my mother and myself
started up, supposing he meant _the_ chancery suit. That,
unfortunately, is still pending, pending, like the sword of
Damocles, over our heads, banishing all security for the present or
hope for the future. The theatre is, I believe, doing very well
just now, and we go pretty often to the play, which I like. I have
lately been seeing my father playing Falstaff several times, and I
think it is an excellent piece of acting; he gives all the humor
without too much coarseness, or _charging_, and through the whole,
according to the fat knight's own expression, he is "Sir John to
all the world," with a certain courtly deportment which prevents
him from degenerating into the mere gross buffoon. They are in sad
want of a woman at both the theatres. I've half a mind to give
Covent Garden one. Don't be surprised. I have something to say to
you on this subject, but have not room for it in this letter. My
father is just now acting in the north of England. We expect him
back in a fortnight. God bless you, dear H----.

Yours ever,
FANNY.

The vehement passion of political interest which absorbed my brother at
this time was in truth affecting the whole of English society almost as
passionately. In a letter written in 1827, the Duke of Wellington, after
speaking of the strong partisan sentiment which was agitating the
country, added, "The ladies and all the youth are with us;" that is,
with the Tory party, which, under his leadership, was still an active
power of obstruction to the imminent changes to which both he and his
party were presently to succumb. His ministry was a period of the
stormiest excitement in the political world, and the importance of the
questions at issue--Catholic emancipation and parliamentary
reform--powerfully affected men's minds in the ranks of life least
allied to the governing class. Even in a home so obscure and so devoted
to other pursuits and interests as ours, the spirit of the times made
its way, and our own peculiar occupations became less interesting to us
than the intense national importance of the public questions which were
beginning to convulse the country from end to end. About this time I met
with a book which produced a great and not altogether favorable effect
upon my mind (the blame resting entirely