y
reason so to be, with your conduct in all transactions between us
as publisher and author.

"It will give me great pleasure to preserve your acquaintance, and
to consider you as my friend. Believe me very truly, and for much
attention,

"Your obliged and very obedient servant,

"BYRON.

"P.S. I do not think that I have overdrawn at Hammersley's; but if
_that_ be the case, I can draw for the superflux on Hoare's. The
draft is 5_l._ short, but that I will make up. On payment--_not_
before--return the copyright papers."

* * * * *

In such a conjuncture, an appeal to his good nature and considerateness
was, as Mr. Murray well judged, his best resource; and the following
prompt reply, will show how easily, and at once, it succeeded.

LETTER 181. TO MR. MURRAY.

"May 1. 1814.

"Dear Sir,

"If your present note is serious, and it really would be
inconvenient, there is an end of the matter; tear my draft, and go
on as usual: in that case, we will recur to our former basis. That
_I_ was perfectly _serious_, in wishing to suppress all future
publication, is true; but certainly not to interfere with the
convenience of others, and more particularly your own. Some day, I
will tell you the reason of this apparently strange resolution. At
present, it may be enough to say that I recall it at your
suggestion; and as it appears to have annoyed you, I lose no time
in saying so.

"Yours truly,

"B."

* * * * *

During my stay in town this year, we were almost daily together; and it
is in no spirit of flattery to the dead I say, that the more intimately
I became acquainted with his disposition and character, the more warmly
I felt disposed to take an interest in every thing that concerned him.
Not that, in the opportunities thus afforded me of observing more
closely his defects, I did not discover much to lament, and not a little
to condemn. But there was still, in the neighbourhood of even his worst
faults, some atoning good quality, which was always sure, if brought
kindly and with management into play, to neutralise their ill effects.
The very frankness, indeed, with which he avowed his errors seemed to
imply a confidence in his own power of redeeming them,--a consciousness
that he could afford to be sincere. There was also, in suc