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[Page 116]
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London. January, 1844
The following brief Narrative of my business connexion with my Nephew, Mr. Patrick Leslie, from its commencement to its termination, is intended to serve as an introduction to the Correspondence and other Documents that follow, which have been carefully selected from a pile of papers, as those most relevant to the points in dispute.
"My Nephew, then a mere youth, went out to New South Wales in 1835, recommended most strongly to my friend of 30 years' standing, Mr. Jones, in company with whom I then held Flocks of fine-woolled sheep, share and share alike, under the designation of 'Joint Flocks.' Mr Jones had previously undertaken to receive and place my Nephew about our Joint Flocks, so as to enable him to acquire experience, together with a knowledge of all such details of management as belong to the rural life of a New South Wales Settler.
"My Nephew was delighted with his new situation, together with the many important attentions and flattering kindnesses heaped upon him by my Colonial friends; and, having been treated with particular distinction by my old and esteemed friends, Mr. and Mrs. Macarthur of the Vineyard, he formed a matrimonial engagement with one of their amiable Daughters.
"From this moment, he entirely lost sight of his true position, and quickly evinced such inconsiderate and unreasonable haste to become independent, as gave rise to his assuming an importance as inconsistent with his true position, as it was unwarranted by any views or prospects ever held out to him by me. In the end of 1835, and during the first part of 1836, he wrote frequently, and sent me fearful accounts of Mr Jones's management of the Joint Flocks, together with the most flattering and florid descriptions of what my property was capable of being made,–at the same time extolling his own assiduity and proficiency. I was thus, by his importunities, goaded on to a total change of system in regard to my Colonial affairs; and feeling, naturally, most anxious to hasten my Nephew's acquisition of a more respectable position in society, I was tempted, in an evil hour, to grant his wish, by instructing Mr Jones to partition the Joint Flocks, and at once make over my half to my Nephew, who thus became my sole Agent, and should have taken up his permanent abode on my Estate of Carleroy, which, however, he never did. This division of the Joint Flocks took place, partially, in April 1837, as I discover by a letter from Mr Patrick Leslie himself, dated in that month, which commences thus:– 'I am now at Carleroy for good, having said adieu to Cocrabil."
"Mr Jones, however, in a letter dated the 12th August following, says, -- 'From one circumstance or other the Sheep are not yet finally divided;' and in a letter of later date, he states that the division 'did not take place so soon as was intended, Mr Leslie not being then prepared to receive them;' thus it would appear that my Nephew's term of management, properly and strictly