Chapter VIII: Preface (8)

Not a day passes but Dolby and I talk about you both, and recall where we were at the corresponding time of last year. My old likening of Boston to Edinburgh has been constantly revived within these last ten days. There is a certain remarkable similarity of _tone_ between the two places. The audiences are curiously alike, except that the Edinburgh audience has a quicker sense of humour and is a little more genial. No disparagement to Boston in this, because I consider an Edinburgh audience perfect.

I trust, my dear Eugenius, that you have recognised yourself in a certain Uncommercial, and also some small reference to a name rather dear to you? As an instance of how strangely something comic springs up in the midst of the direst misery, look to a succeeding Uncommercial, called "A Small Star in the East," published to-day, by-the-bye. I have described, _with exactness_, the poor places into which I went, and how the people behaved, and what they said. I was wretched, looking on; and yet the boiler-maker and the poor man with the legs filled me with a sense of drollery not to be kept down by any pressure.

The atmosphere of this place, compounded of mists from the highlands and smoke from the town factories, is crushing my eyebrows as I write, and it rains as it never does rain anywhere else, and always does rain here. It is a dreadful place, though much improved and possessing a deal of public spirit. Improvement is beginning to knock the old town of Edinburgh about, here and there; but the Canongate and the most picturesque of the horrible courts and wynds are not to be easily spoiled, or made fit for the poor wretches who people them to live in. Edinburgh is so changed as to its notabilities, that I had the only three men left of the Wilson and Jeffrey time to dine with me there, last Saturday.

I think you will find "Fatal Zero" (by Percy Fitzgerald) a very curious analysis of a mind, as the story advances. A new beginner in "A. Y. R." (Hon. Mrs. Clifford, Kinglake's sister), who wrote a story in the series just finished, called "The Abbot's Pool," has just sent me another story. I have a strong impression that, with care, she will step into Mrs. Gaskell's vacant place. Wills is no better, and I have work enough even in that direction.

God bless the woman with the black mittens for making me laugh so this morning! I take her to be a kind of public-spirited Mrs. Sparsit, and as such take her to my bosom. God bless you both, my dear friends, in this Christmas and New Year time, and in all times, seasons, and places, and send you to Gad's Hill with the next flowers!

Ever your most affectionate.

[Sidenote: Mr. Russell Sturgis.]

KENNEDY'S HOTEL, EDINBURGH,
_Friday, 18th December, 1868._

MY DEAR MR. RUSSELL STURGIS,

I return you the forged letter, and devoutly wish that I had to flog the writer in virtue of a legal sentence. I most cordially reciprocate your kind expressions in reference to our future intercourse, and shall hope to remind you of them five or six months hence, when my present labours shall have gone the way of all other earthly things. It was particularly interesting to me when I was last at Boston to recognise poor dear Felton's unaffected and genial ways in his eldest daughter, and to notice how, in tender remembrance of him, she is, as it were, Cambridge's daughter.

Believe me always, faithfully yours.

FOOTNOTES:

[90] It was at Baltimore that Charles Dickens first conceived the idea of a walking-match, which should take place on his return to Boston, and he drew up a set of humorous "articles."

[91] The Play of "No Thoroughfare," was produced at the Adelphi Theatre, under the management of Mr. Webster.

[92] Mr. Fechter was, at this time, superintending the production of a French version of "No Thoroughfare," in Paris. It was called "L'Abime."

[93] The volume referred to is a "List of the Writings of William Hazlett and Leigh Hunt, chronologically arranged, with Notes, descriptive, critical, and explanatory, etc."

[94] A copy of "The Old Curiosity Shop," in raised letters for the use of the Blind, had been printed by Charles Dickens's order at the "Perkins Institution for the Blind" in Boston, and presented by him to that institution in this year.

[95] John Everett Millais, R.A. (The Editors make use of this note, as it is the only one which Mr. Millais has been able to find for them, and they are glad to have the two names associated together).

[96] A dramatic author, who was acting manager of Covent Garden Theatre in 1838, when his acquaintance with Charles Dickens first began. This letter is in answer to some questions put to Charles Dickens by Mr. Serle on the subject of the extension of copyright to the United States of America.

[97] Mrs. Cowden Clarke wrote to tell Charles Dickens that her sister, Miss Sabilla Novello, and her brother, Mr. Alfred Novello, were also in the train, and escaped without injury.

[98] A forged letter from Charles Dickens, introducing an impostor, had been addressed to Mr. Russell Sturgis.

1869.

[Sidenote: Mrs. Forster.]

QUEEN'S HOTEL, MANCHESTER,
_Monday, 8th March, 1869._

MY DEAR MRS. FORSTER,

A thousand thanks for your note, which has reached me here this afternoon. At breakfast this morning Dolby showed me the local paper with a paragraph in it recording poor dear Tennent's[99] death. You may imagine how shocked I was. Immediately before I left town this last time, I had an unusually affectionate letter from him, enclosing one from Forster, and proposing the friendly dinner since appointed for the 25th. I replied to him in the same spirit, and felt touched at the time by the gentle earnestness of his tone. It is remarkable that I talked of him a great deal yesterday to Dolby (who knew nothing of him), and that I reverted to him again at night before going to bed--with no reason that I know of. Dolby was strangely impressed by this, when he showed me the newspaper.

God be with us all!

Ever your affectionate.

[Sidenote: Mr. H. A. Layard.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
_Saturday, 13th March, 1869._

MY DEAR LAYARD,

Coming to town for a couple of days, from York, I find your beautiful present.[100] With my heartiest congratulations on your marriage, accept my most cordial thanks for a possession that I shall always prize foremost among my worldly goods; firstly, for your sake; secondly, for its own.

Not one of these glasses shall be set on table until Mrs. Layard is there, to touch with her lips the first champagne that any of them shall ever hold! This vow has been registered in solemn triumvirate at Gad's Hill.

The first week in June will about see me through my present work, I hope. I came to town hurriedly to attend poor dear Emerson Tennent's funeral. You will know how my mind went back, in the York up-train at midnight, to Mount Vesuvius and our Neapolitan supper.

I have given Mr. Hills, of Oxford Street, the letter of introduction to you that you kindly permitted. He has immense local influence, and could carry his neighbours in favour of any good design.

My dear Layard, ever cordially yours.

[Sidenote: Miss Florence Olliffe.]

26, WELLINGTON STREET, _Tuesday, 16th March, 1869._

MY DEAR FLORENCE,[101]

I have received your kind note this morning, and I hasten to thank you for it, and to assure your dear mother of our most cordial sympathy with her in her great affliction, and in loving remembrance of the good man and excellent friend we have lost. The tidings of his being very ill indeed had, of course, been reported to me. For some days past I had taken up the newspaper with sad misgivings; and this morning, before I got your letter, they were realised.

I loved him truly. His wonderful gentleness and kindness, years ago, when we had sickness in our household in Paris, has never been out of my grateful remembrance. And, socially, his image is inseparable from some of the most genial and delightful friendly hours of my life. I am almost ashamed to set such recollections by the side of your mother's great bereavement and grief, but they spring out of the fulness of my heart.

May God be with her and with you all!

Ever yours affectionately.

[Sidenote: Mr. James T. Fields.]

ADELPHI HOTEL, LIVERPOOL, _Friday, April 9th, 1869._

MY DEAR FIELDS,

The faithful _Russia_ will bring this out to you, as a sort of warrant to take you into loving custody and bring you back on her return trip.

I rather think that when the 12th of June shall have shaken off these shackles,[102] there _will_ be borage on the lawn at Gad's. Your heart's desire in that matter, and in the minor particulars of Cobham Park, Rochester Castle, and Canterbury, shall be fulfilled, please God! The red jackets shall turn out again upon the turnpike-road, and picnics among the cherry-orchards and hop-gardens shall be heard of in Kent. Then, too, shall the Uncommercial resuscitate (being at present nightly murdered by Mr. W. Sikes) and uplift his voice again.

The chief officer of the _Russia_ (a capital fellow) was at the Reading last night, and Dolby specially charged him with the care of you and yours. We shall be on the borders of Wales, and probably about Hereford, when you arrive. Dolby has insane projects of getting over here to meet you; so amiably hopeful and obviously impracticable, that I encourage him to the utmost. The regular little captain of the _Russia_, Cook, is just now changed into the _Cuba_, whence arise disputes of seniority, etc. I wish he had been with you, for I liked him very much when I was his passenger. I like to think of your being in _my_ ship!

---- and ---- have been taking it by turns to be "on the point of death," and have been complimenting one another greatly on the fineness of the point attained. My people got a very good impression of ----, and thought her a sincere and earnest little woman.

The _Russia_ hauls out into the stream to-day, and I fear her people may be too busy to come to us to-night. But if any of them do, they shall have the warmest of welcomes for your sake. (By-the-bye, a very good party of seamen from the Queen's ship _Donegal_, lying in the Mersey, have been told off to decorate St. George's Hall with the ship's bunting. They were all hanging on aloft upside down, holding to the gigantically high roof by nothing, this morning, in the most wonderfully cheerful manner.)

My son Charley has come for the dinner, and Chappell (my Proprietor, as--isn't it Wemmick?--says) is coming to-day, and Lord Dufferin (Mrs. Norton's nephew) is to come and make _the_ speech. I don't envy the feelings of my noble friend when he sees the hall. Seriously, it is less adapted to speaking than Westminster Abbey, and is as large. . . .

I hope you will see Fechter in a really clever piece by Wilkie.[103] Also you will see the Academy Exhibition, which will be a very good one; and also we will, please God, see everything and more, and everything else after that. I begin to doubt and fear on the subject of your having a horror of me after seeing the murder. I don't think a hand moved while I was doing it last night, or an eye looked away. And there was a fixed expression of horror of me, all over the theatre, which could not have been surpassed if I had been going to be hanged to that red velvet table. It is quite a new sensation to be execrated with that unanimity; and I hope it will remain so!

[Is it lawful--would that woman in the black gaiters, green veil, and spectacles, hold it so--to send my love to the pretty M----?]

Pack up, my dear Fields, and be quick.

Ever your most affectionate.

[Sidenote: Mr. Rusden.]

PRESTON, _Thursday, 22nd April, 1869._

MY DEAR SIR,

I am finishing my Farewell Readings--to-night is the seventy-fourth out of one hundred--and have barely time to send you a line to thank you most heartily for yours of the 30th January, and for your great kindness to Alfred and Edward. The latter wrote by the same mail, on behalf of both, expressing the warmest gratitude to you, and reporting himself in the stoutest heart and hope. I never can thank you sufficiently.

You will see that the new Ministry has made a decided hit with its Budget, and that in the matter of the Irish Church it has the country at its back. You will also see that the "Reform League" has dissolved itself, indisputably because it became aware that the people did not want it.

I think the general feeling in England is a desire to get the Irish Church out of the way of many social reforms, and to have it done _with_ as already done _for_. I do not in the least believe myself that agrarian Ireland is to be pacified by any such means, or can have it got out of its mistaken head that the land is of right the peasantry's, and that every man who owns land has stolen it and is therefore to be shot. But that is not the question.

The clock strikes post-time as I write, and I fear to write more, lest, at this distance from London, I should imperil the next mail.

Cordially yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas Chappell.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
_Monday, 3rd May, 1869._

MY DEAR MR. CHAPPELL,

I am really touched by your letter. I can most truthfully assure you that your part in the inconvenience of this mishap has given me much more concern than my own; and that if I did not hope to have our London Farewells yet, I should be in a very gloomy condition on your account.

Pray do not suppose that _you_ are to blame for my having done a little too much--a wild fancy indeed! The simple fact is, that the rapid railway travelling was stretched a hair's breadth too far, and that _I_ ought to have foreseen it. For, on the night before the last night of our reading in America, when Dolby was cheering me with a review of the success, and the immediate prospect of the voyage home, I told him, to his astonishment: "I am too far gone, and too worn out to realise anything but my own exhaustion. Believe me, if I had to read but twice more, instead of once, I couldn't do it." We were then just beyond our recent number. And it was the travelling that I had felt throughout.

The sharp precautionary remedy of stopping instantly, was almost as instantly successful the other day. I told Dr. Watson that he had never seen me knocked out of time, and that he had no idea of the rapidity with which I should come up again.

Just as three days' repose on the Atlantic steamer made me, in my altered appearance, the amazement of the captain, so this last week has set me up, thank God, in the most wonderful manner. The sense of exhaustion seems a dream already. Of course I shall train myself carefully, nevertheless, all through the summer and autumn.

I beg to send my kind regards to Mrs. Chappell, and I shall hope to see her and you at Teddington in the long bright days. It would disappoint me indeed if a lasting friendship did not come of our business relations.

In the spring I trust I shall be able to report to you that I am ready to take my Farewells in London. Of this I am pretty certain: that I never will take them at all, unless with you on your own conditions.

With an affectionate regard for you and your brother, believe me always,

Very faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. Rusden.]

"ALL THE YEAR ROUND" OFFICE,
_Tuesday, 18th May, 1869._

MY DEAR MR. RUSDEN,

As I daresay some exaggerated accounts of my having been very ill have reached you, I begin with the true version of the case.

I daresay I _should_ have been very ill if I had not suddenly stopped my Farewell Readings when there were yet five-and-twenty remaining to be given. I was quite exhausted, and was warned by the doctors to stop (for the time) instantly. Acting on the advice, and going home into Kent for rest, I immediately began to recover, and within a fortnight was in the brilliant condition in which I can now--thank God--report myself.

I cannot thank you enough for your care of Plorn. I was quite prepared for his not settling down without a lurch or two. I still hope that he may take to colonial life. . . . In his letter to me about his leaving the station to which he got through your kindness, he expresses his gratitude to you quite as strongly as if he had made a wonderful success, and seems to have acquired no distaste for anything but the one individual of whom he wrote that betrayed letter. But knowing the boy, I want to try him fully.

You know all our public news, such as it is, at least as well as I do. Many people here (of whom I am one) do not like the look of American matters.

What I most fear is that the perpetual bluster of a party in the States will at last set the patient British back up. And if our people begin to bluster too, and there should come into existence an exasperating war-party on both sides, there will be great danger of a daily-widening breach.

The first shriek of the first engine that traverses the San Francisco Railroad from end to end will be a death-warning to the disciples of Jo Smith. The moment the Mormon bubble gets touched by neighbours it will break. Similarly, the red man's course is very nearly run. A scalped stoker is the outward and visible sign of his utter extermination. Not Quakers enough to reach from here to Jerusalem will save him by the term of a single year.

I don't know how it may be with you, but it is the fashion here to be absolutely certain that the Emperor of the French is fastened by Providence and the fates on a throne of adamant expressly constructed for him since the foundations of the universe were laid.

He knows better, and so do the police of Paris, and both powers must be grimly entertained by the resolute British belief, knowing what they have known, and doing what they have done through the last ten years. What Victor Hugo calls "the drop-curtain, behind which is constructing the great last act of the French Revolution," has been a little shaken at the bottom lately, however. One seems to see the feet of a rather large chorus getting ready.

I enclose a letter for Plorn to your care, not knowing how to address him. Forgive me for so doing (I write to Alfred direct), and believe me, my dear Mr. Rusden,

Yours faithfully and much obliged.

[Sidenote: Miss Emily Jolly.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
_Thursday, 22nd July, 1869._

DEAR MISS JOLLY,

Mr. Wills has retired from here (for rest and to recover his health), and my son, who occupies his place, brought me this morning a story[104] in MS., with a request that I would read it. I read it with extraordinary interest, and was greatly surprised by its uncommon merit. On asking whence it came, I found that it came from you!

You need not to be told, after this, that I accept it with more than readiness. If you will allow me I will go over it with great care, and very slightly touch it here and there. I think it will require to be divided into three portions. You shall have the proofs and I will publish it immediately. I think so VERY highly of it that I will have special attention called to it in a separate advertisement. I congratulate you most sincerely and heartily on having done a very special thing. It will always stand apart in my mind from any other story I ever read. I write with its impression newly and strongly upon me, and feel absolutely sure that I am not mistaken.

Believe me, faithfully yours always.

[Sidenote: Hon. Robert Lytton.]

26, WELLINGTON STREET, LONDON,
_Thursday, 2nd September, 1869._

MY DEAR ROBERT LYTTON,

"John Acland" is most willingly accepted, and shall come in to the next monthly part. I shall make bold to condense him here and there (according to my best idea of story-telling), and particularly where he makes the speech:--And with the usual fault of being too long, here and there, I think you let the story out too much--prematurely--and this I hope to prevent artfully. I think your title open to the same objection, and therefore propose to substitute:

THE DISAPPEARANCE
OF JOHN ACLAND.

This will leave the reader in doubt whether he really _was_ murdered, until the end.

I am sorry you do not pursue the other prose series. You can do a great deal more than you think for, with whatever you touch; and you know where to find a firmly attached and admiring friend always ready to take the field with you, and always proud to see your plume among the feathers in the Staff.

Your account of my dear Boffin[105] is highly charming:--I had been troubled with a misgiving that he was good. May his shadow never be more correct!

I wish I could have you at the murder from "Oliver Twist."

I am always, my dear Robert Lytton,
Affectionately your friend.

* * * * *

Pray give my kindest regards to Fascination Fledgeby, who (I have no doubt) has by this time half-a-dozen new names, feebly expressive of his great merits.

[Sidenote: The same.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND, LONDON,
_Friday, 1st October, 1869._

MY DEAR ROBERT LYTTON,

I am assured by a correspondent that "John Acland" has been done before. Said correspondent has evidently read the story--and is almost confident in "Chambers's Journal." This is very unfortunate, but of course cannot be helped. There is always a possibility of such a malignant conjunction of stars when the story is a true one.

In the case of a good story--as this is--liable for years to be told at table--as this was--there is nothing wonderful in such a mischance. Let us shuffle the cards, as Sancho says, and begin again.

You will of course understand that I do not tell you this by way of complaint. Indeed, I should not have mentioned it at all, but as an explanation to you of my reason for winding the story up (which I have done to-day) as expeditiously as possible. You might otherwise have thought me, on reading it as published, a little hard on Mr. Doilly. I have not had time to direct search to be made in "Chambers's;" but as to the main part of the story having been printed somewhere, I have not the faintest doubt. And I believe my correspondent to be also right as to the where. You could not help it any more than I could, and therefore will not be troubled by it any more than I am.

The more I get of your writing, the better I shall be pleased.

Do believe me to be, as I am,
Your genuine admirer
And affectionate friend.

[Sidenote: Mr. Rusden.]

GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT,
_Sunday, 24th October, 1869._

MY DEAR MR. RUSDEN,

This very day a great meeting is announced to come off in London, as a demonstration in favour of a Fenian "amnesty." No doubt its numbers and importance are ridiculously over-estimated, but I believe the gathering will turn out to be big enough to be a very serious obstruction in the London streets. I have a great doubt whether such demonstrations ought to be allowed. They are bad as a precedent, and they unquestionably interfere with the general liberty and freedom of the subject.

Moreover, the time must come when this kind of threat and defiance will have to be forcibly stopped, and when the unreasonable toleration of it will lead to a sacrifice of life among the comparatively innocent lookers-on that might have been avoided but for a false confidence on their part, engendered in the damnable system of _laisser-aller_. You see how right we were, you and I, in our last correspondence on this head, and how desperately unsatisfactory the condition of Ireland is, especially when considered with a reference to America. The Government has, through Mr. Gladstone, just now spoken out boldly in reference to the desired amnesty. (So much the better for them or they would unquestionably have gone by the board.) Still there is an uneasy feeling abroad that Mr. Gladstone himself would grant this amnesty if he dared, and that there is a great weakness in the rest of their Irish policy. And this feeling is very strong amongst the noisiest Irish howlers. Meanwhile, the newspapers go on arguing Irish matters as if the Irish were a reasonable people, in which immense assumption I, for one, have not the smallest faith.

Again, I have to thank you most heartily for your kindness to my two boys. It is impossible to predict how Plorn will settle down, or come out of the effort to do so. But he has unquestionably an affectionate nature, and a certain romantic touch in him. Both of these qualities are, I hope, more impressible for good than for evil, and I trust in God for the rest.

The news of Lord Derby's death will reach you, I suppose, at about the same time as this letter. A rash, impetuous, passionate man; but a great loss for his party, as a man of mind and mark. I was staying last June with Lord Russell--six or seven years older, but (except for being rather deaf) in wonderful preservation, and brighter and more completely armed at all points than I have seen him these twenty years.

As this need not be posted till Friday, I shall leave it open for a final word or two; and am until then, and then, and always afterwards, my dear Mr. Rusden,

Your faithful and much obliged.

_Thursday, 28th._

We have no news in England except two slight changes in the Government consequent on Layard's becoming our Minister at Madrid. He is not long married to a charming lady, and will be far better in Spain than in the House of Commons. The Ministry are now holding councils on the Irish Land Tenure question, which is the next difficulty they have to deal with, as you know. Last Sunday's meeting was a preposterous failure; still, it brought together in the streets of London all the ruffian part of the population of London, and that is a serious evil which any one of a thousand accidents might render mischievous. There is no existing law, however, to stop these assemblages, so that they keep moving while in the streets.

The Government was undoubtedly wrong when it considered it had the right to close Hyde Park; that is now universally conceded.

I write to Alfred and Plorn both by this mail. They can never say enough of your kindness when they write to me.

[Sidenote: Mr. A. H. Layard.]

GAD'S HILL PLACE, _Monday, 8th November, 1869._

MY DEAR LAYARD,

On Friday or Saturday next I can come to you at any time after twelve that will suit your convenience. I had no idea of letting you go away without my God-speed; but I knew how busy you must be; and kept in the background, biding my time.

I am sure you know that there is no man living more attached to you than I am. After considering the subject with the jealousy of a friend, I have a strong conviction that your change[106] is a good one; ill as you can be spared from the ranks of men who are in earnest here.

With kindest regards to Mrs. Layard.

Ever faithfully yours.

FOOTNOTES:

[99] Sir James Emerson Tennent.

[100] Some Venetian glass champagne tumblers.

[101] Miss Florence Olliffe, who wrote to announce the death of her father, Sir Joseph Olliffe.

[102] The Readings.

[103] The "piece" here alluded to was called "Black and White." It was presented at the Adelphi Theatre. The outline of the plot was suggested by Mr. Fechter.

[104] The story was called "An Experience."

[105] "Boffin" and "Fascination Fledgeby," were nicknames given to his children by Mr. Robert Lytton at this time.

[106] Mr. Layard's appointment as British Minister at Madrid.

1870.

[Sidenote: Mr. James T. Fields.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, LONDON, W.,
_Friday, January 14th, 1870._

MY DEAR FIELDS,

We live here (opposite the Marble Arch) in a charming house until the 1st of June, and then return to Gad's. The conservatory is completed, and is a brilliant success; but an expensive one!

I should be quite ashamed of not having written to you and my dear Mrs. Fields before now, if I didn't know that you will both understand how occupied I am, and how naturally, when I put my papers away for the day, I get up and fly. I have a large room here, with three fine windows, overlooking the Park--unsurpassable for airiness and cheerfulness.

You saw the announcement of the death of poor dear Harness. The circumstances are curious. He wrote to his old friend the Dean of Battle saying he would come to visit him on that day (the day of his death). The Dean wrote back: "Come next day, instead, as we are obliged to go out to dinner, and you will be alone." Harness told his sister a little impatiently that he _must_ go on the first-named day; that he had made up his mind to go, and MUST. He had been getting himself ready for dinner, and came to a part of the staircase whence two doors opened--one, upon another level passage; one, upon a flight of stone steps. He opened the wrong door, fell down the steps, injured himself very severely, and died in a few hours.

You will know--_I_ don't--what Fechter's success is in America at the time of this present writing. In his farewell performances at the Princess's he acted very finely. I thought the three first acts of his Hamlet very much better than I had ever thought them before--and I always thought very highly of them. We gave him a foaming stirrup cup at Gad's Hill.

Forster (who has been ill with his bronchitis again) thinks No. 2 of the new book ("Edwin Drood") a clincher,--I mean that word (as his own expression) for _Clincher_. There is a curious interest steadily working up to No. 5, which requires a great deal of art and self-denial. I think also, apart from character and picturesqueness, that the young people are placed in a very novel situation. So I hope--at Nos. 5 and 6, the story will turn upon an interest suspended until the end.

I can't believe it, and don't, and won't, but they say Harry's twenty-first birthday is next Sunday. I have entered him at the Temple just now; and if he don't get a fellowship at Trinity Hall when his time comes, I shall be disappointed, if in the present disappointed state of existence.

I hope you may have met with the little touch of Radicalism I gave them at Birmingham in the words of Buckle? With pride I observe that it makes the regular political traders, of all sorts, perfectly mad. Such was my intentions, as a grateful acknowledgment of having been misrepresented.

I think Mrs. ----'s prose very admirable; but I don't believe it! No, I do _not_. My conviction is that those islanders get frightfully bored by the islands, and wish they had never set eyes upon them!

Charley Collins has done a charming cover for the monthly part of the new book. At the very earnest representations of Millais (and after having seen a great number of his drawings) I am going to engage with a new man; retaining of course, C. C.'s cover aforesaid.[107] Katie has made some more capital portraits, and is always improving.

My dear Mrs. Fields, if "He" (made proud by chairs and bloated by pictures) does not give you my dear love, let us conspire against him when you find him out, and exclude him from all future confidences. Until then,

Ever affectionately yours and his.

[Sidenote: Lord Lytton.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, _Monday, 14th February, 1870._

MY DEAR LYTTON,

I ought to have mentioned in my hurried note to you, that my knowledge of the consultation[108] in question only preceded yours by certain hours; and that Longman asked me if I would make the design known to you, as he thought it might be a liberty to address you otherwise. This I did therefore.

The class of writers to whom you refer at the close of your note, have no copyright, and do not come within my case at all. I quite agree with you as to their propensities and deserts.

Indeed, I suppose in the main that there is very little difference between our opinions. I do not think the present Government worse than another, and I think it better than another by the presence of Mr. Gladstone; but it appears to me that our system fails.

Ever yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. Frederic Chapman.]

5, HYDE PARK PLACE, _Monday, 14th March, 1870._

DEAR FREDERIC CHAPMAN,

Mr. Fildes has been with me this morning, and without complaining of ---- or expressing himself otherwise than as being obliged to him for his care in No. 1, represents that there is a brother-student of his, a wood-engraver, perfectly acquainted with his style and well understanding his meaning, who would render him better.

I have replied to him that there can be no doubt that he has a claim beyond dispute to our employing whomsoever he knows will present him in his best aspect. Therefore, we must make the change; the rather because the fellow-student in question has engraved Mr. Fildes' most successful drawings hitherto.

Faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Mackay.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
_Thursday, 21st April, 1870._

MY DEAR MACKAY,

I have placed "God's Acre." The prose paper, "The False Friend," has lingered, because it seems to me that the idea is to be found in an introduced story of mine called "The Baron of Grogzwig" in "Pickwick."

Be pleasant with the Scottish people in handling Johnson, because I love them.

Ever faithfully.

[Sidenote: Sir John Bowring.]

GAD'S HILL, _Thursday, 5th May, 1870._

MY DEAR SIR JOHN,

I send you many cordial thanks for your note, and the very curious drawing accompanying it. I ought to tell you, perhaps, that the opium smoking I have described, I saw (exactly as I have described it, penny ink-bottle and all) down in Shadwell this last autumn. A couple of the Inspectors of Lodging-Houses knew the woman and took me to her as I was making a round with them to see for myself the working of Lord Shaftesbury's Bill.

Believe me, always faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Mr. J. B. Buckstone.]

[109]_Sunday, 15th May, 1870._

MY DEAR BUCKSTONE,

I send a duplicate of this note to the Haymarket, in case it should miss you out of town. For a few years I have been liable, at wholly uncertain and incalculable times, to a severe attack of neuralgia in the foot, about once in the course of a year. It began in an injury to the finer muscles or nerves, occasioned by over-walking in the deep snow. When it comes on I cannot stand, and can bear no covering whatever on the sensitive place. One of these seizures is upon me now. Until it leaves me I could no more walk into St. James's Hall than I could fly in the air. I hope you will present my duty to the Prince of Wales, and assure his Royal Highness that nothing short of my being (most unfortunately) disabled for the moment would have prevented my attending, as trustee of the Fund,[110] at the dinner, and warmly expressing my poor sense of the great and inestimable service his Royal Highness renders to a most deserving institution by so kindly commending it to the public.

Faithfully yours always.

[Sidenote: Mr. Rusden.]

ATHENAEUM, _Friday Evening, 20th May, 1870._

MY DEAR MR. RUSDEN,

I received your most interesting and clear-sighted letter about Plorn just before the departure of the last mail from here to you. I did not answer then because another incoming mail was nearly due, and I expected (knowing Plorn so well) that some communication from him such as he made to you would come to me. I was not mistaken. The same arguing of the squatter question--vegetables and all--appeared. This gave me an opportunity of touching on those points by this mail, without in the least compromising you. I cannot too completely express my concurrence with your excellent idea that his correspondence with you should be regarded as confidential. Just as I could not possibly suggest a word more neatly to the point, or more thoughtfully addressed, to such a young man than your reply to his letter, I hope you will excuse my saying that it is a perfect model of tact, good sense, and good feeling. I had been struck by his persistently ignoring the possibility of his holding any other position in Australasia than his present position, and had inferred from it a homeward tendency. What is most curious to me is that he is very sensible, and yet does not seem to understand that he has qualified himself for no public examinations in the old country, and could not possibly hold his own against any competition for anything to which I could get him nominated.

But I must not trouble you about my boys as if they were yours. It is enough that I can never thank you for your goodness to them in a generous consideration of me.

I believe the truth as to France to be that a citizen Frenchman never forgives, and that Napoleon will never live down the _coup d'etat_. This makes it enormously difficult for any well-advised English newspaper to support him, and pretend not to know on what a volcano his throne is set. Informed as to his designs on the one hand, and the perpetual uneasiness of his police on the other (to say nothing of a doubtful army), _The Times_ has a difficult game to play. My own impression is that if it were played too boldly for him, the old deplorable national antagonism would revive in his going down. That the wind will pass over his Imperiality on the sands of France I have not the slightest doubt. In no country on the earth, but least of all there, can you seize people in their houses on political warrants, and kill in the streets, on no warrant at all, without raising a gigantic Nemesis--not very reasonable in detail, perhaps, but none the less terrible for that.

The commonest dog or man driven mad is a much more alarming creature than the same individuality in a sober and commonplace condition.

Your friend ---- ---- is setting the world right generally all round (including the flattened ends, the two poles), and, as a Minister said to me the other day, "has the one little fault of omniscience."

You will probably have read before now that I am going to be everything the Queen can make me.[111] If my authority be worth anything believe on it that I am going to be nothing but what I am, and that that includes my being as long as I live,

Your faithful and heartily obliged.

[Sidenote: Mr. Alfred Tennyson Dickens.]

ATHENAEUM CLUB, _Friday Night, 20th May, 1870._

MY DEAR ALFRED,[112]

I have just time to tell you under my own hand that I invited Mr. Bear to a dinner of such guests as he would naturally like to see, and that we took to him very much, and got on with him capitally.

I am doubtful whether Plorn is taking to Australia. Can you find out his real mind? I notice that he always writes as if his present life were the be-all and the end-all of his emigration, and as if I had no idea of you two becoming proprietors, and aspiring to the first positions in the colony, without casting off the old connection.

From Mr. Bear I had the best accounts of you. I told him that they did not surprise me, for I had unbounded faith in you. For which take my love and blessing.

They will have told you all the news here, and that I am hard at work. This is not a letter so much as an assurance that I never think of you without hope and comfort.

Ever, my dear Alfred,
Your affectionate Father.

* * * * *

This Letter did not reach Australia until after these two absent sons of Charles Dickens had heard, by telegraph, the news of their father's death.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[107] Mr. Charles Collins was obliged to give up the illustrating of "Edwin Drood," on account of his failing health.

[108] A meeting of Publishers and Authors to discuss the subject of International Copyright.

[109] Printed in Mackenzie's "Life of Dickens."

[110] The General Theatrical Fund.

[111] An allusion to an unfounded rumour.

[112] Charles Dickens's son, Alfred Tennyson.

INDEX.

Acrobats, 213

Adams, Mr. H. G., letters to, 15, 208

Agreement, a sporting, 244

Ainsworth, Mr. W. H., 13

Air, Dickens's love of fresh, 169

Allston, Mr. Washington, 42

America, feeling for the "Curiosity Shop" in, 19;
projected visit to, 20;
description of life in, 24;
how Dickens was interviewed in, 26;
amateur theatricals in, 28;
friends in, 30, 238;
voyage home from, 34;
second visit of Dickens to, 234, 241, 244-249;
Dickens's feeling for the people of, 237;
the great walking-match in, 244;
second journey home from, 249-252;
desire on the part of Dickens to promote friendly relations between
England and, 259;
letters from, 24, 27, 28, 244-249

"American Notes, The," success of, 38;
criticisms on, 38, 43;
and see 34, 35, 237

Appleton, Mr., 260

Ashburton, Lord, 46

Austin, Mr. Henry, letter to, 130

Austin, Mrs., letter to, 214

Author, dreams of an, 55;
penalties of an, 168

Babbage, Mr. Charles, letter to, 69

Bairr, Mrs., 146

Bath, a, abroad, 144;
at Naples, 155

"Battle of Life, The," the drama of, 87;
Dickens on, 102

Baylis, Mr., letter to, 212

Bear, Mr., 299

Beard, Mr., 9

Begging-letter Writers, Dickens on, 267

"Bentley's Miscellany," Dickens's connection with, 12

Benzon, Mrs., 199

Biliousness, an effect of, 87

Birmingham, meeting of Polytechnic Institution at, 64;
the Institute at, 158

Birthday greeting, a, 226

"Black and White," Fechter in Wilkie Collins's play of, 277

"Bleak House," 140

Blessington, the Countess of, 68;
letters to, 17, 65, 70, 74, 75, 89

Blue-stockings, Dickens on, 18

Boulogne, Dickens at, 140, 141, 161

Bouncer, Mrs., Miss Dickens's dog, 216, 255

Bowring, Sir John, letters to, 193, 295

Boy, the Magnetic, 18

Boyle, Miss Mary, 113;
letter to, 220

Braham, Mr., 1-3

Braham, Mrs., 3

Breakfast, a, aboard ship, 251

Broadstairs, description of, 53;
life at, 54, 125;
a wreck at, 129, 131

Brougham, Lord, 46

Browning, Mr. Robert, letter to, 227

Buckstone, Mr., letter to, 296

Bulwer, Sir Edward Lytton, letter to, 62;
and see Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer, and Lytton, Lord

Butler, Mrs., 85

Calculation, a long, 43

Captain, a sea, 47

"Captives, The," Dickens's criticism on Lord Lytton's play of, 241

Carlyle, Mr. Thomas, 28

Carlyle, Mrs., 179

Celeste, Madame, 168

Cerjat, M. de, 148

Chapman, Mr. Edward, letters to, 14, 91

Chapman, Mr. Frederic, letter to, 294

Chappell, Mr. T., 277;
letter to, 279

Charity, a vote for a, 108

Cheri, Rose, 90

Children, Dickens on the death of, 170

"Child's History of England, A," 237

"Chimes, The," Dickens at work on, 71;
his interest in, 71

Chorley, Mr. Henry F., letters to, 190, 213, 216, 222, 231

Christening, a boisterous, 261

"Christmas Carol, The," Dickens at work on, 59, 63;
success of, 60

Christmas keeping, 60

_Chronicle, The Evening_, Dickens's connection with, 5

Clark, Mr. L. Gaylord, letter to, 19

Clark, Mr. W. Gaylord, 19

Clarke, Mrs. Cowden, 264;
and see Letters

Clifford, Hon. Mrs., 271

Cobden, Mr. Richard, 84

Collins, Mr. Charles, 292

Collins, Mr. Wilkie, 142, 148, 198, 233, 244, 258;
letter to, 171

Conjurer, Dickens as a, 41

Conolly, Mr., 160

Cookesley, Mr., 109

Copyright, Dickens on international, 28, 33, 44, 102, 237, 263, 293

Corn Laws, the Repeal of the, 84

Cornwall, a trip to, 39

Costello, Mr., 101

Coutts, Miss, 128, 132, 148

Covent Garden Opera, commencement of the, 86

Criticism, on Dickens's opera, 1;
Dickens on American, 44;
on art, 77;
Dickens's appreciation of Thackeray's, 165;
by Chorley on Dickens, 223

Cruikshank, Mr. George, 101

Cullenford, Mr., 88

_Daily News, The_, first issue of, 84

"Dando," the oyster-eater, 32, 35

"David Copperfield," Dickens at work on, 113;
Dickens's feeling for, 114;
his liking for the reading of, 227, 234

Death, Dickens on the punishment of, 78

De Gex, Mr., 9

Derby, Lord, Dickens's opinion of, 288

Devonshire, the Duke of, 121, 128, 129

Diary, fragments of Dickens's, 8-12

Dickens, Alfred, 265, 278, 289;
letter to, 299

Dickens, Charles, his affection for Mary Hogarth, 6-9, 11, 50;
his diary, 8-12;
his relations with _The Chronicle_, 5;
his "Sketches of Young Gentlemen," 9;
his "Sunday in Three Parts," 9;
insures his life, 10;
his connection with "Bentley's Miscellany," 12;
is entered at the Middle Temple, 14;
his feeling for Kent, 15;
his religious views, 16, 17;
the purpose of his writing, 17;
his childhood, 22;
his first visit to America, 24-31;
as a stage-manager, 29, 100, 127;
dinner to, at Greenwich, 33;
takes a trip to Cornwall, 39;
as a conjuror, 41;
on American criticism, 44;
facetious description of himself, 53;
at Broadstairs, 54, 125;
his views on education, 58;
at work on "The Christmas Carol," 59;
in Italy, 70-78;
at work on "The Chimes," 71;
in Paris, 85, 89;
organises theatricals for the benefit of Leigh Hunt, 95, 97, 98,
100, 103;
organises theatricals to found a curatorship of Shakespeare's house,
104;
acts in theatricals at Knebworth, 113, 114, 116;
theatricals in aid of the Guild of Literature and Art, 118-128,
133-135;
as an editor, 137-140, 159, 162-164, 173-175, 181, 183, 202, 229,
239, 284, 286, 295;
at Boulogne, 140, 141, 161;
his expedition to Switzerland and Italy, 142-158;
his excitability when at work, 169;
his love of fresh air, 169;
on the death of children, 170;
on red tape, 176;
on Sunday bands, 177;
sits to Frith for his portrait, 188;
his readings, 208, 227, 230, 232, 238;
at work on "Our Mutual Friend," 218, 221;
readings in America, 234;
his love for the American people, 237;
his second visit to America, 241, 244, 252;
at Gad's Hill, 256;
farewell course of readings, 256, 278;
his reminiscences of the Staplehurst accident, 264;
his reading of the murder from "Oliver Twist," 268;
serious illness of, 280, 281;
great physical power of, 280

Dickens, Charles, jun., 9, 25, 41, 109, 154, 277;
at "All the Year Round" office, 283

Dickens, Mrs. Charles, 9, 51, 114, 115, 124, 125, 171;
and see Letters

Dickens, Dora, death of, 125

Dickens, Edward, nicknamed Plorn, 158, 265, 273, 281, 288, 289, 297

Dickens, Henry F., 157;
entered at the Temple, 292

Dickens, Kate, 153, 157, 293

Dickens, Miss, 157, 196, 205, 210, 215, 217, 222, 228, 255, 256, 258

Dickens, Sydney, 143, 157

Dickens, Walter, 25

Disease, a new form of, 129

Dissent, Dickens's views on, 16

"Doctor Marigold," reading of, 227

Dogs, Dickens's, 255, 262;
Don, the Newfoundland, rescues his son, 262

Dolby, Mr. George, 234, 238, 248, 256, 261, 270, 273, 276

"Dombey and Son," sale of, 87;
see also 89, 94

D'Orsay, Count, 18, 66, 68, 70, 73, 74, 78

Dream, an absurd, 56

Dufferin, Lord, 277

Dumas, Alexandre, 90

Earnestness, Dickens on, 176

Eden, the Hon. Miss, letter to, 128

Edinburgh, 270

Editor, Dickens as an, 137-140, 159, 162-164, 173-175, 181, 183,
202, 229, 239, 284-286, 295

Education, Dickens on, 58

Edward, the courier, 142-144, 148, 155

"Edwin Drood," Dickens on, 292;
the opium scene in, 295

Egg, Mr. A., 101, 118, 127, 142, 148, 156

Evans, Mr., 109

"Experience, An," 283

"Fatal Zero," by Percy Fitzgerald, 291

Fechter, Mr. Charles, in "The Lady of Lyons," 234, 240;
Dickens's admiration of, 240;
and see 253, 257, 277, 291;
letters to, 244, 254

Fechter, Madame, 254

Felton, Professor, 272;
and see Letters

Felton, Mrs., 33

Fenian Amnesty, meeting in favour of a, 287, 289

Fields, Mr. James T.; see Letters

Fields, Mrs., 252, 260, 291;
letter to, 255

Fildes, Mr., 294

Fitzgerald, Mr. Percy, 228, 271

Forster, Mr. John, 9, 10, 13, 30, 35, 36, 39, 41, 54, 60, 86, 89, 101,
113, 117, 127, 133, 154, 188, 207, 227, 260, 292;
letters to, 165, 225

Forster, Mrs., letter to, 273

Fox, Mr. W. J., letter to, 84

Frith, R.A., Mr. W. P., letter to, 188

Funeral, the comic side of a, 48

Gad's Hill, descriptions of, 252, 256;
Dickens's writing-room at, 256;
Longfellow's visit to, 260;
and see 276

Gallenga, Monsieur, 192

"Gamp, Mrs.," 56

Gaskell, Mrs., 271;
letter to, 159

General Theatrical Fund, the, 88, 102, 296

Gibson, Mrs. Milner, letter to, 205

"Girlhood of Shakespeare's heroines, The," 124

Gladstone, Mr., 258, 294

Glasgow, 270

Gordon, Mrs., 87

"Great Expectations," 198

Greenwich, Dinner to Dickens at, 33

Grew, Mr. Frederick, letter to, 158

Grisi, Madame, 86

Guide Books, 140

Guild of Literature and Art, the, 120, 180;
theatricals in aid of, 118-128, 133-135

Hardisty, Mr., 111

Harley, Mr. J. P., 3, 4;
letter to, 13

Harness, Rev. W., 269, 291;
letter to, 159

Harrison, Mr. James Bower, letters to, 132, 136

Hat, a Leghorn, 157

Hazlett, Mr. William, 259

Higgins, Mr., 165, 166

Hillard, Mr., 42

Hills, Mr., 274

Hodgson, Dr., 97;
letters to, 93, 95

Hogarth, Mr., 2

Hogarth, George, 20;
letter to, 5

Hogarth, Georgina, 51, 154, 196, 210, 215, 219, 221, 228, 244, 256, 258

Hogarth, Mary, 6-9, 11, 20, 50

Hogarth, Mrs., letters to, 6, 20, 50

Holland House, 178

Home, thoughts of, 29;
a welcome to, 255

Hood, Mr. Tom, letter to, 43

House of Commons, the, Dickens's opinion of, 181, 194

Howe, Dr., 33, 37

Hugo, Victor, Dickens's opinion of, 91;
and see 283

Hullah, Mr. John, letters to, 1-3

Hunt, Mr. Leigh, 13, 95, 97-100, 259

Hyde Park, closing of, by the Government in 1869, 289

Ireland, Mr. Alexander; see Letters

Ireland, Dickens on, 279;
in 1869, 288;
land tenure in, 289

Irish Church, the, the Disestablishment of, 279

Irving, Mr. Washington, 47, 247;
letters to, 21, 27, 178

Italian patriots, Dickens on, 191

Italy, visions of holiday life in, 66;
proposed visit to, 66, 68;
Dickens in, 70-78, 145-158;
the Peschiere Palace at Genoa in, 153;
a bath at Naples in, 155

Jerrold, Mr. Douglas, 98, 101, 118

"John Acland," by the Hon. Robert Lytton, 284, 286

Jolly, Miss Emily, letters to, 173, 175, 181, 183, 283

Jones, Mr. Ebenezer, letter to, 68

Keeley, Mr. and Mrs., 87

Kenny, Mr. J., letter to, 177

Kent, Mr. C., 260

Kent, Dickens's affection for, 15

"Kentish Coronal, The," 15

King, Mr. Joseph C., letter to, 109

King, Miss, letters to, 162, 164

"King Arthur," Dickens's opinion of Lord Lytton's poem of, 107

King David, a profane, 73

Knowles, Mr. James Sheridan, 104;
letter to, 92

"Lady of Lyons, The," Dickens on the proposed opera of, 211;
Fechter in, 234, 240

Landor, Mr. Walter, 77

Langley, Mr., 97

Lanman, Mr. Charles, letter to, 247

Lausanne, friends in, 143

Layard, Mr. Austen Henry, 169, 289;
and see Letters

Layard, Mrs., 274

Leech, Mr. John, 101, 118

Lehmann, Mr. Frederic, 199, 223

Lemon, Mr. Mark, 101, 114, 118, 119, 122, 123

Lemon, Mrs., 114

Leslie, R.A., Mr., 176, 178