"And now I shall close, with the best wishes for your welfare, and that you enjoy all possible felicity in your new situation of life.
"Your true friend,
"Louis van Beethoven."
13.
Beethoven to Ries.
Vienna, July 9, 1817.
Dear Friend,
I feel much flattered by the honourable proposals you make me in your letter of the 9th of June: this comes to show you how I appreciate them, and, were it not for my unlucky affliction, and for the additional attendance this would make me require on a journey and in a strange country, I should at once accept the proposal of the Philharmonic Society. Now place yourself in my situation, consider how many more difficulties I have to contend with than any other artist, and then judge whether my demands be unjust. I am going here to subjoin them, and beg you will communicate them to the Directors of the above-named Society.
1. I mean to be in London in the middle of January, 1818, at the latest.
2. The two grand new Symphonies are then to be ready, and are to remain the Society's exclusive property.
3. The Society to give me for them three hundred guineas, and allow me one hundred guineas for my travelling expenses, which will much exceed that sum, as I must necessarily take some one with me.