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National Library of Scotland, MS 42551 . Previously published: Samuel Smiles, A Publisher and His Friends, 2 vols (London, 1891), I, pp. 237-238 [in part].
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Here then I am once more at my desk, with my books & papers about me, at my own fire side, right glad to <return to> that rest in labour which I have taken for my motto, because in it I find my happiness. The winter is before me, I shall have no interruptions from without, & if it please God that I have none from within, my progress in this campaign will be to my hearts content, & as rapid as you could wish.
First let me write concerning what may be called the Opus Magnum.xx The great collection of Buonapartes papers which Lewis Goldsmith has published,
I had the Times for 1810-11-12 & down to the time when I gave up the Register,
I find also among my desiderata the title of a Spanish Book which may perhaps be obtained in London, sooner than I
could procure it from Spain. Coleccion de papeles interesantes del ano de 1808.
Secondly concerning the Review I shall shortly have three short articles for you, – the Nicobar Islands,xx
Wm Taylor of Norwich. Wm
Taylor is an old & highly valued friend of mine, singular in his style, singular in his opinions, & in many of these
very erroneous, but of almost unparallelled ingenuity, & one of the best of men. As a German scholar I believe Coleridge to be the only person who equals him. Of course he will advance no
opinions dissonant from those of your Review, & <he> is too much accustomed to see his pecularities of diction altered by an
Editor to complain of the exertion of this necessary prerogative. For many years he was the best writer in the Monthly,
Was there ever such a succession of tidings of great joy! One thing only is wanting to crown the whole, – the death of
the Tyrant.Pereat iste
xx condemn him to end his days as a maniac in xx a hospital at Paris. It is in better hands, & sooner
or later, vengeance will fall upon his head. – I think the Bourbons will be restored. Whether I wish for their restoration is a
question which I should find it difficult to answer.