acceptation of the term.

He was a morose

He

beast, and of most uncertain temper. was the terror of the tradespeople: he loathed the butcher; he had a deadly hatred for the fishmonger's boy; and, when I complained to the post-office of the non-receipt in due course of a letter from my aunt's legal adviser, advising me to repair at once to the old lady's death-bed (owing to which non-receipt I was cut out of my aunt's will), I was answered that 'the savage character of my dog-a circumstance with which the department could not interfereprevented the letter-carrier from the due performance of his functions after nightfall.' Still I loved Pincher -still I love him! What though my trousers-ends were frayed into hanging strips by his teeth; what though my slippers are a mass of chewed pulp; what though he has towzled all the corners of the manuscript of my work on Logarithms-shall I reproach him now that he is lost to me? Never!"

Pincher strayed away-was lost. Application was made at the "Home," which afforded Mr. Dickens an opportunity to describe that institution, but he was not there. After some days he returned "with a ruffled coat, a torn ear, a fierceness of eye which bespoke recent trouble. I afterwards learned that he had been a principal in a combat held in the adjoining parish, where he acquitted himself with a certain amount of honour, and was pinning his adversary, when a rustic person from a farm broke in upon the ring, and kicked both the combatants out of it. This

ignominy was more than Pincher could bear; he flung himself upon the rustic's leg, and brought him to the ground: then fled, and remained hidden in a wood until hunger compelled him to come home. We have interchanged no communication since, but regard each other with sulky dignity. I perceive that he intends to remain obdurate until I make the first advances."

Early in the new year Mr. Dickens received intelligence of the death of his son, Walter Landor Dickens, in the Officers' Hospital at Calcutta. He was a lieutenant of the 26th Native Infantry Regiment, and had been doing duty with the 42nd Highlanders. His decease occurred on the last day of the old year.

During this spring he was requested by the Working Men's Shakspeare Memorial Committee to take the chief direction in planting the "Shakspeare Oak" on Primrose Hill. Mr. F. G. Tomlins, a well-known littérateur, and at one time editor of the Leader newspaper, wrote to him, stating the working men's wishes, and Mr. Dickens at once replied:-"I am truly honoured by the feeling of the working men towards me, as expressed in your note, and would far rather take part in their interesting proceedings than in any other ceremonial held on that day.

"But I am not free. The request, unfortunately, comes too late. I have declined several public in

vitations on the ground that I had resolved to take part in none, and had bound myself to a few personal friends for a quiet, private remembrance of the occasion. From this conclusion I cannot now depart. Do me the kindness to assure the delegates, with whom you are in communication, of my cordial sympathy and respect."

CHAPTER XXVII.

"OUR MUTUAL FRIEND."—"DOCTOR MARIGOLD'S PRESCRIPTIONS."-" MUGBY JUNCTION."

ICKENS was a guest at the Anniversary Banquet at the Royal Academy, on 1st May, 1864; and Mr. John Forster, responding to the toast, "The Interests of Literature," gracefully remarked "In fiction, I see not only the great master of character and humour (Mr. Dickens) who has held sway over both now for more than a quarter of a century, and this very day starts after new laurels with as much vigour and freshness as when he first began the race.”

"Our Mutual Friend" was the work alluded to by Mr. Forster, and Number I. was published on the Ist of May, by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, with illustrations by Mr. Marcus Stone.

The plot is most ingeniously constructed, and each character an elaborate and highly executed portrait, although, perhaps, occasionally verging on caricature.

Miss Jenny Wren, the entertaining Doll's dressmaker; her drunken father, " Fascination" Fledgeby; Riah, the patient and kind-hearted Jew; Silas Wegg,

the wooden-legged individual, a parasite and selfish impostor, "literary man" to Boffin, employed at the rate of twopence-halfpenny an hour to read and expound the "Decline and Fall of the Rooshian Empire," otherwise "Roman Empire;" John Harman ; Lizzie Hexam; Venus, the anatomical artist; Bradley Headstone; Mr. and Mrs. Boffin; and Bella Wilfer, daughter of the Cherub; are the best-remembered characters in the book. The story is somewhat improbable, and contains many scenes of horror and crime. Taken as a specimen of literary workmanship, it is his best production since "David Copperfield," but it is not popular with readers.

Mr. Crabb Robinson has preserved in his Diary some playful lines by Southey; but his editor has omitted to add a circumstance which would have increased their interest. They were written in the album of Mrs. S. C. Hall, and the opposite page contained the autographs of Joseph Bonaparte and Daniel O'Connell, a circumstance which suggested what the Laureate wrote:

"Birds of a feather flock together,

But vide the opposite page;

Ana thence you may gather I'm not of a feather

With some of the birds in this cage."

ROBERT SOUTHEY, 22nd October, 1836.

Some years afterwards, Charles Dickens, goodhumouredly referring to Southey's change of opinion, wrote in the album, immediately under Southey's lines, the following: