The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-22


hausted all possible modes OF panegyric, be-
thought himself that some unappreciative and
cynical persons might possibly think there was
a lack of originality in a work so obviously
constructed after the model of "Tristram
Sbandy." SO he fastened to confute or con-
vince all such persons by pointing out that in
this very fact consisted the special claim of
The Caxtons" to absolute originality. The
original genius of Lytton was proved by his pro-
ducing so excellent a copy, Don't you see? You
don't perhaps, But then if you we're intimate
with Lord Lytton, and we're killed by him, and
were performer in the private theatricals at
kDebworth. his country seat, you would pro-
baby see it quite clearly, and agree with it,
every word.
There was one person indeed WHO had no
liberation for Lord Lytton, or for mis- friendly
critics That was Lord Lytton's wife. There
really is no scandal in alluding to coniugal
quarrel which was brought so persistently under
public notice by one of the parties as that be-
tween Bulwer Lytton aid his wife, / do not
know whether ought to call it quarrel. Can
that be called light, piteously asks the man in
Juvenal, where my enemy only beats and am
merely beatt n? Can that be called quarrel in
which, so far as the public could Judge, the
wife did all the denunciaton, and the husband
made no reply? Lady Lytton wrote novels for
the purpose Of satirzing her husband and his
frends-his parasites, she called them Bull
wer-Lytton she gracefully described as having
"thc head of goat on the body of a grasshop-
per"-a description which has just enough of
comical truthfulness in its savage ferocity to
tire, and amusing TO the unconcerned public.
Lady Lytton attributed TO her husband the most
odous meannesses, vices and crueties: but the
public, with all its love of scandal, seems to
have steadfastly refused to take her ladyship's
word for these accusations. Dickens she de-
nounced and vilied rs mere parasite and
sycophant of her husband. At one time she
poured out gush of fulsome eulogy on Thack-
cray because he apparently was not one of
Lyttons friends; afterwards, when the relation
ship between Pelham" and ''Pendennis"
became friendly, sne changed her tune and tried
to bite the file, to satirize the great satirist.
cho Jabber" This sort of thing she kept
always going on. Sometimes she issued
pamphlets addressed to the women
of England, calling on them to take
up her Quarrel-which somehow they did
not seem inclined to. Once when Lord
Lytton, then only Sir Edward, was on the hust-
ings. addressing his constituents at county
election, her ladyshp suddenly mounted the
platform and event for him. Sir Edward and
his friends prudently and quietly withdrew. |
do not know anything of the merits OF the quar-
rel, and have always been disposed to think that
something like insanity must have been the eX-
PLANTATION of much Of Lady Lytton's conduct.
But it is beyond doubt that her husbands de-
meanor was remarkable for its quiet indomit-
able patience and dignity. Lately the public has
happily heard little of Lady LyttOn's complaints.
! did not even know whether she was still liv-
ing, until / saw a little book announced the
other day by some publisher, which bore her
name. Let her pass-with the one remark that
her long succession of bitter attacks upon her
husband does not seem to have done him any
damage in the estimation Of the world.
1t is not likely that posterlty will preserve
much of Lord Lyttons writings. They do not,
think, add to literature one original character
Even the glori1ied murderer or robber, the
Eugene Aram or Paul Clifford sort of person.
had heen done and done much better by Schiller
by Goodwin, and by others, before Bulwer-L ytton
tried him at second hand. As pictures of Eng
1tel,r Nff faNN
! with modern English life have no value what
ever The historical novels, the classical novels,
are glaringly false in their color and tone
Some of the personages in The Last Days of
Pompeii' are good deal more like modern
English dandies than most of the people who
are given out as such in Pelham" The
attempts at political satire in Paul Cliff
ford" at broad humor in Eugene Aram
| (the Corporal and his cat for eXample), are
| feeble and miserable. There is hardly one touch
Of refined and genuine pathos-of pathos drawn
! from other than the old stock conventional
sources-in the whole of the rOmances, plays,
and poems. The one great facility which the
author possessed was the capacity to burnsh up
and display the absolutely commonplace. the
merely conventional, the utterly unreal, so that
it looked new, original, and real in the eyes OF
the ordinary public, and sometimes even sue
ceeded, for the hour, in deceiving the expert
| BulwerLyttons romance is only the romance o
the London Family HerG,d, or the New York
Ledger, plus high intellectual culture and al
letters, art, and fashion. own that have con
siderable admiration for the man who, with Sc
small an original outfit, accomplished so much
So successful a romanciSt; roma s occasionally
OF the art of writing plays to catch au
dences; so skilful an imitator of orator,
that, despite almost unparalleled physical de
fects, be once nearly persuaded the world tina
his was genuine eloquence-who shall say thai
the capacity which can do all this is not some
thing to be admired? 1t is a clever thing to b.
able to make ornaments OF paste which shall
pass with the world for diamonds; mock-turt
soup which shall taste like rea.; wax figure
which look at first as if they were alive. OF tn
literary art which is akin to this, our common
literature has probably never had so great
master as Lord Lytton. Such man is especi
ally the one to stand up as the appropriat
representative of literature in such an assemb
as the English House of Lords. / should b
sorry to see a Browning, Thackeray, Carlyle
a Tennyson, Dickens there; but think Lor
Lytton is in his right place-a splendid shan
author in splendid sham legislative assembly.
A London correspondent writes as follow
about the leg story told by Mrs. Anna Cora
Mowatt- Richie, which the GaIaGy somewha
impugned:-
'In the June number of the Galo1y there /
an editorial in which you throw doubt upo
certain statements made by Mrs. A. Q. Ritchi
in one OF her correspondence. You assum
that she has been misinformed concerning tn
casts taken from the legs of English ladies O
title. As was her informant, ] feel bound {
state the source from which ! derived the 10
formation. OF course the assertion of the pro
fessiona yenders OF casts would go for nothing
as You imply that they would find it to their ad
vantage TO encourage a belief in the statement
to which you refer; but Mrs Ritchies evidenc
rests upon very different grounds. The cast O
Lady IS leg, which occupied a position i
her ladyships drawing--room, was taken, nc
, by a professional vender of casts, but by a
artist who is a hdbitue of some of the bes