I always hoped to meet you one day in London, but many obstacles have intervened to prevent the fulfilment of this wish, and as there seems now no chance of such a thing, I hope you will not refuse a request of mine, which is that you will be so obliging as to apply to some London publisher, and offer him the following works of mine.  Grand Trio for piano, violin, and violoncello [Op. 97], 80 ducats.  Pianoforte Sonata, with violin accompaniment [Op. 96], 60 ducats.  Grand Symphony in A (one of my very best); a short Symphony in F [the 8th]; Quartet for two violins, viola, and violoncello in F minor [Op. 95]; Grand Opera in score, 30 ducats.  Cantata with Choruses and Solos ["The Glorious Moment"], 30 ducats.  Score of the “Battle of Vittoria” and “Wellington’s Victory,” 80 ducats; also the pianoforte arrangement of the same, if not already published, which, I am told here, is the case.  I have named the prices of some of these works, on a scale which I hold to be suitable for England, but I leave it to you to say what sum should be asked both for these and the others.  I hear, indeed, that Cramer [John, whose pianoforte-playing was highly estimated by Beethoven] is also a publisher, but my scholar Ries lately wrote to me that Cramer not long since publicly expressed his disapproval of my works:  I trust from no motive but that of being of service to art, and if so I have no right to object to his doing this.  If, however, Cramer should wish to possess any of my pernicious works, I shall be as well satisfied with him as with any other publisher; but I reserve the right to give these works to be published here, so that they may appear at the same moment in London and Vienna.

Perhaps you may also be able to point out to me in what way I can recover from the Prince Regent [afterwards George IV.] the expenses of transcribing the “Battle Symphony” on Wellington’s victory at Vittoria, to be dedicated to him, for I have long ago given up all hope of receiving anything from that quarter.  I have not even been deemed worthy of an answer, whether I am to be authorized to dedicate the work to the Prince Regent; and when at last I propose to publish it here, I am informed that it has already appeared in London.  What a fatality for an author!!!  While the English and German papers are filled with accounts of the success of the work, as performed at Drury Lane, and that theatre drawing great receipts from it, the author has not one friendly line to show, not even payment for the cost of copying the work, and is thus deprived of all profit.[2] For if it be true that the pianoforte arrangement is soon to be published by a German publisher, copied from the London one, then I lose both my fame and my honorarium.  The well-known generosity of your character leads me to hope that you will take some interest in the matter, and actively exert yourself on my behalf.