Volume I Part 29 (1/2)
_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.