Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, London, to Elizabeth Reid, [no address], 11 August 1856.

30 Russell Square

11 Augt 1856

My dear Mrs Reid,

       I am now on the set-out towards Reading And shall be unsettled for the next 2 months. We shall meet I trust in weather less exhausting And when the prospects for humanity are less alarming

       I inclose the written Cash[?] that I have faithfully executed  Your Comm[ission]er Miss Travers emulates her Aunts generosity And devotion to the good cause of humanity

       In October or perhaps earlier we shall meet I expect merely to exchange our common fears for mankind Nothing will be then decided

       The Presidential Election will come on in the model Republic ^in October^ And my expectation is that your friends Mrs Chapman &c will give the Victory to Buchanan  by dissuading so many Ultras of the Abolitionists from voting – Alas! 

            Louis Napoleon

            Emperor of Russia

            -------- & Germany

            President of the Un States

                        and

            King of Naples & the Pope

will be united in Love agt the

            Africa [?] in bondage

            The Governs of

            England –

            Piedmont

       What a woeful consideration is this (we who believe or wish to believe in the) reality of the higher law of Conscience And a re-dressing Providence That will sooner or late interpose But he has wasted some thousands of years already I must finish or I shall be too late

       Kind regards to Miss Sturch and such of my friends & acquaintces of the West End as you may know

       As to the books you refer to I have no change of intent on either matter But you must come & look at them on the Shelves

                         In haste

                                     Affy your’s

                                                 H. C. Robinson

Text:  BC/RF/103/4/17, Archives, Royal Holloway University of London.