vice in a few months; and that, if such assistance should not be sufficient, Mr. Murray would be ready to sell the copyright of all his lordship's works for his use.

The following is Lord Byron's acknowledgment of this offer.

"Dear Sir,

"November 14th, 1815.

"I return you your bills not accepted, but certainly not UNHONOURED. Your present offer is a favour which I would accept from you if I accepted such from any man. Had such been my intention, I can assure you I would have asked you fairly and as freely as you would give; and I cannot say more of my confidence or your conduct. The circumstances which induce me to part with my books, though sufficiently are not IMMEDIATELY pressing. I have made up my mind to them, and there is an end. Had I been disposed to trespass on your kindness in this way, it would have been before now; but I am not sorry to have an opportunity of declining it, as it sets my opinion of you, and indeed of human nature, in a different light from that in which I have been accustomed to consider it.

"Believe me, very truly,

"To John Murray, Esq.”

"Your obliged and faithful servant,

"BYRON.

NOTE. - That nothing had occurred to subvert these friendly sentiments will appear from the three letters subjoined, the second of them written by Lord Byron a few weeks before his death, and the last addressed by his lordship's valet to Mr. Murray as one of his deceased master's most confidential friends.

LORD BYRON'S LETTERS.

66 May 8th, 1819.

"I have a great respect for your good and gentlemanly qualities, and return your personal friendship towards me.

******.

You deserve and possess the esteem of those whose esteem is worth having, and of none more (however useless it may be) than

"Yours, very truly,

"BYRON."

“ Missolongha, Feb. 25. 1824.

"I have heard from Mr. Douglas Kinnaird that you state a report of a satire on Mr. Gifford having arrived from Italy, said to be written by ME, but that you do not believe it; I dare say you do not, nor any body else, I should think. Whoever asserts that I am the author or abettor of any thing of the kind on Gifford, lies in his throat: I always regarded him as my literary father, and myself as his prodigal son. If any such composition exists, it is none of mine. You know, as well as any body, upon wном I have or have not written, and you also know whether they do or did not deserve the same. much for such matters.

and so

"You will, perhaps, be anxious to hear some news from this part of Greece (which is most liable to invasion), but you will hear enough through public and private channels on that head. I will, however, give you the events of a week, mingling my own private peculiar with the public, for we are here jumbled a "ittle together at present.

"On Sunday (the 15th, I believe), I had a strong and sudden convulsive attack which left me speechless, though not motionless, for some strong men could not hold me; but whether it was epilepsy, catalepsy, cachexy, apoplexy, or what other exy or epsy, the doctors have not decided, or whether it was spasmodic or nervous, &c., but it was very unpleasant, and nearly carried me off, and all that. On Monday, they put leeches to my temples, no difficult matter, but the blood could not be stopped till eleven at night (they had gone too near the temporal artery for my temporal safety), and neither styptic nor caustic would cauterize the orifice till after a hundred attempts.

"On Tuesday, a Turkish brig of war ran on shore. On Wednesday, great preparations being made to attack her, though

protected by her consorts, the Turks burned her, and retired to Patras. On Thursday, a quarrel ensued between the Suliotes and the Frank guard at the arsenal; a Swedish officer was killed, and a Suliote severely wounded, and a general fight expected, and with some difficulty prevented. On Friday, the officer buried, and Captain Parry's English artificers mutinied, under pretence that their lives were in danger, and are for quitting the country-they may. On Saturday we had the smartest shock of an earthquake which I remember (and I have felt thirty, slight or smart, at different periods; they are common in the Mediterranean), and the whole army discharged their arms, upon the same principle that savages beat drums, or howl, during an eclipse of the moon: it was a rare scene altogether. If you had but seen the English Johnnies, who had never been out of a Cockney workshop before, nor will again if they can help it! And on Sunday we heard that the Vizier is come down to Larissa with one hundred and odd thousand men.

"In coming here I had two escapes, from the Turks (one of my vessels was taken, but afterwards released), and the other from shipwreck; we drove twice on the rocks near the Scrophes (islands near the coast).

"I have obtained from the Greeks the release of eight and twenty Turkish prisoners, men, women, and children, and sent them to Patras and Prevesa at my own charges. One little girl of nine years old, who proposes remaining with me, I shall (if I live) send with her mother, probably, to Italy, or to England, and adopt her. Her name is Hato Hatagee; she is a very pretty lively child. All her brothers were killed by the Greeks, and she herself and her mother were spared by special favour, and owing to her extreme youth, she being then but five or six years old.

Prince Mavrocordati is

"My health is rather better, and I can ride about again. My office here is no sinecure· - so many parties and difficulties of every kind; but I will do what I can. an excellent person, and does all in his power; but his situation is perplexing in the extreme: still we have great hopes of the success of the contest. You will hear, however, more of public

J

news from plenty of quarters, for I have little time to write.

Believe me,

"To John Murray, Esq."

"Yours, &c. &c.

"N. B.

"Sir,

LETTER OF LORD BYRON'S VALET.

“ Missolonghi, April 21. 1824.

"Forgive me for this intrusion which I now am under the painful necessity of writing to you, to inform you of the melancholy news of my Lord Byron, who is no more. He departed this miserable life on the 19th of April, after an illness of only ten days. His lordship began by a nervous fever, and terminated with an inflammation on the brain, for want of being bled in time, which his lordship refused till it was too late. I have sent the Hon. Mrs. Leigh's letter inclosed in yours, which I think would be better for you to open and explain to Mrs. Leigh, for I fear the contents of the letter will be too much for her. And you will please to inform Lady Byron and the Honourable Miss Byron, whom I am wished to see when I return with my lord's effects, and his dear and noble remains: Sir, you will please manage in the mildest way possible, or I am much afraid of the consequences. Sir, you will please give my duty to Lady Byron; hoping she will allow me to see her, by my lord's particular wish, and Miss Byron likewise. Please to excuse all defects, for I scarcely know what I either say or do, for after twenty years' service with my lord, he was more to me than a father, and I am too much distressed to now give a correct account of every particular, which I hope to do at my arrival in England. Sir, you will likewise have the goodness to forward the letter to the Honourable Captain George Byron, who, as the representative of the family and title, I thought it my duty to send him a line. But you, Sir, will please to explain to him all particulars, as I have not time, as the express is now ready to make his voyage day and night till he arrives in London. - I must, Sir, praying

forgiveness, and hoping at the same time that you will so far oblige me as to execute all my wishes, which I am well convinced you will not refuse.

"I remain, Sir,

"Your most obedient and very humble servant, "W. FLETCHER,

"Valet to the late L. B. for twenty years.

"P. S. I mention my name and capacity that you may remember and forgive this, when you remember the quantity of times I have been at your house in Albemarle-street.

"To John Murray, Esq."

NOTE. - Other letters from Lord Byron, of the same tenor and force with these now produced, might have been added. But it is presumed that these are sufficient to demonstrate in the present case, what has been demonstrated in many others, that desultory, ex-parte conversations, even if accurately reported, will often convey imperfect and erroneous notions of the speaker's real sentiments.

Albemarle-street,

30th October, 1824.

JOHN MURRAY.

P. S.

CAPT. MEDWIN. Page 170.

Well;

"My differences with Murray are not over. When he purchased Cain,' The two Foscari,' and Sardanapalus,' he sent me a deed, which you may remember witnessing. after its return to England, it was discovered that it contained a clause which had been introduced without my knowledge, ɑ clause by which I bound myself to offer Mr. Murray all my future compositions. But I shall take no notice of it."

NOTE. The words in italic are those which were suppressed in the two first editions of Captain Medwin's book, and which Mr. Murray has received from the publisher after the foregoing statement was printed. He has only to observe upon