The Letters of the Duke of Wellington to Miss J. 1834-1851 Part 24

Ever Yours most faithfully,

WELLINGTON.

LONDON, July 26, 1850.

MY DEAR MISS J.,--I have received your Note of the 25th and the number inclosed of the Shop at which the Post Office is kept, ...

and I wish you to make Enquiries after your own Letter! If I am to make enquiries they will be forwarded as a letter from yourself which I must send to the Post Office; and I beg you to write accordingly in plain simple Terms reciting the fact! and as your letter must be sent to the general Post Office I beg leave without intending any Offence to request that all endearing expressions which do not suit the Relations in which we stand towards each other should be omitted! as they might lead to false conclusions injurious to you! I must observe to you that the General Post Office will probably answer that if the last letter contained papers of consequence; it ought to have been marked and paid for as a registered letter; when put into the Post! The cost is sixpence!

This is the mode in which I proposed to send you Money! You would have to do no more than sign the printed receipt for the letter which would be sent to you with it.

The Post Office would know nothing of the Contents of the Letter!

Living in the World and with the Wants and necessities incident to Human Nature! it is necessary that _even you_ should comply with its simple Rules and Customs.

Yours most faithfully,

WELLINGTON.

The missing packet was at last found and forwarded. The enclosures stated about the same explanation of Miss J.'s affairs that she had herself given in her letter to the Duke. They also stated that the amount of her income from this time would be only __12 10_s._ 1_d._ every half year. At the same time these came to hand, the Duke received Miss J.'s letter of July 23rd, given above.

LONDON, July 30, 1850.

_Miss J._,--Since I addressed you last your letter of the 23rd of July which had been refused or missing reached me with the enclosed letters returned. I confess that I cannot admit of the Christian Justice of your _Reproaches_.

I told you that I was ready and willing to give you pecuniary a.s.sistance if you would say what you required, and would adopt one of several Modes in which I offered to send it to you! But you have given no answer either as to warrant, a means of sending you this; and yet you reproach me! This is not just or fair!

In truth according to the statement in these letters there is no absolute _necessity_ for any a.s.sistance at present!

Your most obedient Humble Servant

WELLINGTON.

Miss J. writes,--

"To describe how I recoiled from this letter received from His Grace would be impossible. My feeling was both on his account and my own. On his, to think that while possessed of thousands yearly he could thus have reconciled himself to imply that the utterly insufficient sum alluded to in those enclosed letters was enough for me in that truly distressing helpless state. On my own part, I lamented deeply that I should ever have been _influenced_ under ANY circ.u.mstances to ask a favor at his hands. This I would rather have died than do, had not the affection of so fond a Sister, who judged of others by her own generous heart overcome every selfish feeling and at length prevailed!"

Miss J. immediately prepared and sent off the following letter to the Duke.

July 30, 1850.

MY LORD DUKE,--Having placed my cause in His Hands "Who judgeth righteously and Whose Countenance beholdeth the thing that is right," consequently Who will not, I am a.s.sured, suffer you with impunity to treat me with greater coa.r.s.eness and want of due consideration than I under similar circ.u.mstances should have extended to a common menial that I had known or who had served me for the same number of years, I leave you in His Hands accordingly. I resume my pen merely to inform you that as you thought proper after reading my Guardian's letter written several years ago and his wife's of later date, _yet_ can at the conclusion of your most unwelcome letter write as follows, "In truth, according to the contents of these letters there is no absolute necessity for any a.s.sistance at present,"--I desire to remark that if it were not necessary _then_ it will _never_ be necessary from _Your_ hands. Consequently, should you at _your_ good will and pleasure think proper to take the liberty of sending me a _Registered_ letter with an _Enclosure_, I shall not only decline receiving it but likewise refuse to sign the paper that accompanies it in the Post Man's charge, let the consequences be whatever they may. It is to prevent such an Intrusion on your part and such a due mortification on mine towards Your Grace that I have now resumed my pen--for ill as I still feel I would rather beg my bread from door to door than receive a favor at _such_ hands! preferring to trust myself wholly in _His_ Hands Who declares "The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine."...

May G.o.d in His infinite mercy, My Lord Duke, give you Grace to understand this Divine a.s.sertion, "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in ME, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea."

May HE before it is too late incline you to draw near unto Him accordingly prays,

His devoted Child and Servant,

A. J.

LONDON, August 7, 1850.

Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington presents His Compliments to Miss J. He is much concerned at her answer and that he has given her Offence, however unintentionally! The Duke may have been mistaken! But it certainly appeared to him that the Money lent upon Mortgage; of which the Interest was in arrears of a year, and paid very irregularly might with advantage have been called in and the rest of the Sum might with advantage have been applied to defray the expenses attending Miss J.'s illness! More particularly as Miss J. was unwilling to adopt any of the modes suggested by which pecuniary a.s.sistance might have been sent her!

The Duke a.s.sures her that he is not disposed to expose her to any thing inconvenient by desiring that she should sign any papers!

He was anxious that she should receive the pecuniary a.s.sistance which might be useful or necessary to Her in the manner least tiresome to Herself and least likely to occasion the inquiries of busy and impertinent curiosity!

However Miss J. may rely upon it that he will not interrupt her repose excepting in consequence of her own expressed desire!

One fancies a mocking tone in the last sentence of the Duke's letter, as though he surmised Miss J.'s silence would not be of long duration.

He did not reckon without his host. Miss J. held her peace for three weeks. Then, seeing by the "Times" that the Right Hon. Charles Arbuthnot had died suddenly at the house of the Duke of Wellington, she wrote a letter of condolence which in its expressions of deep sympathy and its religious consolations would not have been out of place if indited upon the death of the Duke's nearest of kin. [Endnote 12] To this effusion the Duke sent no answer. Nothing daunted, Miss J. only waited for an excuse to write again. This she soon found in a newspaper paragraph stating that the Duke had been thrown from his carriage. Her letter and the Duke's reply follow:

Sept. 16, 1850.

MY LORD DUKE,--Notwithstanding my changed feelings I am deeply concerned to hear of your late accident, and still more deeply grateful to Almighty G.o.d for your preservation. I sincerely hope that such gracious interposition of Providence in your favor may eventually lead you to glorify Him in your life and conversation accordingly, 'seeking Him while HE may be found, and calling upon Him while HE is near," ever bearing in mind that _HE_ is "no respecter of persons." Consequently none but those who through His Grace have undergone "a new birth unto righteousness," can justifiably expect to enter into His Kingdom. That HE may enable you to understand this experimentally is the earnest wish of

His devoted Child and Servant,

A. J.

P.S. I do not give you my address, My Lord Duke, in order to elicit an answer, but merely to imply that should my Christian advice be required you may know where to find me.

By the Duke's answer, he apparently feels no need nor desire for Christian advice.

WALMER CASTLE, Sept. 17, 1850.

Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington begs leave to acknowledge the receipt of Miss J.'s Note of the 10^th Ins^t.

He is thankful that he received no injury by the overturn of his carriage a week ago! He returns his thanks to Miss J. for noticing the accident!

Miss J. was so delighted at the receipt of this note that she immediately replied to it in four sheets of closely written note-paper.

She began by explaining elaborately that she had seen the notice of his accident only a few days before, although by his letter she learned it had occurred a week ago. After ringing the changes on this, she proceeded to bestow Christian admonition in her usual liberal fashion.

The Duke's reply was little more effusive than the note he had sent last.

WALMER CASTLE, Sept. 20, 1850.