Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

A LIBERAL LETTER. 227
else, and on the other hand I could have the satisfaction of
offering you more and more liberal remuneration. This has
all along been my first and most earnest wish, and if my means
have not yet equalled my wishes, I am sure you will give me
credit for its not being my fault. I hope you will excuse me
for saying so much in explanation of the views and feelings
under which I acted. Had I known, however, that you had
sat down to this article with other views than sending it to me
for the Magazine, I would have begged of you to tell me what
these views were, and to the very utmost of my powers I would
have endeavoured to promote them. And had I likewise known
that it had been the labour of some weeks, but that you thought
the Magazine the fit channel for giving your sentiments to the
public (and I still flatter myself it is the best), I should have
requested the favour, instead of naming any sum myself, that
you would frankly tell me what I could send you for it, taking
all circumstances into consideration. This is my earnest desire
now, and I hope you will do me this favour.
My most ardent desire is that you should continue to give
your powerful aid to my Magazine, but I never dreamt that
you were to devote any portion even of your leisure time to
it, without being paid liberally. It would give me the deepest
pain if you did not feel satisfied on this head. In future therefore,
if agreeable to you, I would wish very much that you
would send me a note from time to time for £20, £30, or £50,
just as you yourself thought right ; or if you preferred it, that
you would say a quarterly or annual sum you would draw,
leaving it entirely to yourself to send such contributions as
your leisure or inclinations prompted you to write : then at the
end of the year you would also notify to me any additional
sums, if you found you had done more than you had laid your
account with.
I have written this letter with great pain in one sense. I
dislike so much any dissensions when mere money is concerned.
I have written it, however, with the deepest anxiety that you
may be satisfied as to my feelings and conduct. I cannot say
a fiftieth part of what I feel on this matter, so deeply interest-
ing to me. All I shall further say is, that if I did not feel
from the bottom of my heart that I had acted all along in a