whole, seems more susceptible to passion, and rises to a keener and wilder song. Referring the difference of style to its origin in difference of intellectual constitution, critics are accustomed to say that Thackeray's is the mind of closer and harder, and Dickens's the mind of looser and richer, texturethat the intellect of the one is the more penetrating and reflective, and that of the other the more excursive and intuitive."-MASSON'S British Novelists and their Styles.

*** An anonymous writer says:-"The first time I heard Mr. Thackeray read in public, he paid a tribute to 'Boz.' It was the night after the Oxford election, in which Mr. Thackeray was an unsuccessful candidate, and the kind-hearted author hastened up to town to fulfil a promise to give some readings on behalf of Mr. Angus Reach.* I well remember the burst of laughter and applause which greeted the opening words of his reading. 'Walking yesterday down the streets of an ancient and well-known city, I- but here the allusion to Oxford was recognized, and he had to wait until the merriment it created had ceased. In alluding to Charles Dickens, Mr. Thackeray, after speaking with abhorrence of the impurity of the writings of Sterne, went on to say:

*The writer is here in error. The Lecture was not delivered on behalf of Mr. Reach, but for the fund then being raised to the memory of the late Douglas Jerrold.

'The foul satyr's eyes leer out of the leaves constantly; the last words the famous author wrote were bad and wicked—the last lines the poor stricken wretch penned were for pity and pardon. I think of these past writers, and of one who lives amongst us now, and am grateful for the innocent laughter, and the sweet and unsullied pages, which the author of "David Copperfield" gives to my children.' The author of 'David Copperfield' was taken by surprise, and looked immensely hard at the ceiling, as if trying to persuade himself that he was unknown to the audience. On the same night I heard Thackeray read Hood's celebrated lines, 'One more unfortunate,' &c."

ANECDOTE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.— Mr. Arthur Locker says that the following sad story was related to Mr. Dickens by the late Mr. Edwin Stanton, the famous Secretary of War in the United States Cabinet. On Good Friday, 1865, there was a Cabinet Council at Washington, and Mr Stanton chanced to enter the council chamber some time after the other members had assembled. As he entered, he heard the President say, "Well, gentlemen, this is only amusement. I think we had better now turn to business." During the meeting he noticed that Mr. Lincoln was remarkably grave and sedate; and that, instead of strolling about the room, as was his usual wont, dealing out droll remarks, he sat bolt upright

in his chair. On leaving the Council Mr. Stanton asked one of the other Ministers why the President's manner was so peculiar, and received the following explanation :-"When we assembled to-day, Mr. Lincoln said, 'Gentlemen, I dreamt a strange dream last night for the third time, and on each occasion. something remarkable has followed upon it. After the first dream came the battle of Bull Run [Mr. Dickens could not remember the second event], and now the dream has come again. I dreamt that I was in a boat on a lake, drifting along without either oars or sails, when At this moment you," said the Minister, addressing Mr. Stanton, "opened the door, whereupon the President checked himself, and said, 'I think we had better turn to business.' So we have lost the conclusion of the dream."

And it was lost for ever. The Council met at halfpast two, and on the same evening President Lincoln. lay dead, slain by the pistol-shot of Wilkes Booth.

THE CONTRIBUTORS TO HOUSEHOLD WORDS.-The earliest contributor to Household Words may be said to have been Mrs. Gaskell, for, after the beautiful little introductory address by Charles Dickens, the new periodical opened with a fine story from her pen. Many of the small band of writers who had rallied round Mr. Dickens, and who formed what may be called the staff of the journal, were comparatively unknown; some were altogether

novices, whom Mr. Dickens's quick discernment of talent had marked out as useful collaborateurs. More than one young writer, whose name has since become familiar to the public, made his débût here. One of the first contributors was Mr. W. H. Wills, who had been editor of Chambers's Fournal, and who, for years, acted as Mr. Dickens's working editor, and confidential secretary. Besides the contributors enumerated on p. 196, there were Mr. R. H. Horne, the author of "Orion," Douglas Jerrold, and Mr. James Hannay, who wrote most of the sea-sketches. Mr. Sala's "Key of the Street," published here, was, we believe, his first appearance as a magazine writer. Among other regular contributors may be mentioned Percy Fitzgerald, Wilkie and Charles Collins, Sidney Blanchard, Mrs. Gaskell, Walter Thornbury, Mrs. Linton, Robert Brough, Miss Amelia Edwards, Mr. J. C. Parkinson, Blanchard Jerrold, W. Allingham. The names of all the contributors to the journal, however, would occupy more space than we have at command.

"THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD."— Concerning the completion of this, Messrs. Chapman and Hall, the publishers, have addressed the following letter to the Times:

"Sir,-We find that erroneous reports are in circulation respecting The Mystery of Edwin Drood,' the novel on which

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Mr. Dickens was at work when he died. It has been suggested that the tale is to be finished by other hands. We hope you will allow us to state in your columns that Mr. Dickens has left three numbers complete, in addition to those already published, this being one-half of the story as it was intended to be written. These numbers will be published, and the fragment will so remain. No other writer could be permitted by us to complete the work which Mr. Dickens has left."

A letter had been sent to Mr. Dickens relative to a figure of speech in Chapter X. of "Edwin Drood," which figure of speech, the writer stated, had been taken from the description of the sufferings of our Saviour, as given in the New Testament, and applied in a way to wound the feelings of Christian readers. The author of "Edwin Drood" wrote the following reply the day preceding his death. already been published as "his last words":

It has

"Dear Sir,—It would be quite inconceivable to me-but for your letter—that any reasonable reader could possibly attach a scriptural reference to a passage in a book of mine, reproducing a much-abused social figure of speech, impressed into all sorts of service, on all sorts of inappropriate occasions, without the faintest connection of it with its original source. I am truly shocked to find that any reader can make the mistake. I have always striven in my writings to express veneration for the life and lessons of our Saviour; because I feel it; and because I re-wrote that history for my children-every one of whom