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THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER AND 
 OTHER PAPERS 
 
 By ADRIAN HOFFMAN JOLINE 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 AND 
 OTHER PAPERS 
 
 BY 
 ADRIAN HOFFMAN JOLINE 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 ALDERBRINK PRESS CHICAGO 
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 The Alderbrink Press certifies that this 
 edition of "The Autograph Hunter and Other 
 Papers" consists of an edition of one hundred 
 and fifty copies on hand-made paper. Printed 
 for Mr. Adrian H. Joline in October MCM VII. 
 
 Copyright 1907 Adrian H. Joline 
 
T 
 
 'J| CONTENTS 
 
 The Autograph Hunter. Revised and 
 
 reprinted from The Independent, Page ii 
 
 The Defection of Doctor Sprague. 
 Revised and reprinted from The 
 Collector Page 37 
 
 Martin Van Buren, the Lawyer. Read 
 before the New York State Bar 
 Association, 1905 . . . Page 51 
 
 The Society for the Promotion of the 
 Public Good. Remarks before the 
 Netherlands Society of Philadel- 
 phia, January 23, 1906 . . Page 95 
 
 George Payne Rainsf ord James . . Page 1 1 1 
 
NOTE. 
 
 The title of this small volume is rather mis- 
 leading, for it contains less about autographs 
 than it does about Van Buren. But as these 
 divarications are privately printed, nobody 
 can very well complain. Only a few personal 
 friends will ever read the papers, and they 
 will probably utter no complaint. When the 
 book is on the shelf, where it will undoubt- 
 edly repose during most of its existence, the 
 title it bears will look as well as any other. 
 
 New York, November, 1906. 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 IN a recent number of the Independent a 
 gentleman who describes himself as an 
 "autographomaniac," and who manifestly 
 possesses what Mr. Gilbert calls a pretty 
 taste for paradox, has taken up the cudgels on 
 behalf of the unpopular persons who "write 
 for autographs/ and while he confesses that 
 his pursuit is "shocking," he is brave enough 
 to declare that he is "willing to take the con- 
 sequences." I fully agree with him in his char- 
 acterization of his nefarious habit, and am 
 content to submit his case, as he makes it, to 
 the tribunal of public opinion, without argu- 
 ment on behalf of the respondent. He is 
 welcome to the consequences, whatever they 
 may be. I suspect that his screed is not to be 
 taken very seriously, and that he is emulating 
 De Quincy's treatise on Murder as a Fine Art. 
 He has incited me, however, to utter a few 
 more words about autographs, because he does 
 me the honor to say "Such distinguished col- 
 li 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 lectors as Dr. G. Birkbeck Hill and Mr. Adrian 
 Joline turn up their noses at my kind/ and he 
 makes some jocose but unworthy reflections 
 upon my method of cultivating my hobby. He 
 betrays himself as not a real collector, as only 
 an amateur, who has not approached the shrine 
 with proper reverence and preparation. Dr. 
 Birkbeck Hill was in his lifetime a scholar and 
 a clever literary man, devoted to the altar of 
 Samuel Johnson, and he wrote a pleasant 
 book called "Talks About Autographs," but he 
 was not a collector in the ordinary acceptation 
 of the term, and I am by no means a "distin- 
 guished" collector, although I thank the Maniac 
 for conferring upon me a title honorable but 
 wholly undeserved. What amuses me most 
 about the ravings of the Maniac is the asser- 
 tion that collectors of my own way of thinking 
 buy at auctions and through dealers "dry-as- 
 dust letters written for the most part by men 
 long since gone to their fathers," while the 
 "pestilential nuisances," to borrow another 
 Gilbertian phrase, confine their attention to 
 autographs of the living, and especially prize 
 the peppery responses they receive from per- 
 secuted greatness. It reminds us of the ancient 
 fable about the Oxford guide who exhibited 
 to his party the eminent Jowett, the noted head 
 
 12 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 of Balliol College, wrathful and indignant at 
 the assault upon his study window, and of the 
 individual whose favorite boast was that he 
 had been soundly kicked by a Royal Duke. 
 "Such and so various are the tastes of men." 
 
 Thomas Bailey Aldrich, in his Ponkapog Pa- 
 pers, speaks of "the average autograph hunter 
 with his purposeless insistence"— "the innum- 
 erable unknown who ^collect' autographs as 
 they would postage stamps, with no interest in 
 the matter beyond the desire to accumulate as 
 many as possible." He tells of an instance 
 where a fellow author was asked by a be- 
 reaved widow and mother to copy for her 
 some lines from his poem on the death of a 
 child, to comfort her for the loss of her little 
 girl. Two months later he found his manu- 
 script with a neat price attached to it in a 
 second-hand book shop. I am well pleased to 
 be excluded from that class of autograph hunt- 
 ers, and I do not envy the Maniac who cares 
 to array himself in such an unworthy company. 
 
 We occasionally buy the letters of the living, 
 and some time ago the newspapers were quite 
 stirred up by the sale of a letter from the Prince 
 of Wales— now Edward VII. -to Mrs. Lang- 
 try, for the respectable price of ninety dollars. 
 Even the journals which make pretensions to 
 
 13 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 decency and good taste broke forth in clamor, 
 one of them sneering at the alleged value of 
 collecting as a preservative of literary and his- 
 torical treasures, and another announcing with 
 oracular finality that the incident proved the 
 "snobbishness" of collectors. All these deduc- 
 tions based upon insufficient premises, are the 
 offspring of imperfect intelligence, and the 
 evidence of that tendency to hasty judgment 
 which marks the utterances of the uninformed 
 and unreflecting person. The chances are 
 that the bidder was unconsciously competing, 
 through an agent, with some rival who had 
 given an order without a limit; or that the 
 owner was making what is known in Wall 
 street as a "washed sale" in order to establish 
 a market price for a number of similar speci- 
 mens of royal autography. I heard a rumor 
 that a faithless maid of the famous actress stole 
 a quantity of letters from her mistress, and that 
 the vendee was endeavoring to "realize" on 
 the ill-gotten booty. But whether these con- 
 jectures are well founded or not, it is certainly 
 quite easy to understand why a letter from so 
 distinguished a personage to a noted beauty, 
 an ornament of the stage, should possess an 
 interest for a collector wholly apart from any 
 element of snobbishness. 
 
 14 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 Before me lies a faded pamphlet, a copy of 
 "The Atheneum, or Spirit of the English Mag- 
 azines," published in Boston, on January i, 
 1828, containing articles unblushingly appro- 
 priated from British periodicals in the days 
 when our own periodicals were feeble, few 
 and far between. Among them is one on 
 "Autographs," beginning with these words: 
 "In direct opposition to the established maxim, 
 * A living dog is better than a dead lion,' the 
 autograph of a dead man is better than that 
 of a living one; indeed, the longer a man has 
 been dead, the better the autograph." 
 
 The genial Maniac—who is not as mad as 
 he pretends to be-may whimsically dispute 
 this proposition, but it is an eternal verity, far 
 beyond the power of any of us to controvert 
 successfully. As with the pictures of famous 
 artists, the price increases when the source of 
 supply is cut off, and the value is measured by 
 the price. 
 
 I am glad to have my friend draw upon him- 
 self the lightning of great men's wrath, because 
 some day the thunderers will be dead, and his 
 specimens, heroically gathered in defiance of 
 their indignant bolts, will be lovingly cherished 
 by disciples of the cult whose coat-tails are im- 
 mune to the kicks of enraged statesmen and 
 
 15 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 authors. It is true, nevertheless, that mere "au- 
 tographs by request" are of little value in the 
 eyes of a wise collector; even when they have 
 the spice of bitter resentment they are by no 
 means precious. 
 
 In a curiously unappreciative paper concern- 
 ing the beloved Autocrat, Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, included by Andrew Lang in his "Ad- 
 ventures Among Books," Mr. Lang says of the 
 delectable Doctor: "He was even too good- 
 humored, and the worst thing I have ever 
 heard of him is that he could never say *no' to 
 an autograph hunter." Surely Lang intended 
 this accusation to be a gentle commendation, 
 but I fear that the casual reader will fail to de- 
 tect the subtle humor of it. Treating it seri- 
 ously, for the casual reader's sake, I own my 
 inability to find in the amiable weakness any 
 good reason for criticism or for censure. I ad- 
 mit that if these pests of great men had made 
 demands upon the Doctor's purse they would 
 have been seeking only trash, according to the 
 dictum of the author of Othello^whoever 
 that author may have been-and that by re- 
 questing his autograph they were endeavoring 
 to take from him his good name, but only as 
 inscribed upon a sheet of innocent paper and 
 by no means making him "poor indeed." I am 
 
 i6 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 convinced that the sneers and cavils of those 
 who pronounce harsh judgments upon the 
 seekers of autographs are only the manifesta- 
 tions of ignorant illiberality like the old com- 
 plaints which are uttered from time to time 
 about'uncut" books, deckel edges, first editions, 
 and dainty bindings. These denunciations re- 
 semble the outcries of those who possess not 
 the fragrant automobile against the plutocrat 
 who monopolizes our highways, drives us from 
 our paths with imperious tootings, frightens 
 our humble horses, and occasionally downs 
 us in the dust. When we are not of his class, 
 we scold him bitterly, but if we come to that 
 state of affluence which enables us to join his 
 ranks, we quickly assume his autocratic de- 
 meanor towards those who merely cumber the 
 earth with their slow-moving vehicles, horse- 
 drawn, crawling along without benefit of gas- 
 oline or of electricity. Probably the Merovin- 
 gian kings with their ox-chariots were fiercely 
 hostile to the swift pacer or trotter. "It all de- 
 pends" as they say in the Mikado. I do not 
 love the automobile; it is typical of a certain 
 vulgarity of the rich. If I needed rapidity of 
 motion, I would prefer to travel in the cab of 
 an engine on the Twentieth Century Limited. 
 I do not dote upon polo or bridge, but I keep 
 
 17 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 silent about them because I know that my 
 neighbor's tastes may lawfully be indulged 
 whatever I may think about them and whether 
 or not they accord with mine. As the pleasant 
 writer of The Upton Letters remarks, "It does 
 not matter how much people disagree, if they 
 will only admit in their minds that every one 
 has a right to a point of view, and that their 
 own does not necessarily rule out all others." 
 I am disposed to love my neighbor as myself, 
 as good people are instructed to do, but the 
 task is often arduous. I ask only that he will 
 patiently indulge me in my fondness for my 
 favorite books and my pet autographs, which 
 cannot possibly interfere with his personal 
 comfort as his automobile does with mine 
 
 Almost every one who reads and who really 
 thinks has a pleasure in looking at autographs. 
 In the great library of the Vatican I have ob- 
 served the eager interest with which the visi- 
 tors gaze upon the handwriting of Henry VIIL, 
 of Anne Boleyn, and of Martin Luther, the 
 latter being oddly preserved in a place where 
 one would scarcely expect to find it. The 
 throngs who contemplate the wonderful col- 
 lection in the British Museum testify to the 
 fascination which clings to the actual pen- 
 tracings made bv men and women of historic 
 
 i8 
 
THE AU TOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 fame, and the multitudes who visit the Library 
 of Congress in Washington linger over the 
 glass-covered cabinets where the letters of our 
 Presidents, as well as of many other noted 
 public men, grouped with their portraits, are 
 admirably arranged for inspection by the 
 curious. 
 
 The interest of many examples in collec- 
 tions is purely autographic-that is to say, the 
 simple fact that the lines were inscribed by the 
 particular person is the chief stimulant of the 
 beholder's imagination. It may be merely a 
 formal document to which only the signature 
 of Queen Elizabeth, or of Napoleon, or of 
 Charles I. of England, or of Washington is af- 
 fixed; it may be nothing but a line or two 
 penned by Samuel Johnson, or by Dean Swift, 
 by WiUiam Pitt, or by Cardinal RicheHeU'-the 
 effect is produced, and no one who has a 
 spark of fancy can fail to gain some pleasure 
 from the contemplation, for example, of an 
 official paper bearing the names of Charles II. 
 and Samuel Pepys, or a parchment scroll sub- 
 scribed by Oliver Cromwell. It is a simple 
 matter to advance from this point to the de- 
 light of reading original letters and manu- 
 scripts of intrinsic merit, and with the charm 
 of reading comes the joy of possession. It is 
 
 19 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 a joy whose nature is absolutely different from 
 that which a bibliophile experiences when he 
 gloats over his precious "first edition," or hugs 
 to his bosom his invaluable Caxton. Some- 
 times there may be a sense of pride in the 
 ownership of a thing which no one else can 
 own, and we may detect the note of triumph 
 sounded in the boast occasionally uttered by 
 even the most modest of my class—'^No speci- 
 men, sir, in the British Museum!" But the real 
 delight is in the feeling of companionship with 
 the man who wrote the letter or the book. 
 The true autograph hunter may live with 
 Lamb, talk with Macaulay, listen to Dr. John- 
 son, gaze upon Thackeray at the Garrick, and 
 stand in the presence of Pope and Dryden. If 
 these are the results of devotion to "musty- 
 dusty stuff," then let my amiable lunatic of 
 Madison, Wisconsin, in the immortal words of 
 Patrick Henry, "make the most of it." 
 
 It is strange that the autograph collector is 
 scorned and despised by the majority. Perhaps 
 it is because most men do not reflect about that 
 which is of no immediate interest to them. It 
 may be that it comes from the resentment 
 which the many are apt to feel towards the 
 few who are devoted to some rather exclusive 
 pursuit; for the concrete autograph itself usu- 
 
 20 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 ally arouses the attention of any intelligent per- 
 son. I have an idea that the depreciation 
 comes from a certain affectation on the part 
 of great men, and the shallow acquiescence of 
 the careless newspaper scribblers in what they 
 deem to be the popular judgment. Like the 
 early Christians, we survive our persecutions. 
 We know that unpopularity is a poor test of 
 merit. It would be a sad day if collecting should 
 ever become popular, as golfing is and as "bi- 
 cycling" was. I have a keen sympathy with the 
 English schoolmaster who said that golf and 
 drink were the two curses of the country. 
 
 No less famous a man than Nathaniel Haw- 
 thorne has recorded his views about auto- 
 graphs. When he had before him a book 
 containing letters of statesmen and soldiers of 
 the Revolution, he put himself in the class of 
 autograph lovers. I cite his very words, be- 
 cause, much to my astonishment, I find that he 
 expresses my own feelings much more elo- 
 quently than I am able to do. "They are profit- 
 able reading in a quiet afternoon," he said, 
 "and in a mode withdrawn from too intimate 
 relation with the present time; so that we can 
 glide backward some three-quarters of a cen- 
 tury, and surround ourselves with the ominous 
 sublimity of circumstances that then frowned 
 
 21 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 upon the writers. * * * They are magic 
 scrolls, if read in the right spirit. The roll of 
 the drum and the fanfare of the trumpet is 
 latent in some of them; and in others, an echo 
 of the oratory that resounded in the old halls 
 of the Continental Congress, at Philadelphia; 
 or the words may come to us as with the 
 living utterance of one of those illustrious 
 men, speaking face to face, in friendly com- 
 munion. Strange, that the mere identity of 
 paper and ink should be so powerful. The 
 same thoughts might look cold and ineffectual 
 in a printed book. Human nature craves a 
 certain materialism, and clings pertinaciously 
 to what is tangible, as if that were of more im- 
 portance than the spirit accidentally involved 
 in it. And, in truth, the original manuscript 
 has always something which print itself must 
 inevitably lose. An erasure, even a blot, a 
 casual irregularity of hand, and all such little 
 imperfections of mechanical execution, bring 
 us close to the writer, and perhaps convey 
 some of those subtle intimations for which 
 language has no shape. * * * * There 
 are said to be temperaments endowed with 
 sympathies so exquisite that, by merely hand- 
 ling an autograph, they can detect the writer's 
 character with unerring accuracy, and read his 
 
 22 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 inmost heart as easily as a less gifted eye 
 would peruse the written page. Our faith in 
 this power, be it a spiritual one, or only a 
 refinement of the physical nature, is not un- 
 limited, in spite of evidence. God has im- 
 parted to the human soul a marvellous strength 
 in guarding its secrets, and he keeps at least 
 the deepest and most inward record for his 
 own perusal. But if there be such sympathies 
 as we have alluded to, in how many instances 
 would History be put to the blush by a volume 
 of autograph letters, like this which we now 
 closer ^ 
 
 Even "m a sedate student of history, a new 
 emotion may be produced by the actual and 
 visible presence of such a letter as this, from 
 Charles II., which speaks to me of a kindly 
 heart, whatever we may think of the morals 
 of England's Merry Monarch. 
 
 As Mr. Choate said recently in a notable 
 public address, "he was a jovial blade," and I 
 am glad to add, for it echoes my sentiments, 
 our eloquent ex- Ambassador remarked that 
 "James II. was the limit." 
 
 1 A Book of Autographs: Hawthorne's Works, Ed. 1889, 
 Vol. XII., 88. 
 
 23 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 "Whitehall lo Jan., 1684. 
 
 Harry Sidney. I would have you assure 
 Temple that I am very kinde to him, and if he 
 can compasse the match he designes at Paris, 
 I will use my best offices with the king of 
 France to make it in all points as easy to him 
 as I can. Charles R." 
 
 I trust that no disrespect is implied in spell- 
 ing the word "king" with a small "K." 
 
 Coming to a much later day, it is surely of 
 interest to read what George Bancroft thought 
 of President Andrew Johnson, particularly in 
 view of the recent discovery, from the John- 
 son papers in the Congressional Library, that 
 the first message of that much-abused presi- 
 dent, a state paper much admired and won- 
 dered at when it appeared, was drafted by 
 America's most distinguished historian. He 
 is writing to Adam Badeau. " I knew Andrew 
 Johnson thoroughly well," he says, "having 
 once lived near him where I saw him every 
 day and had the most unreserved intercourse 
 with him. I then held and now hold that his 
 arraignment was an act of injustice, and that 
 he was on his trial thoroughly entitled to ac- 
 quittal. The man had faults enough, ambition 
 enough; but his unvaried intention was, to 
 maintain fidelity to the Constitution and keep 
 
 24 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 within its bounds." Mr. Bancroft differed on 
 this subject from that marplot, Edwin M. 
 Stanton, who conspired with Buchanan, abused 
 Lincoln, vilified and ruined M'Clellan, at- 
 tempted to destroy Johnson, and perished mis- 
 erably, to be handed down to inconsiderate 
 posterity by partisan writers as our "Great War 
 Secretary." 
 
 If we look upon Bancroft on that literary 
 side which was, after all, the most attractive 
 side of his character, we cannot fail to be 
 brought closer to him when we have before 
 us, in his own distinct and very literary hand- 
 writing, what he wrote to Bayard Taylor in 
 1864. "Mr. Lang has just left with me your 
 chant for Bryant's 70th birthday. It is admir- 
 able. I expected good from you; and you 
 have done exceedingly well. You need never 
 regret that you made this most successful effort. 
 * * * You are too modest. Your parts are 
 never of the past." I am sorry to say that Mr. 
 Bancroft then proceeds to suggest amendments 
 of Taylor's verses, which I will not quote. 
 The "Mr. Lang" mentioned in the letter is not 
 Andrew the All-knowing, but Louis Lang, an 
 artist of New York, who composed the music 
 for Taylor's ode, which was sung at the "Cen- 
 tury"on the night of November 5th, 18 64, when 
 
 25 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 -Bancroft presiding and Emerson, Holmes 
 and a host of others assembled--that Associa- 
 tion commemorated the arrival of the beloved 
 poet at the age of three score and ten. 
 
 The innate modesty of Hawthorne shines 
 out in this brief letter, which he wrote from 
 Lenox in December, 1850, after he had given 
 to the world "The Scarlet Letter," and had 
 ceased to be what he once styled himself, 
 "the obscurest man of letters in America." 
 I do not know the name of the person to whom 
 it was written: but that is of no moment. He 
 writes: "I am gratified that you think me 
 worth biographizing; and as soon as I get a 
 book off my hands, I will see what I can do 
 towards your purpose. You will not find it a 
 life of many incidents. I could wish (not for 
 the first time) that I were personally known to 
 you, and could impart the requisite materials 
 from one corner of the fireside to the other." 
 That this expression was sincere, there can be 
 no question; it does not bear out the idea that 
 Hawthorne was an unsocial person, shunning 
 his fellow-beings. But I must not indulge too 
 freely in my fondness for my own treasures. 
 
 Sometimes the satisfaction in the possession 
 of "something which no one else can own," is 
 seriously lessened by the discovery that some 
 
 26 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 one else has a prize which he fondly believes 
 to be the very thing which I cherish so lov- 
 ingly. I have had at least three severe shocks 
 but I have survived them. My letter of Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes to Parsons, the translator of 
 the "Inferno," dated in 1867* was printed in 
 the "Century" for October, 1901, in an article 
 by Maria S. Porter, with a few verbal changes 
 of no moment but dated "1869," and the 
 writer asserted that she was "the fortunate 
 possessor of it." In my anxiety, I wrote to her 
 at the address given to me by the publishers 
 of the magazine, and told her courteously of 
 my predicament. I received no reply, and as 
 my letter was not returned to me I inferred 
 that possibly the lady had once owned the 
 Holmes letter but had parted with it before 
 her article appeared. Years ago I purchased 
 what was called the manuscript of Moore's 
 "Epicurean," covering one hundred and forty- 
 seven pages of the two hundred and eleven 
 comprised in the edition of 1839. 
 
 Within a short time I saw in the catalogue 
 of the sale of Le Gallienne's autographs, an 
 announcement of "The Manuscript of Thomas 
 Moore's Epicurean." Later it was sold in 
 Bishop Hurst's collection, and the purchaser 
 kindly allowed me to examine it. Mr. Bow- 
 
 27 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 den, associated with George H. Richmond, is 
 always considerate and I thank him for his 
 courtesy. His manuscript is what he calls it 
 —"original manuscript of the original draft;" 
 contained in a blank book, a preliminary 
 sketch, and valuable enough, while mine is 
 manifestly the copy sent to the printer. 
 
 I have what I am quite sure is the manu- 
 script of Barry Cornwall's "Life of Charles 
 Lamb," a thick volume whose sheets seem, like 
 my Moore's pages, to be those which the 
 compositors handled. But when the aforesaid 
 collection of the worthy Bishop was disposed 
 of at auction, there was another "Manuscript 
 of Barry Cornwall's Life of Charles Lamb" 
 offered to a confiding public. I have seen 
 this also, and while it is bound in a style quite 
 similar to mine, it is much smaller and ap- 
 pears to be only a rough draft of a portion of 
 the book. The Bishop and I seem to have 
 been enamored of drafts. These fables teach 
 us not to be unduly puffed up about our 
 "author's manuscripts;" there may be several 
 of the same work, for great books are not 
 thrown off at a single sitting. 
 
 An English dealer once pointed out to me, 
 by way of temptation to a patriotic American, 
 the alleged manuscript of "My Country, 'Tis 
 
 28 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 of Thee/ and was quite depressed in spirit 
 when I told him that good old Doctor Smith 
 spent a large part of his declining years in 
 producing autograph copies of his one famous 
 poem; and Holmes, in his generous way, did 
 not disdain to turn out copies of "Old Iron- 
 sides" and "The Last Leaf— precious things, 
 even if not the originals. 
 
 The number of genuine collectors in the 
 United States is not large, but it is increasing. 
 To those of us whose appetite has not yet 
 been satiated, it is discouraging to observe the 
 rise in the prices of desirable autographs. The 
 Atheneum article from which I have already 
 quoted, refers to contemporaneous auction 
 values, and speaks of Cromwell at five guineas, 
 Francis I. at four shillings, Sir Francis Wal- 
 singham with five added signatures at nine 
 shillings. Lord Nelson at two pounds fifteen 
 shillings, and Gibbon at eight shillings. 
 
 Before me is a manuscript catalogue of a 
 leading London house in which Cromwell 
 figures at eighteen pounds twelve shillings, 
 Francis I. at ten pounds, Walsingham at thirty- 
 five pounds, and Gibbon at two pounds fif- 
 teen shillings. At a sale in London in May, 
 1904, a letter of Nelson to Lady Hamilton 
 brought one thousand and thirty pounds—it 
 
 29 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 seems an absurd price. The "Evening Post" 
 bibliophile intimates that it is likely that "two 
 agents at the sale had unlimited bids from 
 long-pursed buyers, and each determined to 
 outbid the other, and both lost their heads." 
 I am pleased to find one of my theories about 
 these tremendous prices sustained by such a 
 competent authority. There are other reasons 
 for the differences in sale values. The im- 
 portance of the contents of letter or docu- 
 ment, the sudden increase in the fame of the 
 writer, and the anxiety of some enthusiast 
 to obtain the one specimen needed to com- 
 plete a "set," are all factors. Ten years ago 
 the eighteen Hnes which now confront me in 
 the rather boyish scrawl of Theodore Roose- 
 velt might have been found in the "seventy- 
 five cent list," but it cost me ten doUars-a 
 fact which illustrates the truth of the adage 
 concerning the unwise person and his supply 
 of coin, more forcible than polite. It sug- 
 gests the idea that the problem of what to do 
 with our ex-Presidents is more easily solved 
 than we had supposed. Ten autograph letters 
 a day at ten dollars each would afford a re- 
 spectable income, although there would be 
 danger of overstocking the market; but Con- 
 gress might establish a fixed price, deriving its 
 
 30 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 power in that regard from the interstate com- 
 merce clause of the Constitution. 
 
 Bearing in mind the record contained in the 
 Atheneum, it is not unlikely that the man who 
 bought wisely in 1828 might have left a legacy 
 to his descendants far more valuable than city 
 lots in upper New York, which have en- 
 riched so many members of our modern auto- 
 mobilistic aristocracy. Regarded as an invest- 
 ment, I am inclined to believe that a well- 
 selected collection of autograph letters may 
 be, in the long run, superior to Chicago street 
 railway stocks or Ship-Building bonds. It is 
 true that autographs pay no dividends; but we 
 know that, and we never know whether we 
 are to get our income from what we are 
 pleased to call our "securities." There is great 
 satisfaction in being certain about something. 
 I know that there has been offered to me for 
 a dozen Revolutionary War letters, signed by 
 Washington, double the amount I paid for 
 them a few years ago, and I cannot say as 
 much for any of the beautifully engraved cer- 
 tificates or evidences of indebtedness of "rail- 
 ways" or "industrials." I suppose the name 
 "industrials" was adopted because of the en- 
 ergy with which the promoters "worked" the 
 community. The real collector, however, has 
 
 31 
 
THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 small regard for the sordid side of the occu- 
 pation. I would not part with my Washing- 
 tons for many times their cost, but I like to 
 think that somebody covets them. 
 
 When the Maniac charges me with turning 
 up my nose at his kind, he is mistaken. I am 
 not what Miss Squeers called "a turned-up- 
 nose peacock,"— far from it. Dickens remarked 
 that a peacock with a turned-up nose is a 
 novelty in ornithology and a thing not com- 
 monly seen. A collector of autographs who 
 turns up his nose at any other collector is just 
 as much of a novelty. The collector who de- 
 serves the name is comprehensive in his affec- 
 tions; nothing collectorial is alien to him. He 
 would indeed be an offensive creature who 
 would scorn the feeblest efforts of an aspirant, 
 the incipient struggles of a neophyte whose 
 untutored mind is striving to attain the ulti- 
 mate goal of ambition. I remember that in my 
 salad days I deliberately destroyed a large 
 number of interesting letters of pubhc men in 
 order to save only the signatures, and yet I 
 escaped an indictment for malicious mischief. 
 We must all have our beginnings; we must 
 pass through the trying ordeals of infancy, of 
 boyhood, and of young manhood. There are 
 many stages of the malady which Edmund 
 
 32 
 
TFJE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER 
 
 Gosse calls "collectaneomania." 
 
 A veteran collector would no more dream 
 of distorting his nasal organ in the presence of 
 youthful ignorance than Grant or Lee would 
 have thought of sneering at a cadet, or Choate 
 or Carter would have despised a recent grad- 
 uate of Chase's Law School, or a Bachelor of 
 Laws just out of Cambridge or Columbia. It 
 is delightful to observe the protoplasmic germ 
 of a collector. No one can tell what may 
 come of it. It may develop into greatness. 
 
 33 
 
THE DEFECTION OF 
 DOCTOR SPRAGUE 
 
THE DEFECTION OF DOCTOR 
 SPRAGUE 
 
 MANY disparaging remarks have been 
 made about collectors of autographs 
 by men of varying degrees of intel- 
 ligence. For some reason, but I have 
 never been able to discover exactly what it is, 
 the plain persons, and even some who con- 
 sider themselves much superior to plain per- 
 sons, are filled with unholy glee whenever 
 they find an opportunity to utter expressions 
 of scorn and contempt concerning those of 
 their fellow beings who gather autographs 
 and treasure the written words of the famous. 
 These expressions are in most cases coupled 
 with sarcastic allusions to postage stamps, and 
 every man appears to believe that the idea of 
 associating a stamp collector and an autograph 
 collector is entirely original with him. I have 
 amused myself at divers times by recounting 
 some of these censorious observations and in 
 endeavoring to fathom the mystery of their 
 genesis, while venturing mildly to demonstrate 
 their injustice. I confess that the latest ex- 
 
 37 
 
THE DEFECTION OF 
 
 ample which has been brought to my atten- 
 tion has given me more pain and surprise than 
 any of its predecessors. We have been as- 
 sailed and vilified in the house of our friends, 
 and if one may be permitted to use a trite ex- 
 pression, attributed to a personage whose au- 
 tograph would adorn even the British Mu- 
 seum, one may well cry out, "£f tu Brute/ " 
 
 No collector deserving the name is unaware 
 of the proud eminence which has always 
 been awarded to the Reverend William Buel 
 Sprague, D. D., the grandfather of us all, who 
 from his Albanian eyrie dispensed autograph 
 letters throughout the land, and with delight- 
 ful liberality shared his stores with his breth- 
 ren of the cult, while reserving for his own a 
 splendid mass of rare Americana. The en- 
 thusiastic Draper says of him that he "fills a 
 distinguished and unique place in the history 
 of American literature and is accorded on 
 all hands the highest rank among the early 
 American autograph collectors." Was he not 
 the man who furnished to Doctor Emmet the 
 peerless Lynch letter, the envy of all collec- 
 tors, now buried in the New York Public 
 Library? I hear rumors of another letter, said 
 to belong to Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, but I have 
 my doubts. From the description of it given to 
 
 38 
 
DOCTOR SPRAGUE 
 
 me, I think it must be the one which is print- 
 ed in Draper's "Autographic Collections" and 
 is shown to be a forgery. I had acquired a 
 reverence for the worthy Doctor equal to that 
 with which the devotee of Christian Science 
 regards Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, or to that 
 which we are assured on unimpeachable au- 
 thority, the heathen exhibits when he bows 
 down to wood and stone. But within a few 
 days past a kind Bostonian, actuated by gen- 
 erous impulse, although perhaps not wholly 
 lacking in sarcastic humor, gave me a book 
 called "Visits to European Celebrities, by Wil- 
 liam B. Sprague, D. D.," from the library of 
 Governor Charles H. Bell, of New Hampshire, 
 which contains an original autograph letter 
 of the excellent dominie, written undoubted- 
 ly to Bell himself. The astonishing tenor of 
 this letter leads me to present it in all its hid- 
 eousness: 
 
 "Albany, i8 April, '68. 
 "My dear sir: Your kind letter has set me to 
 looking through a part of my collection to see 
 if I could find duplicates of any of your names 
 on your list, and the result, as you will see, is a 
 very meagre contribution. Such as they are, 
 however, you are entirely welcome to them. 
 As a friend, I would advise you to have as lit- 
 
 39 
 
THE DEFECTION OF 
 
 tie to do with an autograph collector as possi- 
 ble, for though there are some honorable ex- 
 ceptions, yet, as a class, I think they rank A 
 No. I in point of meanness. 
 
 "Very truly yours, 
 
 W. B. Sprague" 
 I acknowledge that on the first perusal of 
 this remarkable epistle I was stricken with the 
 sort of stupor which used to overcome the 
 Virgilian hero when he succumbed to circum- 
 stances and *^vox faucibus hasitJ' After hav- 
 ing battled with all the indictments found by 
 the grand jury of the public, the charges of 
 covetousness, selfishness, impudence, silliness, 
 uselessness, born of the plenitude of popular 
 misinformation, and after what I had vainly 
 deemed my triumphant pleas to those indict- 
 ments, sustained, as I fondly imagined, by the 
 courts of highest jurisdiction—to be confronted 
 now with an accusation based upon the shame- 
 less confession of a co-conspirator, the shock- 
 ing admissions of a particeps criminis^ the 
 State's evidence of a faithless associate, made 
 my heart fail me for a moment, and my soul to 
 grow sad as I said, "but it was even thou, my 
 companion, my guide, and mine own familiar 
 friend!" Figuratively, Doctor Sprague was all 
 of that to me, although I must own that his birth 
 
 40 
 
DOCTOR SPRAGUE 
 
 antedates mine a little over half a century, and I 
 never had the good fortune to enjoy his actual 
 personal acquaintance. It would not have 
 astonished me more had Doctor Emmet de- 
 nounced the Signers, Danforth or Greenough 
 sneered at Continental Congressmen, or any 
 member of the tribe of Benjamin proclaimed 
 the folly of buying autographs in the market. 
 I could more easily have believed that Dodd 
 could be divorced from Mead, Houghton from 
 Mifflin, Kuhn from Loeb,or Arnold from Con- 
 stable. If Mr. Hearst and his gentle and refined 
 newspapers had suddenly nominated Rocke- 
 feller for the Presidency, or if the New York 
 Tribune had blazed out in condemnation of 
 protective tariffs, they would not have given 
 me as serious a shock as did this utterance of the 
 venerable Sprague. But there lies the record, 
 and with an effort I summon what remains of 
 my intellect in order to apply myself to a calm 
 consideration of this unexpected situation. 
 
 We are at a disadvantage^ at the outset, be- 
 cause the evidence upon which the charge is 
 based has not been submitted to our scrutiny. 
 A good deal of the merit of a cause depends 
 upon the proofs which are presented in its 
 support. It is not difficult to formulate a 
 complaint, but it is sometimes hard to bring 
 
 41 
 
THE DEFECTION OF 
 
 the witnesses up to the necessities of the case. 
 I once had a client who would come into the 
 office just before the trial of his action and, 
 rubbing his hands in a genial way, cry out 
 "Well, what do you want us to swear to?" But 
 he was an exception, for they generally ex- 
 hibit a strong disinclination to testify to the 
 point and make strenuous efforts to evade it. 
 It would have been a pleasure to question the 
 frank and honest Doctor, but unfortunately 
 he is beyond the reach of cross-examination. 
 What tales he might have unfoldedl Alas, 
 they are buried with him. We may only analyze 
 the accusation and endeavor to determine its 
 justice or its injustice by methods which are 
 not permitted by the rules of evidence. 
 
 Meanness means the mean. The mean is the 
 low-minded, base, wanting in integrity, poor, 
 pitiful, stingy. Meanness is a low state, poor- 
 ness, want of dignity or excellence, want of 
 liberality. I must be right about this, for I am 
 quoting from a standard dictionary. On behalf 
 of the fraternity of autograph collectors, and 
 without a fee— unprofessional as it may seem— 
 I enter a plea of "not guilty." When Doctor 
 Sprague penned those fatal lines, he was suf- 
 fering no doubt from some experience of a 
 painful nature with a pseudo-collector, a mere 
 
 42 
 
DOCTOR SPRAGUE 
 
 Jeremy Diddler of a collector, who being 
 aware of the dominie's sweet simplicity of 
 character and willingness to help the aspiring 
 neophyte, had attempted to impose upon him 
 for purposes of sordid gain. 
 
 One great difficulty which a reasonable man 
 encounters in the course of his life'- and I 
 consider myself the only truly reasonable man 
 of my acquaintance «- is the unfortunate ten- 
 dency of other men to indulge in generali- 
 zations. Almost all generalizations are dan- 
 gerous, fallacious, and fraught with violations 
 of the rules of logic. Journeying in Canada 
 some years ago in the society of an eminent 
 author of our day, we met a lad who suffered 
 from a bad cough, and some hours later we 
 came upon another boy who was laboring 
 under a similar affliction. My literary friend 
 thereupon delivered himself of this solemn 
 judgment: "All small boys in Canada have 
 coughs." We are familiar with the story of 
 the Englishman visiting Germany for the first 
 time, and after a single hour's experience in 
 a railway carriage, noted in his diary: "All 
 Germans have red hair and are named Muller." 
 The Psalmist said in his haste that all men are 
 liars. I can not help thinking that Doctor 
 Sprague said what he did about collectors in 
 
 43 
 
THE DEFECTION OF 
 
 like haste and with less justification, because 
 all men, except George Washington and Mark 
 Twain, have lied at times, whereas I am con- 
 fident that collectors, as a rule, are not mean 
 and that the mean ones are the dishonorable 
 exceptions. 
 
 But although I hold a brief for the defence, I 
 intend to be fair. I am informed that no less a 
 person than Doctor Thomas Addis Emmet him- 
 self— c/ar«w et venerabile nomen^ asserts that 
 Sprague was well within the truth when he 
 stigmatized collectors in the manner set forth 
 in the Bell letter; that he was victimized right 
 and left by people who never compensated 
 him for material that he sold to them, and 
 that he declared that Emmet and the late T. 
 Bailey Myers were the only customers who 
 paid him. 
 
 It must be remembered, however, that Doc^ 
 tor Sprague was not a dealer, a business man, 
 with a tangible shop with a real, perceptible 
 price-list. Perhaps the recipients of his auto- 
 graphic contributions thought that they were 
 donees and not vendees. Diffident persons, 
 strangers, might well hesitate about offering 
 filthy lucre to a learned Doctor of Divinity, 
 unless he does as merchants do and gives notice 
 that he is in trade, by judicious advertisement. 
 
 44 
 
DOCTOR SPRAGUE 
 
 I doubt whether he mentioned prices or sent 
 a bill, but if he expected payment he should 
 have resorted to the ordinary methods of 
 business. 
 
 Assuming that Doctor Sprague has testified 
 that Emmet and Myers were the only persons 
 who constitute the "honorable exceptions" re^ 
 ferred to in the Bell letter, let us subject the 
 complainant to such cross-examination as un- 
 der our severe difficulties, we may resort to 
 in aid of our clients. Doctor, did you ever 
 know one Israel W. Tef f t, of Georgia? Is it 
 not a fact that when you visited him in 1830 
 he had only about thirty letters of Signers, but 
 that he offered to give you such as you need- 
 ed'-and you took them? Did he not in 1845 
 present to you one or more Lynch signatures 
 to enable you to complete your additional sets? 
 If the Doctor's devoted admirer, Lyman C. 
 Draper is telling the truth, the answers must 
 be "yes." Now, I show you a letter in your 
 unmistakable chirography, dated at Flushing, 
 October 16, 1874, ^^^ call your attention to 
 this language: "When I began to collect auto- 
 graphs, I was the intimate friend and corres^ 
 pondent of Robert Gilmour of your city, the 
 first collector 1 ever knew, but it is long since 
 his collection was sold and I suppose scattered 
 
 45 
 
THE DEFECTION OF 
 
 to the winds." I will ask you now whether 
 you were not mistaken in your statement to 
 Doctor Emmet, and if the names of Tefft and 
 of Gilmour — your "intimate friend"'- should 
 not be excluded from the category of "mean 
 collectors," thus doubling the number of your 
 "honorable exceptions?" 
 
 I think I will not call any witnesses, because 
 I have none excepting myself. Truly, my own 
 experience has led me to a conclusion quite 
 different from that which the dear old Doctor 
 announced so dogmatically. That experience, 
 I admit, has not been extensive, but there has 
 been a great change in autograph hunting 
 since the Doctor's day and generation. Au- 
 tograph collecting in this country was then in 
 its infancy; the collecting of to-day bears a 
 similar relation to that of fifty years ago that 
 the telephone bears to the post or the Chicago 
 Flyer to the deliberate trains on the old Cam- 
 den and Amboy. It has been my good fortune 
 to find the genuine collectors fair-minded, 
 generous, and sympathetic, and I have often 
 profited by their generosity. I hesitate to 
 "name names" but perhaps I may be pardoned 
 for mentioning the late Elliot Danforth, and 
 also the scholarly Boston lawyer, Charles P. 
 Greenough. Laurence Hutton too, was liberal 
 
 46 
 
DOCTOR SPRAGUE 
 
 and I am grateful to him, although I do not 
 accept his peculiar views about autographs. 
 As there is a "science falsely so-called/ there 
 are collectors who do not deserve the hon- 
 orable name; and I am sure that if I could 
 summon the shade of Sprague to this mortal 
 sphere he would readily admit that his incau- 
 tious assertion was the result of some tempo- 
 rary obscuration of the mind and that he did 
 not really mean it. 
 
 47 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN THE LAWYER 
 Read before the New York State 
 Bar Association, 1905 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN, 
 THE LAWYER 
 
 THE assembling of the lawyers of a 
 State each year for the interchange 
 of thought, the comparison of views, 
 and the encouragement of fraternal 
 feeling, derives its value not only from the 
 consideration of legal problems and the study 
 of legal principles, but also from the opportun- 
 ity which it affords of perpetuating the mem- 
 ory of the founders of our bar. I believe that 
 it is not foreign to the purposes of our Asso- 
 ciation to devote a portion of its time to the 
 lawyers of the past; that it is not inappropriate 
 to turn for a moment from the learned essays 
 of whose worth and dignity we are all prO" 
 f oundly sensible in order to review by way of 
 historical reminiscence the careers of those 
 who adorned the first century of the jurispru- 
 dence of the State of New York. Such studies 
 may not add materially to the sum of our 
 knowledge, but they are useful in the promo- 
 tion of the brotherly spirit and of the profes- 
 sional pride which every well constituted bar 
 should possess and cherish. 
 
 51 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 The name of Martin Van Buren has been 
 obscured and his fame as a lawyer has been 
 dimmed by the persistent injustice of posterity. 
 Nothing is more unfair than the judgment of 
 an indifferent public concerning a man who 
 did not carry his success to a dramatic climax. 
 The majority of us have no time to waste in 
 the appreciation of men who have suffered 
 defeat; and Van Buren, after a life of triumphs, 
 was defeated at the end. The career which 
 goes on from victory to victory, and terminates 
 at the supreme moment-the career of such 
 men as Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley-is 
 secure and the decision of the world gives to 
 them the crown of immortality. It was not the 
 fortune of Van Buren to preserve his hold up- 
 on the imagination of succeeding generations. 
 
 Few men of the present comprehend the 
 truth that Martin Van Buren was a great law- 
 yer in the days when lawyers needed something 
 more than a copy of the Code, Abbott's Forms, 
 and the latest edition of White on Corporations 
 to qualify them for successful practice; when 
 it was not necessary to search through hun- 
 dreds upon hundreds of volumes in order to 
 ascertain in how many different ways the 
 courts have decided the same question; but 
 when original thought and creative genius 
 
 52 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 were requisite for leadership in the battles of 
 the bar. People think of him as a politician 
 who was styled "The Kinderhook Fox" and 
 "The Little Magician;" supposed to be cunning 
 and devious in his methods; who, as they are 
 inclined to believe, reached the highest place 
 in the land by adroit manipulation and sedu- 
 lous self-seeking. They regard him as one who 
 was, in the vernacular, a skilful wire-puller; 
 master of the arts by which the people are 
 often deceived into promoting a charlatan, a 
 trickster, and a shallow and plausible manager 
 of men, to the loftiest positions in the com- 
 monwealth. The fallacy of this judgment has 
 been admirably demonstrated by our fellow- 
 lawyer, Edward M. Shepard, in his masterly 
 biography of Van Buren which many compe- 
 tent critics regard as the best of the American 
 Statesmen Series. 
 
 There is something almost ludicrous in the 
 unfairness with which men treat political ad- 
 versaries. One instance affords an example of 
 the way in which reputations may be made 
 and destroyed. Charles Francis Adams, can- 
 didate for Vice-President on the Free Soil 
 ticket in 1848 with Van Buren at its head, was 
 confronted with his printed assertions of 1844 
 that Van Buren made "a trade of public affairs," 
 
 53 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 was "fixed to nothing" but his own interest, 
 and that his "cold and temporizing policy'' at 
 that time was "symptomatic of treachery here- 
 after." Mr. Adams, frigid New Englander and 
 utterly devoid of any sense of humor, was 
 troubled greatly as he wrote gravely: "These 
 opinions I then held but [Mr. Van Buren] has 
 done much to make me change them. * * * 
 Mr. Van Buren is a mixed character. In early 
 life, right; in middle life swayed to the wrong 
 by his ambition and his associations—he seems 
 towards the close of his career to be again 
 falling into the right channel." The test of 
 right and wrong was whether or not he agreed 
 with Charles Francis Adams. If it had not 
 been for the accident of their agreement in 
 1848, the original judgment of Mr. Adams 
 would have stood upon the record unreversed. 
 It is a shallow observer who cannot see that 
 in the life of Van Buren one unceasing pur- 
 pose ran—to promote what he conscientiously 
 believed to be for the best interests of his 
 country. If he made errors—and there are few 
 public men who do not make errors occasion- 
 ally—they were honest errors. It is given to 
 but few New Yorkers and to all New England- 
 ers to be infallible. 
 But we are not concerned at present with 
 
 54 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 Martin Van Buren,Senator of the United States. 
 Governor, Secretary of State, Vice-President 
 and President; we are dealing only with Mar- 
 tin Van Buren, counsellor at law, who was at 
 twenty-six Surrogate of his County, at thirty a 
 member of the highest appellate court of his 
 State, at thirty-three Attorney General of New 
 York; and until his election as Governor one 
 of the busiest and most prosperous members 
 of the bar. From 1828 until his death in 1 8 6 2 
 he gave no time to the law. To him who looks 
 upon a professional life as an ideal one, it may 
 be permitted to regret that he bartered for the 
 uncertain and illusive rewards of politics the 
 glorious years which might have been given 
 to the noble work of an able, independent, 
 high-minded and conscientious advocate. Is 
 the memory of the politician, often obscured 
 by erroneous opinion, but lasting in a sense, bet- 
 ter than the memory of the great lawyer? In 
 later generations the fame of such men as 
 George Wood, Charles O'Conor, William Cur- 
 tis Noyes, and Nicholas Hill will surely be of 
 no less value than that of the men who wan- 
 dered from the law into the benighted regions 
 of politics. 
 
 Of our twenty-five Presidents, all but five 
 have been lawyers of more or less capacity, 
 
 55 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 but it is safe to say that none of the lawyer-Pres- 
 idents have been as eminent in the profession 
 as Martin Van Buren and Benjamin Harrison. 
 Both of these men were leaders at the bar in 
 their respective States, and took part in the 
 argument of great causes. Mr. Lincoln was 
 a shrewd and successful trial lawyer before 
 juries in what was in his time a comparatively 
 undeveloped Western State, but his opportun- 
 ities to demonstrate his effectiveness in the 
 highest courts were not sufficient to enable 
 him to prove his title to equality with his pre- 
 decessor from New York or with his successor 
 from Indiana. Pierce had a reputation in New 
 Hampshire, Buchanan was honored in Penn- 
 sylvania, and Fillmore, Arthur and Cleveland 
 were greatly respected in New York; but they 
 achieved distinction in the sphere of politics 
 rather than in the domain of the courts. The 
 qualities which gain political preferment are 
 not always those which win triumphs before 
 the judges. 
 
 Van Buren was the son of a farmer of 
 moderate means, and he had neither the ben- 
 efits nor the disadvantages of a college educa- 
 tion. When at fourteen he left the Kinderhook 
 Academy, he began the study of the law with 
 Francis Silvester, who is almost invariably 
 
 56 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 styled in sketches of Van Buren, as "a respect- 
 able lawyer of Kinderhook," and he was for 
 one year a student in the New York office of 
 William P. Van Ness, afterwards United States 
 District Judge. Van Ness was only four years 
 the senior of his student and, according to 
 Hammond, the historian of early New York 
 politics, he was "one of the most shrewd and 
 sagacious men that the State of New York 
 ever produced." I am not prepared to say 
 that every lawyer should have a college train- 
 ing, but the conditions to-day are not the same 
 as those of 1802. Colleges then were ma- 
 terially different from the colleges and uni- 
 versities of to-day. I doubt if Van Buren 
 would have been any more or less successful 
 if he had been a college man. As to a clerk- 
 ship in an office in New York City, I am con- 
 vinced that it helped him. We city men rec- 
 ognize the fact that the country lawyer is 
 usually better founded in the principles than 
 the busy men of the metropolis who are com- 
 pelled to concern themselves more about the 
 doing of a thing than about the technicalities 
 of the performance. The magnates of finance 
 in New York City care very little about the 
 niceties of the law; they want to achieve re- 
 sults. In 1802 there was not so much differ- 
 
 ^1 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 ence between the legal business of the city 
 and that of the country ; but yet I think the 
 year's work in New York was of advantage 
 to Van Buren, although he says himself that 
 Van Ness did not have much business. 
 
 There must always be a legend connected 
 with the youth of a distinguished lawyer, and 
 there is one about Van Buren which the sol- 
 emn Mr. Holland relates in the "Life" pub- 
 lished in 1835. It is said that "the young ad- 
 vocate, not yet sixteen years of age, success- 
 fully managed a cause of great interest and 
 considerable importance against an opponent 
 who was then in full practice at the bar, and 
 has since filled several responsible public 
 offices. The future statesman was then so 
 small of stature that he was placed upon a 
 table to address the jury." By the time the 
 tale reaches the year 1888, Mr. Shepard makes 
 the opponent none other than Silvester him- 
 self, and the justice has the lad stand upon a 
 bench, with the exhortation, "There, Mat. 
 beat your master." I have serious doubts 
 whether, even in that generation, small boys 
 in law offices were allowed to try important 
 causes against the lawyer with whom they 
 were serving. 
 
 In the Congressional Library at Washing- 
 
 58 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 ton, where the papers of many of our Presi- 
 dents repose, may be found the manuscript 
 autobiography which Mr. Van Buren began 
 to prepare in his seventy-third year and which, 
 like many such works, was never completed. 
 It has not been published, but I am informed 
 that it is to be printed under the auspices of 
 Mr. Worthington C. Ford, the efficient chief 
 of the Manuscript Division of the Library. 
 Most of the pages are devoted to politics, for 
 the author remarks that the briefest sketch of 
 the incidents of his professional life would oc- 
 cupy too much space and that "they must, 
 with one or two exceptions, be left to the ju- 
 dicial reports and to the traditions of the 
 times." He tells us however a number of in- 
 cidents connected with the lawyers of the day 
 and with his early life which make us regret 
 that he did not dwell more fully upon his ex- 
 periences as a lawyer, and I am tempted to in- 
 dulge in a few quotations. Although the 
 story of his boyish triumphs may be apochry- 
 phal, there is no doubt that he was preco- 
 cious. In the autobiography, after deploring 
 his devotion to light reading instead of to the 
 graver studies, he says: "In place of the 
 studies by which I would thus have given em- 
 ployment to an uncommonly active mind, I 
 
 5Q 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 adopted at a very early age the practice of 
 appearing as counsel before arbitrators and 
 inferior tribunals, and my success was such as 
 to give rise to exaggerated impressions that 
 were brought before the public in the course 
 of my after political career." He adds, later 
 on: "I cannot pass from the subject of my 
 early professional career in inferior tribunals 
 without a caution to my young friends, the 
 circumstances of whose start in life may re- 
 semble my own, against the adoption of a 
 similar course. The temptation to anticipate 
 professional fame is a strong one, and my suc- 
 cess, humble as it has been, is well calculated 
 to mislead young men of genius and ambition. 
 Whatever the degree of that success may have 
 been, they may be assured that it would have 
 been much greater and more substantial if like 
 many others who may not have succeeded as 
 well, I had first acquired a sound education 
 and stored my mind with useful knowledge." 
 This is rather an amusing bit of self-apprecia- 
 tion disguised as self-depreciation. 
 
 He was licensed as an attorney in Novem- 
 ber, 1803, and opened an office in his native 
 village in association with his half-brother, 
 James I. Van Alen. At the next term of the 
 county courts he was admitted as attorney and 
 
 60 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 counsellor, and in February 1807 he reached 
 the ultimate stage of professional standing, 
 the office of Counsellor in the Supreme Court. 
 In those days they were fond of fine distinc- 
 tions in the grades of lawyers; they had not 
 learned that the lawyer finds his level by the 
 force of his intellect rather than by the title 
 which he bears. In 1808 he was appointed 
 Surrogate of Columbia County and served 
 until 18 1 3. In 1809 he removed to Hudson 
 and became a partner of Cornelius Miller, the 
 father of Judge Theodore Miller whom most 
 of us remember as a Judge of the Court of 
 Appeals. It is perhaps almost undignified to 
 refer to the fact that Van Buren and Miller 
 did what is called a "paying business." It is 
 very pleasant to think of our profession only 
 in its loftier aspects, but we cannot deny that 
 there is a financial element about it which is 
 not devoid of serious interest. The question 
 of pay cannot be overlooked; and it is no 
 mean test of the ability of the men who try 
 and argue causes, this test of the sums which 
 clients are willing to pay for their services. 
 At the age of forty-six he was compelled by 
 the exigencies of public life to relinquish pri- 
 vate practice. He had amassed what was at 
 that time a comfortable fortune, acquired by 
 
 61 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 faithful and distinguished professional labor. 
 In the autobiography, he sums up his legal 
 life thus: "For my business I was to a marked 
 extent indebted to the public at large, having 
 received but little from the mercantile interest 
 or from corporations, and none from the great 
 landed aristocracies of the country. It was 
 notwithstanding fully equal to my desires and 
 far beyond my most sanguine expectations. I 
 was not worth a shilling when I commenced 
 my professional career. I have never since 
 owed a debt that I could not pay on demand 
 nor known what it is to be without money, 
 and I retired from the practice of my profes- 
 sion with means adequate to my own support 
 and to leave to my children not large estates 
 but as much as I think it for their advantage to 
 receive. The cases in which I was employed 
 embraced not only the ordinary subjects of 
 litigation between man and man in commu- 
 nities like that in which I resided, but extended 
 to the most intricate and important cases that 
 arose during the last fifteen or twenty years of 
 my practice. In the management of these I was 
 repeatedly associated with and opposed to 
 such men as Richard Harrison, Aaron Burr, 
 Thomas Addis Emmet, Daniel Webster, John 
 Wells, John V. Henry, Peter Van Schaack, 
 
 62 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 Abraham Van Vechten, David B. Ogden, 
 Samuel A. Talcott, and Elisha Williams-a gal- 
 axy of great lawyers scarcely equalled in the 
 professional ranks of any country." 
 
 The bar of Columbia County has always 
 been conspicuous for ability, but it was un- 
 usually brilliant in the early days of the nine- 
 teenth century. Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, 
 Ambrose Spencer, Thomas P. Grosvenor, 
 William W. Van Ness— who must not be con- 
 founded with Van Buren's preceptor— and 
 Elisha Williams made it famous all over the 
 State, and indeed among lawyers all over the 
 country. Those who have a liking for the 
 stories of the lives of lawyers will find its his- 
 tory well told in the privately printed book 
 of Peyton L. Miller-the grandson of Van 
 Buren's partner, Cornelius Miller- entitled 
 "A Group of Great Lawyers of Columbia 
 County, New York," printed in the neat 
 and attractive style of the De Vinne Press. 
 There you may read of Van Buren, of Tilden, 
 of the Livingstons, of the Spencers; of the mul- 
 titudinous Van Nesses and Vanderpoels; and 
 of the mighty Williams. The tradition of 
 Williams still survives. Raymond, the biog- 
 rapher, who wrote more than fifty years ago, 
 says that after Van Ness was made a Judge of 
 
 63 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 the Supreme Court in 1807, Van Buren was 
 employed in the trial of almost every impor- 
 tant cause that was tried in Columbia County 
 until he removed to Albany, and generally 
 opposed to Williams. Van Buren was a ple- 
 beian, a Democrat; Williams, an aristocrat and 
 a Federalist. Emmons, who wrote a futile sort 
 of sketch of Van Buren in 1835, says that from 
 1809 the two men divided, and for many years 
 continued to divide, the professional business 
 of the county. He adds: " The writer has of ten 
 witnessed, in other places, displays of great 
 forensic talent; but he has never seen causes 
 tried with anything like the zeal, the skill, or 
 the effect, which was always exhibited at a 
 Columbia circuit during the period referred 
 to." Williams was witty, sarcastic and elo- 
 quent; Van Buren was ingenious, persuasive 
 and argumentative. When the two men were 
 pitted against each other before juries they 
 were greeted by crowded audiences. To-day, 
 no crowds assemble to applaud contending 
 counsel, unless the cause is scandalous and 
 sensational in its nature. When I went to the 
 London Law Courts a few years ago and asked 
 the solemn attendant to be shown to some 
 court-room, he assured me that there was 
 nothing going on which would interest me, 
 
 64 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 because there were no divorce cases on trial. 
 He had unconsciously gauged the popular 
 standard of preference. 
 
 Williams was a tall, handsome and imposing 
 person, nearly ten years older than his adver- 
 sary, while Van Buren was small, and although 
 not insignificant in stature, yet not impressive. 
 He had none of those physical qualities which 
 often carry weight with jurymen. To our 
 modern eyes he would have been almost 
 amusing if the description which Henry B. 
 Stanton gives of him as he was in 1828 is ac- 
 curate. "Mr. Van Buren," says Stanton in his 
 Random Recollections^ "was rather an exquisite 
 in appearance. His complexion was a bright 
 blond and he dressed accordingly. On this 
 occasion he wore an elegant snuff-colored 
 broadcloth coat with a velvet collar; his cravat 
 was orange with modest lace tips; his vest was 
 of a pearl hue; his trousers were white duck; 
 his shoes were morocco; his neatly fitting 
 gloves were yellow kid ; his long-furred beaver 
 hat with broad brim was of a Quaker color." 
 
 It is difficult to imagine our leaders of to-day 
 arrayed in such a fashion. I can fancy that if 
 any of these eminent counsel should appear 
 thus clad in the stately room where sits our 
 Court of Appeals, its dignified Clerk would 
 
 65 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 fall in speechless syncope and the black- 
 gowned judges would disappear through that 
 mysterious back door which always arouses 
 my curiosity. 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes once asked Gulian 
 C. Verplanck who, on the whole, seemed the 
 most considerable person he ever met, and 
 Verplanck answered "Elisha Williams." He 
 was a worthy foe. The best comparison of the 
 two men was drawn by Benjamin Franklin 
 Butler, the partner of Van Buren from his 
 admission to the bar until 1828 and a student 
 in the office of Van Buren & Miller, a member 
 of the cabinet of Jackson and of Van Buren. 
 and Van Bur en's most intimate friend. " Never." 
 said Butler, "were two men more dissimilar. 
 Both were eloquent, but the eloquence of Wil- 
 liams was declamatory and exciting ; that of Van 
 Buren insinuating and delightful. Williams 
 had the livelier imagination; Van Buren the 
 sounder judgment. The former presented the 
 strong points of his case in bolder relief, in- 
 vested them in a more brilliant coloring, 
 indulged a more unlicensed and magnificent 
 invective, and gave more life and variety to 
 his arguments by his peculiar wit and inimi- 
 table humor; but Van Buren was his superior 
 in analyzing, arranging and combining the in- 
 
 66 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 sulated materials* in comparing and weighing 
 testimony, in unravelling the web of intricate 
 affairs, in eviscerating truth from the mass of 
 diversified and conflicting evidence, in soften- 
 ing the heart and moulding it to his purpose, 
 and in working into the judgments of his 
 hearers the conclusions of his own perspicu- 
 ous and persuasive reasoning." There is an 
 ancient story which expresses the truth more 
 concisely than the stately, old-fashioned phra- 
 ses of the great Reviser. Williams is reported 
 as saying tersely of his rival: "I get all the 
 verdicts and you get all the judgments." To 
 those who remember the naive remark of the 
 British juryman that Sir James Scarlett always 
 won his cases because he was always on the 
 right side, this observation of Williams has its 
 significance. But it brings to my mind the 
 story which William Allen Butler was fond of 
 telling about the Irishman who was present in 
 the court of Judge Bosworth, and who said to 
 the lawyer "Ye may say what ye please, but 
 there's an old, white-headed chap up there 
 who gets more verdicts than any of yees." 
 Williams had his way with the juries, but in 
 the end the judges determined the controversy. 
 Van Buren himself says of Williams: "I in- 
 variably encountered him with more appre- 
 
 67 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 hension at the circuits than any of the great 
 men I have named, and I am sure I speak but 
 the opinion of his professional contempora- 
 ries when I say that he was the greatest nisi 
 prius lawyer of the New York bar. * * * it 
 seemed scarcely possible to excel his skill in 
 the examination of witnesses or of his address- 
 es to the jury, but with these his ambition 
 seemed satisfied; for arguments at the Term 
 he was seldom well prepared and far less 
 successful." 
 
 Do you ever take down from the shelves 
 the dingy volumes of Johnson or of Cowen, 
 whose wretched law-calf binding comes off 
 on your hands and your coat, and skim through 
 the contents for the mere pleasure of it? It is 
 like the study of the mastodon by the palae- 
 ontologist. If a man cites Johnson or Cowen 
 now-a-days, his adversary is adamant and the 
 judges talk among themselves about something 
 contemporaneous. You might as well quote 
 the Year Books, or refer to East or Hobart or 
 Plowden. But there is in all the old reports 
 abundant material for delightful study. It may 
 be that they are not what might be styled 
 "light literature," but they are infinitely more 
 suggestive, more stimulating to the imagina- 
 tion, and indeed more instructive than the one 
 
 68 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 hundred and odd volumes of New York Re- 
 ports, or the latest volume of the Federal 
 Reporter. You cannot fail to discover that 
 there were giants in those days--giants at the 
 bar and on the bench-and you may measure 
 their stature. In those historic days, briefs were 
 not prepared by clerks or opinions dictated to 
 stenographers; counsel were not held down to 
 hours or minutes; judges did not move uneasily 
 in their seats and throw aside the records as a 
 signal for the termination of an argument too 
 prolix. The highest energies of the courts were 
 not devoted to the question whether or not the 
 cause was technically before them, and mat-- 
 ters of large importance were accorded the 
 full measure of consideration, as when the 
 Court of Appeals gave an entire term to the 
 case of Curtis v. Leavitt which involved 
 $1,500,000 and devoted two hundred and 
 ninety-seven pages of the 15th N. Y. to the 
 statement and the opinions. I do not mean to 
 be understood as presuming to utter a word of 
 criticism upon our courts of to-day or upon 
 counsel of the present. The whole country 
 and its business have grown so enormously 
 that speed has come to be a necessity. The 
 volume of litigation, the magnitude of amounts. 
 has continually increased, but the day is still 
 
 69 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 but twenty-four hours long and it cannot be 
 made longer by legislatures or even by Con- 
 gress, notwithstanding the Interstate Com- 
 merce clause of the Federal Constitution.- If 
 the stately and solemn lawyers or the grave 
 and deliberate judges of the olden time could 
 be brought in contact with the conditions of 
 the present, they would gasp with breathless 
 amazement, fly to their libraries, and perish 
 from intellectual apoplexy. 
 
 An examination of the books reveals the 
 fact that Van Buren s name^it is spelled there 
 "Van Beuren"— first appears in 3d Johnson, 
 174, where on behalf of the defendant he 
 moved for a new trial in the case of Wilson 
 and Gibbs v. Reed. It was an action of trover 
 about a hogshead of rum, and the amount in- 
 volved was eighty dollars. The plaintiff had 
 a verdict, and the motion came on to be heard 
 at the May Term of the Supreme Court in 
 1808, Elisha Williams and Mr. Kirtland op- 
 posing. Van Buren was beaten, the court 
 (per Spencet J.) saying that "the defendant 
 must take nothing by his motion." In the next 
 case the young advocate was more fortunate. 
 It was an action of ejectment (Jackson ex, dem, 
 Whitlock V. Deyoj 3 Johns. 421). In those 
 times the courts were almost as full of eject- 
 
 70 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 ment suits as they now are of suits to recover 
 damages for personal injuries, those obstructers 
 of the calendars and encouragers of fraud, per- 
 jury, champerty, and maintenance. The prog- 
 ress of the ages seems to make the world 
 wither and the individual more and more, so 
 that disputes about land have practically dis- 
 appeared, and questions about personal in- 
 juries appear to have supplanted them, not to 
 the benefit of the bar. We have become 
 divided between real lawyers and ambulance 
 lawyers. It is difficult to imagine Hoffman, 
 Radclif f , Van Vechten, Van Buren, Livingston, 
 Cady and Jordan contending over problems 
 of contributory negligence and the vagaries 
 of guards and motor-men. Returning to the 
 Deyo case, the plaintiff had a verdict and 
 Elisha Williams came forward to ask for 
 a new trial. Van Buren, for plaintiff, was 
 "stopped by the court." Williams was annihi- 
 lated on the spot, the court holding that an 
 equitable title cannot be set up in ejectment 
 against the legal title. In the same volume 
 (3d Johnson, 498) Van Buren appears again, 
 (November Term, 1808) in another ejectment 
 suit, Jackson ex. dem. Van Deusen vs, Scissam^ 
 and on this occasion Williams was with him. 
 They moved for a new trial and had the vic- 
 
 71 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 tory. So at twenty-six. Van Buren was already 
 arguing cases in the Supreme Court and was 
 either with the famous Williams or against 
 him. Evidently he had made his mark, and 
 friends and neighbors, whose judgment is usu- 
 ally sound, estimated him at his true worth. 
 
 I do not find that he came before the Court 
 of Errors until the argument of Trice v, Jackson, 
 8 Johnson, 496, where he was associated with 
 Van Vechten, whom he afterwards succeeded 
 in the office of Attorney-General, against Mr. 
 Sudam and Williams, and he was defeated. 
 This is one of the three cases in error in that 
 volume, so few were the appeals to the high- 
 est court. He was of counsel for John V. N. 
 Yates, in the famous case of Yates vs. Lansing j 
 9th Johnson, 396, with Thomas Addis Emmet 
 as an associate and John V. Henry and Van 
 Vechten as opponents. It was the most impor- 
 tant of the six "Cases in Error" reported in that 
 volume. The mention of Henry reminds me 
 of an autograph letter of Van Buren to him, 
 dated in 182 1, which has no particular interest 
 except that it shows the easy way in which 
 they practiced in those days. It is before me 
 now. Van Buren says: "I find on examining 
 the bill of exceptions in our —cause [I cannot 
 decipher the name -he wrote abominably], 
 
 72 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 that I have omitted the statement by you of the 
 deeds contained in the exception, an omission 
 which leaves the case imperfect and may em- 
 barrass both of us. I send you my notes to 
 show that the amendment I send for your 
 approbation is correct, and you will find it so 
 by a reference to yours. Be so good as to look 
 at it this evening and authorize my clerk to 
 alter the bill conformable to it. Your friend, 
 M. V. Buren." He generally signed ** V. Buren" 
 abbreviating the "Van." It must have been 
 more comfortable to practice law in those days 
 than it is now, for we do not make up or 
 amend our records in such a carelessly amica- 
 ble way. 
 
 He asserts that he was extremely unwilling 
 to accept political office, but circumstances 
 compelled him to become a candidate. In 
 November, 1812, he took his seat as Senator 
 from the Middle District and thus became a 
 member of the Court for the Correction of 
 Errors and Trial of Impeachments, that odd tri- 
 bunal composed of the Chancellor, the Judges 
 of the Supreme Court, the Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor, and the thirty-two Senators, of which 
 might be said what has been said of the Court 
 of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey, that it 
 was too large for a court and too small for a 
 
 73 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 town-meeting. His first opinion was given in 
 Barry vs, Mandell^ loth Johnson, 563, decided 
 in March, 1 8 1 3 . This is the famous cbw-escape 
 case which fills nineteen pages of the fine 
 print of my edition of Johnson, and to which 
 not only Van Buren but Chancellor Lansing 
 gave the most laborious investigation. I doubt 
 if our Court of Appeals would have accorded 
 to it more than a few scanty lines in the Mem- 
 oranda at the end of a volume. :c a j 
 Mr. Shepard gives an account of this ca§e 
 which for succinct statement and dignified 
 humor is not to be equalled, and I shall not 
 attempt to paraphrase it. An unfortunate 
 debtor was released from imprisonment for 
 debt on a bond to keep within the jail liberties. 
 He was personally conducting a certain cow, 
 which animal, after the manner of cows ever 
 since the flood, jumped about unwarrantably 
 and from time to time dragged its unhappy 
 conductor four, six or ten feet outside of the 
 limits. On the theory that each cow-compelled 
 excursion constituted an escape, the creditor 
 sued the sureties on the bond. The Supreme 
 Court, Kent presiding, sustained the recovery. 
 Van Buren did not like the Federalist Kent, 
 and he had a grim delight in punishing that 
 luminary of the law. Moreover he had the 
 
 74 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 modern view of the absurd policy of imprison- 
 ing men for failure to pay simple contract 
 debts. The decision of the Supreme Court 
 was reversed, and the young Senator filed an 
 opinion far more elaborate than that of Chan- 
 cellor Lansing with whom he concurred. As 
 Shepard says it "could not have been more 
 carefully done had something greater seemed 
 at stake than a bovine vagary and a few dol- 
 lars." A portion at least of this opinion will 
 bear quotation. Van Buren had his ear close 
 to the ground for popular sympathy, and he 
 proved his breadth of mind and his apprecia- 
 tion of the common feelings of mankind. Al- 
 though it is a legal opinion, it is a fair example 
 of what Mr. Shepard once described to me as 
 his "political-partisan style, one of the best 
 styles practiced by statesmen." Van Buren said: 
 "Permit me next, respectfully, to examine 
 with what propriety it can be alleged, that 
 escapes of this description are so far against 
 the policy of the statute, as to render the con- 
 struction of the court below proper and nec- 
 cessary. As it has truly been remarked, *this 
 statute was passed for humane purposes;' it 
 was among the first concessions which were 
 made by that inflexible spirit, which has hith- 
 erto maintained its hold on society, authoriz- 
 
 75 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 ing imprisonment for debt. Coeval with the 
 authority of imprisonment for debt have been 
 the exertions of men of intelligence, of reflec- 
 tion and philanthropy, to mitigate its rigor; 
 of men who viewed it as a practice funda- 
 mentally wrong, a practice which forces their 
 fellow creatures from society, from their 
 friends and their agonized families into the 
 dreary walls of a prison; which compels them 
 to leave all those fascinating endearments, to 
 become an inmate with vermin; which con- 
 fines them within the same walls that contain 
 the midnight incendiary and the ruthless as- 
 sassin; not for crimes which they have com- 
 mitted; not for frauds which they have prac- 
 ticed on the credulous and unwary; (for such 
 distinctions are not made;) but for the misfor- 
 tune of being poor; of being unable to satisfy 
 the all-digesting stomach of some ravenous 
 creditor; of men who looked upon the practice 
 as confounding virtue and vice, and destroy- 
 ing the distinction between guilt and inno- 
 cence, which should unceasingly be cherished 
 in any well regulated government." 
 
 After eloquence like this Barry's cow should 
 be as immortal as the Chicago cow of Mrs. 
 O'Leary. But it was a wise utterance for a 
 rising politician, and the general sentiment of 
 
 76 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 succeeding days has approved the judgment. 
 I have said that he disliked Kent: he cer- 
 tainly took a sly pleasure in tormenting the 
 distinguished Chief Justice and Chancellor, 
 but in the autobiography he bestows upon 
 him the most exalted praise. He tells one or 
 two stories of Kent which are new, at least to 
 me, and which exhibit the Chancellor in a new 
 light. Van Buren was calling upon him one 
 day, and found a young man applying for 
 admission as a Solicitor in Chancery who was 
 manifestly not "within the rules," but who 
 cited the case of another applicant who had 
 recently been admitted. "I deny it, sir!" cried 
 the Chancellor. "It is not true. I did not admit 
 him. Hebrokem\^ On another occasion, says 
 Van Buren, " he displayed in my presence what 
 in almost any other man would have been re- 
 garded as undignified violence of temper and 
 manner, but would not, to one who knew him 
 well, bear any such construction. The rever- 
 sals of the preceding day having been referred 
 to, he broke out in a mock tirade against the 
 judges, to the following effect: *They are un- 
 fit for their places, Mr. Van Buren, you know 
 that they are! Spencer and Van Ness are able 
 enough, but instead of studying their cases they 
 devote their time to politics. You know that 
 
 77 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 as well as I do ! As to Judge Yates'— raising his 
 hands --'I need say nothing. You should roll 
 him back to Schenectady! '--(an allusion to 
 Judge Yates' personal appearance, borrowed 
 from Mr. Clinton) --'and as to my cousin Piatt I 
 He is only fit to be head deacon to a Presby- 
 terian church and for nothing elsef If this is 
 Mr. Van Buren's idea of pleasant jocosity, I 
 wonder what he would regard as rather bitter 
 personal abuse. I have never had the honor of 
 knowing any judge who keenly enjoyed rever- 
 sals of his own decisions. 
 
 The next case in which Van Buren delivered 
 an opinion was the celebrated one of Ambrose 
 Spencer vs. Solomon Southwick (lo Johnson, 
 259). Southwick, who was a sort of Thomas 
 W. Lawson in the politics of the period, had 
 publicly accused Spencer of misconduct as a 
 Senator in putting through the famous charter 
 of the Manhattan Company— still enduring as 
 one of our great financial institutions, but not 
 the only corporation which has in its inception 
 aimed to supply the public with pure water. 
 He charged Spencer, one of the most eminent 
 men of his day, with having by hypocrisy and 
 deceit procured the passage of the act of incor- 
 poration at a time when he was pecuniarily 
 interested in the enterprise. Spencer filed a 
 
 78 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 replication, setting up the fact that he was not 
 so interested and Southwick demurred. The 
 demurrer was sustained in the Supreme Court, 
 but the decision was reversed, by an unani- 
 mous vote. Van Buren writing for reversal. In 
 Graves v. Dash^ 12 Johnson, 17, he made a few 
 remarks, but the majority was against him. 
 ''We look at these old opinions and the 
 abstracts of the arguments of counsel, and we 
 are apt to think that in those ancient times 
 lawyers were far more learned and courts far 
 more astute than they are in this twentieth 
 century. It may be so as far as the lawyers are 
 concerned, but we must not forget that men 
 used to lead what is now called "a simple life" 
 and that the complexities of this generation 
 were wholly unknown in those halcyon days. 
 The manifold complications of this generation 
 would have bewildered the lawyers of the 
 olden times. The subtle questions which agi- 
 tated our courts a century ago have long since 
 been relegated to obscurity. Our courts must 
 needs deal with modern problems, and they 
 endeavor to decide them according to their 
 view of what is right-often, however, if I may 
 be permitted to express an humble opinion, 
 giving their judgment in favor of what they 
 happen to think is right in the particular case 
 
 7Q 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 before them, rather than with regard to rule 
 and precedent. Many years ago I was closely 
 associated with a venerable judge who once 
 occupied a place on the bench of our highest 
 court, and I remember that he told me seri- 
 ously that " the Court of Appeals never decides 
 a case except as it wishes to decide it." I have 
 had frequent occasion since then to admit that 
 he told the truth; and I have often wished that 
 there had been more cordial unanimity of sen- 
 timent between us on the subject before them. 
 At the same time, I believe that in character, 
 capacity and intelligence the bench of our 
 own day and of our own State compares fav- 
 orably with that of any time or of any country. 
 If experience brings to a man the capacity to 
 be fair and just, it must convince him that it is 
 a sad mistake to censure the judges whose 
 views differ from his own. 
 
 In February, 1815, Van Buren was chosen 
 the successor of the distinguished Abraham 
 Van Vechten as Attorney-General—an office 
 which was considered to be of such eminence 
 and importance that only lawyers of the great- 
 est reputation were selected to fill it. Van 
 Buren won the place by the casting vote of 
 (Governor Tompkins, against the influence of 
 Ambrose Spencer who was beginning to think 
 
 80 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 that his young friend was becoming too pow- 
 erful. He held the of f ice until July, 1 8 19, when 
 he was removed by a combination of Clin- 
 tonians and Federalists. The salary of the 
 Attorney-General was then $5-50 a day, with 
 some costs. Although he continued to serve 
 as State Senator until 1820 he delivered few 
 judicial opinions while he was Attorney-Gen- 
 eral. Removing to Albany in 1816, he took 
 in partnership with him his pupil, Butler: and 
 after his senior's election to the United States 
 Senate in 182 1 Butler undoubtedly bore the 
 burden of the business, although Van Buren 
 appeared now and then in the Court of Errors. 
 
 He did not confine his attention to courts of 
 law, but frequently appeared before the Chan- 
 cellor. The fourth volume of Johnson s Chan- 
 cery Reports contains seven of his cases, in six 
 of which he was successful. One of these 
 cases (Troup vs, Rice^ 4th Johns. Ch., 228), 
 Charles Butler said that it was opened by 
 Van Buren for the complainants " with a speech 
 surpassing anything perhaps ever delivered 
 by him." 
 
 It would be tedious to enumerate the vari- 
 ous litigations in which he was concerned; but 
 there are two reported cases which show him 
 at his best, both arising out of the celebrated 
 
 81 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 Medcef Eden contTOvetsy.'-'fFilkes vs, Lion^ 
 2 Cowen, 333, argued in December, 1823. 
 and Varick vs, Jackson ^ 2 Wendell, 166, ar- 
 gued in December, 1828. The reporters give 
 his arguments quite at length, —seventeen 
 pages being devoted to his presentation of the 
 first case and twenty-three pages in the second 
 case. He had against him in 1823, Samuel 
 Jones and Samuel A. Talcott, and in 1828, 
 Boyd and Van Vechten. His associate was 
 Aaron Burr; in fact it was Burr's own case. 
 Eden was a brewer in New York and when 
 he died in 1798 he left to his two sons a large 
 amount of real estate on Manhattan Island. If 
 either died childless, the other was to inherit 
 the share of the deceased son. They squan- 
 dered their property and lost their lands. 
 Questions were raised about the validity of 
 the transactions, and Hamilton and Burr were 
 consulted, Hamilton being of the opinion that 
 the estate could not be recovered and Burr 
 advising to the contrary. Hamilton's views 
 prevailed, but when Burr returned from 
 Europe with no money and no practice, his 
 attention was drawn to the matter by the death 
 of one of the sons. He took up the case and 
 made it his chief business. The story is graph- 
 ically told by Parton in his "Life of Aaron 
 
 82 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 Burr," but it is too long to be given here. 
 There was no more astute real property law- 
 yer than Aaron Burr, and if he had devoted 
 himself to his profession instead of to the gods 
 of politics, he might have been enshrined 
 among the heroes whom we love to honor. 
 He was shrewd enough to know that he must 
 remain well hidden in the background and 
 must put forward some influential personage 
 as the leader. He chose Van Buren, whose 
 enemies were always fond of comparing him 
 to Burr. The bitter old diarist, John Quincy 
 Adams, said of Van Buren and Burr: "There 
 is much resemblance of character, manners 
 and even person, between the two men." Be 
 that as it may. Burr chose Van Buren as coun- 
 sel and their efforts were crowned with a 
 triumph. How Burr tactfully subordinated 
 himself may be seen by the reports. In 
 IVilkes vs. Lion J he merely said that "he should 
 add but little on the three first points of the 
 defence; the ability with which all the points 
 had been examined by his associate forbade 
 his saying much in relation to either;" and in 
 Varick vs, Jackson he declined to argue the 
 principal question, making only a few remarks 
 about the examination of a witness. At this 
 day, when the sums involved are so great, it is 
 
 83 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 amusing to recall the remarks of Kent about 
 this case: "This may well be considered," said 
 the commentator, " a grave and important ques- 
 tion, demanding the utmost care and attention 
 on the part of the court; for it was said on the 
 argument that property to the amount of half 
 a million dollars depended upon the decision 
 to be made in this case." 
 
 His latest appearance before juries was in 
 the trial of the Astor case in which he was 
 associated with Kent and with Daniel Webster, 
 and of the Sailor's Snug Harbor case in the fall 
 of 1827. It was in the course of the last men- 
 tioned trial that the great Thomas Addis 
 Emmet had the fatal stroke which ended his 
 life and Van Buren gives a vivid description 
 of the event in the Autobiography. He says: 
 **I was one of the opposing counsel in the 
 cause, and as the court adjourned on the pre- 
 ceding day he expressed to me his surprise 
 that we had kept our suit, the claim of Bishop 
 Inglis of Nova Scotia to the immense estate 
 called the Sailor's Snug Harbor, on foot so 
 long; but added that we could not prolong its 
 life beyond twelve o'clock of the next day. 
 When that time arrived, I followed him from 
 the bar to the stove, whither he had been 
 called by an acquaintance, and said: *Well, 
 
 84 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 Mr. Emmet, the hour has come, and we are 
 alive yetf *Yes/ he answered/ but you cannot 
 live much longer!' Immediately after my re- 
 turn to my seat, David B. Ogden said to me: 
 *Look at Emmet! He is going to have a fit!' I 
 looked and replied that it was a mistake. In a 
 few minutes he repeated the alarm more em- 
 phatically. I went to Chief Justice Thompson, 
 before whom the cause was tried, and informed 
 him of Mr. Ogden's suspicions. The Judge 
 observed Mr. Emmet closely and replied pleas- 
 antly: *No, no! Ogden is mistaken, his under- 
 lip hangs a little lower than usual, but that is 
 natural to him when he is writing.' At that 
 instant, and as I turned towards my seat, I saw 
 Mr. Emmet reel in his chair, and extend his 
 hand towards a neighboring pillar. I endeav- 
 ored to intercept his fall, but without success; 
 he was carried to his house, and died in a few 
 hours." 
 
 While a Senator of the United States, he had 
 a narrow escape from occupying a seat on the 
 bench of the United States Supreme Court. 
 He tells us that Smith Thompson, Secretary of 
 the Navy, asked him if he would accept an 
 appointment to fill the vacancy caused by the 
 death of Brockholst Livingston. Rufus King 
 advised him to take the place. Van Buren had 
 
 85 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 had a difference with President Monroe about 
 the postmastership of Albany, but said that if 
 the President was disposed to confer the office 
 upon him, he would accept it, although he had 
 no desire for the position and could not con- 
 sent to be regarded as an applicant for it. 
 Something seems to have interfered with the 
 proposed arrangement and Thompson was 
 appointed to the office; and Van Buren says 
 "he was as eminently qualified for it as he was 
 unfit for political life." 
 
 In dealing with Van Buren as a lawyer, it is 
 not easy to refrain from quoting the words of 
 Mr. Shepard. "Van Buren's work as a lawyer," 
 he says, " brought him something besides wealth 
 and the education and refinement of books, 
 and something which neither Erskine nor 
 Webster gained. The profession afforded him 
 an admirable discipline in the conduct of 
 affairs; and affairs, in law as out of it, are 
 largely decided by human nature and its vary- 
 ing peculiarities. The preparation of details; 
 the keen and far-sighted arrangement of the 
 best, because the most practicable plan; the 
 refusal to fire off ammunition for the popular 
 applause to be roused by its noise and flame; 
 the clear, steady bearing in mind of the end 
 to be accomplished, rather than the prolonged 
 
 86 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 enjoyment or systematic working out of inter- 
 mediate processes beyond a utilitarian neces- 
 sity^all these elements Van Buren mastered 
 in a signal degree, and made invaluable in 
 legal practice." It is said of him that he was 
 not an orator, but he persuaded men. They 
 thought much more then of what may be 
 called "fine speaking" than we do, and Van 
 Buren was not of the order of speakers who 
 arouse the tears and applause of jurymen and 
 spectators; but he was effective and he had 
 the art which made the British juryman dis- 
 parage Scarlett in comparison with Brougham. 
 We have only tradition to tell us of his exploits 
 in the trial courts, for none of his addresses to 
 juries were ever reported. 
 
 It was said of him that whether before a 
 jury or the court in banc he particularly excelled 
 in the opening of his subject. The facts out 
 of which the questions for discussion arose 
 and the mode in which he intended to treat 
 them were always stated with great clearness 
 and address. Undoubtedly this careful lucidity 
 of statement was a great factor in his power. 
 We all know that the statement of facts is usu- 
 ally the most important part of any argument 
 and that causes are won oftener on the "state- 
 ment" than on the marshalling of authorities, 
 
 87 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 mainly perhaps because the judges generally 
 know more law than we do but not so much 
 about the facts of our case. William Allen 
 Butler preferred to argue for the appellant 
 because it gave him the first chance at the 
 facts, always an advantage as he learned from 
 his distinguished father who was so unfortu- 
 nate as to bear the same name as a certain 
 Massachusetts general. If we may judge by 
 his political writings. Van Buren was elabor- 
 ate and copious. I have read the autobiogra- 
 phy, and it is a monument of dif f useness. He 
 could speak well without much previous 
 study, but he was exceedingly laborious and 
 industrious, mindful of the value of careful 
 preparation. In the "Life and Letters" of Mr. 
 Charles Butler, who was a clerk in the office 
 of Van Buren and Butler, it is recorded that 
 on the first morning of his clerkship "being 
 minded to despatch work he rose at half-past 
 four and at five in came Mr. Van Buren him- 
 self, ready for the business of the day." In a 
 letter written at the time, Mr. Butler says: "I 
 rise early, and what is more provoking, Mr. 
 Van Buren some mornings back has risen at 
 half-past four. I rise at five and find him up. 
 This morning he rode five or seven miles be- 
 fore seven o'clock. I can't imagine what pos- 
 
 88 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 sesses him." He owned what in those days 
 was an excellent library, and he used it sys- 
 tematically. " In the stillness of the night," says 
 the ornate Mr. Holland, in the inflated man- 
 ner of his time, "he buried his whole soul in 
 the researches of science. At that propitious 
 season, he knelt at the shrine of that * jealous 
 mistress which allows no rival,' and communed 
 with those eloquent oracles of enlightened 
 reason, which are too often allowed to repose 
 in silence on the dusty shelf." All this means 
 that he worked at night; but as Shepard says, 
 he learned men quite as fast as he learned 
 books. On the whole he seems according to 
 those who knew him well, to have been fluent 
 and facile; felicitous in expounding the intri- 
 cacies of fact and law; mild, insinuating, never 
 declamatory; going to the pith of the subject 
 without the arts of rhetoric. Referring to his 
 own mental habits, he relates in the autobi- 
 ography that John Randolph, in one of his 
 morbid moods, wrote a series of letters to 
 Andrew Jackson, in which he attacked Van 
 Buren. "These," he says, "General Jackson as 
 was his habit in regard to all private letters 
 designed to sow tares between us, sent to me 
 for my perusal." Randolph said in one letter 
 "that in his long experience of public life he 
 
 89 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 had scarcely ever met with a single prominent 
 man less informed than myself upon great 
 questions when they were first presented, or 
 who understood them better when I came to 
 their discussion. I remember well the Gen- 
 eral's hearty laugh when he heard me sub- 
 scribe to the justice of the description." 
 
 Many are the tales which are told of his 
 imperturbable demeanor, his adroitness of 
 speech, and his amusing non-committalism. 
 Philip Hone, who was his bitter opponent, 
 says in his Diary, referring to the stormiest 
 period of Van Buren's administration, "his 
 outward appearance is like the unruffled sur- 
 face of the majestic river which covers rocks 
 and whirlpools, but shows no marks of the 
 agitation beneath." John Quincy Adams writes 
 of him that like the Sosie of Moliere's Amphit- 
 ryon, he was Pami de tout le monde, Adams 
 tells us that Henry Clay, at a reception in the 
 White House, congratulated Van Buren upon 
 his happiness in being surrounded by so many 
 of his friends, to which he answered "the 
 weather is very fine." "No insignificant an- 
 swer," says Adams, "for it implied his conscious 
 assent to the satirical reflection implied in 
 Clay's remark—fair weather friends." It is told 
 of him that on a canal-boat journey a political 
 
 90 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 opponent wagered a basket of wine that no 
 question could be asked of him to which he 
 would give a direct answer, and when the 
 taker propounded to his chief the query "does 
 the sun rise in the east or in the west?" Mr. 
 Van Buren began his reply with the charac- 
 teristic preface: "the terms *east' and *west' 
 are conventional," whereupon his disheartened 
 admirer exclaimed "IVe lost the bet." In all 
 this we may discern only the habitual caution 
 of the experienced lawyer, sensible of the 
 danger which lurks in loose and unreflecting 
 assertion. He was always angry at the accu- 
 sation of non-committalism, calling it con- 
 temptuously a "party catch- word." 
 
 The absorbing work of the politician took 
 Van Buren from the bar all too soon. After 
 1828, he belonged to the nation. As Holland 
 says, "for some years preceding his final with- 
 drawal from the bar, his practice, it is believed, 
 was unsurpassed in its extent and responsibil- 
 ity by that of any lawyer in his native State 
 and perhaps in the United States." I am loath 
 to leave him^a notable character, unjustly de- 
 cried by ill-informed or partisan historians. 
 There is no doubt that he deliberately sacri- 
 ficed his chances for the Presidential nomi- 
 nation in 1844 by his letter against the 
 
 91 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 annexation of Texas, "one of the finest and 
 bravest pieces of political courage" as Shepard 
 well says, and one which "deserves from 
 Americans a long admiration." He was never 
 non-committal about the essentials. 
 
 In the early days of the rebellion, he was 
 patriotic and staunchly devoted to the cause 
 of the Union, although sometimes unjustly 
 accused of sympathy with secession. When 
 his will was opened they found that it began 
 in these words: "I, Martin VanBuren, of the 
 Town of Kinderhook, County of Columbia, 
 and State of New York, heretofore Governor 
 of the State and more recently President of 
 the United States, but for the last and happiest 
 years of my life a farmer in my native town, 
 do make and declare the following to be my 
 last will and testament." And so, at the end, 
 after an active career of sixty years, during 
 which he had attained the highest rank in his 
 profession and the most exalted office in the 
 nation, he gave his testimony to the emptiness 
 of honors and the worthlessness of political 
 rewards, and "his dust returned to the earth 
 as it was, his spirit to the God who gave it." 
 
 92 
 
THE SOCIETY FOR THE 
 PROMOTION OF THE PUBLIC GOOD 
 
THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION 
 OF THE PUBLIC GOOD. 
 
 Some Remarks at a Dinner of The Netherlands 
 Society of Philadelphia, January 23rd, 1906. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Dutchmen: 
 
 WHEN a timid person is suddenly 
 and unexpectedly called upon to 
 address his helpless fellow beings 
 after they have enjoyed a boun- 
 tiful repast and have indulged in libations 
 calculated to make them ready to swallow 
 anything which the post-prandial orator may 
 see fit to ladle out to them, and while he is 
 trying, with more or less success, to conceal 
 his manuscript in his pocket, he is accustomed 
 to say that he does not know why he has been 
 requested to perform. But really, and without 
 any undue humility, I confess that I do not 
 know why an obscure individual like myself; 
 only a poor lawyer, who never played " bridge" 
 and never owned an automobile; who has 
 
 95 
 
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION 
 
 never been indicted for anything yet; should 
 be asked to address an assemblage of magnates 
 like you; such a bevy of brains and beauty; 
 such a magnificent array of iridescent intellect 
 and personal pulchritude. Far be it from me 
 to account for it on the score of family influ- 
 ence on the Dinner Committee. But, however 
 it may be, I am very proud of the chance to 
 behold you in the performance of what I sup- 
 pose to be the principal work of your society, 
 and to see you, in the words of the poet-- 
 
 "Tho' deep, yet clear; tho' gentle, yet not dull. 
 Strong without rage; without overflowing— full." 
 
 May it be, perhaps, that however unworthy 
 I am to represent so great a constituency, I am 
 here as a delegate from the capital of the col- 
 ony of the New Netherlands— pre-eminently 
 the home of the Netherlanders, whatever you 
 may choose to say or to sing about "the Jersey 
 Dutch, the Delaware Dutch and the Dutch of 
 Pennsylvania;" from the humble little hamlet 
 built at the mouth of the Hudson, called New 
 Amsterdam, nobly Dutch in a time when 
 Pennsylvania was hopelessly given over to 
 Quakers and the rule of the Penn, which we 
 are credibly informed is mightier than the 
 sword ; on that island of Manna-hatta, rescued 
 
 96 
 
OF THE PUBLIC GOOD 
 
 from the aborigines by the aid of Mynheer 
 Ten Broeck's multitudinous nether garments 
 which that bulbous-bottomed burgher peeling 
 like an onion, devoted to the good cause in 
 the operations of the first recorded American 
 land-syndicate to which Ten Broeck contrib- 
 uted the breeches and Oloff Van Kortlandt 
 the brains—while the Indians represented the 
 confiding public. 
 
 New Amsterdam has passed from the rule 
 of sturdy hard-koppig Peter Stuyvesant and 
 his wooden leg to the rule of the Boss with 
 his wooden head; but there are some of the 
 descendants of the old stock who still remain 
 and who perpetuate the name and the glories 
 of good St. Nicholas. And while I have no 
 lawful title to speak for them, yet by virtue of 
 my ancestry-Jersey Dutch, it is true, on one 
 side but New Amsterdam Dutch on the other- 
 I may at least on behalf of the New Amster- 
 dammers congratulate you on your prosperity 
 and extend to you our cordial and fraternal 
 greeting. In order to give myself local color 
 I stood this morning for half an hour on Wall 
 street near William, with my gable-end to the 
 street. I would have produced the badge and 
 the long clay pipe of the St. Nicholas Society 
 as my credentials but at the last dinner I lost 
 
 97 
 
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION . 
 
 the one and broke the other in schnapps- 
 inspired enthusiasm. I would have submitted 
 to you the doughnut, the kruller, and the oily 
 koek, the symbols of Dutch good cheer, but 
 nobody has made them for me since the days 
 of my grandmother Hoffman. So I must ask 
 you to receive me on trust, and to let me on 
 behalf of your allies on the other side of the 
 Hudson, wish you all long life and happiness; 
 a never-ending series of dinners like this, 
 where men of kindred blood and kindred 
 feelings may come together to give to one 
 another the grasp of the hand and the word 
 of the heart which tell us that we are brothers- 
 united by ties not only of ancestry but of 
 common aims, of common hopes, and of com- 
 mon aspirations. 
 
 To tell the truth, I do not care so much 
 about history. You remember that Disraeli 
 said about his wife that she was an excellent 
 creature, but she never could remember which 
 came first, the Greeks or the Romans. Really 
 it doesn't matter much to us whether the 
 Dutch came first or the French, or the Eng- 
 lish. Like the celebrated wingless insect, 
 renowned in song, they got there just the 
 same. An Italian discovered us originally, 
 and the Italians have been discovering us ever 
 
 98 
 
OF THE PUBLIC GOOD 
 
 since. Columbus came on a Spanish ship, and 
 the Spanish discovered us in 1898; and they 
 gave us a Philopoena present that a good 
 many of us would be glad to return if we 
 could. But whether we are Netherlanders or 
 Quakers, Dutchmen or Dagoes, Saxon or Nor- 
 man or Dane, we are all of us Americans first, 
 the rest afterwards. That you may say is a 
 commonplace; but if patriotism is a common- 
 place, so are life and love and religion. I hope 
 the day will never come when we shall be 
 ashamed to be patriotic. We believe in this 
 country of ours. We are proud of her new 
 station among the first of the world powers. 
 We are proud of her prosperity, and she was 
 never more prosperous than she is today. No 
 processions of starving laborers throng our 
 streets as they do the streets of London, utter- 
 ing their protests against the conditions which 
 condemn them to grinding poverty. No, our 
 laborers wax fat and kick; and the fatter they 
 wax the harder they kick. We are proud too 
 of the wonderful influence exercised for the 
 world's benefit by that breezy whirlwind of 
 intelligent audacity and phenomenal achieve- 
 ment, that steam engine in trousers, whom 
 John Morley called a combination of St. Paul 
 and St. Vitus, whose genius comprehends all 
 
 99 
 
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION 
 
 subjects from international reorganizations to 
 football and who bears a name that comes 
 down to us from the days of Knickerbocker 
 and the rule of Wouter Van Twiller ^Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt. 
 
 He took aim and down came the Russian 
 bear: he showed his teeth and out came the 
 Japanese fox. I did all in my power to beat 
 him, but you have doubtless observed that my 
 efforts were not crowned with what might be 
 called brilliant success. Some of us thought 
 that, like Secretary Bonaparte, he wanted to 
 break up and shatter the old "Constitution." 
 But I am convinced we were wrong. I don t 
 believe he ever thinks about the Constitution 
 at all. I don't believe that Theodore Roose- 
 velt would know the Constitution if he met it 
 on Chestnut Street or had it up a tree in the 
 wilds of Colorado. But if he ever should be- 
 come acquainted with it, he will probably cry 
 out with his usual energy: "Boys, let us get 
 the old thing out, cut away some of its obso- 
 lete eighteenth century barnacles and make it 
 over to suit the demands and necessities of 
 the twentieth." 
 
 Yet, with all our pride, we are not unmind- 
 ful of our own faults. You remember, per- 
 haps, that when on some occasion the judges 
 
 lOO 
 
OF THE PUBLIC GOOD 
 
 of England were preparing a memorial to the 
 Queen, the draft began: "Conscious as we are 
 of our own imperfections/ and one dry old 
 jurist-I think it was Lord Bowen-suggested 
 as an amendment : "Conscious as we are of one 
 another's imperfections." Those of you who 
 are familiar with the history of the Nether- 
 lands-and I am sure that includes all the 
 genial and well-fed burghers whom I see be- 
 fore me -remember the great associations 
 which were created long ago in that land and 
 which have done so much for its people, 
 among them the "Society for the Promotion 
 of the Public Good," organized in 1784. I 
 wish I could pronounce its name, but if you 
 will throw a lot of a's and j's and a few as- 
 sorted consonants in a shaker, agitate them 
 violently for some moments, pour the mixture 
 into a cocktail glass and swallow instantly, 
 you will get some faint idea of it. And I have 
 been wondering what that Society for the 
 Promotion of the Public Good might do if it 
 should be turned loose in these United States 
 of ours and allowed to get its deadly good 
 work going among us. 
 
 In the first place -but I do not want to be 
 understood as asserting my own views too 
 dogmatically; people may differ from me; I 
 
 lOI 
 
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION 
 
 have known them to, and yet live; and al- 
 though I believe that it abhorred politics, I 
 think it might with advantage turn its austere 
 but kindly attention towards our rulers, and 
 particularly our municipal rulers. The rule of 
 graft in our cities has had a severe blow. It 
 has had magazine articles written about it 
 which ought to hurt it rather badly; but, more 
 than that, in many of our cities the men who 
 have been put in power by the votes of the 
 blind, unthinking and ignorant mass of voters 
 which our glorious system of popular suffrage 
 permits to control our elections, have had a 
 serious shaking up. You Philadelphians have 
 had an experience, and once in a while we 
 New Yorkers have a similar experience. Once 
 in every few years the decent element in the 
 community rises, acts, and makes itself felt, 
 and then, with a grunt of self-satisfaction, it 
 devotes itself to its business and to its amuse- 
 ments, and falls asleep while the little yahoos 
 of politics who have been skulking in their 
 hiding places, waiting until the giant slumbers, 
 sneak out again and resume pilfering at the 
 old stand. Am I wrong in saying, my brothers, 
 that if we were the Society for the Promotion 
 of the Public good and had the power, we 
 would give to the thrifty man, the substantial 
 
 I02 
 
OF THE PUBL IC GOOD 
 
 i t — ■ 
 
 man, the taxpayer, the controlling voice in the 
 selection of those who administer the affairs 
 of our municipalities? I confess I am not san- 
 guine, however, that we shall ever come to 
 that. Thirty years ago a Commission ap- 
 pointed by Governor Tilden in New York 
 tried to accomplish that result, and their re- 
 port, prepared by such men as James C. Carter, 
 William Allen Butler and Simon Sterne, is a 
 monument of wisdom. But the legislature 
 turned it down-of course they turned it down. 
 So that in New York, and in Philadelphia, 
 and in Chicago, and in all the crowded cities 
 of our land, your money is spent by the men 
 chosen by those who believe that the more 
 they can get out of you the better it is for 
 them, because they pay nothing. They do not 
 realize, of course, that by all the laws of polit- 
 ical economy they are paying too; and no one 
 could ever teach them the truth. But there is 
 a power which the grafters fear; an intelligent 
 public sentiment, aroused and directed by 
 public-spirited men; and all that we can do is 
 to keep that sentiment alive, and to remember 
 that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. 
 
 Next, that society might possibly deem it 
 wise to call a halt in the tendency to whole- 
 sale and indiscriminate abuse, particularly the 
 
 103 
 
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION 
 
 abuse of the unhappy rich. In these days we 
 find that everybody's character is at the mercy 
 of reckless pens and of irresponsible tongues. 
 To-day it seems that the one great crime is to 
 be well-to-do. The outcry is not neW'-it is as 
 old as society itself. " He that maketh haste to 
 be rich shall not be innocent," say the Proverbs. 
 That ought to make John D. Rockefeller tear 
 his hair, if he had any. "Law grinds the poor, 
 the rich men rule the law," said Oliver Gold- 
 smith; and Andrew Carnegie ought to exclude 
 Oliver's works from his numberless libraries. 
 " Riches grow in hell " said Milton. I fear some 
 of our life insurance magnates have assented 
 to that dictum and have taken to reading 
 "Paradise Lost." But this outcry has become a 
 shriek'-a barbaric yawp. And what arouses 
 my old Dutch wrath is that the chief yawpers 
 are such austere, self-denying, plain-living 
 creatures as the altruistic Hearst, with his sim- 
 ple, virtuous life and his inherited millions, 
 and the buccaneer Lawson, who deluges us 
 with the loose expectoration of his speech, 
 pays thirty thousand dollars for a carnation, 
 and yelps from day to day "Come, my fellow 
 paupers, let us despoil the wealthy and over- 
 throw the system which gives to brains and 
 industry that which should belong to idleness 
 
 104 
 
OF THE PUBLIC GOOD 
 
 and ignorance." 
 
 I do not mean to defend the men who have 
 gained vast fortunes by methods deserving of 
 condemnation; but let us not, like thoughtless 
 children, condemn without knowledge merely 
 because some malicious monkey has managed 
 to get hold of a printing press. There is a 
 commandment which is reiterated over and 
 over again as if it were the only one in the 
 Decalogue --"Thou shalt not steal;" but re- 
 member that there is another, of just as great 
 authority— "Thou shalt not bear false witness 
 against thy neighbor." I say that this indis- 
 criminate abuse of men who have gained 
 wealth is unworthy, is un-American, is dan- 
 gerous, leading to lawlessness and thence to 
 anarchy. Every one in this free land has a 
 right to enjoy the fruit of his own labor, his 
 own intelligence, his own capacity. There is 
 no law, human or divine, which gives to the 
 multitude the sole power to decide what we 
 are to do, how we are to behave, or how 
 much wealth we shall possess, although our 
 demagogues would have the people believe 
 it. And they have with them one of the great- 
 est powers on earth. 
 
 The night before he sailed for his sorely 
 tried land, the astute statesman, Witte, said to 
 
 105 
 
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION 
 
 a distinguished citizen of New York, "You 
 call this a free country, but it is not free. It is 
 not as free as mine. Your people have a mas- 
 ter, and that master is more autocratic and in- 
 finitely more potent than the Emperor of 
 Russia. The newspaper is your ruler." He 
 was right. The most dangerous force in our 
 country to-day, which does more than any- 
 thing else to stir up evil passions, to foster 
 abominable heresies, to divide us into classes 
 and to set one class against another, is what we 
 call the yellow press--a yellow peril in whose 
 presence an Oriental invasion shrinks into in- 
 significance. You all know what newspapers 
 I mean. You all know that I do not refer to 
 the decent and honorable newspapers which 
 are and always have been one of the greatest 
 instruments which divine Providence has em- 
 ployed to carry America forward in its grand 
 development towards its splendid pre-emi- 
 nence among nations. I speak of those daily 
 compendiums of falsehood and of crime— 
 whose columns are made up of the sickening 
 details of robbery, adultery and murder min- 
 gled with lies about our fellow-citizens, private 
 and public, and assaults upon all that is decent 
 and honorable. I do honor to-night to a dis- 
 tinguished member of your Society who dared 
 
 io6 
 
OF THE PUBLIC GOOD 
 
 _ [ I ■ I --..-. 
 
 to defy the power of this Minotaur of modern 
 times, and has been pursued and vilified be- 
 cause he had the courage to make a manly 
 effort to curb the licentiousness of those who 
 abuse the power of the press, that great engine 
 of civilization. It was an act of bravery which 
 rises to the dignity of heroism. You know 
 that a dam is a small Indian copper coin of 
 trifling value; and the Governor didn't care 
 a dam. 
 
 I have a strong impulse to preach a little 
 more, but I am going to resist it. Some lady 
 once asked Lord Granville if he was not fond 
 of going to church, and he replied, "Yes, 
 Madam, I have a passion for it, but I restrain 
 myself." I am going to restrain myself. One 
 reason is that I recall that at a dinner of the 
 New England Society some years ago. Senator 
 Morgan of Alabama spoke for an hour and 
 three-quarters, and when Mr. Choate arose at 
 midnight to follow him, the genial gentleman 
 who has represented us with such distinction 
 at the Court of St. James, began by saying: 
 "There are some subjects to which the previous 
 speaker has not referred." Another reason is, 
 that after dinner one must not be dismal. We 
 want to hear pleasant things, and we don't 
 want sermons. 
 
 107 
 
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION 
 
 Let our Society for the Promotion of the 
 Public Good teach us to say good things about 
 our fellow-beings and not evil things; to be 
 slow to censure others, slow to ascribe to them 
 unworthy motives, slow to blame them with- 
 out evidence and slow to convict them without 
 proof. Our ancestors, the solid, substantial 
 burghers of the Netherlands, were men of few 
 words but when those words were spoken 
 they carried weight. Let us, their descendants, 
 give to the heedless, voluble and undiscrimi- 
 nating millions, who bestow unhesitating cre- 
 dence upon what is printed in red letters at 
 the head of the columns of sensational journals, 
 an example of cool and careful consideration, 
 of wise restraint and of dignified forbearance, 
 and we will be deserving of the approval of 
 those mighty men of old who look down upon 
 us from their lofty seats in the world where 
 sooner or later we hope to share their eternal 
 Nirvana. 
 
 io8 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 A Writer of Many Books 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES. 
 
 A Writer of Many Books. 
 
 ri a vainglorious mood I said not long ago 
 to a well-dressed and apparently intel- 
 ligent gentleman whom I met in the de- 
 lightful library room of an accomplished 
 lawyer in Washington City, that I had just 
 had the privilege of conversing with the ex- 
 tremely modern novelist. Mr. Henry James. 
 He smiled amiably and remarked airily "Oh, 
 the two horsemen fellow f 
 
 The remark was not without significance, 
 because it betrayed the fact that my casual 
 acquaintance, who might well be presumed to 
 represent what is called "the average citizen" 
 of this enlightened country; who was fairly 
 well educated; who had read enough to know 
 of the famous horsemen and of their habitual 
 appearance in the opening chapter; who as- 
 suredly had skimmed the book-notices in our 
 wonderful newspapers; was, after all, more 
 distinctly impressed by the writer of half a 
 century ago than by the contemporaneous 
 
 III 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 author whose volumes bid fair to rival in 
 number those of his namesake --an author 
 whose style defies definition and bewilders 
 the simple-minded searcher after a good story. 
 
 I confess that I feel towards these subtle 
 writers with their involved sentences, their 
 clouds of verbiage, and their incomprehen- 
 sible wanderings in speculative mysteries 
 much as an old Irish court-stenographer did 
 when he said to me— "I hate these hypothe- 
 cated questions. Give me * Are you a butcher ? 
 Yes sir, I am.* " There is a delight about the 
 direct and there is often disappointment about 
 the indirect. The true lover of fiction revels 
 in the directness of Dumas and of Dickens, 
 but he usually accepts the intricacies of the 
 modern school because he is told that he 
 ought to do so or because alone and unaided 
 he can discover nothing better in the product 
 of the day. 
 
 To my Washington friend I replied, with 
 that offensive assumption of superiority which 
 marks the man familiar with his encyclopae- 
 dia, that the writer of whom he was thinking 
 had closed his career and finished the last 
 chapter of his life nearly half a century ago 
 when Henry James was only seventeen and 
 had not yet dreamed of Daisy Miller or fore- 
 
 112 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD IAMBS 
 
 casted the genesis of the two closely printed 
 volumes of The Golden Bowl, I discerned the 
 truth however that the subject was not inter- 
 esting and we changed the topic of conver- 
 sation to the coming Charity Ball 
 
 I. 
 
 The "horseman" tag has for many years 
 attached itself to G. P. R. James and has done 
 much to bring him into ridicule. It is strange 
 how such tags preserve immortality, despite 
 the fact that they are often unjust and deceiv- 
 ing. Few people think of Roger Brooke Taney, 
 so long Chief Justice of our highest court, 
 without remembering the accusation that he 
 said in the Dred Scott case that "the negro has 
 no rights which the white man is bound to 
 respect," whereas he said no such thing. Many 
 believe that Andrew Jackson announced the 
 proposition that "to the victor belong the 
 spoils," whereas it was Marcy who said that 
 "to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy," 
 and he was asserting that it was the belief of 
 New York politicians. We have no good 
 reason to contradict him. Van Buren was rid- 
 iculed for saying that "he would tread in the 
 footsteps of his illustrious predecessor" but he 
 never said it. Illustrations of such popular 
 
 113 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 fallacies might be multiplied almost indefi- 
 nitely. These are political examples, and per- 
 haps are out of place, but I like to be irrelevant. 
 In literature, Bret Harte's parodies, the Rejected 
 Addresses^ and the many clever things which 
 are contained in Mr. Hamilton's amusing com- 
 pilation, show how easy it is to discover a 
 mannerism and to attach to an author a label 
 which will always identify him. There is only 
 one writer who defies parody— the aforesaid 
 Henry James, for nobody could ever tell which 
 was the original and which the parody. 
 
 Possibly the popularity of the "horseman" 
 remark is due in some degree to Thackeray, 
 who began "that fatal parody," the burlesque 
 "Barbazure, by G. P. R. Jeames Esq. etc." in 
 this wise: "It was upon one of those balmy 
 evenings of November which are only known 
 in the valleys of Languedoc and among the 
 mountains of Alsace, that two cavaliers might 
 have been perceived by the naked eye thread- 
 ing one of the rocky and romantic gorges that 
 skirt the mountain land between the Marne 
 and the Garonne." Our own John Phoenix in 
 his review of the "Life of Joseph Bowers the 
 Elder"-- 1 quote from the original edition, and 
 not from the one printed by the Caxton Club 
 which omits this gem-says of one of Mr. 
 
 114 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 Bowers's supposititious works : *" The following 
 smacks, to us. slightly of *Jeems/ *It was on a 
 lovely morning in the sweet spring time, when 
 two horsemen might have been seen slowly 
 descending one of the gentle acclivities that 
 environ the picturesque valley of San Diego/ " 
 Mr. Edmund Gosse continues the tradition 
 when in his Modern English Literature^ he 
 tells us of the days when "the cavaliers of G. 
 P. R. James were riding down innumerable 
 roads;" while Justin McCarthy in the History 
 of Our Own Times remarks pleasantly —"Many 
 of us can remember, without being too much 
 ashamed of the fact, that there were early days 
 when Mr. James and his cavaliers and his 
 chivalric adventures gave nearly as much de- 
 light as Walter Scott could have given to the 
 youth of a preceding generation. But Walter 
 Scott is with us still, young and old, and poor 
 James is gone. His once famous solitary horse- 
 man has ridden away into actual solitude, and 
 the shades of night have gathered over his 
 heroic form." Here we perceive a variation 
 from the familiar allusion. The "two horse- 
 men" have resolved themselves into a single 
 rider. 
 
 While we are speaking of the horsemen, it 
 may not be amiss to recall what James thought 
 
 115 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 of them. In 1851 he published a story called 
 "The Fate," and in the sixteenth chapter he 
 deals with them in a manner quite amusing 
 but also quite pathetic. He is talking about 
 plagiarism and he wanders into other fields. 
 He says: 
 
 "As to repeating one's self, it is no very 
 great crime, perhaps, for I never heard that 
 robbing Peter to pay Paul was punishable 
 under any law or statute, and the multitude of 
 offenders in this sense, in all ages, and in all 
 circumstances, if not an excuse, is a palliation, 
 showing the frailty of human nature, and that 
 we are as frail as others--but no more. The 
 cause of this self-repetition, probably, is not a 
 paucity of ideas, not an infertility of fancy, 
 not a want of imagination or invention, but 
 like children sent daily to draw water from a 
 stream, we get into the habit of dropping our 
 buckets into the same immeasurable depth of 
 thought exactly at the same place; and though 
 it be not exactly the same water as that which 
 we drew up the day before it is very similar 
 in quality and flavor, a little clearer or a little 
 more turbid, as the case may be. 
 
 "Now this dissertation -which may be con- 
 sidered as an introduction or preface to the 
 second division of my history-- has been 
 
 116 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD IAMBS 
 
 brought about, has had its rise, origin, source, 
 in an anxious and careful endeavor to avoid, 
 if possible, introducing into this work the two 
 solitary horsemen^ one upon a white horse— 
 which, by one mode or another, have found 
 their way into probably one out of the three 
 of all the books I have written; and I need 
 hardly tell the reader that the name of these 
 books is legion. They are, perhaps, too many: 
 but, though I must die, some of them will 
 live—I know it, I feel it ; and I must continue 
 to write while this spirit is in this body. 
 
 "To say truth, I do not know why I should 
 wish to get rid of my two horsemen, espe- 
 cially the one on the white horse. Wouver- 
 mans always had a white horse in all his 
 pictures; and I do not see why I should not 
 put my signature, my emblem, my monogram, 
 in my paper and ink pictures as well as any 
 painter of them all. I am not sure that other 
 authors do not do the same thing— that Lytton 
 has not always, or very nearly, a philosophiz- 
 ing libertine— Dickens, a very charming young 
 girl, with dear little pockets; and Lever a bold 
 dragoon. Nevertheless, upon my life, if I can 
 help it, we will not have in this work the two 
 horsemen and the white horse; albeit, in after 
 times-when my name is placed with Homer 
 
 117 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 and Shakespeare, or in any other more likely 
 position —there may arise serious and acrimo- 
 nious disputes as to the real authorship of the 
 book, from its wanting my own peculiar and 
 distinctive mark and characteristic. 
 
 "But here, while writing about plagiarism, I 
 have been myself a plagiary; and it shall not 
 remain without acknowledgment, having suf- 
 fered somewhat in that sort myself. Here, my 
 excellent friend, Leigh Hunt, soul of mild good- 
 ness, honest truth, and gentle brightness! I 
 acknowledge that I stole from you the defen- 
 sive image of Wouverman's white horse, 
 which you incautiously put within my reach, 
 on one bright night of long, dreamy conver- 
 sation, when our ideas of many things, wide 
 as the poles asunder, met suddenly without 
 clashing, or produced but a cool, quiet spark-as 
 the white stones which children rub together 
 in dark corners emit a soft phosphorescent 
 gleam, that serves but to light their little 
 noses." ^ 
 
 I hold no brief for James. I cannot assert 
 
 1 As a matter of curiosity, I examined the twenty-one novels 
 composing the ** Revised Edition" of 1844-1849 to ascertain just 
 how many introduced the horseman or horsemen in the first chap- 
 ter. Seven disclose them; in eight they are absent; in four, the 
 horsemen are **a party;" in two, they appear in the second 
 chapter, the first being merely introductory. 
 
 ii8 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 truthfully that I am particularly well acquainted 
 with more than two or three of his numerous 
 books, although I remember with delight the 
 perusal of some of them when I was a boy, 
 reading for the story alone. But I am confi- 
 dent that he had his merits, and that much of 
 the abuse showered upon him by critics has 
 been undeserved; that he was a careful and 
 conscientious writer, whose novels are fit to 
 be read, and that while he may no longer be 
 ranked among "the best sellers," he deserves a 
 high place of honor among those who have 
 entertained, amused and instructed their fel- 
 low men. It is only about two years ago that 
 the Routledges of London considered it wise 
 to begin the new career of their house by re- 
 issuing in twenty-five volumes the historical 
 novels, and cheaper reproductions are widely 
 circulated. In a recent number of a New York 
 magazine the editor says that "the fact is that 
 James has always had a big public of his 
 own'-'the public in fact that does not consult 
 the 'Dictionary of National Biography'"— re- 
 ferring to the disparaging article in the Dic- 
 tionary about which I will have something to 
 say later on. There are authors who are always 
 praised by the critics but ignored by the pro- 
 letariat of readers; there are authors whom 
 
 119 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 the critics affect to despise but who have 
 many readers whose judgments are not em- 
 balmed in print. James seems to belong to the 
 last-mentioned class. Yet few are acquainted 
 with the man himself, and I have thought that 
 it might not be amiss to give a short account 
 of him, referring to the estimates of his char- 
 acter and ability by those of his own time and 
 also to some autograph letters of his which 
 are in my possession and which have not 
 been published. 
 
 11. 
 
 The details of his life are not very well 
 known; it was not a stirring or an eventful 
 one. It was the life of a quiet, dignified and 
 unostentatious man of letters, unmarked by 
 fierce controversies and wholly devoid of 
 domestic troubles. If his reputation has not 
 long survived him among the critical it is be- 
 cause of a law of literature which Mr. Brander 
 Matthews says is inexorable and universal. 
 The man who has the gift of story telling and 
 nothing else, who is devoid of humor, who 
 does not possess the power of making char- 
 acter, who is a "spinner of yarns" only, has no 
 staying power, and "however immense his 
 immediate popularity may be, he sinks into 
 
 I20 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 oblivion almost as soon as he ceases to pro- 
 duce."^ James seems to have had only in a 
 small degree "the power of making character," 
 and although he had a sense of humor, it 
 manifests itself in his novels only in a mildly 
 unobtrusive way. 
 
 George Payne Rainsford James was born in 
 George Street, Hanover Square, London, on 
 August 9th, 1799. His father was a physician 
 who had seen service in the navy and was in 
 America during the Revolution, serving in 
 Benedict Arnold's descent on Connecticut. 
 The son of the novelist, who is still living in 
 Wisconsin, tells me that his grandfather (as 
 he hinted) shot a man with his own hands to 
 stop the atrocities of the siege in which Led- 
 yard fell. The physician was also in the vessel 
 which brought Rodney the news of De Grasse 
 and enabled him to win the great naval victory 
 which assisted England to make peace credit- 
 ably. His paternal grandfather was Dr. Robert 
 James, whose "powders" for curing fevers en- 
 joyed great celebrity at one time, ^ but his chief 
 title to fame is that he was admired by Samuel 
 
 1 Brander Matthews: Aspects of Fiction, 153. 
 
 2 They are said to have caused the death of Oliver Goldsmith, 
 and pamphlets were published on the subject. Foster's Oliver 
 Goldsmith, II. 461-463. 
 
 121 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD I AMES 
 
 Johnson who said of him, "no man brings more 
 mind to his profession." ^ I regret that there is 
 a cruel insinuation by the great personage 
 which impHes that Doctor Robert was not 
 sober for twenty years, but there is some doubt 
 whether Johnson was really referring to 
 James. ^ Those were days of free indulgence, 
 and much may be pardoned; at all events, no 
 one could ever accuse the grandson of such 
 an offence. 
 
 Young George attended the school of the 
 Reverend William Carmalt at Putney, but he 
 was not fortunate enough to have the advan- 
 tage of a university education, which, despite 
 the sneers of those who never attended a uni- 
 versity, is an important element in the life of 
 any man who devotes himself to literature. It 
 is a great corrective, and those who regard 
 the subject from a point of view wholly utili- 
 tarian do not comprehend in the least degree 
 what is meant by it. James soon developed a 
 fondness for the study of languages, not only 
 what are called "the classics," but of Persian 
 and Arabic although he says he "sadly failed 
 in mastering Arabic." This taste of his may 
 
 1 Boswell (Geo. Birkbeck Hill's Edition), I. 183. 
 
 2 Id., III. 442. 
 
 122 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 account in part for his extensive vocabulary, 
 and it may be that his diffuseness, so much 
 criticised, was due in some degree to his ready 
 command of an unusual number of words. In 
 his younger days, he studied medicine, as 
 might have been expected, but his inclination 
 was in a different direction. He also wanted 
 to go into the navy, but says Mr. C. L. James, 
 "his father, who had a sailor's experience and 
 manners, said, *you may go into the army if 
 you like-it's the life of a dog; but the navy is 
 
 the life of a d d dog, and you shant try it.' " 
 
 He did accordingly go into the army for a 
 short time during the "One Hundred Days," 
 and was wounded in one of the slight actions 
 which followed Waterloo; but he never rose 
 beyond the rank of lieutenant. His son writes : 
 "The British and Prussian forces were dis- 
 posed all along the frontier to guard every 
 point, and Wellington, with whom my father 
 was acquainted, did not like the arrange- 
 ment-it was Blucher's. When Napoleon 
 crossed the Sambre at Charlevoi, the Duke 
 saw his purpose of taking Quatre Bras, be- 
 tween the English and Prussians, so he sent 
 word to all his own detachments to fall 
 in, ^running as to a fire.' * * * My father's 
 company was among those too late for the 
 
 123 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFQRD JAMES 
 
 great battle. I have heard him tell how the 
 cuirassiers lay piled up, men and horses, to 
 the tops of lofty hedges. * * * My father 
 also said that he saw a dead cuirassier behind 
 our lines, showing there must have been a 
 time when they actually pierced the allied 
 centre. When he was on the field they were 
 bringing in French prisoners, who would have 
 been massacred by the Prussians but that 
 English soldiers guarded them. Many years 
 afterwards the Duke of Wellington said to 
 my father, in his abrupt way, *You were at 
 Waterloo, I think?' 'No,' he replied, *I am 
 sorry to say." *Why sorry to say,' rejoined 
 Wellington, *if you had been there, you might 
 not have been here.' Another of his anecdotes 
 about the Duke is that just after Waterloo, 
 where it is well known that a great part of the 
 allied army was wholly routed, some officers 
 were talking about who *ran,' when Welling- 
 ton, who had been quietly listening to these 
 unhopeful personalities, cut in thus : 'Run ! who 
 wouldn't have run under a fire like that ? I am 
 sure I should --if I had known any place to 
 run to.' " 
 
 One incident in his army life is of interest. 
 Some thirty years ago Mr. Maunsell B. Field, a 
 gentleman whose title to fame is somewhat 
 
 124 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD IAMBS 
 
 dubious, published a book called "Memories 
 of Many Men." He knew James well, and 
 collaborated with him in one of his books— 
 "Adrian, or the Clouds of the Mind." Mr. 
 Field says, after mentioning an alleged fact 
 which is not a fact, viz : that James was taken 
 prisoner before the battle of Waterloo and 
 detained until after the battle, "The incident 
 which occurred during his confinement there 
 cast a gloom upon the rest of his life. For 
 some cause which he never explained to me, 
 he became engaged in a duel with a French 
 officer. He escaped unhurt himself, but 
 wounded his adversary who died, after lin- 
 gering for months. I have still in my posses- 
 sion the old-fashioned pistols with which this 
 duel was fought, which my deceased friend 
 presented to me at the time of our early ac- 
 quaintance." ^ Field's story is made up in a 
 ridiculously inaccurate way. James was not 
 captured before Waterloo, or after it, for that 
 matter. During his later travels he became 
 involved in a difficulty with a French officer 
 and found himself compelled, according to the 
 absurd practice of the time, to fight a duel 
 with him. The Frenchman was not killed, but 
 
 1 Memories: by M. B. Field p. 188— Harpers, 1874. 
 
 125 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 only wounded in the arm, and the duel was 
 fought with swords, not with pistols! The 
 truth is, that after the sword-duel, James was 
 challenged to fight again with pistols. Mr. C. 
 L James writes me thus: "It made him (G. P. 
 R. James) very angry; and. being a good shot 
 then, he felt confident of the result if he should 
 accept but said he would put the point of 
 honor to the French officer's regiment. They 
 replied by inviting him to dine at the mess. 
 On receiving this message, he took up his pis- 
 tols which were ready, loaded, saying *then 
 we shall have no use for these,' and at that 
 moment one of them went off, sending the 
 bullet through the floor close to his foot, 
 though he felt sure they were not cocked." 
 Mr. Field undoubtedly meant to tell the truth, 
 but his reminiscences cannot be relied upon 
 in regard to James or to any one else. 
 
 As a lad of seventeen he wrote a number 
 of sketches, afterwards published under the 
 title of "A String of Pearls," which were rather 
 free translations from the oriental tales he had 
 studied so fondly. ^ He travelled extensively 
 for those times, visiting France and Spain soon 
 
 1 Allibone gives the date of publication as 1849; but it must 
 have been published in some form prior to May 17, 1833. See 
 post, page 200. 
 
 126 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 after the abdication of Napoleon. These early 
 travels and adventures supplied him with the 
 idea of Morley Ernst ein. He became acquaint- 
 ed with Cuvier and other men of eminence, 
 and it is gratifying to Americans to know that 
 Washington Irving liked him and gave him 
 encouragement. It has been said that his first 
 work was the Life of Edward the Black Prince ^ 
 produced in 1822, but one of my letters, writ- 
 ten in 1835, indicates that it was not produced 
 earlier than 1836. The son thinks it must 
 have been written before 1830. He had a 
 disposition to enter political life, but he aban- 
 doned the idea in 1827. He was a mild Tory. 
 His ambition was in the direction of a diplo- 
 matic career. His father had some influence 
 with Lord Liverpool, who offered him the 
 post of Secretary to an Embassy to China, ^ 
 a temporary appointment only, and one which 
 promised no preferment. It was declined, and 
 a week later Lord Liverpool died suddenly. 
 
 In 1828 he married the daughter of Hono- 
 ratus Leigh Thomas, an eminent physician of 
 that day. She survived her husband exactly 
 thirty-one years, dying at Eau Claire, Wiscon- 
 sin, on June 9th, 1891. The assertion made 
 in some accounts of him that James married in 
 the United States is wholly untrue. After the 
 
 127 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 marriage, they lived in France, Italy and Scot- 
 land. 
 
 In 1825 he wrote his first novel, Richelieu^ 
 which was not published until 1829. Regarded 
 by many as the best of his novels, it is an ex- 
 cellent example of his strength and of his 
 weakness. It deals with elementary emotions, 
 and makes but slight attempts to portray char- 
 acter except in the simplest and most obvious 
 way. Although it bears the name of the great 
 Cardinal, it might as well have been called 
 "Louis XIII.," or "Chavigni," or "The Count de 
 Blenau," for Richelieu himself appears but 
 seldom on the scene and is not the hero or 
 the central figure. The narrative runs briskly 
 on, plentifully seasoned with deeds of daring 
 and hair-breadth escapes, culminating in the 
 familiar climax of the almost miraculous ar- 
 rival of a pardon when the hero has bared 
 his neck to receive the axe of the executioner. 
 It is evident from the outset that the noble- 
 man whose fortunes are the subject of the 
 story and the conventional lady of his love 
 will marry and "be happy ever after." The 
 abundant historical and antiquarian padding 
 is admirably devised and executed, well placed 
 and never tiresome. The tale is skilfully con- 
 structed and if it teaches any lesson, it is that 
 
 128 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 of courage, truth, honor and loyalty. Our 
 modern "historical novels" are in many re- 
 spects distinctly inferior to Richelieu. Singu- 
 larly enough, he did not include it in the 
 revised edition of his Works. 
 
 After reading Richelieu^ Sir Waher Scott 
 advised him to adopt literature as a profes- 
 sion, and as he imitated Scott, the value of the 
 advice is not to be underestimated. As Mr. 
 Field's story goes, James had kept the manu- 
 script concealed from his father, but he man- 
 aged to get an introduction to Scott, who 
 promised to give him his opinion. After six 
 months, no news came from Scotland. James 
 was riding one day in Bond Street, when, his 
 horse shying, his carriage was pressed against 
 another. The occupant of the other carriage 
 was Scott, and he invited James to call upon 
 him. To his surprise and delight, Scott praised 
 the book highly, and wrote his opinion, which 
 enabled the lucky author to find a publisher, 
 to whom he sold the copyright for a song. In 
 his General Preface to the Works (i 844-1 849) 
 James himself gives a very different account 
 of the matter. He says that a friend showed 
 Sir Walter one volume of a romance written 
 long before, and he himself sent a letter to 
 Scott asking advice in regard to persevering 
 
 129 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 in a literary career. Some months passed, and 
 James "felt somewhat mortified and a good 
 deal grieved" at receiving no response, but 
 one day, on returning from the country to 
 London, he found a packet on his table con- 
 taining the volume and a note. "The opinion 
 expressed in that note," adds James, "was more 
 favourable than I had ever expected, and cer- 
 tainly more favourable than I deserved; for Sir 
 Walter was one of the most lenient of critics, 
 especially to the young. However, it told me 
 to persevere, and I did so." ^ Irving and Scott 
 united in encouraging him to produce his next 
 novel, Darnleyy with another great Cardinal 
 as a principal character. Darnley was sketched 
 and drafted at Montreuil-sur-Mer in Decem- 
 ber, 1828, and was completed in a few months. 
 It is still popular with readers of fiction and 
 has much of the charm which pervades its 
 predecessor. James lived for a time at Evreux, 
 and DeVOrme^ written there in 1829, ap- 
 peared in 1830. Philip Augustus was pro- 
 duced in less than seven weeks, and was 
 published in 1831. Under WiUiam IV. he was 
 appointed Historiographer Royal, and pub- 
 lished several pamphlets officially. ^ In 1842 
 
 1 Works Vol. I. "The Gipsey," p. vii. 
 
 3 Dictionary of National Biography, xxix., 209-210. 
 
 130 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD IAMBS 
 
 he lived at Walmer, and was frequently a 
 guest of the Duke of Wellington at Walmer 
 Castle -a fact jocosely mentioned in the Life 
 of Charles Lever ^ where it is recorded that 
 Lever said to McGlashan that he must beware 
 of James, who had become dangerous from 
 irritation, but suggested that as James had been 
 dining twice a week with the Duke/ he had 
 eaten himself into a more than ordinary bili- 
 ous temper." ^ In 1845 he went to Germany, 
 partly for recreation and partly to obtain in- 
 formation to be used in the History of Richard 
 Cceur de Lion^ upon which he was then en- 
 gaged. The illness of his children detained 
 him for a year; and at Karlsruhe and Baden- 
 Baden he wrote Heidelberg and the Castle of 
 Ehrenstein, On his return to England he 
 lived for some time near Farnham, Surrey, 
 where he wrote voluminously. He was accus- 
 tomed to rise at five in the morning, to write 
 with his own hand until nine, and later in the 
 day to dictate to an amanuensis, walking to 
 and fro meanwhile. 
 
 Towards 1850 he decided to leave England 
 and go to America. 
 
 His original intention was to settle in Can- 
 
 1 Fitzpatrlck's Life of Lever, II.— 21. 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 ada. He had met with severe pecuniary re- 
 verses. The collected edition of his works 
 was illustrated with steel engravings, but after 
 a few volumes had appeared the publisher 
 failed. The engraver sued James as a partner 
 in the enterprise, was successful, and poor 
 James had to pay several thousand pounds. In 
 this plight he sought his friend, the Duke of 
 Northumberland, who endeavored to dissuade 
 him from leaving England and offered him a 
 signed check, with the amount left blank, ask- 
 ing him to accept it and fill the blank himself. 
 To his credit, James declined the generous gift. ^ 
 When he reached New York in July, 1850, 
 he took lodgings in the old New York Hotel. 
 He had many letters of introduction, including 
 one to Horace Greeley, who, he said, had "the 
 head of a Socrates and the face of a baby." 
 Hotel life proving unsatisfactory, he rented 
 Charles Astor Bristed's house at Hell Gate, 
 opposite Astoria. Of his many troubles in 
 getting into his new home, he wrote an amus- 
 ing account in verse which Mr. Field prints. ^ 
 Field tells a story of a wealthy man of New 
 York who was introduced to James, and re- 
 
 1 This is all according to Field, and may be taken for what 
 it is worth. 
 
 2 Memoirs, 191-195. 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 marked that he was a great admirer of the 
 works, that he believed he had read all that 
 were published, and that there was one "which 
 he vastly preferred to all the others." "And 
 which is that?" asked James. "The Last Days 
 of Pompeii," was the answer. "That is Bui- 
 wer's, not mine," replied the mortified novelist. 
 He also tells of a lady who found in a village 
 library what she supposed to be a copy of an 
 English edition of one of James's novels in two 
 volumes. She read them with much enjoy- 
 ment, and did not discover until she had fin- 
 ished them, that she had been reading the first 
 volume of one and the second volume of 
 another. With admirable tact and discretion 
 Field told this to James, and says "he winced 
 under it." 
 
 In 1 85 1 he hired a furnished house at Stock- 
 bridge, Massachusetts, and later he bought 
 property there, making some laudable efforts 
 at farming. Mr. Field says: 
 
 "In the meantime he was also industriously 
 pegging away at book-making, although to 
 the casual observer he appeared to be the 
 least occupied man in the place. He never 
 did any literary work after eleven o'clock a. m. 
 until evening. He was not accustomed to 
 put his own hand to paper, when composing, 
 
 133 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 but always employed an amanuensis. At this 
 time he had in his service in that capacity the 
 brother of an Irish baronet, who spoke and 
 wrote English, French, German and Italian, 
 and whom I had procured for him at the 
 modest stipend of five dollars a week. When 
 James was dictating, he always kept a paper 
 of snuff upon the table on which his secretary 
 wrote, and he would stride up and down the 
 room, stopping every few minutes for a fresh 
 supply of the titillating powder. He never 
 looked at the manuscript, or made any correc- 
 tions except upon proof-sheets." 
 
 During that summer James and Field pro- 
 duced the book to which reference has been 
 made, finishing it in five weeks. Notwith- 
 standing Fields assertion that "it was very 
 kindly received by the critics," it does not ap- 
 pear to have enjoyed any marked success. 
 
 In 1852 he was appointed British Consul at 
 Norfolk, Virginia. He was not contented there, 
 as we may see from his letters; but he received 
 many kindnesses, and on the last night he 
 spent in the United States he spoke to Field of 
 the Virginians, as "a warm-hearted people." 
 His health suffered and his spirits also; the 
 yellow fever raged in the city and caused him 
 great trouble and anxiety. While in the United 
 
 134 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 States he wrote Ticonderogay The Old Domin- 
 iouy and other novels; his fertile pen was al- 
 ways busy. His latest work was The Cavalier , 
 published in 1859. ^^ 1856 the Consulate 
 was removed to Richmond. At his earnest 
 request he was transferred from Virginia in 
 September, 1858, and was appointed Consul 
 General at Venice, where it was hoped that 
 his health would improve. The war between 
 France and Austria soon broke out, his labors 
 and anxieties were increased and in April, 
 i860, his illness became serious. On June 9, 
 i860, he died of an apoplectic stroke, "an utter 
 break up of mind preceding the end," as Lever 
 wrote. He was buried in Venice-some ac- 
 counts say in the Lido cemetery, but the mon- 
 ument, erected by the English residents in 
 Venice, is in the Protestant portion of the 
 cemetery of St. Michele, which is on an island 
 not far from the Lido. Laurence Hutton, in 
 his Literary Landmarks of Venice ^ refers to a 
 vague tradition among the older alien resi- 
 dents that he was buried in the Lido, where, 
 Hutton says, there are a few very ancient 
 stones and monuments marking the graves of 
 foreign visitors to Venice, none of them seem- 
 ing to be of a later date than the middle of the 
 eighteenth century. But Sir Francis Vincent, 
 
 135 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 the last British Ambassador to the Venetian 
 Republic, is buried there. Mr. Hutton adds 
 that the stone in St. Michele is "a tablet black- 
 ened by time, broken and hardly decipherable;" 
 but when I saw it in the summer of 1906 it was 
 only slightly discolored, and not broken at all. 
 It showed no evidence of restoration, and was 
 blackened only as much as might be expected 
 of a stone forty-five years old in a climate like 
 that of Venice. The epitaph, written by 
 Walter Savage Landor, is absolutely distinct 
 and easily read: 
 
 "George Payne Rainford James. 
 
 British Consul General in the Adriatic. 
 
 Died in Venice, on the 9th day of June, i860, 
 
 His merits as a writer are known wherever 
 the English language is, and as a man they rest 
 on the hearts of many. 
 
 A few friends have erected this humble and 
 perishable monument." 
 
 Hutton attempts to give the epitaph in 
 full but makes an unaccountable error in sub- 
 stituting "heads" for "hearts." It is another 
 illustration of the ill will of the fates that 
 even on his tombstone his name should be 
 engraved incorrectly. ^ Rainford^ is doubt- 
 Jes? the mistake of the Italian who prepared 
 
 136 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 the monument.^ 
 
 Mr. J. A. Hamilton, in the Dictionary of 
 National Biography^ says: "An epitaph, in 
 terms of somewhat extravagant eulogy, was 
 written by Walter Savage Landor." The epi- 
 taph, which I copied word for word, scarcely 
 deserves Mr. Hamilton's censure. Surely there 
 is nothing extravagant about it. I regret that in 
 such a valuable work as the Dictionary y the 
 account of James is so slight, perfunctory, and 
 in many respects inaccurate. It could have 
 been made much better, and it is in marked 
 contrast with most of the biographical sketches 
 included in that admirable compendium. 
 
 III. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton sums up in a careless and in- 
 different way the 'literary career of James. 
 "Flimsy and melodramatic as James's romances 
 are, they were highly popular. The historical 
 setting is for the most part laboriously accu- 
 rate, and though the characters are without 
 life, the moral tone is irreproachable; there is 
 a pleasant spice of adventure about the plots, 
 and the style is clear and correct. The writer's 
 
 1 It is said, but on rather dubious authority, that he was 
 sometimes called "George Prince Regent James," and that 
 many believed it to be his real name. 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 grandiloquence and artificiality are cleverly 
 parodied by Thackeray in *Barbazure, by G. 
 P. R. Jeames, Esq., etc./ in 'Novels by Eminent 
 Hands/ and the conventional sameness of the 
 opening of his novels, *so admirable for terse- 
 ness/ is effectively burlesqued in *The Book 
 of Snobs/ chap. ii. and xvi." It is the old story: 
 Thackeray made fun of him, and so— away 
 with himl Yet there was a time when every- 
 body read James and few read Thackeray. I 
 venture to assert that the romances are neither 
 flimsy nor melodramatic, unless Scott's roman- 
 ces are flimsy and melodramatic. I find no 
 grandiloquence in them. 
 
 Probably the best and most authoritative 
 sketch of his life is contained in the preface 
 which he wrote for the collected edition of 
 his novels, published, in twenty-one volumes, 
 in 1 844-1 849. Of course this includes no 
 account of the last ten years of his career. The 
 number of volumes he gave to the world was 
 enormous, as may be seen from the list of his 
 works compiled from the Dictionary and from 
 Allibone's laboriously minute record. They 
 tell of his untiring industry; evidently he loved 
 to write for the sake of writing. His books 
 brought him a goodly income, but he was 
 always poor; careless about his expenditure; 
 
 138 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 ever ready and willing to give aid to those 
 who needed it, particularly to his literary 
 brethren; a noble, honest Christian gentleman, 
 devoid of selfishness: a good husband and 
 father, simple and direct in his ways, char- 
 itable, open-hearted, deserving of the esteem 
 and affection of all who knew him. It was 
 said of him by a writer who deplored "the 
 fatal facility" of the novels, that "there is a soul 
 of true goodness in them-no maudlin affecta- 
 tion of virtue, but a manly rectitude of aim 
 which they derive directly from the heart of 
 the writer. His enthusiastic nature is visibly 
 impressed upon his productions. They are full 
 of his own frank and generous impulses— 
 impulses so honorable to him in private life. 
 Out of his books, there is no man more sin- 
 cerely beloved. Had he not even been a dis- 
 tinguished author, his active sympathy in the 
 cause of letters would have secured to him the 
 attachment and respect of his contemporaries." 
 His activity was by no means limited to the 
 field of prose fiction. In poetry, he produced 
 TheRuined City in iS28;^lanche of Navarre, 
 a five-act play, in 1839, ^^^ Camaralzamariy 
 a "fairy drama" in three acts, in 1848. My 
 "first edition" of Blanche of Navarre, a pam- 
 phlet of ninety- eight pages, with a dedication 
 
 139 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD )AMES 
 
 to Talfourd-until to -day, after an existence of 
 sixty- six years, unvexed by the paper-knife, 
 and in that "unopened" condition so dear to 
 the heart of a collector- does not disclose any 
 good reason for its creation. The finale of 
 Act III. is an example of its "lofty poetic tone"- 
 
 "Don John (pointing to the gallery). 
 We have spectators there! A lady points! 
 Let us go succour her! 
 
 Don Ferdinand (stopping him). 
 Nay, I beseech! 
 Most likely 'tis my sister! -Foolish child! 
 She has maids there enow— Lo, they are gone! 
 We'll close the night with wine." 
 [ The drop scene descends to dumb-show, '\ 
 
 So we might suppose. The hospitable sug- 
 gestion of Don Ferdinand has a flavor of reck- 
 less rioting about it which brings to mind the 
 one time favorite amusement of a Tammany 
 Hall leader— "opening wine." 
 
 It is only fair to let him tell his own story 
 about his literary fecundity. He says: 
 
 "Before I close my present task, I may be 
 permitted to say a few words in regard to the 
 observations which are uniformly made upon 
 every author who writes rapidly and often. I 
 will not repeat the frequently noticed fact, 
 
 140 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD )AMES 
 
 that the best writers have generally been the 
 most voluminous; for I must contend that 
 neither the number of an author's works, nor 
 the rapidity with which they are produced, 
 affords any criterion whatsoever by which to 
 judge of their merit. They may be numerous 
 and excellent, like those of Voltaire, Scott, 
 Dryden, Vega, Boccacio and others; they may 
 be rapidly written, and yet accurate, like the 
 great work of Fenelon, and they may be quite 
 the reverse. * * * I may mention, in my 
 own case, a few circumstances which may 
 account for the number and rapidity of my 
 works. In the first place, all the materials for 
 the tales I have written, and for many more 
 than I ever shall write, were collected long 
 before this idea of entering upon a literary 
 career ever crossed my mind. In the next 
 place, I am an early riser, and any one who 
 has that habit must know that it is a grand 
 secret for getting through twice as much as 
 lazier men can perform. Again, I write and 
 read during some portion of every day, except 
 when I am travelling, and even then if possi^ 
 ble. I need not point out, that regular appli- 
 cation in literary, as well as all other kinds of 
 labour, will effect results which no desultory 
 efforts, however energetic, can obtain. Then. 
 
 141 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 again, the habit of dictating instead of writing 
 with my own hand, which I first attempted at 
 the suggestion of Sir Walter Scott, relieves me 
 of the manual labour which many authors 
 have to undergo, leaves the mind clear and 
 free to act, and affords facilities inconceivable 
 to those who have not tried, or, having tried, 
 have not been able to attain it." ^ 
 
 I am not convinced that the custom of dic- 
 tating is one which should be observed by an 
 author who aims at the highest excellence. 
 
 In the accounts of his life and his work there 
 are many discrepancies and contradictions. 
 For example Mr. Allibone-who is not alto- 
 gether trustworthy in details— tells us that his 
 first book was A Life of Edward The Black 
 Prince J published in 1822; but the Dictionary 
 of National "Biography ascribes that publica- 
 tion to the year 1836, and the ^Dictionary is 
 undoubtedly right, for he said in 1835 "The 
 Black Prince comes on but slowly." ^ The 
 Dictionary says that as "historiographer royal" 
 —a sonorous title which must have afforded 
 great pleasure to its bearer^-he published in 
 1839 a History of the United States Boundary 
 Question^ but Mr. Allibone insists that it was 
 
 1 Works, Vol. I. xlv. 
 
 2 Letter to Cunningham, post, page 203. 
 
 142 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 not his production. I have an autograph letter 
 of James which, I think, warrants the belief 
 that AUibone is wrong. The letter is a good 
 example of his serious epistolary style. 
 
 "Fair Oak Lodge, Petersfield 
 Hants, 4th November, 1837. 
 My Lord: 
 
 A few months previous to the death of his 
 late Majesty, he was pleased to appoint me 
 Historiographer in ordinary for England into 
 which office I was duly sworn. On the acces- 
 sion of Her Majesty our present Queen, al- 
 though I was informed that the office did not 
 necessarily lapse on the death of the monarch 
 who conferred it, I applied to Her Majesty 
 through her Lord Chamberlain for her gra- 
 cious confirmation of the honor her Royal 
 Uncle had conferred upon me. Many months 
 have now elapsed even since Lord Conyng- 
 ham did me the honor of writing to inform 
 me that the time had not then arrived for Her 
 Majesty to take into consideration that class 
 of offices and I am induced in consequence to 
 apply directly to your Lordship as I under- 
 stand that your department of the government 
 embraces such matters. I should have waited 
 longer ere I thus intruded upon your valuable 
 
 143 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFQRD ]AMES 
 
 time but that I am about to publish a new His- 
 torical work of some importance in the title 
 to which must appear whether I am or am not 
 still Historiographer. If I am to understand 
 by the silence which has been maintained upon 
 the subject that it is Her Majesty's determina- 
 tion to deprive me of the office which her 
 royal uncle conferred I must bow to her gra- 
 cious pleasure and neither my station in society, 
 my fortune, or my views of what is right re- 
 quire or permit me to say one word to alter 
 such a resolution. Should that determination 
 however not have been formed allow me to 
 submit to your Lordship that to dismiss me 
 from a post to which I was so lately appointed 
 is to cast a stigma of which I am not deserving. 
 If I have ever written anything that is calcu- 
 lated to injure society; if I have ever debased 
 my pen to pander to bad appetites of any 
 kind ; if I have ever failed to dedicate its efforts 
 to the promotion of truth, virtue, and honor, 
 not only let the dismissal be made public but 
 the cause of that stigma be assigned. But if on 
 the contrary to have done my best, and that 
 perhaps with more reputation than my writ- 
 ings merit, to promote all that is good and 
 noble; if to have bestowed vast labour, anx- 
 ious research, valuable time, and many hun- 
 
 144 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 dreds of pounds for which I can hope no 
 return on such works as the History of Char- 
 lemagne, the History of Edward the Black 
 Prince, the History of Chivalry, and my letters 
 to Lord Brougham on the system of Education 
 in the higher German States—if these circum- 
 stances afford any claim to honor or distinc- 
 tion, I think in my case they may stand in the 
 way of an act which I cannot yet make up my 
 mind to believe that Her Majesty's present 
 ministers would advise. I have given up the 
 expectation indeed that a fair share of honors 
 and distinctions-or in fact any share at all'- 
 should be bestowed upon literary men in this 
 country, even when a high education, upright 
 conduct, and a fortune not ill employed com- 
 bine with literary reputation: but I still trust 
 that that which has been given will not be 
 taken away. 
 
 I have now to apologize, my Lord—and I 
 feel that an apology is very necessary— for ad- 
 dressing this letter to your private house; but 
 your kindness and courtesy when, as a result 
 of some communications between my friend 
 Sir David Brewster and myself, I addressed 
 you on the state of literature in England have 
 encouraged me to trespass upon you in some 
 manner. 
 
 145 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 I have the honor to be, my Lord, your Lord- 
 ship's most obedient servant. 
 
 G. P. R. James." 
 
 I have not been able to discover what effect 
 this letter had, but it is evident that the " His- 
 torical work" was the pamphlet on the Bound- 
 ary Question as I do not find a record of any 
 other "historiographicar work to which the 
 language of the letter is applicable. 
 
 The Dictionary of National biography cred- 
 its James with Memoirs of Celebrated Women 
 (three volumes, 1837), but AUibone says that 
 he had no share in it, further than writing a 
 preface or "something of that kind." The 
 Dictionary inrXhet informs us that "about 1850 
 he was appointed British Consul for Massa- 
 chusetts"— an impossible office— and that he 
 was transferred to Norfolk, Virginia, 1852, 
 becoming Consul General at Venice in 1856. 
 Allibone makes him Consul at Richmond, 
 Virginia, in 1 8 5 2 and Consul General at Venice 
 in September, 1858. His friend Hall places 
 him at Norfolk in 1852 and in Venice in 1859. 
 Appleton's Cyclopcedia follows Allibone as to 
 dates, but very properly ignores Richmond in 
 favor of Norfolk. The EncyclopcEdia ^ritan- 
 nica says that Irving encouraged him to pro- 
 
 146 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 duce the Life of the Black Prince in 1822 (an 
 evident error), sends him as ** Consul to Rich- 
 mond" in 1852 and transfers him to Venice in 
 September, 1858. The truth is that he went 
 to Norfolk in 1852, to Richmond in 1856, and 
 to Venice in 1858. As we have seen, even the 
 place of his interment is not without uncer- 
 tainty. These variances in regard to the facts 
 of his life are due to the comparative neglect 
 which has befallen his memory. Perhaps they 
 are not of much importance. Although he had 
 numerous friends and acquaintances, none of 
 them, except Mr. S. C. Hall and Maunsell B. 
 Field, left anything approaching an account 
 of his life, and even Mr. HalFs reminiscences 
 are meagre and cursory, while Mr. Field's are 
 largely apocryphal. 
 
 He surely possessed the art of making friends. 
 Before his marriage he knew not only Scott 
 and Irving, but Byron, Leigh Hunt, and Walter 
 Savage Landor, his friendship with Hunt and 
 Landor continuing to the end of his life. Prob- 
 ably he never saw Shelley, but he admired 
 greatly the writings of that radical enthusiast. 
 He knew Thackeray, but did not like him; 
 perhaps the parody galled him. He detested 
 the brilliant, showy, shallow Count D'Orsay. 
 His son says that he never heard his father 
 
 147 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 speak of Dickens as if they had met. ^ "He 
 fully acknowledged the power and versatility 
 of Dickens' works, but there was something 
 in them which did not please him. He had 
 detected, if it is there-suspected, if it is not- 
 the essential vulgarity which this master of 
 pathos and humor is said to have shown those 
 who came in personal contact with him." He 
 had some acquaintance with Bulwer-Lytton. 
 "It is odd," remarks the younger James, "but 
 his tone towards this eminent author, who at 
 some points {Richelieu and the historic novels) 
 approached near enough his own line for 
 rivalry, was rather one of compassion. He 
 knew the personal and domestic sorrows of 
 one whom unfriendly critics accused of soul- 
 less dandyism; and he seemed to have a sort of 
 friendly feeling for that partially unsuccessful 
 ambition which made the author of books as 
 unlike as Pelham and Pausonias attempt so 
 many things without reaching the highest rank 
 in any." The Duke of Northumberland, the 
 Duke of Wellington, Charles Lever, Thomas 
 Campbell, and Allan Cunningham, were also 
 friends. In America, he was known and well 
 received by President Pierce, Hawthorne, 
 
 1 Letter of C. L. James. 
 
 148 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 Longfellow, Charles Sumner, Farragut, Barron, 
 Henry A. Wise, Roger A. Pryor, John Tyler, 
 Sumner, Winder, General Scott, Edward 
 Everett, Marcy, Caleb Gushing and a host of 
 others. His gentle, modest nature, his culti- 
 vated taste, and his frank, pleasant ways seem 
 to have attracted all who came within the com- 
 pass of his friendship. He had much conver- 
 sation with Marcy. Each had some idea of 
 sounding the other diplomatically; both took 
 snuff and neither proposed to be sounded. 
 When James asked Marcy something which 
 the latter did not choose to answer, Marcy 
 would ask him for a pinch of snuff, and he 
 readily perceived that this evasion was as good 
 for two as for one. 
 
 Mr. Field says of him: "If he was sometimes 
 a tedious writer, he was always the best story- 
 teller that I ever listened to. He had known 
 almost everybody in his own country, and he 
 never forgot anything. The literary anecdotes 
 alone which I have heard him relate would 
 suffice to fill an ordinary volume. He was a 
 big-hearted man, too-tender, merciful, and full 
 of religious sentiment; a good husband, a de- 
 voted father, and a fast friend." Such is the 
 testimony of all his acquaintances who have 
 left any record of their impressions. 
 
 149 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 IV. 
 
 It is not my purpose to present any critical 
 study of James or of his works, but only to sub- 
 mit a few of his unpublished letters, in which 
 his easy grace of style and his frank and simple 
 nature are manifest; to give some of the con- 
 temporary estimates of him; and to recall to 
 the minds of readers of our own day a literary 
 personality which should not be entirely for- 
 gotten. 
 
 Among the good friends of James of whom 
 I have spoken was that other novehst, almost 
 as prolific in production, but better remem- 
 bered by modern readers— Charles Lever. 
 When the author of Charles O^Malley was the 
 editor of the Dublin University Magazine, he 
 wrote to a certain Reverend Edward Johnson, 
 now wholly lost to fame, requesting him to 
 contribute to the magazine and inviting him 
 to visit the editor; but by mistake he addressed 
 the letter to James. "Though he liked the man," 
 says Mr. Fitzpatrick, "he rather pooh-poohed 
 the stereotyped *two cavaliers' of G. P. R. 
 James, who of a fine autumnal day might be 
 seen, etc." ^ Lever was too kind-hearted to 
 explain the error, and James not only contrib- 
 
 1 Life of Lever, II. 21. 
 
 150 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 uted to the magazine but visited Lever at 
 Templeogue. The story '^T)e Lunatico In- 
 qutrendo^^ was supposed to have been written 
 by Lever, who wrote only the preface. ^ ^Arrah 
 NeiV was published in the Magazine, a work 
 which has peculiar merit and one character. 
 Captain Barecolt, who is among James's best 
 people. It is said that James abused McGlashan 
 for having " emasculated his jokes." "Where be 
 they? as we used to say in the Catechism" was 
 Lever's comment. One Major Dwyer, referred 
 to in Fitzpatrick's Life of Lever ^ says: "Lever 
 would sometimes say that he wanted powder 
 for his magazine. *It is doubtful whether 
 James's contributions,' he said, *were James's 
 powders at all, or merely that inferior substi- 
 tute which the Pharmacopoeia condemns.'" 
 Chamber's Cyclopaedia stated, twenty years 
 before the death of James, that he was in the 
 habit of dictating to minor scribes his thick- 
 coming fancies. Mr. R. H. Home would have 
 it that he always dictated his novels, but that 
 was a very exaggerated statement. He dictated 
 only at intervals. Major Dwyer tells of a novel 
 composed by James at Baden, that "it was 
 penned by an English artist who resided at 
 Lichtenthal, and also spoke the purest South 
 Devonian, and moreover wrote English nearly 
 
 151 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD ]AMES 
 
 as he pronounced it. James's flowery language 
 thus rendered, was highly amusing; I had an 
 opportunity of reading some pages of copy." 
 In spite of his disparaging remarks. Lever 
 was attached to the man himself, and we find 
 the two romance-writers together in 1845, at 
 Karlsruhe -where, as Mr. Downey says in his 
 Life of Lever ^ "G. P. R. James and himself were 
 the cynosure of all eyes"— and later at Baden. 
 Lever dedicated to James his novel Roland 
 Cashely in 1849 -"a Roland for your Oliver, 
 or rather for your Stepmother," said Lever, for 
 James had dedicated to him the novel with 
 that title in 1846. Soon afterwards, however, 
 they became separated, as James went to the 
 United States where he remained about eight 
 years. One incident connected with the Dublin 
 is worthy of remembrance. In Volume XXVII 
 of the Magazine (1846) appeared some verses 
 beginning "A cloud is on the western sky." 
 They were said to be "Lines by G. P. R. James" 
 
 and were " prefaced by a note : * My dear L , 
 
 I send you the song you wished to have. The 
 Americans totally forgot, when they so inso- 
 lently calculated upon aid from Ireland in a 
 war with England, that their own apple is 
 rotten at the core. A nation with five or six 
 million slaves who would go to war with an 
 
 152 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 equally strong nation with no slaves is a mad 
 people. Yours, G. P. R. James/ *The Cloud/ 
 (amongst other things not intended to be 
 pleasant to Americans) called upon the dusky 
 millions to * shout/ and the author of the 
 *Lines' declared that Britain was ready to 
 'draw the sword in the sacred cause of liberty/ " 
 It was Lever's joke. Poor James had never 
 heard of the poem until years later, in 1853, 
 an attempt was made to drive James out of 
 Norfolk, Virginia, because of it. "God forgive 
 me," said Lever, "it was my doing." Lever de- 
 clared that he had no more notion of James's 
 "powder" exciting a national animosity than 
 that Holloway's Ointment could absorb a Swiss 
 glacier. ^ The son says that during the first 
 winter they spent in Norfolk there were no 
 less than eight fires in the house, or in other 
 parts of the block, which James attributed to 
 deliberate attempts to burn him out on account 
 of his supposed abolitionist views. 
 
 Lever was Consul at Spezzia when James 
 was in Venice, and they renewed their old 
 intimacy. The younger James says that he was 
 a very eccentric genius-a thorough specimen 
 of the wild Irishman. Among Lever's traits was 
 
 1 Fitzpatrick's Life of Lever, II.— 418. 
 
 153 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD ]AMES 
 
 chronic impecuniosity Another was that he, 
 as well as his family, delighted in out-door life 
 and could do everything athletic. "When he 
 was at Venice he told us he was threatened 
 with a visit from a British war vessel, which 
 it would be his duty to receive in state, and 
 (of course) he had no boat or other means of 
 doing so with proper pomp. *But,' he said, * we 
 can take the British flag in our mouth and 
 swim out to meet her, singing Rule Britannia.' " 
 Notwithstanding the manifestations of hos- 
 tility by the good people of Norfolk, it may 
 be remembered that when James was trans- 
 ferred to Venice, the Virginian poet, John R. 
 Thompson, addressed to him some farewell 
 verses, published in the Southern Literary 
 Messenger^ which I consider worthy of repro- 
 duction: 
 
 Good bye! they say the time is up— 
 
 The "solitary horseman" leaves us. 
 We'd like to take a "stirrup cup," 
 
 Though much indeed the parting grieves us: 
 We'd like to hear the glasses clink 
 
 Around a board where none was tipsy. 
 And with a hearty greeting drink 
 
 This toast -The Author of the Gipsy! 
 
 154 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 The maidens fair of many a clime 
 
 Have blubbered o'er his tearful pages. 
 The Ariosto of his time, 
 
 Romancist of the Middle Ages; 
 In fiction's realm a shining star, 
 
 (We own ourselves his grateful debtors) 
 Who would not call our G. P. R.- 
 
 "H. B. M. CZ-a Man of Letters? 
 
 But not with us his pen avails 
 
 To win our hearts^-this English scion. 
 Though there are not so many tales 
 
 To every roaring British Lion— 
 For he has yet a prouder claim 
 
 To praise, than dukes and lords inherit. 
 Or wealth can give, or lettered f ame— 
 
 His honest heart and modest merit. 
 
 An Englishman, whose sense of right 
 
 Comes down from glorious Magna Charta, 
 He loves, and loves with all his might. 
 
 His home, his Queen, Pale Ale, the Garter; 
 The last embraces much, 'tis best 
 
 To comprehend just what is stated— 
 For Honi Soit—yoxx know the rest 
 
 And need not have the French translated. 
 
 155 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 Ol empty bauble of renown. 
 
 So quickly lost and won so dearly. 
 Our Consul wears the Muses' crown. 
 
 We love him for his virtues merely; 
 A Prince, he's ours as much as Fame's, 
 
 And reigns in friendship kindly o'er us. 
 Then call him George Prince Regent James, 
 
 And let his country swell the chorus. 
 
 His country) we would gladly pledge 
 
 Its living greatness and its glory-- 
 In Peace admired, and "on the edge 
 
 Of battle" terrible in story: 
 A little isle, its cliffs it rears 
 
 'Gainst wind and waves in wrath united. 
 And nobly for a thousand years 
 
 Has kept the fire of freedom lighted. 
 
 A glowing spark in time there came. 
 
 Like sunrise, o'er the angry water. 
 And here is fed, an altar flame. 
 
 By Britain's democratic daughter-- 
 From land to land a kindred fire 
 
 Beneath the billow now is burning, 
 O may it thrill the magic wire 
 
 With only love and love returning! 
 
 156 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 But since we cannot meet again 
 
 Where wine and wit are freely flowing. 
 Old friend! this measure take and drain 
 
 A brimming health to us in going: 
 And far beneath Italians sky. 
 
 Where sunsets glow with hues prismatic. 
 Bring out the bowl when you are dry. 
 
 And pledge us by the Adriatic! 
 
 The same Major Dwyer relates at some 
 length the conversations of the guests at 
 Lever's home in Ireland. Speaking of a visit 
 of Thackeray about 1 842, he says: "J^nies had 
 been living at Brussels previously, and an in- 
 timacy had sprung up between Lever and him. 
 Thackeray's star was then barely peeping over 
 the eastern horizon; Lever's had attained an 
 altitude that rendered it clearly visible to the 
 uncharmed eye, whilst James's had already 
 passed its point of culmination, and was in its 
 descending node." I do not know what the 
 eloquent Major meant by an "uncharmed eye," 
 but his figures of speech are quite luxuriant. 
 He does not think that Thackeray and James 
 met at Lever's house, but he tells of a dinner 
 there where a Captain Siborne, Doctor Anster, 
 and the Major were asked to meet James. It 
 appears that after dinner, James took a very 
 
 157 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 decided lead in the conversation on horseman- 
 ship and military tactics. "James" remarks the 
 Major, "was not horsey-looking; one would at 
 first sight be inclined to set him down as an 
 exception to the general rule, that 'all Britons 
 are oorn riders;' he looked more like a seaman 
 than a soldier." This is deliciously British'-as 
 if a man could not talk well about horses 
 unless he had a horsey look or drive fat oxen 
 unless he himself were fat. In talking about 
 horses and riders, James evidently did not 
 foresee that in the future his name would be 
 so closely associated with "one horseman" or 
 even two, threading romantic gorges. It would 
 have been better for his fame, if he had es- 
 chewed horsemen. "Why," continues the 
 Major, "he should have selected two such 
 topics puzzled both Siborne and myself, but I 
 subsequently found that James liked to seize 
 upon and talk categorically about things which 
 other individuals of the company present 
 might be suspected of considering their own 
 peculiar hobbies." This device for enlivening 
 post-prandial dullness by stirring up solemn 
 and conceited prigs is quite familiar, but it 
 does not seem to have occurred to the Major 
 that the clever novelist was making game of 
 the two military magnates. He tells us further 
 
 158 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 how Siborne declined "to discuss professional 
 matters with a civilian," and closes his pom- 
 pous and heavy remarks with this gem of 
 concentrated wisdom: "James, so fond of horse- 
 flesh, finished his career as Consul General at 
 Venice where the sight of a horse is never seen,^ 
 I suppose that the Major would have con- 
 sidered it more fitting if James had selected 
 some place to die in where "the sight of a 
 horse could be seen" at all times by merely 
 looking out of the window. It is not difficult 
 to imagine the joy with which the nimble- 
 minded James put through their paces the 
 heavy-witted and cumbrous Captain and 
 Major at the pleasant dinner-table of Charles 
 Lever. It reminds me of an occasion when a 
 sincere and simple-minded Briton undertook 
 to engage in single combat with Mark Twain 
 over a statement thrown out by the equally 
 sincere and simple-minded Clemens that the 
 people of the Philippine Islands had a perfect 
 right to make arson and murder lawful if they 
 considered it proper to incorporate in their 
 constitution a provision to that effect. His 
 powerful arguments did not produce the 
 slightest change in the convictions of Mr. 
 Clemens. 
 
 159 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 V. 
 
 However severely the sapient compilers of 
 Chambers^ Cyclopedia or the critics of our 
 own generation may sneer at the novels—the 
 fiction of the twentieth century being in the 
 estimation of our contemporaries so vastly 
 superior to all that has gone bef ore-it is some- 
 thing to have had the approval of Christopher 
 North, who was not given to bestowing lav- 
 ish commendation upon the work of mere 
 Englishmen. If you will take from the shelves 
 the Nodes Amhrosianw^ you will find these 
 words: 
 
 ^^ North: Mr. Colburn has lately given us 
 two books of a very different character [from 
 that of some previously mentioned], Richelieu 
 and T)arnley^hy Mr. James. Richelieu is one 
 of the most spirited, amusing and interesting 
 romances I ever read; characters well drawn— 
 incidents well managed-story perpetually 
 progressive-catastrophe at once natural and 
 unexpected-moral good, but not goody-and 
 the whole felt, in every chapter, to be the 
 work of a-gentleman. 
 
 Shepherd: And what o' Darnley? 
 
 North: Read and judge." ^ 
 
 1 Noctes Ambrosianae, II. 370 — Blackwood Edition, 1887. 
 
 i6o 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 Edgar Allen Poe, who thought himself a 
 critic while he was an original genius abso- 
 lutely unfitted for just or accurate criticism, 
 said that James was lauded from mere motives 
 of duty, not of inclination'-duty erroneously 
 conceived. "His sentiments are found to be 
 pure/ wrote Poe, "his morals unquestionable 
 and pointedly shown f orth-his language indis- 
 putably correct." But he calls him an indif- 
 ferent imitator of Scott, accuses him of having 
 little pretension to genius, and adds that we 
 "seldom stumble across a novel emotion in the 
 solemn tranquillity of his pages." ^ Elsewhere 
 Poe says: "James's multitudinous novels seem 
 to be written upon the plan of the songs of the 
 Bard of Schiraz, in which, we are assured by 
 Fadladeen,'the same beautiful thought occurs 
 again and again in every possible variety of 
 phrase.'" This is, perhaps, a fair comment 
 upon the work of a writer who produced too 
 many books. 
 
 Samuel Carter Hall, who knew James well, 
 and who gossips with garrulous freedom about 
 everybody, speaks of him in an admiring way. 
 After observing that very little was known of 
 James's life, he says: "I knew him and esteemed 
 
 1 Marginalia, Black's Edition— III. 393. 
 
 i6i 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 him as an agreeable and kindly gentleman, 
 somewhat handsome in person, and of very 
 pleasant manners. He had the aspect, and in- 
 deed the character, that usually marks a man 
 of sedentary occupations. His work all day 
 long, and often into the night, must have been 
 untiring, for he by no means drew exclusively 
 on his fancy; he must have resorted much to 
 books and have been a great reader, not only 
 of English, but of continental histories; and he 
 travelled a good deal in the countries in which 
 the scenes of his historic fictions were princi- 
 pally laid. His novels have always been 
 popular --they are so now, although many 
 competitors for fame, with higher aims and 
 perhaps loftier genius, have of late years sup- 
 plied the circulating libraries. It was no light 
 thing to run a race with Sir Walter Scott, and 
 not to be altogether beaten out of the field. 
 His great charm was the interest he created in 
 relating a story, but he had masterly skill in 
 delineating character, and in *chivalric essays' 
 none of his brethren surpassed him." ^ He gives 
 to James more praise for character-drawing 
 than most of the critics bestow. 
 Hall quotes from Alison : ** There is a con- 
 
 1 Hall's Book of Memories, 263. 
 
 162 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 slant appeal in his brilliant pages, not only to 
 the pure and generous, but to the elevated 
 and noble sentiments. He is imbued with the 
 very soul of chivalry, and all his stories turn 
 on the final triumph of those who are influ- 
 enced by such feelings. Not a word or a 
 thought which can give pain to the purest 
 heart ever escapes from his pen." 
 
 The genial journalist, William Jerdan, in 
 his Autobiography pays a deserved tribute to 
 James. He says: "Among the warm friend- 
 ships to which I may allude, there is not one 
 more sincere, more lasting, or more grateful 
 to my feelings, than that which I have the 
 honour and delight to couple with the admired 
 and estimable name of G. P. R. James. I think 
 it was the production of * The Ruined City,' 
 for private circulation, which first introduced 
 us to each other; and from that hour (I remem- 
 ber the pleasure I received from his volun- 
 teering a trial of his skill occasionally in the 
 'Gazette') I now look back on a quarter of 
 a century upon a close intercourse of minds 
 and hearts, without a passing shade to dull 
 its bright and cheering continuity. I need not 
 dwell on those voluminous writings which 
 have placed Mr. James in the foremost rank 
 of our national fictitious literature, nor need I, 
 
 163 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 in his case, illustrate my theme of the uncer- 
 tainty of literature as a remunerative pursuit— 
 with a private fortune, and the genius which 
 has produced so many admirable works, the 
 author has now fallen back upon a consulate 
 at Norfolk, in America, where, if report speaks 
 truth, he is exposed even to danger in conse- 
 quence of petty resentment against something 
 he wrote long ago about Slavery!— but, I may 
 say, from nearer and more abundant obser- 
 vation than the world could attain, that the 
 utmost appreciation of his genius must fall 
 short of what is due to his personal worth and 
 nobility of nature. As no author ever excelled 
 him in the purity and rectitude of his publi- 
 cations—every tone of which tends to inspire 
 just moral sentiment, and exalted virtue, and 
 brotherly love, and universal benevolence, 
 and the improvement, carrying with it the 
 progress and happiness of his fellow creatures 
 —so no man in private life ever more zeal- 
 ously practiced the precepts which he taught, 
 and was charitable, liberal, and generous, aye, 
 beyond the measure of cold prudence, and 
 without an atom of selfish reserve. To his 
 fellow-labourers on the oft-ungrateful soil of 
 letters, he was ever indulgent and munificent; 
 and were this the fitting time, I could record 
 
 164 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 acts of his performing that would shed a lustre 
 on any character, however celebrated in mer- 
 ited biographical panegyric. I trust I may state, 
 without compromising the privacy of friendly 
 confidence, that I knew him, as he was ever 
 ready to make sacrifices to friendship, sacrifice 
 half a fortune, legally in his possession, to a 
 mere point of honourable, I might say, roman- 
 tically honourable feeling, and founded indeed 
 on one of those family romances in which we 
 find fact more extraordinary than fiction; and 
 amongst lesser instances of his general sym- 
 pathies for all who stood in need of succour, I 
 may mention his procuring me the gratifica- 
 tion of handing over £75 to the Literary Fund, 
 as the price received from Messrs. Coburn 
 and Bentley for a manuscript entitled 'The 
 String of Pearls.'" ^ 
 
 I have referred to the remark in Chambers^ 
 Cyclopcedia about the custom of James to dic- 
 tate to an amanuensis, a custom he attempted 
 to defend. The writers for this useful work, 
 now rather antiquated, were quite given to 
 the exercise of censorious judgment about 
 authors who did not preserve their popularity. 
 They say of James, however, that he was per- 
 
 1 Autobiography, IV. 210. 
 
 165 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 haps the best of the numerous imitators of 
 Scott, and that if he had concentrated his 
 powers on a few congenial subjects or periods 
 of history, and "resorted to the manual labor 
 of penmanship as a drag-chain on the machine, 
 he might have attained to the highest honors 
 of this department of composition. As it is, he 
 has furnished many light, agreeable and pic- 
 turesque books, none of questionable ten- 
 dency." The Cyclopaedia breaks into excla- 
 mation points when it chronicles the fact that 
 the original works of Mr. James "extend to 
 one hundred and eighty-nine volumes," and 
 that he edited almost a dozen more. It then 
 quotes from some unnamed critic whom it 
 calls a "lively writer," ^ and as I am endeavor- 
 ing to present the contemporary estimates of 
 James, I venture to reproduce the quotation: 
 
 "There seems to be no limit to his ingenuity, 
 his faculty of getting up scenes and incidents, 
 dilemmas, artifices, contretemps^ battles, skir- 
 mishes, disguises, escapes, trials, combats, 
 adventures. He accumulates names, dresses, 
 implements of war and peace, official retinues, 
 and the whole paraphernalia of customs and 
 costumes, with astounding alacrity. He appears 
 
 1 It was R. H. Home. A New Spirit of the Age (1844) p. 136. 
 
 i66 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 to have exhausted every imaginable situation, 
 and to have described every available article 
 of attire on record. What he must have passed 
 through -what triumphs he must have en- 
 joyed -what exigencies he must have experi- 
 enced-what love he must have suf f ered-what 
 a grand wardrobe his brain must be! He has 
 made some poetical and dramatic efforts, but 
 this irresistible tendency to pile up circumstan- 
 tial particulars is fatal to those forms of art 
 which demand intensity of passion. In stately 
 narratives of chivalry and feudal grandeur, 
 precision and reiteration are desirable rather 
 than injurious— as we would have the most 
 perfect accuracy and finish in a picture of 
 ceremonials; and here Mr. James is supreme. 
 One of his court romances is a book of brave 
 sights and heraldic magnificence-it is the next 
 thing to moving at our leisure through some 
 superb and august procession." 
 
 The lively writer has a style which displays 
 the worst faults of the middle nineteenth cen- 
 tury, but he is really not far wrong in his con- 
 clusions. The Cyclopaedia sums up the matter 
 in a sentence which tells the story and signifies 
 that the man wrote too much: 
 
 " The sameness of the author's style and char- 
 acters is, however, too marked to be pleasing." 
 
 167 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD IAMBS 
 
 I timidly venture to suggest that the same 
 thing may be true of Kipling and hope that I 
 may not be annihilated by the bolts of Jupiter 
 for such a daring piece of sacrilege. Having 
 gone so f ar'-but I will refrain from mention- 
 ing some other makers of novels with regard 
 to whom the same fable might be narrated. 
 
 We may easily understand that the accusa- 
 tion of "sameness" is one which is not very 
 serious when preferred against the author of 
 nearly two hundred volumes. As Allibone 
 says, "He who composes a library is not to be 
 judged by the same standard as he who writes 
 but one book." We must remember that Pro- 
 fessor Wilson praises him and Leigh Hunt» 
 about whose taste and discrimination there 
 can be no question, says of him: 
 
 "I hail every fresh publication of James, 
 though I half know what he is going to do 
 with his lady, and his gentleman, and his land- 
 scape, and his mystery, and his orthodoxy, and 
 his criminal trial. But I am charmed with the 
 new amusement which he brings out of old 
 materials. I look on him as I look on a musi- 
 cian famous for * variations." I am grateful for 
 his vein of cheerfulness, for his singularly 
 varied and vivid landscapes, for his power of 
 painting women at once ladylike and loving, 
 
 i68 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 (a rare talent) for making lovers to match, at 
 once beautiful and well-bred, and for the 
 solace which all this has afforded me, some- 
 times over and over again in illness and in 
 convalescence, when I required interest with- 
 out violence, and entertainment at once ani- 
 mated and mild." 
 
 Allan Cunningham, in his Biographical and 
 Critical History of the Literature of the Last 
 Fifty Years (l8}j) refers to his excellent taste, 
 extensive knowledge of history, right feeling 
 of the chivalrous, and heroic and ready eye 
 for the picturesque, adding that his proprieties 
 are admirable and his sympathy with what- 
 ever is high-souled and noble, deep and im- 
 pressive. Cunningham was on terms of inti- 
 macy with him, as a number of letters from 
 James addressed to him abundantly prove. The 
 Edinburgh Review estimated highly his abil- 
 ities as a romance-writer, declaring that his 
 works were lively and interesting, and ani- 
 mated by a spirit of sound and healthy morality 
 in feeling and of natural deliberation in char- 
 acter which should secure for them a calm 
 popularity which would "last beyond the 
 present day." 
 
 He was not regarded so favorably by the 
 London Athenaum^ which said of him: "The 
 
 169 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 first and most obvious contrivance for the 
 attainment of quantity, is, of course, dilution; 
 but this recourse has practically its limit, and 
 Mr. James had reached it long ago. Common- 
 place in its best day, anything more feeble, 
 vapid'^sloppy in fact, (for we know not how 
 to characterize this writer's style but by some 
 of its own elegancies) -than Mr. James's man- 
 ner has become, it were difficult to imagine. 
 Every literary grace has been swamped in the 
 spreading marasmus of his style." ^ 
 
 The bewildered reader of reviews is often 
 at a loss to reconcile the censure of one and 
 the praise of another; and it was not very long 
 before the appearance of this slashing article 
 that the Dublin University Magazine had thus 
 expressed its opinions: "His pen is prolific 
 enough to keep the imagination constantly 
 nourished; and of him, more than of any 
 modern writer, it may be said, that he has 
 improved his style by the mere dint of con- 
 stant and abundant practice. For, although so 
 agreeable a novelist, it must not be forgotten 
 that he stands infinitely higher as an histor- 
 ian. * * * The most fantastic and beautiful 
 coruscations which the skies can exhibit to 
 
 1 London Athenaeum, April 11, 1846. 
 
 170 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 the eyes of mankind dart as if in play from the 
 huge volumes that roll out from the crater of 
 the volcano. * * * The recreation of an en- 
 larged intellect is ever more valuable than the 
 highest efforts of a confined one. Hence we 
 find in the works before us, lightly as they 
 have been thrown off, the traces of study-the 
 footsteps of a powerful and vigorous under- 
 standing." ^ The works were Corse de Leon^ 
 The Ancient Regime^ and The Jacquerie—none 
 of them as deserving as Richelieu^ Henry Mas- 
 tertonj or Mary of Burgundy, James was a 
 member of the Dublin staff and his friend 
 Lever may have inspired the compliments. 
 
 One more review may be noticed. Mr. E. P. 
 Whipple, whose criticisms have not become 
 immortal, evidently disapproved of James, and 
 did not hesitate to say so. It is the old charge 
 of sameness and over-production. Whipple 
 scored James in the North American Review 
 of April, 1844. 
 
 *'He is a most scientific expositor of the fact 
 that a man may be a maker of books without 
 being a maker of thoughts; that he may be the 
 reputed author of a hundred volumes and 
 flood the market with his literary wares, and 
 
 1 Dublin University Magazine, March, 1842. 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 yet have very few ideas and principles for his 
 stock in trade. For the last ten years he has 
 been repeating his own repetitions and echo- 
 ing his own echoes. His first novel was a shot 
 that went through the target, and he has ever 
 since been assiduously firing through the hole. 
 * * * When a man has little or nothing to 
 say, he should say it in the smallest space. He 
 should not, at any rate, take up more room 
 than suffices for a creative mind. He should 
 not provoke hostility and petulance by the 
 effrontery of his demands upon time and 
 patience. He should let us off with a few 
 volumes, and gain our gratitude for his benev- 
 olence, if not our praise for his talents." ^ 
 
 Whipple's critiques are far more obsolete 
 than James's novels; and a good deal of what 
 he says of James is fairly applicable to his own 
 essays. Even Whipple concedes the excel- 
 lence of 'Richelieu ^ notwithstanding the fact 
 that it did not emanate from New England. 
 
 Back in the forties there was a magazine, 
 published in Philadelphia, known as Graham^ s 
 American Monthly Magazine^ in which the 
 chief American writers of the day, including 
 Poe, Bryant, Cooper, Longfellow, Willis, and 
 
 1 Essays and Reviews, II., 116, 137. 
 
 172 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 Lowell occasionally figured as contributors. 
 It had its page of reviews and in the number 
 of November, 1848, it enlightened its readers 
 with a disquisition on "Vanity Fair; by W. M. 
 Thackerway" [j/c], beginning "This is one of 
 the most striking novels of the season." If 
 Lamb could only have met that reviewer, he 
 surely would have danced about, as on another 
 memorable occasion, singing "diddle, diddle 
 dumpling, my son John" and endeavored to 
 examine the reviewer's bumps. Graham 
 (November, 1844) was very severe with 
 poor James, in a notice oiArrahNeiL The 
 reviewer says : " In our opinion, there is hardly 
 an instance on record of an author who has 
 contrived to earn an extensive reputation as a 
 writer of works of imagination, with such 
 slender intellectual materials as Mr. James. 
 No one has ever written so many books, pur- 
 porting to be novels, with so small a stock of 
 heart, brain, and invention. He is continually 
 infringing his own copyright, by reproducing 
 his own novels. Far from being surprised 
 that he has written so much, we are aston- 
 ished that he has not written more. From his 
 first novel, all the rest can be logically de- 
 duced; and the reason that they have not 
 appeared faster, may be found in the fact that 
 
 173 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 he has been economical in the employment of 
 amanuenses." More of this kind of talk is in- 
 dulged in without a single word about the 
 book itself or its merits; which proves quite 
 clearly that the reviewer was merely follow- 
 ing the path marked out by some other critic, 
 and there is no evidence whatever that he had 
 ever read the work he was reviewing. Thus 
 it is to-day; a parrot-cry of "diffuseness, dilu- 
 tion, re-copying, repetition,"-- so easy to pro- 
 claim, so difficult to answer, all born of the 
 disposition of newspaper and magazine critics 
 to accept the view which needs no exercise 
 of brains to approve and to announce. It is 
 not without significance that when James was 
 in America, he was a contributor to this same 
 magazine which had scored him so unmerci- 
 fully; for example, in the volume for 1851 I 
 find two stories by him ^Christian Lacy, a 
 Tale of the Salem Witchcraft, and Justinian 
 and Theodora, as well as a rather graceful son- 
 net to Jenny Lind. 
 
 James C. Derby mentions the fact that James 
 was a friend of Philip Pendleton Cooke, the 
 Virginian poet, and relates that Thackeray 
 visited James when in the South, but that 
 James "resented the latter's [Thackeray's] 
 flings at him as a 'solitary horseman,' " the mean- 
 
 174 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 ing of which those who have read James's 
 novels will understand. James once told 
 Cooke of his intention to write his own mem- 
 oirs-a purpose never fulfilled. Incidentally, 
 he told Cooke a story of Washington Irving, 
 his early adviser, who amiably approved of 
 his earliest essays in literature. It seems that 
 James was in Bordeaux, and after strolling all 
 day, returned to his inn. On his way through 
 a long, dark passage he saw some one in front 
 carrying a candle, a man in black slowly as- 
 cending the old-fashioned staircase. On the 
 landing the man stopped, and holding up his 
 candle looked at a cat lying on the window- 
 sill, regarding the gazer with a surprised and 
 frightened expression. The stranger in black 
 looked at the cat for some time mutely and 
 then muttered sadly, "Ah, pussy, pussy! If 
 you had seen as much trouble as I have, you 
 would not be surprised at anything." After 
 which he went on up the stairs, said James, 
 "and as I heard that Irving was in Bordeaux, 
 I said to myself: *That can be nobody in the 
 world but Irving,' which turned out to be a 
 fact." ^ 
 Frederick Locker-Lampson visited Walter 
 
 1 Derby's Fifty Years Among Authors, etc., 405. 
 
 175 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 Savage Landor at Fiesole in the early sixties, 
 and found him reading a Waverly novel. 
 Lampson congratulated the old poet on hav- 
 ing so pleasant a companion in his retirement, 
 and Landor, with a winning dignity, replied: 
 "Yes, and there is another novelist whom I 
 equally admire, my old friend [G. P. R.] 
 James." ^ Locker-Lampson does not seem to 
 have shared Landor's appreciation of James. 
 He says, later in his memoirs: "It is a law of 
 literature that every generation should be in- 
 dustrious in burying its own, especially novels. 
 What has become of Smollett and Mackenzie 
 --the cockpit of the * Thunder' or the senti- 
 mental Harley? Where is the shadowy Mr. 
 G. P. R. James and where is that witty old 
 ghost of the Silver Fork school, Mrs. Gore? 
 * * * Yet they all had vogue." ^ It is odd 
 that almost every one, in speaking of James, 
 recites his numerous initials and bestows upon 
 him the title of "Mr." which carries with it the 
 implication of a sneer. 
 
 In my small collection of Gladstone letters 
 I find one addressed to James which shows not 
 only that the statesman liked the books but 
 
 1 My Confidences, 161, 
 
 2 My Confidences, 533, 534. 
 
 176 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 that he and the author were on terms of some 
 intimacy. 
 
 Whitehall, May 17, '43- 
 
 My Dear Sir: I thank you very much for 
 your renewed kindness. The perusal of your 
 last work gave me very great pleasure, most 
 of all (though that is but a very slender testi- 
 mony in their favour) Evesham and Simon de 
 Montfort, of whom I never had before an 
 adequate conception. It is true I am adopted 
 into the Cabinet, & will I fear be alleged as a 
 proof of its poverty. In point of form I can- 
 not succeed Lord Ripon until the Queen holds 
 a Council. ^ The true and whole secret of the 
 difficulty about Canada corn (and I do not 
 mean that we can wonder at it) is, as I believe, 
 that wheat, without great abundance, is at 46/ 
 a quarter. 
 
 I remain, my dear sir. 
 
 Yours faithfully & obliged, 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. 
 G. P. R. James, Esq., 
 
 The Shrubbery, Walmer. 
 
 Donald G. Mitchell, describing the little red 
 cottage of Hawthorne, in the Berkshire hills, 
 
 1 Mr. Gladstone succeeded Lord Ripon as President of the 
 Board of Trade and took his seat in the Cabinet on May 19, 1843. 
 
 177 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 reminds us that among those who used to 
 come a-visiting the great American romancer, 
 was "G. P. R. James, that kindly master of 
 knights *in gay caparison;'" and elsewhere 
 says that at the Cooper Memorial meeting in 
 Metropolitan Hall, on February 25, 1852, 
 where Webster, Bryant and Hawks paid their 
 tribute to the author of the Leatherstocking 
 tales, "Mr. G. P. R. James-then chancing to be 
 a visitor in New York-lent a little of his ram- 
 bling heroics to the interest of the occasion." ^ 
 I have before me the Memorial^ printed by 
 Putnam in 1852, containing a full report of 
 the meeting, including the remarks of James, 
 and I do not find anything which may fairly 
 be called "heroics," rambling or otherwise. 
 The speech was manifestly extemporaneous. 
 He began by expressing his pride in being an 
 Englishman, a romance writer, and a man of 
 the people, and his pleasure in paying an 
 humble tribute to an American romance- 
 writer and a man of the people. He praised 
 the addresses of those who preceded him, cor- 
 rected a trifling error of Bryant's in regard to 
 a Mr. James, a surgeon, and declared that the 
 proposed statue to Cooper was not merely to 
 
 I American Lands and Letters, IL, 252. 
 
 178 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 a novelist, but to a genius-to truth-to truth, 
 genius and patriotism combined. He closed 
 by urging all present to use every exertion to 
 procure contributions for the purpose of erect- 
 ing such a statue. To any unprejudiced mind, 
 what James said was appropriate and digni- 
 fied; well suited to the occasion; wholly nat- 
 ural and unaffected; and compared favorably, 
 to say the least, with the dull and ponderous 
 commonplaces of Daniel Webster who had 
 the chair and who was singularly unfitted to 
 preside over such a meeting. Of Webster's 
 platitudes. Professor Lounsbury is quite con- 
 temptuous, remarking that the distinguished 
 orator "had nothing to say and said it wretch- 
 edly." ^ I believe that the projected statue was 
 never built. James was evidently a favorite 
 dinner-speaker. It is pleasant to know that he 
 spoke at a sprinter's banquet' in New York in 
 the latter part of 1850, and that he paid a 
 well-merited tribute to a man destined to be- 
 come a distinguished figure in literature. 
 Bayard Taylor, writing to his friend George 
 H. Boker, on January i, 185 1, says: "By the 
 bye, James paid me a very elegant compli- 
 ment, in his speech at the sprinter's banquet' 
 
 1 Life of Cooper, 268. 
 
 179 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 the other night, referring to me as the best 
 landscape painter in words that he had ever 
 known. This is something from an English- 
 man." ^ He always said kind and appreciative 
 words about his fellow-authors, if they were 
 deserving. 
 
 Returning to the Hawthorne cottage, Julian 
 Hawthorne gives a brief account of one of the 
 visits of James, who, it appears, was living 
 near by during the summer of 185 1. As the 
 narrator was five years old at the time of this 
 visit, his estimate of the visitors must have 
 been founded upon something other than his 
 personal observation. He says: 
 
 "James was a commonplace, meritorious 
 person, with much blameless and intelligent 
 conversation, but the only thing that recalls 
 him personally to my memory is the fact of 
 his being associated with a furious thunder- 
 storm." 
 
 He relates how the storm raged and how 
 the door burst open,'-his father and he were 
 alone in the cottage— 
 
 "and behold! of all persons in the world-to 
 be heralded by such circumstances-G. P. R. 
 James! Not he only, but close upon his heels 
 
 1 Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor, I., 203. 
 
 i8o 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 his entire family, numerous, orthodox, admi- 
 rable, and infinitely undesirable to two 
 secluded gentlemen without a wife and mother 
 to help them out. * * * They dripped on 
 the carpet, they were conventional and cour- 
 teous; we made conversation between us but 
 whenever the thunder rolled. Mrs. James be- 
 came ghastly pale. Mr. James explained that 
 this was his birthday, and that they were on a 
 pleasure excursion. He conciliated me by 
 anecdotes of a pet magpie, or raven, who stole 
 spoons. At last the thunderstorm and the G. 
 P. R. Jameses passed off together." ^ 
 
 It is not uninteresting to compare this rather 
 patronizing and supercilious narration of a 
 trivial incident with that which is given in his 
 own Journal by the father of this precocious 
 young gentleman of five years; and it is prob- 
 ably the fact that the story was related by the 
 son not from his own memory but from the 
 record of the Journal, reproduced in "Nathan- 
 iel Hawthorne and his Wife," by Julian Haw- 
 thorne. ^ Nathaniel Hawthorne evidently liked 
 James. Under date of July 30, 1851, he says: 
 
 "We walked to the village for the mail, and 
 
 1 Hawthorne and his Circle, 33, 34. 
 
 2 Vol. I., 422,423. 
 
 l8l 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 on our way back we met a wagon in which 
 sat Mr. G. P. R. James, his wife and daughter, 
 who had just left their cards at our house. 
 Here ensued a talk, quite pleasant and friendly. 
 He is certainly an excellent man; and his wife 
 is a plain, good, friendly, kind-hearted woman, 
 and his daughter a nice girl. Mr. James spoke 
 of *The House of the Seven Gables' and of 
 * Twice-Told Tales,' and then branched off 
 upon English literature generally." ^ The ac- 
 quaintance between the two authors must have 
 been deemed to be of advantage to both, for 
 the supercilious Master Julian takes care to 
 present in full a note of invitation addressed 
 by James to the elder Hawthorne asking the 
 latter "with his two young people" to visit 
 him. saying: "We are going to have a little 
 haymaking after the olden fashion, and a syl- 
 labub under the cow; hoping not to be dis- 
 turbed by any of your grim old Puritans, as 
 were the poor folks of Merrymount. By the 
 way, you do not do yourself justice at all in 
 your preface to the 'Twice-Told Tales.'-- but 
 more on that subject anon." * 
 Under the date of August 9, 1851, Haw- 
 
 1 Hawthorne and his Wife, I., 415. 
 
 2 Id. 397, 398. 
 
 182 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 thorne gives his own version of the thunder- 
 storm episode, in marked contrast with the 
 condescending remarks of his hopeful son. It 
 reveals the difference between parent and 
 child. 
 
 "The rain was pouring down/ says Haw- 
 thorne senior, "and from all the hillsides mists 
 were steaming up, and Monument Mountain 
 seemed to be enveloped as if in the smoke of 
 a great battle. During one of the heaviest 
 showers of the day there was a succession of 
 thundering knocks at the front door. On 
 opening it, there was a young man on the door- 
 step, and a carriage at the gate, and Mr. James 
 thrusting his head out of the carriage window, 
 and beseeching shelter from the storm! So 
 here was an invasion. Mr. and Mrs. James, 
 their eldest son, their daughter, their little son 
 Charles, their maid-servant, and their coach- 
 man;— not that the coachman came in; and as 
 for the maid, she stayed in the hall. ^ Dear 
 me! where was Phoebe in this time of need? 
 All taken aback as I was, I made the best of 
 it. Julian helped me somewhat, but not much. 
 Little Charley is a few months younger than 
 he, and between them they at least furnished 
 
 1 A little bit snobbish for a Hawthorne, is it not ? 
 
 183 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 subject for remark. Mrs. James, luckily, hap- 
 pened to be very much afraid of thunder and 
 lightning; and as these were loud and sharp, 
 she might be considered hors de combat. The 
 son, who seemed to be about twenty, and the 
 daughter, of seventeen or eighteen, took the 
 part of saying nothing, which I suppose is the 
 English fashion as regards such striplings. So 
 Mr. James was the only one to whom it was 
 necessary to talk, and we got along tolerably 
 well. He said that this was his birthday, and 
 that he was keeping it by a pleasure excursion, 
 and that therefore the rain was a matter of 
 course.^ We talked of periodicals, English 
 and American, and of the Puritans, about 
 whom we agreed pretty well in our opinions; 
 and Mr. James told how he had recently been 
 thrown out of his wagon, and how the horse 
 ran away with Mrs. James; and we talked 
 about green lizards and red ones. And Mr. 
 James told Julian how, when he was a child, 
 he had twelve owls at the same time; and, at 
 another time, a raven, who used to steal silver 
 spoons and money. He also mentioned a 
 squirrel, and several other pets; and Julian 
 laughed most obstreperously. As to little 
 
 1 Observe how Mr. Julian Hawthorne wholly omits the point 
 of the observation about the pleasure excursion. 
 
 184 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 Charles, he was much interested with Bunny 
 (who had been returned to us from the Tap- 
 pans, somewhat the worse for wear), and 
 likewise with the rocking-horse, which luckily 
 happened to be in the sitting-room. He ex- 
 amined the horse most critically, and finally 
 got upon his back, but did not show himself 
 quite as good a rider as Julian. Our old boy 
 hardly said a word. Finally the shower passed 
 over, and the invaders passed away; and I do 
 hope that on the next occasion of the kind my 
 wife will be there to see." ^ 
 
 I give the story in full, not only because of 
 its relation to James and his family, but for its 
 revelation of Hawthorne himself; the little 
 touch of parental pride is amusing as well as 
 affecting. What Nathaniel Hawthorne thought 
 of James in those days is far more important 
 than what Julian Hawthorne thinks of him 
 now. 
 Mr. Charles L. James writes to me: 
 "Yes, I have read Hawthorne's account of 
 our visit in a thunderstorm; and what is more, 
 I remember the occurrence. I was little Char- 
 ley, whom he mentions. I remember not only 
 getting upon Julian's rocking-horse, but pull- 
 
 1 Life of Hawthorne and his Wife, I., 422, 424. 
 
 185 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 ing out his tail and being aghast at what I had 
 done, for I did not possess a wooden horse 
 and it had not occurred to me that the tail was 
 movable." 
 
 I am glad that Charles pulled out that tail; 
 perhaps the memory of the outrage inspired 
 the owner of the steed when he wrote his 
 little story. 
 
 Longfellow regarded James with a degree 
 of kindness and esteem quite comparable to 
 that with which Hawthorne looked upon him. 
 In his Journal for September 17, 1850, he says, 
 after mentioning several visitors: "Then 
 Fields, with G. P. R. James, the novelist, and 
 his son. He is a sturdy man, fluent and rapid, 
 and looking quite capable of fifty more 
 novels." ^ Later, on November 17, he says: 
 "James, the novelist, came out to dinner with 
 Sumner. He is a manly, middle-aged man, 
 tirant sur le grison^ as Lafontaine has it, with 
 a gray mustache; very frank, off-hand, and 
 agreeable. In politics he is a Tory, and very 
 conservative." ^ James certainly had no reason 
 to complain of his reception by the best of our 
 own literary men of that day. 
 
 1 Life of H. W. Longfellow, by Stephen Longfellow, II., 177. 
 
 2 Id. 182. 
 
 i86 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 It is an evidence of the fact that James was 
 admired and his ability appreciated by other 
 authors, that he was suspected by no less a 
 person than William Harrison Ainsworth of 
 being the writer of Jane Eyre. I have before 
 me an autograph letter from Ainsworth to 
 James (November 14, 1849,) i^ which he says: 
 "Anything I can do for you at any time you 
 know you may command, and I shall only be 
 too happy in the opportunity of making kindly 
 mention in the N. M. M. of your Dark Scenes 
 of History. The times are not propitious to 
 us veterans and literature generally has within 
 the last two years suffered a tremendous de- 
 preciation. * * * Do you know I took it 
 into my head that you were the author of 'Jane 
 Eyre,' but I have altered my opinion since I 
 read a portion of * Shirley.' Currer Bell, who- 
 ever he or she may be, has certainly got some 
 of your 'trick' * * * but 'Shirley' has again 
 perplexed me." 
 
 For some reason, no doubt an insignificant 
 one, I have never been able to bring myself 
 to the belief that Robert Louis Stevenson de- 
 serves the worship which many sane people 
 appear to accord to him. He had a style, of 
 course, but not such a wonderful style as we 
 are advised by numbers of solemn critics. I 
 
 187 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 am disposed to be indulgent towards him be- 
 cause of his modified fondness for James, 
 which is expressed in a letter written by him 
 from Saranac, February, i888» to E. L. Burlin- 
 game. He says :^ 
 
 "Will you send me (from the library) some 
 of the works of my dear old G. P. R. James? 
 With the following especially I desire to make 
 or to renew acquaintance: The Songster^ The 
 Gipsey^ The Convict^ The Stepmother^ The 
 Gentleman of the Old School^ The Robber, 
 Excusez du peu. This sudden return to an 
 ancient favourite hangs upon an accident. The 
 Franklin County Library contains two works 
 of his» The Cavalier and Morley Ernst ein. I 
 read the first with indescribable amusement 
 —it was worse than I had feared, and yet some- 
 how engaging; the second (to my surprise) 
 was better than I had dared to hope; a good, 
 honest, dull, interesting tale, with a genuine 
 old-fashioned talent in the invention when 
 not strained, and a genuine old-fashioned feel- 
 ing for the English language. This experience 
 awoke appetite, and you see I have taken steps 
 to stay it. 
 
 R. L. S." 
 
 1 Letters, II., 111. 
 
 i88 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 VI. 
 
 I have a number of holograph letters of 
 James, some of which show his pleasant ways 
 and attractive playfulness. They constitute the 
 raison (T etre of this commentary and so I will 
 not apologize for giving them almost in full. 
 He speaks for himself far better than I can 
 speak for him. He was surely not a Siborne 
 or a Major Dwyer. To my mind these letters 
 reveal the man, and they tell of an honest, 
 genial man who was able to write. 
 
 He writes to C. W. H. Ranken, at Bristol, thus: 
 
 Rennes, 1 6 January, 1826. 
 Rankeno amico caro carissimo: 
 
 That unfortunate Gentleman upon whose 
 back all the evils of this world have been laid 
 from time immemorial, I mean the Devil, has 
 certainly (to give him his due) been torment- 
 ing my poor friend and schoolfellow pretty 
 handsomely. What with your cough in the 
 first place and your abscess in the second you 
 have been quite a martyr, but remember the 
 martyrs always reach heaven at last and I 
 doubt not that your sufferings will soon be 
 over and that in the little Paradise you have 
 planned for yourself some five or six miles 
 from London (rather a cockney distance by 
 
 189 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 the by) you will enjoy the happiness of the 
 blest with those you love best. I think I shall 
 make the same compact with you that I have 
 made with Becknell namely that in after years 
 when time has laid his heavy hand upon us 
 all and when you are happy in your children 
 and your children's children you will still give 
 the crusty old Bachelor a place at your fire- 
 side and your Sophia shall furnish me with 
 strong green tea and I will take my pinch of 
 snuff and tell you Grandam's tales to amuse 
 the little ones or recount the wonderful things 
 I have seen in my travels or growl at the de- 
 generacy of the world and praise the good 
 old days when I was young and gay and did 
 many a wondrous deed for "Ladye love and 
 pride of Chivalrie" and you shall forgive many 
 a cross word and ill-tempered remark for old 
 friendship's sake and say "He was not always 
 so but this world s sorrows have soured his 
 temper poor old Man." 
 
 You tell me to continue my history of Bre- 
 tagne, but in sooth I know not where I left 
 off. Memory, that lazy slut, has forgot to 
 mend her pocket which has had a hole in it 
 for some time and the consequence is that, of 
 all I give her to keep for me, the dross alone 
 remains and the better part is dropped by the 
 
 190 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 wayside. But I am not at all in the mood to 
 give any descriptions. I am philosophical and 
 therefore will tell you a story. 
 
 In that mighty empire which exceeds all 
 others as much in wisdom as it does in size- 
 in the time of Fo Whang, who was the six 
 hundredth emperor of the ninety-seventh dy- 
 nasty which has sat on the throne of Cathay, 
 there lived a philosopher whose doctrine was 
 such that every Chinese from the mandarin 
 who enjoys the light of the celestial presence 
 to the waterman who paddles his Junk in the 
 river of Canton became proselytes. 
 
 Every one knows that every Chinese from 
 generation to generation is in manners, cus- 
 toms, dress, and appearance so precisely what 
 his father was before him that a certain Man- 
 darin who had thought proper to fall into a 
 trance for a century or so, waking from his 
 sleep and entering his paternal mansion, found 
 his great grandson, who was at dinner, so strik- 
 ingly like himself that he was struck dumb 
 with astonishment. There were the same wide 
 thin eye-brows, there were the same beautiful 
 black eyes no bigger than peas, there was the 
 same delicate tea-colored complexion. He 
 wore the same silk his ancestor had worn and 
 the same chopsticks carried his food to his 
 
 191 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 mouth. The Great Grandson instantly recog- 
 nised his predecessor, but the resuscitated 
 Mandarin, forgetting the lapse of years, mis- 
 took his descendant for his own grandfather 
 and each casting themselves on their belly 
 wriggled towards each other with all symp- 
 toms of respect. Such being the laudable rev- 
 erence of this people for all customs sanctified 
 by time, it may be well supposed that that doc- 
 trine was magnificent which could take a 
 Chinese by the ear, and such indeed was the 
 doctrine of the Philosopher, namely, that wis- 
 dom is folly and folly is wisdom. Which he 
 proved thus: "The end of wisdom" said the 
 Philosopher, "is to be happy. And the fewer 
 are our wants the fewer can be our disap- 
 pointments and consequently the happier we 
 are. The fool has fewer wants than the wise 
 man and the ignorant less wishes than the 
 learned, and therefore the fool being the hap- 
 piest is the wisest and the wise man is but a 
 fool." Now the wise men (even in China) be- 
 ing lamentably in the minority the Philosopher 
 had all the voices for himself. Now there was 
 a young Man named To-hi, who never pre- 
 tended to be a wise man but was nevertheless 
 not a fool, and going to the Philosopher he 
 said to him -"Father I cannot help thinking 
 
 192 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 that your doctrine means more than it appears 
 to mean and I think I have found its explica- 
 tion." "Speak freely, my Son" replied the Phil- 
 osopher, "and tell me what you suppose it to 
 be." "I imagine," said To-hi, "that you wish to 
 inculcate that Men seek for wisdom above 
 their power and destroy their happiness by 
 examining too near the objects which produce 
 it. For I remark that all that is beautiful in 
 nature as well as in life is little better than a 
 delusion which to be enjoyed must be seen 
 from a distance. When I look at the hills of 
 Tartary, they seem from here grand and soft 
 and blue and changing all sorts of colors from 
 the reflection of the Sun, but when I approach 
 them I find nothing but heaps of barren rocks 
 and frightful deserts. If we regard the finest 
 skin with a magnifying glass, it is like coarsest 
 cloth of Surat and the sunset that we admire 
 for its soft splendor to the nations on the edge 
 of the horizon is but the glare of midday. 
 Thus then we ought to enjoy whatever the 
 world offers us without searching for faults 
 and be as happy as we can without seeking to 
 be too wise. Is not this what you meant?" 
 "My Son," replied the Philosopher "like many 
 other Philosophers I did not well know what 
 I meant and you, like many other commenta- 
 
 193 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 tors, have given an explanation which the 
 author never intended." 
 
 Rennes, first of Feby. 
 
 As you will see, my Dear Ranken, this letter 
 has been written half a century but I have 
 been wandering about the country and forgot 
 to finish it before I went. Long before this 
 however I hope you are fundamentally cured 
 and prepared to set up on your own bottom. 
 Doubtless you will find a vast fund of non- 
 sense in the former part of this 'pistle but if it 
 serves to give you a minute's amusement it 
 will answer the object of 
 
 Yours sincerely 
 
 G. P. R. James 
 
 Everybody seems to have written affection- 
 ately to Charles Oilier, the publisher-Lamb, 
 Hunt, Keats, Shelley, and a host of others. His 
 son, Edmund, "beheld Charles Lamb with in- 
 fantile eyes and sat in poor Mary Lamb s 
 lap." ^ James writes to the elder Oilier, from 
 the Chateau du Buisson, Garumbourg, pres 
 Evreux, on August 7, 1829: 
 
 1 Charles Oilier, 1788-1859. 
 
 194 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 My Dear Mr. Oilier. 
 
 I take advantage of a friend's departure for 
 London, to write to you though I have nothing 
 to say. I have done as much of my new book 
 as I permit myself to do per diem and having 
 nothing else to do my vile cacoethes scribendi 
 prompts me to indite this epistle to your man- 
 ifest trouble and annoyance. My father in- 
 forms me you have been ill and calls your 
 complaint "nothing but Dis-pep-sia." I hope 
 and trust however that you have no such long 
 word in your stomach, but if you have, noth- 
 ing can be so good for it as crossing the water 
 and visiting a friend in France. One of my 
 visitors lately brought me over about twenty 
 newspapers and also the information that my 
 unfortunate Adra had never made her ap- 
 pearance. Incontinent, I fell into one of my 
 accustomed fits of passion which was greatly 
 increased by finding that in none of the twenty 
 journals was any advertisement or mention 
 whatever of Richelieu which together with the 
 news that about four and twenty people had 
 asked for Richelieu and could not get it in 
 England, Scotland or Ireland, made me write 
 instantly to Mr. Bentley a very flaming letter 
 about printing Adra &c. &c. &c. I had written 
 to Mr. Colburn sometime ago without his 
 
 195 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 doing me the honor to answer me, and there- 
 fore I write not there again. I have since 
 received an answer from Mr. R. Bentley and 
 all has gone right. But I am most profanely 
 ignorant of all news and therefore will beg you 
 to answer me the following Qys. if you can. 
 Has Richelieu been reviewed in the New 
 Monthly? Has it ever been advertised? Does 
 the sale proceed as successfully as when I left 
 London? Will you see that its first success 
 does not make Mr. Colburn relax in his efforts 
 in its favor? Will you manage the reviewing 
 of Adra and take care that it be sent to and 
 noticed by as many publications as possible? 
 Will you see that the list of persons to whom 
 I desired it to be sent and which I left in Bur- 
 lington street be attended to? Will you let 
 me know whether there be anything in which 
 I can in any way serve or pleasure you? I am 
 sincere and ever yours. q p r ^^^^^ 
 
 This letter dated at Maxpoffle, near Mel- 
 rose, Roxburghshire, 14th June 1832. is ad- 
 dressed to Allan Cunningham. 
 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 When you were in this country last year, I 
 told you not to forget me; and you promised 
 that you would not; yet I doubt not that when 
 
 196 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 you see the signature to this, memory will 
 have much ado to call up the person who 
 writes. Nevertheless I cannot forbear- even 
 at the distance of time which has since 
 elapsed, and the distance of space which in- 
 tervenes-from telling you how much de- 
 lighted I have been with your Maid of Elnar. 
 I have not seen the whole* but various pass- 
 ages in various reviews, have shown me so 
 much surpassing beauty, that I do not wait 
 even till I have been delighted with the whole, 
 to tell you how great has been the pleasure I 
 have felt from a part. 
 
 I do not know very well how or why, but I 
 have been lately sickening of poetry; and 
 though once as great a dreamer as ever felt 
 the sweet music of imagination in his heart of 
 hearts, within the last four or five years I have 
 found it all flat, stale, and unprofitable; and 
 began to fancy myself a devout adorer of dull 
 prose. I thank you then for showing me that 
 there is still such a thing as poetry; and it 
 would not at all surprise me to feel myself— 
 after reading the Maid of Elnar through-tak- 
 ing the top of the wave, and going over every 
 poet again from Chaucer to Byron. Can you 
 tell me what it is that causes such a strange 
 revolution in tastes ? I declare for the last five 
 
 197 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD ]AMES 
 
 years since the Byron mania was upon me, 1 
 have looked upon poetry as the most sappy, 
 senseless misapplication of good words, that 
 ever the whimsical folly of the universal fool, 
 mankind, devised. A spark or two of the old 
 faggot was rekindled in my heart about six 
 weeks ago, by hearing a sonnet of Words- 
 worth's read aloud; and that I believe induced 
 me to read the extracts from your book; and 
 now I am all ablaze. What I like in the vari- 
 ous scattered passages of the Maid of Elnar, 
 would be endless to tell without writing a 
 review; but there is something throughout the 
 whole which has enchanted me-a mingling 
 of the fine spirit of old chivalry, with the 
 sweet home feeling of calm happy nature that 
 is something newer than even Spenser. As 
 Oliver Cromwell used to say, I would say 
 somethings Ay verily-- but I won't for fear 
 you should think me exaggerating and there- 
 fore I will bid you farewell. It is natural of 
 course for me to hate you; for every author is 
 bound to detest any other person who writes 
 what is good. I would therefore fain pay you 
 that compliment, but your book will not let 
 me; and I must beg you to believe me 
 Ever yours most truly 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 198 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 I send this to your Bookseller, because I do 
 not know where else to send it; and I pay it, 
 because many a good wholesome letter which 
 has been addressed to the care of mine, has 
 never reached me for want of that precaution 
 on the part of my correspondents. Before the 
 letter reaches you, I shall have got and read 
 the whole book; and by heaven, if the rest 
 does not come up to the extracts, I shall either 
 lampoon you or your critics. 
 
 Another letter to Cunningham follows: 
 
 Maxpoffle near Melrose Roxburghshire 
 
 17th May 1833. 
 My Dear Friend: 
 
 To show you how little the fault that you 
 notice is attributable to myself, I have only to 
 tell you that I could not get a copy of Mary 
 of Burgundy till three days after you had re- 
 ceived it and my sister-in-law writes to Mrs. 
 James, by the post that brought your letter, 
 that although she had ordered the book 
 through her own bookseller, she has not yet 
 been able to get it, while friends of hers have 
 obtained it at the circulating libraries. Not 
 having lived in London for many years, I 
 am quite unacquainted with all the ins and 
 
 199 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 outs of these affairs and do not even know 
 who is the Editor of the Athenaeum; but I 
 think it somewhat hard measure on his part 
 to make an author pay for the sins of his 
 Bookseller and very different indeed from 
 the usual liberal spirit that I have seen in 
 his paper. 
 
 Hov/ever, I never courted a Journalist in my 
 life and although I know that I have suffered 
 greatly on this account, yet I shall pursue the 
 same plan; and only by endeavoring to make 
 my works better than they have been, force 
 all honest writers to give them their due share 
 whatever it may be. At the same time I will 
 endeavour as far as in me lies to prevent any 
 such instances of neglect as those of which 
 you complain taking place for the future, 
 especially in regard to a paper which deserves 
 so well of the public. Having done so, what- 
 ever be the result the Editor must "tak his 
 wuU o't, as the cat did o' the haggis." I never 
 reply to criticism unless it be very absurd 
 which is not likely to be the case with his; so 
 let him "pour on, I will endure." 
 
 In regard to the String of Pearls I not only 
 begged a copy to be sent to you before any 
 one else; I wrote you a long letter to be sent 
 with it; but this is only one out of the many 
 
 200 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 shameful pieces of negligence which Mr. 
 Bentley has shown in my affairs. 
 
 I trust that the Editor of the Athenaeum got 
 a copy of Mary of Burgundy independent of 
 that sent to you for I wish it clearly to be un- 
 derstood that I send you my leather and pru- 
 nella, as a man for whom I have a high 
 admiration and esteem, and not at all as a 
 critic. When you get them, review them 
 yourself, let others Review, praise, abuse them, 
 or let others abuse them as you find need; 
 but still receive them as a mark of regard from 
 me; and be sure that nothing you can say of 
 them will diminish that regard. Whenever I 
 have any one of them for which I wish a little 
 lenity I will write you a note with it and tax 
 your friendship upon the occasion; but still 
 exculpate me in your own generous mind and 
 plead my exculpation to others, of all intrigu- 
 ing to gain undue celebrity for my works or 
 of dabbling with literary coteries. I give in to 
 my bookseller a list of my friends^amongst 
 whom your name stands high and I leave all 
 the rest to him. For the String of Pearls I was 
 anxious both because it was given to a charity 
 and because I was afraid the Publisher might 
 lose by it; but this as far as I can remember is 
 the only book for which I ever asked a review. 
 
 20I 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 Thanks however, many thanks, for your 
 critique in the Athenaeum which is calculated 
 to do my book much good and is much more 
 favorable than it deserves. Of your light cen- 
 sure I will speak to you when we meet which 
 I am happy to say will be soon<-at least I trust 
 soon. On the twenty-eighth we leave this 
 place for London on our way to Germany and 
 Italy. My liver and stomach have become so 
 deranged of late that I find it necessary to put 
 myself under the hands of a physician whose 
 prescription is an agreeable one. "Take the 
 waters of Ems for two seasons and spend the 
 intermediate time in travelling through Italy." 
 This plan I am about to pursue, and in our 
 way we shall spend a month in London when 
 I will find you out. 
 
 The country round us is lovely at present. 
 After a cold lingering spring, summer has set 
 in, in all its radiance and the world has burst 
 at once into green beauty. You cannot fancy 
 how lovely the Cheviots looked yesterday 
 evening, as Mrs. James and I rode over the 
 shoulder of the Eildons. The sky was full of 
 the broken fragments of a past thunder storm 
 and the lights and shadows were soft, superb 
 and dreamlike. I know I may rave about beau- 
 tiful scenery to you without fear or compunc- 
 
 202 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 tion for the Maid of Elnar made me know 
 that you love it as well as 
 
 My Dear Allan, 
 
 Ever yours truly, 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 
 P. S.-I have not yet got your last volume 
 but if it be as good as its predecessors you 
 will have no occasion to whip your Genius. 
 Allan Cunningham, Esqre., 
 
 Belgrave Place, Pimlico, 
 
 London. 
 
 He writes again to Cunningham: 
 
 lo July, 1835. 
 I Lloyds Place, Blackheath. 
 My Dear Friend: 
 
 A thousand thanks for your kind letter and 
 all the kind things it contains. I am glad that 
 you like my friend the Gipsey, because your 
 approval is worth much and though I think it 
 tolerable myself, yet I have attributed a great 
 part of its success to the name. In answer to 
 the question you put, I do not think he was 
 drowned: but I do not know with certainty. 
 I have told all I do know and farther this de- 
 ponent sayeth not. I have long been thinking 
 of writing to you to tell you that the name of 
 
 203 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD IAMBS 
 
 Chaucer appears in the Scroop and Grosvenor 
 roll in the year 1386 but all that I dare say 
 you know. The best sketch of the real events 
 of Chaucer's life is certainly that in Sir H. 
 Nicholas' comments on that roll. Vol. IL, page 
 404, wherein he probably states all that can 
 be learned with certainty of his life and pro- 
 ceedings. I tell you all this, although I dare 
 say you are already acquainted with it because 
 you asked me if I found any thing concerning 
 our poet to let you know. The Black Prince 
 comes on but slowly. So much examination 
 and research is necessary that it is a most labo- 
 rious and very expensive work. It has already 
 cost me in journeys, transcriptions, books, 
 MSS., &c., many hundred pounds without at 
 all calculating my individual labour and do 
 you know, my dear Allan, what I expect as 
 my reward. Clear loss; and two or three re- 
 views written by ignorant blockheads upon a 
 subject they do not understand, for the pur- 
 pose of damning a work which throws some 
 new light upon English History. I am very 
 much out of spirits in regard to historical liter- 
 ature and though I would willingly devote my 
 time and even my money to elucidate the dark 
 points of our own history yet encouragement 
 from the public is small and from the Govern- 
 
 204 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 ment does not exist, so that I lay down the pen 
 in despair of ever seeing English history any 
 thing but what it is-a farago of falsehoods 
 and hypotheses covered over with the tinsel 
 of specious reasoning from wrong data. And 
 so you tell Lord Melbourne when you see 
 him. But to speak of a personage, you are 
 more likely to see namely Mr. Chantry. There 
 is a bust which I wish him very much to see 
 and wish you would take a look at it first as I 
 have not seen the original myself. I have a 
 cast of it given me by my Banker at Florence, 
 to whom the original belongs, and if the head 
 be equal to the cast it is the most beautiful 
 antique I have ever seen. It is to be seen at 
 Mr. Brown's in University Street, Gower Street 
 marble works. Ask to see the antique head 
 belonging to Mr. Johnstone and write me but 
 three lines to tell me what you think of it. He 
 paid, I believe, two hundred pounds for it 
 and would take I believe three or four. If 
 it be as I think, it (pedestal and all) is worth 
 double. 
 
 Yours ever with best Compliments to your 
 family 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 
 Excuse a scrawl but I am not very well. 
 
 205 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 I Lloyds Place, Blackheath 
 
 5th Deer 1835 
 My Dear Allan: 
 
 I have sent you a book and have ten 
 times the pleasure in sending you one now 
 that ever I had, because I hear you have de- 
 tached yourself from all reviews. Heaven 
 be praised therefor; for now you can sit 
 down quietly by your own ingle work and 
 pick out all that is good-if there be any—in 
 my One in a Thousand and palate it all, 
 without the prospect, the damning prospect, 
 of a broad sheet and small print before your 
 eyes, and without wracking your honest brain 
 to find out any small glimmerings of wit 
 and wisdom in your friend's book in order 
 to set it forth as fairly as may be to the carp- 
 ing world. 
 
 By the way, I thought you were honest and 
 true; and yet you have deceived me wofuUy. 
 You promised to come down to Blackheath 
 and you have not appeared. I have been 
 writing night and day or I should have pre- 
 sented myself to call you to account. Will 
 you come down even yet, and take a family 
 dinner with me? Any Sunday at five you 
 will be sure to find me but if you come on 
 another day, let me have a day's notice by 
 
 206 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD IAMBS 
 
 post, lest I be engaged, which would be a 
 great disappointment to 
 
 Yours ever truly, 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 
 He always wrote frankly and freely to Cun- 
 ningham. This letter deals with Attila, 
 
 The Cottage, Great Marlow, Bucks, 
 15th April 1837 
 My Dear Allan: 
 
 Many thanks for your letter and kind words 
 upon Attila. I do believe that he is a good 
 fellow, at all events he is very successful in 
 society and though there are not as you well 
 know twenty people in London who know 
 who Attila was, he is as well received, I un- 
 derstand, as if he had the entree. Conjectures 
 as to who Attila was are various in the well 
 informed circles of the Metropolis, and ever 
 since the book was advertised two principal 
 opinions have prevailed, some people main- 
 taining that He, Attila, was Hettman of the 
 Cossacks and was succeeded by Platof f ; others 
 asserting that he was a Lady, first cousin to 
 Boru the Backwoodsman, and the heroine of 
 a romance by Chateaubriand. This may look 
 like a joke, but I can assure you, it is a fact 
 
 207 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD )AMES 
 
 and that out of one hundred people of the 
 highest rank in Europe you will not find five 
 who know who Attila was; setting aside the 
 groveling animals who, as the Duke of Som- 
 erset says, addict themselves to Literature. 
 
 I am very sorry to hear you say that these 
 well informed and enlightened times have not 
 done justice to your romances. FU tell you 
 one great fault they have, which is probably 
 that which prevents the world from liking 
 them as much as it should do: they have too 
 much poetry in them, Allan, one and all from 
 Michael Scott to Lord ^oldan. But you must 
 not expect to succeed in all walks of art. You 
 are a lyric poet and a biographer; how can 
 you expect that the critics would ever let you 
 come near romances. No, no; they feel it their 
 bounden duty to smother all such efforts of 
 your genius and they fulfil that duty with 
 laudable zeal. Did you see how the Athe- 
 naeum attempted to dribble its small beer 
 venom upon Attila. If you have not, read 
 that sweet and gramatical [j/V] article, when 
 you will find that because a man has suc- 
 ceeded in one style of writing he cannot 
 succeed in another, and apply the critics dic- 
 tum to yourself. One half of this world is 
 made up of idiocy, insanity, humbug, and 
 
 208 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 peculation, and the other half (very nearly) 
 
 of envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharita- 
 
 bleness. 
 
 Yours ever truly, 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 
 This letter is directed to "Charles Oilier, 
 Esq., Richard Bentley, Esq., New Burlington 
 Street, London." 
 
 Fair Oak Lodge, Petersfield, 
 Hants, 25th December, 1837. 
 My Dear Oilier: 
 
 Mr. Bentley I think usually gives me six 
 copies of a work such as Louis XIV. I have 
 already had one copy of the first two volumes 
 for the Duke of Sussex, and you will very 
 much obHge me by having the copies sent to 
 the following persons with my compliments 
 written in the front leaf and dated Fair Oak 
 Lodge, Petersfield : Lord John Russell, Wilton 
 Crescent; S. M. Phillipps, Esq., Home Office; 
 The Marquis Conyngham, Dudley House, 
 Park Lane; The Lady Pol warth, 9 John Street, 
 Berkeley Square; and also one to G. P. R. 
 James, Fair Oak Lodge, which will make the 
 six copies. I must also have another copy sent 
 to my friend Seymour as soon as you can, ad- 
 dressed as follows: "Sir G. Hamilton Seymour, 
 
 209 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 G. C. H. Brussels, In the care of the Under 
 Secretary of State F. O. Downing Street." For 
 this last I will pay as soon as you let me know 
 what is the price. Mr. Bentley charges me for 
 the copy; I should like it to be accompanied 
 by a copy of Henry Master ton ^ the small edi- 
 tion of which by the [way] I have not re- 
 ceived any copies and should like some. Pray 
 let me know what Mr. B. charges me for Louis 
 per copy as there are several other friends to 
 whom I should like to give it, but as Sancho 
 would say I must not stretch my feet beyond 
 the length of my sheet. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 
 P. S."-! am anxious to get on with the two 
 last volumes, but I suppose it is the merry sea- 
 son which prevents my having any proofs 
 as yet. 
 
 A letter to Alaric Watts refers to the Bound- 
 ary Question pamphlet: 
 
 Fair Oak Lodge, Petersfield, Hants, 
 
 9th April, 1839 
 My Dear Watts: 
 
 I write you ten lines in the greatest bustle 
 that ever man was in to tell you that the death 
 pf poor Sir Charles Paget turns me out of my 
 
 210 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 house. This is not of necessity indeed, for I 
 have a lease of it for some time yet unexpired, 
 but Lady Paget sent to ask if I would let her 
 come in again and I felt not in my heart to 
 refuse the widow under such circumstances. 
 I go before the first of May, but I do sincerely 
 wish that between this and then I may have 
 the pleasure of seeing your here. I think that 
 you will believe me to be a sincere man: a 
 tolerably bitter enemy as long as I think there 
 is cause for enmity, a very pertinaceous friend 
 when I do like. From this place we go to 
 London, or rather to Brompton, Mrs. James's 
 sister who is in town for the winter, having 
 lent her her house there, for a short time. It 
 is called the Hermitage and is nearly opposite 
 Trevor Square, which perhaps you may know. 
 Do not suffer yourself or Mrs. Watts to fancy 
 that it will put us to any inconvenience to 
 receive you here if you can manage it, as I 
 assure you it will not. I sell all my horses by 
 auction on the 25th and you could help to 
 build them up. After we quit the Hermitage, 
 we have not the slightest idea where we shall 
 go but there at least I trust to see you if you 
 cannot leave your weighty employments ere 
 then. I was delighted with your parthian 
 shots, which were exquisitely truly aimed and 
 
 211 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 though the arrows were not poisoned by your 
 hand, the corruption of the flesh in which 
 they have stuck, depend upon it, will produce 
 gangrene. You were made for a reviewer: 
 only you are honest. How was it else that I 
 escaped even when we did not fully under- 
 stand each other? 
 
 I have told the booksellers to send you a 
 little pamphlet on the American Boundary 
 question. It is merely a brief and unpretend- 
 ing summary of the early history of that bone 
 of contention, only worth your looking into 
 as a saving of time. 
 
 Pray let me hear from you a few words and 
 believe me with Mrs. James's and my own 
 best Compliments to Mrs. Watts, 
 Yours ever, 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 
 P. S.-I am making a little collection of my 
 works in their new edition for Mrs. Watts's 
 book-case and I send Richelieu with this. It is 
 odd Bulwer should have just published a play 
 under the same title when the third edition of 
 mine had been announced for months. I have 
 not seen his, but I should like to compare the 
 two. 
 
 Alaric A. Watts, Esqre 
 
 Crane Court, Fleet Street. 
 
 212 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 2 Verulam Place Hastings 
 I oth January 1840 
 My Dear Alan: 
 
 It is very grievous to me to hear that you 
 have been suffering and it would be as griev- 
 ous to hear the how if I were not quite sure 
 that at your age and with temperance in all 
 things such as yours, the enemy— if so we can 
 venture to call him— will pass away and leave 
 you, perhaps more useful, but not less com- 
 fortable for many a long year. Within my 
 own recollection this has happened to many 
 that I still know in health and vigor but while 
 any vestige remains of the disease it always 
 leaves a despondency as its footprint which 
 makes us look upon the attack as worse than 
 it really has been. Though a successful man, 
 I know— I am sure,— you have been an anxious 
 man; and there is nothing has so great a tend- 
 ency to produce all kinds of nervous affections 
 as anxiety. I trust however that you have now 
 no cause for any kind of anxiety but that re- 
 garding your health, and that it will soon 
 regain its tone. Pray my good friend take ex- 
 ercise, not of a violent or fatiguing nature, but 
 frequent and tranquilly, and remember that 
 anything which hurries the circulation is very 
 detrimental. You will also find everything 
 
 213 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD IAMBS 
 
 that sits heavy or cold upon the stomach also 
 bad for you; I know, for I have seen much 
 mischief done by even a small quantity of the 
 cold sorts of fruit. It gives me great pleasure 
 to hear you like my books. You are one of 
 those who can understand and appreciate the 
 plan which I have laid down for myself in 
 writing them. If I chose to hazard thoughts 
 and speculations that might do evil, to run a 
 tilt at virtue and honor, to sport with good 
 feelings and to arouse bad ones, the field be- 
 ing far wider, the materials more ample, I 
 might perhaps be more brilliant and witty, 
 but I would rather build a greek temple or a 
 gothic church than the palace of Versailles 
 with all its frog's statues and marbles. If the 
 books give you entertainment, you are soon 
 likely to have another for there is one now in 
 the press called the ^^King^s Highway^ ^ but 
 which is not quite so Jack Sheppardish as the 
 name implies. With our best regards to all 
 yours believe me ever 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 Allan Cunningham, Esqre 
 
 Belgrave Place, 
 
 Pimlico. 
 
 214 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 I do not know to whom this letter was 
 written: 
 
 Hotel de U Europe, Brussels, 
 30th July, '40. 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 The grief and anxiety I have suffered have 
 brought upon me an intermittent fever and 
 various concomitant evils amongst which has 
 been an affection of the face and eyes. Had 
 this not been the case I should have written 
 to you ere I left England, although it has cost 
 me a great effort to write to any one. I am 
 now a good deal better and will immediately 
 correct the proofs I have received; but for the 
 future will you tell Mr. Shaw to send the 
 proofs in as large a mass as possible, ad- 
 dressed as follows and given in to the French 
 diligence office, a Monsieur G. P. James chez 
 M: C. A. Fries, Heidelberg en Basle, aux soins 
 de Messrs. Eschenauer Cie, Strasburg, Via 
 Paris, Presse, 
 
 This is a somewhat long address, but if it be 
 not followed and the proofs be sent by Rot- 
 terdam I shall never get one half of them till 
 two or three years after, for such was the case 
 with many proofs of Edwd, the ^lack Prince, 
 
 Any letter for me you had better direct at 
 once to me ^aux soins de Sir G. Hamilton Sey- 
 
 215 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 mour, G. C. H. Brussels." When I am a little 
 better I will write you a longer letter telling 
 you all our movements and also what progress 
 I have made in my plan for stopping conti- 
 nental piracy; in which if you will give me 
 your assistance and influence I do not despair 
 of succeeding although the Government will 
 do nothing. I have already made some way 
 for I can talk without using my eyes. 
 Yours ever faithfully, 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 
 This letter was written to McGlashan, in 
 Lever's care, at Brussels: 
 
 The Shrubbery, Walmer, 
 2nd August, '41. 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 I did not write to you as I had full occupa- 
 tion for every minute and of a kind that could 
 not be neglected. The same will be the case 
 for the next three weeks, as I am just conclud- 
 ing a new work which I can of course lay 
 aside for no other undertaking till it is finished. 
 It will give me very great pleasure to see you 
 here on our way back from Brussels and we 
 can talk over the whole of my plan but as to 
 having even one number completed that is 
 
 216 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 quite out of the question as in order to accom- 
 plish it I should be obliged to lay aside a work 
 which had reached the beginning of the last 
 volume before you made up your mind and 
 to do so would be highly disadvantageous to 
 both books. I can tell you quite sufficient 
 however regarding the first two numbers to 
 answer your views as to illustrations. 
 
 Pray give my best wishes to Dr. Lever and 
 tell him that we are all going on well; though 
 for the last fortnight I have had no small anx- 
 iety upon my shoulders regarding Mrs. James 
 and the baby. 
 
 Believe me to be 
 Dear Sir 
 
 Yours faithfully 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 
 On May 17, 1842, he wrote to Mr. Bretton: 
 
 * * * * I am very glad you were pleased 
 with what I said at the Literary Fund dinner. 
 I could have said a great deal more upon the 
 same subject and opened my views for the 
 benefit of the arts in this country, including 
 literature of course, as one of the noblest 
 branches of art-but the hour was so late that 
 I made my speech as short as possible and yet 
 
 217 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD IAMBS 
 
 perhaps it was too long. * * * i think if I 
 can bring the great body of literary men to 
 act with me, especially the much neglected 
 and highly deserving writers for the daily and 
 weekly press, I shall be enabled to open a 
 new prospect for literature. Should you have 
 any oportunity [j/c] of hinting that such are 
 my wishes and hopes, pray do: for this is no 
 transient idea, but a fixed and long meditated 
 purpose which, however inadequate may be 
 my own powers to carry it out, may produce 
 great things by the aid of more powerful 
 minds than that of 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 
 The name of the person to whom the fol- 
 lowing letter was written is not given: 
 
 The Oaks nr. Walmer, Kent, 
 22nd Augt., 1844. 
 Sir: 
 
 I have been either absent from home or un- 
 well since your letter arrived or I should have 
 answered it sooner. I do not exactly under- 
 stand the sort of use you desire to make of the 
 Life of Edward the ^lack Prince written by 
 myself. Of course I can have no possible 
 
 218 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 objection to your making as long quotations 
 from it as you like, or to your grounding your 
 own statements upon those which it contains 
 which I think you may rely upon with full 
 confidence; but if it was your purpose to make 
 the projected Work a mere sort of Abridge- 
 ment of mine, I am sorry to say I cannot give 
 you the permission you desire, however much 
 I might personally wish to do so, as Messrs. 
 Longman published a Second Edition of it not 
 long ago, a part of which remains unsold and 
 I could not venture, of course to interfere with 
 their sale. They could not of course object to 
 any quotations you might think fit to make or 
 any reasonable use of the facts stated, as I 
 cannot but think that each historian has a full 
 right to employ the information collected by 
 all his predecessors. 
 
 I have the honor to be. 
 Sir 
 Your most obedt. Servant, 
 
 G. P. R. James, 
 
 The Shrubbery, Walmer, Kent, 
 ist June, 1847. 
 My Dear Worthington. 
 
 I received your letter yesterday and would 
 have answered it immediately; but we are in 
 
 219 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 the midst of an election business here. I am 
 not a candidate; and, disgusted with public 
 men, had resolved not to take any part on be- 
 half of others; but I have been led on and 
 when once in the business go on, as you 
 know, heart and hand. 
 
 Let me hear a little more about the Ecclesi- 
 astical History Society. I am a churchman you 
 know, but far from Puseyitical and I should 
 not like to be mixed up with any legends ex- 
 cept such as Ehrenstein or any Saints except 
 St. Mary le bonne. 
 
 I am glad to hear that you have moved your 
 dwelling; for Pancras was so completely out 
 of my beat that it was impossible for me to 
 get there when in town. Indeed during my 
 visits to that famed city of London I always 
 put myself in mind of an American orator s 
 description of himself when he said "I am a 
 right down regler Steam Engine, I go slick off 
 right ahead and never stop till I get to the 
 tarnation back of nothing at all." 
 
 I shall be delighted to see you and Mr. 
 Christmas here any time you can come and 
 will with a great deal of pleasure board and 
 educate you but as to lodging you I am unable 
 for what with babies, nurses, and one thing 
 or another I can hardly lodge myself. I do 
 
 220 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 not propose to be in London for some days 
 or I should rather say weeks, as I was there 
 very lately. 
 
 As to Marylebone, any body may propose 
 me for any where and I will be the represent- 
 ative of any body of men always provided 
 nevertheless that I do not spend a penny and 
 maintain my own principles to the end of 
 the chapter. I am not yet inscribable in the 
 dictionaire des Girouettes; but I trust soon to 
 be for it seems to me that the Jim Crow sys- 
 tem is the only one that succeeds in England. 
 
 Believe me with best regards to all your 
 
 household 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 
 In a letter dated April i, 1849, and ad- 
 dressed to Mr. Davison, he says: 
 
 "I understand you have got a potato. Can 
 you spare half of it, for we have not that. But 
 to speak seriously, which is not my wont, Mrs. 
 James has heard from Mrs. H. that on your 
 farm there are some capital praties, and as we 
 have been languishing for some of the jewels 
 for the last month without being able to get 
 anything edible or digestible, if this rumor of 
 your riches is correct, will you spare a sack or 
 
 221 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 two to a poor man in want, and what will be 
 the cost of the same, delivered in Farnham 
 safe, sound and in good condition —wind and 
 weather permitting. The truth is I have no 
 horse to send for them; and neither cow nor 
 calf have learned to draw yet. I have had no 
 time to teach them, or to buy a horse either. 
 I wish any one else had half my work and I 
 half of theirs-'Fd take it and give a premium." 
 
 How busy he was after his arrival in Amer- 
 ica may be seen from a letter dated October 
 27, 1850: 
 
 "I fear that it would be quite impossible for 
 me to rewrite the first four numbers of the 
 tale you speak of. Applications for lectures 
 have come in so rapidly that I have not one 
 single evening vacant and the evening would 
 be the only time which I could devote to such 
 a purpose as all my mornings must be given 
 up to the fulfilment of my engagements with 
 England and to traveling from place to place. 
 You may easily imagine how much I am occu- 
 pied when I tell you that during the whole 
 month I am about to stay in Boston, there is 
 not one night which has not its lecture fixed 
 there or at some place in the neighborhood. 
 The delay in London however, of which I 
 
 222 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 had not heard till I received your letters is 
 favorable, as it will enable me to get the 
 proofs over in good time. The four parts are 
 in type, I understand, and I have written over 
 two thumping letters to the printers scolding 
 them for not sending the proof as they are 
 bound by contract to do. One of these letters 
 was posted three weeks ago, so that we may 
 expect the proofs in a week or ten days. In 
 regard to the name, it is certainly curious that 
 no name should have been taken three times 
 but I do not see how it is possible for me to 
 aher it now when it is announced in London 
 I was not at all aware that any work had be-- 
 fore appeared under a similar title, but you 
 could head it Jameses story without a name in 
 the Magazine, but if any other title is given it 
 must be by yourselves and not by 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 G. P. R. James." 
 
 Soon after his arrival in America he appears 
 to have become involved in some trouble with 
 publishers. He writes from New York on 
 October, 24, 1850, to Oilier: 
 
 * * * "Send no more sheets to Mr. Law 
 till you hear from me again. My eyes have 
 been opened since my arrival here. Four 
 
 223 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 times the sum now paid can be obtained from 
 Messrs. Harper, and negotiations are going on 
 with them in which they must not have the 
 advantage of having the sheets. You shall 
 not lose by any new arrangement<-of that you 
 may trust to the word of one who has I think 
 never failed you." 
 
 He adds, in a postscript: "Tell him [Mr. 
 Newby] I have been shamefully imposed 
 upon by false statements of the sale here and 
 if I had taken his advice I should have been 
 some hundreds of pounds richer." 
 
 On October 5, 1851, he writes from Stock- 
 bridge to OUier: 
 
 "I have not written to you earlier because I 
 wanted to find the treaty with Russia in 
 regard to Copyright, and also to see the head 
 of a great German house here in America so 
 as to put you in the way of negociating for 
 the sale of my next book in Germany. But I 
 have been too lame to leave my own house 
 for anything but a morning's drive. I am so 
 far better that I can now walk out for a mile 
 or two, but my right hand and arm remain 
 very painful. However, I think I shall be able 
 to go to New York in ten days and will write 
 to you from that place. * * * I am anxious 
 
 224 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 to dedicate the first book I write to my own 
 satisfaction, to Lord Charles Clinton. He is 
 one of the noblest-minded men I ever met 
 with-all truth and honor and straightfor- 
 wardness. If you see him will you ask him 
 for me whether he has any objection. The 
 Fate is highly popular here-considered the 
 best book I ever wrote—by the critics at least. 
 The whole of the first chapter was read in 
 the Supreme Court the other day before Chief 
 Justice Shaw to prove what was the state of 
 England in the reign of James II. So says the 
 *N. Y. Evening Post' and I suppose it is true. 
 I wish I had you here with me to see the 
 splendor of an American autumn in this most 
 lovely scene. The landscape is all on fire with 
 the coloring of the foliage and yet so harmo- 
 niously blended are the tints, from the bright- 
 est crimson to the deep green of the pines 
 that the effect is that of a continuous sunset. 
 Mountains, forests, lakes, streams are all in a 
 glow round." 
 
 A letter to Oilier, written at Stockbridge on 
 March 22, 1852, deals with some financial 
 matters and then proceeds: 
 
 "I am glad to hear what you say of Revenge 
 —though the title is not one I would myself 
 
 225 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 have chosen, there being a tale of that name 
 in the book of the Passions. I think it is a 
 good book, better in conception than in exe- 
 cution perhaps. Your comparison of Richard- 
 son and Johnson with myself and you will 
 not hold. You are scantily remunerated for 
 much trouble. Johnson had done nothing that 
 I can remember for Richardson. As to Rich- 
 ardson's parsimony towards the great, good 
 man, you explain it all in one word. The 
 former was rich. Do you remember the fine 
 poem of Gaffer Grey-Holcrofft's I believe— 
 
 *The poor man alone. 
 To the poor man's moan. 
 Of his morsel a morsel will give 
 Gaffer Grey.' 
 
 "But this rule is not without splendid ex- 
 ceptions, of which I will one day give you an 
 instance, which I think will touch you much. 
 At present I am writing in great haste in the 
 grey of the morning with snow all around me, 
 the thermometer at i8, and my hand nearly 
 frozen. Verily, we have here to pay for the 
 hot summer and gorgeous autumn in the cold 
 silver coinage of winter." 
 
 Another letter of his written from Win- 
 
 226 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 Chester, Virginia, November 6, 1853, to 
 Oilier, has some interest. He writes thus: 
 
 "My Dear Oilier: Long before the arrival 
 of your kind letter, which reached me only 
 two days ago, I had directed Messrs. Harper 
 to send me a revise of the first page of 
 Ticonderoga^ in order to transmit it to you for 
 the correction of errors which had crept into 
 the Ms. through the stupidity of the drunken 
 beast who wrote it under my dictation. Har- 
 pers have never sent the revise, but I think it 
 better to write at once in order to have one 
 correction and one alteration made, which 
 must be effected even at the cost of a cancel 
 of the page-which of course I will pay for. 
 The very first sentence should have inverted 
 commas before it. These have been omitted 
 in the copy left here, as well as the words 'so 
 he wrote' or something tantamount, inserted 
 at the end of the first clause of that sentence. 
 * * * I cannot feel that an appointment of 
 any small value, to the dearest and most un- 
 healthy city in the United States (with the 
 exception of New Orleans) is altogether what 
 I had a right to hope for or expect. You must 
 recollect that I never asked for the consulate 
 of Virginia, where there is neither society for 
 
 227 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 my family, resources or companionship for 
 myself, nor education to be procured for my 
 little boy'-where I am surrounded by swamps 
 and marsh miasma, eaten up by mosquitoes 
 and black flies, and baked under an atmos- 
 phere of molten brass, with the thermometer 
 in the shade at 103 -where every article of 
 first necessity, with the exception of meat, is 
 sixty per cent, dearer than in London— where 
 the only literature is the ledger, and the arts 
 only illustrated in the slave market. 
 
 "I hesitated for weeks ere I accepted; and 
 only did so at length upon the assurances 
 given that this was to be a step to something 
 better, and upon the conviction that I was 
 killing myself by excessive literary labors. 
 Forgive me for speaking somewhat bitterly; 
 but I feel I have not been well used. You 
 have known me more than thirty years, and 
 during that time I do not think you ever be- 
 fore heard a complaint issue from my lips. I 
 am not a habitual grumbler; but *the galled 
 jade will wince.' 
 
 **! am very grateful to Scott for his kind 
 efforts, and perhaps they may be successful; 
 for Lord Clarendon, who is I believe a perfect 
 gentleman himself, when he comes to consider 
 the society in which I have been accustomed 
 
 228 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD )AMES 
 
 to move, my character, my habits of thought, 
 and the sort of place which Norfolk is— if he 
 knows anything about it^-must see that I am 
 not in my proper position there. He has no 
 cause of enmity or ill-will towards me, and 
 my worst enemy could not wish me a more 
 unpleasant position. If I thought that I was 
 serving my country there better than I could 
 elsewhere, I would remain without asking for 
 a change; but the exact reverse is the case. 
 The slave dealers have got up a sort of outcry 
 against me—I believe because under Lord 
 Clarendon s own orders I have successfully 
 prosecuted several cases of kidnapping ne- 
 groes from the West Indies— and the conse- 
 quence is that not a fortnight passes but an 
 attempt is made to burn my house down. The 
 respectable inhabitants of Norfolk are indig- 
 nant at this treatment of a stranger, and the 
 authorities have offered a reward of three 
 hundred dollars for the apprehension of the 
 offenders; but nothing has proved successful. 
 This outcry is altogether unjust and unreason- 
 able; for I have been perfectly silent upon the 
 question of slavery since I have been here, 
 judging that I had no business to meddle with 
 the institutions of a foreign country in any 
 way. But I will not suffer any men, when I 
 
 229 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 can prevent or punish it» to reduce to slavery 
 British subjects without chastisement. 
 
 "You will be sorry to hear that this last year 
 in Norfolk has been very injurious to my 
 health; and I am just now recovering from a 
 sharp attack of the fever and ague peculiar 
 to this climate. It seized me just as I set out 
 for the West-the great, the extraordinary 
 West. Quinine had no effect upon it, but I 
 learned a remedy in Wisconsin which has 
 cured the disease entirely, though I am still 
 very weak. * * * " 
 
 He seems to have been tormented by ill 
 health during all his period of residence at 
 Norfolk. He writes to Oilier: 
 
 "British Consulate, Norfolk, Virginia, ) 
 7th April, 1855. S 
 
 My Dear Oilier: 
 
 It has been impossible for me to write to 
 you and it is now only possible for me to 
 write a few lines as I have already had to do 
 more than my tormented and feeble hands 
 could well accomplish. For 10 weeks I was 
 nailed to my chair with rheumatic gout in 
 knees, feet, hips, hands, shoulder. For some 
 time I could only sign my dispatches with my 
 
 230 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 left hand and to some letters put my mark 
 Happily my feet, knees, &c., are well, but I 
 cannot get the enemy out of my hands and 
 arms. My shoulder is Sebastopol and will 
 not yield." 
 
 Another letter, also in my possession, I have 
 caused to be printed elsewhere. It is ad- 
 dressed to Oilier, and was written from Farn- 
 ham, Surrey, on July 26, 1848. 
 
 "My Dear Oilier: I do not suppose that I 
 shall be in town for a few days, and I think in 
 the meantime it would be better to send me 
 down the sheets with any observations you 
 may have to make. I shall be very happy to 
 cut, carve, alter and amend to the best of my 
 ability. The *sum' can only be described as 
 *Heaven, Hell and Earth,' or if you like it 
 better, 'upstairs, downstairs, in my lady's 
 chamber." But I suppose neither of these de- 
 scriptions would be very attractive and there- 
 fore perhaps you had better put 'The Sky, the 
 hall of Eblis, South Asia.' When it maketh its 
 appearance you had better for your own sake 
 take care of the reviewing; for I cannot help 
 thinking that with the critics at least, my name 
 attached to it is likely to do it more harm than 
 
 231 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 good, unless friendly hands undertake the 
 
 reviewing. The literary world always puts 
 
 me in mind of the account which naturalists 
 
 give of the birds called Puffs and Rees which 
 
 alight in great bodies upon high downs and 
 
 then each bird forms a little circle in which 
 
 he runs round and round. As long as each 
 
 continues this healthful exercise on the spot 
 
 he has first chosen, all goes on quietly; but 
 
 the moment any one ventures out of his own 
 
 circle, all the rest fall upon him and very often 
 
 a general battle ensues. I wish you could do 
 
 anything for my book Gowrie or the King^s 
 
 Plot. I had a good deal of money embarked 
 
 in it. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 G. P. R. James." 
 
 My letter of latest date indicates the time 
 when he was transferred to Richmond. 
 
 British Consulate, Norfolk, Va. 
 3 May, 1856. 
 My Dear Mr. Kennedy: 
 
 * * * Lord Clarendon has ordered me to 
 make every preparation for moving the Con- 
 sulate of Virginia up to Richmond but not to 
 do so until he has nominated a Vice Consul 
 
 232 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 for Norfolk. He also wishes me to send him 
 a detailed report regarding the late epidemic 
 here and what between house hunting, office 
 hunting, and trying to run down those foxes 
 called rumors into their holes and to draw 
 truth up from the bottom of her well in a 
 place where people are as fanatical upon con- 
 tagion and non-contagion as if they were arti- 
 cles of faith, I have had no peace of my life. 
 My book I would have sent you but I could 
 not get a copy worth sending. It has found 
 favor in the South and is powerfully abused 
 in the North, both which circumstances tend 
 to increase the sale so that it has been won- 
 derfully well read. * * * I am sorry I did 
 not think of taking notes of all the winning 
 conversations at Berkely. We might have 
 made out together some few from the Noctes 
 Berkelianae. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 G. P. R. James. 
 
 VII. 
 I was interested not long ago in a remark of 
 the accomplished literary reviewer of the 
 Providence Journal about reading for boys. 
 He said: "As a matter of fact, there is plenty 
 of good, healthy reading for boys if parents 
 - 233 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 and teachers would do more to bring it to 
 their attention. To say nothing of Scott— 
 whom some degenerate youngsters in these 
 days profess to find stupid-there are Ains- 
 worth. G. P. R. James, Mayne Reid and hosts 
 of others who can tell stories of adventure 
 that any healthy minded boy will enjoy." I 
 know well the sound and refined judgments 
 of my Providence friend,— who castigated me 
 once for my opinion that Cowper was not 
 much read in these times-but I do not under- 
 stand how he can imagine a boy of the 
 twentieth century condescending to read 
 Ainsworth or James. First and foremost, the 
 novels are too long. The conventional three 
 volumes demanded by the English public are 
 revolting to the minds of the modern boys 
 who want their fiction condensed and fla- 
 vored with tabasco sauce. The Providence 
 critic and I know— or think we know— what 
 they ought to read, what would be good for 
 their intellectual digestion; but we might as 
 well offer them pre-digested tablets in lieu of 
 chocolate creams. The young person will not 
 now subsist on a diet of Ainsworth or of 
 James. The long-spun dialogue would bore 
 him. He calls for something more piquant; 
 revels in slang; wants "sensation" and plenty 
 
 234 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 of it, compressed in a small compass. As for 
 the parents, they do not know much better 
 themselves. The man of Providence well 
 says: "The trouble is, as was pointed out in 
 these columns recently in discussing the read- 
 ing of girls, that the home atmosphere is all 
 against any intelligent selection of books." 
 The prevalent antagonism to all that is called 
 "old-fashioned" is not limited to the young 
 people, and the novels of James are, in com- 
 parison with the novels of to-day as old-fash- 
 ioned as are the plays of Massinger in com- 
 parison with those of Bernard Shaw. 
 
 James has been compared to Dumas, and 
 there are many things in common between 
 the two authors^their voluminous publica- 
 tions, their bent towards the historical, and 
 their use of an amanuensis. A critic, not very 
 well disposed towards James, says in regard 
 to this comparison: "Both had a certain gift 
 of separating from the picturesque parts of 
 history what could without difficulty be 
 worked up into picturesque fiction, and both 
 were possessed of a ready pen. Here, how- 
 ever, the likeness ends. Of purely literary 
 talent, James had little. His plots are poor, his 
 descriptions weak, his dialogue often below 
 even a fair average, and he was deplorably 
 
 235 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD JAMES 
 
 prone to repeat himself." ^ This harsh judg- 
 ment appears to me to be far too severe. His 
 descriptions are not weak, and he surely had 
 an advantage over Dumas in the matter of 
 decency and morality. 
 
 But the most ardent admirers of this hard- 
 working and conscientious toiler in the fields 
 of literature must own that in all his multitu- 
 dinous pages he has not given to the world a 
 single character which has endured in the 
 popular mind, and the Podsnap virtue of hav- 
 ing written no word which could bring a blush 
 to the cheek of the young person, cannot 
 remedy this flaw in his title. Writers who rival 
 him in productiveness but who are in many 
 respects inferior to him, have nevertheless 
 secured a more permanent place in the hall of 
 fame, because they have been able to give to 
 some of their personages a real and distinctive 
 life. Leather-Stocking and Long Tom Coffin 
 shine forth from the many wearisome chapters 
 of Fenimore Cooper, Count Fosco and Captain 
 Wragge from the ephemeral volumes of Wil- 
 kie Collins, and Mrs. Proudie from the placid 
 chronicles of Anthony Trollope, but they have 
 no kinsmen in the works of James. Even in the 
 
 1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, XIII. 561 (Ninth Edition). 
 
 236 
 
GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFORD lAMES 
 
 historical stories no individual stands forth like 
 Louis XL in Quentin Durward or Rienzi in 
 Bulwer's stirring tale. Nor has he left to pos- 
 terity any brilliant tour de force like the "Jack 
 Sheppard's Ride" of Harrison Ainsworth. 
 
 Whatever may be said of the diffuseness 
 and sameness of the stories, of their want of 
 definite plan, their lack of strength in the 
 development of the characters who throng 
 their pages, and the evidence they afford of 
 hasty composition, it must be admitted that 
 they are clean and dignified in tone and that 
 they display a wonderful acquaintance with 
 history as well as a faithful and conscientious 
 use of the materials gathered with infinite 
 pains and laborious research. These qualities, 
 however, are not those which ensure literary 
 immortality; and while it is possible that the 
 best of the books may find from time to time 
 readers incited to peruse them by a certain 
 curiosity, and while the lovers of good stories 
 may enjoy them, it is not likely that they will 
 ever rank with the novels of Scott, of Thack- 
 eray, of Dickens, or even of Marryat and 
 Lever, although they may occupy a place on 
 the shelves of our libraries by the side of the 
 old romances of the period of Amadis de Gaul 
 or the forgotten tales of the younger Crebillon. 
 
 237 
 
A LIST OF THE WORKS OF 
 G. P. R. JAMES. 
 
 It is difficult to give an accurate list of 
 James's books with the dates of their publi- 
 cation. The one given by Allibone is the 
 most complete, but it is not always correct 
 The catalogue of the British Museum enumer- 
 ates sixty-seven novels. The following does 
 not include merely edited works or those pre- 
 pared in collaboration with others, with a few 
 exceptions. Those marked with an asterisk 
 are reprinted in the collected edition of 1844- 
 1849. I have been much helped not only in 
 correcting the Allibone list, but in the prepar- 
 ation of the sketch of James, by Mr. G. H. Sass 
 of Charleston, S. C, who is probably better 
 informed about the subject than any one else 
 in this country. 
 
 Life of Edward the Black Prince: 2 vols.: 
 1822. [Some accounts give 1836. See ante^ 
 page 204.] 
 
 The Ruined City: a poem. 
 
 Richelieu: 3 vols.: 1829. 
 
 *Darnley: 3 vols.: 1830. 
 
 *DerOrme: 3 vols.: 1830. 
 
 239 
 
LIST OF THE WORKS OF G. P. R. JAMES 
 
 * Philip Augustus: 3 vols.: 1831. 
 Memoirs of Great Commanders: 3 vols.: 
 
 1832. 
 
 * Henry Masterton: 3 vols.: 1832. 
 History of Charlemagne: 1832. 
 *Mary of Burgundy: 3 vols.: 1833. 
 
 * Delaware: 3 vols.: 1833: (reprinted under 
 title of "Thirty Years Since," 1848.) 
 
 *John Marston Hall: 3 vols.: 1834: (re- 
 printed under title of "The Little Ball o' Fire,*^ 
 
 1847.) 
 
 *One in a Thousand: 3 vols.: 1835. 
 
 *The Gipsey: 3 vols.: 1835. 
 
 Educational Institutions of Germany: 1836. 
 
 Lives of the Most Eminent Foreign States- 
 men: 5 vols.: (4 by James, i836,[i832?] 1838.) 
 
 Attila: 3 vols.: 1837. 
 
 Memoirs of Celebrated Women: 3 vols. (?) 
 
 1837. 
 *The Robber: 3 vols.: 1838. 
 Book of the Passions: 1838. 
 History of Louis XIV. 4 vols.: 1838. 
 *The Huguenot: 3 vols.: 1838. 
 Blanche of Navarre: a play: 1839. 
 Charles Tyrrell: 2 vols.: 1839. 
 
 * The Gentlemen of the Old School : 3 vols. : 
 
 1839- 
 *Henry of Guise: 3 vols.: 1839. 
 
 240 
 
LIST OF THE WORKS OF G. P. R. JAMES 
 
 History of the United States Boundary 
 Question: 1839. 
 
 *The King's Highway: 3 vols.: 1840. 
 
 The Man at Arms : 3 vols. : 1 840. 
 
 Rose d'Albret: 3 vols.: 1840. 
 
 The Jacquerie: 3 vols.: 1841. 
 
 The Vernon Letters: 3 vols.: (edited) 1841. 
 
 *Castleneau; or the Ancient Regime: 3 
 vols.: 1841. 
 
 *TheBrigand;orCorsedeLeon:3Vols.:i84i. 
 
 Corn Laws. 
 
 History of Richard Coeur de Lion: 4 vols.: 
 i84i'-42. 
 
 Commissioner; or De Lunatico Inquirendo: 
 1842. 
 
 * Morley Ernstein : 3 vols.: 1842. 
 
 Eva St. Clair, and Other Tales: 2vols.: 1843. 
 
 The False Heir: 3 vols.: 1843. 
 
 *ForestDays: 3 vols.: 1843. 
 
 History of Chivalry: 1843. 
 
 * Arabella Stuart: 3 vols.: 1843. 
 
 *Agincourt: 3 vols.: 1844. 
 
 ArrahNeil: 3 vols.: 1845. 
 
 The Smuggler: 3 vols.: 1845. 
 
 Heidelberg: 3 vols.: 1846. 
 
 The Stepmother: 3 vols.: 1846. 
 
 Whim and its Consequences: 3 vols.: 1847. 
 
 Margaret Graham: 2 vols.: 1847. 
 
 241 
 
LIST OF THE WORKS OF G. P. R. JAMES 
 
 The Last of the Fairies: 1847. 
 
 The Castle of Ehrenstein: 3 vols.: 1847. 
 
 The Woodman: 3 vols.: 1847. 
 
 The Convict: 3 vols.: 1847. 
 
 Life of Henry IV. of France: 3 vols.: 1847. 
 
 Russell: 3 vols.: 1847. 
 
 Sir Theodore Broughton: 3 vols.: 1847. 
 
 Beauchamp: 3 vols.: 1848. 
 
 Carmazalaman; a Fairy Drama: 1848. 
 
 The Fight of the Fiddlers: 1848. 
 
 Forgery; or Best Intentions: 3 vols.: 1848. 
 
 * Cowrie; or the King's Plot: 1848. 
 
 Dark Scenes of History: 3 vols.: 1849. 
 
 John Jones' Tales from English History: 2 
 vols.: 1849. 
 
 A String of Pearls: % vols.: 1849. [His first 
 written book; published 1839 (?); AUibone 
 assigns its publication to 1849]. 
 
 Ireland's "David Rizzio": 1849: (edited.) 
 
 Heathfield s "Means of Relief from Tax- 
 ation": 1849: (edited.) 
 
 Henry Smeaton: 3 vols.: 1850. 
 
 The Fate: 3 vols.: 1851. 
 
 Revenge: (sometimes called A Story With- 
 out a Name) 3 vols.: 1851. 
 
 Pequinillo: 3 vols.: 1852. 
 
 Adrian; or the Clouds of the Mind: (jointly 
 with M. B. Field) 2 vols.: 1852. 
 
 242 
 
LIST OF THE WORKS OF G, P. R. JAMES 
 
 Agnes Sorel: 3 vols.: 1853. 
 Ticonderoga; or the Black Eagle: 3 vols.: 
 
 1854. 
 Prince Life: 1855. 
 
 The Old Dominion; or the Southampton 
 Massacre: 3 vols.: 1856. 
 
 Lord Montagus Page: 1858. 
 
 The Cavalier: (Bernard March?) 1859. 
 
 Adra: or the Peruvians: a poem: ( circa y 
 1829.) 
 
 The City of the Silent: a poem. 
 
 The Desultory Man: 3 vols. 
 
 Life of Vicissitudes. 
 
 My Aunt Pontypool: 3 vols. 
 
 The Old Oak Chest: 3 vols. 
 
 243 
 

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