I earnestly entreat your pardon for having detained you so long.  In the two poems, ‘The Brothers,’ and ‘Michael,’ I have attempted to draw a picture of the domestic affections, as I know they exist among a class of men who are now almost confined to the north of England.  They are small independent proprietors of land, here called statesmen, men of respectable education, who daily labour on their own little properties.  The domestic affections will always be strong amongst men who live in a country not crowded with population, if these men are placed above poverty.  But if they are proprietors of small estates, which have descended to them from their ancestors, the power, which these affections will acquire amongst such men, is inconceivable by those who have only had an opportunity of observing hired labourers, farmers, and the manufacturing poor.  Their little tract of land serves as a kind of permanent rallying point for their domestic feelings, as a tablet upon which they are written, which makes them objects of memory in a thousand instances, when they would otherwise be forgotten.  It is a fountain fitted to the nature of social man, from which supplies of affection, as pure as his heart was intended for, are daily drawn.  This class of men is rapidly disappearing.  You, Sir, have a consciousness, upon which every good man will congratulate you, that the whole of your public conduct has, in one way or other, been directed to the preservation of this class of men, and those who hold similar situations.  You have felt that the most sacred of all property is the property of the poor.  The two poems, which I have mentioned, were written with a view to show that men who do not wear fine clothes can feel deeply.  ’Pectus enim est quod disertos facit, et vis mentis.  Ideoque imperitis quoque, si modo sint aliquo affectu concitati, verba non desunt.’  The poems are faithful copies from Nature; and I hope whatever effect they may have upon you, you will at least be able to perceive that they may excite profitable sympathies in many kind and good hearts, and may in some small degree enlarge our feelings of reverence for our species, and our knowledge of human nature, by showing that our best qualities are possessed by men whom we are too apt to consider, not with reference to the points in which they resemble us, but to those in which they manifestly differ from us.  I thought, at a time when these feelings are sapped in so many ways, that the two poems might co-operate, however feebly, with the illustrious efforts which you have made to stem this and other evils with which the country is labouring; and it is on this account alone that I have taken the liberty of thus addressing you.

Wishing earnestly that the time may come when the country may perceive what it has lost by neglecting your advice, and hoping that your latter days may be attended with health and comfort,

I remain,
With the highest respect and admiration,
Your most obedient and humble servant,
W. WORDSWORTH.[41]