The English-speaking world heard with regret on Tuesday of the
death of Charles Lever, the novelist, at Trieste. Mr. Lever attained popularity chiefly through his Irish novels, which de- lighted all young men by their adventures, their rollicking but not vulgar tone, and their air of unflagging spirits; but he wrote many novels of society, some of them exceedingly good. He knew Irish society and Anglo-Continental society very well, and had Mrs. Gore's passion for contrasting the nouveaux riches with the old families. It is a curious evidence of the change in manners that while Mrs. Gore's central idea was to praise the plutocrats, as being, in fact, aristocrats with brains, information, and a serious way of looking at life, Lever always paints the plutocrat as a successful swindler, with less seriousness and leas brains than his titled rival. In politics, Mr. Lever was a good- humoured Tory, and his " O'Dowd " papers in Blackwood were frequently marked by considerable politicial insight, particularly as to the character of individual statesmen.
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