he members of the Supreme Council. It will,
therefore, be necessary that in a few weeks,--ten weeks, at furthest,--I
should leave this country for a few years.

It would be mere affectation in me to pretend not to know that my
support is of some importance to the Edinburgh Review. In the situation
in which I shall now be placed, a connection with the Review will be of
some importance to me. I know well how dangerous it is for a public man
wholly to withdraw himself from the public eye. During an absence of six
years, I run some risk of losing most of the distinction, literary and
political, which I have acquired. As a means of keeping myself in the
recollection of my countrymen during my sojourn abroad the Review will
be invaluable to me; nor do I foresee that there will be the slightest
difficulty in my continuing to write for you at least as much as ever.
I have thought over my late articles, and I really can scarcely call
to mind a single sentence in any one of them which might not have been
written at Calcutta as easily as in London. Perhaps in India I might not
have the means of detecting two or three of the false dates in Croker's
Boswell. But that would have been all. Very little, if any, of the
effect of my most popular articles is produced either by minute research
into rare books, or by allusions to mere topics of the day.

I think therefore that we might easily establish a commerce mutually
beneficial. I shall wish to be supplied with all the good books
which come out in this part of the world. Indeed, many books which
in themselves are of little value, and which, if I were in England, I
should not think it worth while to read, will be interesting to me in
India; just as the commonest daubs, and the rudest vessels, at Pompeii
attract the minute attention of people who would not move their eyes
to see a modern signpost, or a modern kettle. Distance of place, like
distance of time, makes trifles valuable.

What I propose, then, is that you should pay me for the articles which I
may send you from India, not in money, but in books. As to the amount
I make no stipulations. You know that I have never haggled about such
matters. As to the choice of books, the mode of transmission, and other
matters, we shall have ample time to discuss them before my departure.
Let me know whether you are willing to make an arrangement on this
basis.

I have not forgotten Chatham in the midst of my avocations. I hope to
send you