Letter to Lord Kinross
MY LORD, I have lately been much diverted by a volume of essays and descriptions (entitled The Candid Eye) in which your Lordship, emulating the ingenious M. Voltaire, portrays the introduction to the English scene of a simple but not unlettered youth from a far country. The young gentleman, who appears to have come from the American Colonies, is at once of an imaginative and serious disposition; so that his opinions of such matters as the condition of the Scholars at Eton or the conduct of the Horse Races on Ascot Heath will strike your Lordship's readers with a pleasing novelty. Other scenes, with which your Lordship's fondness for good society has long rendered you familiar, are painted with equal felicity; and it is indeed a happy gift which enables you, when describing the adventures of your Voltairean hero, to capture the manner of Mr. Smollett. Nor does your Lordship confine your talents to the narra- tion of such adventures : there are many essays, ranging over a diversity of the world's affairs, in which you condescend to discourse to us of the frolics and absurdities of our time.
But there is, my Lord, one circumstance that must dismay your friends and comfort your traducers. All these pleasant works of prose were first given to the town some years since through the pages of the periodical, Punch. Nor is there any dishonour in this.. But carping critics and envious wits are alike ready to apprehend that an Author, who gathers his occasional pieces into one volume, has done so because he cannot sus- tain the labour (or summon the ingenuity) by which original volumes are produced. That this is not true of your Lordship is well known to those who love you and to those who have cherished, in the past, polite works of entertainment written in our tongue. I therefore ask your Lordship to confound the scribblers and to delight the lettered world by giving us, without delay, fresh and exten- sive proof of your genius and powers of con- trivance. With which request I remain, My Lord,
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