You will think this a very dull letter for so great a subject; but I have only had time to scrawl these lines in order to catch the post.  I have not a minute to read them over.  I lost yesterday, and have been forced to work to-day.  Half my article on Boswell went to Edinburgh the day before yesterday.  I have, though I say it who should not say it, beaten Croker black and blue.  Impudent as he is, I think he must be ashamed of the pickle in which I leave him. [Mr. Carlyle reviewed Croker’s book in “Fraser’s Magazine” a few months after the appearance of Macaulay’s article in the “Edinburgh.”  The two Critics seem to have arrived at much the same conclusion as to the merits of the work.  “In fine,” writes Mr. Carlyle, “what ideas Mr. Croker entertains of a literary whole, and the thing called Book, and how the very Printer’s Devils did not rise in mutiny against such a conglomeration as this, and refuse to print it, may remain a problem . . . .  It is our painful duty to declare, aloud, if that be necessary, that his gift, as weighed against the hard money which the booksellers demand for giving it you, is (in our judgment) very much the lighter.  No portion, accordingly, of our small floating capital has been embarked in the business, or ever shall be.  Indeed, were we in the market for such a thing, there is simply no edition of Boswell to which this last would seem preferable,”]

Ever yours

T. B. M.

To Hannah M. Macaulay.

London:  September 13, 1831.

My dear Sister,—­I am in high spirits at the thought of soon seeing you all in London, and being again one of a family, and of a family which I love so much.  It is well that one has something to love in private life; for the aspect of public affairs is very menacing;—­fearful, I think, beyond what people in general imagine.  Three weeks, however, will probably settle the whole, and bring to an issue the question, Reform or Revolution.  One or the other I am certain that we must and shall have.  I assure you that the violence of the people, the bigotry of the Lords, and the stupidity and weakness of the Ministers, alarm me so much that even my rest is disturbed by vexation and uneasy forebodings; not for myself; for I may gain, and cannot lose; but for this noble country, which seems likely to be ruined without the miserable consolation of being ruined by great men.  All seems fair as yet, and will seem fair for a fortnight longer.  But I know the danger from information more accurate and certain than, I believe, anybody not in power possesses; and I perceive, what our men in power do not perceive, how terrible the danger is.