Of good I have the pleasure of saying I have my children well, and in good health.  The dividend of 3s. in the pound has been made to the creditors, and the creditors have testified their sense of my labours by surrendering my books, furniture, plate, and curiosities.  I see some friends of mine think this is not handsomely done.  In my opinion it is extremely so.  There are few things so [easy] as to criticise the good things one does, and to show that we ourselves would have done [more] handsomely.  But those who know the world and their own nature are always better pleased with one kind action carried through and executed, than with twenty that only glide through their minds, while perhaps they tickle the imagination of the benevolent Barmecide who supposes both the entertainment and the eater.  These articles do not amount to less than L10,000 at least, and, without dispensing with them entirely, might furnish me with a fund for my younger children.[405] Now, suppose these creditors had not seriously carried their purpose into execution, the transaction might have been afterwards challenged, and the ease of mind which it produced to me must have been uncertain in comparison.  Well! one-half of these claims are cleared off, furnished in a great measure by one-half issue of the present edition of the Waverley Novels, which had reached the 20th of the series.

It cannot be expected that twenty more will run off so fast; the later volumes are less favourites, and are really less interesting.  Yet when I read them over again since their composition, I own I found them considerably better than I expected, and I think, if other circumstances do not crush them and blight their popularity, they will make their way.  Mr. Cadell is still desirous to acquire one-half of the property of this part of the work, which is chiefly my own.  He proposes assembling all my detached works of fiction and articles in Annuals, so that the whole, supposing I write, as is proposed, six new volumes, will run the collection to fifty, when it is time to close it.  Between cash advanced on this property, and a profit on the sale of the second part, Mr. Cadell thinks, having taken a year or two years’ time, to gather a little wind into the bag, I will be able to pay, on my part, a further sum of L30,000, or the moiety remaining of the whole debts, amounting now to less than L60,000.

Should this happy period arrive in or about the year 1832 the heavy work will be wellnigh finished.  Tor, although L30,000 will still remain, yet there is L20,000 actually secured upon my life, and the remaining L10,000 is set against the sale of Waverley, which shall have been issued; besides which there is the whole Poetry, Bonaparte, and several other articles, equally [available] in a short time to pay up the balance, and afford a very large reversion.

This view cannot be absolutely certain, but it is highly probable, and is calculated in the manner in which Building Schemes [are dealt with], and is not merely visionary.  The year 1833 may probably see me again in possession of my estate.