THE CALLING OF THOMAS DE QUINCEY'S FATHER.
[To THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—With regard to the statement of your reviewer, in the 'Spectator of June 30th, regarding the calling of Thomas de Quincey's father, I venture to make these remarks :—The advertisement quoted is dated 1783; Thomas de Quincey was not born till 1785; his father lived till he was seven years of age. Thus, even admitting that your critic is correct in every fact and figure, there are nine years to be accounted for, as the advertisement quoted advertises relinquishment of a trade, not the commencement of it. Even supposing Thomas de Quincey's father was engaged in a retail business, that does not abso- lutely imply that he had no other even at the time; and, after all, how are these later nine years to be accounted for ? Is it not possible that De Quincey's father—an active-minded, energetic man—should have gone into something else after 1783, the more since we know that he left his children fairly well provided for, and had been the architect of his own fortune ? It is not required that a boy writing of his father should go back for his employment to a date two years before he was born. The quoted advertisement itself states that De Quincey's father, if he was a draper, had ceased to be so two years before De Quincey was born, and the boy may have known nothing of that engagement.—I am, Sir, &c.. ALEX. H. JAPP.
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