Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 2

[80] of subjects have been discussed, from the dramatists, ancient and modern, down to the outbreak on the Maine frontier, the news of which has just reached us. Macaulay was dinning, but more subdued than I have ever before seen him. That common expression ‘her’ and ‘me’ for, as some say, ‘she’ and ‘I,’ was ingeniously discussed. Lord Holland defended the use of ‘her’ and ‘me,’ as good idiomatic English, thus: ‘No one is handsomer than her,’ and ‘He is absent oftener than me.’ Lord Holland said that his uncle, C. J. Fox, had studied these points, and used these expressions. Macaulay was strong the other way, but was much struck by the authority of C. J. Fox. Lord Holland spoke with me a great deal about Prescott's book. He thought it one of the finest of the age, and an honor to the country; he had been astonished that the author had such command of manuscript materials; he said that the style was beautiful, and he could not commend it enough: if he should venture to make any criticism, it would be that Prescott was a little too anti-Gallican, and that he had not quite done justice to Louis XII. He said that he made the age about which he wrote stand forth as distinctly to us as that of Louis XIV. All who have read Edward Everett's message¹ about the Maine disturbances are much pleased with it, it compares so finely with the undignified, illiterate, and blustering document of Fairfield.² When I read the latter, I felt ashamed of my country. By the way, Lord Holland spoke kindly of Governor Everett, whom he called Dr. Everett,— he did not know that he was Governor. I had a great deal of conversation about George III. and Lord North. Lord Holland confirmed in conversation all that he had written to Sparks, and which has been printed; and further said that he could have furnished much more from the same letters which would have illustrated the bad temper and spirit of the king, but he thought it hardly becoming in a minister of the son of George III. to do more than he had done.

I have taken leave of Lord Brougham, who said, ‘O God! must you go?’ If I should ever be able to visit England again, I should find many places where I might hope to be welcome. Lord and Lady Holland have warmly asked me to let them know when I come to London again, and Lord Lansdowne has done the same; and to-day I had a letter from Lord Leicester, inviting me and any friend of mine to Holkham, if I should ever visit England again. But I will not detail these civilities: I will only mention one of the most gratifying,—a personal call this morning from old Mr. Marshall (one of the richest men in England and the largest proprietor in the United States Bank, and the old Member of Parliament for Yorkshire, and as remarkable for moral worth and independence as for riches), who treated me like an old friend, thanked me for having visited him, and expressed a desire to see me or any of my friends hereafter. Consider the vast circle of younger people in which I have moved familiarly, and you may well imagine that I leave with regret. I count very little the meretricious compliments of Lady Blessington;³ but