Lyons
30th October 1823
My Dear Mr Feilding,
I had a beautiful bright frosty day in the valley of the Maurienne, and got from Lans le Bourg nearly to Chambery - the valley is much more agreeable going fast down hill, than we found it creeping slowly up - The objects change quicker - I slept at Maltaverne <1> an excellent little inn; quite the reverse of what its name portends - The next morning I was disappointed at finding the thickest possible fog, which cleared up in the middle of the day, but I only went thro' Chambery to Les Echelles - Yesterday I arrived here, and stay today, & as the rain seems setting in with warm weather & a south wind, perhaps I shall stay tomorrow also - At Pont de Beauvoisin <2> I found them all civility, they did not even offer to open a trunk, but only made me pay deposit for my carriage; but I am assured I shall get it all back again at Paris on proving it to be French - I ought to have taken a certificate of that when I exported it. - Lyons is a fine town, 2 famous rivers, the Rhone especially is of considerable breadth - There must be charming views from the hills which are close to the city, and covered with houses - I have been reading up newspapers &c. What do you think of the retreat of the French minister of war Marshal Victor <3> just at this moment - of Ferdinand's <4> inclement decrees, of Riego's <5> being to be hanged (a prisoner of war!) however they say Ballasteros <6> is to be hanged also; - There is an absurd report this morning that the French are to retain Cadiz so long as we keep Gibraltar, which will be long enough - what an extraordinary fall there is in the Spanish funds - the 5 per Cents are at 23 and the new ones of this year at 18 - The old ones Ferdinand is surely bound in justice to recognise; for in the year 1821 his government & that of the Cortes <7> was held to be legitimately established - I shall perhaps be at Paris when the D. of Angouleme <8> makes his triumphal entry -
Captain Parry <9> is returned, but I cannot make out from the papers what his success has been;
The discovery made some time ago by M Champollion <10> of the Hieroglyphic Alphabet in which Proper Names are written, is said to have been greatly extended by him, & that he finds it applicable to the Egyptian proper names as well as the Greek, and reads the names of the Pharaohs on the Egyptian monuments as far back as the year 1900 before Christ; it does not however follow that the monuments themselves are so old - He has likewise discovered that the hieroglyphics in general, are "letters of the Egyptian alphabet" and not pictures of things as was supposed; nevertheless some are found to stand for the objects they represent. The K of France <11> is to pay for the publication of the work, which is said to have excited the most lively interest in the learned world.
Not less interest has arisen in the scientific & commercial world about Perkins's steam Engine; <12> the immense capital laid out in steam engines makes the owners apprehensive of more harm than good from the invention, but Perkins has discovered that his principle may be applied to the common steam Engine, by only removing the furnace. He states the price of his steam engines will be ½ of the common, & the consumption of fuel 1/3 - He has likewise made another discovery, the nature of which is not yet sufficiently understood - It is said to be "the collecting of the heat already employed, and employing it again" -
I shall make 4 or 5 days from hence to Paris, I think of taking the road by Moulins & Nevers -
Yours ever Afftly
Henry Talbot
I have altered the direction of the Bibl. Universelle <13> to Genoa, you will find in it an account of the steam engine -
P.S. I find that Parry explored Repulse Bay, Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome, & Middleton's frozen strait, and found no passage - Golden Cross Charing Cross is pulling down, and we are to have instead of it "a building like the Pantheon". They have invented shells that go off by percussion when they strike the object -<14> what a simple & ingenious idea, instead of calculating with difficulty the length of the fuse, but how do they prevent its going off in the mortar itself?
à Monsieur
Monsieur Feilding
Gentilhomme Anglois
Gênes
Italie
Notes:
1. Bad tavern.
2. West of Chambery in what was then Savoy (now Southeastern France).
3. Any links with Louis-Auguste-Victor Bourmont who served the restored Louis XVIII in the French expedition to suppress an uprising in Spain in 1823.
4. Ferdinand VII, King of Spain from March 1808 to 1833. 1823-1833 saw a severe purge of liberals.
5. Major Rafael de Riego y Núñez, military radical who organized revolt against Ferdinand VII in 1820.
6. Luis López Ballesteros, liberal minister and a friend of the afrancesados, men of liberal inclinations but tarred with the accusation of collaborationism with the French.
7. Courts of Spain and Portugal, a representative assembly, or parliament established in the European Middle Ages.
8. Louis-Antoine de Bourbon, Duc d'Angoulême (1775-1844), last dauphin of France and a prominent figure in the restoration of the Bourbon line after the defeat of Napoleon in 1814. He commanded the French expedition that helped quell an anti-Bourbon revolt in Spain in 1823.
9. Sir William Edward Parry made several naval expeditions to the Arctic for the discovery of the Northwest Passage. In 1821-1823, he made an unsuccessful attempt through the Foxe Channel.
10. Frenchman Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832) accomplished complete decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing in 1822. [See Doc. No: 01063].
11. Louis XVIII, King of France (1755-1824).
12. Jacob Perkins (1766-1849), American inventor who experimented with high-pressure steam boilers and in 1823 devised means to attain working steam pressure of 800-1400 psi. [See Doc. No: 01092].
13. BibliotheÌque universelle des sciences, belles-lettres, et arts; a periodical published in Geneva. [See Doc. No: 01116].
14. In 1807, the Scottish clergyman Alexander Forsyth patented the use of fulminates (chemicals that immediately explode when struck a sharp blow) for firearms. This led to the development of the percussion lock gun. A nipple was set upright in the breech. On it was placed a small copper cap of fulminate. The hammer struck the cap and exploded the fulminate, sending a jet of flame into the powder chamber. A variation of this system was adapted to artillery. A small container of the fulminate was put in the nose end of the artillery round. As soon as it struck the target it exploded and caused the gun powder inside the artillery round to detonate as well. Previously, the fuse, which had to be cut to the right length, actually had to be lit as the round was dropped into the mortar.