Shall support Smith in his candidacy for Cambridge Botany Professorship following [Thomas] Martyn's [prematurely reported] death.

Thanks for Smith's letter of 13 [July 1820]; several of his friends have expressed the wish to which Smith alludes but many reasons induce him to decline [possibly an invitation to become Honorary Member of the Linnean Society following deaths of Sir Joseph Banks and Brownlow North, Bishop of Winchester].