“. . . The insurrection [in Spain against the French] has taken a much greater degree of method and consistency than I had expected, and the accession of two such persons as Filanqueri and Sovilliano is of the utmost importance. God send them successful! and we ought and must give them every possible assistance; but I dread the account of the first conflict between the French army and this patriotic band. It is the business of the Patriots to avoid it, and that of Bonaparte to seek it as soon as possible. . . . You have asked me two or three times for my speculations upon another session? Will you be so good as to give me yours? and as I wish to be master of the E[ast] I[ndia] subject by the autumn, be so good as to point out to me a course of reading.”
