CONTEMPORARY REVIEWS

OF THACKERAY'S TRIP TO AMERICA AND OF THE PUBLISHED LECTURES.

From the New York Tribune,* Nov. 20, 1852.

The opening lecture of Mr. THACKERAY'S Course before the Mercantile Library Association was delivered last evening. The spacious church (Rev. Mr. Chapin's) was filled to the extent of its capacity at an early hour, by an audience comprising a large proportion of young men, and an unusual number of the distinguished literary and professional celebrities of New York. The fashionable circles were fully represented by an imposing array of ladies. Mr. Thackeray stood on an elevated platform in front of the pulpit. * * * In personal appearance, which in respect to the curiosity of the public we may be permitted to allude to, Mr.

* An editorial in the New York Times for the same day speaks of the matter of this first lecture in the most glowing terms; his manner, however, did not greatly impress the Times. His voice, which one paper called "a superb tenor," the Times thought rather light; and the relations between his hands and his pockets took up nearly a paragraph in the editorial. The Boston correspondent of the Times differed totally from Thackeray's estimate of Swift.

Thackeray is a fine, well-proportioned specimen of a stalwart Englishman-over six feet in stature-with an expression of quiet intelligence-and the self-possessed bearing of a man of the world, rather than the scholastic appearance of the occupant of the library. His intellectual head, which bears many silvery traces of the touch of time, is carried erectly, not without an air of reserve, some would say of defiance. In his elocution we were happily disappointed. The English journals have not done Mr. Thackeray justice in that respect. His manner, without any oratorical pretensions, is admirably adapted to the lecture-room. As a medium of instruction, it is far more grateful to the hearer than the more impassioned style, which is often adopted by our popular lecturers. The calm flow of his speech is so transparent that the sense shines through it without subjecting the mind's eye to a too severe trial. His voice is rich, deep, flexible, and equally expressive of emotion and thought in its intonations—the words are delivered with that clean finish which so often distinguishes the cultivated Englishman-his emphasis is pregnant with meaning—and, without any apparent effort, his ringing tones fill the ear of the most remote listener. Mr. Thackeray uses no gesture, except occasionally a convulsive clinching of the fist, or an emphatic thrusting of the hand into his pocket or under his coat. In short, his delivery was that of a well-bred gentleman, reading with marked force and propriety to a large circle in the drawing-room.

The composition of his lecture was masterly. Graphic, terse, pointed, epigrammatic, abounding in

keen flashes of wit, alternately gay and pathetic, it displayed the same subtle perception of character, and condensed vigor of expression, which distinguish Thackeray among most, shall we not say all, modern writers of fiction. No report can do anything like justice to the numerous felicities of the lecture.

[The subsequent notices were generally laudatory, although in the report of the last lecture in the Tribune for Dec. 7, we find the following:

"The hour for commencing being 8 o'clock, Mr. Thackeray appeared punctually at eighteen minutes past the time, and proceeded with his lecture.'

At the close of this last lecture, resolutions of appreciation were voted by the audience.]

From Fraser's Magazine, January, 1853.*

MR. THACKERAY IN THE UNITED STATES.

To the Editor of Fraser's Magazine:

You may remember, my dear sir, how I prognosticated a warm reception for your Mr. Michael Angelo Titmarsh in New York-how I advised that he should come by a Collins rather than a Cunard liner-how that he must land at New York rather than at Boston —or at any rate, that he mustn't dare to begin lecturing at the latter city, and bring cold joints' to the former one. In the last particular he has happily followed my suggestion, and has opened with a warm

* This burlesque article was signed "John Small," but it was immediately recognised as Thackeray's own work.

success in the chief city. The journals have been full of him. On the 19th of November, he commenced his lectures before the Mercantile Library Association (young ardent commercialists), in the spacious New York Church belonging to the flock presided over by the Rev. Mr. Chapine; a strong row of ladies-the cream of the capital-and an unusual number of the distinguished literary and professional celebrities.' The critic of the New York Tribune is forward to commend his style of delivery as 'that of a well-bred gentleman, reading with marked force and propriety to a large circle in the drawing-room.' So far, excellent. This witness is a gentleman of the press, and is a credit to his order. But there are some others who have whetted the ordinary American appetite of inquisitiveness with astounding intelligence.

You cannot help perceiving that the lion in America is public property and confiscate to the public weal. They trim the creature's nails, they cut the hair off his mane and tail (which is distributed or sold to his admirers), and they draw his teeth, which are frequently preserved with much the same care as you keep any memorable grinder whose presence has been agony, and departure delight.

Bear leading is not so in vogue across the Atlantic as at your home in England; but lion leading is infinitely more in fashion.

Some learned man is appointed Androcles to the new arrival. One of the familiars of the press is despatched to attend to the latest attraction, and by

this reflecting medium the lion is perpetually presented to the popular gaze. The guest's most secret self is exposed by his host. Every action-every word-every gesture is preserved and proclaimed-a sigh-a noda groan -a sneeze-a cough-or a wink-is each written down by this recording minister, who blots out nothing. No tabula rasa with him. The portrait is limned with the fidelity of Parrhasius, and filled up with the minuteness of the Daguerre process itself. No blood-hound or Bow-street officer can be keener, or more exact on the trail than this irresistible and unavoidable spy. 'Tis in Austria they calotype criminals: in the far West the public press prints the identity of each notorious visitor to its shores.

In turn Mr. Dickens, Lord Carlisle, Jenny Lind, and now Mr. Thackeray, have been lionized in America.

They go to see, themselves a greater sight than all.

[Thackeray may have felt that this article would cause some irritation; he therefore closed it with a graceful tribute to American hospitality, reprinted from the concluding remarks of his last lecture in New York, Dec. 6, 1852. Curiously enough, in alluding to this lecture, he gave the date as Dec. 7, a mistake in which he is followed by Mr. Melville, Life, I. 297.]

From Putnam's Magazine, June, 1853.

THACKERAY IN AMERICA.

Mr. Thackeray's visit at least demonstrated, that if we are unwilling to pay English authors for their books, we are ready to reward them handsomely for the oppor