Volume I Part 27 (1/2)

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

”Bagni di Lucca, _April_ 17, 1849.

”I confess myself at a dead loss what to counsel. My only opinion (and I have come to it after much thought) is this:--

”In the event of Chapman consenting to advance the sum and not succeeding--or in the case of his unwillingness to make such proposal,--I would at once [? dispose of] the copyrights in the usual formal manner, but would take no steps by newspaper advertis.e.m.e.nt, inasmuch as this would give the impression of illegality on our part.

”It would be also well to ascertain if we could not restrain any future sale of stock at depreciated prices. If this required a Chancery order, I would be slow to resort to such means for fear of [? legal] expense.

”Chapman, from whom I had a letter two days ago, thinks that it is the stock and not the copyrights that Curry is now negotiating, but he owns himself baffled by the roguery of this conduct.

”Do you think that anything would be obtained by my going over to Ireland?... I am really exhausted in resources, and can add nothing to this.

”I am very uneasy about my insurances: my means of late--although working an opposition coach to myself--are very considerably diminished (political causes having damaged book-writing to a fearful extent), so that I wish to know have you anything of mine to meet the Globe policy, and whether at next period of payment the Guardian will be able to meet its own demand on the acc.u.mulated profits?

”I ask this now, but I regret to say that it will puzzle me sorely what to do if I am called upon, but I ought to learn it in time, so as to make what provision I can.

”All post communications with England ceased for eleven days during the Genoa insurrection....

”The mail-boats were twice burned going from this, and I (with my accustomed luck) lost a whole number of 'Roland Cashel'--twelve days'

work, of which I have, of course, not a note or memorandum. The proof of 'Con' is also lost, so that if it appears next month it will be with all the printer's imperfections as well as my own.

”I have met with the accompanying advertis.e.m.e.nt [from a tutor]. Could you find out who he is, what he is like, and if he would feel inclined to reside on the Continent?... I am sorely in want of some means of educating the children, who are far more intelligent than instructed.

”The political reaction here is complete: the Grand Duke very soon will be expected back again, and Italy be 'as you were.'

”I wonder if Mr M'Glashan wrote to me, and that his letter has been lost? I asked for proofs of my two papers on Italy, 'Italy and the Italian Tourists,' which I greatly desire to have.”

At the Baths of Lucca, in the summer of 1849, Lever was introduced to the Brownings. Mrs Browning's first impression of him is confided to Miss Mitford, in a letter dated August 31, 1849:* ”A most cordial, vivacious manner, a glowing countenance, with the animal spirits predominant over the intellect, yet the intellect by no means in default; you can't help being surprised into being pleased with him, whatever your previous inclination may be. Natural, too, and a _gentleman_ past mistake.

* 'The Letters of Mrs Browning,' edited by Frederic G.

Kenyon (Smith, Elder, & Co.)--E. D.

His eldest daughter is nearly grown up, and his youngest six months old.

He has children of every sort of intermediate age almost, but he himself is young enough still. He seems to have spent nearly his whole life on the Continent, and by no means to be tired of it. Not the slightest Irish accent.”*

Miss Mitford** was a staunch admirer of Lever. ”I think him,” she said, ”one of our best living writers of fiction.” She must have expressed her appreciation to Mrs Browning, for the latter writes in the autumn of 1849 to the author of 'Our Village': ”I told Mr Lever your opinion of him, dearest friend, and then he said, all in a glow and animation, that you were not only his own delight but the delight of his children, which is affection by refraction, isn't it?” Then follows a further description of the Irish novelist and of his ways. ”Not only,” says Mrs Browning, ”is he the notability _par excellence_ of these Baths of Lucca, where he has lived a whole year during the snow upon the mountains, but he presides over the weekly b.a.l.l.s at the Casino, where the English do congregate (all except Robert and me), and is said to be the light of the flambeaux and the spring of the dancers. There is a general desolation when he _will_ retire to play whist. In addition to which he really seems to be loving and lovable in his family. You always see him with his children and his wife; he drives her and her baby up and down along the only carriageable road of Lucca--so set down that piece of domestic life on the bright side in the broad charge against married authors; now do! I believe he is to return to Florence this winter with his family, having had enough of the mountains.”

* ”Lever's accent,” according to Major Dwyer, ”was _au fond_ Dublinian.” ”He never dropped his Irish manner or his Irish tongue,” says Anthony Trollops, who was an excellent judge of Irish manners and dialect. _Tot homines, quot aures!_--E. D.

** In 1843 Lever had made in his Magazine a special appeal to his readers to testify their grat.i.tude to the author of 'Our Village,' by subscribing to a fund which had been started for her benefit.--E. D.

As he had been the life and soul of social enjoyment at the Baths of Lucca, so was he the life and soul of Anglo-Florentine society when he returned to Florence. One of his numerous friends of the period declares that his appearance in the Cascine always provoked attention. His manner of riding was, if anything, less graceful than it used to be in his Templeogue days, when he clattered into Dublin city: he did not rise in the stirrups, but allowed himself to be jogged up and down like a trooper. Dr Fitzpatrick conjectures that ”the shaking to which he surrendered himself was meant as a counter-irritant to sedentary habits.” Though at this time he did not speak Italian fluently, he was able to hold his own in the language. Being unlucky enough to embroil himself in a small lawsuit, he decided to conduct his own case. He was warned that this would be courting defeat; but his confidence in himself was unshaken, and not only did he plead his own cause, but he gained a verdict in his favour.

He tells a tale of another case in which (also pleading his own cause) he did not make so successful an advocata In front of his Florentine house was a terrace reached by a flight of steps. This was a favourite lounging-place for the novelist. One day his reveries were disturbed by a visitor who presented a bill. The visitor was a tailor, and the bill was a monstrous doc.u.ment. Lever protested vehemently against the charges, and the tailor protested that they were moderate. In his endeavour to convince the novelist of his rect.i.tude, the visitor became wildly excited, and, moving backwards, he fell headlong down the flight of steps. Lever was summoned, and the tailor swore that his accident was due to alarm caused by the threatening manner of the Englishman,--it was owing to his eagerness to escape from a.s.sault that he had fallen down the steps. Lever denied that he had done or said anything which would indicate a possible a.s.sault. The court inquired how could the defendant account for the panic-stricken condition of the man. ”On two grounds,”