differently, and had he been capable of extending his views, he would have felt how much of the best and noblest part of our civic spirit was owing to our military and naval institutions, and that perhaps our very existence as a free people had by them been maintained.  This extreme instance has been adduced to show how deeply seated in the minds of Englishmen is their sense of personal independence.  Master-manufacturers ought never to lose sight of this truth.  Let them consent to a Ten Hours’ Bill, with little or, if possible, no diminution of wages, and the necessaries of life being more easily procured, the mind will develope itself accordingly, and each individual would be more at liberty to make at his own cost excursions in any direction which might be most inviting to him.  There would then be no need for their masters sending them in droves scores of miles from their homes and families to the borders of Windermere, or anywhere else.  Consider also the state of the lake district; and look, in the first place, at the little town of Bowness, in the event of such railway inundations.  What would become of it in this, not the Retreat, but the Advance, of the Ten Thousand?  Leeds, I am told, has sent as many at once to Scarborough.  We should have the whole of Lancashire, and no small part of Yorkshire, pouring in upon us to meet the men of Durham, and the borderers from Cumberland and Northumberland.  Alas, alas, if the lakes are to pay this penalty for their own attractions!

    —­Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring,
    And Sedley cursed the form that pleased a king.

The fear of adding to the length of my last long letter prevented me from entering into details upon private and personal feelings among the residents, who have cause to lament the threatened intrusion.  These are not matters to be brought before a Board of Trade, though I trust there will always be of that board members who know well that as we do ’not live by bread alone,’ so neither do we live by political economy alone.  Of the present Board I would gladly believe there is not one who, if his duty allowed it, would not be influenced by considerations of what may be felt by a gallant officer now serving on the coast of South America, when he shall learn that the nuisance, though not intended actually to enter his property, will send its omnibuses, as fast as they can drive, within a few yards of his modest abode, which he built upon a small domain purchased at a price greatly enhanced by the privacy and beauty of the situation.  Professor Wilson (him I take the liberty to name), though a native of Scotland, and familiar with the grandeur of his own country, could not resist the temptation of settling long ago among our mountains.  The place which his public duties have compelled him to quit as a residence, and may compel him to part with, is probably dearer to him than any spot upon earth.  The reader should be informed with what respect he has been treated.  Engineer agents, to his astonishment, came and intruded with their measuring instruments, upon his garden.  He saw them; and who will not admire the patience that kept his hands from their shoulders?  I must stop.