Charles Dickens—A Lecture.

tical Courts , and tho abolition of imprisonment for debt , received a direct and a poAverful impetus from his Avritings . Let it be remembered that in tMs respect he did not ( as is the case with most Avriters " Avith a purpose " ) follow public opinion .

He led it . He depicted the horrors of a debtors' prison , and the cruelty and delay of the Court of Chancery , in "PickAvick , " before Lord Eldon , so to speak , Avas cold in Ms grave , and four years before Lord Brougham obtained the abolition of Arrest

on Mesne Process ; and he returned to the charge long years afterwards in his doleful tableau of the Marhsalsea , and in his Avithering satire on the suit of Jarndyee .. Jarndyce . Continually to do battle Avith these social Avrongs necessitated the

production on the stage of his Avorks of those Avho from those Avrongs had suffered most grievously , and those sufferers generally belonged to the Avretchedest and Avorstfavoured classes in the community . It Avould be difficult to imagine a more

loathsome character than the ignorant , gindrinking , abusive , venal harridan , Mrs . Gamp . Yet Avho shall say that the exposure of the malpractices of hospital nurses

twenty-five years ago had not some part , and an important one , in bringing about the beneficent reforms which Ave owe directly to Florence Nightingale , and Avhich have substituted patient , loving , tenderly sedulous " sisters " in our hospital wards and sick rooms for the carelessthieving

, , drunken beldames of the last generation 1 Thus bringing such creatures into the light he Avas constrained to listen to them to observe and to report them . He could have no special preference for the delineation of revolting scenes or ugly people . He

revelled , on the contrary , in describing beautiful scenery or quiet households , or the happy sports of innocent children . Bro . Holmes then proceeded to read"Mrs . Gamp in the sick room , " ( cap . ' 25 , Martin Chuzzlewit ) . The lecturer continued : —

In 1840 or 1841 Dickens Avent to America , and there received such an ovation as , perhaps , had never been accorded before to any literary man . When he Avent to the Senate at WashMgton the whole House rose to do him homage . He

Avas feted , cheered , folloAved , and addressed until he Avas nearly driven Avild , and Avhen he came home he Avrote , in 1842 , " Ameri can Notes for General Circulation , " in

Avhich he gave his opinions about America and American institutions . Dickens ' s statements Avere much controverted by oru' American cousins , and the book provoked a reply under the facetious title of " Change for American Notes . " On his return from America Longfelloiv

came to London and became his guest ; and Ave get a glimpse of the multitude of his literary and artistic friends from the account of a dinner at Greeirwich , which Avas given on Ms return from the Far West , at which there Avere present Justice

Talfourd , Mr . Milnes , the poet , afterwards Lord Houghton , Proctor , better known as Barry Conrwall , Maclise , Stansfield , Captain Maryatt , Barbam ( Ingoldsby ) , Tom Hood , and Cruikshank . Dickens did not much like America

, and lie said so . Tho tone of Martin ChuzzleAvit , Avhich he commenced in January , 1843 , especially that part where Martin goes over there Avith Mark Tapley , is not calculated to make one much in

love Avith Republics and Republican institutions . Dickens tells Forstcr how , just after his return , that they had forged a letter from him , Avhich Avas extensivel y circulated in the States . " You are to understand , " he says , " it is not done as a joke , and is scurrilously revieAved . " Mr .

Park Benjamin begins a lucubration upon it , Avith these capitals , " Dickens is a fool and a liar I" In truth the Yankees Avere furious Avith Martin ChuzzleAvit , and it was decided that Avhen the great actor , MacreadyAvent over thereDickensAvho

, , , had proposed to see him off , should not accompany him , for fear that it might damage Mm afterwards , as no doubt it Avould have done . It is , hoAvever , only fair to say that , attached to the latest issue of this workthere is a manly retractation

, on the part of Charles Dickens of much that Avas then said , and he speaks in the highest praise of the vast strides Avhich have been made of late years , and Avhich he himself Avitnessed during Ms last visit in 1868 *