Letter from Maria Halliday, London, to Madame Blaze de Bury, 18-- February 9 : autograph manuscript signed.

Confirming that she received a parcel and that she has sent her porter to deliver it to Ld. B.; describing the rough passage they endured out of Folkestone; mentioning a letter she wrote previously from Boulogne complaining of the landlady, complaining of the weather in London, mentioning that she has heard the sunny weather of Australia described as trying, and reflecting that moderation in all things is to be desired; remarking that the "name of our well beloved [Victor] Cousin" is not received with the same "electric shock" as it would have induced in her "in this place", and complaining that the English think only of politics; mentioning mutual friends and requesting that Madame Blaze de Bury send her Cousin's photograph ("do try to make him sit for the sake of his friends, such a noble countenance if only for the sake of Art ought to be preserved"); asking after a young man of their acquaintance, "a pupil of abbe Gratry" (probably a reference to theologian Auguste Joseph Alphonse Gratry), and expressing her admiration for the "two great minds" of Cousin and Gratry; asking her to recommend any French authors she might like, complaining of the drabness of London and its people, mentioning an essay on Goethe and emphasizing how much she enjoyed it.