n real life if he could escape them. If he did
hear of any one in want or distress, he relieved his feelings by
instantly appropriating to their use all the money he found himself in
possession of at the time. When he was editor of the "Cornhill
Magazine," this soft-heartedness was a great drawback to him. He was
always paying for contributions he could not use, if they were sent, as
so many are, with some pitiful tale accompanying; and was always wasting
his valuable time by writing to poor creatures about their dreary
verses, which there was no hope of his being able to improve. When quite
young, he loaned--or rather gave, though he called it a loan--three
hundred pounds to poor old Maginn, when he was beaten in the battle of
life and lay in the Fleet Prison. But he denied this act with the utmost
vehemence when accused of it, and berated the old fellow in a laborious
manner for having been beaten when he should have fought on. Indeed, he
was very much ashamed of his soft-heartedness always, and would
oftentimes bluster and appear very fierce when appealed to for
assistance.

Anthony Trollope tells a story about going to him one day and telling
him of the straits to which a mutual friend was reduced.

"'Do you mean to say that I am to find two thousand pounds?' he
said angrily, with some expletives. I explained that I had not even
suggested the doing of anything,--only that we might discuss the
matter. Then there came over his face a peculiar smile, and a wink
in his eye, and he whispered his suggestion, as if ashamed of his
meanness. 'I'll go half,' he said, 'if anybody will do the rest.'
And he did go half at a day or two's notice. I could tell various
stories of the same kind."

These things were not easy for him to do; for he was never a rich man,
and he had constant calls upon his charity. He kept a small floating
fund always in circulation among his poorer acquaintances; and when one
returned it to him he passed it to another, never considering it as his
own but for the use of the unfortunate. He liked to disguise his
charities as jokes,--as filling a pill-box with gold pieces and sending
it to a needy friend, with the inscription, "To be taken one at a time,
as needed;" and various devices of this kind. He was as generous of his
praise as of his money, and always had a good word for his literary
friends. His fine tribute to Macaulay will be remembered, and his praise
o