I longed for the daylight to come that I might commence
my task, confident that I could not fail where so many had succeeded.
They were, indeed, inspirations which looked in upon me at the dawn. The
dome of St. Paul's guarding Paternoster Row, with Milton's school in the
background, and hard by the Player's Court, where, in lieu of
Shakespeare's company, the American presses of the _Times_ shook the
kingdom and the continent. I thought of Johnson, as I passed Bolt Alley,
of Chatterton at Shoe Lane, of Goldsmith as I put my foot upon his grave
under the eaves of the Temple.

The public has nothing to do with the sacrifices by which my private
embarrassment received temporary relief. Though half the race of authors
had been in similar straits, I would not, for all their success, undergo
again such self-humiliation. It is enough to say that I obtained
lodgings in Islington, close to the home of Charles Lamb, and near
Irving's Canterbury tower; and that between writing articles on the
American war, and strategic efforts to pay my board, two weeks of
feverish loneliness drifted away.

I made but one friend; a young Englishman of radical proclivities, who
had passed some years in America among books and newspapers, and was now
editing the foreign column of the _Illustrated London News_. He was a
brave, needy fellow, full of heart, but burdened with a wife and
children, and too honestly impolitic to gain money with his fine
abilities by writing down his own unpopular sentiments. He helped me
with advice and otherwise.

"If you mean to work for the journals," he said, "I fear you will be
disappointed. I have tried six years to get upon some daily London
paper. The editorial positions are always filled; you know too little of
the geography and society of the town to be a reporter, and such
miscellaneous recollections of the war as you possess will not be
available for a mere newspaper. But the magazines are always ready to
purchase, if you can get access to them. In that quarter you might do
well."

I found that the serials to which my friend recommended me shared his
own advanced sentiments, but were unfortunately without money. So I made
my way to the counter of the Messrs. Chambers, and left for its junior
partner an introductory note. The reply was to this effect. I violate no
confidence, I think, in reproducing it:--

"SIR,--I shall be glad to see any friend of----, and may be
found," etc., etc. "I fear that