SD150. James Scarlett to Edward Moulton-Barrett (father)
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 312 (in part).
Abinger Hall. Dorking
Oct. 1. 1811
My dear Barrett. I hope your brother is now with you. Immediately as I Heard of his arrival I wrote to him to press him to pass a day with me here. But I fancy he must have left town before he got the letter, as I understand your mother (to whom I also wrote) is at Cheltenham.
I trouble you with this to mention a communication my brother has made to me respecting a proceeding in the court of Chancery in Jamaica by Doctor |Heman|. It seems that the Doctor has got an order for an allowance to Miss Barrett & for arrears, much more considerable than in my judgement he is intitled to. My brother says he shall take all such measures as the lawyers advise to set this right but in case the money must be paid, he thinks he shall be obliged to draw on me for it, the personal estate in his hands being exhausted. If this be so you are aware that I cannot, out of the dividends of the stock now invested, pay both this allowance & the allowance to Mrs Williams, sons. I must therefore either intrench upon the Capital or have recourse to you & Sam. I have written to my brother, that he may either draw upon me for what is necessary or if he prefers it make the payments in equal portions out of any funds he may have of yours & Sam’s & then send to each of you an order upon me for one half the amount. This latter mode would I think be the simplest, as we could then settle the matter together according to the funds I might have in hand & to your convenience. The time approaches when Sam & you must begin to make some arrangements for paying off the legacies to the Williams. I have as much of Sam’s (including the same portion of the personal Estate as I paid over to you) as will meet his share. But it will be better for both of you to divide the burden & to make arrangements for the payment at as great a distance beforehand as you can. I should wish to have some talk with you & him on the subject when you are next in town.
My brother, in a short note to his letter, mentions to me that Sam has got from Robt Moulton two of my letters to him written many years ago. As R. M & I were upon the most intimate terms & as I had at one time as warm an attachment to him as I ever had for anybody, I cannot doubt but that there are many things in my letters to him that were never meant for any other eye. And I own I am a good deal surprized that any motive of any kind should induce R M to submit to any other eye a correspondence that was rendered sacred by the friendship & unreserved confidence that existed between us. I know not how other men may feel, but I cannot conceive that I should ever be prevailed upon to violate the confidence of implied in such a correspondence. I say this without knowing to what the letters relate, but because I think it probable that the object of putting them into Sam’s possession is that they should be shown to you. And as I do assure you that I have the highest value for your good opinion, I beg that you will not let me suffer in it, without first giving me an opportunity of knowing what these letters are & of explaining them as far as my memory will permit. In the mean time I shall rely upon Sam’s honour that he will let no one see them but you. And I shall only add further, what I have often said to you before, that as there was at one time, no man not even in my own family, to whose interests I was so much attached as to R M’s, so there was none whom I should have done so much to save—and if his own conduct (about which I have been as silent as circumstances would permit) had allowed me to retain that attachment or put it in my power to serve him as I wished nothing in the world would have given me more satisfaction than to have witnessed his prosperity accomplished by any means. The struggle which it cost me to have my opinion shaken about him (and it did cost me more grief than any other event of my life) is a pledge of my sincerity when I say that I should feel the greatest obligation to any one who would convince me that I am now under an error about him & that he still merits all the attachment & devotion which I once felt for him. It will be a painful task to me, but I shall nevertheless if either you or Sam require it, think it my duty to communicate to you the grounds on which my present opinion rests & upon which I have certainly abstained from using that influence over you, which I might be supposed to possess, when you came of age, for the purpose of serving R M. Pray excuse this long letter– It has arisen from a good deal of anxiety about my own fame with you & a good deal too about your brothers interests.
I saw Mr Clarke at Newcastle & flatter myself that I contributed essentially to his success in an important cause there. With best respect to Mrs Barrett I am My dear Barrett
Ever yours most truly
J Scarlett
If Sam is with you, pray be so good as to tell him that I wish much to see him & that if possible before he goes the Carlton. I have written two long letters which he has not received about his affairs & I want to tell him the contents. I have accommodations for him here, & for you too, if I could prevail on you to visit my humble farm & look at the wildness of the retirement in which I endeavor to forget for a while the cares of the world & the dictates of ambition–
Address, on integral page: Edwd M. Barrett Esqr / Hope End / Ledbury.
Docket, in the hand of EM-B (father): J. Scarlett Eqr / Octr 1. 1811 / Dr |Hemans| order & R M Moulton.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
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