Charles Dickens—A Lecture.

Avas too proud to let him knoAV about the prison , " says Dickens , " and after making several efforts to get rid of him , to all of Avhich Bob Fagin in his goodness Avas deaf , shook hands Avith him on the steps of a house near Soutlrwark Bridge , on the Surrey side , making believe that I lived there . As a

finishing piece of reality in case of his looking back , I knocked at the door I recollect , and asked , Avhen the Avoman opened it , if that Avas Mr . Robert Fagin ! s house . " Dickens has himself left behind a

graphic description of himself in the character of a reporter . It occurs in his speech at the NeAvspaper Press Fund Dinner , and I could not do better than reproduce it here had space permitted . David Copperfield is in truth in some

sort autobiographical , and the reader of that chef-d ' wuwe of Dickens '— -his favourite work—Avill at once discover the points of similarity between the hero ' s life , and that of our hero—when Ave compare it Avith Forster ' s valuable work . He had an attraction of repulsion for the Seven Dials . He loA ^ ed to

go through the gloomiest and most outof-the-way streets and dens of London , and there he pictured up that profound knoAvledge of the melodramatic side of life amongst the loAver classes Avhich he has exhibited in his works .

His reporting experience must also have taught him much . Mr . Black , noticing Mr . Dickens ' versatility and readiness , allowed him a theatre for the display of his graphic qualities , by inserting in his journal

those sketches of every-day-life and every day-people Avhich Avere afterwards collected and republished under the title of " Sketches by Boz in 1836 and 1837 , " when the author Avas only 24 . It was three years previous to this ,

liOAvever , that they Avere commenced . Dickens himself , in his preface to the 1850 edition , thus speaks of them : "The Avhole of these sketches were Avritten and published one by one Avhen I Avas a very young man . They were collected and republished Avhile I Avas

still a very young man , and sent into the world with all their imperfections ( a good many ) upon their heads . They comprise my first attempt at authorship —with the exception of certain tragedies achieved at the mature age of

eight or ten , and represented with great applause to overflowing nurseries . I am conscious of their often being extremely crude and ill considered , and having obvious marks of haste and inexperience , particularly in that section

of the present volume which is comprised under the general head of tales . " EoAvever inferior , they may be considered in composition to Dickens' later Avorks , they helped to make his fame , and it . was in consequence of the

success Avhich attended their publication that Messrs . Chapman and Hall , AVIIO had observed the graphic poAver of describing the ordinary scenes of common life , more especially in their most ludicrous aspect , requested Boz to write them a story , and the result Avas the publication of the Posthumous Memoirs of the

PickAvick Club . It is said that Macrone who republished the Sketches , gave Dickens £ 75 for the copyright , and failing afterwards in business , sold it to another publisher for £ 1 , 100 . In the Charles Dickens edition of

Pickwick the author thus speaks of its production : " I was a young man of two or three and twenty , when Messrs . Chapman and Hall , attracted by some pieces I Avas at that time Avriting in the " Morning Chronicle , " or had just

Avritten in the "Old Monthly Magazine " ( of Avhich one series had lately been collected and published in two vols , illustrated by George Cruikshank ) , waited upon me to propose a something that should be pulished in shilling

numbers . "When ' [ opened mydoor inFurnival ' s Inn to the partner who represented the firm , I recognised in him the person from Avhose hands I had bought , two or three years previously , and whom 1 tost

had never seen before or since , my copy of the Magazine in which my first effusion , a paper in the sketches