The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-02-08
THE NEW THACkERAY LETTERS.
4 Friend Of Lady Rnchie Protests Against
Their Ip,Il,Iicat Ion and sale.

To TIE EpiroR OF THE SrN-Sir:
| have just read In THE SuN the account OF
"The New Thackeray Letters to be sold
at the Anderson Galleries on February
25. THE Sun says
Mrs. Brookneid died In 1905 and there
! seems to be no reason why the more intimate
letters should not be made public now.
To my mind there is every reason why
| these intimate outpourings OF the heart OF
| the great novelist should not he paved
| and fingered over by alien hands and
| knocked down at auction to the pluto
| cratic collector and II seems to me
| shameful thing to do.
| Thackeray's daughter. Lady Richie.
| and his grandchildren, grown to man
hood and womanhood. are still alive. and
| the publication of these letters cannot fall
| to distress them.
Twenty years ago dt must be now
read these letters over carefully when on
visit to Major Lambert. He was man
| OF fine feeling, and I shall never forget
his remark when he handed me the let
| tiers: Here are two or three letters
which 7 am almost ashamed to Keep. l
often feel that I should burn them" He
came into possession of the letters in an
| entirely honorable way. through his Lon
don agent. AS TO how the agent got
! possession OF them I know, hut ] shall
/ not tell this almost incredible story OF
baseness Mrs. Brookield most distinctly
desired them to he burned at her death
or course 1t IL most improbable that
General James Grant Wilson ever saw
| them. or we should have heard of 1t in
his "Thackeray In the United States n
| book born OF pastcpot and SCISSORS
whose chief value is the admirable BIB.
biography" In the second volume prepared
| by genuine and scholarly Thackerayan,
! Frederick s. Dickson of Philadelphia.
When Mrs. Brookheld first proposed to
! publish the letters written to her by
! hackeray she Of course asked permits
sion OF her old friend Anne Ritchie
! Thaoiteray's daughter. 10 do So This was
accorded. with the proviso that Lady
| Richie should first look over the letters
to be made public. When the time came
| for her to do SO she WAS III and she re-
quested me to go over the letters tas her
| representative with Mrs. Brookfeld. II
/ may not be impairment for me to state
here that Lady Richie and I have been
close friends for hard on forty years and
she was pleased TO say that she had con-
fidence in my discretion.
| I did not then know Mrs. Brookheld.
but ] found her a most charming and
gracious woman. and though we had some
decided disagreements as TO making pub
| lie certain passages In the letters every
thing passed off pleasantly and re-
ported to Lady Richie what had done.
| In spite OF my objections Mrs Brookiield
did publish some OF the passages of n
more intimate nature, and this led to an
estrangemcnt extending over several years
between Lady Richie and herself. happily
composed before her death, for they were
sincerely attached 10 each other.
My examination OF the letters was prior
to that made by Mr.. Lowell.
| Though years have passed since read
| these letters. now to be sold at public
| auction. and though ] see Lady Richie
every year in her own home on my annual
visits to England. 7 have OF course never
| once limited at their existence. She knows
nothing OF them. The publication OF the
love letters of Robert Browning and his
wife was bad enough in all conscience.
but the facts connected with the publica-
| ton and sale OF those letters would seem
| to prove conclusively that the Brownings.
at any rate, left behind them no descend
ants whose feelings could by any possi-
| bility be hurt.
But in this case the conditions are ut
terry different. and ] repeat that IL seems
| to me IA base and shameful thing To do.
thus to drag out into the hard glare or
publicity letters that We're meant hut for
beyond words the daughter whom Thack-
cray himself loved with passionate pride
| and devotion.
one fancie. what sort OF Round
| about Paper" the great satirist would
have written on such a subject could any
thing OF a like kind have happened IN
the England of his time
Happily II could not.
| II makes one feel with Horny Wal
pole. II should love my country II II were
not for my countrymen."
| w. GORDON McCABK.
RICHMOND, Va, February 6.