Mr. Lockhart
then pledged his word to me that he would withdraw from this species of
warfare, and I have every reason to believe that he has kept his word
with me. In particular I _know_ that he had not the least concern with
the _Beacon_ newspaper, though strongly urged by his young friends at
the Bar, and I also know that while he has sometimes contributed an
essay to _Blackwood_ on general literature, or politics, which can be
referred to if necessary, he has no connection whatever with the
satirical part of the work or with its general management, nor was he at
any time the Editor of the publication.
It seems extremely hard (though not perhaps to be wondered at) that the
follies of three--or four and twenty should be remembered against a man
of thirty, who has abstained during the interval from giving the least
cause of offence. There are few men of any rank in letters who have not
at some time or other been guilty of some abuse of their satirical
powers, and very few who have not seen reason to wish that they had
restrained their vein of pleasantry. Thinking over Lockhart's offences
with my own, and other men's whom either politics or literary
controversy has led into such effusions, I cannot help thinking that
five years' proscription ought to obtain a full immunity on their
account.
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