Great surprise was{295} expressed by American newspapers, north and south, during my stay in Great Britain, that a person so illiterate and insignificant as myself could awaken an interest so marked in England.

These papers were not the only parties surprised.

I was myself not far behind them in surprise.

But the very contempt and scorn, the systematic and extravagant disparagement of which I was the object, served, perhaps, to magnify my few merits, and to render me of some account, whether deserving or not.

A man is sometimes made great, by the greatness of the abuse a portion of mankind may think proper to heap upon him.