TALBOT3949

London
Oct. 5. 1839

My Dear Mother

I shall be very happy to acquainted with Sir Augustus Calcott, ¹ but I believe there will be hardly time during my present stay in London as I am anxious to leave it as soon as I can, on Wednesday perhaps. There can be no doubt of the great injustice of M. Arago ² he does not seem to recollect that candour would be as great an ornament to his character as scientific eminence, and that the want of it, when conspicuous & evident to the whole scientific world, must result in injury to his own reputation – Already his absurd nationality, in declaring the French to be the inventors of the Steam Engine has called forth de vives réclamations ³ on this side the Channel; and half the President’s speech at Birmingham the other day was occupied in defending Cavendish ⁴ against his unfair and unreasonable attacks. M. Biot ⁵ on the contrary is very friendly in all his communications to me. I have made acquaintance with M. S^t. Croix ⁶ who exhibits the Daguerre process ⁷ at the Adelaide Gallery – He certainly makes bungling work some times, but at other times he succeeds, enough to let one see that it is not very difficult to execute it very well but the chief embarras ⁸ is, that London plated copper will not answer (nobody knows why) & that it is therefore necessary at present to import the plates from Paris – If M. Arago knew this, he would say that it was a new proof that the invention was “vraiment Français” ⁹ since the Art itself evinced an antipathy to England. The Daguerotype plates which I have seen, require to be held in a particular light; in some lights the picture vanishes almost entirely; but they are very perfect, if viewed in the proper way – They are rather too faint to adorn the walls of a picture gallery, but their chief merits come out when viewed by a magnifying glass, for then a variety of minutiæ are found to be represented which no artist could [illegible deletion] ever have time or skill enough to introduce.

With regard to filling up the piece of water, suppose you enquire at what price the man would engage himself to deliver the soil at the spot required, as no doubt it would cost you the double, to engage waggons and horses, Besides by making a contract the whole expense is ascertained beforehand.

Yours aff^y.
Henry