“. . . . . I must trespass on you farther, and request
that you will seal up ten pounds, and leave it with Rickman, directed for Charles
Lamb, Esq. from R. S. It is for poor
John Morgan, whom you may remember
some twenty years ago. This poor fellow, whom I knew at school, and whose
mother has sometimes asked me to her table, when I should otherwise have gone
without a dinner, was left with a fair fortune, from 10,000l. to 15,000l., and without any vice or
extravagance of his own he has lost the whole of it. A stroke of the palsy has
utterly disabled him from doing anything to maintain himself; his wife, a
good-natured, kind-hearted woman, whom I knew in her bloom, beauty, and
prosperity, has accepted a situation as mistress of a charity-school, with a
miserable salary of 40l. a-year; and this is all they
have. In this pitiable case, Lamb and I have promised him
ten pounds a-year each, as long as he lives. I have got five pounds a-year for
him from an excellent fellow, whom you do not know, and who chooses on this
occasion to be called A. B., and I have written to his
Bristol friends, who are able to do more for him than we are, and on whom he
has stronger personal claims; so that I hope we shall secure him the decencies
of life. You will understand that this is an explanation to you, not an
application. In a case of this kind, contributions become
| 362 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 45. |
“God bless you!
