ble to a character like that of Marryat, who,
moreover, was not likely to be popular with "My Lords"; and his
discovery of a faculty for writing opened up to him, both as novelist
and magazine editor, a very busy and profitable literary career, which
lasted from 1830 to 1848, when he died. Marryat's works, which are very
numerous (the best being perhaps _Peter Simple_, _Mr. Midshipman Easy_,
and _Jacob Faithful_, though there is hardly one that has not special
adherents), resemble Smollett's more than those of any other writer, not
merely in their sea-scenes, but in general scheme and character. Some of
Smollett's faults, too, which are not necessarily connected with the
sea--a certain ferocity, an over-fondness for practical jokes, and the
like--appear in Marryat, who is, moreover, a rather careless and
incorrect writer, and liable to fits both of extravagance and of
dulness. But the spirit and humour of the best of his books throughout,
and the best parts of the others, are unmistakable and unsurpassed. Nor
should it be forgotten that he had a rough but racy gift of verse, the
best, though by no means the only good example of which is the piece
beginning, "The Captain stood on the carronade."

The range of Charles Lever, who was born in 1806, was as much wider than
Marryat's as his life was longer and his experience (though in a purely
literary view oddly similar) more varied. He was educated at Trinity
College, Dublin, and after some sojourn both on the Continent and in
America became (1837) physician to the British Embassy at Brussels. At
this time the Continent was crowded with veterans, English and other, of
the Great War; while Lever's Irish youth had filled him with stories of
the last generation of madcap Irish squires and squireens. He combined
the two in a series of novels of wonderful _verve_ and spirit, first of
a military character, the chief of which were _Harry Lorrequer_,
_Charles O'Malley_ (his masterpiece), and _Tom Burke of Ours_. He had,
after no long tenure of the Brussels appointment, become (1842) editor
of the _Dublin University Magazine_, where for many years his books
appeared. After a time, when his stores of military anecdote were
falling low and the public taste had changed, he substituted novels
partly of Irish partly of Continental bearing (_Roland Cashel_, _The
Knight of Gwynne_, and many others); while in the early days of Dickens'
_All the Year Round_ he adventured a singular piece enti