which had reviewed the book, and quoted the above paragraph), replied :— “MR. JERDAN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. "Sir,-In your last number, while reviewing the concluding volume of Mr. Jerdan's Autobiography, you quote a statement made by him relative to two transactions one with Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, and the other with Mr. Charles Dickens and myself— which, if left uncontradicted, is calculated to be injurious to me. This statement, I distinctly assert, is grossly incorrect; and I have thought it necessary to call upon Mr. Jerdan to cancel it altogether. "I greatly regret, for Mr. Jerdan's sake, as well as the parties referred to, that he should have ventured to commit such an indiscretion. "Yours faithfully, "New Burlington Street, "Fan. 12, 1854." "RICHARD BENTLEY. To which Jerdan in turn wrote: "MR. BENTLEY AND MR. JERDAN. "To the Editor of The Critic, London Literary Journal. "Sir,- Having admitted a letter from Mr. Bentley to your columns, impugning a statement you did me the honour to quote in your notice of the fourth volume of my Autobiography, I beg your permission to insert the following observations on the complaint: "If I could have supposed, for an instant, that the facts related were calculated to do Mr. Bentley the slightest injury, I never would have published them; but, on the most earnest consideration of the matter, I must say that such an idea is perfectly incomprehensible. "In the one instance, I mention a report that Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer had paid a certain sum to Mr. Bentley, for the restoration of a particular copyright; and, in the other, I state from my own knowledge the circumstance of Mr. Dickens having paid a larger sum for a similar reassignment. Now, I would ask, to what does this amount? It may go to prove the truism, that publishers are more likely than authors to keep their coaches; but all the rest simply amounts to the commonest commercial arrangement, viz., that Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton and Mr. Dickens paid Mr. Bentley a fair price for what they desired to purchase, and which he had no higher or more profitable object in wishing to retain. In the more important case I was his own arbiter, and surely I would not accuse myself of having been a party to a transaction injurious to my principal or to Mr. Dickens, by sanctioning a disreputable arbitration, of which I may add, that it had the rare good fortune at the time to be perfectly satisfactory to all concerned. "As for any breach of confidence, you, sir, are far too conversant with the literary world to suppose that these matters were not the common talk of every circle in London, and that the attempt to represent them as secrets is very preposterous. "I am indeed sorry that Mr. Bentley's feelings or amour propre have been disturbed; but I am sure that few persons, except himself, will think that I have cast a blot on his publishing 'scutcheon. "To the Editor of The Critic. "New Burlington Street, "Sir,-You will oblige me by giving insertion in your journal to the accompanying letter from Mr. Forster, which has been handsomely sent to me without any solicitation on my part. "Yours faithfully, "RICHARD BENTLEY." [Copy enclosed.] "58, Lincoln's Inn Fields, "Jan. 31, 1854. "Dear Sir, I perceive that the Morning Herald which I have just received comes from you, and I cannot doubt that it is sent to me because it contains a correspondence between yourself and Mr. Jerdan, in reference to a statement on the part of the latter, in which my name is introduced. "I feel it right, in confirmation of your opinion, expressed in that correspondence, to state to you my own opinion, that the negotiation was undoubtedly of a private nature, and one with which the public have no concern. "Further, there were matters in dispute between yourself and Mr. Dickens, the fair adjustment of which was taken into account when the sum of £2,250 was fixed upon as the price at which he should purchase back from you the copyright of 'Oliver Twist.' "This matter having been brought before the public without any fault of yours, it is just towards you that I should write these few words; and I do so with the knowledge and consent of Mr. Dickens himself. "Yours very truly, "JOHN FORSTER. "R. Bentley, Esq." "Oliver Twist" completed, Dickens resigned the editorship to Mr. W. Harrison Ainsworth, who, we believe, still occupies that position. Just before the last instalment was published, there appeared in Bentley's Miscellany this:- "POETICAL EPISTLE FROM FATHER PROUT TO BOZ. 1. “A RHYME! a rhyme ! from a distant clime,—from the gulph of the Genoese: O'er the rugged scalps of the Julian Alps, dear Boz! I send you these, To light the Wick your candlestick holds up, or, should you list, To usher in the yarn you spin concerning Oliver Twist. II. "Immense applause you've gained, oh, Boz! through continental Europe; You'll make Pickwick œcumenick ;* of fame you have a sure hope: For here your books are found, gadzooks! in greater luxe than any That have issued yet, hotpress'd or wet, from the types of GALIGNANI. "But neither when you sport your pen, oh, potent mirth-compeller! Winning cur hearts in monthly parts,' can Pickwick or Sam Weller Cause us to weep with pathos deep, or shake with laugh spas. modical, As when you drain your copious vein for Bentley's periodical. IV. "Folks all enjoy your Parish Boy,—so truly you depict him; But I, alack! while thus you track your stinted Poor-law's victim, * είδωλον της γης οικουμένης, F |