 perhaps who read books, so little as literary men.
 

                                 Chapter XXXVI

                            The »Pall Mall Gazette.«

Considerable success at first attended the new journal. It was generally stated
that an influential political party supported the paper, and great names were
cited amongst the contributors to its columns. Was there any foundation for
these rumours? We are not at liberty to say whether they were well or ill
founded; but this much we may divulge, that an article upon foreign policy,
which was generally attributed to a noble Lord whose connection with the Foreign
Office is very well known, was in reality composed by Captain Shandon, in the
parlour of the Bear and Staff public-house near Whitehall Stairs, whither the
printer's boy had tracked him, and where a literary ally of his, Mr. Bludyer,
had a temporary residence; and that a series of papers on finance questions,
which were universally supposed to be written by a great statesman of the House
of Commons, were in reality composed by Mr. George Warrington, of the Upper
Temple.
    That there may have been some dealings between the Pall Mall Gazette and
this influential party is very possible. Percy Popjoy (whose father, Lord
Falconet, was a member of the party) might be seen not unfrequently ascending
the stairs to Warrington's chambers; and some information appeared in the paper
which gave it a character, and could only be got from very peculiar sources.
Several poems, feeble in thought, but loud and vigorous in expression, appeared
in the Pall Mall Gazette, with the signature of P.P.; and it must be owned that
his novel was praised in the new journal in a very outrageous manner.
    In the political department of the paper Mr. Pen did not take any share, but
he was a most active literary contributor. The Pall Mall Gazette had its
offices, as we have heard, in Catherine Street in the Strand, and hither Pen
often came with his manuscripts in his pocket, and with a great deal of bustle
and pleasure, such as a man feels at the outset of his literary career, when to
see himself in print is still a novel sensation, and he yet pleases himself to
think that his writings are creating some noise in the world.
    Here it was that Mr. Jack Finucane, the sub-editor, compiled with paste and
scissors the journal of which he was supervisor. With an eagle eye he scanned
all the paragraphs of all the newspapers which had anything to do with the world
of fashion over which he presided. He didn't let a death or a dinner
