TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
SIR,—The nines declines publishing the following letter, on the ground of having,done more for me than any other correspondent. I admit it with gratitude, but now was not the time to stop. The Times calls it my case, as if it was entirely a private matter : it is the case of all those who, devoting themselves to poetical art, sink to ruin for want of a system of support to such art, as is established in all other civilized countries. May I hope, therefore, you will admit this statement.
In 1827 I was restored to my family : I have painted, since, Eucles-.- Mock Election—TheChairing—Punch—Napoleon—Uriel—and Lady Mac- beth. I asked a year's protection from my creditors from law;—it was granted, and in four months I finished the Mock Election, sold it to the King for 500 guineas, and paid my creditors 400/. The three following causes are the immediate ones which have brought me again to a prison.
I had paid more than 100/. to a tradesman : for the remainder 201. he begged a bill ;—it was given, became due-101. was paid—a writ issued for the balance, a cognovit given : the 101. left, being then 18/., payment was promised at the opening of the Eucles—the exhibition failing, I car- ried Si. and begged, according to my resources, to pay 51. a week—execu- tion was issued; the expenses, 4/., deducted from the Si. left to pay the debt. On the 10/. balance, therefore, this was incurred :— X a. d. Nine weeks' possession, at It. lOs 13 10 0
Fees .. 2 2 0 Poundage . .. . 0 18 0 Costs, cognovit, &c. . 8 0 0 Execution . . 4 0 0 28 10 0
Thus, Sir, 28/. 10s. was incurred on 101., the whole debt being 201; originally. The second cause is this : I owed a balance to my printer; having paid him 20/. last year, I am now immediately imprisoned on part of that balance, 15/. Ms. 6d , with 11/. Cs. 7d.. costs. The third : I owed 1241. for schooling ; I paid 12/. costs in 1827, and reduced the debt to 82/. besides ; execution has issued, and the debt again is brought up to 1001. 2s. 6d. Can any industry, can any gains, can any aid, meet or provide for
such infamous expenditure ;—added, let it be remembered, to the wants of seven children ! Impossible; and I am convinced I am thus persecuted from the hope that the nobility and the public will again rescue me. They shall do no such thing; because, if this happen again, every two or three years I shall be imprisoned and ruined by lawyers and their clients, from the hope that others will pay for it, utterly indifferent to my sufferings or my family's.
I have paid, since 1827, 700/. to my creditors, and nearly 901. in law, making, since 1823, more than 370/. in law I Far be it from me, Sir, to condemn a whole profession for the infa- mous oppression of a -few, who are considered a disgrace by the honour. able in it. There are men in the law, as noble-hearted, as generuues as upright as men can be; but there are others, also, who, with the pro- pensities of thieves without the courage, take shelter under the law, that they may plunder without endangering their necks. What a hideous power is that of arresting the person What It scope to the worst passions! What a vent to malignity! What an in- strument to wring from the wretched the last guinea to pamper the heartless and oppressive I Well might Johnson, and Burke, and Romilly, and all our greatest men say, the power in England the creditor possesses, of swearing to any amount of debt—of tearing, without trial, the father from his family and his pursuits, was as great a violation of justice as slavery to the Africans I Well might they say, that in one term-time in this London, there were more injustice, more cruelty, more lacerated feelings, more domestic agony, than in the most despotic pashalick of Turkey. Here was an individual, like myself, not unknown to the world, sit: ting quietly with my family, after a day's fatigue, torn suddenly away, without two minutes' delay—hurried to a lock-up-house, and next day to a prison, leaving my children mute, the servants bewildered, and their mother watching me from the window till it was useless to look. Glad of refuge from the torture of the last four months, I lay on my bed, in my gaohroom, sensible to every thing, and yet not awake; and when the light came creeping in at day-break, as if ashamed to disclose it, I got up, trembling like an aged person, and feeble as an infant: there into nto my mind my Xenophon I had left, shining in the morning sun ; then my children—sleeping, innocent, and beautiful ; and then their mother, alone and unprotected!—their dear mother ! Oh God, what a destiny is mine! One day in a palace ; the next in a prison One day sleeping with beetles crawling over my face ; the next day reposing at Petworth, where kings and emperors had slept before ! One day receiv- ing nobility and beauty in my rooms—flattered and congratulated; the next confined with the unfortunate and unhappy, and regarded, even by them, with sympathy and regret. It will be of no use for the nobility or the public to think again of re- lieving me from prison; half their aid will go to lawyers, and little to me or to those creditors who are merciful: but if any number of friends will save my family from want, during my absence,—if they will pay up a year's rent and taxes due, and save my simple furniture and materials of study, I will paint them a picture as I painted Endes, which I promised, in prison, and I never broke my word yet, where a picture was concerned.
This is bitter work after twenty-six years' as ardent, as sincere, and as devoted an attachment to the honour of my country as ever inspired the
breast of an Englishman. B. R. HAYDON. King's Bench, May 27, 1830.
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