sion.

Sydney Smith brought me to York on Monday morning, in time for the
stage-coach which runs to Skipton. We parted with many assurances of
goodwill. I have really taken a great liking to him. He is full of wit,
humour, and shrewdness. He is not one of those show-talkers who reserve
all their good things for special occasions. It seems to be his greatest
luxury to keep his wife and daughters laughing for two or three hours
every day. His notions of law, government, and trade are surprisingly
clear and just. His misfortune is to have chosen a profession at once
above him and below him. Zeal would have made him a prodigy; formality
and bigotry would have made him a bishop; but he could neither rise to
the duties of his order, nor stoop to its degradations.

He praised my articles in the Edinburgh Review with a warmth which I am
willing to believe sincere, because he qualified his compliments with
several very sensible cautions. My great danger, he said, was that
of taking a tone of too much asperity and contempt in controversy. I
believe that he is right, and I shall try to mend.

Ever affectionately yours

T. B. M.

Lancaster: September 1, 1827.

My dear Father,--Thank Hannah from me for her pleasant letter. I would
answer it if I had anything equally amusing to say in return; but here
we have no news, except what comes from London, and is as stale as
inland fish before it reaches us. We have circuit anecdotes to be sure;
and perhaps you will be pleased to hear that Brougham has been rising
through the whole of this struggle. At York Pollock decidedly took the
lead. At Durham Brougham overtook him, passed him at Newcastle, and got
immensely ahead of him at Carlisle and Appleby, which, to be sure, are
the places where his own connections lie. We have not been here quite
long enough to determine how he will succeed with the Lancastrians.
This has always hitherto been his least favourable place. He appears to
improve in industry and prudence. He learns his story more thoroughly,
and tells it more clearly, than formerly. If he continues to manage
causes as well as he has done of late he must rise to the summit of the
profession. I cannot say quite so much for his temper, which this close
and constant rivalry does not improve. He squabbles with Pollock more
than, in generosity or policy, he ought to do. I have heard several of
our younger men wondering that he does not show more magnanimity. He
yawns while Pollock i