University of Virginia Library

THACKERAY'S ARTICLES IN THE MORNING CHRONICLE

by Gary Simons

During the early years of the Victorian era the major novelist-to-be, William Makepeace Thackeray, wrote over six hundred separately published articles encompassing a variety of literary styles and genres for over twenty different periodicals (Harden, Checklist of Contributions). Much of Thackeray's periodical satiric fiction – particularly the pseudonymous stories and novels serialized in Fraser's Magazine from 1837 to 1847 (such as The Yellowplush Correspondence, Catherine, and Barry Lyndon) and the satires published in Punch during the years 1842–54 (as exemplified by articles by "the fat contributor" or series such as The Snobs of England, or Punch's Prize Novelists) – has received considerable scholarly attention (Pearson, W. M. Thackeray and the Mediated Text; Sanders, "Thackeray and Punch"). However, partially because of difficulties in attribution, the many anonymous critical articles Thackeray wrote during those same years for two of London's leading newspapers, The Times (1837–40) and The Morning Chronicle (ca.1838–48), have been relatively unnoticed.

This lack of attention is regrettable, as Thackeray's newspaper articles often metamorphosed into revealing essays on the manners and life of the early Victorian world. These essays include: assessments of the world of art; reviews of the works of leading English and American authors and the literary trends of the day; ruminations on the aesthetics of poets and poetry; remarks on leading thinkers and politicians of the era; examinations of England's relationships with America, France, Ireland, and Russia; sentiments regarding Evangelicalism and Catholicism; thoughts on the roles of commoners, aristocrats, and royalty, and on the essential nature of republics and totalitarian regimes; considerations regarding travel to and the cultures of countries of Europe, Africa, and Asia; observations on medieval and modern history; and comments on commerce and colonialism. Further, embedded in these articles are many markers of Thackeray's development as a novelist and essayist.

Unfortunately, Thackeray never collected and republished his Times or Morning Chronicle articles. Consequently, one of the most comprehensive editions of Thackeray's works, the 1908 Oxford Thackeray, includes only one article from the Morning Chronicle.1 During the twentieth century Harold Gulliver (in his 1934 book Thackeray's Literary Apprenticeship) and Gordon Ray (as part of his 1945–46 The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray and his subsequent

1955 republication of some of these articles in William Makepeace Thackeray: Contributions to the Morning Chronicle) brought to light some of Thackeray's work in this newspaper.

Most of Gulliver's and Ray's attributions are based on uncertain internal evidence. There is, of course, an inherent tension between the need to avoid (or minimize) erroneous attributions and simultaneously to achieve as complete and representative a bibliography as possible. Diversity and range of attributions is important, as different articles may provide different insights into Victorian affairs and attitudes, Thackeray's perceptions and thinking, and his development as an author. Indeed, despite the lack of supporting external evidence, scholars and biographers – such as Robert Colby, Laura Fascik, Judith Fisher, Donald Hawes, Charles Mauskopf, John McAuliffe, Claire Nicolay, Lidmilla Pantückova, Richard Pearson, Catherine Peters, S. S. Prawer, and D. J. Taylor – have relied upon and drawn from Ray's over sixty-year-old Morning Chronicle list to support their respective analyses of Thackeray's life and work.2 Accordingly, it seems appropriate to reconsider and update Thackeray's Morning Chronicle bibliography in the same manner as a previous paper updated Thackeray's 1837–40 enumerative bibliography for the Times.3 This paper: (i) overviews Thackeray's contributory arrangements with the Morning Chronicle; (2) summarizes and assesses prior attributions; (3) and proposes additional attributions to flesh out an understanding of Thackeray's contributions to this periodical.

Thackeray and the Morning Chronicle

As Gordon Ray has noted, "During the eighteen-thirties and eighteen-forties the Morning Chronicle was the chief rival of the Times for the title of London's principal newspaper" (Ray, Contributions xi). Under the editorship of John Black in 1834 the Morning Chronicle had been revitalized and converted into a Whig organ to act as counterweight to the Toryish Times. By 1844 Black had been replaced by Andrew Doyle but the general policies of the newspaper remained the same. The paper supported the aggressive foreign policy advocated by Lord Palmerston and published the political-economic articles of John Stuart Mill. Although Mayhew's famous Morning Chronicle series on "London Labor and the London Poor" was only to appear later, during the years 1844–46 the paper was nonetheless generally branded as the "serious" competitor to the Times, as compared to less serious but more popular papers such as Dickens's Daily News (Bourne 2:87–95, 143, 168).

In the spring of 1835 the twenty-three-year-old Thackeray, living in Paris and studying art, was a regular visitor to the household of Eyre Evans Crowe, the Paris correspondent of the Morning Chronicle (Crowe 10). In what appears to be his first effort to get full-time employment, Thackeray with Crowe's help applied

for (but did not receive) a foreign correspondent position at Constantinople for the Morning Chronicle (Ray, Letters 1:281, 283). Later, in March 1838, Thackeray spent time in Paris and with the Crowes. In an 1853 letter Thackeray wrote, "I recalled to Mr. Crowe as we walked back from the cemetery; how 15 years ago he use to pay me 10 francs a day to do his work as Newspaper Correspondent for him" (Harden, Letters Supp. 1:604). In a subsequent letter Thackeray again wrote "How welcome those 10 francs a day used to be when he was away & I was doing his work for the Chronicle" (Harden, Letters Supp. 1:777). Thus, some of Crowe’s Morning Chronicle submissions in 1835 or 1838 were apparently written in whole or in part by Thackeray.

Charles Mackay, a subeditor of the Morning Chronicle from 1835 to 1844, wrote in his memoirs that "Mr. Thackeray, from so early a period as 1839–1840, was a frequent contributor to his favourite journal, the Morning Chronicle, though he never succeeded in establishing a permanent connection with it" (Mackay, Forty Years Recollection 2:294). In another memoir Mackay adds that "Thackeray was often a paid contributor to the Chronicle, especially on subjects related to the Fine Arts" (Mackay, Memorials 1:58). If Mackay’s memory is correct, Thackeray was submitting contributions to the Morning Chronicle in his own name in the early 1840s (although any such submissions would have been published anonymously). A surviving letter from May 1839 documents the Chronicle’s rejection of a Thackeray submission in which Thackeray writes that he is "now only waiting to know what they want" (Ray, Letters 1:384). Thackeray’s Morning Chronicle articles from the early 1840s remain largely unidentified; however, as subsequently discussed, an April 1, 1842, art review in the Morning Chronicle is likely a Thackeray freelance contribution.

On March 11, 1844, Thackeray wrote to his mother about a couple of potential posts, "one [of which] is at the Morning Chronicle where my friends Doyle & Crowe are working anxiously in my favour" (Ray, Letters 2:164). Thackeray did reach some agreement with the Morning Chronicle; two articles by Thackeray totaling 3.05 columns were published in the Morning Chronicle in March 1844, and Thackeray's account book for March 1844 appropriately shows an entry of 8 pounds for the Chronicle, reflecting a rate of 2.5 guineas per column (Ray, Letters 2:841; Simons, Pecuniary Explication 37). As mentioned previously, Mackay stated that Thackeray never had a permanent (presumably a salaried staff) position with the Morning Chronicle, and that apparently is true; in early June 1844 Thackeray wrote that "The Chronicle is I believe as safe as if I had an engagement" (Ray, Letters 2:170; emphasis added). Later, in June 1844 Thackeray complained that he didn't "do above 20£ for the Chronicle instead of 40 – but it is my own fault – the fact is I can't write the politics and the literary part is badly paid" (Ray, Letters 2:172).

Thackeray's newspaper work was interrupted during his trip from August 22, 1844, through February 8, 1845, around the Mediterranean, but he appears to have resumed his Morning Chronicle contributions in March 1845. During March – July 1845 Thackeray also held a time-consuming position as subeditor of the Examiner, and in the second half of 1845 he was absorbed with writing his travel book, Notes of A Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, conflicting responsibilities

which perhaps explain his generally low level of Morning Chronicle activity for most of that year. Previous Thackeray scholars have not identified any Thackeray articles from the periodJune-November 1845; however, a Thackeray letter dated November 28, 1845, in which Thackeray asserted that "The Chronicle articles are very well liked – they relieve the dullness of that estimable paper," makes it clear that Thackeray articles continued to be published (Ray, Letters 2:216).

In a letter tentatively dated January, 1846, Thackeray returned to the issue of political articles when he wrote "I have besides 700 £ between Punch & the Chronicle: though I don't count on the latter beyond the year as I am a very weak & poor politician only good for outside articles and occasional jeux d'esprit" (Ray, Letters 2:225). Indeed, in February 1846 Thackeray wrote that he was "making a failure at the Chronicle[;] all my articles miss fire: except the literary ones" (Ray, Letters 2:229). And in March 1846 Thackeray wrote "The Chronicle and I must part or I must cut down half the salary. They are most provokingly friendly all the time, and insist that I should neither resign nor disgorge — but how can one but act honorably by people who are so good natured?" (Ray, Letters 2:231). "Disgorge" implies giving money back or reducing income. All this suggests that the Morning Chronicle may have been paying Thackeray for "misfired" political articles and that because his political articles were unacceptable Thackeray believed his income should be reduced. Under this interpretation several questions remain open: which political articles did Thackeray write for the Morning Chronicle, were they published, what opinions did he express, and why were those articles deemed to be failures?

In February 1846 Thackeray temporarily resigned from the Chronicle; however, he soon rescinded this decision and wrote articles from March through at least October 1846. In January 1847, coincident with the initial serialization of Vanity Fair, Thackeray wrote to Caroline Norton that: "I am no longer a writer in the Chronicle" (Ray, Letters 2:264). But this was not a final decision. In April 1848, Thackeray, despite the money he was then earning from Vanity Fair, wrote to his mother complaining: "My own expenses are something very severe – and with debts keep me always paying & poor." To find this extra income, Thackeray added that he was "writing a little for the Chronicle and getting good pay always thinking, plunging about, thinking as usual" (Ray, Letters 2:373). Indeed, Thackeray's letters from April, October, and November 1848 establish that, motivated by "an awful bribe that five guineas an article," he continued to write for the Morning Chronicle (Ray, Letters 2:362, 373, 442, 459). However, as his income from his novels grew, there is no indication that he wrote critical articles for that newspaper after 1848.

Previous Attributions

By the start of the twentieth century only one signed letter and one critical review in the Morning Chronicle – a review of R. H. Horne's New Spirit of the Age – had been positively attributed to Thackeray. In 1934 Harold Gulliver pointed out one other certain attribution ("The Poetical Works of Horace Smith") and, largely on stylistic grounds, attributed a handful of other book reviews: a Beau

Brummell biography; Disraeli's Coningsby; a biography of Lord Chancellor Eldon; and literary reviews entitled "The Discipline of Life" and "Early Travels in Palestine." In 1942 C. L. Cline found a letter externally supporting Gulliver's attribution of the Coningsby review to Thackeray.

In 1945-46 Gordon Ray, in the course of collecting and editing Thackeray's letters and private papers, developed and published his own attribution list of thirty-five Morning Chronicle articles purportedly written by Thackeray during the years 1844– 1846 and 1848 (Ray, Letters 2:845–846). Ray accepted Gulliver's Beau Brummell and Conningsby attributions but rejected without comment Gulliver's other suggestions. Approximately ten years later Ray reprinted those same thirty-five articles, along with introductory comments and notes, in his volume William Makepeace Thackeray: Contributions to the Morning Chronicle. Ray's attributions have been generally accepted by Thackeray scholars. The articles on Ray's list are included in toto in Edgar Harden's authoritative 1996 Checklist bibliography of Thackeray's periodical contributions.

Even including Thackeray letters that have come to light since the 1950s, only eight of Ray's thirty-five proposed Thackeray Morning Chronicle attributions are now validated by external evidence: the April 2, 1844, review of Horne's New Spirit of the Age; the May 13, 1844, review of Disraeli's Coningsby; the May 13, 1845, review of Disraeli's Sybil; a March 21, 1846, review of the Life and Correspondence of David Hume; an August 20, 1846, review of Moore's History of Ireland; a September 21, 1846, review of Horace Smith's Poetical Works; and two short reports on the Chartist movement from March 1848. Two other attributions – the March 16, 1844, review of Venedey's Ireland and the August 2, 1844, review of George Smythe's Historic Fancies– are less firmly supported by references in Thackeray's diary and letters that establish he was reading the works in question shortly prior to the published review. Additionally, an indirect cross-reference in Thackeray's review of Disraeli's Sybil strongly suggests that Thackeray also wrote the April 3, 1845, review of Lever's St. Patrick's Eve. Lastly, a consistent Thackeray critique against "sentimental works ... investigating questions of greater social or political interest" gives considerable weight to the argument that the "Christmas Books" reviews of December 24, 26, and 31, 1845, are also by Thackeray. Thus, fourteen of Ray's Thackeray Morning Chronicle attributions have explicitly argued and reasonably firm support.

As to the remaining twenty-one Thackeray attributions, Ray argues that "the echoes of Thackeray's acknowledged writings are so numerous, the parallels to his familiar opinions so obvious, and his stylistic peculiarities so manifest, that no doubt as to the authorship of these articles remains, even without specific evidence" (Ray, Contributions xii-xiii). In support of this argument, but without providing any rationales or explanations, Ray lists in a footnote some of the places in Thackeray's works where he finds relevant "echoes" or "parallels"; these references support some of the fourteen previously mentioned articles as well as ten additional articles. The attribution of the remaining eleven articles is asserted without any supporting citations or commentary (see table 1). In light of the uncertainty generally and properly associated with attributions based on purely internal evidence, one needs to remember the tenuous nature of most of Ray's attributions.

Attribution Analyses

This current examination validates Ray as a careful and knowledgeable evaluator of potential Thackeray articles. Although Ray did not provide any specifics regarding eleven of his attributions, the appropriate "echoes, parallels, and peculiarities" do exist. The 1844 and 1846 Morning Chronicle reviews of Water Color exhibitions and the 1846 review of Benjamin Haydon's Lectures on Painting and Design display Thackeray's characteristic humor, writing style, and artistic opinions. The March 1844 review of Ireland and its Rulers, since 1829 ties nicely with a Morning Chronicle reference in Thackeray's March 1844 financial records, and the opinions expressed in an April 1844 review of a travel book by D'Arlincourt are representative of Thackeray's other writings on the French and the Irish. The March 1845 review of Egypt under Mehemet Ali contains a subtle reference to Thackeray's own 1844 exploits in Egypt, and the references to "Gil Blas," "Hajji Baba," "Falstaff," and "S. Panza" in the 1846 review of Travels in the Punjab all have a Thackerayan flavor. The July 1846 review of The Gastronomic Regenerator reflects Thackeray's long-term friendship with Alexis Soyer, and the September 1846 review of Life at the Water Cure contains tell-tale pet phrases of Thackeray. Of all of Ray's attributions perhaps the late 1846 reviews of a volume of the memoirs of Madame d'Arblay (Fanny Burney) and of a brochure entitled Royal Palaces have the least overt support, but even in these cases the expressive language and opinions seem to be Thackeray's.

In fact, a case can also be built for the probable attribution of one of the articles suggested by Gulliver but not included by Ray – the July 15 and 25, 1844, two-part review of Twiss's biography of a former British Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon. In addition to stylistic and point-of-view arguments, Gulliver supported his attribution by referring to a comment on this biography in Thackeray's Four Georges lectures. Indeed, Edgar Harden has since shown that in the mid–1850s Thackeray consulted this biography in preparation of his lecture on George IV (Harden, English Humourists 213, 266). However, there are more contemporaneous references to Twiss and/or Eldon in Thackeray's writings – as in the December 26, 1846, publication in Punch of chapter 43 of the Snobs of England, the May 1847 number of Vanity Fair, and the April 1849 number of Pendennis – which demonstrate Thackeray's intimate acquaintance with this biography (Thackeray, The Oxford Thackeray 9:444–445; 11:189; 12:367). Further, as shown elsewhere, Thackeray depended on the Morning Chronicle for roughly one-third of his income in May and June 1844, and the attribution of these reviews to Thackeray is consistent with the reasonable expectation that he would have continued to write for this needed revenue in July (Simons, Pecuniary Explication 117–118).

Attributions based solely on arguments of "style" are by their very nature suspect; however, I submit that attributions can reasonably be made on a broader basis of content, circumstances, and sometimes even cash payment records. Indeed, through a page-by-page examination of a file of the 1840s Morning Chronicle, encompassing over 400 previously unattributed literary and artistic reviews, I have identified a number of articles not previously mentioned by Ray which more than meet Ray's "echoes, parallels, and peculiarities" test. In two cases external financial data support the attribution; in other cases circumstantial

evidence increases the likelihood of Thackeray's authorship. Accordingly, I offer ten new attributions, which collectively place more meat on the bones of the skeletal framework of Thackeray's Morning Chronicle writings. In his review of Ray's Thackeray's Contributions to the Morning Chronicle Robert Metzdorf, although concurring with Ray's verdicts, gently chided Ray for not providing the specifics of the detailed supporting arguments for his "somewhat tenuous attributions" (335–337). Accordingly, the following subsections provide individual, specific, and fully articulated rationales whose persuasiveness can be evaluated.

"The Exhibition of the Louvre," April 1, 1842. Thackeray was in Paris in the spring of 1842; and the article published in the April 1, 1842, Morning Chronicle entitled "The Exhibition of the Louvre," dated March 18 and designated as "From a Correspondent," appears to be his. According to Charles Mackay, Thackeray was a free-lance contributor of fine arts articles for the Chronicle during the early 1840s. More specifically, Thackeray attended opening day (March 15) at the 1842 Salon,4 and it would have been unlike him not to seek to profit from that exhibition by publishing a review. And the 1842 Morning Chronicle review of the exhibition at the Louvre bears striking similarities to Thackeray's 1838 Times review of the Salon. Unlike essentially all the non-Thackeray contemporary newspaper art reviews, both of these reviews are overtly humorous. Further, both articles have similar extended and personal introductions; both joke about the large number of poor-quality works exhibited; both satirize the alleged vanity of French artists; both epigrammatically attack artistic pomposity; both regard French portraits and landscapes as inferior to their English counterparts; both single out for praise the artists Biard and Winterhalter; and both are full of archetypically Thackerayan gentle mockery. Finally, this Salon review, coincident with Thackeray's last March visit to Paris of the decade, is the only independent review (not reprinted from another paper) which the Morning Chronicle published on the Salon during the entire first decade of the Victorian era.

"Exhibition of the Royal Academy," May 8 and 10, 1844. The attribution of the two Morning Chronicle art exhibition reviews published on May 8 and 10, 1844, is supported both by financial information in Thackeray's letters as well as by a detailed comparison of these articles with a Thackeray review of the same exhibition published in the June 1844 issue of Fraser's Magazine. The financial argument is straightforward. I have noted previously that Thackeray received 2.5 guineas per column for his work for the Morning Chronicle. In a letter dated June 1, 1844, Thackeray noted that he didn't "do above 20£" a month for the Chronicle; however, previous scholarship had attributed only two May 1844 articles to Thackeray which together total 4.8 columns and are thus valued at twelve and a half pounds. There are a limited number of candidates which might reasonably support Thackeray's comment, first of which is the 2.75 columns of previously unattributed May 8 and May 10 art reviews in the Morning Chronicle – articles which would bring the value of Thackeray's May Morning Chronicle writings to nearly 20 pounds, in line with his June 1 observation.

Stimulated by this financial fit, I have elsewhere reported a detailed comparison of the Morning Chronicle reviews with Thackeray's June 1844 Fraser's Magazine article "May Gambols; or, Titmarsh in the Picture Galleries" (Simons, "'Show Me the Money'" 94–95) which is repeated here for completeness. There is an extraordinary degree of agreement with regard not only to opinion, but also to specific wordings. For example, Edwin Landseer's Coming Events cast their Shadows before is discussed in both reviews: in Fraser's Thackeray claims that the picture "perfectly chills the spectator," in the Morning Chronicle the reviewer exclaims that "your teeth begin to chatter as you look at the picture." Regarding the same painter's Shoeing, Fraser's notes that "the blacksmith only becomes impalpable"; the Morning Chronicle suggests that "the man's figure ... is somewhat unsubstantial." With regard to Turner's Rain, Speed, Steam, the Morning Chronicle columnist exclaims that the picture "actually succeeds in placing a railroad engine and train before you which are bearing down at the spectator at the rate of fifty miles an hour" and further praises the picture's "wonderful effects." In Fraser's Magazine Thackeray rhapsodizes that "there comes a train down upon you, really moving at the rate of fifty miles an hour," and adds that the means of the picture are "not less wonderful than the effects are." Fraser's Magazine praises Elmore's Rienzi addressing the People as "one of the very best pictures in the gallery"; the Morning Chronicle asserts that that picture "strikes us as being one of the best pictures in the exhibition." Fraser's argues that the subject of Poole's Moors beleaguered in Valencia is "worse than last year, when the artist only painted the plague of London"; the Morning Chronicle asserts that the subject of this work is "even more horrible than its predecessor." With regard to Herbert's Trial of the Seven Bishops, the Morning Chronicle reviewer declares that "the artist has not had fair play," while Fraser's Magazine asserts that "Painters have not fair-play in these parade pictures." A number of other similar points of comparison testify to the common authorship of the Morning Chronicle and Fraser's Magazine reviews. Yet, it should also be noted that each review also contains ideas and expressive wording that are not in its counterpart; thus, the attribution of these Morning Chronicle reviews to Thackeray meaningfully extends our knowledge of both his journalistic endeavors and his artistic criticism.

"Ellen Middleton. A Tale. By Lady Georgiana Fullerton," June 20, 1844. Thackeray often philosophized in his Morning Chronicle reviews regarding the importance of realistic writing and the proper attributes of novels. Accordingly, some introductory comments in the June 20, 1844, Morning Chronicle review of the novel Ellen Middleton are of particular interest:

This is so distinctively Thackeray's literary credo – including his well-documented praise for pictures of everyday life, horror of pretence, aversion to oversentimentality, disdain for exuberance of description and exaggeration of character, distaste for fashionable "high life," regard for Fielding mixed with concern for his coarseness, and admiration for Goldsmith – that it strongly suggests that Thackeray wrote that review. Those who are familiar with Thackeray's work might look askance on the comments critiquing "digression" and "personal satire," but digression was only to assert its sway in Thackeray's writings in later years, and as for "personal satire," Thackeray – perhaps with self-induced amnesia regarding the very personal attacks he had made on Bulwer – considered himself a social satirist, not a personal satirist. In an 1848 letter to Edward Chapman, Thackeray decried "a literary war in which a man descends to describing odious personal peculiarities in his rival" and added "Make fun of my books, my style, my public works – but of me a gentleman – O for shame" (Ray, Letters 2:456).

Other evidence also suggests that Thackeray is the author of this review. The reviewer writes:

This comment is particularly relevant because when Thackeray read Mathilde in 1841 his first thought was likewise about the possibility of imitation (Ray, Letters 2:32). Moreover, a review of Mathilde in the July 1842 issue of Foreign Quarterly Review which is probably by Thackeray offers similar sentiments to describe that novel, referring to Mathilde's "unnaturalness," "exaggeration," and simultaneous high level of sustained "interest" and "foundation of truth and spirit." Lastly, one finds the Morning Chronicle reviewer's high praise for the author of Ellen Middleton, Lady Georgiana Fullerton, echoed in Thackeray's letters (Harden, Letters Supp. 1:583).

"Spain, Tangier, &c., visited in 1840 and 1841. By X. Y. Z," June 26, 1845. This review of a travel book is most likely by Thackeray. One might suspect that Thackeray is the author based on the reviewer's (1) repeatedly echoing Thackeray's well-known aesthetics, as in his praise that "the charm of this work is the absence of all pretence" and in its true-to-life portrayals; or (2) use of artistic terms of comparison, as frequently employed by Thackeray, i.e., the author "moralizes like a Hogarth upon scenes that are as finished as the best of Wilkie's"; or (3) ability to turn an ironic phrase, as in the reference to "that cheerless chamber in which Mr. Barry has, with a truly democratic spirit, doomed the Lords, for their sins, to sit." However, the strongest arguments for Thackeray's authorship of this review lie in two points of content which connect Catholic Spain with Thackeray's particular concerns regarding Catholic Ireland. Thackeray had written earlier that spring, in an article published June 9, 1845, in the Calcutta Star, that if England

respected and supported the Irish Catholic church (through the Maynooth grant) then Ireland would become "the loyal kingdom of the three, rallying round the old fashioned Monarchy, the old fashioned laws, the old fashioned Conservative Catholic religion" (Summerfield 222). It is, accordingly, striking that the Morning Chronicle reviewer seizes upon precisely the same argument and quotes a lengthy like-minded extract from the book because it "is so applicable to the discussions on the Maynooth grant." Moreover, the reviewer goes on to stress the similarity between the book's comments on "The Madrid Idlers" and the Irish "incessant loungers" in Dublin and Kingston; Thackeray had discussed at length the idle "shabby sauntering people" between Kingston and Dublin in the opening pages of his Irish Sketch Book (Thackeray, Oxford Thackeray 5:5–9). Thus, style and content both suggest that Thackeray is the likely author.

"Exhibition of the Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street," March 30, 1846. In 1945, in an appendix to volume 2 of The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray, Gordon Ray announced the attribution to Thackeray of Morning Chronicle reviews of the 1846 exhibitions of the Old and New Water Colour Societies and of the Royal Academy. Indeed, it is surprising that Ray did not also attribute to Thackeray the review of the exhibition of the Society of British Artists (SBA) which was published on March 30, 1846. Presumably this omission was inadvertent, since the SBA review includes evidence of Thackeray's touch, echoes his previously stated opinions, and demonstrates his particular style in the same fashion and to the same degree as do the exhibition reviews included by Ray.

The SBA review begins with an extended humorous complaint regarding exhibition crowding: the reviewer blithely notes he had to "thread a street full of countless chariots, and at the gates, to penetrate through a regiment of flunkies" and still had to "inspect a masterpiece through the tails of a gentleman's coat." Structurally, thematically, and stylistically, this introduction is vintage Thackeray. Moreover, in typical Thackeray fashion this review contains an oblique satirical comment about Benjamin Haydon, dryly acclaims "a laudable scarcity" of portraits, introduces "the veterinary college of art" as "that most popular branch of the profession," and with regard to historical pictures in deadpan fashion asserts that "The dead body of Harold is discovered in two places." I submit that this through-and-through marbling of serious art review with strands of humor is uniquely Thackerayan. Moreover, in conformity with Thackeray's previously demonstrated artistic views, this reviewer, (1) although he simultaneously criticizes "the unfortunate dirtiness of his palette," gives Frederic Hurlstone pride of place as the lead SBA exhibitor; (2) notes the arresting colors of Alfred Woolmer; and (3) praises the heads drawn by Charles Baxter.

Lastly, one should note that this March 30 review fits a pattern of essentially weekly Morning Chronicle contributions by Thackeray in the early spring of 1846 (known Thackeray articles were published on March 16, March 23, April 6, April 11, April 21, and April 27) and that it is expected that the reviewer of the Water Colour and Royal Academy exhibitions would also review the Society of British Artists exhibition.

"Londres et les Anglais des Temps Modernes. Par Dr. Buraud-Riofrey," July 24, 1846. Thackeray often mused about the inability of the

French to understand the English. In his Punch essay "On an Interesting French Exile" (Thackeray, Oxford Thackeray 8:367–371), for example, Thackeray talks about those foreigners "who live but four hours' distance from us [the French]" visit London with but a poor understanding of the English language, and misunderstand everything they see. Thackeray's particular complaint focuses on French writers who misrepresent England. A French journalist, Ledru Rollin, wrote what Thackeray considered to be "an odious picture" of England based on hearsay: "I doubt whether the Frenchman has ever seen at all the dear old country of ours, which he reviles and curses, and abuses." According to Thackeray even G. W. M. Reynolds, author of The Mysteries of London, a penny dreadful that misrepresents English life, gave no information to Rollin.

An 1849 Punch essay entitled "Two or Three Theatres at Paris" (Thackeray, Oxford Thackeray 8:472-476) satirically plays upon the same theme using a similar example: "I have been to see a piece of a piece called the Mystères de Londres [presumably the play by Féval, not the serial by Reynolds] and most awful mysteries they are indeed. We little know what is going on around and below us, and that London may be enveloped in a vast murderous conspiracy. ..." This same theme of French failure to understand the English also runs through several of Thackeray's 1843 Foreign Quarterly Review essays.

In an 1846 Morning Chronicle review of Londres et les Anglais des Temps Modernes which contains a number of suggestive stylistic markers of Thackeray's authorship, one finds the same discussion in almost the same language:

Incidentally, Thackeray argues in his review that Buraud-Riofrey is an exception to the general rule and is an accurate French reporter of English life; nevertheless, this review apparently provided Thackeray with an opportunity to give voice to one of his hobby horses.

"A Pilgrimage to the Temples and Tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine, in 1845–6. By Mrs. Romer," September 4, 1846. This critical review is Thackeray-like in its expressive diction, ironic reflections on Mrs. Romer's exaggerations, expressed weariness with obsolete romantic styles, and privileging of the human and quotidian as opposed to the exotic. The reviewer's curiosity regarding forbidden and unseen (by men) "hareems" mirrors Thackeray's comments in Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, as do the reviewer's comments on Abou Gosh and the one-eyed sheikh. Further, the reviewer's comment that "Once a man has seen the Pyramids, or the Great Horn, and the last

account of these always becomes welcome ...," while it does not have to have been written by an Eastern traveler, certainly reads like the observation of one who has been to these places, as Thackeray himself had been in 1844. The most persuasive circumstantial evidence for Thackeray's authorship, however, comes from one of the reviewer's side comments.

Thackeray often used names in his writings to represent special qualities. In particular, Thackeray took from Byron the names Zuleikah (or Zuleika) and Medora as representing exotic women of the East, but typically with ironic implications.5 Thus, when the Morning Chronicle reviewer punctures the romance of the East with the comments that "Zuleikah is a fat matron, with corked eyebrows, who has been transferred from the Pasha to the Bey; Medora consoles herself in her lord's absence with she-buffons and inharmonious singers," I submit that there is a strong probability that Thackeray is the reviewer.

"Heidelberg. A Romance. By G. P. R. James, Esq.," September 23, 1846. From April through October 1847, under the running title "Punch's Prize Novelists," Thackeray published a series of mini-novel spoofs of the styles of several leading novelists. This series was later republished in collected form as Novels by Eminent Hands. In addition to satirizing his own writing ("Je-mes Pl-sh, Esq."), Thackeray mimicked and exaggerated the peculiarities of Edward Bulwer-Lytton ("George de Barnwell"), James Fenimore Cooper ("The Stars and Stripes"), Benjamin Disraeli ("Codlingsby"), Catherine Gore ("Lords and Liveries"), Charles Lever ("Phil. Fogarty"), and George Payne Rainsford James ("Barbazure"). In the introduction to his critical edition of "Punch's Prize Novelists" Edgar Harden has noted that this series had "clear origins in book reviews that he [Thackeray] was writing for The Morning Chronicle in 1844–1846" ("Historical Introduction" 73). Specifically: the Bulwer spoof "George de Barnwell" can be loosely paired with Thackeray's April 21, 1846, review of Bulwer's New Timon; "Stars and Stripes" mocks those aspects of Cooper's writing which Thackeray called out in his review of Cooper's Ravensnest on August 27, 1846; "Codlingsby" is a take-off on Disraeli's Coningsby which Thackeray reviewed on May 13, 1844; "Lords and Liveries" has the "careless, out-speaking, coarse, sarcastic" authorial voice that Thackeray critiqued in Gore's Sketches of English Character on May 4, 1846; and "Phil. Fogarty" displays the positive and negative attributes of Lever's writing which Thackeray noted in his April 3, 1845, review of Lever's St. Patrick's Eve. This parallelism suggests that there may well also be an as yet unattributed Thackeray Morning Chronicle review of the romance novelist G. P. R. James to serve as a prequel and source document for "Barbazure." Indeed, there is a September 23, 1846, Morning Chronicle review of James's Heidelberg. A Romance that perfectly fits that bill. This review runs in virtual lockstep with

"Barbazure"; both begin by commenting on two cavaliers on horseback, both emphasize the melodramatic nature of the narrative and the overly romantic description of the countryside, and so on. Indeed, even if there had never been a "Barbazure," the Morning Chronicle review's joking style which mocks romance and at the same time displays an underlying affection for the work is distinctly Thackerayan; with Thackeray's established pattern of basing his literary spoofs on his prior reviews there can be little doubt that Thackeray is the author of this review.

"Exhibition of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, Pall- Mall," April 17, 1848. On April 14, 1848, Thackeray wrote in a letter to his mother that "I am writing a little for the Chronicle and getting good pay always thinking, plunging about, thinking as usual" (Ray, Letters 2:373). Nevertheless, through the first half of that month there was little that could reasonably be associated with Thackeray. On April 17, however, an art review entitled "Exhibition of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, Pall-Mall" was published which circumstantial evidence suggests is likely by Thackeray. In overall approach and format the article is very similar to a Thackeray article "The Exhibitions of the Societies of Water Colour Painters," which was published in the Morning Chronicle in 1846, and is unlike 1843 and 1845 Morning Chronicle exhibition reviews by other writers which are mere assemblages of ratings with little explanation. As Thackeray normally did, this reviewer begins with an extended joke – in this case referring to "a ferocious encounter conducted with the fierce pugilistic competition which distinguishes Englishmen" as having occurred at an overcrowded entry point. Artistically, there are points of equivalency in the analyses of several artists discussed in the 1848 and 1846 reviews. Thus, the 1848 review speaks of Mr. Wehnert's works as having extraordinary power and being painted with "excellent care" and adds "We remember to have seen no watercolour drawing more vigorous"; in 1846 Thackeray refers to works by that same artist as "quivering with an agony frightful to witness" and expresses no doubt as to "the power, vigour, and careful execution of the painter." Similarly, in 1846 Thackeray criticized figures drawn by Mr. Riviere; the 1848 reviewer critiques Mr. Riviere's figures for their "ugliness of countenance." Female figures by Miss Egerton are praised in both reviews. Mr. Absalon and Miss Setchel, water colorists whom Thackeray had praised as early as 1842 ([Thackeray], "An Exhibition Gossip"), receive strong praise again in the 1848 review. As a further indicator, the 1848 reviewer identifies himself as an "Eastern traveler"; he testifies to recalling similar images to those shown in a painting of Egypt and further notes that "everything is correct except the sky," which he argues has a wrong tone. Thackeray, of course, had visited Cairo in 1844, and would be one of a limited number of art critics of the era able to judge the verisimilitude of Egyptian scenes and the color of the Egyptian sky.

Other possible Thackeray reviews in the Morning Chronicle. A number of other literary reviews "sound like" Thackeray but evidence is lacking to claim attribution. Interested readers might want to examine some or all of these articles to enjoy their expressiveness, language, and sometimes humor; explore their social contents and subtexts; or make their own assessments as to authorship and significance. Some candidates are:

"The Prize Comedy, the Committee, and the Candidates," June 17, 1844. This tongue-in-cheek review by a "quiet and easy observer" of a Punch brochure appears to be an "inside job" – and Thackeray, was, of course, the only common denominator between Punch and the Morning Chronicle. Moreover, this article's extended exaggeration of Bulwer's initials is found in several of Thackeray's literary reviews.

"King Alfred: a Poem," June 20, 1844. This review of a "Monster Epic Poem" of forty-eight books begins: "Monsters have been ere now. Men, it has been said or sung, have made monsters for and of themselves. There have been (it is whispered) women, also, who have made monsters of men. We have had monster meetings, monster speeches, monster trials, and monster traversers." I suggest this comment reflects Thackeray's sense of humor and his free-wheeling review style.

"The Story of a Feather,"July 1, 1844. This review of a Douglas Jerrold story both eloquently praises Jerrold's insight and benevolence and gently chides him for "making all the lords selfish and all the bishops luxurious." This accurately reflects Thackeray's attitude toward Jerrold and is similar in approach to known Thackeray reviews of Jerrold's work.

"Thiers' History. Histoire du Consulat, par A. Thiers," March 22, 1845. Thackeray was something of an expert on recent French history and he sought to review works of this kind. The attitudes expressed toward Thiers and French political figures reflect Thackeray's known opinions, and the style of the review is consistent with Thackeray's writings on similar subjects.

"Faucher upon England. Etudes sur l'Angleterre. Par Leon Faucher," November 24, 1845. This is an entertainingly written and thoughtful commentary on a Thackeray interest area, the French view of England. On November 28, 1845, Thackeray wrote in a letter: "The Chronicle articles are very well liked – they relieve the dullness of that estimable paper" (Ray, Letters 2:216) – this might well be the article Thackeray had in mind.

"Poems by Thomas Hood," January 13, 1846. This Morning Chronicle review praises Hood in Thackeray-like language and describes the Thackeray favorite "Bridge of Sighs" as "the most meek and touching of wails." A comparison with Thackeray's subsequent 1860 Roundabout Paper in Cornhill on Hood (Oxford Thackeray 17:460–472) reveals similarities which suggest common authorship.

"Second Love, and Other Tales, from the Note-book of a Traveller," September 3, 1846. The reviewer gently lectures the author on ways to improve his writing by making his plots more probable. The reviewer's suggestion that the author adopt "a vow to eschew gipsies for the term of his natural life" and the reviewer's satiric take on second loves both suggest Thackeray's sense of humor and literary style.

"Hochelaga; or England in the New World," September 8, 1846. This review, written during a period when Thackeray was writing a great deal for the Morning Chronicle, has several Thackeray earmarks: expressive language, humor, well-turned phrases, a love of travel, and a particular appreciation for Eliot Warburton, the book's editor and well-known Eastern travel writer.

"Lionel Deerhurst: or, Fashionable Life under the Regency. Edited by the Countess of Blessington," October 8, 1846. Although Thackeray attacked most

silver-fork novels, he never attacked the Countess of Blessington's novels. The Morning Chronicle reviewer adroitly avoids assigning the Countess any responsibility for this bad novel in a manner consistent with Thackeray's cleverness as a writer and reflective of their close personal relationship.

"Early Travels in Palestine," October 12, 1848. This joyous satiric commentary on the fantastic travel writings of Sir John Maundeville appeared to Harold Gulliver as a likely referent for Thackeray's October 18, 1848, claim that "he had begun to blaze away in the Chronicle again" (Ray, Letters 2:442; Gulliver, Apprenticeship 144–145, 242–243). I agree.

A Thackeray Morning Chronicle Bibliography

The table at the end of this paper lists Thackeray's attributed contributions to the Morning Chronicle. Without doubt the forty-eight listed entries still understate Thackeray's total contribution. Moreover, although Gordon Ray argued that possible future additions to his somewhat smaller subset of thirty-five republished contributions "should not materially alter the estimate of his work for the Chronicle' (Ray, Contributions xiii), I respectfully disagree. As detailed previously, it is possible that Thackeray was paid for unidentified political articles. Moreover, it is also likely that Thackeray's art reviews, and perhaps his comments on novels, are more distinctive, with more expression and more potential cross-references and authorship clues, than his reviews of biographies, histories, or travel writings. Thus, the currently attributed Morning Chronicle writings may not be fully representative of his contributions.

Nevertheless, the articles that have been identified as Thackeray's do add substantially to our understanding of his ideas and his times. Most of Thackeray's anonymous art criticism was published in the Morning Chronicle, and these articles document his views. As Gordon Ray observed, Thackeray's Morning Chronicle literary reviews establish, perhaps better than do any of his other writings, his aesthetics and philosophy with regard to fiction. Looking outside the domestic sphere, no fewer than six of Thackeray's Morning Chronicle articles address the tangled relationship of England with Ireland, and another four comment on English views of the mysterious (or, as Thackeray claimed, no longer so mysterious) Eastern world. Further, Thackeray's varied comments on people and current events offer the empathetic perspective that one would expect from the author of English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century and The Four Georges and consequently shed light on the "manners and morals" of the early Victorian era.

Thackeray's writings for the Morning Chronicle were tightly clustered. There were extended periods of time in which Thackeray wrote articles on essentially a weekly basis: namely, from mid-March through July 1844, the spring of 1846, and especially from mid-August into October 1846. Even the "candidate" articles identified in this paper tend to be associated with those time periods. However, there are long periods where simply nothing that clearly carries Thackeray's touch was published in the Morning Chronicle. The general rule that whenever Thackeray was out of England he stopped his newspaper writing explains the gap from mid-August 1844 to mid-March 1845. The reason for Thackeray's failure to write for the Morning Chronicle in the second half of 1845 is less clear. Further,

although comments in Thackeray’s letters clearly establish that he was writing for the Morning Chronicle in 1848, few 1848 articles can unambiguously be attributed to him; perhaps, as he was absorbed in the writing of Vanity Fair and Pendennis and heavily committed at Punch, his later Morning Chronicle reviews suffered and became less distinctive.

Thackeray’s Morning Chronicle articles, taken as a whole, offer a multidimensional view of the early Victorian world, and provide a significant gateway into Thackeray’s thinking and artistic development. They deserve to be read, analyzed, and appreciated as part of the Thackeray canon.

Table 1. Thackeray's contributions to the Morning Chronicle

                                                                                                 

Date	Article	Attribution
14/1/1842	"The Exhibition of the Louvre"	Simons; based on circumstantial evidence and comparison to Thackeray 1838 Times review of same exhibition.
3/16/1844	"Ireland. By J. Venedey"	Ray, Letters 2:845; based on 2/23/1844 diary entry "read in Venedey's book" (Ray, Letters 2:143).
3/20/1844	"Ireland and its Rulers, since 1829"	Ray, Letters 2:845; based on unspecified similarities to other Thackeray writings.
4/2/1844	"A New Spirit of the Age, edited by R. H. Horne"	Melville, Thackeray Biography 2:192; S. R. Townshend Mayer, ed., Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning addressed to Richard Hengist Horne with Comments on Contemporaries, vol. 2 (London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1877), 276–278.
4/4/1844	"The Three Kingdoms. By the Vicomte D'Arlincourt"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on unspecified similarities to other Thackeray writings.
4/29/1844	"Exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water Colours"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on unspecified similarities to other Thackeray writings.
5/6/1844	"The Life of George Brummel, Esq. By Captain Jesse."	Gulliver, Apprenticeship 143–144; based on a comment in a 5/15/1844 article by Thackeray in the Pictorial Times as well as references to Brumell in Thackeray's 5/13/1844 review of Coningsby.
5/8/1844	"Exhibition of the Royal Academy"	Simons, "'Show me the Money'" 94–95; based on financial data and similarities to review in Fraser's Magazine.
5/10/1844	"Exhibition of the Royal Academy" [continued]	Simons, "'Show me the Money'" 94–95; based on financial data and similarities to review in Fraser's Magazine.
5/13/1844	"[Disraeli's] Coningsby; or, the New Generation"	Gulliver, Apprenticeship 144; based on similarities to Thackeray review in the Pictorial Times; see also Thackeray letter "But I have made fun of him [the "Mosaic Arab" – a term taken from Coningsby] in the Morning Chronicle" (Harden, Letters Supp. 1:138).
6/3/1844	"Stanley's Life of Dr. Arnold"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on similarities to other Thackeray writings (Ray, Contributions xiiin).
6/20/1844	"Ellen Middleton. A Tale. By Lady Georgiana Fullerton"	Simons; based on similarities in Thackeray's letters and to other Thackeray Morning Chronicle articles.
7/15/1844	"The Public and Private Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon.... By Horace Twiss"	Gulliver, Apprenticeship 143; based on style and point of view. (Ray did not incorporate this attribution into his own list.)
7/25/1844	"The Public and Private Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon. ... By Horace Twiss" concluded	Gulliver, Apprenticeship 143; based on style and point of view. (Ray did not incorporate this attribution into his own list.)
8/2/1844	"Historic Fancies. By the Hon. George Sidney Smythe, M.P."	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on 7/22/1844 diary entry "Read Smyth's Historic fancies."
3/27/1845	"Egypt under Mehemet Ali. By Prince Puckler Muskau"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on unspecified similarities to other Thackeray writings.
4/3/1845	"Lever's St. Patrick's Eve—Comic Politics"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on implied cross reference in the 5/13/1845 review of Sybil.
5/13/1845	"Sybil. By Mr. Disraeli, M.P."	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on Thackeray's intent to review it in the Chronicle (Ray, Letters 2:149n).
6/26/1845	"Spain, Tangier, &c., visited in 1840 and 1841. By X. Y. Z."	Simons; based on characteristic Thackeray expressions and comparisons to Thackeray's Irish Sketch Book.
12/25/1845	"Christmas Books.—No. 1"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on Thackeray's authorship of Christmas Books No. III.
12/26/1845	"Christmas Books.— No. 2"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on Thackeray's authorship of Christmas Books No. III.
12/31/1845	"Christmas Books.—No. III"	Ray, Letters 2:846 based on implied cross-reference to reviews of Sybil on 5/13/1845 and of Lever's St. Patrick's Eve on 4/3/1845.
3/16/1846	"Carus's Travels in England"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on similarities to a Thackeray article published in the March 1846 issue of Fraser's Magazine.
3/23/1846	"Life and Correspondence of David Hume"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on Thackeray note that he has written a little article about the book (Ray, Letters 2:234).
3/30/1846	"Exhibition of the Society of British Artists in Suffolk-Street"	Simons; based on internal evidence (comments on Hurlstone, irony and humor, literary references) and temporal pattern of weekly contributions to the Morning Chronicle.
4/6/1846	"Travels in the Punjab. By Mohan Lal, Esq."	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on unspecified similarities to other Thackeray writings.
4/11/1846	"The Novitiate; or, a Year among the English Jesuits. By Andrew Steinmetz"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on specified similarities to Thackeray's Irish Sketch Book.
4/21/1846	"The New Timon"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on similarities to spoof of Bulwer's writing published in "Punch's Prize Novelists."
4/27/1846	"The Exhibitions of the Societies of Water Colour Painters"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on unspecified similarities to other Thackeray writings.
5/4/1846	"Sketches of English Character. By Mrs. Gore"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on similarities to spoof of Gore's writing published in "Punch's Prize Novelists."
5/5/1846	"The Exhibition of the Royal Academy"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on similarities to Thackeray art reviews in Fraser's Magazine ("May Gambols" June 1844 and "Picture Gossip" June 1845).
5/7/1846	"The Exhibition of the Royal Academy. Second Notice"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on similarities to Thackeray art reviews in Fraser's Magazine ("May Gambols" June 1844 and "Picture Gossip" June 1845).
5/11/1846	"Royal Academy. Third Notice"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on similarities to Thackeray art reviews in Fraser's Magazine ("May Gambols" June 1844 and "Picture Gossip" June 1845).
6/19/1846	"Haydon's Lectures on Painting and Design"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on unspecified similarities to other Thackeray writings.
7/4/1846	"Alexis Soyer, The Gastronomic Regenerator"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on unspecified similarities to other Thackeray writings.
7/24/1846	"Londres et les Anglais des Temps Modernes. Par Dr. Buraud-Riofrey"	Simons; based on comparison to Thackeray's letters and articles in Punch and the Foreign Quarterly Review.
8/20/1846	"Moore's History of Ireland; from the earliest Kings of that Realm down to its last Chief"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on 8/11/1846 diary comment (Ray, Letters 2:245).
8/27/1846	"Ravensnest; or the Red Skins"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on similarities to spoof of Cooper's writing published in "Punch's Prize Novelists."
9/1/1846	"Life at the Water Cure"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on unspecified similarities to other Thackeray writings.
9/4/1846	"A Pilgrimage to the Temples and Tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine, in 1845–6. By Mrs. Romer"	Simons; based on use of characteristic expressions and comparisons to Thackeray's Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo.
9/21/1846	"The Poetical Works of Horace Smith"	Gulliver, Apprenticeship 139; based on Thackeray's letter to Smith dated 9/21/1846 (Ray, Letters 2:249).
9/23/1846	"Heidelberg. A Romance. By G. P. R. James, Esq."	Simons; based on similarities to "Novels by Eminent Hands" published in Punch.
9/25/1846	"Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay. Vol. 6"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on unspecified similarities to other Thackeray writings.
10/5/1846	"Royal Palaces. F. W. Trench"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on unspecified similarities to other Thackeray writings.
3/14/1848	"Meeting on Kennington Common"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on 3/14/1848 diary entry (Ray, Letters 2:364).
3/15/1848	"Chartist Meeting"	Ray, Letters 2:846; based on 3/15/1848 diary entry (Ray, Letters 2:365).
4/17/1848	"Exhibition of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, Pall–Mall"	Simons; based on letter reference, internal evidence (Egyptian traveler; comments on Wehnert, Setchel, Egerton, Corbould, Riviere).
1/12/1850	"The Dignity of Literature. To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle."	Signed letter.

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