Cambridge <1>
18th August
The Queen’s <2> business engrosses all our attention at present, as I suppose it does with you. I think the C. of Leinster’s motion rather injudicious. I should not be surprized if it were to end in the ministers being turned out. – Where is William? <3> Is he gone to Constantinople? I have great doubts whether I shall be able to go & see you again – I shall have so little time left. If I do, it will be before the end of the month. We have heard that the perpetual motion has been discovered by a person at Milan. From an imperfect description of his machine, we have been endeavouring to construct it, after first attempting to discover by mathematical reasoning, whether it ought to answer, or not. – But the problem is so complicated, that we were utterly unable to decide, so that we had recourse to experiment. As yet we have been unsuccessful, but have not given up all hopes – Indeed, La Hire, <4> Carnot <5> and others pretend to demonstrate that it is physically impossible, but their reasoning is too general to satisfy me completely – Besides I think Mr F. <6> told me he had seen one that went by magnetism, in Scotland. Ask him.
A botanist who went with Sir T. Raffles <7> to Bencoolen <8> has discovered a singular new flower. It has no leaves, but a solitary blossom, growing immediately out of the ground. When in bud it is like a cabbage, but when expanded it is full a yard over, so that nothing else can be compared to it. – My love to all
Your affte Son
W H F. Talbot
Miladi Elisabeth Feilding
Château de Clocheville
Boulogne sur Mer
Pas de Calais
Notes:
1. Trinity College, Cambridge.
2. Caroline of Brunswick, consort of George IV of England (1768–1821). She had recently returned to England to claim her rights as queen after the accession of her estranged husband as George IV. A Bill to deprive her of her title and to dissolve her marriage was on its way through Parliament. The second reading was due on 19 August 1820 (the day after this letter was written). The Bill was eventually dropped.
3. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
4. Probably P. de Lahire (1640–1718).
5. Lazare Nicolas Marguérite Carnot (1753–1823), French statesman, general, military engineer.
6. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
7. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781–1826), Colonial Governor who founded modern Singapore.
8. Now Sumatra.