pleasant walks, besides impairing the beauty.

"I only get a newspaper once a week, and in such a crisis feel hungry for
news as the week goes on." [The "crisis," of course, was the near approach
at this time of the beginning of those hostilities which were to end in
the Crimean war.] "Lest the Eastern question should flag in interest by
lingering, lo! the Spanish insurrection breaks on us. I do not yet dare to
hope European benefits from Spain: should such be the ultimate result, it
will be a striking illustration how incalculable is the _course_ of
events, while the general end is not very obscure.

"Mr. Charles Loring Brace, of America (who, you may know, was imprisoned
in Hungary), sent to me an introduction from Theodore Parker. It is highly
probable he had one to you....

"The post summons.

"Ever yours,
"F. W. N."


Harriet Martineau, sister of Dr. Martineau, was fifty-three years of age
when Newman wrote to her brother about her illness. Practically for the
whole of her life she had been more or less of an invalid. Even as a girl
she suffered so much from deafness and wretched health, that she was
hardly ever free from anxiety and depression. Nevertheless she did not let
her ill-health prevent her from earning her livelihood by writing. Before
she made her name by the publication of her stories on political economy,
she experienced endless difficulties in her efforts to get publishers for
her books. But no sooner had these stories appeared than her fame was