Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters Volume I Part 29

_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 wis.h.i.+ng 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 circ.u.mstances 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, antic.i.p.ating 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 champions.h.i.+p 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 Attache 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 lords.h.i.+p, "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, a.s.suring 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 s.h.i.+ne 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" ent.i.tled "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: "G.o.d 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 cla.s.sics 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 establis.h.i.+ng a British Emba.s.sy 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 establis.h.i.+ng 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 princ.i.p.al 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. _Voila 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.