[121] The appearance of these "Essays on the Fine Arts" was announced in the _Bristol Journal_ of August 6, 1814. They were reprinted in 1837 by Cottle, in his _Early Recollections_, ii. 201-240, and by Thomas Ashe in 1885, in his _Miscellanies, Æsthetic and Literary_, pp. 5-35. Coleridge himself "set a high value" on these essays. See _Table Talk_ of January 1, 1834.
[122] The working editor of the _Courier_.
[123] The third letter to Judge Fletcher on Ireland was published in the _Courier_, October 21, 1814. It is reprinted in _Essays on His Own Times_, iii. 690-697.
[124] John Cartwright, 1740-1824, known as Major Cartwright, was an ardent parliamentary reformer and an advocate of universal suffrage. He refused to fight against the United States and wrote Letters on American Independence (1774).
[125] Lord Erskine's Bill for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was brought forward in the House of Lords May 15, 1809, and was passed without a division. The Bill was read a second time in the House of Commons but was rejected on going into committee, the opposition being led by Windham in a speech of considerable ability.
By "imperfect" duties Coleridge probably means "duties of imperfect obligation."
[126] This article, a review of "The Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton; with a Supplement of Interesting Letters by Distinguished Personages. 2 vols. 8vo. Lovewell and Co. London. 1814," appeared in No. xxi. of _The Quarterly Review_, for April, 1814. The attack is mainly directed against Lady Hamilton, but Nelson, with every pretence of reluctance and of general admiration, is also censured on moral grounds, and his letters are held up to ridicule.
[127] A partner in the publishing firm of Ridgeway and Symonds. _Letters of R. Southey_, iii. 65.
[128] The reference is to Swift's famous "Drapier" Letters. Swift wrote in the assumed character of a draper, and dated his letters "From my shop in St. Francis Street," but why he adopted the French instead of the English spelling of the word does not seem to have been satisfactorily explained. _Notes and Queries_, III. Series, x. 55.
[129] The _View of the State of Ireland_, first published in 1633.
[130] John Kenyon, 1783-1856, a poet and philanthropist. He settled at Woodlands near Stowey in 1802, and became acquainted with Poole and Poole's friends. He was on especially intimate terms with Southey, who writes of him (January 11, 1827) to his still older friend Wynne, as "one of the very best and pleasantest men whom I have ever known, one whom every one likes at first sight, and likes better the longer he is known." With Coleridge himself the tie was less close, but he was, I know, a most kind friend to the poet's wife during those anxious years, 1814-1819, when her children were growing up, and she had little else to depend upon but Southey's generous protection and the moiety of the Wedgwood annuity. Kenyon's friendship with the Brownings belongs to a later chapter of literary history.