The Carlyle Letters Online

October 1831-September 1833

The Collected Letters, Volume 6

TC TO JAMES FRASER; 6 March 1833; DOI: 10.1215/lt-18330306-TC-JFR-01; CL 6:339-340.

TC TO JAMES FRASER

Edinr, 6th March, 1833

My Dear Sir,

Your “Quack of Quacks”1 is actually under way (sixteen Pages of him written); but has been fearfully kept back by colds, by visits, by accidents of all kinds. He can hardly be ready “before the fifteenth”; so, for this Number, must not be depended on.

Here are five pages of Philosophic stuff,2 which I send you in the interim, having opportunity. If you like them send me a Proof-sheet (folded as Post-Letter in the way you know): I will try to have Cagliostro ready to return with it, and save carriage. C. is going to be a very queer fellow[.]

———

I used to know De Quincey 3 rather well: he is here in Edinr; but none of his Friends can see him by calling, he has hardly shewn face for the last two years; and is at present wholly occupied getting out what we in Scotland call a Cessio Bonorum [something to satisfy his creditors];4 that is to say, a surrendering of all earthly property to avoid going to Jail! That he has not written for you, or to you, will in these circumstances no longer surprise. I mean to attempt seeing him before I go; and if I have opportunity shall mention your affair.

As to the Independent Pittite—— But I have no moment to spare at present.5

Let me not forget to add that we are changing our House; the address after Monday first 6 will be: “4. Great King-Street, Edinburgh.”

And so good night! I am glad to see Heraud 7 again: my respects and sympathy to William Fraser.8

Always faithfully, /

T. Carlyle—

If Mr Mill leave you some Books pray take charge of them, and send them hither.

Sourcenote

TC-JF [JFR], 6 March. Addr: 215. Regent Street. MS: Carlyle House, Chelsea. Hitherto unpbd.

Footnotes

1. “Count Cagliostro.”

2. Printed in Fraser's Magazine, VII (May 1833), 585–89, as “Quae Cogitavit” and reprinted as “On History Again” in Works, XXVIII, 167–76.

3. On 13 Feb. Fraser had written to Carlyle: “As you are in Edin, If you know De Quinc[e]y may I ask a favour of you? Sometime (full 6 months) he wrote to me offering his assistance[.] I instantly accepted of it & agreed to his terms—since then—tho' I have written to him once or twice I have not heard from him & now I begin to think that there must be some cause for this strange conduct if you would ask him & endeavour to fathom it I should esteem it a most particular favour.”

4. In Scottish law a legal process whereby a debtor may escape imprisonment if he surrenders all his means and is innocent of fraud.

5. The article referred to is “An Englishman's Remonstrance to the Whig Aristocracy,” Fraser's Magazine, VII (Feb. 1833), 127–36, signed “An Independent Pittite.” Fraser's reply is clearly in answer to a letter from Carlyle (before 13 Feb.) criticizing this article.

6. 11 March.

7. See TC to JWC, 24 and 29 Aug. 1831.

8. James Fraser had written “W. Fraser has lost his little boy—he is sadly cut up about it.”

This Document


Services

	Similar letters
	Alert me to new volumes
	Add to My Carlyle Folder
	Download to citation manager
	Purchase a volume of the print edition

SUBJECT / RECIPIENT INDICES

	Subject terms: “Cagliostro” Cessio Bonorum De Quincey Thomas Fraser James (d. 1841) Fraser James (d. 1841) > Letters from Fraser (son of W. Fraser) Fraser William (ca. 1805–52) Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country Great King-Street (Edinburgh) Heraud John A. (1799–1887) “Independent Pittite” MILL John Stuart “On History Again” Scotland Scots