Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters Volume I Part 5

for June, among which the 'Post Mortem' holds honourable station, and hope it may merit it. I write these few lines hurriedly to ask if you will spare s.p.a.ce for a 'story'* in your July number, as I have one ready, and will send it if you desire. As I am going with Maxwell on an expedition on Thursday, will you let me know your reply before then?

* "The Emigrants Tale."

"Maxwell and Bentley have been sparring, so you are not to expect the review of 'Picton,' as the wild sportsman is in great dudgeon with the mighty publisher.

"Whenever anything can be got from him worth your while, I shall press for it. At present he is toiling for the 'Bivouac,' which is to appear immediately."

The four following letters written to Spencer afford interesting glimpses of the young doctor's life at this period:--

"PORTSTEWART, _June_ 13, 1836.

"I have reaped no small self-praise from the circ.u.mstance that I have not been a bore to you for nearly three months, for it only wants a few days of that time since we parted in Dublin. How I have existed in that s.p.a.ce I can scarcely say, but one fact is undoubted--not from the proceeds of my profession.

"There has been nothing to do here for the whole _cordon sanitaire_ of medicals that invests this and the surrounding country; and idleness--unbroken idleness--has been our portion, and you well know, my dear Saunders,* the _far niente_ is not _dolce_ when it is compulsory, and thus, if I have been working little I have grieved much.

* "Saunders" was a nickname given by Lever to Spencer.

"It was, as far as occupation is concerned, fortunate that I became a scribbler, but in respect to money the Currys are slowest of the slow, and so I am again on my beam-ends for cash, with some petty debts boring me to boot. I have applied to the Currys, but not so pressingly as my circ.u.mstances demand, for a man does not willingly expose his poverty to strangers; and it is rank bad policy--if avoidable--for a poor author to confess his poverty to his publisher.

"As my summer commences in July I may yet do something, but I have made up my mind to leave this,--its reputation as a fashionable watering-place is fast going, if not gone, and I am left musing like Marius amongst the ruins of past greatness, or 'the last rose of'

anything else you can conceive of loneliness and misery.

"Whenever you do write, give me a hook and a head as to my prospects, for I can hope on with the a.s.sistance of the smallest gleam of light that ever glimmered from a taper.

"I sent you a paper a few days since with extracts from an article of mine. Did you get it?

"Since the appearance of the said article, and in consequence thereof, I have been written to by Blackwoods to become a contributor. This is at least flattering, and may be profitable."

"PORTSTEWART, _June_ 23, 1836.

"I saw some time since an advertis.e.m.e.nt in a literary journal for an editor for an English paper published in Paris, salary 200 per annum--he being expected to place in the stock purse of the concern 200, for which he is to receive six per cent. This I replied to, and have just got all the particulars, and I may have the appointment if I please. The capital, it being joint stock, is 8000. They have sent me a list of subscribers and account of profits--very flattering,--and the proprietor is the well-known [Reynolds] of the Library, Rue St Augustine--a most respectable and wealthy individual.

"My only reason for entertaining the proposition is my anxiety to emanc.i.p.ate myself from the trammels of this failing place, where I see my prospects daily retrograding, and every chance of my being left the only resident in a healthy population.

"My intention is, if I accept, to establish myself as a doctor in Paris,--there are 40,000 English residents,--and then by my literary labours pave the way to future advancement in my profession."

"PORTSTEWART, _June 29_,1836.

"I have thought over the proposition mentioned in my last letter until my head is half crazy. There are many things in it which I could wish were otherwise than they are, but what is there to be found which gives unqualified satisfaction? My object is to go where there is a field for exertion--whether I may be able to cultivate it or not remains to be tried; with 200 and my own means we could at least get on tolerably well if practice did not follow: but I hope it would, and certainly I would endeavour to make it my chief object. I did not mention in my last that a dividend of the profits would be allowed for 200 as well as 6 per cent.... Since I wrote I received a line from Maxwell, who is in Paris, and to whom I wrote requesting that he would call on Mr Reynolds and mention my application, &c. He (Maxwell) speaks very favourably of Mr R, but by all means advises my going over to Paris immediately, and this, though attended with considerable expense, I have almost resolved on doing. If successful, the trip will be well worth the 30 it will cost; if otherwise, it is worth so much to escape a bad speculation--that is, taking it for granted that my foresight will detect its prospects of success or failure. I must only do the best I can, and see as far into the milestone as I am able.... I am resolved, if I go to Paris, to use my senses without bias or prejudice.... If I continue in my present mind I shall leave this on Sat.u.r.day and be in Paris the following Friday."

"PORTSTEWART, _July_ 19, 1836.

"I returned from Paris on Thursday last, having contrived within the s.p.a.ce of fifteen days to travel there and back, spending one day and a half in London and five whole days in Paris. As to the result of my inquiry on the subject of my trip: I have thought it better, after a deliberate calculation of every bearing of the matter, to decline accepting the Journal.

"Independently of the great sacrifice of time to a pursuit foreign to my profession,--and this I only learned was indispensable on my going to Paris,--I find the expense of living--rent in particular--far beyond my expectations or means, lodgings in any respectable quarter ranging from 3000 to 4000 francs per annum (120 to 160). The great influx of English, either resident or visitants, has rendered Paris a close compet.i.tor with London for extravagance. The changes which the few years since last I saw Paris have brought about, have rendered it the most magnificent city imagination can conceive. New esplanades, ornamented with the most stately and beautiful public buildings, are everywhere to be met with, and all the _agrements_ of out-of-door life abound in Paris. I was present at the trial of [ ], and, in the few days of my stay, contrived to see a good deal both of places and persons. I cannot but regret that the speculation has not fully answered my expectations; but, when considering the time required, the matter of remuneration, the uncertainty of its continuance, and the great danger of again [risking]

a fall into the world of a new and foreign city, I am afraid to venture though shockingly tempted. I have returned home to remain, at least until something decidedly better offers."

"The trip to France, however pleasant and healthful," he writes to M'Glashan in July, "has not added to my purse's weight.... If you desire a continuance of my contributions, you can mention when you write....

Maxwell dined with me yesterday. I don't think you can calculate on much from him at present, as, besides fighting with Bentley the whole battle of Waterloo over again, he is writing a new book for Macrone.... I hear b.u.t.t* is about to be my neighbour, and rejoice that he is not leaving the Magazine while he is extending the field of his labours."

* Isaac b.u.t.t, the editor of 'The Dublin University Magazine,' afterwards a famous advocate, and the "father of the Home Rule movement"--E. D.

Maxwell's arrival in Portstewart in the summer of 1836 helped to chase away Dr Lever's gloomy forebodings. In the autumn, when the season was over, he set to work vigorously and made his first bold plunge into the sea,--he regarded his pre-1836 writings merely as dabblings in shallow water. On the 29th of October the first chapter of 'Harry Lorrequer' was despatched to Dublin, accompanied by the following note to M'Glashan:--

"I send you Article No. 1 of a series which will include scenes and stories at home and abroad,--some tragic, others (as in the present case) ludicrous. I have had an invitation from Colburn to furnish a two or three volume affair, but I am not in the vein for anything longer or more continuous than magazine work at present."

The following month he wrote again to M'Glashan:---

"PORTSTEWART, _Sat.u.r.day night_.

"In a gale of wind, slates flying, and the chimneys (such of them as are not blown down) smoking.

"I send you by private hand the proof of chaps, iii., iv., and v. of 'Lorrequer,' and am sincerely happy to find they are to your likings, and I hope in the ensuing chapter, which I expect to transmit next week, to do something better. Meanwhile, no comparison with my friend Carleton, I beseech you--so far, very far, indeed, beyond the standard by which I could wish anything of mine measured.

"I hope you may like the enclosed, as you will, better than the preceding chapters. I purpose in the succeeding ones to give you 'Dr de Courcey Finucane's Adventures in Bath,' 'First Love,' &c. I have, in plain truth, written all the night, besides employing another hand* to transcribe, for which the printer will remember me in his prayers. Now, 'Fair play is a jewel,' as Dr Finucane would say; so send me a proof, if possible, before Wednesday."

* His wife's.

M'Glashan's instinct told him that 'Lorrequer' was a windfall. Fearful lest Colburn should secure the young Irish humorist, he despatched to Portstewart an amba.s.sador* whose instructions were to secure Lever at any cost. If money would not buy him, flattery might win him.

* Mr George Herbert--afterwards a well-known Dublin publisher.--E. D.

Lever, always a victim to impressions of the moment, and always hungry for praise, fell an easy victim to M'Glashan's amba.s.sador. Ere long the knowledge that his writings were in brisk demand caused him to dream of a wider life than Ulster could promise; his mercurial mind travelled back to the bright days when he had been a sojourner on the Continent.

On January 30 he wrote to Spencer:--

"After doctoring many for the last few days I am at last stricken with influenza, and hardly able to answer your letter, which I am most unwilling to defer lest I grow worse, not better. I am most gratified to find that Lady Charleville has interested herself for me, and hope the best results from it. It is singular enough--and perhaps fortunate too--that it is through Sir George's mother, the d.u.c.h.ess of Richmond, whom Alderman Copeland has procured as a patroness, [?she] has applied, so that if the opportunity to serve me is in her power she may perhaps feel disposed for it.

"As to Moatfield, I thought I should have got 500, but if you think that it is out of the question, offer it to John for 400, and let him, if he accepts, have any convenience as to half of it he proposes. Of course this is contingent on my going to Brussels, for if I do not I shall not want it--at least at present. If Mr Crowther--for whose misfortune I am really sorry--goes to Brussels I shall be glad to hear, for there are many points I am most desirous to be informed upon.

"Cusack was right in respect to the prohibition to practise,--there is a _permis_ to be procured from the Belgian government before any foreign physician can prescribe; but this, if I am connected with the Amba.s.sador, will be, I suppose, a mere matter of form.

"PS.--The influenza, which has been killing others, has been keeping me alive, though I find my outlay always a very respectable distance in advance of my income. The rival doctor here has been dangerously ill, and I have been greatly engaged.

"I have just got a letter from Brussels from another and more competent source than the former. It speaks encouragingly of my prospects, there being 'but one good English physician in Brussels, and he constantly in jail for debt. It is right' (I quote the words) 'to mention that the physician's fee is but five francs, and that living is much more expensive than formerly, and the English residents fewer in number.'

This, on the whole, is somewhat gloomy, but I know many well-informed persons who think the small fee more profitable, as it is always offered and taken for each visit, and tendered for illnesses which rarely would elicit the guinea. On the whole, I am more discomfited at the dearness of the place than the amount of the remuneration."

At the end of February he made up his mind finally to voyage to Brussels, and he announced to Spencer his intention of travelling by way of Belfast, Liverpool, London, and Antwerp.