I received your letter yesterday and would have answered it
immediately; but we are in the midst of an election business here. I
am not a candidate; and, disgusted with public men, had resolved not
to take any part on behalf of others; but I have been led on and when
once in the business go on, as you know, heart and hand.
Let me hear a little more about the Ecclesiastical History Society. I
am a churchman you know, but far from Puseyitical and I should not
like to be mixed up with any legends except such as Ehrenstein or any
Saints except St. Mary le bonne.
I am glad to hear that you have moved your dwelling; for Pancras was
so completely out of my beat that it was impossible for me to get
there when in town. Indeed during my visits to that famed city of
London I always put myself in mind of an American orator’s description
of himself when he said “I am a right down regler Steam Engine, I go
slick off right ahead and never stop till I get to the tarnation back
of nothing at all.”
I shall be delighted to see you and Mr. Christmas here any time you
can come and will with a great deal of pleasure board and educate you
but as to lodging you I am unable for what with babies, nurses, and
one thing or another I can hardly lodge myself. I do not propose to be
in London for some days or I should rather say weeks, as I was there
very lately.
As to Marylebone, any body may propose me for any where and I will be
the representative of any body of men always provided nevertheless
that I do not spend a penny and maintain my own principles to the end
of the chapter. I am not yet inscribable in the _dictionnaire des
Girouettes_; but I trust soon to be for it seems to me that the Jim
Crow system is the only one that succeeds in England.