"So you have published, or mean to publish, the new Juans? Ar'n't you afraid of the Constitutional Assassination of Bridge Street? When first I saw the name of _Murray_, I thought it had been yours; but was solaced by seeing that your synonyme is an attorneo, and that you are not one of that atrocious crew. "I am in a great discomfort about the probable war, and with my trustees not getting me out of the funds. If the funds break, it is my intention to go upon the highway. All the other English professions are at present so ungentlemanly by the conduct of those who follow them, that open robbing is the only fair resource left to a man of any principles; it is even honest, in comparison, by being undisguised. "I wrote to you by last post, to say that you had done the handsome thing by Moore and the Memoranda. You are very good as times go, and would probably be still better but for the 'march of events' (as Napoleon called it), which won't permit any body to be better than they should be. "Love to Gifford. Believe me, &c. "P.S. I restore Smith's letter, whom thank for his good opinion. Is the bust by Thorwaldsen arrived?" * * * * * LETTER 445. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, August 23. 1821. "Enclosed are the two acts corrected. With regard to the charges about the shipwreck, I think that I told both you and Mr. Hobhouse, years ago, that there was not a _single circumstance_ of it not taken from _fact_; not, indeed, from any _single_ shipwreck, but all from actual facts of different wrecks[46]. Almost all Don Juan is _real_ life, either my own, or from people I knew. By the way, much of the description of the _furniture_, in Canto third, is taken from _Tully's Tripoli_ (pray _note this_), and the rest from my own observation. Remember, I never meant to conceal this at all, and have only not stated it, because Don Juan had no preface nor name to it. If you think it worth while to make this statement, do so in your own way. _I_ laugh at such charges, convinced that no writer ever borrowed less, or made his materials more his own. Much is coincidence: for instance, Lady Morgan (in a really _excellent_ book, I assure you, on Italy) calls Venice an _ocean Rome_: I have the very same expression in Foscari, and yet _you_ know that the play was written months ago, and sent to England: the 'Italy' I received only on the 16th instant.