The southern press., 1852-05-11
Life Of Thaekeray.

Everybody knows Thackersy, and noboydy
knows anything about him. We are therefor,
glad 10 help ourselves and our readers TO O
I little knowledge of him, derived from a Ger
man authority. He was born in Calcutta il
the year 1911, and is now consequently III
years old. His father was high official of the
East India Company, which secured him the
entree of the best society, and large income
Our author was born gentleman" He went
TO school in neutrality-suspicious. all the ty.
ranny Of brutal master, and the misery Of that
system of tagging, egalzed bullying Of the
lite boys by the larger, which is so repulsive
10 every noble and decent feeling, and which
the Englishmen so stoutly defend, as n process
which stakes the starch out Of PRIDE" but
which il altogether too unreasonable not 10 lose
temper about in discussing. Thackersy has re
venged himself upon this inhuman and disgust.
ing system in his Christmas story Of "Dr. Birch
and his Young Friends" and he has a general
fling at boarding schools in the opening OF
vanity Fair" in which he exhorts the reader
10 trust the promise Of school prospectus no
more than he does the praises Of an epitaph.
He left school for the University at Cambridge,
where he studied with Kinglake, the author Of
Eothen-Eliot Warburton, who wrote "The
Crescent and the Cross" and was lost with the
Amazon, and Richard Monckton Mines, a we'll
known London Mterateur, poet, and biogra.
pher Of Keats, and an ornamental liberal mem.
Der Of Parliament.
Meanwhile the elder Tbackcray died and the fu-
ture historian Of Vanity Fair, launched himself
into its midst with an annual income Of about
n thousand pounds He lived according 10 his
whims, drew sharp and clever caricatures,
smoked, lounged toasted upon books Of every
kind, and opened The oyster Of the world at
leisure. Ills mother, woman OF great beauty
and full Of talent and tenderness, whose mem
DRY is so flialy embalmed In the character of the
mother Of Vrthur Pendennis, married again,
about this time, and the young man, always the
object Of Tie proudest maternal love, came into
possession Of his paterna inheritance. He
Immediately returned from the continent where
he had been staying little time, and took up
his residence in The temple. Nssceut jurists
and budding barristers at law, who have com.
plcted n full course al Cambridge or Oxford
enjoy the privilege Of paying high prices for
comfortable quarters IN the temple, and of eat
ing splendid dinners 10 its ancient dining room
Here Thaeketsy entered himself as student OF
jurisprudence, and in the character Of Warning.
ton in . Pendennisr he has developed the career
Of the students, and the varied life Of the tenn.
pie, in some OF the best passages no has ever
written. Henry Taylor, the dramatist, author Of
Philip Van AreveIde, is among the residents OF
the temple, and is mentioned by the German
commentator ~ the original Of a character in
1hackeray's Romance. We are at loss 10 de-
termine which, fofif Warrington be so intended
he seems TO us 10 lose the point. Warrington
is a man OF power without eareer-Taylor a
man Of talent, who has certainly achieved a
reputation quite equal 10 his just claims. How
ever, the temple not only furnished our author
characters, but also the necessity Of drawing
them for while there, and when scarcely more
than % years old, the young man bad fooled
away his property andwas poor. The days Of
smoking, longing, and loa6ng, we've evidently
ending and he betook himself 10 Paris, conceiv.
log from his facility in sketching that he was