[...] I probably need not repeat what I told friend Adolf [Gross] about the state of my affairs here. If, despite my accurate estimate of the things which always held me back from trying my luck in London, I could yet entertain the idea that after all such an attempt might succeed just this once, it was, nevertheless, not so much this idea and the hopes based upon it that decided me to go to London, as the determination to show you, and other friends of a like persuasion, that it was not indolence and love of comfort on my part which made me wish that other means should be found of making good the deficit. It is time now to take other measures without delay, and accordingly I ask you to be so kind as to issue at once, in the name of the committee of the Dramatic Festival, an appeal for the subscription of contributions to cover the deficit. [...]
If this method, too, should fail, I am determined to accept Ullmann's American offer, to put my property in Bayreuth up for sale, to cross the sea with my whole family and never again to return to Germany.—
As to affairs here, we are still afraid that we shall not make enough to cover expenses. I should be glad if you would keep back the advances I make to the singers through you. In any case, I should be very much obliged to you if you will credit me with money here so that I can go quietly to Ems at the beginning of July. Whether I shall recover there to some extent will largely depend on whether I get reassuring news about the opening and progress of the subscriptions. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 699