In

from his speech on "reporting" given above. those days of coaching and slow letter-post, Dickens had to keep his editor fully informed of the best and quickest transit for his "reports ;" and, by the kindness of the then sub-editor, who received Dickens's letters, and, believing in the man as heartily as the great John Black did, has carefully preserved them to the present time, I am enabled to give an extract from the identical letter received from him when on this journey. He writes from the Bush Inn at Bristol, a famous hostelry for commercial travellers, and a noted "coaching" house for persons bound to the West of England. The letter was dated Tuesday morning :

"The conclusion of Russell's dinner will be forwarded by Cooper's Company's coach, which leaves here at half-past six to-morrow morning. The report of the Bath dinner shall be forwarded by the first Bath coach on Thursday morning-what time it starts we have no means of ascertaining till we reach Bath; but you will receive it as early as possible, as we will indorse the parcel 'Pay the porter 2/6 extra for immediate delivery.' Beard will go over to Bath from here to-morrow morning, and I shall come back by the mail from Marlborough. I need not say that it will be sharp work, and will require two of us; for we shall both be up the whole of the previous night, and shall have to sit up all night again to get it off in time.

"As soon as we have had a little sleep, we shall

return to town as quickly as we can, for we have (if the express succeeds) to stop at two or three places. along the road, to pay money and express satisfaction. You may imagine that we are extremely anxious to know the result of the arrangement. Pray direct to one of us at the White Hart,' Bath, and inform us in a parcel sent by the FIRST COACH after you receive this, exactly at what hour it arrived. Do not fail on any account.

"We joined with the Herald (I say this in reference to the first part of your letter) precisely on the principle you at first laid down-economy; not pushed so far, however, as to interfere with the efficiency of the express. As the conclusion of the dinner was to be done, we all thought the best plan we could pursue would be to leave two men behind, and trust Russell to the others. I have no doubt if he makes a speech of any ordinary dimensions, it can be done by the time we reach Marlborough; and taking into consideration the immense importance of having the addition of saddle-horses from thence, it is, beyond all doubt, worth an effort.

*

"Believe me

"(For self and Beard),

"Very sincerely yours,

"CHARLES DICKENS.

"** I thought of putting the accompanying letter to my brother in the post. Will you have the kindness to send a boy with it?"

This is, in all likelihood, the only letter of Dickens's reporting days now in existence. As a record of his industry and business foresight it is most interesting, and the glimpses that it gives of the wild life lead by a reporter in those days, show us the source of that wonderful knowledge of those old coaching days and that old tavern life that have passed out of actual existence, to live for ever in Dickens's pages. We may just say that it is Mr. Thomas Beard, one of the first reporters in England, and Dickens's dear friend, who is alluded to in the letter; the Mr. Frank Beard, who attended the great novelist in his last moments, is, we believe, a brother of this gentleman.

Concerning Dickens's earliest printed writings, Mr. James Grant, the well-known journalist and author, has supplied us with an account which differs much from what has been elsewhere said upon this part of our author's career. "It is everywhere stated," says Mr. Grant, "that the earliest productions from his pen made their appearance in the columns of the Morning Chronicle, and that Mr. John Black, then editor of that journal, was the first to discover and duly to appreciate the genius of Mr. Dickens. The fact was It is true that he wrote 'Sketches' afterwards in the Morning Chronicle, but he did not begin them in that journal. Mr. Dickens first became connected with the Morning Chronicle as a reporter in the gallery of the House of Commons. This was in 1835-36; but Mr. Dickens had been previously engaged, while in his nineteenth year, as a reporter for

not so.

a publication entitled the Mirror of Parliament, in which capacity he occupied the very highest rank among the eighty or ninety reporters for the press then in Parliament. While in the gallery of the House of Commons, he was exceedingly reserved in his manners. Though interchanging the usual courtesies of life with all with whom he came into contact in the discharge of his professional duties, the only gentleman at that time in the gallery of the House of Commons with whom he formed a close personal intimacy, was Mr. Thomas Beard, then a reporter for the Morning Herald, and now connected with the newspaper press generally, as furnishing the Court intelligence in the morning journals. The friendship thus formed between Mr. Dickens and Mr. Beard so far back as the year 1832 was, I believe, continued till the death of Mr. Dickens.

"It was about the year 1833-34, before Mr. Dickens's connection with the Morning Chronicle, and before Mr. Black, then editor of that journal, had ever met with him, that he commenced his literary career as an amateur writer. He made his debut in the latter end of 1834 or beginning of 1835, in the Old Monthly Magazine, then conducted by Captain Holland, an intimate friend of mine. The Old Monthly Magazine had been started more than a quarter of a century before by Sir Richard Philips, and was for many years a periodical of large circulation and high literary reputation-a fact which might be inferred from another fact, namely, that the New

Monthly Magazine, started by Mr. Colburn, under the editorial auspices of Mr. Thomas Campbell, author of The Pleasures of Hope,' appropriated the larger portion of its title. The Old Monthly Magazine was published at half-a-crown, being the same price as Blackwood, Fraser, and Bentley's magazines are at the present day.

"It was, as I have said, in this monthly periodical -not in the columns of the Morning Chronicle-that Mr. Dickens first appeared in the realms of literature. He sent, in the first instance, his contributions to that periodical anonymously. These consisted of sketches, chiefly of a humorous character, and were simply signed 'Boz.' For a long time they did not attract any special attention, but were generally spoken of in newspaper notices of the magazine, as clever,' 'graphic,' and so forth.

'Early in 1836 the editorship of the Monthly Magazine the adjective Old' having been by this time dropped-came into my hands; and in making the necessary arrangements for its transfer from Captain Holland-then, I should have mentioned, proprietor as well as editor-I expressed my great admiration of the series of 'Sketches by Boz,' which had appeared in the Monthly, and said I should like to make an arrangement with the writer for a continuance of them under my editorship. With that view I asked him the name of the author. It will sound strange in most ears when I state, that a name which has for so many years filled the whole