant I could communicate the information;_ but three
thousand miles are not passed over in an instant and we must wait four
long weeks before we can hear from each other."

(The italics are mine, for on the outside of this letter written by Morse
in pencil are the words:--

"A longing for the telegraph even in this letter.")

"There has a gh