that when looking back upon all that they had lost, he must enjoy "much real happiness from the knowledge that he had always fostered young talent, given circulation to opinions calculated to promote the influences of religion and morality, and never inflicted a careless wound on any living thing."[1] (Appendix A.)
In those old days Jerdan was a power in the Repubhc of Letters. Reputations were thought to depend upon his nod; he could make, or unmake, the fortune of a book; and the young argonaut, adventuring forth on the ocean of fame, looked anxiously for "a puff from the river Jordan" (as an old caricature in Figaro had it), to waft his bark into the haven of success. But, if the truth must be told, he held his sceptre with a feeble grasp, and made but a poor use of the power which his position afforded him. Thus he and his magazine, shortly after the appearance of this portrait, went down, after a connection which had endured for thirty-four years, before the higher pretensions of the Athenæum when it came under the able management of Charles Wentworth Dilke.
The life of William Jerdan may be said to have been wholly devoted to journalistic literature. He was early on the staff of the Morning Post, the Pilot, the British Press, the Satirist, or Monthly Meteor,—the copyright of which he bought from its former editor and proprietor, George Manners, and which is not to be confounded with the Satirist newspaper of more recent date,—and the Sun. He edited the Sheffield Mercury, a Birmingham paper, and other provincial prints. He translated a Voyage to the Isle of Elba from the French of Arsène de Berneaud (1814); and he wrote the "'Biographical Memoirs" for Fisher's National Portrait Gallery of Illustrious and Eminent Personages of the Nineteenth Century. In later days he was connected with the Leisure Hour, for which he wrote at intervals during several years an interesting, if somewhat feeble, series of sketches of eminent characters, which he subsequently republished under the title of Men I have Known (London, 1866, 8vo, pp. 490). He has moreover left us his Autobiography, with his Literary, Political, and Social Reminiscences and Correspondence (London, 1853, 4 vols. 8vo.), from which may be gathered all those minute details of his social and literary life which were to be expected from the "studium immane loquendi" of protracted age.
In 1826, Jerdan became a member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries; and it should not be forgotten that the Royal Society of Literature, founded in 1821, of which he was one of the earliest members, owes its existence in great measure to his efforts.
In 1830, he helped to start and edit the Foreign Literary Gazette, which, however, only lived through thirteen numbers.
Those who wish to learn more of the literary career of William Jerdan must refer to his Men I have Known; his Autobiography; Men of the Time, ed. 1856; and the obituary notice in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xlvi. N.S., p. 441.
The little band of literary co-workers who seek or communicate information in the pleasant pages of Notes and Queries may like to be reminded that under the pseudonym of "Bushey Heath" was concealed the familiar name of William Jerdan.
This veteran critic closed his long and honourable career July, 1869, at the patriarchal age of 88.
- ↑ Autobiography of William Jerdan, vol. iv, chap. 17.
