Though resolved, if I could effect the matter, that my uncle should liquidate their claim to the uttermost farthing which they required, it was my duty to make the best bargain which I could, in reference to his unfortunate family. Accordingly, without suffering them to know that I had carte blanche, I simply communicated to them my wish to have the matter arranged without public investigation--that I was persuaded from a hasty review which I had given to the case, that there were good grounds for action;--but, at the same time, I dwelt upon the casualties of such a course--the possibility that the chief living witness--if he were living--might not be found, or might not survive long enough--as he was reputed to be very old--for the purposes of examination before the commission;--the long delays which belonged to a litigated suit, in which the details of a mixed foreign and domestic business of so many years was to be raked up, reviewed and explained; and the further chances, in the event of final success, of the property of the debtor being so covered, concealed, or made away with, as to baffle at last all the industry and labors of the creditor. The merchants were men of good sense, and estimated the proverb--“a bird in hand is worth two in the bush”--at its true value. It did not require much argument to persuade them to receive a sum of over forty thousand dollars, and give a full discharge to the defendant; and I flattered myself that the matter was all satisfactorily arranged, and had just taken a seat at my table to write to Mr. Clifford to this effect, when, to my horror, I receive a note from that gentleman, informing me of his resolve to join issue with the claimants, and “maintain his RIGHTS(?) to the last moment.” He thanked me, in very cold consequential style, for my “FRIENDLY efforts”--the words italicised, as I have now written it;--but conduced with informing me that he had taken the opinion of older counsel, which, though it might be less correct than mine, was, perhaps, more full of promise for his interests. This note justified me in calling upon the unfortunate gentleman. It is true I had not committed him to Banks & Tressell--the suggestions which I had made for the arrangement were all proposed as a something which I might be able to bring about in a future conference with him--but I was too anxious to save him from his lamentable folly--from that miserable love of money, which, overreaching itself in its blindness, as does every passion--was not only about to deliver him to shame but to destitution also.