'Are you inclined to see the MS of a translation from the German done by my friend Miss Winkworth ('Life of Niebuhr') and her sister. They have together translated all that is yet published of the autobiographical life of Perthes; no, I see it is not [italics] all [end italics] translated - they have stopped, when we novelists do - at the end of the adventures, & when Perthes is re-instated in his business, & in a fair way of doing well for himself. You probably know enough of his history &c to enable you in some measure to judge for yourself of the kind of book it is. A young German bourgeois, who makes his own way from nothing to a station of great wealth & influence both commercial & political: (he was a bookseller, &c) the personal story is very interesting & includes an account of the French occupation of Hamburgh &c.'