Autograph letter signed : Melrose, to John Gibson Lockhart, 1830 April 14.

Informing Lockhart that he is enclosing a list of article ideas, any of which he would be willing to undertake for the "Conversations Lexicon" (a 19th century British encyclopedia whose full title was The Popular Encyclopedia; or, Conversations Lexicon); telling him that the articles primarily concern "Natural Philosophy, Mineralogy, Scientific Biography & [some] branches of the Mechanical Arts"; offering his help, informed by his experience editing the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, to the editor of The Popular Encyclopedia; mentioning that he would like to write an article on "the Decline of Science & the arts in England" for the Quarterly Review, which Lockhart edited, "if you dare to print any thing so severe as it is likely to be"; adding that Charles Babbage is also writing a book on a similar subject (this would be published as Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, London: B. Fellowes, 1830) and that Babbage "has promised me an early copy; tho' I think I shall get the proof sheets from him as he goes on."