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writers, he said, were numerous, but they had gone to London, where alone their talents would be rewarded. None remained at home except a few that looked for advancement in the professions or patronage from the sham court; that in Ireland there was no public opinion; that Dublin was split up into factions, coteries, and classes, jealous of each other, and engaged in miserable squabbles. That the Magazine, if carried across the water, would be more Irish than it was; for many Irishmen of real genius could be had in London, and none could be had in Ireland. Thackeray added that, though Lever was just then popular, he would some day, perhaps, inadvertently tread on some Irishman's corns, and Irishmen's feet are all corns (he remarked), and then his worshippers would treat him, as the Chinese do their gods when they disappoint them, chop off their heads. He instanced also the case of Edinburgh after the death of Scott, when there was a stampede of literary Scots to London. Of every pound, Thackeray told him, that went into his pocket, nineteen shillings was English money, but a single shilling, Irish currency.

"Lever concluded by telling me his determination was to stick to the ship, but I thought afterwards of the fact, that he put Thackeray's arguments for the movement, in a strong and convincing way, and his own for remaining where he was, in the weakest possible manner. In this conversation Lever pronounced Thackeray to be the most good-natured man alive, but, that help from him would be worse than no help at all. 'He is like,' he said, 'a man struggling to keep his head over water, and who offers to teach his friend to swim.' Thackeray, he said, would write for anything, and about anything; and had so lost himself that his status in London was not good. I know Lever's opinion of Thackeray underwent a complete change later on, but in 1842 with 'Vanity Fair' unpublished, and Esmonde' unwritten, would the public verdict be very different from Lever's?"

Mr. Innes, in a final letter containing a passage, which it is hoped we may be forgiven for not mutilating, adds: "I read the proofs with intense interest, and I have no doubt the book will be most popular. The author has entered into the spirit of his work so completely, that his style becomes Lever's style, and I find it very pleasant reading. My differences with the text are so trifling in their nature, as to be scarcely worth naming, for example, ‘Moatfield,'

which Charles is described as having an intention of selling, was not his, but his brother's, until the lease dropped.* Kilbride Parish and Tullamore are identical, and so on. It was from New Ross Charles first sailed for Canada as surgeon to a passenger vessel belonging to Messrs. Pope of Waterford, a firm long extinct. I was concerned in getting him the appointment, such as it was, but I cannot recall the year, or the terms, though I recollect thinking them absurdly low, though they included the run of the captain's cabin, and a return passage.

"Lever's castle-building tendencies are casually noticed in the first volume. The man really lived a great part of his life in these aerial structures, and in his youth I have listened by the hour to his thick coming fancies. He told me later on, that this practice enabled him to pass peaceable hours when surrounded by troubles and difficulties, which he was half afraid to face. There was another peculiarity in his idiosyncrasy. When he described a scene, it was mentally before his eyes. It was like a map; he saw the horses, the riders, their uniforms, heard the music, or the shouting, he saw women, and their dresses, he always saw the dare devils,' and above all he saw himself. In his early works he was 'Charles O'Malley,' or 'Lorrequer,' or 'Tom Burke;' towards the middle and end of his career, he gravitated into Kenny Dodd, who uttered more wit and wisdom by chalks, than King Solomon in all his glory. Lever borrowed this name from a highly respectable gentleman named Kenny, well known to Lever, and the husband of his cousin.

"I have been looking over the few letters of Lever's that have been preserved, trying for one worth the carriage. Those I have are on business, which accounts for their preservation, and I find but a single sentence characteristic of the man.

"I think his first piece appeared in Bolster's 'Cork Quarterly Magazine,' but he thought not highly of his pre-Lorrequer efforts, and did not much care to speak of them."

* This passage at p. 215, vol. i., occurs in a careful abstract of the original document in the handwriting of Charles Lever.

+ If Mr. Innes will kindly refer to p. 129, vol. i., he will find that we distinctly describe them as identical.

See vol. i., p. 51.

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In Bolster's Magazine, but two papers are found which bear resemblance to Lever's style. In vol. i., page 169, the writer speaks of himself as a student of Trinity College "plunged in deep study when my mind will permit, or, when that is impossible, to the full as deep in the wildest extravagance of folly," the chief of a society associated for the express purpose of disturbing civic quiet and "watchmen." "When the lights were out in a row, I used to feel for their rough coats." The account which occurs is embellished, but its resemblance to the same confession in "O'Malley" will not fail to strike. It is well known to the companions of Lever's boyhood, that previous to the year 1830, if not afterwards, he indulged in the pleasures of opium eating. This paper which is headed "Recollections of Dreamland," sets out with a special reference to opium, and eight pages follow of the writer's experience in the Realms of Vision. To the last Lever felt with Byron, that our life is two-fold, and that sleep has a world of its own.

The favourable impression produced upon the writer's mind by a perusal of De Quincey's, "Confessions of an Opium Eater" is avowed—and we are informed by Dr. Leet, Lever's companion from 1820 to 1825, that the same avowal was made to him.

Further on in Bolster, at pp. 339-344, is "A Tale of Old Trinity," in three short chapters, of a few paragraphs each, the first opening with a sketch of the parson's cottage, and "Arthur's return to College," with a notice of the coach ready to start-" the whip thrown across the backs of the wheelers." Arthur is next discovered in Old Trinity, his attention divided between "coffee and Cicero." The examinations; the peal of the great bell at 5:45; the stroll in the park; the Lectures; are graphically mixed up with allusions to the fair girl he had left behind him.

Paul Helsham Hunt, Esq., in a letter dated Kilfera, Kilkenny, February 24, 1879, and written by direction of his mother, an octogenarian lady, Mrs. Kenny Purcell, daughter of Archdeacon Helsham, and first cousin of Charles Lever's mother, supplies some interesting genealogical information, for which however we venture to substitute the more lucid statement aud pedigree of Harry Innes, Esq., but some branches of the tree, luxuriantly extending into other counties, we have taken the liberty of pruning.

ELLEN CANDLER, JULIA CANDLER, or m. JAMES LEVER, of

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Sophia, daughter of the late Rev. John Lever, and niece of the novelist, married Piers Edmund Butler, Esq., of Clontarf, who, from family papers now before us, seems lineal representative of the dormant Peerage of Galmoy, but the expense of prosecuting his claim. in the House of Lords deters him from attempting to establish it.

II.-LEVER'S HOAX IN 1831.

The following are the documents referred to at p. 48, vol. i.

'SIR-We, the graduates and under-graduates of Trinity College, have heard, with feelings of the most profound regret, that after having resided among us for a very long period (gaining our affections by your social qualities, and eliciting our admiration by your genius and abilities), you are now about to leave us, and thus deprive our university of one who has evinced on all occasions the most uncompromising patriotism.

"On the very important question which now agitates the empire, there exists among us a diversity of opinions; but, however we may deem it our duty to differ with you in politics, we breathe but one feeling of the most intense admiration, at the noble conduct of one who, in this age of corruption, banished from his heart every selfish feeling, and cast himself and his talents into the vibrating scale, to advocate the measures of his Majesty's ministers.

"We have therefore, sir, come to the resolution of presenting you with this address, as a small testimonial of our gratitude and esteem for the many social qualities by which you were endeared to us, for the warm and zealous interest you have taken in our welfare, and of our inexpressible regret at the melancholy intelligence of your departure."

Sixty signatures are attached, including that of "Gerald Fitzgerald, A. B.," the name, it will be remembered, of one of Lever's later stories. The victim's reply goes on to say :—

“GENTLEMEN,—I feel that I cannot command language sufficiently

VOL. II.

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