Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters Volume I Part 18

Corn is doomed, and the Irish Church to be doomed--not now, but later.

The League have secured four counties and several boroughs. As to war: the Duke says he could smash the Yankees, and ought to do so while France is in her present humour,--and Mexico opens the road to invasion in the South--not to speak of the terrible threat which Napier uttered, that with two regiments of infantry and a field battery he'd raise the Slave population in the Southern States.

* This story is now discredited, and was formally denied by Lord Dufferin.

"The remark you heard at Curry's about my Repealism is no new thing.

M'G. tried to fasten the imputation upon me when I sold 'St Patrick's Eve' to the London publishers, and the attempt to revive it displays his game. A very brief hint would make the Repeal editors adopt it for present gain and future attack when they discovered their error.

However, the deception will not be long-lived, and I think on the appearance of No. 4 few will repeat the charge.

"Wilson (of Blackwood's) has written me a long letter of such encouragement that, even bating its flattery, makes me stout-hearted against small critics and their barkings, and I am emboldened to hope that I am improving as a writer. One thing I can answer for,--no popularity I ever had, or shall have, will make me trifle with the public by fast writing and careless composition. d.i.c.kens's last book*

has set the gravestone on his fame, and the warning shall not be thrown away."

* 'Dombey and Son.'

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

"Carlsruhe, _March_ 6, 1846.

"I hope you continue to like my 'Knight,' of which I receive favourable opinions from the press and the publishers. I am told it is better writing and better comedy than anything I have done yet. Pray let me have your judgment--not sparingly, but in all candour.

"I sent a little article to M'Glashan about Fairy Tales, and he writes to me as if the paper was a review. I have not written, expecting a second advice from him containing a proof, but meanwhile would you scratch him a line addressed to D'Olier Street, saying I have received his note, and will correct the proof with pleasure, but that the paper* is not a review of any one, and that the two first tales are Danish,--the last is my own. Would you also ascertain if he is disposed to entertain his own project of my continuing 'Continental Gossipings'

for the Magazine, and subsequently publishing them in one or two vols., and if he would make any proposal as to terms? This latter I would rather not mention in a note, but as a subject of chatting whenever occasion offered.

* The contribution was ent.i.tled "Children and Children's Stories, by Hans Daumling." It is interesting to note that the first two tales were "The Little Tin Soldier" and "The Ugly Buck." Lever's own fairy tale was ent.i.tled "The Fete of the Flowers."--E. D.

"The weather here has been like July, and the Rhine is like crystal. We have large bouquets of spring flowers on the dinner-table every day, and the buds are bursting forth everywhere. We shall in a few weeks more resume our wanderings. Meanwhile I must press forward with my 'Knight,'

which for some weeks I have shelved entirely."

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

"Stephanie Stra.s.se, Cablsruhe, _March_ 29, 1846.

"I am working away at my 'Knight,' and have in the 7th No. got him into as pleasant a mess of misfortunes as any gentleman (outside a novel) ever saw himself involved in. I hear excellent accounts of his progress in England, and have destined him to a long life--twenty numbers. This at the publisher's request rather than of my own convictions,--though I need scarcely say, to my great convenience.... Let me hear your _mot_ of No. 4, which I think is the best of the batch."

Carlsruhe at first was a seductive place, "where life glided on peaceably, and the current had neither ripple nor eddy." It had no riotous pleasures; it was equally free from the things that annoy--no malignant newspapers, no malevolent enemies, no treacherous or patronising friends. He had a good house, a first-rate chef, six horses, and plenty of society,--a _corps diplomatique_ of pleasant folk and their wives; cheerful reunions every evening; sometimes a dinner at the Grand Duke's Court. There were no professional beauties, no geniuses, no bores. G. P. R James and himself were the cynosure of all eyes, and there were whist-parties every night.

In this elysium it was no wonder that his spirits were elevated, and that he worked with a will. The only rifts within the lute were the difficulty of disposing satisfactorily of his interest in Templeogue House and his disputations with Curry and M'Glashan.

Suddenly the sleepy paradise changed into a sleepy and contemptible _inferno_. There was no revolution, no change in the Grand Ducal system, n.o.body in Carlsruhe became any better or worse, n.o.body was any wiser or more foolish,--but the Grand Ducal city is described as a "pettifogging little place, with a little court, a little army, a little aristocracy, a little _bourgeoisie_, a little diplomatic circle, little shops, and very little money." In compensation for these littlenesses there was a flood of gossip and "any amount of etiquette." The people of the Grand Duchy had no commerce, no manufactories, no arts, no science,--no interests, in fact, save in the small ceremonial life of the court, no amus.e.m.e.nts except soirees held in ill-lighted rooms, where an ill-dressed company talked scandal, military slang, and cookery--how to dress a corporal or a cutlet. From this "dreary atmosphere of local sewers, stale tobacco-smoke, and sour cabbage," he was glad to escape.

Major Dwyer attempts to account for the changed aspect of Carlsruhe. He describes Lever as being too fond of display and too outspoken. It was his habit to gallop through the quiet streets with his wife and children, all attired in very showy habiliments. The ponderosity and solemnity of the little court occasionally tickled him, and he laughed openly. Court etiquette, too, was a source of amus.e.m.e.nt, and he violated its rules in a manner which horrified the stolid courtiers. Upon one occasion he invited to a whist-party at his house the Hof Marschall (or Lord Chamberlain), Kotzebue, Secretary to the Russian Emba.s.sy, and some other notabilities. The Hof Marschall--doubtless acting upon the same impulses which had actuated Archbishop Whately when he absented himself from the dinner-party at Temple-ogue--did not arrive, and, worse still, sent no apology. Lever was very angry, and he made some outrageous verbal jokes at the expense of Grand Dukes, Hof Marschalls, and Gross Herzogs. The upshot of the matter was that the Irish novelist found Carlsruhe "too hot to hold him"; so (still accompanied by his "menagerie") he bade good-bye to G. P. R. James and to the Grand Duchy of Baden-Baden, and, travelling somewhat in gipsy fashion through the Black Forest, he reached the borders of Tyrol in the month of May 1846.

VIII. IN TYROL 1846-1847

When he quitted Carlsruhe it was Lever's intention to make his way by easy stages to Italy. His _modus operandi_ was to pack himself and his family into a large coach, and to drive wherever his wayward fancy led him. He tried to comfort himself with the a.s.surance that this insouciant method of journeying was economical as well as being of advantage to him. He ascertained later that the average cost of these economical migrations was about 10 a-day.

In May the party, which included Mr Stephen Pearce, arrived at Bregenz, on the Lake of Constance, and from the window of an inn Lever beheld the distant prospect of a castle which fascinated him. He ascertained that the _schloss_ belonged to Baron Pollnitz, and that the Baron was willing to let it. Mr Pearce conducted the negotiations. The lord of the Reider Schloss was Chamberlain to the reigning Grand Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha--Lever seems to have been destined to forgather with Grand Dukes,--and he was obliged to resume his duties at Court.

On the 26th May Mr Pearce despatched a letter from Riedenburg, Bregenz, to Alexander Spencer.

"My dear Sir,--On our way to Italy we stopped suddenly short at the foot of the Alps, and got ourselves housed in a handsome Gothic castle in the midst of beautiful scenery. In all the fracas of a new habitation--luggage arriving, strange servants, &c.--Lever has told me to acknowledge your letter, which has followed from Carlsruhe, containing Dr [afterwards Judge] Longfield's opinion on the Curry affair. This opinion seems in every respect to bear out Lever's own previous convictions, and to sustain the view he took of his contract.

In one point only does he deem Dr L.'s suggestion inapplicable--that is, as respecting the purchase of the unsold copies. This Lever neither could nor would undertake. The princ.i.p.al question is the determining of the right of half profits on an invariable standard, that standard being already established in the account furnished.... The arrangement Lever wishes being the acknowledgment by Curry of half profits on the scale already conceded, and the consent not to make future sales at an inferior rate without Lever's agreement thereto....

"Our present habitation is most beautifully situated, the Lake of Constance being on one side of the house and the mountains on the other, Mt. Sentis rising to the height of nearly 8000 feet. This, of course, and the whole range, capped with snow, taking the most beautiful tints at the rising and the setting of the sun."

Lever was soon busy entertaining. One of his earliest guests was his friend Major Dwyer. Towards the end of July he had a visit from his new publisher, Mr Edward Chapman (of Chapman & Hall). In August he resumed his correspondence with Dublin.

_To Mr Alexander Spencer_.

"Riedenburg, _Aug_. 5, 1846.

"With a houseful of company and every imaginable kind of confusion around me, I have barely time for a few lines in reply to your last.

"Curry wrote asking what price I placed on my right to the books, and I replied demanding a full a/c of all sales up to date. My London publisher, who fortunately happened to be with me, advised me as to the course to take.... I shall write fully and lengthily by Mr Chapman, who leaves on Sat.u.r.day for London."

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

"Riedenburg, Bregenz, _Aug_. 15, 1846.

"My chateau continues full of company, with the visits of daily new arrivals. Baron de Margueritte, wife and daughter, one party. The Baron's sister was married to John Armit of Dublin. Dudley Perceval, son of the late Spencer Perceval; then Charles d.i.c.kens and wife, with two of the Bishop of Exeter's family expected,--not to speak of my worthy publisher, Mr Chapman, and wife, from London, who are so pleased with their visit that, like kind folk, they have stayed three weeks with us.

I like him greatly, and his wife is a remarkably good and favourable specimen of London.

"As for Curry, his letter was a mild, courteous, mock-friendly, expostulatory, but semi-defiant epistle, talking about our old and intimate business relations and the hope of their [being] one day revived, and asking me to set a price upon my interest; to which I responded by asking for the data of such a demand, a full and true statement of a/c. It seems that he offered to sell his share to C. & H., and asked them, for his moiety, 2500! while he had the insolence to offer me 200 for mine. This Chapman himself told me, and also added that his (Curry's) great anxiety was now to purchase my share, in order to bring the whole commodity into the market in a more eligible shape, as few booksellers would buy a divided copyright.

"Chapman says, on reading these letters and hearing all the case, that he never heard of any man being more shamefully treated,--that I have been outrageously rogued and robbed throughout. When the accts.

come,--if they ever do,--Chapman will have them examined by their own accountant, so the great point at present would be to ask him to forward these to me as early as possible.

"My answer (to Curry) was civil but dry. No notice did I take of his hopes of future dealings nor the half intimation that a legal case was a game _a deux_. I merely said: Let me see how I stand, and what would be a fair sum to ask [as a settlement] for the past.

"It is strange enough that M'Glashan never wrote to me since this controversy began, although I think he is in my debt a letter. I would be glad if you would take some opportunity of dropping in on him and feeling your way as to his 'dispositions,' as the French say,--whether he is friendly or the reverse. I have written this at the cost of my eyesight, which is abominably bad at night."

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._