"REMEMBER YOUR DEBTS"
In 1866 Posh became the owner of a very old deep-sea lugger named the
_William Tell_, and, to enable him to acquire the nets and gear necessary
for her complete equipment as a North Sea herring boat, he borrowed a sum
of 50 pounds from Tom Newson, and a further sum of 50 pounds from Edward
FitzGerald. FitzGerald thought that Newson should have security for his
loan (vide _Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 104), but Newson refused to accept
any such thing. He, too, seems to have been under the influence of
Posh's fascination. On October 7th, 1866, FitzGerald wrote (_Two Suffolk
Friends_, p. 105): "I am amused to see Newson's _devotion_ to his young
Friend. . . . He declined having any Bill of Sale on Posh's Goods for
Money lent; old as he is (enough to distrust all Mankind) . . . has
perfect reliance on his Honour, Industry, Skill and Luck."
About this time FitzGerald must have written the following fragment, in
which he refers to Newson's loan:--
"You must pay him his Interest on it when you can, and then I will
take the Debt from him, adding it to the 50 pounds I lent you, and
letting all that stand over for another time.
"My dear Posh, I write all this to you, knowing you are as honest a
fellow as lives: but I never cease hammering into everybody's head
Remember your Debts, Remember your Debts. I have scarcely ever
[known?] _any one_ that was not more or less the worse for getting
into Debt: which is one reason why I have scarce ever lent money to
any one. I should not have lent it to _you_ unless I had confidence
in you: and I speak to you plainly now in order that my confidence may
not diminish by your forgetting _one farthing_ that you owe any man.
"The other day an old Friend sent me 10 pounds, which was one half of
what he said he had borrowed of me _thirty years ago_! I told him
that, on my honour, I wholly forgot ever having lent him any money. I
could only remember once _refusing_ to lend him some. So here is
_one_ man who remembered his Debts better than his Creditor did.
"I will ask Newson about the Cork Jacket. You know that I proposed to
give you each one: but your Mate told me that no one would wear them.
"Yesterday I lost my purse. I did not know where: but Jack had seen
me slip into a Ditch at the Ferry, and there he went and found it. So
is this Jack's Luck, or mine, eh, Mr. Posh?
"E. FG."
The debt to Newson was subsequently taken over by FitzGerald, and a new
arrangement made on the building of the _Meum and Tuum_ in the following
year. But this fragment is important, in that it strikes a note of
warning, which had to be repeated again and again during the partnership
between the poet and the fisherman. Posh was happy-go-lucky in his
accounts. I believe he was perfectly honest in intention, but he did not
understand the scrupulosity in book-keeping which his partner thought
essential to any business concern.
FitzGerald himself was very far from being meticulous where debts due to
him were concerned. Dr. Aldis Wright can remember more than one instance
in which FitzGerald tore up an acknowledgment of a loan after two or
three years' interest had been paid. "I think you've paid enough," or "I
think he's paid enough," would be his bland dismissal of the debt due to
him. Many Woodbridge people had good cause to know the generosity of the
man as well as ever Posh had cause to know it. FitzGerald may not have
opened his heart to his Woodbridge acquaintance so freely as he did to
Posh, but he was always ready to loosen his purse-strings.
The cork jackets were afterwards supplied to the crew of the _Meum and
Tuum_, as will be apparent in the letters.
"Jack," who found the purse, was Jack Newson, Tom Newson's nephew, and
the "crew" of the _Scandal_.