All this in _confidence_ of course, as the secret is not my own." Gifford also endeavoured to secure the assistance of Southey, through his friend, Mr.Grosvenor Bedford.

Southey was requested to write for the first number an article on the Affairs of Spain.

This, however, he declined to do; but promised to send an article on the subject of Missionaries.
"Let not Gifford," he wrote to Bedford, in reply to his letter, "suppose me a troublesome man to deal with, pertinacious about trifles, or standing upon punctilios of authorship.

No, Grosvenor, I am a quiet, patient, easy-going hack of the mule breed; regular as clockwork in my pace, sure-footed, bearing the burden which is laid on me, and only obstinate in choosing my own path.

If Gifford could see me by this fireside, where, like Nicodemus, one candle suffices me in a large room, he would see a man in a coat 'still more threadbare than his own' when he wrote his 'Imitation,' working hard and getting little--a bare maintenance, and hardly that; writing poems and history for posterity with his whole heart and soul; one daily progressive in learning, not so learned as he is poor, not so poor as proud, not so proud as happy." _Mr.James Ballantyne to John Murray_.
_October_ 28, 1808.
"Well, you have of course heard from Mr.Scott of the progress of the 'Great Plan.' Canning bites at the hook eagerly.