I write to you under the depression of a most miserable
bad cold, but so impatient am I to communicate the sum and substance of what I
have to say,
| 310 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
The sum and substance is, that dexterous as the little man is, he will be cleverer than even himself at mischief, if he contrives to make the New Monthly a vehicle for his further malignity towards you. I will watch every sheet and sentence that goes to press, and nothing, with my permission, shall go to press that is in the least disrespectful to you.
If I followed the impulse of my own feelings, I should not limit myself to negative conduct in this business. You may easily imagine what I think of Colburn’s conduct to you. It shocked and disgusted me when I heard of it, and, moreover, it astounded me, for his conduct to myself has, on the whole, been very fair and liberal. I thought him incapable of such an action as the advertisement, and if he ever enters upon the subject with me, I will tell him my mind in the strongest reprehensive terms. But my interests are, unfortunately, for the present, involved with his, and I have disagreeable subjects enough to discuss with him without entering on that point. On this, however, you may rely, that he shall not get the New Monthly to be an engine of his hostility.
God knows when I may be able to accomplish my
long-thought-of jaunt to the Emerald Isle. I trust, however, ere long, to see
you or Sir Charles, or both of you, on
this side of the Channel; you will surely visit us this year. Here you will
find me in a far more liveable part of London than I lived in before, which was
so remote that it almost kept me out of
| THE SECOND WORK ON FRANCE—1830. | 311 |
