f conduct and bad
reputation, and every effort was made by Beethoven to withdraw her son from
her influence, on which account he at once removed him from her care, and
placed him in this institution. She consequently appealed to the law
against him,--the first step in a long course of legal proceedings of the
most painful nature.]

173.

TO G. DEL RIO.[1]

1816.

I send you, dear sir, the cloak, and also a school-book of my Carl's, and
request you will make out a list of his clothes and effects, that I may
have it copied for myself, being obliged, as his guardian, to look
carefully after his property. I intend to call for Carl to-morrow about
half-past twelve o'clock, to take him to a little concert, and wish him to
dine with me afterwards, and shall bring him back myself. With respect to
his mother, I desire that _under the pretext_ of the boy being _so busy_,
you will not let her see him; no man on earth can know or judge of this
matter better than myself, and by any other line of conduct all my
well-matured plans for the welfare of the child might be materially
injured. I will myself discuss with you when the mother is henceforth to
have access to Carl, for I am anxious on every account to prevent the
occurrence of yesterday ever being repeated. I take all the responsibility
on myself; indeed, so far as I am concerned, the Court conferred on me full
powers, and the authority at once to counteract anything adverse to the
welfare of the boy. If they could have looked on her in the light of an
estimable mother, they assuredly would not have excluded her from the
guardianship of her child. Whatever she may think fit to assert, nothing
has been done in a clandestine manner against her. There was but one voice
in the whole council on the subject. I hope to have no further trouble in
this matter, for the burden is already heavy enough.

From a conversation I had yesterday with Adlersburg [his lawyer], it would
appear that a long time must yet elapse before the Court can decide what
really belongs to the child. In addition to all these anxieties am I also
to endure a persecution such as I have recently experienced, and from which
I thought I _was entirely rescued by your Institution_? Farewell!

I am, with esteem, your obedient

L. V. BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1: Beethoven's arbitrary authority had been previously sanctioned
by a decree of the Court, and the mother deprived of all power over her
son.]

174.

TO