has passed, to
take from me so large a sum--offered with no reference to the marketable
value of the poems, but out of personal friendship and gratitude
alone,--to cast it away on the wanton and ungenerous interference of
those who cannot enter into your Lordship's feelings for me, upon,
persons who have so little claim upon you, and whom those who so
interested themselves might more decently and honestly enrich from their
own funds, than by endeavouring to be liberal at the cost of another,
and by forcibly resuming from me a sum which you had generously and
nobly resigned.

I am sure you will do me the justice to believe that I would strain
every nerve in your service, but it is actually heartbreaking to throw
away my earnings on others. I am no rich man, abounding, like Mr.
Rogers, in superfluous thousands, but working hard for independence, and
what would be the most grateful pleasure to me if likely to be useful to
you personally, becomes merely painful if it causes me to work for
others for whom I can have no such feelings.

This is a most painful subject for me to address you upon, and I am ill
able to express my feelings about it. I commit them entirely to your
liberal construction with a reference to your knowledge of my character.

I have the honour to be, etc.,

JOHN MURRAY.

This letter was submitted to Gifford before it was despatched, and he
wrote:

_Mr. Gifford to John Murray_.

"I have made a scratch or two, and the letter now expresses my genuine
sentiments on the matter. But should you not see Rogers? It is evident
that Lord Byron is a little awkward about this matter, and his officious
friends have got him into a most _unlordly_ scrape, from which they can
only relieve him by treading back their steps. The more I consider their
conduct, the more I am astonished at their impudence. A downright
robbery is honourable to it. If you see Rogers, do not be shy to speak:
he trembles at report, and here is an evil one for him."

In the end Lord Byron was compelled by the increasing pressure of his
debts to accept the sum offered by Murray and use it for his own
purposes.

It is not necessary here to touch upon the circumstances of Lord Byron's
separation from his wife; suffice it to say that early in 1816 he
determined to leave England, and resolved, as he had before contemplated
doing, to sell off his books and furniture. He committed the
arrangements to Mr. Murray, through Mr. Hanson, his solicito