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law, and his cases; to the latter, about Horace, and Juvenal, and Persius, and the beauty of the English language.
Pollock is a delightful scholar: Follett is a delightful man,—simple, amiable, unaffected as a child.
Said Follett: ‘I have often cited, before the House of Lords, the work of one of your countrymen,—Dr. Story;’ and he inundated me with questions about you. He has been so kind as to call and see me. You would have been pleased by the cordiality and friendship between the present Whig and the old Tory law-officers.
When Lord Plunkett inquired of me the meaning of ‘locofoco,’ and I defined it to be ‘a very ultra Radical,’ Follett and Pollock both laughed, and cried out to the Attorney: ‘Campbell, you are the “locofoco!”
’ They appeared so pleased with the term that I should not be surprised if they adopted it. This cordiality is indescribably pleasant.
Plunkett is old, and has lost his powers; in the Lords, he speaks like an old man, and they very seldom report what he says.
He was very kind to me; and when I told him that I had often declaimed at college one of his speeches (his most eloquent speech in the Irish Parliament), and I added a word from Juvenal,—‘et declamatio fias,’—the old peer brightened, and at once quoted the whole line,—
Ut pueris placeas, et declamatio fias.But I have seen another,—Lord Brougham. I was at Parkes's yesterday, when he said: ‘Get into my cab.’ I got in, and then asked where we were going. ‘To Lord Brougham's,’ he said; and so to Brougham's we went. His Lordship received me cordially, inquired earnestly after your health, and invited me to come down and pass some time with him at Brougham Hall, in Westmoreland; and I have promised to go. He flattered me, by saying that he knew me by reputation (the Lord knows how!); and, as I was leaving, he took me by the arm and conducted me to the door, repeating his invitation again, saying: ‘Come down, and we will be quiet, and talk over the subject of codification.’ In the course of conversation, when I told him I was going on the circuit, he offered me letters to Lord Denman, which I apprised him I had no need of, as I already knew his Lordship sufficiently well. ‘Then,’ said he, ‘I must give you a letter to Alderson, at Liverpool.’ I am at a loss to account for my reception from Brougham; for he is a person almost inaccessible at present, who sees very little society, but occupies himself with affairs and with composition.1 From Brougham Hall you will hear from me. Tell Hillard of this, as I cannot write him now. The Solicitor-General has urged me to stay longer in London, in order to meet the Chancellor of the Exchequer at dinner, who would like to talk with me on American affairs; but I must go. Affectionate regards to your family, as ever, from affectionately yours.
C. S.
