“My dear C—,

“Harrow, Dee. 1847.

“l am delighted to hear that you are preparing a memoir of your dear and honoured father. Such a memoir appears to me to be indispensable. His numerous friends could not but long for details of a life of so much interest to themselves, and the public had a right to ask for all the private intelligence which could be collected as to the history of the extinction of slavery, and other holy and benevolent movements in which he acted so conspicuous a part.

“Having heard of your intention, I thought that you would forgive me, as one of his oldest and not least-attached friends, if I ventured to give you my unbiassed impression of him. I should not, however, have thus presumed if I had not heard that you would be glad of any remarks founded on the observation of his character at an earlier period than that in which you had the privilege of ministering to his happiness.

“I shall be glad to say a few words as to his intellectual, religious, moral, and social qualities.

“As to the first, then, I have no hesitation in saying, that I always regarded him as a person of the very clearest understanding and strongest common sense that I have ever known—of what we might, perhaps, call with justice, a truly fine specimen of the English mind.[…] ”