Volume I Part 19 (1/2)
”Riedenburg, _Nov_. 2, 1846.
”There never was a bad business man a.s.sisted by a cleverer and more good-natured friend. You have perfectly satisfied all my hazy doubts as to how I stand before the world. Heaven knows, the matter ought to seem easy enough to me now! for all through my life I have never looked beyond the coming month of January,--and how to open the New Year without c.u.mbering it with the deficiencies of the old one....
”From Curry I received a half-apologetic epistle, hoping that if I would state what sum I would accept for my remaining interest, the matter might be arranged without the interference of the gentlemen of the long robe. I sent the letter on to Chapman for advice, and I have not yet received his reply. Could you conveniently see M'Glashan and sound him as to the best mode of terminating the controversy? I am also very anxious to ascertain his feelings towards myself....
”I hear that my 'Knight' (though not by any means so popular as many others) is the best I have done. I hope this is so, because it is the last. I know it is most carefully written: the dialogue has cost me great pains and labour, and the whole book has more of thought in it than its predecessors.... I am glad you like the 'Knight' for more reasons than flattered vanity suggests. I want you to accept of it in dedication. I hope you will receive the barren compliment, not at the poor price of such a production, but as another proof of my sincere regard and affection.”
_To Mr Hugh Baker_.*
”Riedenburg, _Nov._ 10, 1846.
* Charles Lever's brother-in-law.
”I possess a contingent interest in certain books--'Tom Burke,'
'Hinton,' and 'O'Donoghue,' the former after 11,000, the latter after 10,000 copies. This interest--or, to speak more plainly, the amount of profit accruing to me--was estimated by M'G. in one of his letters to me, and I believe in a conversation with you, as such, that if the sales reached 20,000 my receipts would be doubled. The sale of 'Hinton' alone [? the a/cs] showed did exceed the limits where my profit began, and in an account furnished to me before leaving Ireland I was credited in a proportion a.n.a.logous to M'G.'s pledge.
”Since that period (mark this--for here the iniquity begins) the house of Curry and Co. effected sales for the purpose, I believe, of raising cash to conclude the winding-up of partners.h.i.+p, of 1000 copies of 'Hinton' at a mere minimum profit (6d, I think, per copy), and thus at one _coup_ not only reduce my profit to a mere fraction, but seriously and gravely--as I am prepared to show--damage my character and that of my books in the London market.
”And these sales made without my consent--without even my knowledge--were in the face of a scale of profit already acknowledged by their own account furnished, and specially pledged by M'G.
”The matter ends not here, for, anxious to purchase my remaining rights,--the only obstacle to selling the sole copyrights in London,--Curry had the impudence to propose 200 for the four vols.
in question, urging as a reason for my compliance his own depreciated sales, and using a threat of the damage he could effect in my reputation by continuing such a system of depreciation.
”This, if related by any less credible witness than Spencer, would scarcely be believed. But the case is so. Up to the moment Spencer had been--when able--moving in the matter; but Curry, from old experience of my capacity for being duped, declined conferring with him, and addressed to me certain letters--half flattery, half insolence--in which he alleges that M'G.'s scale of my half profits was far too high, and that I have been overpaid! and lastly, that the depreciated sales were made by him in full right on his part.
”A case was submitted to Longfield for his opinion on this head (of which I enclose you the copy sent to me by Spencer). The last letter I received from Curry enclosed a statement of the expenses of getting up 'Hinton,' in which I am charged for my share of 20,000 copies--i.e., 4000 more than are sold. It also contains a request to know at what price I do value my contingent interests, as Mr Curry hopes the matter may be arranged without reference to the courts of law.
”As to the scale of half profits, C. & H. set them down as 10 per 1000 Nos.--which is just what M'Glashan [? estimated].”*
* Lever would appear to have received 1300 on account of profits of 'Jack Hinton.'--E. D.
_To Mr Hugh Baker._
”Riedenburg, _Nov_. 14,1846.
”Soon after despatching my letter to you, I received the enclosed from Mr Chapman, for whose consideration and counsel I had stated the whole transaction with Curry. You will perceive that his opinion corroborates mine, and maintains my moiety of profits as fixed and unchangeable. As to his (Chapman's) suggestion that I should ask Curry what price _he_ lays upon his share of the copyrights, it is evidently to reduce him to the dilemma of avowing that he offered me far too little, and of impressing that he asks far too much. Will you see Curry and say that the severe illness of the children in succession has totally prevented my attending to business,--an excuse, I regret to say, not in the least fict.i.tious?
”Curry did ask the trade 2500, which I fancy included stock and stereo-plates, but of this I'm not certain. I had a suspicion that if the copyrights were offered at a fair and reasonable price, Chapman & Hall might purchase,--an arrangement which would suit my views in every respect....
”The affair is of greater moment to me than its mere s. d.
interests,--because it may serve to consolidate a publis.h.i.+ng connection which I would be much pleased to fix on a permanent and lasting basis.”
_To Mr Hugh Baker._