The chief points are that I be recognized at once as sole guardian, I will accept no co-guardian, that the mother be excluded from intercourse with her son in the _Institute_ because in view of her _immorality_ there cannot be enough watchmen there and she confuses the teacher by her false statements and lies. She also has led her son to tell shameful lies and make charges _against me_, and accuses me herself of having given him too much or too little; but that the claims of humanity may not be overlooked, she may see her son occasionally at my home in the presence of his teachers and other excellent men.... It is my opinion that you should insist stoutly and irrevocably that I be _sole_ guardian and that this unnatural mother shall see her son only at _my house_; my well known humanity and culture are a guarantee that my treatment of her will be no less generous than that given to her son. Moreover, I think that all this should be done quickly and that if possible we ought to get the Appellate Court to assume the superior guardianship, as I want my nephew to be placed in a higher category; neither he nor I belong to the Magistracy under whose guardianship are only innkeepers, shoemakers and tailors. As regards his present maintenance, it shall be cared for as long as I live. For the future he has 7,000 florins _W.W._ of which his mother has the usufruct during life; also 2,000 fl. (or a little more since I have reinvested it), the interest on which belongs to _him_, and 4,000 florins in silver of _mine_ are lying in the bank; as he is to inherit all my property this belongs to his capital. You will observe that while because of his _great talent_ (to which the Honorable Magistracy is indifferent) he will not be able at once to support himself, there is already a superfluity in case of my death. In a postscript he accuses the mother of wishing to gain possession of her son in order to enjoy all of her pension. In view of this he had taken counsel as to whether or not he should let her keep the money and make it good from his own pocket. He had been advised not to do so, however, because she would make bad use of the money. “I have decided, therefore, to set aside the sum in time. You see again how foolishly the Magistracy is acting in trying to tear my son wholly from me, since when she dies the boy will lose this share of the pension and would get along _very poorly_ without my aid.” A few days later Beethoven wrote to Dr. Bach again, this time to suggest that legal steps be taken to attach the widow’s pension, he having a suspicion that she was trying to evade payment of her son’s share because she had permitted nine months to pass without drawing the pension from the exchequer.