"I have not a doubt but that the smuggler Waters was purposely sent to London with a report of my madness. A viler gang of villainous aristocrats is nowhere to be found than this country produces. I very much desire to know who carried this tale among the prisoners, as the rule in this gaol is to keep everything secret, not to let the prisoners of one yard know what is doing or being done in the others.... I am sorry to hear from Boyle that Mrs. Holmes did not like going to Sheffield. This will be the D------l if she continue in the same mind, for you can only succeed by both pulling hard in one way------ Mrs. C------ has often opposed my projects; but I will say this for her--that when she saw I was determined, she would assist after her fit of anger was over."
"I expect to hear every day that you are arrested in Sheffield; but it is possible this London battle may be decisive. Rather than give in I will send for you and Mrs. Holmes too, as if I cannot stand in London there will be dire persecution throughout the country. I have sent your last to print in a most daring address to the old Chancellor, but such as becomes him and me to offer him. Excuse haste; I am writing defences" [for the shopmen then under arrest].
"Enclosed is what Mrs. Ellison wished. I have now a fine head of hair--it has been growing all winter--and I can supply a hundred such locks if they are worth anything, or gratifying to anyone. I never set my mind on trifles like these."
"Mrs. T. R. Perry is now in the shop, and after her is another female ready, with men in abundance."
In speaking of a placard about him that had been posted up in Norwich to advertise a tract against him, he says:--
"The author found that he had sold 14 in a fortnight. There is nothing in it that impeaches my conduct. My little egotistical vagaries are only matters to be laughed at, and, as I have just been telling our High Sheriff Garland, are put forth theatrically, to produce an effect upon the audience."
Holmes wants to become a printer of liberal works, and Carlile tells him how to go about making himself one; then, speaking of the _Newgate Magazine_, he writes of applying some money sent to him for the purchase of paper for this magazine, and says:--
