“The commission have been tormenting him by repeated delays, putting
off the examination of his papers, with the intention, he thinks, of
disgusting him with the whole business, and they had nearly succeeded,
but on sending for his passport to leave at once, Sir G. Seymour went to
him and requested him to remain until Monday (last), and that if there
was any delay then he would demand an immediate answer being given.
I will give you an extract from his letter. ‘If my permission be not
granted on Wednesday next, or a perfect certainty of obtaining it in a
day or two, I shall start from this and bring you over, for I’m resolved
on practising here with the prospect held out to me. Already I am making
about a pound a-day, and Sir H. Seymour said only five minutes since, I
cannot recommend you getting into any scrape, but if you do so, I shall
certainly do my best to get you out again.... All the high English here
are ready to memorial the king to have me retained here.’ He expects to
be home on Sunday next, as he intended starting for Ireland the moment
he obtained an answer, favourable or otherwise....
“I hope you will excuse my being so troublesome, but I am sure Charles
will remain a very short time here, and I also know he must have money
to move us and begin housekeeping, so should be most grateful if you
could manage the loan* in any way, and I hope it will not be necessary
for him to go by [way of] Dublin, as it would be additional expense. My
health is very bad, and I should rather avoid any travelling that was
not absolutely necessary. He has been spared knowing how ill I have been
by the uncertainty of his stay in Brussels having prevented my writing
to him since Sunday fortnight.”
* Alexander Spencer managed all Lever’s business affairs in
Dublin. The loan Mrs Lever refers to here is a loan upon
“Moatfield,” which property her husband was loath to sell
outright: it enshrined pleasant memories. In the days of
Lever’s wooing, the garden of Moatfield had furnished many a
bouquet for Miss Baker.--E. D.
A letter from Lever, dated April 5, reached Spencer shortly after the
receipt of Mrs Lever’s note.
“Will you send by this post a few lines to my wife,” the writer asks,
“and say you have just heard from me, and that I hope to leave this
[Brussels] on Saturday at farthest, and probably will come home by
Belfast if I miss the Derry steamer on Tuesday, which would pass my door
on Wednesday,--this is as near as I can say? You must send me any money
you can when I reach Portstewart, to pay my small debts, as I shall
possibly leave a week after my arrival. Let Kate know this, and say
I would write to her, but wrote last Sunday by Mr Kane. I am greatly
fagged and fretted by the delays and anxieties of my position.”
The same day that he wrote to Spencer he forwarded a letter to
M’Glashan:--
“My dear Sir,--The permit to practise is a matter so difficult to
obtain, that in fact every English physician has been deterred from
trying Brussels for that one and sole cause, and I have come here only
to discover that there is a great opening for a fairly qualified and
well introduced man,--the others who have been here for several years
(before any permit was necessary) being underbred and uneducated men,
and unfit for anything but second-class apothecary practice. But still
the right to practise, even among the English, is denied to all, except
on passing an examination before a jury _d’examen des médecins_, all
interested in the rejection, and only anxious to make Brussels a close
borough for themselves and their friends. So stand the affairs: and
although I am appointed physician to the Embassy, and am this instant
in personal attendance on the Ambassador, I have no right, properly
speaking, to practise, nor is it likely that I shall obtain it. However,
unpleasant as this undoubtedly is, I find that by the protection of my
Ambassador, and the favour of the Government,--who are through his kind
and most unwearied endeavour to serve me, my friends,--I may continue to
exercise _les droits d’un médecin_, if not _sans peur_, at least _sans
reproche_; and if they were to proceed legally against me, the king will
interfere and remit my fine; at least so they tell me, and at last, if
the persecution should continue, I have only to study for a month and
obtain a Louvain degree, which settles all difficulties by one stroke.
As it is, I am here in good practice with bad pay. They say £600
a-year can be made. I do not believe it; but I think £400 might, and
as everything is moderate, except rent and taxes, a man could do very
comfortably on that I intend leaving this on Friday next to bring over
my wife and weans, and settle at once.
“My patients here are all the first people,--Lord Stafford, Lady
Faulkner, &c., among the number,--and all express a desire to keep me
and serve my interests. In a word, I never met more kind offers, nor
have I ever witnessed a fairer prospect, to the extent it offers, of
success.
“I must raise a little money to furnish a house and bring over my
family; and if you would put me on the way to obtain £200 or £250, I
would not sell Moatfield. Otherwise I shall do so, as I have no time
to lose. My step does not admit of delay, and when I reach home I must
leave for Brussels almost immediately,--the opening is such that some
one must fill it at once.”
Lever set out from Portstewart in the first week of May 1837.