Referring to these circumstances four years later,
Sydney wrote:--
"This put me at my ease for my few remaining years. After buying into
the Consols and the Reduced, I read Seneca _On the Contempt of
Wealth_. What intolerable nonsense!
"I have been very poor the greatest part of my life, and have borne it
as well, I believe, as most people, but I can safely say that I have
been happier every guinea I have gained."
His novel opulence did not paralyse his pen. In 1839 he published a
vehement attack upon the Ballot, from which he foresaw no better results
than the enfranchisement of every one, including women, universal
corruption, systematic lying, and a victory for the "lower order of voters"
over their "betters." Of the great advocate of the Ballot, George
Grote,[131] he says--"Mr. Grote knows the relative values of gold and
silver; but by what moral rate of exchange is he able to tell us the
relative values of Liberty and Truth?"
The paper on the Ballot was included in a collection of reprints, mainly
from the _Edinburgh Review_, which he published in 1839. The book sold so
well that in 1840 he published an enlarged edition. The articles reprinted
from the _Edinburgh_ amount to sixty-five, and a memorandum by his daughter
shows that twelve more were omitted from the reproduction, "probably
because their subjects are already treated of in the extracted articles, or
because they applied only to the period in which they were written," The
complete list will be found in Appendix A.
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