which he had just been reading, 'you would find immediate employment.' Mr. Perry glanced at the article, discovered that it was one of his own, and convinced his friend, Mr. Urquhart, by showing another article in manuscript, which he had intended to put into the box as usual before returning home. Pleased with the discovery, Mr. Urquhart immediately said that he would propose him as a stipendiary writer for the paper at a meeting of the proprietors which was to take place that very evening. The result was, that on the next day he was employed at the rate of a guinea a week, with an additional half guinea for assistance to the London Evening Post, printed by the same person. On receiving these appointments, Mr. Perry devoted himself with great assiduity to the discharge of their duties, and made efforts before unknown in the newspaper establishments of London."

No one, I am sure, will think this extract, respecting the circumstances connected with Mr. Perry's life, too long. It is another illustration, in addition to the millions of illustrations which have gone before, of the truth of the Shaksperian apophthegm, that "there is a tide in the affairs of men." The narrative is alike interesting and valuable, as showing what may be achieved even without brilliant abilities, by integrity, independence, industry, and perseverance.

But I ought, before I go further, to mention that though Mr. Perry became connected with the Morning Chronicle under the circumstances I have

related, he was only a stated contributor for a number of years. Nor was his editorship of the Morning Chronicle his first editorship. His first appointment to a newspaper editorial chair was in the case of a journal called the Gazetteer, at that time a paper of some reputation. I cannot name the time at which he became editor of this journal, but it was most probably in either the year 1782 or 1783, because we know that in the former year he had projected the European Magazine, but only conducted it for twelve months, and relinquishing its editorial duties because of his accession to the editorship of the Gazetteer. The salary he received for conducting the latter was four guineas per week. This would not seem in the present day a large a large salary for editing a morning paper; but when I come to speak of the editorial remuneration of Coleridge, when he conducted the Morning Post, and of the pay received by other gifted contributors, it will not be deemed so inadequate as at first sight might seem. I ought to add, that the European Magazine, which Perry projected, and edited for the first year, became a monthly periodical of the first class of its day, and continued to be published for the long period of forty years.

Mr. Perry continued to discharge the editorial duties of the Morning Chronicle for about twelve or thirteen years, when, in conjunction with Mr. Gray, a Scotchman, like himself, he purchased the copyright and all the appurtenances of that journal. I cannot give the exact date in which he became the half pro

prietor of a newspaper which he had conducted all these years with much credit to himself, and much commercial advantage to the proprietors; but I find it stated in one Memoir of Mr. Perry's Life, that the transaction took place on the commencement of the French Revolution. In all probability, therefore, he must have become half proprietor of the Morning Chronicle about the year 1792. The purchase money, according to Mr. Knight Hunt's statement in his "Fourth Estate," a statement grounded, he assures us, on exclusive and undoubtedly reliable information, -was furnished by old Bellamy, at that time housekeeper of the Commons. The traditions of the "Kitchen" of the House of Commons for rump steaks and other improvised delicious dinners for the members, are as fresh now as they were eighty or ninety years ago, and promise to live for ever. Mr. Bellamy, in addition to the profitable position he thus occupied as ministering to the necessities of the members' appetites, was a wine-merchant, and enjoyed the credit of keeping "as good a bottle of port as ever was laid on a dinner-table." The purchase of the Morning Chronicle by Perry and Gray with the money advanced by old Bellamy, was celebrated by the purchase, on the part of the two Scotch proprietors of the journal, of so large a quantity of Bellamy's choicest port, that it is a historical fact, duly attested, that it lasted sufficiently long to allow of a liberal quantity of it being produced till Mr. Perry's death in 1821, at every anniversary dinner given to commemo

rate the purchase of the paper,-a period of thirty years.

Two statements are made in Mr. Knight Hunt's "Fourth Estate," grounded on information which he says he received from a personal friend, and which had not before been made public,-of the accuracy of which I have great doubts. He says, first of all, that "though always proprietor of the Morning Chronicle, Mr. Perry was not always editor." I cannot absolutely contradict this statement, but neither in print, nor in the private conversations which I used to have with persons who ought to have known the fact, if such it had been, relative to the history of the Morning Chronicle, when I was connected with that journal upwards of thirty years ago,-did I ever meet with any confirmation of the statement. The traditions of the Morning Chronicle establishment, at that time were certainly to the effect, that from the time Mr. Perry formed an editorial connexion with that journal till towards the close of his life, he was its guiding spirit, editorially and managerially,—although may have had others under him, to whom he confided a sort of co-editorship.

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The second statement which Mr. Hunt makes on the authority of his friend, whose name he does not mention, is that "for several years the editorship of the Morning Chronicle was vested in Mr. R. Spankie." This Mr. Spankie was a barrister, and afterwards rose to the rank of sergeant in his profession. He also ultimately attained the distinction of

being chosen Member of Parliament for the borough of Finsbury at the first election after the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832. It is well known that in his early life, towards the close of the last century, Mr. Sergeant Spankie wrote largely in the leading article department of the Morning Chronicle; but I have never heard from any other source than Mr. Hunt, that he was editorially placed over Mr. Perry, which he must have been if there be truth in the other remark made by Mr. Hunt's informant, that "during a great part of Spankie's editorship he was by no means on good terms with Perry, and would often throw Perry's communications into the fire.' I cannot bring myself to believe the latter part of this statement. Every one knows, who has any acquaintance with what the Morning Chronicle was in Perry's time, that he would have been the last man in the world to submit to such a humiliation. He was everything in connexion with that journal. In fact, the name of " Perry" and that of the Morning Chronicle were regarded as synonymous terms. The paper was, in other words, personified in Mr. Perry. Alike in private and in public the journal was a daily embodiment of his individual views on all the great questions of the day. Besides, it is an established historical fact, that Charles James Fox, and all the leading Peers and Members of the House of Commons belonging to the Whig party in politics, invariably carried carried on their personal intercourse with Mr. Perry as one whose influ