United Universtiy Club Suffolk Street WC
June 20th 1870
My dear Mr Talbot,
I have been thinking since I wrote yesterday that if I were to propose to Mr Maitland the chaplain at Naples to exchange duties for two years this would give you an opportunity of becoming acquainted with him and at the same time not saddle the parish with a clergyman that you did not approve of, because if you did not approve of him at the end of our agreement we need not exchange our benefices: and I would then place my resignation in your hands and you might do as you liked in choosing my successor. I am wishful to do whatever may please you, and at the same time be for the permanent good of the parish. At the same time should you wish to appoint Mr Roach, you should make full enquiries into his antecedents, as I <illeg>, only engaging him for a short time, did not think very close enquiries were necessary, particularly as it would have taken a longer time than I had to received answers from the West Indies. If I was alone in the world I would place my resignation immediately in your hands and take a curacy, because if I did not like it I could easily change again, but of course now I must get a fixed home. If my mother were not alive too I should not hesitate a moment but would go out to Australia or New Zealand which I shall certainly do after her death I wished to do so years ago, but she never would consent to it.
Yours truly
Edward P. Nicholl