all that could be said against it.  George was always like a willow—­he never offered resistance to the breath of argument, but never moved from his rooted opinion, blow as it listed.  Exaggeration might make these peculiarities highly dramatic:  Conceive a man who always seems to be acquiescing in your sentiments, yet never changes his own, and this with a sort of bonhomie which shows there is not a particle of deceit intended.  He is only desirous to spare you the trouble of contradiction.

November 29.—­A letter from Southey, malcontent about Murray having accomplished the change in the Quarterly without speaking to him, and quoting the twaddle of some old woman, male or female, about Lockhart’s earlier jeux d’esprit, but concluding most kindly that in regard to my daughter and me he did not mean to withdraw.  That he has done yeoman’s service to the Review is certain, with his genius, his universal reading, his powers of regular industry, and at the outset a name which, though less generally popular than it deserves, is still too respectable to be withdrawn without injury.  I could not in reply point out to him what is the truth, that his rigid Toryism and High Church prejudices rendered him an unsafe counsellor in a matter where the spirit of the age must be consulted; but I pointed out to him what I am sure is true, that Murray, apprehensive of his displeasure, had not ventured to write to him out of mere timidity and not from any [intention to offend].  I treated [lightly] his old woman’s apprehensions and cautions, and all that gossip about friends and enemies, to which a splendid number or two will be a sufficient answer, and I accepted with due acknowledgment his proposal of continued support.  I cannot say I was afraid of his withdrawing.  Lockhart will have hard words with him, for, great as Southey’s powers are, he has not the art to make them work popularly; he is often diffuse, and frequently sets much value on minute and unimportant facts, and useless pieces of abstruse knowledge.  Living too exclusively in a circle where he is idolised both for his genius and the excellence of his disposition, he has acquired strong prejudices, though all of an upright and honourable cast.  He rides his High Church hobby too hard, and it will not do to run a tilt upon it against all the world.  Gifford used to crop his articles considerably, and they bear mark of it, being sometimes decousues. Southey said that Gifford cut out his middle joints.  When John comes to use the carving-knife I fear Dr. Southey will not be so tractable. Nous verrons.  I will not show Southey’s letter to Lockhart, for there is to him personally no friendly tone, and it would startle the Hidalgo’s pride.  It is to be wished they may draw kindly together.  Southey says most truly that even those who most undervalue his reputation would, were he to withdraw from the Review, exaggerate the loss it would thereby