Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 68, No. 421, November 1850Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 68, No. 421, November 1850
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
The list, however, is not yet made up--so Alton returns to London, and
is entered upon the staff of the _Weekly Warwhoop_, a Chartist journal,
conducted by one Mr O'Flynn, a red-hot Hibernian and republican. The
engagement is not satisfactory. The editor has a playful habit of
mutilating the articles of his contributors, and sometimes of putting
in additional pepper, so as to adapt them to his own peculiar tastes
and purposes; and Alton Locke finds that it goes rather against his
conscience to libel the Church of England and the Universities by
inventing falsehoods by the score, as he is earnestly entreated to do
by his uncompromising chief. There is nothing like a peep behind the
scenes. Alton begins to suspect that he may have been misled regarding
matters of political faith, and that it is quite possible for a man to
call himself a patriot, and yet be a consummate blackguard. Touching
religious tenets, also, he has some qualms; a discourse which he
happens to hear from a peripatetic idiot of the Emersonian school
having put new notions into his head, and he is especially attracted by
the dogma that "sin is only a lower form of good." He next breaks with
O'Flynn, encounters his cousin George, now in orders, though certainly
quite unfitted for the duties of his profession; and a regular quarrel
ensues on the subject of Lillian, whom George is determined to win.
Poetical justice demands that both whelps should be soused in the
kennel. Alton gets a new engagement from "the editor of a popular
journal of the Howitt and Eliza Cook school;" and at last brings out
his poems, which, though considerably castrated, have the good fortune
to take with the public. Then he is asked to be at the Dean's town
residence, to meet with divers "leaders of scientific discovery in
this wondrous age; and more than one poet, too, over whose works I had
gloated, whom I had worshipped in secret." In short, he felt that "he
was taking his place there among the holy guild of authors." Nor are
these all his triumphs. Lillian smiles upon him; and Lady Ellerton,
formerly Miss Staunton, who has since been wedded to Lord Lynedale, and
raised to a higher title in the peerage, introduces him to the ----
ambassador, evidently the Chevalier Bunsen, who instantly invites him
to Germany! "I am anxious," quoth the ambassador, "to encourage a holy
spiritual fraternisation between the two great branches of the Teutonic
stock, by welcoming all brave young English spirits to their ancient
fatherland. Perhaps, hereafter, your kind friends here will be able
to lend you to me"!! So the brave young English spirit goes home that
night in a perfect whirl of excitement. In the morning comes reaction.
Alton, on going to leave his card for the Dean, finds the house shut
up, and is informed that the young Earl of Ellerton has been killed
by a fall from his horse, and that the whole family are gone to the
country. "That day was the first of June 1845. On the 10th of April
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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