Chapter 119

CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS POOLE

[Dated at end: Temple, 5 May, 1804.]

Dear Sir--I can get the insertions into the British Press without any difficulty at all. I am only sorry that I have no interest in the M. Post, having so much greater circulation. If your friend chuses it, you will be so good as to return me the Critique, of which I forgot to take a copy, and I suppose on Monday or Tuesday it will be in. The sooner I have it, the better.

Yours &c. C. LAMB.

I did formerly assist in the Post, but have no longer any engagement.--

[Stuart, having sold the _Morning Post_, was now developing the _Courier_. The notes are interesting only as showing Lamb's attitude to Stuart. Writing to the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in June, 1838, concerning his association as editor with Coleridge, Stuart said: "But as for good Charles Lamb, I never could make any-thing of his writings. Coleridge often and repeatedly pressed me to settle him on a salary, and often and repeatedly did I try; but it would not do. Of politics he knew nothing; they were out of his line of reading and thought; and his drollery was vapid, when given in short paragraphs fit for a newspaper: yet he has produced some agreeable books, possessing a tone of humour and kind feeling, in a quaint style, which it is amusing to read, and cheering to remember."]