hess who has
been handsome, or to some Duchess's daughter who still is so.

The Duchess said one thing that amused us. We were talking about Lady
Morgan. "When she first came to London," said Lord Holland, "I remember
that she carried a little Irish harp about with her wherever she
went." Others denied this. I mentioned what she says in her Book of the
Boudoir. There she relates how she went one evening to Lady--'s with her
little Irish harp, and how strange everybody thought it. "I see nothing
very strange," said her Grace, "in her taking her harp to Lady--'s. If
she brought it safe away with her, that would have been strange indeed."
On this, as a friend of yours says, we la-a-a-a-a-a-a-ft.

I am glad to find that you approve of my conduct about the Niggers. I
expect, and indeed wish, to be abused by the Agency Society. My father
is quite satisfied, and so are the best part of my Leeds friends.

I amuse myself, as I walk back from the House at two in the morning,
with translating Virgil. I am at work on one of the most beautiful
episodes, and am succeeding pretty well. You shall have what I have
done when I come to Liverpool, which will be, I hope, in three weeks or
thereanent.

Ever yours

T. B. M.

To Hannah M. Macaulay.

London: July 31, 1833.

My dear Sister,--Political affairs look cheeringly. The Lords passed the
Irish Church Bill yesterday, and mean, we understand, to give us little
or no trouble about the India Bill. There is still a hitch in the
Commons about the West India Bill, particularly about the twenty
millions for compensation to the planters; but we expect to carry our
point by a great majority. By the end of next week we shall be very near
the termination of our labours. Heavy labours they have been.

So Wilberforce is gone! We talk of burying him in Westminster Abbey; and
many eminent men, both Whigs and Tories, are desirous to join in paying
him this honour. There is, however, a story about a promise given to old
Stephen that they should both lie in the same grave. Wilberforce kept
his faculties, and, except when he was actually in fits, his spirits, to
the very last. He was cheerful and full of anecdote only last Saturday.
He owned that he enjoyed life much, and that he had a great desire to
live longer. Strange in a man who had, I should have said, so little to
attach him to this world, and so firm a belief in another; in a man with
an impaired fortune, a weak spine, and a worn-out st