Letter from Robert Stephenson to Samuel Smiles

34 Gloucester Sq
8 May 58
Dear Smiles
I do not know any other source of information respecting Iron Bridge building excepting those which I believe have already been supplied to you . The Historical part of the article for the Enc Britannica is chiefly got up by Stockman and sh'd you think it worthwhile he would be a good man to read over your manuscript In doing this I have no doubt he would make some useful suggestions.
I was sorry to hear a day or two ago that you & Mrs. Burrows had come to a misunderstanding as to the Biography

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I can assure you she had no intention of encroaching on your rights and having seen some portions of her manuscript I do not think it is calculated to injure the sale of your intended popular life of my father . Be this as it may, I must ask you to exonerate her from any sinister motive for she is quite incapable of such conduct _
I will venture to trouble you to read a note which I have just received from her _ she is much hurt at the tone of your letter to [illegible word] and I told her, you were the last man in the world to say things to give annoyance - but on a subject of this kind, it was a question of property in the copy right which you had made by great labor industry and ability -
As I have to be in the city on Monday I shall endeavor to give you a call.
Yours faithfully,
Robt Stephenson

S. Smiles Esq
S' Eastern Rway [illegible]
London Bridge