“....I am low in pocket and in hope. Perhaps it were better, as you suggest, to draw near England,—but in reality it is as little my country as America.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Bagni di Lucca, April 21, 1848.
“I would suggest some compromise with Curry—[? a bargain] to superintend an edition which would give me a regulated share of profits, and spare me the mortification of being thrown upon the market in a disgraceful and unauthorised fashion.... If Chapman would give £800 I am quite ready to go half. I would go over at once, but really this is a nervous moment to leave a family in Italy. Assassinations and pillage are too rife to make absence easy. Besides, with two monthly Nos. to supply and a very low exchequer, time and cash are grave obstacles.
“Natural smallpox of a most dangerous type is raging around us, and I fear that I must run away to Florence—which, with a big tail of men and maids, is something very formidable. I am the more inclined to yield to my fears and fly, but my poverty should influence me in incurring a considerable risk.
“The insurances are always in my thoughts.”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Casa Standish, Florence, May 27, 1848.
“As to the under-sale [i.e., selling at reduced prices], so little was I aware of it that when in the January of 1845 Mr Pearce went to London from Templeogue to negotiate the sale of ‘St Patrick’s Eve’ with Chapman & Hall, Mr Chapman’s argument for offering a lower sum than I proposed was that ‘Mr Lever’s works were in some instances advertised at depreciated prices.’ Pearce wrote to me word of this, and, indignant at what I believed to be a falsehood, I hurried in to Dublin and asked M’Glashan how such a story could get abroad? He said he couldn’t conceive how, for he knew there was no truth in it. But his hesitation and confusion were extreme.
“If I could proceed against those parties who alleged having informed me [of the under-sale] I would certainly do so. The whole case is evidently now ‘up.’ I see no prospect of any benefit by further proceedings, and if you are of my opinion that an Equity suit would serve me, I would lie down under the wrong and leave it among the many hard rubs in life I have suffered. If I understand the matter aright, I have no share whatever in the proceedings of any sum to be obtained for the sale of these works or copyrights, and very small prospects of any payment of the debt they owe me. Be it so. Now, one last chance. If these works are to be sold by auction, will their probable price be above the sum Chapman would give? It would be well to communicate with him on this subject....