“Your letter of the 21st has this moment come to hand, and its last paragraph would inevitably decide me upon going at once to England if I had the means; but when I add the mercenary cost to the fatigue, sea-sickness,—for I should go at least to Genoa by steamer,—inconvenience of leaving wife and brats in a distant and not over-quiet land, and, lastly, calculate how little my presence might avail after, I grow faint-hearted at the ‘odds’ against me.
“My resolve is, therefore, to stay here, whither we have come for economy, taking up our abode in a little inn in a sweet pretty country—and, I confess it, with not a privation to make us feel that prudence pays tax.”
[He then suggests the purchase of his books by Chapman,
offering Chapman as “a collateral security,” if he embarks
in the “spec,” an insurance policy. He does not desire to be
tied to Chapman, but sees that nothing can be done unless he
gets the books unfettered. He says he is in Chapman’s debt
in the first place, and secondly, that there is a loss in
repute in changing publishers, “always argued to the
detriment of the author.”]
“Chapman’s apathy is great on all subjects, nor is he likely to be more alert here: first, that he never reaped the large profit from me that he hoped; [secondly,] because I am his debtor—never a couleur de rose portrait of any one....”
To Mr Alexander Spencer.
“Bagni di Lucca, Jan. 20 [?1849].
“I write to announce to you that I have more need than ever of a little good-luck, as I have this morning had a little girl—a very fat frowning little damsel—added to my battalion. My wife—and that is the first consideration in these cases—is doing admirably.... Have you received ‘Con Cregan’? Of course its paternity was plain to you. It is an effort to work out of a bad and profitless year, with what result God knows.
“I hear from London that ‘Roland Cashel’ is regarded as the best thing I have yet done, but also pronounced to be above the level of shilling readers,—a species of flattery intended to convey that I am to take the praise vice the pence.
“I have written a paper on Italy for the Feb. No. of ‘The University,’ so that you see I am the author of other productions besides babies.
“Chapman has shown such a perfect indifference on the subject of the copyrights, that I have not any hope of his mediation. I now regret that I did not negotiate with Orr, who publishes ‘Con Cregan’ for me.”