Part 20

“As to the future, let us, if he will, renew the old contract--£20 per sheet; and I will begin with the April quarter--if I don’t jump into the Arno before--a brand new serial as jocose and comical as can well be expected from a mind so thoroughly easy and well-to-do as mine. I will complete it in twelve or twenty parts monthly, and it shall be at his discretion to say which. I cannot yet give him the text, because I am vacillating between two themes,--and to predict a plan is with me to make the whole effort pall and disgust me. So much so is this the case, that when the children guess a _dénoûment_ that I intend, I am never able to write it after; and when you read this to M’Glashan he will recognise a fact that he knew well once, though he may have forgotten it. If I am to go to work, let him tell me this,--or, rather, let him tell you at once,--for our Carnival begins here next week, and for a month at least all quiet and repose is at an end, but still I could pick up some of the raw material for future fabrication.

“Now, my dear friend, for my first proposition, _l’affaire_ Tiernay. Get me something--anything--out of him. Let me know M’Glashan’s reply to the new Story proposal as soon as he can make up his mind, but _do not wait for the answer_ if you have any tidings for me _re_ ‘Tiernay.’

“My little people are all well,--and this, thank God, is a piece of good fortune that goes far to reconcile me to many a hard rub.”

Early in 1852 Lever heard of the tragic fate of his friend Eliot Warburton, who had perished in the Amazon, the ill-starred steamer which was burned on her voyage to the west coast of America. Warburton had made Lever’s acquaintance through sending to the editor of ‘The Dublin University’ some brilliant sketches of travel: these were published in the Magazine in 1843, under the title of ‘Episodes of Eastern Travel.’ Subsequently the author of ‘The Crescent and the Cross’ was a guest at Templeogue, and Lever entertained for him the warmest feelings. War-burton’s violent end, following closely upon the sudden death of Shiel,--who was to have dined with Lever the very day of his death,--gave the novelist a rude shock. He indulged in some very gloomy moralisings about the uncertainty of all human things, and engineered himself into a state in which work was impossible. In February he thought a journey southwards might give him a mental fillip which he sadly needed. He paid his first visit to Rome, his wife and children accompanying him. The daily expenditure increased seven-fold: but had he not forsworn small economies?

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“Hôtel De Minerva, Rome, _Feb_. 24, 1852.

“As to the tale for the Magazine. If left entirely to myself as to place, &c., I could begin about the June or July No., but as yet my ideas are in anything but a story-telling vein. My head is actually whirling with its sound of odd and incongruous associations--the ancient Rome of statues and temples jostling with the modern one of bonbons and _confetti_,--for it is the height of the Carnival, and the population has gone clean mad with tomfoolery.

“Old Rome is infinitely grander than I looked for,--the Colosseum and the Pantheon far beyond all I could conceive.

“We stay only a few days and then on to Naples--to see that (e poi?)t then back to Florence, for the expense is ruinous. The hotels are crammed; and as we are all here, and what with ciceroni, carriage hire, &c, every day is like a week of common living.

“This would do very well if I could afford it. There is everything to make this a place of intense interest, but one defect as a place of residence is insuperable--it cannot be inhabited in the summer months.”

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“Casa Capponi, Florence, _April_ 3, 1852.

“I write to know in case of need whether the Guardian Office would advance me a sum of £300 to £500 on my policy for £1500, the annual payments being now completed? I have received certain offers from America--on a literary point--which might, or might not, be worth serious consideration, but they all entail the necessity of residence in the States, and consequently a degree of preliminary expense of a serious amount. I am very far from wishing for any arrangement which as a necessary step includes banishment, and this America is, in my estimation. But in my position, and with my prospects, bread is the first requisite.

“I submitted, through O’Sullivan, a plan of a serial to M’Glashan, but have not yet received a reply.

“Do not mention to any one my American project, as nothing but direst stress of circumstances would induce me to think of it.”

About this time he forwarded to Mortimer O’Sullivan the plan of a new serial which he was anxious to negotiate with ‘The Dublin University.’ This was ‘Sir Jasper Carew.’ He was busy, too, evolving the plot of a new book to follow ‘The Daltons,’ and to be published in monthly parts by Chapman & Hall. He could not raise any money on this until at least he had got the story under way. M’Glashan was growing more and more dilatory in the matter of payments, and Lever was on tenter-hooks, anticipating a fresh and an accentuated attack of impecuniosity.

Hampered with his private troubles, mostly pecuniary, and with the burden of his literary engagements, the undaunted novelist presently hoisted another pack on his shoulders--the championship of Tuscany. Early in 1852 he contributed two political papers to ‘The Dublin University,’--one on “Lord Palmerston and Our Policy in the Mediterranean,” the other on “Great Britain and Italy.” He insisted that Austria was at the bottom of grave mischief in the Italian peninsula, and that her designs upon Tuscany were base and tyrannical, and prejudicial to British interests. “If this beautiful country be worth preserving,” he writes, “it behoves our new Foreign Secretary so to act that Englishmen may not be obliged to exclaim, ‘Would that we had Lord Palmerston back again!’” These articles attracted the notice of Lord Palmerston, and Sir E. Bulwer-Lytton (who was Attaché at Florence) informed Lever of this fact, but the whimsical publicist was not hopeful that his attacks upon Austria’s growing domination in Italy would advance him in the good graces of the then Foreign Secretary, Lord Malmesbury. However, later in the year the Conservative party, conceiving a scheme for the establishment in London of an inspired Tory organ, cast its eye upon Charles Lever as a likely editor, and the novelist voyaged to England in order to discuss the project with Lord Lyndhurst. Major Dwyer furnished Dr Fitzpatrick with some notes purporting to be Lever’s account of his London experiences. He was shown into a room where Lord Lyndhurst was seated at one end of a long table. At once he was seized with the impression that “the wonderful old man” was one with whom it would be dangerous to trifle, so he decided to speak with as much brevity and as little levity as possible. “Well, Mr Lever,” said his lordship, “what principles do you propose for the direction of our press at this time?” “As much good sense, my lord,” said the novelist, “as the party will bear.” Evidently the Minister was pleased with the reply. “That will do, Mr Lever, that will do,” he said. Lord Ellenborough (or Lord Redesdale), however, was not so easily satisfied with Lever’s vague political programme.

During his stay in London he visited Thackeray, who sought to dissuade him from entering the ranks of journalism, assuring him that in his opinion the author of ‘Charles O’Malley’ would not be in his right place as the editor of an English political organ. Finally the project was abandoned by the leaders of the Conservative party, and Lever, considerably disappointed,--for he felt that his love of politics and his wide knowledge of political life would enable him to shine as a political writer, and eventually to become a force in politics,--returned to Italy.

A practical joke which Lorrequer played shortly after his resignation of ‘The Dublin University’ caused some trouble more than six years after date. In the Magazine, early in 1846, there appeared “Lines by G. P. R James” entitled “A Cloud is on the Western Sky.” The verses were prefaced by a note: “My dear L------, I send you the song you wished to have. The Americans totally forgot, when they so insolently calculated upon aid from Ireland in a war with England, that their own apple is rotten at the core. A nation with five or six millions of slaves who would go to war with an equally strong nation with no slaves is a mad people.--Yours, G. P. R James.” “The Cloud” (amongst other things not intended to be pleasant to Americans) called upon the dusky millions to “shout,” and the author of the “Lines” declared that Britain was ready to draw the sword in the sacred cause of liberty. ‘The Dublin University’ must have had a circulation in the States, and the readers of it across the Atlantic had longer memories than Lever wotted. When his friend James was appointed British Consul at Richmond, Virginia, in 1852, an attempt was made to expel him from the country. The cause of the aversion to the British Consul was the “Cloud is on the Western Sky.” James had never even heard of this rhythmical irritant, and fortunately he was able to convince indignant American patriots that he was not the author of the poem. When Lever heard of the _contretemps_ he exclaimed: “God forgive me! it was my doing; but I had no more notion that ‘James’s powder’ could stir up national animosity than that Holloway’s ointment could absorb a Swiss glacier.” It is pleasant to note that the belated discovery of this extraordinary joke did not create any ill-feeling between the two novelists.

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“Florence, _Oct. 30, 1852._

“I am glad you like ‘The Dodds.’ I tried it as a vehicle for all manner of opinions and criticisms--of course as often fanciful as real--on all manner of things. Kenny Dodd is of course the _cheval de bataille_ of the performance, and by him and his remarks I hope to make the whole readable.

“Of Charlie I have the very best account. He is a very quiet boy, and with great energy of character, half smothered by the indolence of foreign life and habits; but once in a position to display his abilities, I have few fears of the result.

“I can speak with even more confidence of his honourable and straightforward character, nor have I one uncomfortable thought as to any action he may commit. Ever since he has been away his letters have convinced me that my confidence is not misplaced, and my chief regret regarding him is that my scanty means have reduced me to send him to Armagh _vice_ Eton or Harrow, and that I must give him classics with a brogue.”

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“Casa Capponi, Florence, _June_ 30, 1862.

“My present difficulties, which are considerable, are owing in great part to a delay (by Chapman’s fault) in the publication of a new serial story. It was to have begun immediately after ‘The Daltons’ finished, but by a number of mischances has been deferred, and will now probably be still longer put off, as the dog-days are death to literature, and the Literophobia is the malady in season. Meanwhile, if the public are not devouring my writings I am, and at the present moment have already eaten the first three numbers.

“I feel, and have long felt, the force of the argument as to residence in or near England, and probably were it not for a letter that I received yesterday, would have increased my loan from the Guardian to convey us all to Ireland. Indeed, such was my full and firm resolve when I last wrote to you. Yesterday, however, there came a letter from Whiteside (in reply to one of mine asking to make use of his influence to obtain for me some diplomatic or consular appointment abroad), in which he says that he made the application, and it was well received,--my claims being recognised and my name put down in Lord Malmesbury’s list. Of course there is nothing now for it but Patience and Hope--or at least the former; and happily if experience in life is not favourable to Hope, it makes some compensation by installing Patience.

“I have no heart to talk about story-telling nor mix up troubles with my own. Mayhap, however, M’Glashan may supply me with an additional trait to make up my portrait of The Grinder.

“The account of the Clermont affair reads pleasantly, but now I wish not to tell the terms, but to wait to have a look at the probable tenant. These dodges do not require Italian experience to see through,--though I must say that the man who lets Paddy cheat him after five years’ residence at this side of the Alps, has eaten his macaroni to very little profit,--the finesse and tact of roguery here being to all ordinary rascality in the ratio of 1000 to 1.

“Can you give me any idea when the new Parliament will meet? If I go to London, I should like to be there then.”

The official notice taken of him by the leaders of the Conservative party encouraged Lever to hope that high things were in store for him. The alarming feature was that the Derby Administration was crumbling: he could expect nothing from the Whigs; so that if anything was to be done, he told himself that “‘twere well ‘twere done quickly.” At this time there was a project in the air which interested him immensely,--a project to establish diplomatic relations between England and Rome. Lever made a journey to Rome in November, and obtained from Sir Henry Bulwer (afterwards Lord Dalling) some information which he sent, in the form of a letter, to ‘The Dublin University.’ The conductor of the Magazine was aghast at the idea of establishing a British Embassy at the Court of Pius IX., and though he published Lever’s communication,* he prefaced it with an editorial statement that the Magazine was in no way responsible for the sentiments or opinions expressed in the letter signed “C. L.” “As a temporal power,” quoth the editor, “the Court of Rome, without army, navy, wealth, commerce, or numbers, is in all respects too helpless and beggarly to afford us the faintest shadow of a pretext for establishing a diplomatic intimacy with it.” Lever’s argument was that there was nothing in the project which should offend or alarm Protestanism. He goes on to say that it would not be necessary to establish a resident Papal minister at St James’s. The real object was that England should be represented at the Vatican, and that the principal business of the mission would be to enlighten the Papacy upon the condition of political and social affairs in Ireland. Very possibly Lever considered that he would be “The Man for Rome.”

* “Diplomatic Relations with Rome.” ‘The Dublin University Magazine’ for December 1852.--E. D.

The break-up of the Derby Administration in December 1852 gave Lever pause, and threw him back upon his literary work and upon the pleasures of the card-table. Baron Erlanger testifies to the overpowering influence which the game of whist had upon the master of Casa Capponi. “Many a time,” says the Baron, “have I travelled to his charming little cottage near Florence. On opening the gate we already heard his gay voice, laughing or talking. Officially we came to play whist.... He loved his literary pursuits, of course, but no panegyric about his last book would have given him as much satisfaction as an acknowledgment of his superiority at whist. He loved the game beyond anything. To us, I confess, the cards were a mere pretext. It was not one of these dire sittings when the cards are gravely dealt and every point is scored in dead silence. A continuous roar of laughter accompanied the game.... His wit and humour never lacked for a moment a continuous cross-fire of _bon mots_, unprepared and spontaneous. His extraordinary memory always astonished us.” Sir Hamilton Seymour bears testimony to Lever’s wonderful brilliancy as a table-talker. Once he said to the novelist, “Try to write that anecdote just as you have told it.” “Ah,” replied Lever, “it can’t be done that way. All the ingenious contrivances ever invented could not impart to a bottle of Vichy or Carlsbad the freshness of the water as it sparkled from the fountain.”

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“Florence, _April_ 11, 1853.

“I have had a strange half-gouty attack that has put me out of sorts for the last few days, but I am again at work and trying to get ‘The Dodds’ out of Baden. I hope you like it, and that the characters appear to you each marked and distinguished.

“Politically we are expecting great things, for if any breach of the peace occurs in Europe, all Italy will be in arms against the Austrians in twenty-four hours.”

_To Mr Alexander Spencer_.

“Florence, _June_ 25, 1853.

“Charlie has just reached us in perfect health and spirits, and already told us of all your kindness to him, and at a time, too, when your anxieties were so deeply engaged about your own boy. My best wishes go with him, and I fervently trust he may meet fortune and happiness in the world beyond the seas,--for, indeed, I can no longer see what is open to any of us in this quarter. Could I recall twenty years of life I’d emigrate tomorrow.

“I find Charlie greatly grown and in full strength and vigour, but I am sorely puzzled as to his future; and in reality in this old system of Latin and Greek education I neither perceive any impulse given to intellectual development, nor any solid groundwork of knowledge. I follow it, however, as I would go with a current. _Voilà tout!_

“I have had four days of bad gout--stomach and knees alternately attacked. I’m now better, though terribly depressed and very weak.

“We are in all the anxieties of a great crisis, and every one asks, Shall we have war? I believe Russia has advanced to the present position in full reliance that we and France never can act in concert, and bases all her hopes on racial and irreconcilable grudges. If we do agree, certes nothing can resist us; but the hypothetical ‘if’ is all the question. I enclose this hurriedly to go with a M’Glashan packet of ‘Jasper.’”

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“Spezzia, _Aug_. 22, 1853.

“Your letter reached me in the very nick of a negotiation of which Charley was the object. The Messrs Sandell, the Engineers to whom the Tuscan and some other of the Italian railroads have been conceded, have made me an offer to take him as a pupil and make him a C.E. I hesitated when first the proposition reached me, and I thought it was possible he might possess talents likely to win college honours and distinction, and make a fair chance of what follows on them. I find that this is less likely than I had believed; that his natural indolence requires the spur of a personal interest to stimulate it,--and this probably a real career may effect. He certainly likes the notion greatly, and appears as if the choice was really what he himself would have made. I accepted, therefore, and he does not return to Ireland. God grant that I may have done wisely what I have done maturely and after much reflection.

“I shall be chargeable with Charley’s expenses for two years certain; after that I hope he will contribute to them himself. Though it was certainly advisable he should have encountered the rough-and-tumble of a school, yet probably I should not have incurred the great outlay had I anticipated only this opening. However, it may be all for the best.

“In my career through life I have made what are popularly called many valuable acquaintances, but I can safely aver that I could not to-morrow get my son made a policeman or letter-carrier, with all my fine friends and titled associates, and the offer of Messrs Sandell is the one solitary instance of a kindness in this wise I have ever met with. From what Mr S. tells me, I shall have to pay something like a hundred per annum for a couple of years. He will be stationed in Italy at various places, and Cha. will be at his headquarters, wherever that may be.

“J. Sandell is a pupil of Stevenson, and reputed to be a man of great knowledge of his profession. His offer to me was spontaneous and made in the most flattering manner, so that, everything considered, I should feel that I was not doing a prudent thing to reject it.

“Cha. tells me that Guillemand at the most can only take a quarter’s salary for want of a previous notice of withdrawal, but I should deem him exceedingly shabby if he wanted _that_....

“We are here boating and bathing and swimming and salting ourselves all day long. It is the most enjoyable spot of the most enjoyable land, and we have a house five miles distant from any other, on the edge of the sea, and approachable only by boat. I cannot, however, write a line, for our whole time is spent on the water. What’s to be done with K. J. and Mrs D., Heaven knows!

“I suppose you may have seen Maxwell. He is, or ought to be, in Ireland by this time. This affair of Charles was only decided upon this afternoon, and I don’t lose a post in letting you know about it.

“I am greatly pleased at your opinion of ‘The Dodds,’ since through all its absurdity of incident and situation I have endeavoured to convey whatever I know of life and the world. I by no means intend to endorse as my own every judgment of K. J., but I mean that many of his remarks are, so far as I am capable of saying, just and correct, and when he does blunder, it is only for the sake of preserving that species of characteristic which should take off any appearance of dogmatism or pretension when speaking of more important subjects.

“As to the [? criticism] about foreigners and the Continent generally, I assure you I have not the courage to tell the things that have come under my own notice, while foreign notions of England are equally, if not more, ridiculous. I am quite prepared to hear ‘genteel people’ call K. J. very low and his family vulgar, but if so, I am consoled by the fact that it has touched the sore places in some snobbish nature; and in all ranks and conditions of our countrymen snobbery is the great prevailing vice. I am meanwhile amusing myself jotting down on paper the things which have so often afforded me real fun to contemplate in the world,--and so far from high colouring, my great effort is to tone down the picture to the sombre tints of verisimilitude and probability.”

In October the weather made boating a somewhat dangerous pastime. In reply to M’Glashan’s stereotyped complaint that Lever was “huddling his castastrophes,” the novelist playfully replied that “a smashing Levanter” had half-filled his boat with water one day, and “all but closed the career of the author of ‘Sir Jasper Carew’ without a huddle.” He begged M’Glashan to give himself a breathing-time, to clear his head by inhaling some fresh Italian air, to visit Florence and discuss with the author of ‘Sir Jasper’ the best means of putting the hero to bed. But M’Glashan could not be inveigled into the paying of a visit to the novelist; nor could he be induced to furnish Lever with the long letters which at one time had helped to keep him in touch with literary life in Ireland and elsewhere. The fact was that M’Glashan was beginning to break down.

_To Mr Alexander Spencer_.

“Florence, _Nov_. 24, 1853.

“A very strange, but I fear impracticable, offer has come to me from the United States, which I have sent to O’Sullivan for his counsel, to be then forwarded to John....