Letter from John George Cooke, London, to Baroness Marie Blaze de Bury, 1859? : autograph manuscript signed.

Writing that he has seen his sister and that she is beginning to "bestir herself" on his behalf; lamenting that he "who knows more people" than he can think of "cannot get business enough to keep soul and body together."; informing her that he has seen his brother who is going to bring him her April 1858 I.O.U. and discussing financial matters; commenting on a recent "warlike article" copied by the Times from the Zeitung, and claiming that the "Confederation will declare war when the first French troops pass the Ticino"; expressing the opinion that, despite his low opinion of Louis Napoleon, he does not believe it is in his best interest to "force a quarrel" with Britain and "alter the state of hideous oppression suffered by the Italians under Austrian rule"; remarking that he saw (Giuseppe) Mazzini the previous evening, and that he is "positively more Austrian than French and all his party has deserted him"; mentioning an article in Blackwood on the state of the British Navy and affirming that they have "double the number of the French in actual commission", noting that new ships are commissioned and that seamen are plentiful; giving his opinion that, while the combination of France and Russia would be bad for Britain, and Louis Napoleon knows the French hate Britain and may "avail himself of of that feeling when it suits his book", for the moment, he wishes for peace "more than any man in his Empire"; reflecting on the great mistake England made in "the old war", quadrupling the national debt for "The return of a dynasty that hated us quite as heartily as their republican and Imperial predecessors", stating that they should "look to no gratitude" from Spain and France, and that France fears England as much as she hates it.