The following letter ¹ to one of the publishers of the London Mag-
azine although not belonging properly with the letters to Fields or to
Hogg, is of interest coming from an earlier period of great literary
activity (the London, or Confessions period). It not only displays De
Quincey in characteristic mood, but reveals anew his exceptional inter-
est in riding the Mail, -- this time on the box from Manchester to
Preston at the very scene of his "Vision of Sudden Death" in The
English Mail Coach, written twenty-six years later.

Tuesday night Augt. 26, 1823

My dear Sir,

In the very greatest haste I enclose to you 2 sheets (=at the least to
4 pp. of Mag. inasmuch as even the last page contains 24 lines, the requisite
quantity, and all the other I move considerably) to meet a bill wh [ich I] gave
on Sunday last of the following form:

Two days after sight please to pay the sum of four pounds to Mr. Edward
Backhouse or his order. --If this bill were sent off by the next post (Mond.
morning) it would be presented on Wed. and due on Friday--on which morning
you will receive this letter.

On Monday you will receive a quantity of matter for Mr. Newbon.

I reached home about 10 min. before 8 o'clock on Wednesday morning Augt.
6 --having left London at ¼ after 8 on Mond. night Augt. 4. Was in Manchester
by 20 min. after 5 on Tuesday evening: staid there 2 hours. On the box of
the Mail the whole way to Preston --36 miles (by the mail road) north of
Manchester. Hence much fatigued: since greatly harassed: Fox-Ghyll sold
by auction next Friday night: which exposes me to much trouble.

You have disturbed me much by not sending (as you proposed to) proofs
of the Memoranda from the pocket book of a late Opium-Eater. ² For God's
sake in future send me proofs of all things. I foresee most important additions--
which are now lost for the want of an opportunity to connect them with their
appropriate passages. --I fear, I fear -- that this omission, as well as so many
other defects of due energy in conducting the Mag. which I could point out,
arise from dyspepsy. Dyspepsy is the ruin of most things: empires, expeditions,
and everything else.--

I am preparing an Abstract of all the minor and miscellaneous Essays of
Kant: In as [?] how you think cheaply of them.

I beg my best regards to Mrs. Hessey
and am, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly
Tho. De Quincey

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