As stated in its ‘Advertisement,’ two portions of this treatise (rather than ’Tract’), ‘extending to p. 25’ of the completed volume, were originally printed in the months of December and January (1808-9), in the ‘Courier’ newspaper.  In this shape it attracted the notice of no less a reader than Sir WALTER SCOTT, who thus writes of it:  ’I have read WORDSWORTH’S lucubrations[3] in the ‘Courier,’ and much agree with him.  Alas! we want everything but courage and virtue in this desperate contest.  Skill, knowledge of mankind, ineffable unhesitating villany, combination of movement and combination of means, are with our adversary.  We can only fight like mastiffs—­boldly, blindly, and faithfully.  I am almost driven to the pass of the Covenanters, when they told the Almighty in their prayers He should no longer be their God; and I really believe a few Gazettes more will make me turn Turk or infidel.’[4]

[3] Lucubrations = meditative studies.  It has since deteriorated in meaning.

[4] Lockhart’s ‘Life of Scott,’ vol. iii. pp. 260-1 (edition, 1856).

What WORDSWORTH’S own feelings and impulses were in the composition of the ‘Convention of Cintra’ are revealed with unwonted as fine passion in his ‘Letters and Conversations’ (vol. iii. pp. 256-261, &c.), whither the Reader will do well to turn, inasmuch as he returns and re-returns therein to his standing-ground in this very remarkable and imperishable book.  The long Letters to (afterwards) Sir CHARLES W. PASLEY and another—­never before printed—­which follow the ‘Convention of Cintra’ itself, are of special interest.  The Appendix of Notes, ’a portion of the work which WORDSWORTH regarded as executed in a masterly manner, was drawn up by De Quincey, who revised the proofs of the whole’ (’Memoirs,’ i. 384).  Of the ‘Convention of Cintra’ the (now) Bishop of Lincoln (WORDSWORTH) writes eloquently as follows:  ’Much of WORDSWORTH’S life was spent in comparative retirement, and a great part of his poetry concerns natural and quiet objects.  But it would be a great error to imagine that he was not an attentive observer of public events.  He was an ardent lover of his country and of mankind.  He watched the progress of civil affairs in England with a vigilant eye, and he brought the actions of public men to the test of the great and lasting principles of equity and truth.  He extended his range of view to events in foreign parts, especially on the continent of Europe.  Few persons, though actually engaged in the great struggle of that period, felt more deeply than WORDSWORTH did in his peaceful retreat for the calamities of European nations, suffering at that time from the imbecility of their governments, and from the withering oppression of a prosperous despotism.  His heart burned within him when he looked forth upon the contest, and impassioned words proceeded from him, both in poetry and prose.  The contemplative calmness of his position, and the depth and intensity of his feelings, combined together