Autograph Letter Signed ('J W Croker') from John Wilson Croker [to George Pellew, Dean of Norwich], stating the opinion that King George IV's letters in Pellew's life of Lord Sidmouth 'give a higher idea of his powers of mind' than was the case.

4pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper with watermarked date 1848. Addressed to 'My dear Dean'. As the letter clearly concerns Pellew's life of his father-in-law Lord Sidmouth (1847), with Croker referring to his own review of the book in the Quarterly Review, the reason for the gap between the date of publication of the book and the writing of the letter is unclear. Croker writes that he has received Pellew's 'last livraison & kind letter which gives a very just idea of the correspondence'. He feels that Pellew hits 'one point which I had already hinted at in my review of your work - that the King's letters give a higher idea of his powers of mind than was perhaps strictly speaking the fact, as he very generally recapitulated the reasons propounded by his correspondent. If the King's papers should ever become accessible this would I think be found to be very largely the case - but, as we read them, his letters tho often deficient in grammar & sometimes odd by word are creditabe both to his head & heart.' After touching on the King's 'faults of style' Croker appeals for information regarding 'Col. Pringle, 'preparatory to my laying siege to him'. In a postscript Croker writes: 'All the letters about the high Bishoprick Lord Sidmouth showed me, the obnoxious candidate Geo. Beresford was a particular friend of my own.'