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CHAPTER VI.

Con Cregan-Sir Jasper Carew-Baron Ward's Reprise-Proposal of office from America-Alarming Accidents-Swell Guests-Visit of the Duke of Wellington and Thiers-" The Day's Ride"-Thackeray prescribes Thrift for Lever-" The Dodd Family Abroad "-Parallel between Lever and Smollett-His dislike of Revision-The guest of Lord St. Germans in Dublin-The Career and Death of Charles Lever, Junior— Described by his Brother Officers-The Father's strong Sense of Manly Rectitude- His love of Display-Prompt to resent and to be reconciled.

"CON CREGAN," published by Orr, was undertaken at the suggestion of the same "old school-fellow" of whom Lever makes honourable mention in his preface to "The Daltons." "I happened "I happened at the time," writes Major D——, "to get a Spanish version of 'Gil Blas,' which, I preferred very much to the original French; and I wrote to Lever saying so, and adding that he ought to try something in the 'Gil Blas' style. It was while he was living at Bregenz, and I know that he had at that time run himself out of money from his losses at the Baden-Baden gambling table, and his train of horses and poneys, &c. It was a regular pot-boiler. Cregan' was therefore a failure."

'Con

a pot

"Con Cregan" was, as Major D—— says, boiler;" but unless the true fire was in it, the crucible would not have boiled. That it boiled very much to

the purpose we know on high authority. "The Daltons" was appearing at the same time as "Con Cregan," and Lever in a scarce preface-afterwards withdrawn-tells us that "For one notice of 'The Daltons' by the Press there were four of 'Con Cregan,' and while the former was dismissed with a few polite and measured phrases, the latter was largely praised and freely quoted. Nor was this all. The critics discovered in 'Con Cregan' a freshness and a vigour which were so sadly deficient in 'The Daltons.' It was, they averred, the work of a less practised writer, but of one whose humour was more subtle, and whose portraits, roughly sketched as they were, indicated a far higher power than the author of 'Lorrequer.'"

The unknown-for there was no attempt to guess him

-was pronounced not to be an imitator of Mr. Lever, though there were certain small points of resemblance; for he was clearly original in his conception of character, in his conduct of his story, and in his dialogues; and there were traits of knowledge of life, in scenes and under conditions to which Mr. Lever could lay no claim. One critic who had found out more features of resemblance between the two writers than his colleagues, uttered a friendly caution to Mr. Lever to look to his laurels, for there was a rival in the field possessing many of the characteristics by which he first won public favour; but with a racy drollery in description and a quaintness in humour all his own. แ It was the amusement of one of my children," writes Lever, "at the time to collect.

THE CRITICS CONFUSED.

171

these sage comments and torment me with their judgments, and I remember a droll little note-book, in which they were pasted, and read aloud from time to time with no small amusement and laughter." Here he subjoined a long series of "Opinions by the Press."

We trust that our esteemed correspondent, "the Major," will not think it discourteous of us to offer evidence with the object of showing that "Con Cregan" was not, as he thinks, a failure; but when he remembers that it originated from a suggestion of his own, the success which we claim for it cannot be unwelcome news.

Lever goes on to say :-"It may sound very absurd to confess it, but I was excessively provoked at the superior success of the unacknowledged book, and felt the rivalry to the full as painfully as though I had never written a line of it. Was it that I thought well of one story and very meanly of the other; and in consequence was angry at the want of concurrence of my critics? I suspect not. I rather imagine I felt hurt at discovering how little hold I had, in my acknowledged name, on a public with whom I fancied myself on such good terms, and it pained me to see with what little difficulty a new and a nameless man could push for the place I had believed to be my own. "The Daltons' I always wrote, after my habit, in the morning; I never turned to 'Cregan' until nigh midnight; and I can still remember the widely different feelings with which I addressed myself to the task I liked, and to a story which, in the absurd fashion I have mentioned, was associated with wounded self-love."

The original preface to "Con Cregan," though anonymous, was unmistakeably Leverish, with the exception, perhaps, of a passage wherein he speaks of having been the friend of Talleyrand.

Lever well knew that to run an opposition coach on the line he had made his own might be attended with some peril; and à propos, would tell a story which Bianconi once told him. To popularise a road on which few people were then travelling, and on which his daily two-horse car was accustomed to go its journey with two or three passengers, the idea occurred to Bian that he should start an opposition conveyance in perfect secrecy, and with every outward show of its being a genuine rival. He effected his object with such success, that his own agents were completely taken in; and one day when the struggle between the competitors was at its height, one of his drivers rushed frantically into his office, crying out, "Give me a crown piece to drink your honour's health for what I done to-day. I killed the yallow mare of the opposition car; I passed her on the long hill, when she was blown, and I bruk her heart before she reach'd the top." "After this I gave up the opposition," said Bianconi; "mocking was catching, and I thought that one might carry a joke a little too far." "I had this experience before me," Lever writes, " and I will not say it did not impress me. My puzzle was, however, in this wise. I imagined I did not care on which horse I stood to win.

"An American officer, of whom I saw much at the time,

MEXICAN EXPERIENCES.

173.

was my guide to the interior of Mexico; he had been originally in the Santa Fé expedition, was a man of most adventurous disposition, and a love of stirring incident and peril, that even broken-down health and a failing constitution could not subdue.

"It was often very difficult for me to tear myself away from the Texan and Mexican experiences-his wild scenes of prairie life, or his sojourn amongst Indian tribes-and keep to the more commonplace events of my own story; nor could all my entreaties confine him to those descriptions of places and scenes which I needed for my own characters.

"The saunter after tea-time with this companion, generally along that little river that tumbles through the valley of the Bagni di Lucca, was the usual preparation for my night's work; and I came to it as intensely possessed by Mexico-dress, manner, and landscape-as though I had been drawing on the recollection of a former journey. So completely separated in my mind were the two tales by the different parts of the day in which I wrote them, that no character of 'The Daltons' ever crossed my mind after nightfall, nor was there a trace of Con Cregan' in my head at next morning."

For a long time Maurice Tierney continued to make his monthly bow, "put through his facings," by the more disciplined judgment of John Lever, as will be seen by reference to page 131 of our first volume.

McGlashan urged Lever to keep to probabilities, vice "Creganisms." Lever obeyed, but feared that he was

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