a watchful eye over the proper names, "and that Jasper's various aliases should not be multiplied at the will of the Devil." Quoting the adage, he said, certain people should have good memories; but although one of the guild, his own, he added, was deplorable. These worries were again crowned by a repetition of that miscarriage of MS. which had once put Lorrequer so much about. Capel, the king's messenger, brought Sir Jasper to Constantinople instead of to England.

The serious illness of his son at this time greatly unmanned him, and put him, as he said, off his work. In his desire to please McGlashan, by "quashing improbables," he left himself without copy, and could with difficulty fill the spaces. An attack of sunstroke followed, accompanied by stupefaction-a mishap oftener incurred in the strong sun of an Italian winter than in summer. He could not bear light without pain. In the midst of these troubles war seemed imminent, and he feared he should be obliged to draw near England. But again his plans were foiled-probably for the better. In April, 1853, suppressed gout seized him by the head; and, as he cheerfully told a friend, he found himself one morning seated, Turkish fashion, on the carpet-without knowing when, how, or why he had fallen! Bad headaches, which Southey compared to lights in the powder magazine, were not likely to be relieved by heating the boiler, and doing in a few hours what ought to take as many days; and often merely to save postage, by utilising the hand of some friend, who offered to convey

his package to England-but too often forgot to deliver it in time.

The peevishness inseparable from cerebral decay began to show itself at this time, in the incisive criticism of which McGlashan was so capable, and which, when unrestrained by delicacy of feeling, was formidable in its strength. The Scot having enclosed an abusive notice to Lever, he replied that, though not indifferent to public opinion, or indisposed to accept correction, it would be as well to spare him the pain of reading what could not guide nor instruct, since mere condemnation was not criticism; and the notice he enclosed him was simply such, without the trouble of any allusion to those numerous faults which no doubt disfigured the performance. Lever expressed himself sorry for McGlashan's sake, sorrier than for his own, that the story was not better; still more sorry that he had no other amende to offer for the disappointment of a neat performance than the expression of his regret and a sincere and honest determination to profit henceforth by the lesson it conveyed. Lever was at first hurt by McGlashan's frankness; but, after a few days, we find him, good-humoured as ever, urging the Scot once more to come and see him at Spezzia, where they would have a jollification together as of old-in those good days when they walked the Coblentz bridge in the moonlight and thought of magnificent things to be mastered.

McGlashan did not go. He was over-worked, and testy from the irritated state of his jaded brain. Again

"SIR JASPER CAREW"

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Lever took his querulousness in good part; assured him that he never remembered in any previous story, where one predominating idea held its place so powerfully before him as in this. Like all he had ever done or ever should do, it was full of faults; but he did not incur these by carelessness; and he urged McGlashan to remember that, if the liquor was getting muddy and near the lees, that he had a good pull at the tap when 'twas better drinking. In transmitting the draught of the finish he remarked that probably he would be no less rejoiced than the author himself, and if he were not hopeless of pleasing him, would ask how he liked it—but perhaps it were better not to provoke a judgment.

Between "Carew" and the "Dodds," not to speak of family troubles, Lever's head, in point of fact, had become pretty well addled. He described the whole as getting infernally complicated, and he feared he should have to publish a key to both books when done; moreover, the equinoctials had begun, and in October, '53, very nearly finished all his family. A smashing levanter half filled their boat, and all but closed "Carew" and the "Dodds," as he told McGlashan, without even a "huddle." The critical publisher had been complaining that Lever often "huddled" the catastrophe of his stories. To the "Dodds" we shall again return.

"Sir Jasper" appeared primarily in the magazine. Lever, in reply to hints from McGlashan, told him that the commencement d'un fin might be immediately looked for; that there was, then, no room for love, and it would

be a scurvy trick to bring Cupid in only at the end, like a child introduced at the dessert, so he left him out altogether. He was sorely distressed about the choice of two dénouements for the tale; he said, like one of Peel's measures, it could be treated in various ways, with divers objections against each. Again, he tried to persuade McGlashan to come to Florence, and over a straw-shirted flask of "Lagrime" to discuss the point. In conclusion, he urged him to take to his bottlethe ink-bottle-and send a receipt in full for a lot of political gossip which he gathered from diplomatists. Time was when McGlashan frequently wrote to him, with much that he liked to hear, and sometimes even more than he relished; but latterly he had become reticent the old plan, Lever said, was useful to both, and if they could not be as young as they once were, they were at least older friends.

In 1853 Lever received two flattering propositions from America. One was an office if he would reside long enough to qualify for citizenship; the other an editorial chair. But he was too old, he said, to take root in a new soil, and would rather go back to some snug nook in his own land. He wrote to friends in Ireland to know if its prospects were not better, and if a fair opening existed for a weekly journal. He spoke of Lord Normanby, whom he daily saw, as most communicative about Ireland-and especially of his own eventful career as its Viceroy. A very remarkable man, now filling a rôle equally high, was on a visit with Lever, in November,

1853.

SWELL GUESTS.

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Lever described him as a fine-hearted fellow, worth a million of all the other Bulwers he had seen. Some papers were written by this distinguished guest, which Lever sent over to McGlashan for his magazine. On the 20th December the Duke of Wellington dropped in, and, sans cérémonie, remained to dinner. "Now that he is Master of the Horse," said Lever, "I wish he would make me helper in Pimlico!"

Other swell friends, of whom Lever saw a good deal, were Lords Ely and Worcester, Hertford and Farnham. He described the colours of the latter peers as orange, though their sentiments were lemon, with a tinge of Peel. He wrote to McGlashan to know if there was any chance of settling an orange and green garland in United Ireland. We find Sir Philip Crampton the guest of Lever about this time. Thiers and Duvergier dined with Lever on their way to Naples. Thiers spoke with a degree of freedom and openness that led Lever to express the conviction, next day, that he was "fibbing" all the time. Duvergier he described as less agreeable, but more honest. Thiers, in truth, had done his best to amuse; and among other anecdotes, told Lever how the Duc d'Aumale, a few days previously, meeting the French envoy, Bandt, at the Neapolitan Court, was complimented by him on sa santé excellente. "Oui, M. le Ministre; c'est comme vous dites," said the Duke, "et au moins, c'est quelque chose que vous ne pouvez pas 'confisquer !

Of Scribe and Eugène Sue he saw much at this time, but he described them as wonderfully inferior to what