closed our evening: he gave us all he had, and you know he was not a rich man. Each time we came away more deeply impressed with his knowledge of life and human nature, and with his talent for looking upon the bright side of both. When we drove home to our hotelthousands of glow-worms lighting the road and floating about our carriage-they seemed like the flashes from his great and grand mind dwelling with us still. Alas! that he should have gone so early. Ireland lost in him one of her most talented children, and all those who knew him, the most charming of companions."

This feeling was thoroughly reciprocated. Lever in dedicating a later story to him said, "Through the many anxieties which beset me while I was writing it, your name was constantly recurring, and always with some act of kindness, or some proof of affection."

"The Martins of Cro' Martin" now appeared—a thoroughly Irish story, tinged by the sadness of his own experiences when ministering to the sufferings of cholera patients in Clare. The Athenæum in reviewing it declared that "Lever had committed his one dull novel❞—a stroke which his sensitive nature painfully felt.

"Chateaubriand! pourquoi fuir ta patrie?" wrote Béranger. The same question was often put to Lever, who, when nightmare ceased to plague him, had fondly

* Letter of the Baron Erlanger, Paris, 30th of March, 1879. The Baron adds that in looking over his correspondence with Lever, he finds it of so private a character that even a resume of it would prove of no public interest, and that he fears he cannot lighten or add to the task of his Biographer; but we beg to assure the Baron how acceptable is his vivid and touching sketch.

CONSUL AT SPEZZIA.

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wandered in dreams to the land of the West. He found it hard to answer the question until, in 1858, a consular appointment came and nailed him to exile for the rest of his days. Nevertheless, he was much elated on receiving his commission as Vice-Consul at Spezzia-the new Portsmouth of the then kingdom of Sardinia. But like its uniform, all was not gold that glittered.*

Contemporaneously with "Con Cregan" appeared "The Daltons," the original conception of which was due to the impressions produced on Lever's mind, as he tells us, by "the stories of his old friend and schoolfellow" [Major D—], [Major D-], "who had entered the Austrian service, and rose to rank and honours in it." Major

* An able letter from an English consul appeared in the Standard, June 13, 1872, in which he declared that the "consular service of Great Britain was at its very lowest." "For our wives and children there is no pension; we may be reduced at any moment to vice-consulates-witness Venice and Damascus; we may be recalled at a moment's notice, leaving no time to sell off." The writer added that the worst view of our consular service was when we compare it with the French or other great Continental powers. He was much amused by a travelling Englishwoman, whose cousin had a row with a gardener, crying, "Send for the English Consul!" in the vein of Lady Augusta Bramleigh, "that admirable creation of a distinguished colleague; and this was in a place where a consul is honoured, as long as he deserves honour, more than the nobles of the land."

Nothing could be more precarious than consular employment at this time. The very office which Lever got was abolished on February 13th, 1867-as a letter from the Foreign Office, now before us, announces. Lever, however, mainly through the exertions of Chief Justice Whiteside, received a promotion to Trieste, of which more presently.

+ "From the hour I was introduced to him," continues the genial survivor, "we were friends, and remained so to the last hour of his life. His uniform kindness to me was certainly not owing to my having ever flattered him or burned incense on his altar. So far from it, I often pointed out to him trifling inaccuracies and incongruities such as an old soldier detects; and what is still more likely to wound an author's vanity, I made

D had never seen "The Daltons," or the last preface to it, which pointed so unmistakably to him, until the present writer drew his attention to both. "Perhaps I may be as in the preface he represents me," writes the Major, "or perhaps I may at least have seemed to be so. As to the story itself, I cannot judge until I have read it; but every one of the few pages I looked into contains some exaggeration in those details which are introduced for the very purpose of giving vraisemblance to the narrative. The characters in this, as in most of his novels, are real living men and women, but they are clad in garments such as are only found in the wardrobe of a theatre, and surrounded by accessories of a truly incomprehensible, incongruous, and anachronistic character. But I suppose that this is what pleases the public."

Lever, as the book grew beneath his hand, gradually relinquished incidents suggested by Major D's career. The latter portion of "The Daltons" included scenes from the Italian campaign, then in progress; and Lever's pen sped, while the earth was already tremulous under the march of mighty squadrons. He regarded the army of that day as the direct representatives of those who had bivouacked round the fires of Wallenstein's camp; and, as usual, old associations nerved his

no secret of my never having read one half his novels, which is literally true up to the present moment. It is only doing fair justice to his memory to say that although he liked to be admired, and was keenly alive both to praise and blame, he never exacted the one from his friends, nor greatly resented the other in captious critics, for enemy he scarce had one."

LORD METHUEN.

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hand, while the early martial spirit of his nature once more asserted its vitality. Kinglake, too, the historian of the Crimean War, charmed Lever by the vigour of his battle scenes and the honesty of passages which cut deeply at the Tuileries, and he inscribed to him "The Bramleighs" as a record alike of his genius and his

courage.

46

Lever had been much in Lord Methuen's society at Florence. His dedication of "The Daltons" assures 'my dear Methuen" that "a real person introduced in the book was a right true-hearted Englishman, and to him I wish to dedicate it, in testimony not only of the gratitude which, in common with all his countrymen here, I feel to be his due, but in recognition of many happy hours passed in his society, and the honour of his friendship. The personality begins and ends with this dedication."

Lever's novels may be divided into two classes-the purely Celtic and the more cosmopolitan. "The Daltons" belong to the latter category, and went far to strengthen our author's reputation.

It has been said that to do well anything, however trifling, we must give our whole thought to it. That Lever should be writing two novels together, just as he drove his pair of bloods" in Derry, shows that there is no rule without an exception. "The Dodd Family" and "Sir Jasper Carew came out also simultaneously. The hail of adversity fell on Lever shortly before the publication of "The Daltons "; but so buoyant was his nature, that his heart remained unchilled. Just before

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his death he wrote a new preface to "The Daltons"; from which it appears that in throwing back his mind's eye to the period he saw only the sunlit spots.

"Nearly every line of this story was written in good health and spirits. It was no labour to me to sit at my desk the hour or hour-and-half which sufficed to carry on my story. The incidents I wanted occurred to me without an effort; and the characters amused me—I am afraid to own how much. Certain experiences of my own had taught me how much of actual tragedy is mingled with the genteel comedy of life, and that things of terrific meaning are continually occurring through that well-bred world, whose chief functions might seem pleasure and enjoyment. I tried to adapt this experience to the scenes before me, and to show that amid all the frivolities of fashion there are mingled the passions which exhaust themselves in crime. Although no longer

* Lever, in his last preface to "The Daltons," connects his friend the Major with certain remarks on Austria, which, when we directed his attention to them, he did not wholly endorse. But a later letter adds :-" I must correct something I wrote to you with reference to the introduction to The Daltons.' It is quite true that I did more than once refer to Austria becoming a centre of civilization, that is to say, of the German element of which the court, the dynasty, and the ministry were then the representatives, being such a centre for the Magyar and Slav elements within the limits of the empire. This was Austria's real function, but unfortunately, as I think, the principle of divide et impera' was resorted to, and the various nationalities were played off against one another, with what baneful results we can now see; besides which, the representation of the German element has passed to a great extent into other hands. At first sight the passage referred to read as if I had looked upon Austria as being or ever likely to become a centre of civilization amongst the neighbouring kingdoms or other states beyond its own borders; and this was what I repudiated, perhaps somewhat too vehemently."