d
which comes a little later; the review which snuffs a book out
quietly; the review which is to raise or lower the author a single
peg, or two pegs, as the case may be; the review which is suddenly to
make an author, and the review which is to crush him. An exuberant
Jones has been known before now to declare aloud that he would crush a
man, and a self-confident Jones has been known to declare that he has
accomplished the deed. Of all reviews, the crushing review is the most
popular, as being the most readable. When the rumour goes abroad that
some notable man has been actually crushed,--been positively driven over
by an entire Juggernaut's car of criticism till his literary body be a
mere amorphous mass,--then a real success has been achieved, and the Alf
of the day has done a great thing; but even the crushing of a poor
Lady Carbury, if it be absolute, is effective. Such a review will not
make all the world call for the 'Evening Pulpit', but it will cause
those who do take the paper to be satisfied with their bargain.
Whenever the circulation of such a paper begins to slacken, the
proprietors should, as a matter of course, admonish their Alf to add a
little power to the crushing department.

Lady Carbury had been crushed by the 'Evening Pulpit.' We may fancy
that it was easy work, and that Mr Alf's historical Mr Jones was not
forced to fatigue himself by the handling of many books of reference.
The errors did lie a little near the surface; and the whole scheme of
the work, with its pandering to bad tastes by pretended revelations of
frequently fabulous crime, was reprobated in Mr Jones's very best
manner. But the poor authoress, though utterly crushed, and reduced to
little more than literary pulp for an hour or two, was not destroyed.
On the following morning she went to her publishers, and was closeted
for half an hour with the senior partner, Mr Leadham. 'I've got it all
in black and white,' she said, full of the wrong which had been done
her, 'and can prove him to be wrong. It was in 1522 that the man first
came to Paris, and he couldn't have been her lover before that. I got
it all out of the "Biographie Universelle." I'll write to Mr Alf
myself,--a letter to be published, you know.'

'Pray don't do anything of the kind, Lady Carbury.'

'I can prove that I'm right.'

'And they can prove that you're wrong.'

'I've got all the facts--and the figures.'

Mr Leadham did not care a straw for facts or figures,--