To PE in Rome. Since PE left his house on 16th May he has received only one letter from Florence, dated 9th November 1816. (Richard?) Heber has asked that PE should search for a long-lost ms. of Porphyry in the Vatican or Laurentian Library. Has returned to Wales early for the Easter holidays, partly to see his wife and children (whom he had left behind through lack of funds - poor rental income), and partly because he cannot bear to support the current inefficient administration (yet he finds the opposition even worse). Reluctantly accepts the revival of the Sedition Bill and the suspension of Habeas Corpus, in view of nationwide riots. Southey in a vituperative public row after the publication of Wat Tyler: A Dramatic Poem. David Hughes, Principal of Jesus College, very soon after his marriage, became melancholy and shot himself. Possible successors - it will probably be Foulkes, no scholar but very worthy and gentlemanlike (he turned out to be the longest-serving principal of the college). Has not seen his brother since his wedding (on 4th February), but will meet him and his bride on the morrow. Phillimore (Joseph) has succeeded Horner as MP for St Mawes. Inflationary pressures across the country - the poor rates in particular are causing land to be left uncultivated. The printing of paper money, without real capital behind it.
Upbraids PE for not writing. Asks after his progress with Sophocles. Politics has been occupying everyone - Pitt is hostile to the current administration. CW has spoken in Parliament on the feeble conduct which has emboldened Bonaparte and caused the present war - a sentence of the speech was in Latin (quotation from Cicero?), which he presents for PE's approval. His brother Henry has been appointed His Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Dresden, at a salary of
Cannot now accompany PE to Scotland, apparently because his unit of militia is going on duty early - hope that Napoleon will be so terrified by this that normal touring may be resumed within a year.
(To PE in Florence.) PE has apparently been having difficulties in getting cooperation in Naples - William (Richard) Hamilton, Sir William a Court and Lord Spencer have tried to improve this. Gossip about the recent elections. Sudden death in Oxford of wife's younger brother. The convictions of Francis Burdett and Henry Hunt (re Peterloo massacre). As laureate Southey has been writing a carmen funebre in English hexameters - he is pleased with it, but 'fortunately has some hesitation about publishing it.' Success of Scott's Ivanhoe - comments on its defects, but five different dramatisations appeared simultaneously on the London stage within six weeks of its publication. Monastery, however, which has just been published, is much inferior. Wife has just avoided a threatened miscarriage (? - has frequently miscarried before). Subscription for William Page's widow and family (OW and HM - died 20th September, 1819), though confined to OWW, has raised
His wife is a fortnight overdue - has been drawing a vignette of Michael Scott's grave from the Lay of the Last Minstrel, and CW asks PE's opinion of a Latin epitaph he has composed for his wife to inscribe on the tombstone. Is learning Welsh.
