Page:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.djvu/282

266 On another evening, the name of Minchin turned up on the list. I remembered the man, whom I had met very frequently at the rooms of one of my most intimate friends; but I had not seen him for nearly twenty years.

The next day, after many inquiries, I found that he had been lost sight of for a long time, and it was believed that he had gone out to India. I immediately sent a note to a friend of mine. Captain Robert Locke, who commanded an Indiaman, to beg of him to look in upon me at the committee-room. In two hours he called and informed me that Minchin was a barrister at Calcutta, and was about to return to England. On my expressing a wish for further particulars, he kindly went into the City to procure information, and on his return told me that Minchin was on his voyage home in the "Herefordshire," an excellent ship. It was due on a certain day, about a fortnight thence, and would in all probability not be three days behind its time.

In the evening, being again alone in the committee-room, I resumed the Minchin question, and found that he might possibly arrive on the second of the three days' polling. I therefore wrote the following letter:—

If twenty years have not altered your political principles, we have now an opportunity of getting in a Liberal to represent our University.

The three days of polling are—–—–—–

If you arrive in time, pray come immediately to my committee-room in Cockspur Street.

Yours truly, 1em

I addressed this letter to Minchin at Portsmouth, and