1819 June 17

To Erskine

Lett. 7. Whigs AntiReformists

§.5. Pos. 4. Whig Excellence

6

Title to other people’s merits. The principle of vicarious retribution is an instrument not less useful than brilliant in the hand of Whig eloquence. {It comes consecrated /sanctified/ to him by {the hand of} orthodoxy.} The fewer merits a man has of his own, the more /greater the/ need he has of other men’s. Eloquence is never so much at home as when exspatiating on this ground. Eloquence is never in such high spirits as when she is {treading Justice under her feet} /trampling upon justice/. A. did good deeds. B. is to be rewarded for them. It was for the Whigs of 1819 that Russel died. {He did, and he did not, the deed for which he suffered. He did it that Whigs might reap the reward of it. He did it not, that the injustice of the Stuarts from whom he suffered might be the more manifest, and the triumph of the namesake of the Whigs of 1819 more conspicuous.}

Oh rare {Saint Russel! Oh rare martyred} Russel! {first} /chief/ of Saints and Martyrs in the Whig Calendar! {what a useful} /how useful a/ death was there! How has thy blood taken away the sins not only of us the otherwise miserable sinners, thy descendants, but of the forefathers for whom monks were plundered of their lands.

{Oh matchless Russel! Trumpeted be the name of Russel! whispered or better sunk the name of his associate Sydney. Sydney went too far: Sydney was wild and visionary: Sydney was not for a King in pasteboard, with Whigs to pull the wires by which he was moved.}