To the great names of EDMUND SPENSER and Sir JOHN DAVIES, as Englishmen who dealt with the problem of the government of Ireland, and found it, as more recent statesmen have done, to be in infinite ways ’England’s difficulty,’ has now to be added one not less great—­WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.  If at this later day—­for even 1829 seems remote now—­much of the present letter to the Bishop of London (BLOMFIELD) is mainly of historical noticeableness, as revealing how ‘Catholic Emancipation’ looked to one of the foremost minds of his age, there are, nevertheless, expressions of personal opinion—­e.g. against the Athanasian Creed in its ‘cursing’ clauses, and expositions of the Papacy regarded politically and ecclesiastically in its domination of Ireland, that have a message for to-day strangely congruous with that of the magnificent philippic ‘Of the Vatican Decrees,’ which is thundering across Europe as these words are written.  As a piece of vigorous, masculine, and o’times eloquent English, this letter may take its place—­not an inch lower—­beside a ‘View of the State of Ireland,’ and the ’Discoverie of the True Cavses why Ireland was never entirely subdued, nor brought under obedience of the Crowne of England, untill the beginning of his Maiestie’s happie raigne;’ while the conflict with Ultramontanism in Germany and elsewhere and Mr. Gladstone’s tractate give new significance to its forecastings and portents.

The manuscript, unlike most of his, is largely in WORDSWORTH’S own handwriting—­the earlier portion in (it is believed) partly Miss WORDSWORTH’S and partly Mrs. WORDSWORTH’S.  In the ‘Memoirs’ this letter is quoted largely (vol. ii. pp. 136-140).  It is now given completely from the manuscript itself, not without significant advantage.  It does not appear whether this letter were actually sent to the Bishop of London.  There is no mention of it in Bishop Blomfield’s ‘Life;’ and hence probably it never was sent to him.  In his letters there are many references to the present topics (cf. vol. iii. pp. 258-9, 263-4, &c.).

II.  ETHICAL.

I. Of Legislation for the Poor, the Working Classes, and the Clergy:  Appendix to Poems, 1835.

This formed one of WORDSWORTH’S most deliberate and powerful Appendices to his Poems (1835), and has ever since been regarded as of enduring worth.  It has all the Author’s characteristics of deep thinking, imaginative illustration, intense conviction and realness.  Again, accept or dissent, this State Paper (so to say) is specially Wordsworthian.

It seems only due to WORDSWORTH to bear in recollection that, herein and elsewhere, he led the way in indicating CO-OPERATION as the remedy for the defects and conflicts in the relations between our capitalists and their operatives, or capital and labour (see the second section of the Postscript, and remember its date—­1835).

II. Advice to the Young.