Part 6

“Independently of the great sacrifice of time to a pursuit foreign to my profession,--and this I only learned was indispensable on my going to Paris,--I find the expense of living--rent in particular--far beyond my expectations or means, lodgings in any respectable quarter ranging from 3000 to 4000 francs per annum (£120 to £160). The great influx of English, either resident or visitants, has rendered Paris a close competitor with London for extravagance. The changes which the few years since last I saw Paris have brought about, have rendered it the most magnificent city imagination can conceive. New esplanades, ornamented with the most stately and beautiful public buildings, are everywhere to be met with, and all the _agréments_ of out-of-door life abound in Paris. I was present at the trial of [ ], and, in the few days of my stay, contrived to see a good deal both of places and persons. I cannot but regret that the speculation has not fully answered my expectations; but, when considering the time required, the matter of remuneration, the uncertainty of its continuance, and the great danger of again [risking] a fall into the world of a new and foreign city, I am afraid to venture though shockingly tempted. I have returned home to remain, at least until something decidedly better offers.”

“The trip to France, however pleasant and healthful,” he writes to M’Glashan in July, “has not added to my purse’s weight.... If you desire a continuance of my contributions, you can mention when you write.... Maxwell dined with me yesterday. I don’t think you can calculate on much from him at present, as, besides fighting with Bentley the whole battle of Waterloo over again, he is writing a new book for Macrone.... I hear Butt* is about to be my neighbour, and rejoice that he is not leaving the Magazine while he is extending the field of his labours.”

* Isaac Butt, the editor of ‘The Dublin University Magazine,’ afterwards a famous advocate, and the “father of the Home Rule movement”--E. D.

Maxwell’s arrival in Portstewart in the summer of 1836 helped to chase away Dr Lever’s gloomy forebodings. In the autumn, when the season was over, he set to work vigorously and made his first bold plunge into the sea,--he regarded his pre-1836 writings merely as dabblings in shallow water. On the 29th of October the first chapter of ‘Harry Lorrequer’ was despatched to Dublin, accompanied by the following note to M’Glashan:--

“I send you Article No. 1 of a series which will include scenes and stories at home and abroad,--some tragic, others (as in the present case) ludicrous. I have had an invitation from Colburn to furnish a two or three volume affair, but I am not in the vein for anything longer or more continuous than magazine work at present.”

The following month he wrote again to M’Glashan:---

“PORTSTEWART, _Saturday night_.

“In a gale of wind, slates flying, and the chimneys (such of them as are not blown down) smoking.

“I send you by private hand the proof of chaps, iii., iv., and v. of ‘Lorrequer,’ and am sincerely happy to find they are to your likings, and I hope in the ensuing chapter, which I expect to transmit next week, to do something better. Meanwhile, no comparison with my friend Carleton, I beseech you--so far, very far, indeed, beyond the standard by which I could wish anything of mine measured.

“I hope you may like the enclosed, as you will, better than the preceding chapters. I purpose in the succeeding ones to give you ‘Dr de Courcey Finucane’s Adventures in Bath,’ ‘First Love,’ &c. I have, in plain truth, written all the night, besides employing another hand* to transcribe, for which the printer will remember me in his prayers. Now, ‘Fair play is a jewel,’ as Dr Finucane would say; so send me a proof, if possible, before Wednesday.”

* His wife’s.

M’Glashan’s instinct told him that ‘Lorrequer’ was a windfall. Fearful lest Colburn should secure the young Irish humorist, he despatched to Portstewart an ambassador* whose instructions were to secure Lever at any cost. If money would not buy him, flattery might win him.

* Mr George Herbert--afterwards a well-known Dublin publisher.--E. D.

Lever, always a victim to impressions of the moment, and always hungry for praise, fell an easy victim to M’Glashan’s ambassador. Ere long the knowledge that his writings were in brisk demand caused him to dream of a wider life than Ulster could promise; his mercurial mind travelled back to the bright days when he had been a sojourner on the Continent. On January 30 he wrote to Spencer:--

“After doctoring many for the last few days I am at last stricken with influenza, and hardly able to answer your letter, which I am most unwilling to defer lest I grow worse, not better. I am most gratified to find that Lady Charleville has interested herself for me, and hope the best results from it. It is singular enough--and perhaps fortunate too--that it is through Sir George’s mother, the Duchess of Richmond, whom Alderman Copeland has procured as a patroness, [?she] has applied, so that if the opportunity to serve me is in her power she may perhaps feel disposed for it.

“As to Moatfield, I thought I should have got £500, but if you think that it is out of the question, offer it to John for £400, and let him, if he accepts, have any convenience as to half of it he proposes. Of course this is contingent on my going to Brussels, for if I do not I shall not want it--at least at present. If Mr Crowther--for whose misfortune I am really sorry--goes to Brussels I shall be glad to hear, for there are many points I am most desirous to be informed upon.

“Cusack was right in respect to the prohibition to practise,--there is a _permis_ to be procured from the Belgian government before any foreign physician can prescribe; but this, if I am connected with the Ambassador, will be, I suppose, a mere matter of form.

“PS.--The influenza, which has been killing others, has been keeping me alive, though I find my outlay always a very respectable distance in advance of my income. The rival doctor here has been dangerously ill, and I have been greatly engaged.

“I have just got a letter from Brussels from another and more competent source than the former. It speaks encouragingly of my prospects, there being ‘but one good English physician in Brussels, and he constantly in jail for debt. It is right’ (I quote the words) ‘to mention that the physician’s fee is but five francs, and that living is much more expensive than formerly, and the English residents fewer in number.’ This, on the whole, is somewhat gloomy, but I know many well-informed persons who think the small fee more profitable, as it is always offered and taken for each visit, and tendered for illnesses which rarely would elicit the guinea. On the whole, I am more discomfited at the dearness of the place than the amount of the remuneration.”

At the end of February he made up his mind finally to voyage to Brussels, and he announced to Spencer his intention of travelling by way of Belfast, Liverpool, London, and Antwerp.

“PORTSTEWART, _Feb_. 24, 1837.

“I have just received intelligence that the party who interests himself to obtain for me an introduction to Sir G. S. has failed, and I am again stranded. What course to take I really know not, but think my best plan, so far, at least, as I can see, is to set out for Brussels and present such letters as I already have, making myself acquainted with the bearings of the whole matter--to such an extent, at least, as personal observation can point. Longer hesitation would be not only miserable but injurious, for, having been obliged to make known my intention to many persons here, the thing has got abroad, and I am considered _en route_ already. Must, therefore, either resolve to go--or stay--without further delay. The expense of the _voyage d’expérimenté_ will, I know, be very heavy, do what I can,--and I can but ill spare the money,--but what else to do I know not. I wish you would write to John and say that if his friends have not heard from their correspondents, perhaps they would give me a letter to wait on Lady Seymour, which would decide the affair at once. Copeland will give his letter to Bulwer, and I have already one to Crampton. Should I fail in becoming known to and acknowledged by the Ambassador, I have great doubt that it would be prudent to embark in so bold an enterprise under any other sanction or patronage whatever.... I am writing away for Currys’ Magazine, and I have got into a series which will occupy some months, but the pay is small (seven guineas a sheet), and I cannot get a settlement until several sheets are due....

“I shall merely stay,” he continues, “in London one day to procure an introduction to Mr Bulwer, and wait on those persons who interested themselves for me.... I go with no very sanguine hopes of success, and yet I think it better to make the trial than afterwards to regret that I haven’t made it. One thing I have determined on--that I am ready to make any sacrifice of comfort or personal indulgence should my chance of succeeding give me any fair reason for remaining there [at Brussels].”

On the 27th March Mrs Lever wrote from Portstewart to Alexander Spencer:--

“I had a letter from Charles on Thursday, in which he expressed a strong wish that you should know what he is about. He left this for Brussels on the 1st of March, and will be detained there until after the 28th or 30th. I am not sure if you are aware that a permis is necessary before any physician can practise there, and it is obtained by the person applying for it undergoing an examination. Strange to say, the interested persons, the M.D.’s of Belgium, are the examiners. Charles, however, has been making interest to obtain it without--and hopes to succeed. I shall give you an extract from his letter. ‘I cannot give any idea of the excitement my arrival has caused. Six families have written to Dublin to investigate my claims, character, &c.... Sir George Seymour’--he had two very handsome introductions to the Ambassador--‘told Crampton that if I am not the man destined to carry away _all_ the practice he is greatly mistaken. If I get the _permis_ (and I dont(sp) know whether I shall or not) the game is certainly dead in my favour.’ Another extract. ‘Sir Hamilton Seymour continues to be most kind, and is doing all possible to forward my views. In fact, if great anxiety on all sides here can ensure success, I have every prospect.’ Speaking of living in Brussels, he says: ‘It is fully as cheap as most parts of Germany, and half--actually half--as cheap as Paris. I can get a house unfurnished for £60 per annum, and furnish it complete from top to bottom for £150.’ An extract from the letter before the last. ‘Different persons of quite different opinions on all things, agree in saying that from £800 to £1000 per annum can be made here by the first man. Ten families of the first rank here have been mentioned to me as being ready to support me if I stay.’”

On April 6th Mrs Lever wrote again to Spencer:--

“The commission have been tormenting him by repeated delays, putting off the examination of his papers, with the intention, he thinks, of disgusting him with the whole business, and they had nearly succeeded, but on sending for his passport to leave at once, Sir G. Seymour went to him and requested him to remain until Monday (last), and that if there was any delay then he would demand an immediate answer being given. I will give you an extract from his letter. ‘If my permission be not granted on Wednesday next, or a perfect certainty of obtaining it in a day or two, I shall start from this and bring you over, for I’m resolved on practising here with the prospect held out to me. Already I am making about a pound a-day, and Sir H. Seymour said only five minutes since, I cannot recommend you getting into any scrape, but if you do so, I shall certainly do my best to get you out again.... All the high English here are ready to memorial the king to have me retained here.’ He expects to be home on Sunday next, as he intended starting for Ireland the moment he obtained an answer, favourable or otherwise....

“I hope you will excuse my being so troublesome, but I am sure Charles will remain a very short time here, and I also know he must have money to move us and begin housekeeping, so should be most grateful if you could manage the loan* in any way, and I hope it will not be necessary for him to go by [way of] Dublin, as it would be additional expense. My health is very bad, and I should rather avoid any travelling that was not absolutely necessary. He has been spared knowing how ill I have been by the uncertainty of his stay in Brussels having prevented my writing to him since Sunday fortnight.”

* Alexander Spencer managed all Lever’s business affairs in Dublin. The loan Mrs Lever refers to here is a loan upon “Moatfield,” which property her husband was loath to sell outright: it enshrined pleasant memories. In the days of Lever’s wooing, the garden of Moatfield had furnished many a bouquet for Miss Baker.--E. D.

A letter from Lever, dated April 5, reached Spencer shortly after the receipt of Mrs Lever’s note.

“Will you send by this post a few lines to my wife,” the writer asks, “and say you have just heard from me, and that I hope to leave this [Brussels] on Saturday at farthest, and probably will come home by Belfast if I miss the Derry steamer on Tuesday, which would pass my door on Wednesday,--this is as near as I can say? You must send me any money you can when I reach Portstewart, to pay my small debts, as I shall possibly leave a week after my arrival. Let Kate know this, and say I would write to her, but wrote last Sunday by Mr Kane. I am greatly fagged and fretted by the delays and anxieties of my position.”

The same day that he wrote to Spencer he forwarded a letter to M’Glashan:--

“My dear Sir,--The permit to practise is a matter so difficult to obtain, that in fact every English physician has been deterred from trying Brussels for that one and sole cause, and I have come here only to discover that there is a great opening for a fairly qualified and well introduced man,--the others who have been here for several years (before any permit was necessary) being underbred and uneducated men, and unfit for anything but second-class apothecary practice. But still the right to practise, even among the English, is denied to all, except on passing an examination before a jury _d’examen des médecins_, all interested in the rejection, and only anxious to make Brussels a close borough for themselves and their friends. So stand the affairs: and although I am appointed physician to the Embassy, and am this instant in personal attendance on the Ambassador, I have no right, properly speaking, to practise, nor is it likely that I shall obtain it. However, unpleasant as this undoubtedly is, I find that by the protection of my Ambassador, and the favour of the Government,--who are through his kind and most unwearied endeavour to serve me, my friends,--I may continue to exercise _les droits d’un médecin_, if not _sans peur_, at least _sans reproche_; and if they were to proceed legally against me, the king will interfere and remit my fine; at least so they tell me, and at last, if the persecution should continue, I have only to study for a month and obtain a Louvain degree, which settles all difficulties by one stroke. As it is, I am here in good practice with bad pay. They say £600 a-year can be made. I do not believe it; but I think £400 might, and as everything is moderate, except rent and taxes, a man could do very comfortably on that I intend leaving this on Friday next to bring over my wife and weans, and settle at once.

“My patients here are all the first people,--Lord Stafford, Lady Faulkner, &c., among the number,--and all express a desire to keep me and serve my interests. In a word, I never met more kind offers, nor have I ever witnessed a fairer prospect, to the extent it offers, of success.

“I must raise a little money to furnish a house and bring over my family; and if you would put me on the way to obtain £200 or £250, I would not sell Moatfield. Otherwise I shall do so, as I have no time to lose. My step does not admit of delay, and when I reach home I must leave for Brussels almost immediately,--the opening is such that some one must fill it at once.”

Lever set out from Portstewart in the first week of May 1837.

V. LETTERS FROM BRUSSELS 1837-1842

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“16 Rue Ducale, Brussels, _May_ 12, 1837.

“We reached this on Monday afternoon, having had a most agreeable journey through England, which we all bore admirably, and after a passage of twenty-two hours reached Antwerp so little fatigued that we at once set out for Brussels, where we had the pleasure to find that our house was ready for us and perfectly prepared for our occupation. We at once drove thither, and have avoided all hotel expenses, and have the additional comfort of being at once at home after so much journeying. I have, of course, but little to communicate of Brussels since my arrival, save that I find myself as safe as ever in the estimation of the English here, and am already hard at work. Lady Faulkner and several of my old attaches have again sent for me, and although the _permis_ cannot be obtained sooner than August, if then, I have every hope that I escape (some time) any molestation. My only loss on the road was a carpet-bag containing all my groom’s clothes, and amongst them a new suit of dark-grey livery, for which I had just paid £4, 10s. and was never worn. These were left behind in the George Hotel, Dale Street, Liverpool, and although I have written about it I have not received any answer, and fear it is irretrievably gone. If there could be found any means of getting at the matter through Dublin, I would be extremely glad,--for if the bag were forwarded to the Burlington Hotel, Burlington Street, London, addressed to me, Brussels, by the Victoria steamer for Antwerp, it would still reach me and save me some money, and my man much raggedness.

“Mrs Innes is quite correct in her estimate of the Tighes in one respect, for previous to my going to Ireland they employed me several times but never fee’d [me], and they have no possible influence here, and are not in any society. I know all the best English already, and shall always be able to get my introductions through Sir Hamilton Seymour. I am quite certain, if permitted to practise, that I shall have the leading place; but however pleasant and agreeable, it never can be anything but a very small matter as regards income.

“This day has brought me my tenth patient, so you see I am not idling. Lord Stafford has just sent for me, and I have been told that the Prince of Hesse (Philipstad) will consult me to-morrow. He is the brother of the Queen of England, and has great influence.

“Would you tell M’Glashan that I have got ‘Rory O’More’ from the author, and he shall have the review* for July No.”

* A review of ‘Rory O’More’ appeared in ‘The Dublin University Magazine’ for January 1838, but, judging it by its illiberality, I should say the review was not written by Lever.--E. D.

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“Brussels, _August_ 22, 1837.

“One of our Irish residents here going over for the ‘rents,’ gives me the opportunity to send a few and very hurried lines to you. I have been jogging on _à l’ordinaire_, nothing new or wonderful occurring except my being fined for prescribing _sans le permis_, and my having received in reply to a memorial a most civil response from his majesty, that from the representations made to him from such high and influential quarters on my professional capabilities, every facility shall be afforded me in submitting myself to the Jury d’Exam., when my little acquaintance with the French language shall be no barrier to my undergoing the tests prescribed. So far well, and I now await for the conference which is to pronounce upon my fitness to practise.

“I have been most fortunate in all my cases, and my name is at the top of the wheel, so that if I pass this Exam., whatever success Brussels can yield I have every prospect of enjoying. Nothing but the small scale of remuneration is against the place being a good locality for a physician, and even already I have succeeded in getting ten francs per visit, which, if eventually adopted, would give me a very fair professional income. I am completely among the _corps diplomatique_ of all nations, and through the unceasing attentions of Sir H. Seymour my position is a most gratifying one. To his house I have the _entrée_ at all hours, and to his box at the opera I am at all times _admis_. We ride out with him, and pass a couple of hours every day in his society. Kate and the babes are doing well, and I am most grateful at my emancipation from [drudgery].”

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“Brussels, Rue Ducale, _Aug_. 29, 1837.

“Your ever warm interest for your friend is my safeguard that you will not be bored by so soon getting another letter from me; but, besides, I cannot forbear telling you that I have at last obtained the _permis_ to practise, having this day passed an examination before the Medical profession who represent to the Minister the capacity of the candidate. So far, therefore, all is settled; and I hope and trust no further difficulties be in my way towards a tolerable success in Brussels. My practice lately has been less from the great emptiness of the city,--every one worth anything having fled up the Rhine, into Germany, or to Wiesbaden, Carlsbad, &c. But I am told that in the winter I shall have as much as I can attend to. All the high are exclusively with me, and I am extending my lines among the foreign missions--Austrian, Brazilian, &c. The king has spoken most favourably about me, and I am daily expecting a call to Court. I believe I mentioned that I was fined. The penalty was remitted by his majesty; yet law expenses, fees to the Procureur du Roi, &c., make the affair amount to 500 francs (£20). This was a bore. Still, I made more than that considerably by the delinquency, so that after all I am no loser. I am dreadfully at a loss for a good groom that can ride [? postilion] occasionally (the latter is not a _sine quâ non_), who is light weight, young, not tall, and perfectly sober. I brought a good one over here,--excellent in every respect,--but the cheapness of drink has made him an inveterate drunkard, and he neglects everything. If you could send anything like this (only sober by all means), I would most willingly pay his way out here. His only [? duty] is to mind two horses and ride and drive occasionally, and that very seldom. He has no housework to do. Wages 10 guineas a-year, all livery, and about £3 more for the manure. My wife and weans are quite well, and the former delighted with Brussels. Mr Waller is a great friend of ours. We dined with him and his wife to-day, and in fact we are as intimate with all the Embassy folk as possible. I should indeed be a very discontented fellow if I was not quite satisfied with my fortune here; and now that all minor obstacles are surmounted, have really everything our own way.”

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“Brussels, _Nov_. 7, 1837.

“My practice goes on favourably, my daily receipts ranging from two to three pounds usually....

“The D. U. M. people write so pressingly to me that I am once more in harness.... I have only my late evenings unoccupied. I find it sufficiently wearisome and fatiguing, but I am resolved to leave no shaft unworked that promises ore....

“Our gay season has not yet begun. Still, we have Saturday soirees at the Embassy, to which we always go, and occasional _petits diners_ with the chiefs of the _corps diplomatique_,--very pleasant and lively.”

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“16 Rue Ducale, Brussels, _Nov_. 1837.