As early as 1818, when Shelley and Byron met in Venice, the matter of the journal was discussed between them and broached to Hunt. December 22, 1818, Shelley wrote him that Byron wished him to come to Italy and that, if money considerations prevented, Byron would lend him L400 or L500. He added that Hunt should not feel uncomfortable in accepting the offer, as it was frankly made, and that his society would give Byron pleasure and service.[244] Hunt does not seem to have seriously considered the proposition, for there are few references to it in his correspondence of this year. On the renewal of the plan in 1821, Shelley would never have called on Byron for assistance for Hunt if he himself could have provided otherwise, for his opinion of Byron had changed in the meantime.[245] January 25, 1822, Shelley sent L150 for the expenses of the voyage, "within 30 or 40 pounds of what I have contrived to scrape together";[246] and again on February 23, L250,[247] borrowed with security from Byron. Yet Shelley's own exchequer at the time was so low that Mary Shelley wrote in the spring: "We are drearily behindhand with money at present. Hunt and our furniture has swallowed up more than our savings."[248] On April 10 Shelley stated that he was trying to finish _Charles the First_ in order that he might earn L100 for Hunt. In round numbers it may be calculated that the sum total of Hunt's indebtedness, exclusive of the yearly bequest of L120 paid by Shelley's son, was about L2,500, a very large sum in the light of Shelley's limited resources and other obligations. But it was as ungrudgingly given as it was graciously received. Between the two men there was no distinction of _meum_ and _tuum_. More remarkable still, Mary Shelley gave as willingly as her husband. If one is inclined to marvel at such an unusual state of affairs, it must be recalled that both men were under the spell of William Godwin's theories of community of property. Shelley gave as his duty and Hunt received as his due. That the effort involved much deprivation and distress of mind on the part of the giver mars the justice of acceptance by the recipient, retrieved only in part by the belief that Hunt probably did not know the full extent of Shelley's sacrifice, and the knowledge that the former would gladly have endured as much if the conditions had been reversed. The element of self-sacrifice and delicacy on the part of Shelley in concealing it, in after years only added to the beauty of the gift in Hunt's eyes, and even at the time he cannot be accused of indifference.[249] Jeaffreson makes the absurd suggestion that Shelley gave the money as a bribe to the editor of a powerful and flourishing literary journal.[250] He thinks dodging creditors was a strong bond of mutual interest between the two men. There is evidence that Hunt was in difficulty at the time and that Shelley left a surgeon's bill unpaid,[251] but there is no proof extant of deliberate mutual protection. On the