TALBOT6628

Lacock
31 May/52

Dear L^d Lansdowne

I request your acceptance as a lover of the Arts, of a trifling specimen of the instantaneous portraiture obtained by my invention.¹ The time of sitting for this portrait was only three seconds, sometimes it can be done in one– nor do we suppose that we have at all reached the Ultima Thule.

I intend to have the pleasure of calling upon you on Wedn^y or Thursday if you should happen to be disengaged at that time– I wish to request your advice, and in fact sanction, as to what I ought to do in the very anomalous and I almost think unprecedented circumstances in which this invention has placed me– It is now rapidly coming into general use, as I always anticipated, and the artists now find its aid will be indispensable to them– The consequence is that an unexampled pressure is exerted upon me to induce me to surrender the remaining 4 years of the patent right pro bono publico, although I have every reason to believe that the Privy Council would prolong it for the full term of 14 years more. The Privy Council is not in the least swayed by the passions & interests of the person however numerous they may be who appear in opposition to the prayer for the prolongation of a patent– Such opposition is looked for by the judicial members of the P. Council as a matter of course.

Nevertheless if I believed that the persons most eminent in Science and Art were of opinion that injury is done by the patent to the progress of the art itself, I should be most ready to abandon it. I shall therefore be most happy to hear any advice you may think proper to give me in this difficulty and remain

Ever your aff^te Nephew
H.F.Talbot