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332 / A M E S [1912]or 4 publicans really named and to the secretary of the railway co.He refused.v) I said the publicans would be glad of the advertisement.vi) I said that I would put fictitious names for the few real ones but addedthat by so doing the selling value in Dublin of the book would godown.vii) I said that even if they took action for libel against Maunsel that thejury would be a long time before awarding damages on such a plea.viii) I said that his legal adviser was a fool to advise him to sue me. If hesued me (even if I lived in Dublin) a jury would say he had the MSfor ten months and I was not liable for his error in judgment. But ifhe sued me in Trieste I would hold the whip and would laugh himout of court.ix) I suggested that his lawyer encouraged correspondence and litigationfor his own profit. 49Roberts, to be rid of these importunities, promised (in defiance of Joyce'spoint ix) to consult his solicitors again.From Trieste Stanislaus, pinching to support his absent brother, cabledhim on August 25, 'Come without delay.' Joyce paid no attention.In Dublin he observed a change of tone. A solicitor named Dixon, withwhom he discussed his affairs, remarked, 'It's a pity you don't use yourundoubted talents for some other purpose than writing a book like Dubliners.Why don't you use them for the betterment of your country andyour people?' Joyce gave an odd reply: i am probably the only Irishmanwho is writing leading articles for the Italian press,' he said, 'and all myarticles in the Piccolo della Sera have been about Ireland and the Irishpeople.'* Then he added his by now well-worn casuistry, i was the firstperson to introduce Irish tweeds in Austria although that business is notin the least in my own line.' 51A loftier answer to the imputation oftreachery against his country is contained in a letter to Nora in Galway,asking her to join him in Dublin during Horse Show week: 'The AbbeyTheatre will be open and they will give plays of Yeats and Synge. Youhave a right to be there because you are my bride: and I am one of thewriters of this generation who are perhaps creating at last a conscience inthe soul of this wretched race.' And in the same letter he vowed, if onlymy book is published then I will plunge into my novel and finish it.' 52Goaded by the slurs of Kettle and Dixon, he felt firmlyin command now'Joyce was entirely serious in making this claim. On March 25, 1914, he wrote to apublisher in Genoa, Angelo Fortunato Formiggini, offering his nine articles in the Piccolodella Sera as a book, possibly to bear the title of Ireland at the Bar: 'This year the Irishproblem has reached an acute phase, and indeed, according to the latest news, England,owing to the Home Rule question, is on the brink of civil war. ... I am an Irishman(from Dublin): and though these articles have no literary value, I believe they set out theproblem sincerely and objectively.' 50