LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE BIOGRAPHICAL THACKERA.Y.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:] SIR,—Your reference to the "two pages and three fanny Cittle woodcuts" at the beginning of chap. 6 of the first odition o' Vanity Fair" in the Spectator of April 30th (Train& me of the reason given me more than forty years ego by Thackeray himself for their omission in the later -editions. I had expressed to him the view, which I still 'hold, that it was a great pity they had been omitted, and he said : "They were considered so objectionable at the time -.hat they very nearly put an end to Vanity Fair.' There was a serious discussion upon them, whether the publica- tion of it should not be stopped." What would have been the result if these timid counsels had prevailed ? It is an interesting speculation. Would not English literature have roesin the poorer for the loss of the great work, and England herself disgraced for ever by the failure to appreciate such a (mighty genius? Fortunately these doubts and fears were 'overcome, and after a time "Vanity Fair" made its way 'to immortality. May I at the same time add another personal reminiscence of Thackeray ? Just after the -completion of "The Newcomes," he told me how he was walking to the post-office in Paris to send off the ‹..onclnding chapters when he came upon an old friend of his, who was also known to me. "Come into this archway," Thackeray to his friend, "and I will read you the last bit of 'The Newcomes.'" The two went aside out of the ,street, and there Thackeray read the scene of the Colonel's death. His friend's emotion grew more and more intense as the reading went on, and at the close he burst out crying, and -exclaimed, "If everybody else does like that the fortune of the book is m 4.de !" "And everybody else did !" was my -comment. `. Not I," replied Thackeray, " I was quite
unmoved when I killed the Colonel. What was nearly too much for me was the description of "Boy" saying "Our Father." I was dictating that to my daughter, and I had the greatest difficulty in controlling my voice and not letting her see that I was almost breaking down. I don't think, however, that she suspected it." Perhaps a future volume of the "Bio- graphical Edition," the one containing "The Newcomes," will throw light on this subject, and tell how far Thackeray was right in his conjecture.—I am, Sir, &c.,
EDWARD WILBERFORCE.
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