TALBOT28

London.
26 Jan^y

My dear Henry –

You have been better in writing to us often than we I fear have deserved but you know what a bustle we are always in as the Time of our Departure approaches – you will not be surprized at our having dawdled beyond the day fixed more than 2 weeks, or at hearing that we settle at Brighton just a month later than I had proposed – Tomorrow I go there by the Mail & they all follow the next morning by which Time I hope to have got them a House –our journey was as prosperous as could be for the Time of year – & we got away pretty well notwithstanding Richards ¹ illness, which confined him to his bed & obliged us to leave him behind – I have got a new man, who has a great deal to learn, but of whom I have great hopes, at least I have every reason to believe that he will be honest & well intentioned & he seems very intelligent. – Henry Frampton ² came up from Dorsetshire yesterday & dined here today – he brings but an uncomfortable account of Giles ³ who seems to be in a critical state – John ⁴ when last heard of was at Alexandria waiting for a passage to Naples & William ⁵ to our great astonishment quietly at Abbotsbury ⁶ when we imagined him at some place ending in ski in the heart of Poland – The Talbots all gone back to Penrice ⁷ – & so ends my Family News. of other I have not much. The Law against the press in France ⁸ was making a great sensation, & the despotic excuse of authority against Lacretelle ⁹ & the other academicians for the use they made of the right to petition solemnly guaranteed by the Charter, still more – how it will end is not easy to say but I cannot think that the King ¹⁰ & the Priests can go on in their present course long – some people talk of war but I do not myself see much chance of it – a war in Spain is always unpopular with a French army, & to go there to fight the cause of the Monks & the Jesuits, would be very disquieting to them – besides for what can they [illegible] go to war with us? supposing the spanish [sic] Troop invade Portugal & we repel them it does not follow that it is there we should attack them in return – & put ourselves in contact with the French – but rather in their colonies, about which the French are little interested – it will not however come to that – London is dirty dull Foggy & uncomfortable, you shall all be glad to be out of it – there are however a good many people in it, & we might have pleasanter society now than in the season when everyone goes mad by common consent – Old Lord William Russel who you must remember in Italy is going to marry Jerome Bonaparte’s ¹¹ first wife Miss Paterson ¹², who they say is a very charming person – George Finch ¹³ is in Town & seems in very tolerable spirits – his sejour ¹⁴ with my sisters ¹⁵ at Worthing has answered very well to him & them – Jane Nichol ¹⁶ is here but I have not seen her – I got your Box through the Custom House without unpacking by saying what it was & putting a valuation on it – I paid I think 16/ or 18/–

God bless you
Ever Y^rs most aff^ly
C F.

Monsieur Talbot

Poste restante
Berlin
Prusse
Düsseldorf
Brussel