[coynE]} THE TALBOT PAPERS 97 
can scarce persuade himself that he is not dreaming, nor does one see 
how the sort of progress the French make is to be stopped by any 
means short of the interposition of Providence. 
“ Bonaparte already threatens the Emperor of Russia to drive him 
also from his capital. To-day, too, we hear that Hamburg and all the 
posts in the north of Germany are occupied by him and that he has 
confiscated all the English property he can find anywhere and put the 
merchants into prison. J don’t think your American neighbours will 
very much admire this last intelligence. There is but one consolation 
in it all, namely, that Prussia has brought it all upon herself. Her 
conduct last year in not joining the coalition at that time formed against 
France has been the cause of all her misfortunes, and that policy that 
has all along led her to refuse doing anything for the common cause 
has proved the means by which her own punishment has been effected. 
“For my part I am not joking when I say that I really become 
quite low-spirited at thinking over all this and rather envy you your 
situation beyond the reach of it all. For our parts, here in Eng- 
land, we have had a general election to amuse us and that has served 
not a little, I can assure you, to take our thoughts off the events upon 
the continent, The new Parliament will, however, meet on the 15th 
and then we shall see what this will produce, and how the taxes are 
to be raised to carry on the war. I am afraid I give you too gloomy a 
picture of the state of this part of the world, and perhaps I do. With 
regard to myself and my family concerns, I go n as well as usual. 
My dearest wife and three boys are in good health and they grow 
as stout as they ought to grow. My father and mother and all my 
family are quite well, too. I am again a member of Parliament, and 
so is my father also, his brother, Lord Bute, having returned him for 
_ the county of Bute. 
“My farm and all my occupations here go on as well as usual 
and give me great plenty of employment. By-the-bye, talking of farm- 
ing, puts me in mind of your clover seed, which I trust the fall ships 
have carried to Quebec for you. I got it from Mr. Gibbs, the most 
famous seedsman in London, and I don’t doubt he will send it to you 
good. I would have sent you some from here, if I had thought this 
a good soil for growing it, which I do not, and in consequence I always 
buy it for my own use. By the time I am forced ta emigrate I suppose 
TI shall find your farm a pattern for the whole inhabitants of the old 
world to copy after, and the border of Lake Erie as highly cultivated 
as the banks of the Tweed. I have not heard of it from you, though, 
these five or six months past, and perhaps you answer me the same 
Sec. lle, 1907-07 
