_The Rev. J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq._

Littlemore: In fest. Conv. S. Pauli, 1843.


My dear Hope,--In return for your announcement of some change of purpose, I
must tell you of one of my own, in a matter where I told you I was going to
be very quiet.

My conscience goaded me some two months since to an act which comes into
effect, I believe, in the _Conservative Journal_ next Saturday, viz.
to eat a few dirty words of mine. I had intended it for a time of peace,
the beginning of December, but against my will and power the operation has
been delayed, and now, unluckily, falls upon the state of irritation and
suspicion in good Anglicans, which Bernard Smith's step [Footnote: The
conversion of the Rev. Bernard Smith, Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.]
has occasioned. I had committed myself when all was quiet. The meeting of
Parliament will, I hope, divert attention.


Ever yrs,

JOHN H. NEWMAN.


P.S.--I am publishing my Univ. Sermons. You got a headache for _one_--
it would be an act of gratitude to send you _all_. Shall I do so?