TALBOT862

Cambridge ¹

Jan^ry 14^th 1820

My Dear M^r Feilding,

Until I received your letter this morning I was in complete ignorance of where you were, never having received the letter which you mention as written the day before you left Canteleu I wrote a letter the other day directed N^o 2 Sackville S^{t 2} I hope it will not miscarry. The weather is very severe, the river is frozen, and the country covered with snow frozen hard. The Senate House examination comes on on Monday. I am very much interested about it having several friends who are candidates for honours. Edward Murray ³ is going to take his degree, & then one of the masterships at Westminster, for a year or two before he takes orders. His mother is extremely against this plan, but I think he is quite right, as it is worth £300 a year. – Who wrote the article in the Edinburgh Review ⁴ about the manufactures &c of France? I disagree with the writer in many points, such as I know anything about. While he insists so much on the practical superiority of the English, he says not a word on the distance at which they have left us behind in all theoretical researches, as far as these are dependent upon mathematics – The English are however at present rapidly advancing in this department; – Some years ago, the more difficult writings of the French mathematicians were absolutely unintelligible on the other side of the water, except for a very few. They are now generally adopted and read here, while our own authors of later date are (very deservedly) becoming obsolete. As since Newton, ⁵ we have had very few who have contributed notably to what he discovered.

My love to all, & believe me,
Yours affectionately

Henry Talbot

A Monsieur
Monsieur Feilding

Rue du Houssaye N^o 4
à Paris