1819 May 13

Defence ag st Ed. Review

Lett. 5. In[?] defence a […?]

Lett. 6. Whigs Arch-Reformists

1

{The state of my eyes will not admitt of my reading any thing that is not matter of inevitable necessity for me to read

I have not read or heard read in the Edinburgh Review that article of which my work on Parliamentary Reform is the subject.

A question I have put to more friends than one in whose judgment I have confidence whether in this article there was any thing that called for an answer at my hands: their answer was without hesitation in the negative.

There is nothing in it said they which possesses in reality the character of a precise and tangible objection}

The plain case is that at bottom their /the authors/ opinions are the same as yours: the author as[?] is plainly a man who with grief of heart has been pressed into the service: it is a Counsel forced to argue /arguing/ against his own opinion, and knows not what to /which way to/ say for himself. Of all the propositions /points/ /positions/ you have laid down, he dares not come to close quarters with a single one: only in the way of allusion /insinuation/ does he so much as venture to speak of one, and so feeble is the insinuation it presents its own answer along with it