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Document number: 6733
Date: 16 Feb 1853
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: EDGCUMBE Caroline Augusta, née Feilding
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: Acc no 20797
Last updated: 27th January 2015

Mount Edgcumbe <1>
Feby 16th 1853

My dear Henry

I have been so busy the last few days that I have not yet been able to thank you for your kind letter from Basingstoke - But I must seize a moment before the Post goes out, to do so, & to say how much pleasure your good opinion of Ld Mt E's letter to the Times, <2> gave us both, What you say of his energy of mind is indeed surprising, if you knew how much he suffers bodily. With respect to the query in your second letter, your friend was right - It shd have been "no spark of enmity" I agree with him - I believe & the Emperor <3> is indifferent personally - but wd have not a moment's hesitation in making war upon us, if it suited his political circumstances - So that the question of National Defences is not affected thereby - This letter has entailed several addressed to Milord, Some most approving, others from the Peace Society, condemning; & an illnatured attack fm Ld John <4> in the He of Commons, in answer to Mr Cobden's <5> questions, of course (in his former letter) in mentioning the words used in Chesham Place, he quoted from the published report, & if "inaccurate", the fault is the Newspaper's, not his; all the world knew Ld John had used the words, & never contradicted them. His own answer to Cobden is certainly not accurate abt the French Armaments not being greater than required by them as a Maritime power - as the contrary is notoriously the case - Love to all -

Ever dear Henry Yr affte
Caroline

I heard lately from Aunt Augusta <6> of the death of George Fitzgerald <7> at Nice - He had been a great Invalid for years - suffering terribly. The Gajas,<8> on their way to Rome, were just in time to see him, & comfort his wife.<9>

[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham

Notes:

1. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.

2. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797-1861), WHFT's brother-in-law. The letter was dated 10 February and was printed in the Times, 12 February 1853, p. 8.

3. Charles-Louis-Napoléon (1808-1873), Napoleon III, Emperor of France; elected as President of the Republic, 1848.

4. Lord John Russell (1792-1878), 1st Earl Russell, statesman.

5. Richard Cobden (1804-1865), statesman; MP for West Riding of Yorkshire (1847-1857).

6. Augusta Sophia Hicks, née Feilding, sister of WHFT's step-father.

7. George Fitzgerald (1809-1853), nephew of Charles Feilding. [See Doc. No: 03580].

8. General Chevalier Victor Marion de Gaja and possibly a relative (his wife Matilda de Gaja had died in 1850 and his only known child, Emily Matilda Sophia, changed her surname when she married in 1846).

9. Mary Fitzgerald, née Barton (d. 1866).

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