MR. VIZETELLY'S REMINISCENCES.*
Mn. VIZETELLY'S backward glances are often turned to the " seamy side " of things, especially of things literary and artistic, with which he has had a good deal, in one way or another, to do. He has seen many literary heroes, or men who have passed for such, in something of the aspect in which their valets see them, and the result is what the proverb would lead us to expect. The temper in which he writes is not malicious, it is sometimes even kindly, but it is never enthusiastic. He does not always despise, but he seldom admires. Still, we are glad to have his volumes, and the historian of the nineteenth century, when he comes to write his literary and social chapters, will probably find in them some of the not least curious and interesting of his materials. The "seventy years," it must be understood, is a figure of speech. The first chapter gives us a sketch of things as they were under George IV., much of it, of course, taken from hearsay, though Mr. Vizetelly, who is a Londoner born, has a few recollections of his own, as, for instance, of Fleet Street as a quiet thoroughfare in which ladies with lap-dogs would promenade. His memory is greatly at fault about the Duke of York. He has been relating how the Duke allowed his wife to be much pressed for money, and goes on : " When the Duchess died, the Duke treated his mistress in much the same fashion, leaving her to defray the expenses of their joint establishment by the sale of army commissions, to which he pretended to shut his eyes." Now, the Duchess died in 1820, while the Mrs. Clarke scandal had happened many years before. It was so much forgotten that the Prince Regent was able again to make the Duke Commander-in-Chief. This was a scandalous job, but not displeasing to the public, which, as Mr. Vizetelly remarks, felt something like a general sorrow at his death, and even put up that preposterous monument of folly, the Duke of York's column. So much will "amiability and good temper" do for a thoroughly worthless man.
The reminiscences really begin with 1830. Passing over some not very edifying school stories, we come to recollections of the agitated years during which the Reform Bill was still under debate. " Captain Swing," the supposed ring- leader in rural incendiarism, was then in full force, terrify- ing England out of its wits, and, it mast be allowed, so well- kept was his secret, not without cause. Richard Carlisle, a somewhat disreputable publisher — so, at least, he was thought in those days—published a book about Swing's doings. He was prosecuted for the publication, with the usual effect that the book was greatly sought after. Mr. Vizetelly tells us how he went to buy it, and how it was lowered to him in a basket from a trapdoor in the ceiling. Naturally, it contained none of the piquant revelations that
* Glances Bark through Seventy Years. By Henry Vizetelly. 2 vole. London : Began, Paul, Trench and Co. 1893.
the purchaser expected. Chapter IV. introduces us to the "cheap literature" movement of the time, to the Penny and Saturday magazines, which have long since ceased to exist, and to their still surviving coeval Chambers' Edinburgh. Journal. These, however, were publications intended for conservative or moderately reforming readers. More advancedl thinkers were appealed to by such publications as the Poor- Man's Guardian. Hetherington, who brought the paper out, waged a long war with the Government, the causa belli being: the stamp duty. In the end he prevailed, at least so far that the newspaper stamp was reduced from fourpence to a penny,. the advertisement duty from three-and-sixpence to eighteen- pence, while the paper duty of threepence per pound was halved. A more dignified and more successful purveyor of cheap literature was Tilt; we have a romantic story of how he chose a successor in his business. This was his junior assistant, a young man without a farthing of capital, but recommended by his shrewdness and steady application to business. After a brief trial in partnership, he had everything handed over to him at a valuation, which, with the capital advanced, came to £50,000. David Bogue—this was the, young man's name—showed, we believe, that the selection was a good one.
Of authors and artists, more or less famous, Mr. Vizetelly has much to tell us. He and his brother printed for R. H. Horne his epic poem of Orion, sold, it will be remembered,. for a farthing a copy. The edition was speedily cleared,. though no one was allowed to purchase more than a single copy. Horne wrote much, but only Orion is remembered,. whether for its merits, or for the eccentric manner of its first appearance, is not easy to say. Disappointed in his literary hopes, he went to Australia, where he became chief of the, mounted police in one of the colonies. " A strange duty," remarks our author, for an epic poet, who was also so care- ful of his health that he always carried a pair of dry socks in, his pocket. A less reputable celebrity of the time was Theo- dore Hook, at one time editor of the John Bull, a newspaper which began with a well-deserved reputation for scurrility and blackmailing, and died not very long ago in a certain odour, of sanctity. The most famous of Mr. Vizetelly's literary acquaintances was Thackeray, of whom he has many recol- lections, most of them kindly and pleasant. He dissipates into air the well-known legend of Vanity Fair having been carried about without success to publisher after publisher.. It could not have been so carried about for the best of reasons—it was not written. Mr. Vizetelly's account is to- this effect. Thackeray called on him one afternoon in 1846, carrying a small parcel, which he opened to show him aa, couple of carefully-finished drawings. He went on to Messrs.. Bradbury and Evans, and came back in half-an-hour not a little rejoiced that the firm had accepted it. They were to pay fifty guineas for each number of thirty-two pages, with two etchings, and initials for the chapters. Thackeray divided the remuneration thus £1 5e. for each page of matter, £6 6s. for each etching, the initials to be thrown in- " B. and E.," he remarked, " accepted so readily that I am deuced sorry I didn't ask them for another tenner." And, indeed, the price was low enough for such work. It comes to less than £1,000. £7,000 was paid for the publication of .Romola ; yet five people know Vanity Fair for one who knows Bomola. It should be said that, when the tale was accepted, one number only was written, and throughout the publication the writer was only so much in advance.
Perhaps the most curious thing in the book is the story of the beginning of illustrated papers, and of the Illustrated London News in particular. Mr. Vizetelly relates how a Nottingham firm of newsagents sent up to his firm a fancy portrait of ` Old Parr,' with directions to execute a woodcut from it with the legend, " From a picture by Sir Peter Paul Reubens." The objection that the portrait was purely imaginary was over-ruled. An engraving of Parr's tomb- stone in Westminster Abbey was also ordered, and Mr. (now Sir John) Gilbert made some fancy designs for a " Life " of the old man. Parr's " Life " was a success ; but Parr's Life Pills, run by the same adventurous firm, were some- thing more. On the strength of the money thus realised, Mr. Herbert Ingram started the Illustrated News. Every- thing went well—better, perhaps, than it deserved, for in the opening number, Mr. Vizetelly assures us, "there was not a single engraving derived from an authentie source." The second number had the merit of giving some authentic repre- sentations of articles sold at Strawberry Hill, and a likeness of Daniel Good, the murderer, certified by the solicitor who defended him. This, according to Mr. Vizetelly, was an illustration after Ingram's heart, his original design having been something like a pictorial Police News. Lady Watkins, his widow, denies this; but we cannot help thinking that the story told in " Glances Back " is likely to be true. Successful men often in after years unconsciously credit themselves with higher motives for their ventures than they felt at the time. Whatever the principles on which the undertaking was com- menced and carried on, courage certainly was not wanting. An early number was sent to every beneficed clergyman in England (Mr. Vizetelly says that it contained an engraving of " the installation of a new Archbishop of Canterbury ;" but there was no new Archbishop till 1848, six years after the Hews was started). Anyhow, the seventh number had a circulation of 20,000.
So striking was the success that Mr. Vizetelly, who did not get on well with Ingram, started a paper of his own, an enterprise in which he was backed by Mr. Andrew Spottis- woode. A good staff was got together—Douglas Jerrold, leader-writer, the topics being non-political ; Thackeray, art and literature; Mark Lemon, theatrical ; Gilbert A'Beckett, the humorous column, &c. It was through the Pictorial Times, as the new paper was called, that Mr. Vizetelly made the acquaintance of Thackeray. Three guineas for two columns was the price offered and gladly accepted. " He jocularly expressed himself willing to sign an engagement for life upon these terms." The pay strikes one now as anything but magnificent. The engagement did not last long, for Thackeray went to Egypt. One review which he is remem- bered to have written was of Coningsby.
Napoleon III., in the days when he was an impecunious exile, and also indeed in his imperial splendour, is a prominent figure in the gallery of portraits. Before the Presidential election of December, 1848, the Cavaignac party endeavoured to buy up Louis Napoleon's notes of hand. They found that some one had been beforehand with them. This some one was M. Achille Fould. He believed in the Napoleon legend, or at least in the French belief in it, and his penetration was rewarded by the post of Minister of Finance. A curious story is told of another of the "gang." Roaher, afterwards Vice-Emperor, was less sanguine than Fould. He actually voted for Cavaignac. Jules Simon advised him to make his peace with the conqueror. " Ah ! it's easy to say so, but he'd scorn me like a dog," suggested Rouher. " Perhaps so on the first occasion," Simon replied; " but at the next interview you'll kiss his hand, and at the third you'll be appointed Minister." And so it was, or something like it, for Rouher was Prime Minister the next year. A great part of the second volume is occupied by Mr. Vizetelly's recollections of the Second Empire ; during a long residence at Paris he saw much of its doings.
There are plenty more curiosities which we might extract from these volumes. Whether they are always facts may be doubted ; it will have been seen that, when we can test Mr. Vizetelly's dates, &c., they are not always correct. Anyhow, it is amusing to read how he took in the Times, the Athena:on, and the Quarterly with a fictitious tale of the Californian gold diggings, and surprising to be told that the first English edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin was a failure. The price was half-a-crown. Mr. Richard Bentley threatened an opposition volume at a shilling, and Mr. Vizetelly and his partners in the enterprise, in self-defenee, lowered their own price. The sale was then enormous, and Mr. Vizetelly received £500 for his share. We are inclined to prescribe a granum salis to our readers to take with these volumes; they will then find them a light and not insalutary meal.
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