Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-06-05
1910.
CHARLES IENER.

Few whOcan read the English langu-
age but are familiar with the name Of
the author Of Z" Charles 0'Malley,"
"TOm Burke of Ours" and "Hsrry
LOrrequer," those novels that portray
life in the camp and on the march, with
a rollicking devil-me-care humOr pecu-
liar to Lever, and have never been
successfully initiated by any Of
those who attempted ii. After
long life, during which he sus-
tanned with varying fortune the ex-
aIted name he achieved by his first and
second novels, he has passed away.
The telegraph of Tuesday 50 told Us. He
died as be wished. SingulaTly happy
in his domestic ties, he has not been
equal to himself since the death of his
wife, an event which he told US in the
preface to Lord Killgobben,"
his last book, prevented him
from working up to anything like his
standard of excellence, and which called
from Linn the hope that it would be his
last. His prayer has been heard. He
died at Trieste on Monday last, full of
years and honors. Never identified with
any Of the patriotic parties of Ireland,
he was rot regarded by the mass Of his
countTymen with anything like the ia
vOr % honor tnat might have been his
had he devoted even a modieum of
his great talent 70 their interests. Like
Moore, IN the decline Of life, he gave
their sufteIings some attention, but it
was so slight as scarcely to entitle him
TO any consideration as a patriot.
Yet the Irish people are proud Of
him He has so fairly and truthfully
portrayed the humor that no sumptu-
ary or penal laws could kill, nor religious
bigOtTy and intolerance neutralize;
he has represented them in the main 50
skillfully and candidly, and withal Civ
en- them and the outside world a never
failing fund Of laughter, that they will
forget his want of sympathy in their pO-
Itical troubles and the misfortunes that
always wait on a politically subordi-
nate race, and viii place him on the list
Of w0rthies whom Ireland has given as
orators, advocates and writers to prove
the effectiveness and beauty Of the Eng
lish tongue. Hardly what an enthusiast
in our presence termed him-the Dick
ems of Ireland-because to our mind, he
never wrote anything that would in
duce a comparison with that great
master, he occupies a place among
novelists peculiar to himself-peculiar
because Of style, mode Of treatment and
development Of plot and situation, as
well as that Ireland and the Irish were
nearly always the scenes and people
he wrote Of. He was as great in his
way as Dickens in his. His military
novels were his best. The Iatitudina-
rianism Of the camp and the barracks
afforded him a freer play for his powers
than the drawingroom or the cabin;
yet he was not wanting in pathos-in-
deed, he could not be, Irishman as he /
was. Ireland has had other novelists in
Gerald Griffin, Banim, Lover, Carle- |
ton and Others We do not new remem-
her, but none whose names have shot |
beyond the Green Isle, and into any
thing like the fame which Lever earned. !
These were thoroughly Irish, as they
sympathized with the masses of
their people, and illustrated in start
ling scenes like those of the
famine Of '46, the awful depths Of
misery and destitution to which they
have been reduced by alien laws. But
they are the writers whose works will
be appealed 10 in future years to tell the
story Of Ireland so profoundly dramatic,
story that no humor Of Levers win
ever cover up, and that viii yet, we
hope, find pen adequately to portray.
They viii live when perhaps Lever is
forgotten, at least in the hearts of a
people always grateful for defense and
SYMPATHY.