Autograph letter signed : Harcourt House, to John Ellman, 1847 January 14.

Concerning the general political climate and the improbability of recovering the Corn Laws or returning to the sliding scale; the possibility, instead, of popular support for a system of fixed revenue duties on grain and other agricultural products, along with the repeal of the malt and hop duties, with steps for increasing production of barley and decreasing the number of acres dedicated to wheat and oats; emphasizing that they cannot hope to gain both the return of the sliding scale and the repeal of the malt and hop duties along with fixed revenue duties, and warning him that the chances of success are "ever against those who select the old lost battleground as the field for renewed contest."