February 28.—­Finished my proofs this morning, and read part of a curious work, called Memoirs of Vidocq; a fellow who was at the head of Bonaparte’s police.  It is a pickaresque tale; in other words, a romance of roguery.  The whole seems much exaggerated, and got up; but I suppose there is truth au fond. I came home about two o’clock, and wrought hard and fast till night.

FOOTNOTES: 

[249] Sir Walter had written to Mr. Lockhart on October 26th, 1828, on hearing of an impending article in the Quarterly, the following letter:—­

“I cannot repress the strong desire I have to express my regret at some parts of your kind letter just received.  I shall lament most truly a purple article at this moment, when a strong, plain, moderate statement, not railing at Catholics and their religion, but reprobating the conduct of the Irish Catholics, and pointing out the necessary effects which that conduct must have on the Catholic Question, would have a powerful effect, and might really serve king and country.  Nothing the agitators desire so much as to render the broil general, as a quarrel between Catholic and Protestant; nothing so essential to the Protestant cause as to confine it to its real causes.  Southey, as much a fanatic as e’er a Catholic of them all, will, I fear, pass this most necessary landmark of debate.  I like his person, admire his genius, and respect his immense erudition, but—­non omnia.  In point of reasoning and political judgment he is a perfect Harpado—­nothing better than a wild bull.  The circumstances require the interference of vir gravis pietate et moribus, and you bring it a Highland piper to blow a Highland charge, the more mischievous that it possesses much wild power of inflaming the passions.

“Your idea that you must give Southey his swing in this matter or he will quit the Review,—­this is just a pilot saying, If I do not give the helm to such a passenger he will quit the ship.  Let him quit and be d—­d.

“My own confidence is, you know, entirely in the D. As Bruce said to the Lord of the Isles at Bannockburn, ‘My faith is constant in thee.’  Now a hurly-burly charge may derange his line of battle, and therein be of the most fatal consequence.  For God’s sake avail yourself of the communication I opened while in town, and do not act without it.  Send this to the D. of W. If you will, he will appreciate the motives that dictate it.  If he approves of a calm, moderate, but firm statement, stating the unreasonable course pursued by the Catholics as the great impediment to their own wishes, write such an article yourself; no one can make a more impressive appeal to common sense than you can.

“The circumstances of the times are—­must be—­an apology for disappointing Southey.  But nothing can be an apology for indulging him at the expense of aggravating public disturbance, which, for one, I see with great apprehension.