ay be permitted to judge) to be
_very well_ written as a composition, and I think will do the
journal no discredit, because even those who condemn its partiality
must praise its generosity. The temptations to take another and a
less favourable view of the question have been so great and
numerous, that, what with public opinion, politics, &c. he must be
a gallant as well as a good man, who has ventured in that place,
and at this time, to write such an article even anonymously. Such
things are, however, their own reward; and I even flatter myself
that the writer, whoever he may be (and I have no guess), will not
regret that the perusal of this has given me as much gratification
as any composition of that nature could give, and more than any
other has given,--and I have had a good many in my time of one kind
or the other. It is not the mere praise, but there is a _tact_ and
a _delicacy_ throughout, not only with regard to me, but to
_others_, which, as it had not been observed _elsewhere_, I had
till now doubted whether it could be observed _any where_.

"Perhaps some day or other you will know or tell me the writer's
name. Be assured, had the article been a harsh one, I should not
have asked it.

"I have lately written to you frequently, with _extracts_, &c.,
which I hope you have received, or will receive, with or before
this letter.--Ever since the conclusion of the Carnival I have been
unwell, (do not mention this, on any account, to Mrs. Leigh; for if
I grow worse, she will know it too soon, and if I get better, there
is no occasion that she should know it at all,) and have hardly
stirred out of the house. However, I don't want a physician, and
if I did, very luckily those of Italy are the worst in the world,
so that I should still have a chance. They have, I believe, one
famous surgeon, Vacca, who lives at Pisa, who might be useful in
case of dissection:--but he is some hundred miles off. My malady is
a sort of lowish fever, originating from what my 'pastor and
master,' Jackson, would call 'taking too much out of one's self.'
However, I am better within this day or two.

"I missed seeing the new Patriarch's procession to St. Mark's the
other day (owing to my indisposition), with six hundred and fifty
priests in his rear--a 'goodly army.'