His _Essays written in the Intervals of Business_ had appeared in 1841, and his _Claims of Labour, an Essay on the Duties of the Employers to the Employed_, in 1844. Two plays, _King Henry the Second, an Historical Drama_, and _Catherine Douglas, a Tragedy_, published in 1843, have no particular merit. Neither in these, nor in his only other dramatic effort, _Oulita the Serf_ (1858) did he show any real qualifications as a playwright.
Helps possessed, however, enough dramatic power to give life and individuality to the dialogues with which he enlivened many of his other books. In his _Friends in Council, a Series of Readings and Discourse thereon_ (1847-1859), Helps varied his presentment of social and moral problems by dialogues between imaginary personages, who, under the names of Milverton, Ellesmere and Dunsford, grew to be almost as real to Helps's readers as they certainly became to himself. The book was very popular, and the same expedient was resorted to in _Conversations on War and General Culture_, published in 1871. The familiar speakers, with others added, also appeared in his _Realmah_ (1868) and in the best of its author's later works, _Talk about Animals and their Masters_ (1873).
A long essay on slavery in the first series of _Friends in Council_ was subsequently elaborated into a work in two volumes published in 1848 and 1852, called _The Conquerors of the New World and their Bondsmen_. Helps went to Spain in 1847 to examine the numerous MSS. bearing upon his subject at Madrid. The fruits of these researches were embodied in an historical work based upon his _Conquerors of the New World_, and called _The Spanish Conquest in America, and its Relation to the History of Slavery and the Government of Colonies_ (4 vols., 1855-1857-1861). But in spite of his scrupulous efforts after accuracy, the success of the book was marred by its obtrusively moral purpose and its discursive character.
_The Life of Las Casas, the Apostle of the Indians_ (1868), _The Life of Columbus_ (1869), _The Life of Pizarro_ (1869), and _The Life of Hernando Cortes_ (1871), when extracted from the work and published separately, proved successful. Besides the books which have been already mentioned he wrote: _Organization in Daily Life, an Essay_ (1862), _Casimir Maremma_ (1870), _Brevia_, _Short Essays and Aphorisms_ (1871), _Thoughts upon Government_ (1872), _Life and Labours of Mr Thomas Brassey_ (1872), _Ivan de Biron_ (1874), _Social Pressure_ (1875).