how very deeply I shall regret that you did not

apply to me in time.

'Yours most truly,

'E. L. B.

'Knebworth: October 16, 1839.'

When the London Gazette' failed, anotherappointment, to be created, was suggested, and Sir Edward returned valiantly to the charge :

'My dear Blanchard, I received through Forster the notification of your wish this evening. I have already written to Lord Normanby, who will have the letter to-morrow morning, if in town ;. if not, it shall be forwarded to him instantly. Unluckily, I don't know William Russell. He is sonin-law to Lady C. Bury; but I fear any application through her might have little or no weight with him. You will see, however, by the enclosed, that I have written to him none the less; though as a stranger I fear my application may be little successful. However, in these cases there is no time to lose, and my letter may serve to keep the thing open till he hears from Lord Normanby. What think you of calling on him with my letter? If not, seal and send it him directly. I don't know his address. I would write to Lord John; but he, I fancy,

particularly dislikes me, at least we never hit it off. Make yourself quite sure that there are such things to be created. I quite agree with you that it is best to get something, however small, and am very anxious to know the result. Directly I have any answers, I will write to you; meanwhile my address is Knebworth.

"Craven Cottage, Tuesday Night.'

'Yours ever,

'E. L. B.

But after many courteous interviews, hearty promises, and cordial compliments, Blanchard obtained exactly what the Whigs were in the habit of giving those who served them-nothing. And he turned away from the drudgery of daily journalism to those lighter forms of literature in which he excelled. In the New Monthly,' in 'Ainsworth's Magazine' (the editorship of which he shared for some time with the gentleman whose name it bore), as editor of George Cruikshank's 'Omnibus,' and later as contributor to his friend Douglas Jerrold's 'Illuminated Magazine,' he found plentiful occupation for his pen through the few years which intervened between this relinquishment of the Courier' and his death. The Examiner,' of which he became sub-editor in 1841, and for

which he wrote scores of political and social articles (many of which went to the account of Albany Fonblanque, who was never tired of thanking his ever-ready collaborateur), was his mainstay all this time, and was the only connection he kept up to the end with journalism. It was full of pleasant associations for him, and he was in company with his dear friend Mr. John Forster; and he had the opportunities of which he loved of saying all the good he conscientiously could of the works of his friends. When he had come to an agreement with Mr. Fonblanque, he had many to rejoice with him. Mr. Ainsworth wrote:

'My dear Laman,-I have to thank you for your good wishes, and beg most heartily to return them. I heard you had made a satisfactory arrangement with Fonblanque, and rejoiced at it. I want you to dine with me at six o'clock on Thursday, February 4-my birthday—and if you are absent on that occasion, you had better not show yourself at Kensal Lodge again during the present year, that's all! I shall be twenty-eight!— only think of that. F—, I believe, is twentyeight, or has he grown younger, as you and I do? I enclose you a note for Davidge or his right-hand

man, Fairbrother; but they are a queer set at the You had better see to it yourself. Drop me a note to say you will come on Thursday.

Surrey.

If

You know what a dash of that

unusual length means. I expect Dickens, Forster,

you don't

and Maclise.

'Yours ever,

'W. HARRISON AINSWORTH.

'Kensal Lodge, Harrow road:

January 28, 1841.'

Of Blanchard, in his social as well as his literary relations, his friend Jerdan said, on his death :

'His unaffected sensibility was absolutely beautiful. It was inherent, spontaneous, and embraced the whole sphere in which he moved. It was alike seen in benevolence towards the poor and lowly; in charity towards a class too often excepted from the rule, the infirm and erring; in justice tempered with mercy towards all; and in the most genial and confiding love towards those whom he esteemed. And so of his integrity. was without parade or outward demonstration, and seemed to be an innate part of himself. Yet its very gentleness and quiescency made its force. There was no assertion belonging to it, to beget

It

opposition; and any desire that might arise to impede its way perished in the face of its invisible omnipotence. We never knew a man so humbly resolute and so nobly inflexible, with demeanour, manners, and language that might appear to indicate a softness to be wrought upon, and a disposition to evade a collision rather than to brave a conflict. Those who could surmise this, were diametrically mistaken.

'The moral and social qualities at which we have thus hastily glanced shone in all Laman Blanchard's literary productions. The lightest and most amusing of his essays partook of his philanthropy and pathos, and aimed in various ways and moods at the improvement of his fellow-creatures, and the amelioration of the general lot. His graver and political efforts breathed all his unbending fidelity to the side upon which his opinions ranged.'

The exquisite womanly sensibility of Blanchard's nature, and the complete absence of illnature or bitterness from everything he said or did, kept him in the closest friendship with all who once became intimate with him. Considered as that of a struggling man of letters, his life was not chequered with many mishaps, nor darkened by contrary fortune. He was a modest, moderate