DOUGLAS JERROLD.

THE different aspects assumed by the variety
of subjects which find their way, week by
week, into the columns of this Journal, seem,
not unnaturally, to have a certain analogy
with the different aspects under which a
variety of visitors make their appearance at
a hospitable house.  There is the subject
which presents itself formally, in full dress,
and on grand occasions only. There is the
subject which comes more readily, at shorter
notice, and at more ordinary times and seasons.
There is the subject which is in itself
of no particular account, but which may
sometimes be found useful, at the eleventh
hour, to fill up a vacant place. Last, and
most precious of all, there is the happy subject
which comes unbidden to the pen, and
which insures its own loving reception—
almost as rare in its way as the home-friend
who comes unbidden to the house, and brings
his welcome with him, visit us as often as he
may.

The well-known name at the head of this
article appears there as happily and as appropriately
as the well-loved friend appears at
the fireside. Foremost among the subjects
which it is a happiness and not a duty to
welcome, rank the Life and Labours of
DOUGLAS JERROLD. Under the guidance of
Mr. Blanchard Jerrold (whose excellent
Memoir of his father is now before us), we
propose to trace the outline of that Life, and
to indicate in some degree the nature of those
Labours; referring our readers to the book
itself for all the details which cannot find a
place here, and which assist in completing
the interest of the biographical story.

Some seventy years ago, there lived a poor
country player, named Samuel Jerrold. His
principal claim to a prominent position among
the strolling company to which he was attached,
consisted in the possession of a pair
of shoes once belonging to the great Garrick
himself. Samuel Jerrold always appeared
on the stage in these invaluable " properties"
—a man, surely, who deserves the regard of
posterity, as the only actor of modern times
who has shown himself capable of standing in
Garrick's shoes.

Samuel Jerrold was twice married—the
second time to a wife so much his junior that
he was older than his own mother-in-law.
Partly, perhaps, in virtue of this last great
advantage on the part of the husband, the
marriage was a very happy one. The second
Mrs. Samuel was a clever, good-tempered,
notable woman; and helped her husband
materially in his theatrical affairs, when he
rose in time (and in Garrick's shoes) to be a
manager of country theatres. Young Mrs.
Samuel brought her husband a family
— two girls to begin with, and, on the third
of January, eighteen hundred and three,
while she was staying in London, a boy, who
was christened Douglas William, and who
was destined, in after life, to make the name
of the obscure country manager a household
word on the lips of English readers.

In the year eighteen hundred and seven,
Samuel Jerrold became the lessee of the
Sheerness Theatre; and little Douglas was
there turned to professional account, as a
stage-child. He appeared in The Stranger
as one of the little cherubs of the frail and
interesting Mrs. Haller; and he was " carried
on " by Edmund Kean, as the child in Rolla.
These early theatrical experiences (whatever
influence they might have had, at a later
time, in forming his instincts as a dramatist)
do not appear to have at all inclined him
towards his father's profession when he grew
older. The world of ships and sailors amid
which he lived at Sheerness seems to have
formed his first tastes and influenced his first
longings. As soon as he could speak for
himself on the matter of his future prospects,
he chose the life of a sailor; and, at ten years
old, he entered on board the guardship,
Namur, as a first-class volunteer.

Up to this time the father had given the
son as good an education as it lay within
his means to command. Douglas had been
noted as a studious boy at school; and he
brought with him a taste for reading and
for quiet pursuits when he entered on board
the Namur. Beginning his apprenticeship
to the sea as a Midshipman, in December,
eighteen hundred and thirteen, he was not
transferred from the guardship to active
service until April, eighteen hundred and
fifteen, when he was drafted off, with forty-six
men, to his Majesty's gun-brig, Ernest.

Those were stirring times. The fierce