Part 14

“I yesterday received a long and confidential letter from Lord Douro. The split in the Cabinet was not all on corn. The Duke wanted to give up the commandership-in-chief, and the Queen, _folle de son mari_, actually insisted on Prince Albert succeeding him,--an appointment which, if made, would outrage the service and insult the whole nation. To avoid such a _coup_ the Duke was induced to hold on and save us--for the present, at least--from such a humiliation. As to the announcements in ‘The Times,’ and the disclosure of Cabinet secrets, the story is rather amusing. Lord Douro says, ‘If my father’s beard only heard him mutter in his sleep, he’d shave at bedtime.’ But Sidney Herbert is more in love and less discreet, for he actually told Mrs Norton what had occurred at the Council, and _she_ sold the information to ‘The Times’ for a very large sum!* Even in Virgil he might have read a nice lesson on this head,--but I suppose his classical readings were more of Ovid latterly. 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. Dickens’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 entitled “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 entitled “The Fête 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 Strasse, 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, nobody in Carlsruhe became any better or worse, nobody 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 amusements 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 amusement, 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 Embassy, 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 assurance 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 Pöllnitz, 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 principal 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 Saturday 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 Dickens 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 _à 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._

“Riedenburg, _Nov_. 2, 1846.

“There never was a bad business man assisted by a cleverer and more good-natured friend. You have perfectly satisfied all my hazy doubts as to how I stand before the world. Heaven knows, the matter ought to seem easy enough to me now! for all through my life I have never looked beyond the coming month of January,--and how to open the New Year without cumbering it with the deficiencies of the old one....

“From Curry I received a half-apologetic epistle, hoping that if I would state what sum I would accept for my remaining interest, the matter might be arranged without the interference of the gentlemen of the long robe. I sent the letter on to Chapman for advice, and I have not yet received his reply. Could you conveniently see M’Glashan and sound him as to the best mode of terminating the controversy? I am also very anxious to ascertain his feelings towards myself....

“I hear that my ‘Knight’ (though not by any means so popular as many others) is the best I have done. I hope this is so, because it is the last. I know it is most carefully written: the dialogue has cost me great pains and labour, and the whole book has more of thought in it than its predecessors.... I am glad you like the ‘Knight’ for more reasons than flattered vanity suggests. I want you to accept of it in dedication. I hope you will receive the barren compliment, not at the poor price of such a production, but as another proof of my sincere regard and affection.”

_To Mr Hugh Baker_.*

“Riedenburg, _Nov._ 10, 1846.

* Charles Lever’s brother-in-law.

“I possess a contingent interest in certain books--‘Tom Burke,’ ‘Hinton,’ and ‘O’Donoghue,’ the former after 11,000, the latter after 10,000 copies. This interest--or, to speak more plainly, the amount of profit accruing to me--was estimated by M’G. in one of his letters to me, and I believe in a conversation with you, as such, that if the sales reached 20,000 my receipts would be doubled. The sale of ‘Hinton’ alone [? the a/cs] showed did exceed the limits where my profit began, and in an account furnished to me before leaving Ireland I was credited in a proportion analogous to M’G.’s pledge.

“Since that period (mark this--for here the iniquity begins) the house of Curry and Co. effected sales for the purpose, I believe, of raising cash to conclude the winding-up of partnership, of 1000 copies of ‘Hinton’ at a mere minimum profit (6d, I think, per copy), and thus at one _coup_ not only reduce my profit to a mere fraction, but seriously and gravely--as I am prepared to show--damage my character and that of my books in the London market.

“And these sales made without my consent--without even my knowledge--were in the face of a scale of profit already acknowledged by their own account furnished, and specially pledged by M’G.

“The matter ends not here, for, anxious to purchase my remaining rights,--the only obstacle to selling the sole copyrights in London,--Curry had the impudence to propose £200 for the four vols. in question, urging as a reason for my compliance his own depreciated sales, and using a threat of the damage he could effect in my reputation by continuing such a system of depreciation.

“This, if related by any less credible witness than Spencer, would scarcely be believed. But the case is so. Up to the moment Spencer had been--when able--moving in the matter; but Curry, from old experience of my capacity for being duped, declined conferring with him, and addressed to me certain letters--half flattery, half insolence--in which he alleges that M’G.’s scale of my half profits was far too high, and that I have been overpaid! and lastly, that the depreciated sales were made by him in full right on his part.

“A case was submitted to Longfield for his opinion on this head (of which I enclose you the copy sent to me by Spencer). The last letter I received from Curry enclosed a statement of the expenses of getting up ‘Hinton,’ in which I am charged for my share of 20,000 copies--i.e., 4000 more than are sold. It also contains a request to know at what price I do value my contingent interests, as Mr Curry hopes the matter may be arranged without reference to the courts of law.

“As to the scale of half profits, C. & H. set them down as £10 per 1000 Nos.--which is just what M’Glashan [? estimated].” *

* Lever would appear to have received £1300 on account of profits of ‘Jack Hinton.’--E. D.

_To Mr Hugh Baker._

“Riedenburg, _Nov_. 14,1846.

“Soon after despatching my letter to you, I received the enclosed from Mr Chapman, for whose consideration and counsel I had stated the whole transaction with Curry. You will perceive that his opinion corroborates mine, and maintains my moiety of profits as fixed and unchangeable. As to his (Chapman’s) suggestion that I should ask Curry what price _he_ lays upon his share of the copyrights, it is evidently to reduce him to the dilemma of avowing that he offered me far too little, and of impressing that he asks far too much. Will you see Curry and say that the severe illness of the children in succession has totally prevented my attending to business,--an excuse, I regret to say, not in the least fictitious?

“Curry did ask the trade £2500, which I fancy included stock and stereo-plates, but of this I’m not certain. I had a suspicion that if the copyrights were offered at a fair and reasonable price, Chapman & Hall might purchase,--an arrangement which would suit my views in every respect....

“The affair is of greater moment to me than its mere £ s. d. interests,--because it may serve to consolidate a publishing connection which I would be much pleased to fix on a permanent and lasting basis.”

_To Mr Hugh Baker._

“Riedenburg, _Dec_ 10, 1846.

“C. & H. might purchase (the copyrights), but I have only this impression from a conversation I once held with Chapman, when he mentioned that Curry, after offering the books in the market, appeared to withdraw them--and this possibly gave rise to the suspicion of a new issue being contemplated. What C. & H. would speculate in is, I fancy, a reissue in weekly parts,* cheap--a ‘People’s Edition,’ or some such blackguard epi., that, being the taste of the day. Chapman told me that we might calculate on 30,000, at least, of some of the vols....

* Edward Chapman (according to Lever) stated in one of his letters to Bregenz that his firm’s mode of dealing with Dickens was to give the author so much per 1000 copies, “not charging anything in the a/c for authorship and plates, save cost of working them off.” Doubtless this refers to reprints.--E. D.

“As to M’Glashan. About ten days back I received a note from Spencer which gave me so favourable an impression of his (M’G.’s) feelings towards me, that I at once wrote to him--which I have not done for the last ten months, and although I am very far from being in a writing vein or humour. If he cares for my aid, and if he can afford me such terms as will not be below my mark and _infra dig_. to work for, I’ll finish the ‘Continental Gossipings,’ and make a 1- or 2-vol affair of it, as may seem best.... I am perfectly ready to return to our old and long-continued good understanding.

“I am much amused by your account of Irish affairs. There is something inherent in the national taste for rascality. I am rather well pleased that Old Dan has conquered Young Ireland. I like him, if only that he is the Old Established Blackguard.

“It is rather good fun for us here to read the London morning papers--‘Times,’ &c.--commenting on the Austrian business. Such a mass of lies, mistakes, and absurdities as they circulate never was heard of. First, the Gallician revolt--which ‘The Times’ allege was collusive on their part--was reported to the Governor eleven days before it broke out, and though he had every evidence before his eyes, being a stupid old beast he would not credit [the news], sent the troops away, and had his rebellion for his pains. As uncle to the Emperor, Metternich could not degrade him: but he has been _invited_ to Vienna, and not permitted to resume his government. There was neither collusion on the part of Austria, nor was the peasant massacre instigated by them,--so far from it, that the first movement by the Polish nobles (the greatest blackguards in Europe) was to assassinate or poison all who refused to join the conspiracy. We have beside us in the [neighbourhood] here a young Polish count who made his escape in disguise, and would certainly have been killed for refusing to join the revolt, while the Austrians would hang him if he did. As to Cracow: Austria refused twice, and it was only by Russia’s ultimatum--you or I--that she consented to the annexation. No one who knows anything of Austrian politics suspects her of desiring increase of territory. It is against her interest and her stability, but Russia is not the best next-door neighbour. There are many faults in Austrian rules, but there are excellences and advantages I never beheld in more democratic governments, and whatever may be said about spies and police visits, &c. (of which, by the way, I have seen nothing myself), I cannot speak ill of a country that lets no man starve--that takes care of its sick and aged, and possesses the safest roads to travel, and the smallest calendar of crime of any population in Europe.”

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

“Riedenburg, _Jan_. 9, 1847.