" THE LIFE OF CHARLES LEVER."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR1
SIB,—Your long and able paper on my " Life of Lever contains the following passage :- " Lover writes to Mr. Hayman that lie has a perfect abhorrence of all labour, but most of writing books,' which,' adds Mr. FitzPatrick, in a not very comprehensible comment, was, after all, the sorriest mode a man of his taste or feeling could get his bread by.' Why P" Kindly allow me to explain that this is Lever's own language verbatim and not the comment of his biographer. You will find the passage italicised in the gossiping letter which I now place at your disposal. Some hundreds of Lever's letters re- main in my hands, but it was the wish of some persons whose opinion is entitled to respect that an abstract only of such letters should be given in the memoir. In the r4sttnt6 of Lever's correspondence with Canon Hayman, the passage appears which your reviewer has mistaken for my own. The following letter, one, I trust, calculated to juterest your readers, was written soon after Lever had relinquished his editorial con- nection with the Dublin University Magazine, and taken up his residence in the Tyrol. I give it in extenso ; the sentence and sentiment impugned by your reviewer as mine will be found towards the close of Lever's letter. For every line in my book
I can produce similar authority.—I am, Sir, &c.,
WILLIAM JOHN FITZPATRICK.
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