Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Highgate, to Basil Montagu, 1830 May 10 : autograph manuscript signed.

Concerning a dispute over the improper use of charity funds for the maintenance of the chapel at the Highgate Free Grammar School at the expense of the education of the students; saying "I need not tell you that at no time could I possibly have felt any personal, or any other than a moral, interest in the politics of our Hamlet...But a strong moral and religious interest I do feel - in the establishment of a place of Worship with a regular Clergyman in this place - and an effective School for the poor - and from my intimate knowledge of the excessive malignity and most mischievous motives of the opposition to the measure, from the first dawn of this opposition thro' all it's progress - a knowledge obtained by conversation with the main opponents & a thorough insight into their characters, in addition to the vindictive private feelings avowed to myself, at least in my present, by the originator of the Feud, I can truly say, that in the whole course of my life I never found my religious faith in the worth and dignity of Man so necessary to rescue me from the temptation to misanthropy;" discussing the measure which will be introduced in the House of Commons and its primary opponents; relating details of his current physical and mental condition.