1921] on Chronicles of Cornhill 395 



the slit of the letter-box in the door ; Robert Browning also, whose 

 life-long friend he was to become. 



The publication of " Jane Eyre " led to the acquaintance with 

 Thackeray, for Charlotte Bronte, then visiting the Smiths in London, 

 was eager to meet the man who was her literary hero, and George 

 Smith effected the meeting by boldly asking him to dinner. 



Thackeray as a writer had long been one of George Smith's 

 admirations. At a Coffee House Sale, which he attended as a lad in 

 his father's office, the "Paris Sketchbook" was passed round for 

 inspection. The boy was so deeply interested in it that he utterly 

 forgot the business upon which he had been sent. A friend got him 

 out of his scrape. And when the opportunity of publishing for 

 Thackeray came, the business relation, as in so many cases, became 

 but one side of a very deep and real friendship. 



George Smith was struck by an idea which promised to unite 

 successfully two strands of popular interest; one, the novel by a 

 great novelist, issued in monthly parts, as Dickens, for example, had 

 been publishing his works for years past, the other, the magazine 

 with contributions written by first-class writers, and illustrated with 

 a couple of woodcuts from drawings by first-rate artists. Combine 

 the two ; and publish at a shilling — the price of the monthly 

 instalment of the novel alone — 'the new magazine of such quality and 

 such promise should attract a double contingent of readers. The 

 watchword of the magazine was to give of the best, and therefore to 

 spare no cost in getting the best. Contributions were paid for on a 

 scale till then unprecedented : the highest payments being 12 guineas 

 a page to Thackeray, and £583 a part to George Eliot for " Romola." 



The great novelist whose name was to float the enterprise at the 

 start was at hand in Thackeray, now a long-established friend as well 

 as a business client. The next question was to find an editor who 

 should combine literary reputation with organising capacity. But to 

 find one was not an easy task. Tom Hughes, the first approached, 

 was otherwise engaged. In the end George Smith asked Thackeray 

 to be editor as well as to contribute the serial. Any writer would 

 feel it an honour to write uuder his aegis, and if, as his publisher 

 knew, Thackeray was not a good man of affairs, let the publisher 

 himself stand by his side and manage all the prosaic transactions, the 

 staff-work and commissariat, so to say, of the enterprise. 



Thackeray accepted the position with enthusiasm. One more 

 safeguard, however, was laid down by the far-seeing proprietor. 

 Knowing well his friend's character, his occasional whimsicality, his 

 warmth of heart which made it difficult for him to say no when his 

 sympathies were played upon, he reserved a right of veto over all 

 acceptances. Such a relation would have been impossible between 

 most men ; but Thackeray's nature was so generous, and George 

 Smith's regard for him so sincere, that no misunderstanding ever 

 arose between them. 



Vol. XXIII. (No. 115) 2 e 



