7 Camden Street and Town - Asks him to write a notice of [Henry] Coddington to include in the Annual Report of the Astronomical Society. He is aiming for fuller biographies and worries 'that unless we can get all our Fellows to interest themselves, we stand a good chance of losing our existence. Every person who can be quoted as having done any work for us is strength just now, when Baily's [Francis Baily] loss has thrown us upon ourselves'.
Trinity College - WW sends RJ 'the first vol. of Wilks's India'. Coddington [Henry Coddington] 'who is a great admirer of yours was lamenting to me today that you had not invented names of your own for your various classes of rents instead of adopting names necessarily already laden with confusion and complexity'. WW thinks, however, that RJ should 'stick to historical names till it became inconvenient to keep them'. If RJ really wishes to begin printing immediately he will have to send WW some 'make-believe' manuscript of wages now: 'The Syndicate have got rules vey simple and reasonable and though they may not be of much real use it would be mere folly to incur spleen and perhaps rejection by asking them to violate their maxims for so assignable cause. The adoption of your second part will depend on the reputation of the first and not on what you send as a specimen'. WW is convinced that wages is more important than rent. His 'political economy paper is mighty swollen and I am rather pleased with it . In some parts Ricardo is wrong simply for want of a mathematical instrument of deduction'.
St. Augustin - HC is 'now flourishing about in Paris'. He went to the Institut yesterday where his 'friend Biot' introduced him to, among others, Laplace, Delambre, Arago, Cuvier, Gay Lussac and Humboldt. It is a custom for the savants to have soirées one morning a week for their friends and strangers - Humboldt has offered to take HC to Laplace's tomorrow. He has gained entry into this elite circle thanks to a lady who talks Persian and brought letters of introduction to Humboldt, and through his own acquaintance with Thomas Edward Bowdich [famed for his travels into Africa] currently living in Paris.
Trin. Coll. - HC would only consider offering himself as a candidate for Professor of Mineralogy if neither WW or George Peacock were standing. And as 'you do wish to lay more business on your shoulders, of course there is nothing further to be said'.
Thanks for sending Sir J. Hall's book 'which is invaluable'. 'The window at Melrose seems to be exactly what we want'.
Hagley - death of [Henry] Coddington, rubrication in the Church