Henry Crabb Robinson, Athenaeum, to R. M. Milnes, [no address], undated. 

       I guess that I received through you a note from Wordsworth, And if so I have no doubt that that note accompanied a canvassing application to you on account behalf of the Copyright bill. He is a very zealous Verfechter of the bill.

       Had you been a good Whig, as you ought to be, he might have urged the authority of Lord Grey who said that when the fight arose between Patricians and Plebeians he would stand by his Order –

       W: has a right to expect that in the fierce conflict between Poets and Publishers you will stand by your Order –

       The Muses will otherwise throw all their influence into the Whig scale For on that Side is little Lord John leader of the Ministry And also the Parliamentary Musagetes – Backed by Talfourd and Bulwer –

       On the other side, as far as I can recollect there are only yourself & Ben the lineant descendent from the unpenitent thief according to Oconnels Genealogical researches – To set up something like a balance in this emulatory contest Let it be Disraeli and Milnes

       &c &c &c

             H.C.R.

By the bye, I pity you the calamity of a faupe[?] couche – A sad evil to young wives –Women they say do not recover their health till they are fairly impregnated again – Perhaps you may be able to bring in Some of the good things intended for the Spanish Question into the Copyright bill – Do try –

Address: R.M. Milnes Esqr MP.   

Endorsed: Crabbe Robinson 

Text: Houghton Papers, Trinity College, Cambridge, MS 21/175].