Numbers," we may state that the sale of "Mugby Junction" exceeded a quarter of a million copies.

During the first three months of the year 1867 he gave readings at St. James's Hall to crowded audiences, having in the previous April, May, and June (1866) appeared at Manchester, Greenwich, the Crystal Palace, St. James's Hall, and other places, delighting and amusing many thousands of people.

On the 5th of June we find him presiding at the ninth anniversary festival of the Railway Benevolent Society, at Willis's Rooms, and it was in his speech, on this occasion, that he gave the amusing story of "The Ten Suitors."

In May his old and dear friend, Clarkson Stanfield, the Royal Academician, died, and the reader may remember the beautiful and touching obituary notice which Dickens penned on the occasion-the affectionate appreciation of the delicate shades of the great maritime artist's character which that notice evinced, and the noble peroration with which it closed. A friend of the late illustrious author, to whom we are already indebted for some interesting facts, remarks:-"The recent earnest wish displayed by the Queen to confer upon Dickens some title of honour, and the womanly refinement shown by Her Majesty in seeking to make that honour one which he could accept without derogating from his social principles, gives his parting words on Stanfield a not unkindly significance. It was after enumerating the artist's many claims to public distinction, after speci

fying several of his works by name, and after pointing to the recognition he would have received had he belonged to a foreign State, that Dickens said: 'It is superfluous to add, that he died Mr. Stanfield-he was an Englishman.””

On the 17th September following, he took the chair at a public meeting of the Printers' Readers. A corrector of the press, and at that time a member of the "Association," who was present with the other working men, has forwarded to us this account of the meeting. Coming from one of the men themselves, it is of interest, as showing their appreciation of that respect and sympathy which Charles Dickens ever expressed for honest and intelligent working men:

"I well remember, on the evening when Dickens so readily consented to preside at a meeting of the London Association of Correctors of the Press, following the immortal novelist up the steps of the Salisbury Hotel, Fleet Street, where the meeting was to be held. The great master, on that occasion, met the assemblage of literary drudges with the openhearted frankness of a brother. As he threw aside his large light cloak, he shook hands with all who sought that honour with the utmost warmth. Even now I fancy I can feel the firm grip, and see his cheery smile. He was dressed with the greatest care and elegance, as if for an evening party or State ball. His florid complexion, dark glittering eye, and grizzled beard, were very striking; but, above all, the loftiness of his massive brow-denoting 'the mighty

brain within-inspired the beholder with reverence. In his speech he expressed the warmest friendship for the intelligent body of men before him, to whom, he said, 'he was indebted for many kindly hints, and judicious corrections and queries in his proofs, which in the hurry of business had escaped his notice while preparing "copy," or revising sheets for press.' He said that he had other engagements for that evening, but had at once put them aside when he had been invited to spend an hour with the practical correctors of the Press, for the advancement of their interests."

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. PEDESTRIAN TASTES.

RESSING invitations from American friends, and the desire to carry out a long-nursed project, induced Mr. Dickens early in the year to make preparations for a visit to the United States in the autumn. The fact soon became known to the American journalists, and from that time until he landed, paragraphs, poems of welcome, and scraps of so-called intelligence-scraps which surprised even Mr. Dickens himself-were continually appearing in the papers there. The New York Tribune said :-"Charles Dickens is coming to the United States to give a series of readings in the principal cities of the republic. The announcement will be received with pleasure throughout the country. Our people do, indeed, remember the 'American Notes,' and the satirical chapters in 'Martin Chuzzlewit,' and are, no doubt, of opinion that, as a matter of taste, Mr. Dickens might well have been more gracious. But, on the other hand, our people like free speech and appreciate frankness -not forgetting that truth should be the North Star of authorship; and there is a good deal of truth in what Mr. Dickens said about us on returning from

his first visit to this country." In England, the great novelist's friends arranged for a Farewell Banquet, on the most sumptuous scale. It took place on Saturday evening, November 2nd, at the Freemasons' Tavern. The new hall was specially decorated for the occasion, the panels being adorned with laurel leaves, and each inscribed with the name of one of Dickens's works in splendid letters of gold. The company numbered between 400 and 500 gentlemen, including nearly all the eminent men in art, literature, science, law, and medicine.

Lord Lytton presided, and in the course of a magnificent eulogium upon the illustrious novelist, said: "We are about to entrust our honoured countryman to the hospitality of those kindred shores in which his writings are as much household words as they are in the homes of England.

"If I may speak as a politician, I should say that no time for his visit could be more happily chosen. For our American kinsfolk have conceived, rightly or wrongly, that they have some recent cause of complaint against ourselves, and out of all England we could not have selected an envoy-speaking not on behalf of our Government, but of our people-more calculated to allay irritation and propitiate goodwill.

"How many hours in which pain and sickness have changed into cheerfulness and mirth beneath the wand of that enchanter! How many a hardy combatant, beaten down in the battle of life-and