1849, he remarked that the American portions of the book, he had been given to understand from authorities, were considered violent exaggerations, and that the Watertoast Association and eloquence, for example, were beyond all bounds of belief. Nothing, however, but a liberal paraphrase of some reports of public proceedings in the United States (especially of the Brandywine Association), printed in the Times, in June and July, 1843, had been employed in writing Martin Chuzzlewit, and these formed the material complained of. We may remark that the same "Postscript" as in that of "American Notes" is affixed to the "Charles Dickens Edition" of "Martin Chuzzlewit."

Blackwood affirmed that "Pecksniff owed much of his celebrity, we believe, to his remarkable likeness to the late Sir Robert Peel." "The American Publisher's Circular," in the summer of 1857, stating that Mr. Samuel Carter Hall was about to visit the United States, to deliver a series of lectures, impudently alluded to Mr. Hall as being "the original of Dickens's character," and suggested that if he (Mr. Hall) wished to draw well, he should advertise himself as "the original Pecksniff."

Lord Lytton, in the preface to "Night and Morning," says "In this work I have sought to lift the mask from the timid selfishness which too often bears with us the name of Respectability. Purposely avoiding all attraction that may savour of extravagance, patiently subduing every tone and every hue

to the aspect of those whom we meet daily in our thoroughfares, I have shown in Robert Beaufort the man of decorous phrase and bloodless action--the systematic self-server-in whom the world forgives the lack of all that is generous, warm, and noble, in order to respect the passive acquiescence in methodical conventions and hollow forms. And how

common such men are with us in this century, and how inviting and how necessary their delineation, may be seen in this, that the popular and preeminent Observer of the age in which we live, has since placed their prototype in vigorous colours upon imperishable canvass. Need I say that I allude to the 'Pecksniff' of Mr. Dickens?"

The main object of "Martin Chuzzlewit" was to call attention to the system of ship-hospitals, and to workhouse nurses; and, as types of the latter, Sarah Gamp, with the no less immortal, though invisible, Mrs. Harris, and Betsy Prig, are inimitable. Speaking of the former, a writer said:

“She is, with a vengeance,

The grave, conceited nurse, of office proud!'

"coarse, greedy, inhuman, jovial;-prowling about young wives with a leer, and old men with a look that would fain 'lay them out.' Ready at every festivity to put the bottle to her lips,' and at every calamity, to squat down and find in it her own account of pickled salmon and cucumber,-and crutched up in a sort of sham sympathy and zeal,

by the perpetual praises administered to herself by that Eidolon, Mrs. Harris-there are not many things of their kind so living in fiction as this night-mare. The touch of exaggeration in her dialect is so skilfully distributed everywhere, that we lose the sense of it as we read."

Sydney Smith, delighted at the manner in which the Americans were pasquinaded, sent him these familiar notes on the merits of the book :

"You have been so used to such impertinences that I believe you will excuse me for saying how very much pleased I am with the first number of your new work. Pecksniff and his daughters, and Pinch, are admirable-quite first-rate painting, such as no one but yourself can execute.

"I did not like your genealogy of the Chuzzlewits, and I must wait a little to see how Martin turns out. I am impatient for the next number.

"Pray come and see me next summer; and believe me ever yours,

"SYDNEY SMITH.

"P.S.-Chuffey is admirable. I have never read a finer piece of writing; it is deeply pathetic and affecting. Your last number is excellent. Don't give yourself the trouble to answer my impertinent eulogies, only excuse them."

Then, again, under date July 12th, 1843, in acknowledgment of a call from Dickens, and after the receipt of a new number of "Martin Chuzzlewit," he writes:

"Excellent! nothing can be better! You must settle it with the Americans as you can, but I have nothing to do with that. I have only to certify that the number is full of wit, humour, and power of description.

"I am slowly recovering from an attack of the gout in the knee, and am sorry to have missed you."

"Martin Chuzzlewit" was published in a complete form by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, and dedicated to Miss Burdett Coutts. Poor Tom Pinch claims our best sympathy; the boy Bailey, Pecksniff, and his chaste daughters, Montague Tigg, Mark Tapley, and Mrs. Lupin, and the Chuzzlewits, old and young, are all admirably sketched. The American characters, Jefferson Brick (war correspondent), Scadder, Colonel Diver, and Hannibal Chollop, are fine food for mirth.

The most melodramatic portion is the murder of Tigg by Jonas Chuzzlewit. The disguise and preparation-the history of the individual mind of the murderer-the steps by which he descends-and the minute particulars which the over-wrought brain of Jonas catches up to use for his horrible purpose (witness the conversation with the Doctor), are splendid examples of observation and intuition, and as true as nature itself; and the defeat and final extirpation of selfishness in the heart of the hero, Martin, point a most valuable moral. The heroine is, however, weak, and sinks into insignificance by the side of charming little Ruth Pinch,

Remaining true to the resolve contained in his letter to the Athenæum, the numbers were simultaneously published here and in America, Messrs. Harper Brothers, by arrangement, being furnished with a duplicate copy of each number, thereby enabling them to forestall the other American. publishers.

A good melodramatic version was produced at the Lyceum, Mr. Robert Keeley enacting Sairey Gamp; Mr. Emery, Jonas; Frank Matthews, Pecksniff; Miss Woolgar and Mrs. Keeley, Mercy and Bailey.

Very recently, in March, 1868, Mr. Horace Wigan's adaptation at the Olympic met with considerable success, Mr. J. Clarke sustaining the part of Mrs. Gamp.

Douglas Jerrold this summer (1843), occupying a cottage near Herne Bay, wrote to Dickens, inviting him to come and see him. The following is an extract from his rejoinder :

"Herne Bay. Hum! I suppose it is no worse than any other place in this weather; but it is watery, rather, isn't it? In my mind's eye, I have the sea in a perpetual state of smallpox, and the chalk running downhill like town milk. But I know the comfort of getting to work in a fresh place, and proposing pious projects to oneself, and having the more substantial advantage of going to bed early, and getting up ditto, and walking about alone. If there were a fine day, I should like to deprive you of