I did not like to detain you this morning, but I confess to you that I came away impressed with a belief that you had already reconsidered this matter, as it refers to me—­Your Lordship will pardon me if I cannot avoid looking upon it as a species of cruelty, after what has passed, to take from me so large a sum—­offered with no reference to the marketable value of the poems, but out of personal friendship and gratitude alone,—­to cast it away on the wanton and ungenerous interference of those who cannot enter into your Lordship’s feelings for me, upon, persons who have so little claim upon you, and whom those who so interested themselves might more decently and honestly enrich from their own funds, than by endeavouring to be liberal at the cost of another, and by forcibly resuming from me a sum which you had generously and nobly resigned.

I am sure you will do me the justice to believe that I would strain every nerve in your service, but it is actually heartbreaking to throw away my earnings on others.  I am no rich man, abounding, like Mr. Rogers, in superfluous thousands, but working hard for independence, and what would be the most grateful pleasure to me if likely to be useful to you personally, becomes merely painful if it causes me to work for others for whom I can have no such feelings.

This is a most painful subject for me to address you upon, and I am ill able to express my feelings about it.  I commit them entirely to your liberal construction with a reference to your knowledge of my character.

I have the honour to be, etc.,

JOHN MURRAY.

This letter was submitted to Gifford before it was despatched, and he wrote: 

Mr. Gifford to John Murray.

“I have made a scratch or two, and the letter now expresses my genuine sentiments on the matter.  But should you not see Rogers?  It is evident that Lord Byron is a little awkward about this matter, and his officious friends have got him into a most unlordly scrape, from which they can only relieve him by treading back their steps.  The more I consider their conduct, the more I am astonished at their impudence.  A downright robbery is honourable to it.  If you see Rogers, do not be shy to speak:  he trembles at report, and here is an evil one for him.”

In the end Lord Byron was compelled by the increasing pressure of his debts to accept the sum offered by Murray and use it for his own purposes.

It is not necessary here to touch upon the circumstances of Lord Byron’s separation from his wife; suffice it to say that early in 1816 he determined to leave England, and resolved, as he had before contemplated doing, to sell off his books and furniture.  He committed the arrangements to Mr. Murray, through Mr. Hanson, his solicitor, in Bloomsbury Square.  A few months before, when Lord Byron was in straits for money, Mr. Hanson communicated with Mr. Murray as follows: