Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

scription has been opened for the benefit of his family. The Queen subscribed twenty guineas, and the Photographic Society granted fifty pounds out of its fund.

Lady Franklin was refused by the Lords of the Admiralty the use of the Resolute, although the application had been supported by a strong memorial from the United States. She thereLady fore purchased the steam-yacht Fox, and on the Franklin 2nd of May it is announced that the vessel "will purchases the Fox. proceed to the Arctic Seas, vid Barrow's Straits, in July next, under the command of Capt. M'Clintock, who will endeavour to reach the mouth of the Fish River, carefully examining the land and sea in that locality. A very general feeling being entertained that Lady Franklin ought not to be permitted to expend all her fortune on this final Arctic search, a subscription has been opened in aid of the contemplated Expedition, and we under

* The Resolute, commanded by Capt. Kellett, was one of the ships of Sir Edward Belcher's expedition in 1852, and was abandoned in May, 1854. Mr. George Henry, an American whaling captain, found her adrift 1,000 miles from where she was left, and took her to New York. By order of the American Congress the Resolute was repaired and equipped, and presented to Queen Victoria in December, 1856. The vessel was broken up in 1880, and a desk made of the wood was given by the Queen to the President of the United States.

stand that a large sum has already been collected."

In the number for the following week appears Lady Franklin's appeal to Lord Palmerston to aid her in her final search: "I have cherished the hope, in common with others, that we are not waiting in vain. Should, however, that decision unfortunately throw upon me the responsibility and the cost of sending out a vessel myself, I beg to assure your lordship that I shall not shrink either from that weighty responsibility or from the sacrifice of my entire available fortune for the purpose, supported as I am in my convictions by such high authorities as those whose opinions are on record in your lordship's hands, and by the hearty sympathy of many more.'-'Surely, then, I may plead that a careful search be made for any possible survivor; that the bones of the dead be sought for and gathered together; that their buried records be unearthed, or recovered from the hands of the Esquimaux; and above all, that their last written words, so precious to their bereaved families and friends, be saved from destruction. A mission so sacred is worthy of a Government which has grudged and spared nothing for its heroic soldiers and sailors in other fields of warfare, and will surely be approved by our gracious Queen, who overlooks none of her loyal subjects

Her final appeal to Lord Palmerston.

suffering and dying for their country's honour.'

This final and exhausting search is all I seek in behalf of the first and only martyrs to Arctic discovery in modern times, and it is all I ever intend to ask.'"

Mr. Colburn's The sale of the numerous copyrights of the copyrights. late Mr. Colburn by Messrs. Southgate & Barrett is noticed on the 30th of May. The 127 copyrights produced 14,170, and the stock 5,3167, making a total of 19,4867.

Mrs. Gaskell's apology.

Douglas
Jerrold.

On the 6th of June a legal apology is advertised on behalf of Mrs. Gaskell, withdrawing the statements put forth in her book respecting the cause of Mr. Branwell Brontë's wreck and ruin.

Douglas Jerrold died on the 8th of June, after a few days' illness, from disease of the heart, at Greville Place, Kilburn Priory. His last appearance out of doors was in the previous week, when he and Charles Dickens went to Greenwich to be present at Mr. W. H. Russell's dinner ("Pen of the War" as Jerrold called him). An obituary notice, written by his friend Mr. Hepworth Dixon, appears on the 13th. Jerrold was born in London on the 3rd of January, 1803. He was christened Douglas William, Douglas being the maiden name of his grandmother. His father was manager of the two theatres of Sheerness and Southend, and in

childhood.

these sea places much of his childhood passed. "He was the son of his father's old age, His and he held a theory that the children of old men are always nervous, facile, and shortlived. Few friends or playmates of his own age came near him in the theatre or in the town; indeed, he used to say the only boy he knew familiarly at Sheerness was the little buoy at the Nore. Among the theatrical folks who played on his father's stage he remembered Edmund Kean with peculiar vividness; for the descendant of Halifax pleased him by carrying him on the boards in Rolla, and still more by his whimsicalities in the pantomime. He appeared also on the stage with Kean as the Stranger's child. Author and actor came together afterwards at Drury Lane-in Jerrold's early London life; Kean, who remembered Jerrold, gave him orders and oranges, and Jerrold paid him in admiration and epigrams. Long years of theatrical success-some quarrels and misunderstandings-never cooled the ardour with which the author of 'Clovernook' always spoke of the great artist who had been gentle to him when a boy." He entered the navy as a midshipman on board the Namur. "His com- Enters as a midshipman. mander, Capt. Austen, brother of the great novelist, was fond of theatricals, and the officers got up private plays. A man before the mast

the stage.

painted the scenery and Jerrold superintended That man before the mast was Stanfield, our incomparable marine artist. When Jerrold was transferred to another ship they parted company,—to meet again after long years on the stage of Drury Lane, when Stanfield was "The Rent painting scenery for 'The Rent Day.' Out of Day.' these youthful recollections arose, we believe, that series of amateur theatricals which introduced the extraordinary histrionic genius of Mr. Dickens and Mr. Mark Lemon to the public, which secured honourable means to two veteran authors, and made the charm of so many London seasons. A party of friends were walking over Richmond Park, chatting of other days, when Jerrold cries, 'Let's have a play, Stanfield, like we had on board the Namur.' Mr. Dickens took Every Man up the tale and was acclaimed manager; 'Every Humour. Man in his Humour' was selected, the parts were cast, and the row began.

in his

Apprenticed "After a few months Jerrold returned to shore, to a printer. and came to London in search of fortune. He found it in a printer's office, in a court leading from Salisbury Square; to the proprietors of which he was bound 'prentice. Working steadily, and in process of time a master in the mechanism of his craft, he nevertheless only considered this employment as a means to something higher. At this time, though the hours of

« ZurückWeiter »