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All the afternoon to my accounts; and there find myself, to my great joy, a great deal worth above 4000l. for which the Lord be praised! and is principally occasioned by my getting 500l. of Cocke, for my profit in his bargains of prize goods, and from Mr. Gauden's making me a present of 500l. more, when I paid him 800l. for Tangier. 31st. Thus ends this year, to my great joy, in this manner.
Assassination has sometimes been the prelude to revolution, but it may be questioned if it has over promoted the cause of liberty. Most frequently it has served as a pretext for reaction, or a red signal. In this instance as afterwards in 1848 overt acts of violence made the powers of despotism more alert, and conduced with the half-hearted action of their adversaries to the suppression of the rising of 1820-21. Byron's sympathy with the movement seems to have been stimulated by his new associations. Theresa's brother, Count Pietro, an enthusiastic young soldier, having returned from Rome and Naples, surmounting a prejudice not wholly unnatural, became attached to him, and they entered into a partnership in behalf of what adopting a phrase often flaunted in opposite camps they called constitutional principles. Finally the poet so committed himself to the party of insurrection that, though his nationality secured him from direct attack, his movements were necessarily affected by the fiasco. In July the Gambas were banished from the Romagna, Pietro being actually carried by force over the frontier; and, according to the articles of her separation, the Countess had to follow them to Florence. Byron lingered for some mouths, partly from a spirit of defiance, and partly from his affection towards a place where he had enlisted the regards of numerous beneficiaries. The Gambas were for some time bent on migrating to Switzerland; but the poet, after first acquiescing, subsequently conceived a violent repugnance to the idea, and early in August wrote to Shelley, earnestly requesting his presence, aid, and counsel. Shelley at once complied, and, entering into a correspondence with Madame Guiccioli, succeeded in inducing her relatives to abandon their transmontane plans, and agree to take up their headquarters at Pisa. This incident gave rise to a series of interesting letters, in which the younger poet gives a vivid and generous account of the surroundings and condition of his friend. On the 2nd of August he writes from Ravenna: "I arrived last night at ten o'clock, and sat up talking with Lord B. till five this morning. He was delighted to see me. He has, in fact, completely recovered his health, and lives a life totally the reverse of that which he led at Venice.... Poor fellow! he is now quite well, and immersed in politics and literature. We talked a great deal of poetry and such matters last night, and, as usual, differed, I think, more than ever. He affects to patronize a system of criticism fit only for the production of mediocrity; and, although all his finer poems and passages have been produced in defiance of this system, yet I recognize the pernicious effects of it in the Doge of Venice." Again, on the 15th: "Lord B. is greatly improved in every respect in genius, in temper, in moral views, in health, and happiness. His connexion with La Guiccioli has been an inestimable benefit to him. He lives in considerable splendour, but within his income, which is now about 4000l. a year, 1000l. of which he devotes to purposes of charity. Switzerland is little fitted for him; the gossip and the cabals of those Anglicised coteries would torment him, as they did before. Ravenna is a miserable place. He would in every respect be better among the Tuscans. He has read to me one of the unpublished cantos of Don Juan. It sets him not only above, but far above, all the poets of the day. Every word has the stamp of immortality.... I have spoken to him of Hunt, but not with a direct view of demanding a contribution. I am sure, if I asked, it would not be refused; yet there is something in me that makes it impossible. Lord B. and I are excellent friends; and were I reduced to poverty, or were I a writer who had no claim to a higher position than I possess, I would freely ask him any favour. Such is not now the case." Later, after stating that Byron had decided upon Tuscany, he says, in reference to La Guiccioli, "At the conclusion of a letter, full of all the fine things she says she has heard of me, is this request, which I transcribe: 'Signore, la vostra bont
From these documents, were there even no other evidence, it may be fairly inferred, that Liberia affords uncontrovertible proof of the practicability of establishing colonies on the African coast, composed of persons of the African race, nearly, if not wholly, freed from the control of the whites; that the expense of establishing such a colony is moderate, not having exceeded, in the case in point, 4000l. per annum; that it is greatly favoured by the natives, with whom the colonists are rapidly extending their commercial and friendly relations to their mutual benefit; that it has not only placed a large number of manumitted slaves in a prosperous situation, but led to the emancipation of many, who must otherwise have still continued in bondage; and, finally, that it has completely put an end to the slave-trade in the immediate neighbourhood of the settlement, where that nefarious traffic was hitherto most extensively prosecuted.
Called up with news from Sir W. Batten that Hogg hath brought in two prizes more: and so I thither, and hear the particulars, which are good; one of them, if prize, being worth 4000l.: for which God be thanked! Then to the office, and have the news brought us of Captain Robinson's coming with his fleet from Gottenburgh: dispersed, though, by foul weather.
The son of Sir Nicholas, known as "little Sir John of the great beard," appears to have been a favourite of Henry VIII., who made him Steward of Manchester and Lieutenant of Sherwood, and on the dissolution of the monasteries presented him with the Priory of Newstead, the rents of which were equivalent to about 4000l. of our money.
Montagu; and desiring to speak with my Lord at the window in his chamber, he began to charge my Lord with the greatest ingratitude in the world: that he that had received his earldom, garter, 4000l. per annum, and whatever he has in the world, from him, should now study him all the dishonour that he could: and so fell to tell my Lord, that if he should speak all that he knew of him, he could do so and so.
So well did I succeed, that by the end of April I had reduced the 10,000l. claim to rather less than 5000l., or rather to 4000l., taking into account the 1000l. conceded by the firm previously mentioned.
He issued a pastoral entreating his clergy to do the utmost in their power for 'Christian strangers, whose distress is in all respects worthy of our tenderest commiseration. For his own part, he set a noble example of liberality in the gift of a great part of 4000l. which had lately come into his possession.
It seems some of his creditors have taken notice of it, and he was like to be broke yesterday in his absence: Sir G. Carteret telling me that the King and the kingdom must as good as fall with that man at this time; and that he was forced to get 4000l. himself to answer Backewell's people's occasions, or he must have broke; but committed this to me as a great secret.
No less a sum was paid to Beard for this work the cormorant Beard, as the report calls him than 24,200l., the last payment only, amounting to 4000l., having been made subsequent to the date of the contract. Twenty thousand two hundred pounds was paid to Beard before the date of the contract!
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