, with a fortune of thirty thousand pounds. A larger fortune I never
desired.

I am not fond of money, or anxious about it. But, though every day makes
me less and less eager for wealth, every day shows me more and more
strongly how necessary a competence is to a man who desires to be either
great or useful. At present the plain fact is that I can continue to be
a public man only while I can continue in office. If I left my place in
the Government, I must leave my seat in Parliament too. For I must live;
I can live only by my pen; and it is absolutely impossible for any man
to write enough to procure him a decent subsistence, and at the same
time to take an active part in politics. I have not during this Session
been able to send a single line to the Edinburgh Review; and, if I had
been out of office, I should have been able to do very little. Edward
Bulwer has just given up the New Monthly Magazine on the ground that he
cannot conduct it, and attend to his Parliamentary duties. Cobbett has
been compelled to neglect his Register so much that its sale has fallen
almost to nothing. Now, in order to live like a gentleman, it would be
necessary for me to write, not as I have done hitherto, but regularly,
and even daily. I have never made more than two hundred a year by my
pen. I could not support myself in comfort on less than five hundred;
and I shall in all probability have many others to support. The
prospects of our family are, if possible, darker than ever.

In the meantime my political outlook is very gloomy. A schism in the
Ministry is approaching. It requires only that common knowledge of
public affairs, which any reader of the newspapers may possess, to see
this; and I have more, much more, than common knowledge on the subject.
They cannot hold together. I tell you in perfect seriousness that my
chance of keeping my present situation for six months is so small, that
I would willingly sell it for fifty pounds down. If I remain in office,
I shall, I fear, lose my political character. If I go out, and engage in
opposition, I shall break most of the private ties which I have formed
during the last three years. In England I see nothing before me, for
some time to come, but poverty, unpopularity, and the breaking up of old
connections.

If there were no way out of these difficulties, I would encounter them
with courage. A man can always act honourably and uprightly; and, if
I were in the Fleet Prison or the rules of th