274
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xn. OCT. 9, 1915.
Certainly I must have strangely misunder-
stood my son in my final interview with him,
if at that time there had not been paid out
of the original 5001. a considerable sum
[say 150Z. to 200Z.] on the original account
of the Mess 1 " 8 Buckmaster.
What is the inference which I found upon that ? Simply this that, if so, the Mess 1 ' 8 Buckmaster do not stand in so favorable a position for precedency of payment as a second set of creditors who have hitherto had nothing. It was in the Spring of 1842 (on a leave of absence granted by Sir W m Warre, I think) that my son, then under orders for China, after some farewell visits to family connexions in England, paid one to myself in Glasgow where I happened to be then resident as a visitor of the Greek Professor, M> Lushington, in that University.
On that occasion I saw him for the last time : and he then told me of two debts which weighed a little upon his spirits ; one being to the Mess rs Buckmaster, estimated by himself at 116Z. ; and this I understood to have accrued after the settle- ment of a larger debt to the same house out of the 500Z. ; the other spread amongst petty creditors chiefly in England ; and this last he estimated at sixty pounds or guineas. Both of these he relied upon being able to meet himself within a year by means of presents which he anticipated from near relatives in England. But if anything should prevent him from doing so, he begged of me to see these debts paid. I assured him that I would. The smaller amount of debts it has been difficult to ascertain. But this has now been done : and the sum total would have been pretty accurately what my son calculated, had he not overlooked one account of about III. from a Fencing Master, which raises the whole to 161. Ss.
Such was my son's statement and request : Such was my promise ; and undoubtedly I will fulfil it. But having five other children now surviving, and not finding it advisable to trouble any further my son's grandmother [whose great age of 93 makes it difficult to gain her ear], I am obliged to move more slowly in he affair than I could have wished. What I propose then is this : the minor creditors are generally willing to take my bill at 6 months for one half of their claims. To meet the other half, or nearly so, without further delay, I suggest that, after the Mess" Buckmaster shall have taken eighty pound [SOL] of the fund [114Z. 13,9.] reported last November to the War Office, the Balance [subject to any deductions that may be customary in the
nature of fees] should be paid over to myself.
If that arrangement is approved, I will
immediately forward to the Mess 18 Buck-
master on the one part, and to the body of
petty creditors on the other, my bill at 6
months for the balance separately due to-
each, and for the interest due on the whole.
It remains to say a few words in explana- tion of the long delay which I have caused to the settlement of this affair. I observe, with great concern, that five letters nave been written to me irom the War Office, the first of them dated so far back as the 27 th of last November. Strange however as the assertion may appear, it is really true that I could not have replied effectually much sooner. For two years I have been the martyr of a nervous malady exasper- ated in the most painful degree by inability to support the remedies which were otherwise fitted to relieve it. When the first letters from the War Office reached me, I was- incapable of enduring any question upon a matter of business or of opening a letter.
On this beginning to subside, I found myself in a place where no confidential friend was at hand to whom I could delegate the necessary inquiries.
And, when this difficulty also had been removed, I had a laborious correspondence to undertake with petty creditors dispersed ovej the island.
I beg you to pardon the diffusene&s of this letter, which the languor of recent convales- cence will not allow me sufficient energy to shorten.
And with respect to the paragraph immediately preceding, I hope to be under- stood as incapable of occupying your time with details so purely personal, were it not that in no other way was it possible to- exonerate myself from the charge of levity or indolence in having retarded (on however slight a concern) the regular course ol the public service.
I remain, Sir,
Your obedient humble Servant THOMAS BE QUINCEY,
W.O. 43/95042 (O.S.).
Tuesday November 19, 1844 Mavis Bush
Lasswade
SIB, near Edinburgh.
Having lately been informed that we were intitled on account of my late Brother, Horatio de Quincey, Lieutenant in the 26 th Cameronians, to claim a share in the
