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
Half a letter only. No statesman was allowed to rise to individual and personal prominence under Elizabeth, William 3rd or Oliver Cromwell. Re military merit, England seems to have possessed more good officers than any other country except Spain, but he does not see any particular proof of superiority of talent - it is just that the battles they fought were more important in their consequences and therefore more celebrated. Raleigh, however, was in almost every respect above his age and would have shone in any profession or situation.
Appears to have secured Howard's vote in PE's favour, but this must remain secret for the time being. Canvassing others, inc. Phillimore and William Ord (?). Wife about to give birth.
A friend has claimed that Cambridge has produced more great men than Oxford (with the exception of statesmen). Asks for PE's thoughts on lists of men from both universities - should he continue the contest, or sound a retreat and declare that the great men were a result of circumstances independent of the particular systems of education?
On canvassing on PE's behalf in an election (v.440f). A (modern) pencilled note on the back claims this election concerned the preachership of Gray's Inn - this is incorrect (the Gray's Inn preachership changed in 1811 and 1815), but in 1812 William Van Mildert was elected to the preachership of Lincoln's Inn.
