Part 5 (1/2)

It will be said, perhaps, that a her pitch than ht to speak of the strains and ienius is exposed I areat variations in brain pohich are exhibited by the products of different h; but my own experience tells me that a man can always do the work for which his brain is fitted if he will give hi his work as a nor men who look forward to authorshi+p as the business of their lives, even when they propose that that authorshi+p be of the highest class known, to avoid enthusiastic rushes with their pens, and to seat theh they were lawyers' clerks;--and so let them sit until the allotted task shall be accoypt, I finished _Doctor Thorne_, and on the following day began _The Bertrams_ I was moved now by a determination to excel, if not in quality, at any rate in quantity

An ignoble ambition for an author, noble, if an author can bring himself to look at his work as does any other workman This had becoh was set, this was the thing the doing of which had fallen into my hands, and I was minded to work at it with a will It is not on my conscience that I have ever scaood as I could make them Had I taken three months of idleness between each they would have been no better Feeling convinced of that, I finished _Doctor Thorne_ on one day, and began _The Bertraypt, and had at last succeeded in settling the terms of a postal treaty Nearly twenty years have passed since that ties are printed I trust Ihere the nature of the difficulty which met me I found, on my arrival, that I was to communicate with an officer of the Pasha, as then called Nubar Bey I presuentleman who has lately dealt with our Government as to the Suez Canal shares, and who is noell known to the political world as Nubar Pasha I found hientleman, an Armenian I never went to his office, nor do I know that he had an office Every other day he would co with hireatly; but there was one point on which we could not agree As to h he could hardly accede fast enough to the wishes of the Postmaster-General; but on one point he was firmly opposed to me

I was desirous that the ypt in twenty-four hours, and he thought that forty-eight hours should be allowed I was obstinate, and he was obstinate; and for a long tireement At last his oriental tranquillity seemed to desert him, and he took upon hiy, that, if I insisted on the quick transit, a terrible responsibility would rest on my head I made thiswhich would be easy and secure in England could be attained with safety in Egypt ”The Pasha, his master, would,” he said, ”no doubt accede to any terreat was his reverence for everything British In that case he, Nubar, would at once resign his position, and retire into obscurity He would be ruined; but the loss of life and bloodshed which would certainly follow so rash an attempt should not be on his head” I smoked my pipe, or rather his, and drank his coffee, with oriental quiescence but British firh three or four visits, I renewed the expression of my opinion that the transit could easily be ave way,--and astonished er any question of bloodshed or of resignation of office, and he assured etic complaisance, that it should be his care to see that the time was punctually kept It was punctually kept, and, I believe, is so still I must confess, however, that e specially personal todebated, it had been whispered to me that the Peninsular and Oriental Steaht hours would suit the purposes of their traffic better than twenty-four, and that, as they were the great payyptian State, who ht probably wish to accohtful picture of blood and desolation That it calish hand I was always sure

Froypt I visited the Holy Land, and on my way inspected the Post Offices at Malta and Gibraltar I could fill a volume with true tales of my adventures The _Tales of All Countries_ have, most of them, some foundation in such occurrences There is one called _John Bull on the Guadalquivir_, the chief incident in which occurred to me and a friend of mine on our way up that river to Seville We both of us handled the gold ornahter, but who turned out to be a duke,--and a duke, too, who could speak English!+ How gracious he was to us, and yet how thoroughly he covered us with ridicule!

On my return home I received 400 froreed to sell them _The Bertrams_ for the sarant circuow, then at sea, and at last finished in Jamaica Of my journey to the West Indies I will say a feords presently, but I may as well speak of these two novels here _Doctor Thorne_ has, I believe, been the most popular book that I have written,--if I may take the sale as a proof of comparative popularity _The Bertrams_ has had quite an opposite fortune I do not know that I have ever heard it well spoken of even by my friends, and I cannot remember that there is any character in it that has dwelt in the minds of novel-readers I myself think that they are of about equal ood

They fall away very much from _The Three Clerks_, both in pathos and hue in either of them comparable to Chaffanbrass the lawyer The plot of _Doctor Thorne_ is good, and I aood plot,--which, to nificant part of a tale,--is that which will ment The plots of _Tom Jones_ and of _Ivanhoe_ are almost perfect, and they are probably the most popular novels of the schools of the last and of this century; but to th of Burley and Meg Merrilies, say ift of construction shown in the torks I have naive a picture of common life enlivened by humour and sweetened by pathos To make that picture worthy of attention, the canvas should be croith real portraits, not of individuals known to the world or to the author, but of created personages inated with traits of character which are known To , the plot is but the vehicle for all this; and when you have the vehicle without the passengers, a story ofto life, you have but a wooden show There must, however, be a story You must provide a vehicle of some sort

That of _The Bertrams_ was more than ordinarily bad; and as the book was relieved by no special character, it failed Its failure never surprised me; but I have been surprised by the success of _Doctor Thorne_

At this ti in the success of the one or the failure of the other to affect reatly The immediate sale, and the notices elicited fro which had now co with the publishers, all made me know that I had achieved my object If I wrote a novel, I could certainly sell it And if I could publish three in two years,--confining myself to half the fecundity of that terrible author of whom the publisher in Paternoster Row had coht add 600 a-year toin Ireland, and could keep a good house over my head, insure my life, educate my two boys, and hunt perhaps twice a-week, on 1400 a-year If more should come, it would be well;--but 600 a-year I was prepared to reckon as success It had been slow in co, but was very pleasant when it caypt I was sent down to Scotland to revise the Glasgow Post Office I alet nohat it was that I had to do there, but I know that I walked all over the city with the letter-carriers, going up to the top flats of the houses, as the e the extent of their labours had I not trudged every step with them It was rumble, and then I would think hoould be with theo home afterwards and write a love-scene But the love-scenes written in Glasgow, all belonging to _The Bertraood

Then in the autuo to the West Indies, and cleanse the Augean stables of our Post Office system there Up to that tienerally were ed from home, and were subject to the British Postland to be postmasters, surveyors, and what not; and as our West Indian islands have never been regarded as being of theentlemen so sent were sometimes more conspicuous for want of income than for official zeal and ability Hence the stables had becoean I was also instructed to carry out in so up this postal authority to the island Governor, and in others to propose soo on to Cuba, to make a postal treaty with the Spanish authorities, and to Panama for the same purpose with the Government of New Grenada

All this work I performed to my satisfaction, and I hope to that of my masters in St Martin's le Grand

But the trip is at the presentenabled ard as the best book that has come from my pen It is short, and, I think I , useful, and true As soon as I had learned from the secretary at the General Post Office that this journey would be required, I proposed the book to Messrs Chaple volume The contract was made without any difficulty, and when I returned hoan it on board the shi+p in which I left Kingston, Jamaica, for Cuba,--and from week to week I carried it on as I went Froh the island down to De-point for all places in that part of the globe,--to Santa Martha, Carthagena, Aspinwall, over the Isthmus to Panama, up the Pacific to a little harbour on the coast of Costa Rica, thence across Central Aua river to the Mosquito coast, and after that home by Bermuda and New York Should any one want further details of the voyage, are they not written in my book? The fact le note while writing or preparing it Preparation, indeed, there was none The descriptions and opinions came hot on to the paper from their causes

I will not say that this is the best way of writing a book intended to give accurate infor to the eye of the reader, and to his ear, that which the eye of the writer has seen and his ear heard There are two kinds of confidence which a reader may have in his author,--which two kinds the reader ishes to use his reading well should carefully discriminate

There is a confidence in facts and a confidence in vision The one ests to you what ht to have been

The fore for yourself, and form your own conclusions The former does not intend to be prescient, nor the latter accurate Research is the weapon used by the former; observation by the latter Either may be false,--wilfully false; as also may either be steadfastly true As to that, the reader e for himself But the man rites _currente calamo_, orks with a rapidity which will not admit of accuracy, may be as true, and in one sense as trustworthy, as he who bases every word upon a rock of facts I have written very h I have been very inaccurate, I have alritten the exact truth as I saw it;--and I have, I think, drawn my pictures correctly

The view I took of the relative position in the West Indies of black men and white men was the view of the _Times_ newspaper at that period; and there appeared three articles in that journal, one closely after another, which made the fortune of the book Had it been very bad, I suppose its fortune could not have been made for it even by the _Times_ newspaper I afterwards became acquainted with the writer of those articles, the contributor hi me that he had written thereater service than can often be done by one ation to hiht

I am aware that by that criticism I wasup by such ood or bad for literature is a question which I hope to discuss in a future chapter

But the result was immediate to me, for I at once went to Chapman & Hall and successfully demanded 600 for my next novel

CHAPTER VIII

THE _CORNHILL MAGAZINE_ AND _FRAMLEY PARSONAGE_

Soon after e land For some ti h all that, Dublin had been my hohed to return to England,--with a silly longing My life in England for twenty-six years from the time of my birth to the day on which I left it, had been wretched I had been poor, friendless, and joyless In Ireland it had constantly been happy I had achieved the respect of all hom I was concerned, I had made for myself a co itself was a great delight to land, and a house in the neighbourhood of London, I felt that hunting ht that a ht to live within the reach of the publishers, the clubs, and the dinner-parties of the metropolis So I made ot land,--which codonshi+re, and the greater part of Hertfordshi+re

[Footnote 5: It was not abandoned till sixteen more years had passed away]

At this time I did not stand very ith the dominant interest at the General Post Office My old friend Colonel Maberly had been, some time since, squeezed into, and his place was filled by Mr Rowland Hill, the originator of the penny post With hiures and facts he was most accurate, but I never came across any one who so little understood the ways of men,--unless it was his brother Frederic To the two brothers the servants of the Post Office,--e army in old days,--were so many machines who could be counted on for their exact ithout deviation, as wheelsalways at the same pace and always by the same power Rowland Hill was an industrious public servant, anxious for the good of his country; but he was a hard taskreat departear by his hardness, had he not been at last controlled He was the Chief Secretary, my brother-in-laho afterwards succeeded him--came next to him, and Mr Hill's brother was the Junior Secretary In the natural course of things, I had not, froement of affairs;--but from time to time I found myself hly efficient public servant; I am sure I may say so much of myself without fear of contradiction from any one who has known the Post Office;--I was very fond of the departenerally had an opinion of reeable I know that I sometimes tried to do so But I could hold iven official offence by the publication of _The Three Clerks_ I afterwards gave greater offence by a lecture on The Civil Service which I delivered in one of the large rooms at the General Post Office to the clerks there On this occasion, the Postmaster-General, hom personally I enjoyed friendly terms, sent for ht to be dismissed When I asked his lordshi+p whether he was prepared to dished The threat was no threat to ood to be treated in that fashi+on

The lecture had been permitted, and I had disobeyed no order In the lecture which I delivered, there was nothing to bring me to shame,--but it advocated the doctrine that a civil servant is only a servant as far as his contract goes, and that he is beyond that entitled to be as free a eneral pursuits, and as free in opinion, as those who are in open professions and open trades All this is very nearly admitted now, but it certainly was not admitted then At that time no one in the Post Office could even vote for a Meh my whole official life I didI have written, I should think, so; so with subjects so absurd as to allow a touch of burlesque; solow of pathos ht find an entrance I have taken infinite pains with these reports, habituating myself always to write them in the form in which they should be sent,--without a copy It is by writing thus that ahich his h copy, or that which is called a draft, is written in order that it may be touched and altered and put upon stilts The waste of time, moreover, in such an operation, is terrible If a man knows his craft with his pen, he will have learned to write without the necessity of changing his words or the form of his sentences