r John Cumberland. 1828." This "Life in Paris" was
known to me by dim literary repute; but I had never seen, the actual
volume before. Its publication was a disastrous failure. Emboldened by
the prodigious success of "Life in London,"--the adventures in the Great
Metropolis of Corinthian Tom and Jerry--Somebody--and Bob Logic,
Esquire, written by Pierce Egan, once a notorious chronicler of the
prize-ring, the compiler of a Slang Dictionary, and whose proficiency in
_argot_ and flash-patter was honored by poetic celebration from Byron,
Moore, and Christopher North, but whom I remember, when I was first
climbing into public life, a decrepit, broken-down old man,--Mr. John
Cumberland, of Ludgate Hill, (the publisher, by the way, of that series
of the "Acting Drama" to which, over the initials of D--G, and the
figure of a hand pointing, some of the most remarkable dramatic
criticisms in the English language are appended,) thought, not
unreasonably, that "Life in Paris" might attain a vogue as extensive as
that achieved by "Life in London." I don't know who wrote the French
"Life." Pierce Egan could scarcely have been the author; for he was then
at the height of a vicious and ephemeral popularity; and any book,
however trashy, with his name to it, would have been sure to sell. This
"Life in Paris" was very probably the work of some obscure hack, who,
when he was describing the "eccentric characters in the French
metropolis," may not impossibly have been vegetating in the Rules of the
King's Bench Prison. But crafty Mr. Cumberland, to insure the success of
his enterprise, secured the services of George Cruikshank as
illustrator. George had a brother Robert, who had caught something of
his touch and manner, but nothing of his humorous genius, and who
assisted him in illustrating "Life in London"; but "Life in Paris" was
to be all his own; and he undertook a journey to France in order to
study Gallic life and make sketches. The results were now before me in
twenty-one small vignettes on wood, (of not much account,) and of as
many large aquatint engravings, (George can aquatint as well as etch,)
crowded with figures, and displaying the unmistakable and inimitable
Cruikshankian _vim_ and point. There is Dick Wildfire being attired,
with the aid of the _friseur_ and the tailor, and under the sneering
inspection of Sam Sharp, his Yorkshire valet, according to the latest
Parisian fashions. Next we have Dick and Captain O'Shuffleton (a