s with low tariffs.

I fear these failures of East and West India houses must entail great
distress upon Manchester, and the manufacturing interests generally. You
have given an account of the bankruptcies in the cotton trade during a
long series of years till last year inclusive; are you able to say how
the first nine months of the current year stands in comparison with its
predecessors?

I so highly prize your new work, that I must ask for a dozen copies to
distribute among my friends.

P. S. I have already parted with the copy you sent me; may I, therefore,
beg another without waiting for any other binding?

TO A FRIEND.

Welbeck, October 5, 1847.

I shall go up to town on Friday evening, in my way to Newmarket,
and shall be at Harcourt House all Saturday and Sunday, and shall be
delighted to see you, and have a thorough good talk with you. Free trade
seems working mischief faster than the most fearful of us predicted,
and Manchester houses, as I am told, 'failing in rows,' ashamed to
do penance in public, are secretly weeping in sackcloth and ashes, and
heartily praying that Peel and Cobden had been hanged before they were
allowed to ruin the country.

Money at Manchester is quoted one and a quarter per cent, for ten days:
L45 12s. 6d. per cent. per annum!

TO A FRIEND.

Harcourt House, October 22, 1847. I have this moment got a note from
Stuart, telling me that 'the Chancellor has this afternoon sent out his
notice of the business to be taken in his own court during Michaelmas
term, that is, from the 2nd of November till the 26th, and below it
there is this notice--_except those days on which the Lord Chancellor
may sit in the House of Lords_!!!'

Surely this must portend a November session.

TO A FRIEND.

Harcourt House, October 23, 1847. The fat banker's gossip is all stuff.
Peel goes to Windsor today, I believe on an invitation of some standing.
* * * * who had been dining at Palmerston's last night, tells me that he
does not think that ministers mean calling Parliament together, and is
confident they mean to maintain the Bank Charter Act. There have been
some first-rate articles and letters in the 'Morning Chronicle' lately
on this subject.

TO A FRIEND.

Harcourt House, November 6, 1847.

I will stay over Tuesday, that I may have the pleasure of a thorough
talk with you.

I am told things are gradually getting better. I expect, however, a
fresh reverse about six weeks or two mont