[Chat No. 10.]
"My ears are deaf with this impatient crowd:
Their wants are now grown mutinous and loud."
—Dryden.
The The following graphic account of the rising in Paris in 1848 was written by John Poole to Charles Dickens, and was recently found amongst the papers of Mrs. John Forster, the widow of the well-known writer, Dickens' friend and biographer, and is, I think, worthy of print.
John Poole was a sometime celebrated character, having written that evergreen play "Paul Pry," as well as "Little Pedlington," and other humorous works mostly now forgotten.
As he grew old poverty came to bear him company, and was only prevented from causing him actual suffering by the usual generosity of Dickens and other members of that charmed circle, further aided by a small Government grant, obtained for him by the same faithful friend from Lord John Russell.