You do not "tease" me I assure you. I had purposed answering your first letter respecting Spence as soon as I had finished correcting the "Annals,"This is Hone's Full Annals of the Revolution in France (1830) which he assembled and edited under a contract with the publisher Thomas Tegg. Since Hone's 1826 bankruptcy, Tegg was also the publisher The Every-Day Book, The Table Book, and The Year Book (the latter of which was also in production at the time of Hone's writing). [return] from the sheets of the 4th edition in a more decent state than those of the three former. I thank you for wishing the publication a "large sale"—if it have not, I shall have labored to a small purpose, for I divide profits with the publisher. I have just ridded off the last sheets, and now have at you.

Beginning with your first letter, respecting my "Short Publications in 1817,"These "short publications" are the parodies for which Hone was arrested and tried in 1817: "The Late John Wilkes's Catechism," "The Political Litany," and "The Sinecurist's Creed." [return] I believe it is not profitable to procure any of them—if I had any they should be yours.

"Thomas Spence." The only things I have of his I deem the rarest & most curious of his works—they are 1. The Real Reading-made-Easy 2. A Supplement to the History of Robinson Crusoe—Both are printed at Newcastle in 1782.

The latter has a version in the "Kruzonian M'an'ir"—this is clearly what he afterwards called the "Spensonian" manner. The tract is pregnant with his "Plan." I will lend you, with pleasure, the little volume (24mo), & would send it by post, but I fear miscarriage. I have nobody to send with it, but will leave it at the bar of the "Grasshopper" for anyone who may ask for it in your name. I do not know anybody that has tracts by Spence which you have not.

It will be a fortnight before I can get to see you, & hear you read your sketch, for I must immediately turn to commencing "The Year Book," which I am under articles for, in the manner of the Every Day Book. Among the papers that I have to turn over, I expect to find a printed sheet of a work containing a more minute account of Spence than I ever saw. It was done by I forget whom, & sent to me about three years ago by the author from Newcastle. He knew Spence. More I cannot tell you respecting this sheet, for I recollect no more. I shall come to it within a fortnight, & you shall have it as soon as I find it.

I only know of Spence's Son that he had one. The last time I saw or heard of him was when Spence lived in Turnstile. He was then publishing a Dictionary of the "Spensonian" Language in numbers — it was, in form, like the square Entick, but, I imagine, never finished.

You speak in your last letter, just received, as though you had some paper before you, written by me, respecting Spence. I have no remembrance of such a paper. To say the truth my memory is not so good as it was. I have a faint notion only of [one word illegible] in connection with Spence. I saw Spence with his "vehicle," & bought his Trial from it in Parliament Street, near the Duke of Richmond's. My personal intercourse with him was very little, for I disliked his manner—but I was a frequent observer of him, on account of his fearless thinking & printing. About 1808 or 9 he came to the StrandDuring the period referred to, Hone and his partner John Bone were operating a bookstore in the Strand where they would have sold copies of Burdett's speeches along with other political and antiquarian publications.[return] for one of Sir F. Burdett's speeches, and talked away about his "Plan" & the Landlords, against whom he was inveterate. On leaving he gave me a card (long since lost) admitting the bearer to a meeting at the Something & Lamb in or near Windmill street, where he said he met his friends to talk over & cooperate towards his "Plan." I should not have objected to being there as a mere spectator; but I knew that could not be, & therefore did not go. Really, at present, I cannot remember more of him. His "vehicle" mentioned before, was very like a Baker's close barrow—the pamphlets were exhibited outside, & when he sold one he took it from within, & handed & recommended others with strong expressions of hate to the powers that were, & prophecies of what would happen to the whole race of "Land Lords."

I know that Spence was arrested where he kept the long stall in Chancery Lane at the Middle Row Corner, for I was passing at the time, & heard him in dispute with the officer. He had just got his shutters down in the morning when he was pounced upon. It was early therefore & no one but myself was present at first. I remained only a minute or so, for I had to hasten to a situation I then had to attend at 9 o'clock. Dates I cannot fix as I might have done 6 or 7 years ago. Since then my head has cullendered.

It gave me great pleasure to hear on coming home the other day, that honest Thomas HardyThomas Hardy (1752-1832) was a veteran radical, one of the founders of the London Corresponding society in the 1790s. An annuity had been established for Hardy in 1823, and at this point Francis Place was administering these resources on his behalf. In addition, Place was collecting materials and helping Hardy with a contemplated but never completed history of the LCS. [return] had been to the Grasshopper, & broke the rules, by breaking into the bar, & kissing my daughter Matilda before all the visitors.