John Leslie¹ to Faraday   1 November 1823

Raith, 1 Nov. 1823.

Dear Sir

I returned from Italy thro’ Germany, & took my passage from Hamburgh to Leith. On my arrival I heard the melancholy tidings of the death of our excellent friend, the late Mr Stodart². He was a very ingenious & most worthy man. I regret sincerely his loss, & I am sure you must have felt it severely, for he always mentioned you with great regard.

I am glad to find that the Institution is still to go on; but you now stand on so high a ground that you might easily obtain a more independant situation. I remarked some symptoms of jealousy; this is merely a proof of estimation of your merit, & you may safely despise any attempts to depress you. I mentioned your experiments on the compression of fluids³ to some ingenious persons in Italy, who were much delighted. They are anxious to hear what is going forward in England, but the communication is very slow & imperfect. I am in a great measure ignorant myself of what has been done in my absence. But no doubt you have continued to advance. If it were not too much to ask, I should be very glad if you could spare me any of your simpler apparatus such as one of the tubes to show the conversion of gas into liquid. I am anxious in commencing my lectures to exhibit any experiments on the changes of the form & constitution of bodies. I have not time to get any of our workmen in Edinburgh to make such things, & they besides they also disappoint me by their tardiness. Any thing curious or interesting that you can spare, you might leave with Cary⁴, to be forwarded - and I shall make any return you chuse for the favour.

I wrote to Mr Barlow⁵ to get his artist at Woolwich, to make for me any new thermo-magnetic apparatus in estimation. But I have received no answer, & suspect that he may not be now in England. I set some people to work on the subject in Edinburgh; but they have disappointed me. Bismuth, it seems, is very scarce here, & the[y] cannot solder it to copper. Perhaps you may be able to give me some aid in these matters.

Pray put the inclosed in the post office, & I ever am

Dear Sir, | most truly yours | John Leslie

You may write to me at Edinb. as I return in a few days for the winter.

Address: Michael Faraday Esq. | London.