I imagine that Will. Hazlitt's article in the Edinburgh Review2 has long since compensated you for imaginary loss of anything I might have done in the Westminster, which I assigned reasons to Mr Thomas Hurst for not being able to do, though I so desired and purposed. I wrote him from Lancashire, whither I had gone to raise means for getting into premises which by the advice of friends I had taken, & now date from. I succeeded to an extent which enabled me to obtain the Lease & Fixtures, & pay for altering & fitting up the place, for a respectable Coffee House on economical principles to be conducted by my eldest daughter. It was suggested to me by my best well-wishers, and, as the house is situated where the stages resort, & is surrounded by great commercial & banking establishments, besides a constant thoroughfare, there is every reasonable prospect of complete success. But, unhappily, from having paid away our money & the bills for carpentry, bricklaying, plastering, plumbing, glazing & paper hanging and painting, having exceeded the calculations, we are short by £200 for lamps, gas fitting, steam apparatus, boilers, earthenware, glass, and a large variety of smaller sundries, which are indispensable to the opening of the place. This happens at a time when, in all other respects, it is ready for business, & persons are coming to town, who, if they could be accommodated otherwise, would occupy our beds which will be a daily profit. In short, we have paid for what we have in the place to the extent of £700, which, by wear & tear of body & mind, I ravaged together from every one in town & country whom I could think of as likely to assist me & my family in making the last struggle I ever can make with them for a standing place in this life. I now sit down heart-sore, & sick in mind, to write to a few persons, most of whom are strangers to me, and I venture to communicate to you my situation — that of Tantalus with the cup at his lips. Among those who contributed to our undertaking, by gift, are Joseph Birch Esq. M.P. — Charles Blundell Esq. of Ince, a possessor of rich stores of books & ancient sculpture, at his seat near Liverpool, where I visited him — Arthur Heywood Esq., Banker, of Liverpool — William Rathbone Esq. of the same place — Rev. W. Shephard of Gateacre — the Earl of Sefton — Mr. Behnes the eminent sculptor — T. M. Alsager Esq. of The Times — & Joseph Parkes Esq. of Birmingham, author of the History of the Court of Chancery, the evidence of whose friendship to me was the sum of £50.3 I am prohibited by an exemplary member of the Society of Friends from mentioning his name as a donor of a Two Hundred Pound Bank Note. After a rigidly economical disposition of the sums received in this way, which, as they were received, were paid by me into the hands of Alfred A. Fry Esq. of 53, Great Ormond Street, and by him paid to the Tradesmen employed, himself being a donor, and, as a man of business, making the disbursements for the work to do, I say, after this you will scarcely be surprised that I should be in no small degree affected on finding myself aground, and turn with anxious eyes to whomseover I can think of for aid. If the amount can be obtained, without loss of time, it will be of indescribable benefit, inasmuch as it will enable the family to commence business, & put an end to the grievous disadvantages & expenses inescapable from delay. Let me supplicate you in this exigence to assist us to a convenient extent by way of gift, or loan (to be repaid at a stipulated time, not too early.) For anything that you can do for us I & my wife & family shall be very grateful.