Litchfield enquirer., 1864-01-21


 MR. TBAcKERAY.-rhe London journals teem with notices and anecdotes of Mir. Thack- e.ay, whose de.th was very sudden and unex- pecfed. The Times gives the following nc- count of his last hours
 .Hs was suffering from two distinct con- plaints, one of which has now wrought his death. More than dozen years ago. while he was writing Pendennis.' it will be remembered that the publication of that work was stopped by his serious illness. He was brought to deaths door, and he was saved from death oy Dr. Elliotson, to whom, in gratitude, he dea- icaied the novel when he lived to finish it.- But ever since that ailment he has been SUD- jcet every month or six weeks to attacks ol sickness, attended with violent retching. lie was congratulating himselfth other day on the failure of his old enemy to return, ana then he checked himself, as if he ought not to be foo sure of release from his plague. On "Wednesday morning the complaint returned, and he was in great suffering all day. He was ro better in the evening, aud his servant. about the time of leaving him for the night uroposed to sit upsgith him. This he declined He was heard moving about midnight. and he must have died between two and three in the morning of yesterday. His medical attendants attribute hls death to etiusion of inc brain. They add that he had vefy large brain. weighing no less than 55loz. He thus died of the complaint which seemed to trouble him least. He died full of strength and rejoicing full of plans and hopes. >9n Monday last hs was congratulatng himself on having finished four numbers of a new noveb;' he had the man uscript in his pocket, and@ith boyish frank ness showed the last pages to friend, asking him to read them and see what he could make of them. When he had completed four nun bers more he said he would subject himself to the skill of very clever surgeon, and be no more an invalid. In the fuiness of ms powers he has fallen before a complaint which gave him no alarm"
 The impression of Mir. Thackeray's cynical nature is vigorously combatted by the English papers. The Times observes:
 .sThere was no man less ill-natured than Mir. Thackeray. and if anybody doubts this we refer him to The Newcomes,' and ask whether that book could be written by any but most kind-hearte,l man. We believe that one of the greatest miseries which Mir. Thackeray had to endure grew out of the sense that he. one of the kin.!est men, was regarded as an ilnatured cynic.
 |" He had in him the simplicity of the child with the experience of the man It was curi- ous to see how warmly his friends loved him. and how fervently his enemies hated him The hate he excited among those who but half knew him will soon be forgotten; the warmth of affection by which he was endeared will long be remembered, he had his fobles, aud so have we all. Some of his fobles-sueh as his sensitivencss to criticsm-always excited the good humored mirh of his friends. But these foibles were nothing besides the true greatness and goodness of the man. It was impossible to be long with him without seeing his truthfulness, his gentleness, his humility his syn npathy with all suffering, his tender sense of honor ; .and one felt these moral quail ities all the more when one came to see how clear was his insight into human nature, how wide was his experience of life, how large hls acquainiauces with books, how well he had thought upon all he had seen. and how clearly and gracefully he expressed himself. A man in all the qualities of intellect, he was child in all the qualities of heart; and when his life comes to be laid bare before the public in a biography We have no doubt that. whatever intellectual rank may be assigned to him. no man or letters with anythiu1 A-the same power Of mind will be regarded us 'nobler purer, better, kinder than he."
 The London Daily News says:
 "There was in Thackeray that temperament of genius, that originality ofpower, that par ticularity. that J2aror which some writers calls cynicisn. some bitterness but which is really nothing more nor less than the humorous sad ness of a man of the world who, being also man of genius, has mental eyesight like a double-edged sword, heart all tenderness, but hand against every pretender in world full ofpretenders."
 The Neus also gives this interesting remin- iscence
 "In 1857 Thackeray solicited the suffrages of the constituency of the city of Oxford. He had a odd way of canvassng, declaring that his opponent, Mir. Cardwel, was the better man. The citizens thought that he would le better engaged in writing works for pesteri- ority than wearing out his life in committee rooms and late sittings in the House of Com mons, discussing. railway and gas bills, or fix. ing the rate of duty on cerks squared for roun- ding. At all events they did not bind him to their service. and in the same year he was wri- ting and publishing his Virginiaus, the last of his principal novels"
 Mir. Thaekeray leaves two daughters. one of whom is the author of "Ths Story of Eliza beth" which appeared in the CornAiU Nigga. zine, and has since been republished in this country.