You are aware, I believe, that I can now see my friends from half past eleven till two; and I hope soon to obtain further time for them.
What are you about? I saw Mr. Hazlitt today; and asking him whether you were not at work on the Coronation, he said he did not know. How is this? Here is what I should call a golden opportunity, for you and your friend Cruikshank. You know what the "Immortal"2 says about the tide which leads on to fortune. There will perhaps be 50 or 60,000 people in town from the country, all wanting something to carry home with them of the droll kind. If you have not, as I hope, been long at work, rouse up—there is time for something even now.
This is my chief object in writing to you; for I meant to reprove you in person, for sending wine to a man who drinks water. But if I neglect the gift, the giver has my best wishes for his prosperity.
Cold Bath Fields
Prison
Friday Evening.