and mortgagee. On December the 31st FitzGerald wrote from 12 Marine Terrace, Lowestoft:—
“12 Marine Terrace,
“December 31.“Joseph Fletcher,
“As you cannot talk with me without confusion, I write a few words to you on the subject of the two grievances which you began about this morning.
“1st. As to your being under your Father: I said no such thing: but wrote that he was to be either Partner, or (with your Mother) constantly employed, and consulted with as to the Boats. It is indeed for their sakes, and that of your own Family, that I have come to take all this trouble
“2ndly. As to the Bill of Sale to me. If you could be calm enough, you would see that this would be a Protection to yourself. You do not pay your different Creditors all their Bill at the year’s end. Now, if any one of these should happen to want all his Money; he might, by filing a Bankruptcy against you, seize upon your Nets and everything else you have to pay his Debt.
“As to your supposing that I should use the Bill of Sale except in the last necessity (which I do not calculate upon), you prove that you can have but little remembrance of what I have hitherto done for you and am still willing to do for your Family’s sake quite as much as for your own.
“The Nets were included in the Valuation which Mr. Balls made of the whole Property; which valuation (as you ought to remember) I reduced even lower than Mr. Balls’ Valuation; which you yourself thought too low at the time. Therefore (however much the Nets, &c. may have been added to since) surely I have the first claim on them in Justice, if not by the Mortgage. I repeat, however, that I proposed the Bill of Sale quite as much as a Protection to yourself and yours as to myself.
“If you cannot see all this on reflection, there is no use my talking or writing more about it. You may ask Mr. Barnard, if you please, or any such competent person, if they object to the Bill of Sale, I shall not insist. But you had better let me know what you decide on before the end of the week when I shall be going home, that I may arrange accordingly.
“Edward FitzGerald.”
Mr. Barnard was a Lowestoft lawyer for whom Posh had no great love. It is hardly necessary to say that he did not “ask” him. He still raises his voice and gets excited when he discusses the grievances of which he made complaint in the winter of 1873. “He wouldn’t leave me alone,” says Posh. “It was ‘yew must ax yar faa’er this, an’ yew must let yar mother that, and yew mustn’t dew this here, nor yit that theer.’
At last I up an’ says, ‘Theer! I ha’ paid ivery farden o’ debts. Look a here. Here be the receipts. Now I’ll ha’e no more on it.’ And I slammed my fist down like this here.”
(Posh’s fist came down on my Remington’s table till the bell jangled!)
“‘Oh dear! oh dear, Posh!’ says he. ‘That it should ever come ta this! And hev yew anything left oover?’
“‘Yes,’ I say. ‘I’ve got a matter of a hunnerd an’ four pound clear arter payin’ ivery farden owin’, an’ the stock an’ nets an’ gear and tew boots [184] an’ all wha’ss mortgaged ta yew. Now I’ll ha’e no more on’t. Ayther I’m master or I ha’ done wi’t.’
“‘Oh dear! oh dear! Posh,’ he say, ‘I din’t think as yew’d made so much.’”
That is Posh’s account of the final disagreement which led to the sale of the boats in 1874. Even if it be true one cannot say that the bluff independence came off with flying colours in this particular instance.
But FitzGerald could have told another story, if one may judge from his letter to Mr. Spalding of the 9th January, 1874, written from Lowestoft (Two Suffolk Friends, p. 123):—