know what you think,
or whether I had better _not_;--at least, not the second part,
which touches on the actual confines of still existing matters.

"I have written three more Cantos of Don Juan, and am hovering on
the brink of another (the ninth). The reason I want the stanzas
again which I sent you is, that as these cantos contain a full
detail (like the storm in Canto Second) of the siege and assault of
Ismael, with much of sarcasm on those butchers in large business,
your mercenary soldiery, it is a good opportunity of gracing the
poem with * * *. With these things and these fellows, it is
necessary, in the present clash of philosophy and tyranny, to throw
away the scabbard. I know it is against fearful odds; but the
battle must be fought; and it will be eventually for the good of
mankind, whatever it may be for the individual who risks himself.

"What do you think of your Irish bishop? Do you remember Swift's
line, 'Let me have a _barrack_--a fig for the _clergy_?' This seems
to have been his reverence's motto. * * *

"Yours," &c.

[Footnote 83: In a letter to Mr. Murray, of an earlier date, which has
been omitted to avoid repetitions, he says on the same subject, "You
were all mistaken about Shelley, who was, without exception, the _best_
and least selfish man I ever knew." There is also another passage in the
same letter which, for its perfect truth, I must quote:--"I have
received your scrap, with Henry Drury's letter enclosed. It is just like
him--always kind and ready to oblige his old friends."]

[Footnote 84: A book which had just appeared, entitled "Memoirs of the
Right Hon. Lord Byron."]

[Footnote 85: The remarkable pamphlet from which extracts have been
already given in this work.]

[Footnote 86: It had been asserted in a late Number of Blackwood, that
both Lord Byron and myself were employed in writing satires against that
Magazine.]

* * * * *

LETTER 503. TO MR. MOORE.

"Pisa, August 27. 1822.

"It is boring to trouble you with 'such small gear;' but it must be
owned that I should be glad if you would enquire whether my Irish
subscription ever reached the committee in Paris from Leghorn. My
reasons, like Vellum's, 'are threefold:'--First, I doubt the
accuracy of all almoners, or remitters of benevolent cash; second,
I do suspect that the