xxxviL.] ILLNESS AFTER HIS RETURN FROM ROUHDALE. 023

suit me best. But really what right has anybody to pre- 1865.
tend to take the burden of affairs of state on his shoulders, Zr. 60.
when he has arrived at an age when he can hardly bear the
weight of his own infirmities? I ought to give up public
life. So nauseous is the present state of parliamentary
parties, that if I knew the general election would give the
old Premier a renewed rule, I should secretly pray that Mr.
Brett * would relieve me from the task of being a further
witness, if not accomplice, to the imposture!” .
His time was filled by vigilant observation of affairs, and
by his unfailing practice of correspondence. The struggle
in America occupied his thoughts incessantly, partly because
he was looking to the questions that would remain for adjustment
 after the war had come to an end. One of his last
letters to Mr. Sumner touched on this point :—
“Jan. 11, 1865.—1 agree with a remark in the concluding
passage of your last letter, that you are fighting the battle of
liberalism in Europe as well as the battle of freedom in
America. It is only necessary to observe who are your
frionds and who your opponents in the Old World, to be
satisfied that great principles are at stake in your terrible
conflict. But it is not by victories in the field alone that
you will help the cause of the masses in Europe. End
when it may, the civil war will, in the eyes of mankind,
have conferred quite as much ‘glory,’ so far as mere fighting
goes, on the South as on the North. Itisin your superiority
in other things that you can alone by your example elevate
the Old World. I confess I am very jealous of your taking
a course which seems to hold up our old doings as an excuse
for your present short-comings. Hence I was sorry to see
your republication of the old indictment against us in your
very able and learned pamphlet. My answer is, that your

$ The present Lord Justice Brett. He was now before the constituency
of Rochdale as the Conservative candidate,