I have thought of the Christmas number, but not very successfully,
because I have been (and still am) constantly occupied with "Bleak
House." I purpose returning home either on Sunday or Monday, as my work
permits, and we will, immediately thereafter, dine at the office and
talk it over, so that you may get all the men to their work.
The fault of ----'s poem, besides its intrinsic meanness as a
composition, is that it goes too glibly with the comfortable ideas (of
which we have had a great deal too much in England since the Continental
commotions) that a man is to sit down and make himself domestic and
meek, no matter what is done to him. It wants a stronger appeal to
rulers in general to let men do this, fairly, by governing them well. As
it stands, it is at about the tract-mark ("Dairyman's Daughter," etc.)
of political morality, and don't think that it is necessary to write
_down_ to any part of our audience. I always hold that to be as great a
mistake as can be made.
I wish you would mention to Thomas, that I think the paper on hops
_extremely well done_. He has quite caught the idea we want, and caught
it in the best way. In pursuing the bridge subject, I think it would be
advisable to look up the _Thames police_. I have a misty notion of some
capital papers coming out of it. Will you see to this branch of the tree
among the other branches?