*, the case is in no respect different from the transfer of former copyrights to Mr. Dallas.  Had I taken you at your word, that is, taken your money, I might have used it as I pleased; and it could be in no respect different to you whether I paid it to a w——­, or a hospital, or assisted a man of talent in distress.  The truth of the matter seems this:  you offered more than the poems are worth.  I said so, and I think so; but you know, or at least ought to know, your own business best; and when you recollect what passed between you and me upon pecuniary subjects before this occurred, you will acquit me of any wish to take advantage of your imprudence.

     “The things in question shall not be published at all, and there is
     an end of the matter.

     “Yours,” &c.

* * * * *

The letter that follows will give some idea of those embarrassments in his own affairs, under the pressure of which he could be thus considerate of the wants of others.

LETTER 239.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “March 6. 1816.

“I sent to you to-day for this reason—­the books you purchased are again seized, and, as matters stand, had much better be sold at once by public auction.[99] I wish to see you to return your bill for them, which, thank God, is neither due nor paid. That part, as far as you are concerned, being settled, (which it can be, and shall be, when I see you to-morrow,) I have no further delicacy about the matter.  This is about the tenth execution in as many months; so I am pretty well hardened; but it is fit I should pay the forfeit of my forefathers’ extravagance and my own; and whatever my faults may be, I suppose they will be pretty well expiated in time—­or eternity.  Ever, &c.

     “P.S.  I need hardly say that I knew nothing till this day of the
     new seizure.  I had released them from former ones, and thought,
     when you took them, that they were yours.

     “You shall have your bill again to-morrow.”

[Footnote 99:  The sale of these books took place the following month, and they were described in the catalogue as the property of “a Nobleman about to leave England on a tour.”

From a note to Mr. Murray, it would appear that he had been first announced as going to the Morea.

“I hope that the catalogue of the books, &c., has not been published without my seeing it.  I must reserve several, and many ought not to be printed.  The advertisement is a very bad one.  I am not going to the Morea; and if I was, you might as well advertise a man in Russia as going to Yorkshire.—­Ever,” &c.

Together with the books was sold an article of furniture, which is now in the possession of Mr. Murray, namely, “a large screen covered with portraits of actors, pugilists, representations of boxing-matches,” &c.]