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Memoir of Francis Hodgson

Augusta Leigh to Francis Hodgson, 31 May 1824

INTRODUCTION & INDEXES

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

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Preface

Vol. 1 Contents

Chapter I.

Chapter II. 1794-1807.

Chapter III. 1807-1808.

Chapter IV. 1808.

Chapter V. 1808-1809.

Chapter VI. 1810.

Chapter VII. 1811.

Chapter VIII. 1811.

Chapter IX. 1811.

Chapter X. 1811-12.

Chapter XI. 1812.

Chapter XII. 1812-13.

Chapter XIII. 1813-14.

Vol. 2 Contents

Chapter XIV. 1815-16.

Chapter XV. 1816-18.

Chapter XVI. 1815-22.

Chapter XVII. 1820.

Chapter XVIII. 1824-27.

Chapter XIX. 1827-1830

Chapter XX. 1830-36.

Chapter XXI. 1837-40.

Chapter XXII. 1840-47.

Chapter XXIII. 1840-52.

Index

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Produced by CATH

Dear Mr. Hodgson,—I hope that you have not thought my silence unkind. I assure you that your very kind letter was quite a balm to my heart, but I have been so much harassed by different perplexities that I have not had time or courage to write again, but I will not delay it another post. In the first place, your kind inquiries. I am as well as anyone can be in my circumstances, and I hope I am anxious and willing to admit and receive every source of consolation in this deeply afflicting event. The first of all is, that He who has directed it knows what is best for us, and I try to think that

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my poor dear B. is now snatched from us to spare him future trials and temptations. Did I tell you I had received a long letter full of melancholy details relative to the last nine days, from his servant, Fletcher, whom you must remember? You shall read it some day, or I will copy it for you. I cannot bear to part with it at present. It appears to me that he had never entirely recovered the effects of two fits in February, and Fletcher remarks that they had made a deep impression, and produced great attention, not only to diet, but the more serious duties of a Christian. Now, dear Mr. H., this is my greatest hope and comfort. I think it impossible that Fletcher, who had lived with him twenty-three years, and must have known his habits so intimately, could have been struck with such an idea without there had been grounds for it. Mr. Hobhouse, on reading that portion of F.’s letter, desired me not to show it, as many people might imagine that terror had made him Methodistical. But I tell it to you because I feel confident you will derive from it the hope and comfort that I do. Would to Heaven I could have been with him! There was not any Englishman, only a Count Gamba, an Italian follower of his, and two Italian physicians, alas! too young and inexperienced, I

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fear, to know or do their duty. He had always a great horror of being bled, and it appears to me that early measures of that sort might have saved him. God knows! The last twelve hours were perfect tranquillity and apparent insensibility. Before that, and being quite aware of his situation, he appeared most anxious to give orders and express something to Fletcher; but, alas! intervals of delirium prevented his being understood further than that he desired him to go to his ‘child,’ to his ‘wife,’ and to his ‘poor dear sister,’ and tell them that. . . . This is indeed distressing to reflect upon. I hope and believe the dear Remains will be brought to England. I wish it was all settled and over, for it is a heavy weight on one’s heart. The will was at Genoa, and a legal copy was immediately sent for. I imagine that cannot be here till next week. Of course it must be seen whether there are directions in it respecting the last sad ceremony. You have probably seen in the newspapers long histories of the Memoirs, and my name mixed up with them, and I am anxious to tell you the fact. The first day, and the very day I received the fatal intelligence, that I saw Mr. Hobhouse, he said, ‘Now the first thing that we have to think of is to protect Lord B.’s fame; there are those “Memoirs,”’ and

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proceeded to tell me who had them now—Mr. Moore, and of a long squabble between Moore and Murray about them, which is of no consequence. The next day he came with a written agreement in his hand, to state to me that Mr. Moore would pay Murray back the 2,000 guineas he had received from him for them, and give them up to me and me only; and, Mr. H. observed, ‘I should recommend you, Mrs. L., to destroy them,’ which he need not have done, for I was too well convinced that it was the only thing to do, from the little I had heard of them. The day after Mr. H. arrived to tell me it was settled that at twelve next day he, Mr. Moore, and Murray, Col. Doyle, or Mr. Wilmot Horton, on Lady B.’s part, with perhaps some friend of Moore, would be here to give them up to me, and I was to burn them. You may guess that I acquiesced from a sense of duty, and as I would go into a court of justice if required. I thought I should have sunk at the bare idea of it, but it was to be done. About a quarter of an hour after this was settled and Mr. H. gone, came a note from Mr. Wilmot Horton with quite a different story, Moore and Murray having both been with him. I sent for Mr. Wilmot (who is, you know, our cousin), and begged for an explanation of what was quite incomprehensible to

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me; and after some time I plainly saw that Moore was ——, and protesting against the destruction of the ‘Memoirs,’ wanting them to be sealed up and deposited with Mr. Wilmot, etc., etc.; and I told Mr. Wilmot that if I was to have a voice in the business (which I by no means wished), that it was my opinion and unalterable determination that they should be destroyed, and immediately; that I thought delay would only bring change of feeling and opinion; and that as for publishing the unexceptionable parts, as Mr. Moore wished and proposed, I thought if the whole was to be canvassed and cavilled over, to determine what was and what was not unexceptionable, upon which there might be a difference of opinion, that the whole might as well be published at once. So the parties, Messrs. Moore, Murray, Hobhouse, Col. Doyle for Lady B., and Mr. Wilmot for me, and Mr. Luttrell, a friend of Mr. Moore’s, met at Mr. Murray’s; and after a long dispute and nearly quarrelling, upon Mr. Wilmot’s stating what was my wish and opinion, the MS. was burnt, and Moore paid Murray the 2,000 guineas. Immediately almost after this was done, the legal agreement between Moore and Murray (which had been mislaid) was found, and, strange to say, it appeared from it (what both had

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forgotten) that the property of the MS. was Murray’s bonâ fide. Consequently he had right to dispose of it as he pleased, and as he had behaved most handsomely upon the occasion, . . . . it was desired by our family that Moore should receive the 2,000 guineas back. Of course, whoever succeeds to my brother’s property would consider it incumbent on them to remunerate the loser, and one would prefer doing so by Murray. I am afraid this has not yet been accomplished, though Mr. Wilmot declares it shall be. Only imagine that with the bond there was a written declaration of Moore, stating it his own and Lord B.’s opinions that the MS. never ought to be published, and in 1822 Mr. Hobhouse heard from poor B. himself that he never wished it should. This is, dear Mr. Hodgson, the whole case exactly, and I hope you will not disapprove of the part I had in it, which was not of my own seeking, but as I was drawn into it I felt it my duty to act as I think he, poor dear soul! would now (divested of earthly feelings) approve. I must now say a word of the kind wish expressed to me in your letter. Believe me, that it would gratify me more than I can say, and that I am very sure nobody would execute1 it with more

1 Hodgson had proposed to write his friend’s life.

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feeling and ability than you. But I’m sure you will understand that I am very delicately situated, first in taking upon myself what may appear to others to belong to them to pronounce upon; and then I cannot help anticipating that there are still others who will wish me to give my sanction to them, and whose feelings I would not wound by giving a preference, whatever I may feel on the subject. After all, do not let what I say deter you, and rely on any and every assistance I can give. I see no harm in more than one attempt to do the thing. Do not mistake me, dear Mr. H.; believe me, it is impossible to do more justice than I do to your attachment, as well as every other requisite. I am only afraid of interfering where it might be thought I had no right. I am most grateful for your kind sympathy in my grief, which not everyone can fully enter into, and, with best remembrances to Mrs. H.,