been left unfinished till past post-time, while I was soliciting this favor, which I have every hope we shall obtain.  Lady Macdonald is extremely kind and good-natured, and I am sure will exert herself to serve us, and if this can be accomplished I shall be haunted by one anxiety the less.

Henry is too young and too handsome to be doing nothing but lounging about the streets of London, and even if he should be ordered to the Indies, it is something to feel that he is no longer aimless and objectless in life—­a mere squanderer of time, without interest, stake, or duty, in this existence.  I am sure this news will pacify you, and atone for the day’s delay in this letter reaching you.

[My youngest brother Henry had a passionate desire to be a sailor, and never exhibited the slightest inclination for any other career.  Admiral Lake, who was a very kind friend of my father’s and mother’s, knowing this to be the lad’s bent, offered, on one occasion, to take charge of him, and have him trained for his profession under his own supervision.  Such, however, was my mother’s horror of the sea, and dread of losing her darling, if she surrendered him to be carried from her to Nova Scotia, whither I think Admiral Lake was bound when he offered to take my brother with him, that she induced my father to decline this most friendly and advantageous offer.  Henry never after that exhibited the slightest preference for any other profession, and always said, “They may put me at a plow-tail if they like.”  He went through Westminster School, after a previous training at Bury St. Edmunds, not otherwise than creditably; but a very modest estimate of his own capacity made him beg not to be sent to Cambridge, where he said he was sure he should only waste money, and do himself and us no credit. (The bitter disappointment of my brother John’s failure there had made a deep impression upon him.) Finally it was decided that he should go into the army, and the friendly interest of Sir John Macdonald and the liberal price Mr. Murray gave me for my play of “Francis I.” enabled me to get him a commission; it was the time when they were still purchasable.  My poor mother, unable to refuse her consent to this second favorable opportunity of starting him in life, acquiesced in his military, though she had thwarted his naval, career, and was well content to see her boy-ensign sent over with his troops to Ireland.  But from Ireland his regiment was ordered to the West Indies, and after his departure thither she never again saw him in her life.]

I think it would be a wise thing if I were to go to America and work till I have made 10,000_l._, then return to England and go the round of the provinces, and act for a few nights’ leave-taking in London.  Prudence would then, perhaps, find less difficulty in adjusting my plans for the future.  That is what I think would be well for me to do, supposing all things remain as they are and God preserves my health and strength.  It will not do to verify all Poitier’s lugubrious congratulation to his children in the Vaudeville on their marriage: 

“Ji!  Ji! mariez-vous,
Mettez-vous dans la misere! 
Ji!  Ji! mariez-vous,
Mettez-vous la corde au cou.”