householders instead of eroes and of Caermarthen and Denbigh instead of
Carians and Pelasgians. Is it true, by the bye, that the Commissioners
are whipped on the boundaries of the boroughs by the beadles, in order
that they may not forget the precise line which they have drawn? I deny
it wherever I go, and assure people that some of my friends who are in
the Commission would not submit to such degradation.

You must have been hard-worked indeed, and soundly whipped too, if
you have suffered as much for the Reform Bill as we who debated it. I
believe that there are fifty members of the House of Commons who have
done irreparable injury to their health by attendance on the discussions
of this session. I have got through pretty well, but I look forward, I
confess, with great dismay to the thought of recommencing; particularly
as Wetherell's cursed lungs seem to be in as good condition as ever.

I have every reason to be gratified by the manner in which my speeches
have been received. To say the truth, the station which I now hold in
the House is such that I should not be inclined to quit it for any place
which was not of considerable importance. What you saw about my having
a place was a blunder of a stupid reporter's. Croker was taunting the
Government with leaving me to fight their battle, and to rally their
followers; and said that the honourable and learned member for Calne,
though only a practising barrister in title, seemed to be in reality
the most efficient member of the Government. By the bye, my article on
Croker has not only smashed his book, but has hit the Westminster Review
incidentally. The Utilitarians took on themselves to praise the accuracy
of the most inaccurate writer that ever lived, and gave as an instance
of it a note in which, as I have shown, he makes a mistake of twenty
years and more. John Mill is in a rage, and says that they are in a
worse scrape than Croker; John Murray says that it is a damned nuisance;
and Croker looks across the House of Commons at me with a leer of
hatred, which I repay with a gracious smile of pity.

I am ashamed to have said so much about myself. But you asked for news
about me. No request is so certain to be granted, or so certain to be a
curse to him who makes it as that which you have made to me.

Ever yours

T. B. MACAULAY.

London: January 9, 1832.

Dear Napier,--I have been so much engaged by bankrupt business, as we
are winding up the affairs of many estat