Sum of money for this object, I
think I mentioned to you Mr. Brendel, the editor of the Neue
Zeitschrift fur Musik, as the best man to make your liberal
intentions bear fruit. As much on account of the perfect
uprightness of his character, which is free from all reproach, as
for the important and continuous services which his paper and
other of his works have rendered to the good cause for many years
past, I consider Mr. Brendel entirely worthy of your confidence.
It is not lightly that I put forward this opinion - and I venture
to flatter myself that my antecedents will be a sufficient
guarantee to Your Highness that in this matter, as in any others
in which I may have the honor of submitting any proposition to
you, I could follow no other influences, no other counsels, than
those of a scrupulous conscience. Putting aside all
considerations of vanity or personal advantage foreign to the end
in view, my sincere and sole desire is to make Your Highness's
intentions and capital the most productive possible. It is with
this view that I have openly spoken of the matter to Brendel,
whose letter, which I venture to enclose herewith, corresponds,
as it seems to me, with the programme in question.
I venture to beg you, Monseigneur, to look into this attentively,
and to let me know whether you will grant permission to Brendel
to enter into these matters more explicitly by writing to you
direct. In the event of the propositions contained in his letter
meeting with the approval of Your Highness, as I trust they may
do, it would be desirable that you should let him know without
too much delay in what manner you would wish your kind intentions
carried out.
In order to fulfill its task of progress, the Neue Zeitschrift
fur Musik has not spared its editor either in efforts or
sacrifices. By the fact that it represents, in a talented and
conscientious manner, the opinions and sympathies of my friends
and myself, it is in the most advanced, and consequently the most
perilous, position of our musical situation; therefore our
adversaries lose no opportunity of raising difficulties for it.
Our opinions and sympathies will he sustained, I doubt not,
by their worth and conviction; but if Your Highness condescends
to come to our aid, we shall be both proud and happy - and it is
by spreading our ideas through the Press that we can best
strengthen our position.
In other words, I am convinced that, in granting your confidence
to Mr. Brendel, the sum that Your Highness is pleased to devote
to this matter will be employed in the most honest manner, and
that most useful to the progress of Art - and that all the honor
and gratitude which your munificence deserves will spring from
it - as is the earnest desire of him who has the honor to be,
Monseigneur, Your Highness's most devoted and humble servant,
