Anxious for Smith's success at Cambridge [candidature for Botany Professorship] and regrets inability to assist. Thinks it "very handsome" of the Duke of Gloucester [Prince William Frederick (1776-1834), chancellor of Cambridge University] to remain neutral, he is the only member of the royal family he feels attached to. His mother recently died, though she had long been lost to him through the "machinations & lies of others", and only found out accidently through an acquaintance, and not his family. Offers to try and acquire Welsh votes for Smith.
Does not think any minister will "dare to continue a war in support of the Bourbons", otherwise fears war at home, and comments on what a fall Napoleon has had. Thinks that Napoleon's brother Lucien "has chosen a wider plan"; hears great things of his poem "Charlemagne" and a female acquaintance of his is translating it into English. They had a wet autumn but now frost setting in.