March 19th 1816
My dear Henry
I never remember the success or defeat of any Measure in the House of Commons, having caused such a Sensation as the loss of the Property Tax <1> last Night. Mr Feilding <2> was there at the Division, & the Shouts & Exultations were excessive when the Victory was announced. It is supposed Mr Vansittart <3> must go out, & that Mr Huskisson <4> will succeed him, but this is not known. The others it is conjectured will stick to office. The whole town has been in an uproar of joy all this Morning, your Aunt Louisa <5> came dancing into the room to me, & it has animated the most posé people. It certainly was Folly as well as wickedness in Ministers to attempt such a tax at a moment of such universal distress as the present.
Has Nuttall any Irish blood in his veins? – I heard you had lost your way in the close of the Evening among the Coal Pits, & very near fell in, owing to want of Light & want of Eyes.
Lord Porchester <6> hopes to renew his friendship with you when he comes from Eton at Easter, he sent this Message by one of his Sisters. I am glad you grow to like History better, I remember that Alcibiades <7> was once so much my Hero that I called my Squirrel after him. That was in my happy days, with Miss Porter<8> at Redlynch, <9> – when Socrates<10> was my Dormouse, & le Chevalier Bayard <11> my Canary Bird – happy days indeed! I have known none like them since.
God Bless You
My dearest
London March twenty 1816 Auckland <12>
Hy Fox Talbot Esqr
Revd Mr Barnes
Castleford
Ferrybridge
Notes:
1. In 1816, a large decrease in taxation was generally desired, and there was a loud outcry when Nicholas Vansittart, the chancellor of the exchequer proposed only to reduce, not to abolish, the property or income tax. The abolition of this tax, was carried in parliament, and on 18 March the minister’s motion for the continuance of the tax was rejected.
2. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
3. Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley (1766–1851), British politician. He dealt with the problems of economic adjustment that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
4. William Huskisson (1770–1830), English statesman and financier.
5. Louisa Emma Petty Fitzmaurice, née Fox Strangways, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1785-1851), wife of Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne; Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, 1837-1838; WHFT's aunt.
6. Henry John George Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon (1800–1849).
7. Alcibiades (d. 404 BC), Athenian politician. [See Doc. No: 00683].
8. Text obscured by seal.
9. Redlynch, Somerset, seat of the Earls of Ilchester (Barons of Redlynch).
10. Text obscured by seal.
11. Pierre Terrail Bayard ( ca.1473–1524), French soldier known as le chevalier.
12. George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784–1849), Governor General of India.