01 Mar 1797: Edward James Eliot to Mrs. Stapleton

[In a later hand (spidery, as if written by an aged person), written in faded ink: March 1, 1797]

My Dear Mrs Stapleton
As you will see by the Papers that Mr [William] Pitt spoke three times yesterday without inconvenience it will I hope corroborate what I have told you of his being very well. You will also see that the minority is on the Invasion; I think if Mr Pitt, or some of his Friends, do not put the business of Inquiry and Investigation into a right Train, it will get into a wrong one very soon. I am in hopes the affair of Order in Council etc will get through without any very great mischief.

My Dear Girl is in high health and Spirits.

Y[ou]r Affec[tionate] Hum[ble] Serv[ant]
Ed J Eliot

[Cover]
To Mrs Stapleton
Countess Dowager of Chatham's
Burton Pynsent
Somerton

Ed J Eliot

London March the first 1797

*Original letter is part of the Eliot collection at the Cornwall Record Office.
Catalog reference: EL/B/4/3/16