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bemt aMiatOigefc any money ^ coB >;«« lhaar tkenau They only madia ; a foal * of . Miu" Im gross ; - » nrarm nation ? Symonsa 4 dJe 4 that . '' hadBi not gek ; a farthing foar . hia vote , altto"g & h& tried , vecybacd and lost a good , deal of tfoie-abottfcifc . He did ; not ask ; for a . bribe , bat fi » something- fee liia vote . Dhe . subtle casuistry of that diakiiictiomi » w © rtl » y o £ . a Jesuit . > ¦ YAEMomKa ^—Cliarle 3 t WeaErtn * .. wb » . voted fear Mr . M'Gullagk at . the last election ,, has beenordered into custody botherGbsdsxaaa of the Committed for refiaaaig to ; answers question * rehash , -were put . to him . The Speaker has . since issued- a . warranty committing ; him . to Newgate .
DROGHunii . — - The committee appointed to inquire into the petitions against , the return o £ Mr , M'Cann , met on Thursday for the first time . Two , petitions have be « n presented . ia this case . One of them was issued by Mr . Brodigan , the defeated candidate , and alleged that the , return of MLr . M'Carin . had heen . procured by violent , outrageous , and . unconstitutional means . ; that in-timida = tioa and fraudulent devices had been practised ,, and that inflammatory appeals- had been made to the populace , which had produced riots and prevented voters from going to the poll . The second petition was . signed by voters of the borough , and contained similar allegations * The inquiry appears likely to . rival that , in connexion , with- Mayo ~
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' ¦ ME . CHAKEBSDICKERS AISD THE "EDiNBfCTK&H EEVIEW . " ( Prom Household Words . ") £ URK > US MISPKIiJT Ml IHS " BDimRUBiffia BEYIEW . " *! & » Edinburg h , Review ^ in an article in its last number , on ** The Licence of Modern . Novelists , "' is : angry with Mr . Dickens and other modern novelists * for not , confining themselves to the mere amusement of their readers , and . for testifying inr their -works , that , they seriously feel the . interest of true Englishmen , in . the -welfare and . honour- of their country . To them should be left the making-. of easy occasional books for idle young gentlemen and ; ladies to take up : and lay down on sofas , drawing-room tables , and window-seats : to
the Edinburgh Review should be reserved the settlement of all social and political questions , and the strangulation" of ali eompiainera . Mr . Thackeray may write upon Snobs , but there ronst be none in the superior government departments . There is no positive objection to Mr . Reade having to do , ia a Platonic way , -with a Scottish fishwomau or so ; but he must by no means connect himself with Prison Discipline . That is the inalienable property of official personages . ; and , until Mr . Reade can show that he has so much a year , paid quarterly , for understanding ( or not understanding ) the subject , " it is none of his , and it is impossible that ho can be allowed to deal with it .
The name of Mr . Dickens is at the head of this page , and the hand of Mr . Dickens writes this paper . He will shelter himself under no affectation of being any one else , in having a few w ords of earnest but temperate remonstrance with the Edinburgh Review , before pointing out its curious misprint . Temperate , for the honour of Literaturej temperate , because of the great services which the EdinburgJt lieview has rendered in it 3 time ( o good literature , and good government ; temperate , in remembrance of the loving affection of Jeffrey , the friendship of Sydney Smith , and the faithful sympathy of-both .
The liicenco of Modern Novelists , is a taking title . But it suggests another , — - the Licence of Modern Reviewersi . Mr . Dickens ' s libel on the wonderfully exact and vigorous English government , which is always ready for any emergency , and which , as everybody knows , has never shown itself to ba at all feeble at a pinch within the memory of men , is Licence , in a Novelist "Will the Edinburgh lieview forgive Mr . Dickens for taking the liberty to point out what is License in a Reviewer ? " Even the catastrophe in Little Dotrit is evidently borrowed from the recent fall of houses in Tottenhamcourt-road , which happens to have appeared in the newspapers at a convenient period . "
Thus , the Reviewer * The Novelist begs to ask him whether there id no Licence in hia writing those words and stating that assumption as a truth , when any man accustomed to the critical , examination of a book cannot fall , attentively turning over the pages of Littia Dorrit ; to observe that that catastrophe is carefully prepared for from the . very first presentation of the old house in the . story ; that when Rlgaud , the man who is crushed by the fair of the house , first enters it ( hundreds of pages before the end ) , lw Is beset by a mysterious fear and
shuddering v that' the rotten and crazy state of thehouse is laboriously kept before the reader , whenever the hous e , is shown ; that the way to the demolition of the man- and the house- together , is paved all through the book' with a painful minuteness and reiterated caro of preparation , the necessity oft which ( in order that th thread may be kept in the reader's mind through nearly tw ; o years )* is one of the adverse incidents of that social form of publication ? It may be nothing to the question that Mr ; Dickomnowpublicly declares , , on hbvword amd honour , tftat that catastrophe was written ^ waa engraven on tfWeij ' -vvaa printed ^ had passed th rough the hands of
compositors , readers- for the pcessy * " # pressmeny and . was in type *» & ia proof ia ttoe FnirtHfg House-off iMessrs . Bradbury ana Evaaay before the accident in Tottenhaia-court-jroadi occuiared . But , it ismueh to the question that an honourable reviewer might have * easily i . traced this ou * igt-. tbe- iatemal evidences of- thebook . itseli ; before- k « stated , fee a fact * , -what ; is utterly and tentiieliy ,. m- every , particular and respeet , untrue . * Mora . ; if the Editor of the Edinburgh Review ( unbending , froitt '¦ . the . severer official , duties of a blanielefla brand * o £ the i Cireuraloeution > Office- ) bads happened to » condescend . to . caafe hia e > ye on the passage , and had . referred even it * mechanical probabilities- and improbabilities to his- publislxersthose , experienced : gentlemen must have warned
^ him . that he waa getting , into danger ; must have , told him . that on a . comparison , of dates , and with a . reference to the number printed of Little . Dorrit ,, with that very incident illustrated ,, and . to the date of the publieationtof the completed , book in . a . volume ,, they hardly perceived how Mr . Dickens could have waited , with suck a desperate 3 t ficawherism T for a fall of houses , in . Tottenhamcourt-road ,, to get him out of . his difficulties ,, and yet could have come up to time with-the needful punctuality . Does the Edinburgh Review make no charges at random' ? Does it live in a blue aad yellow glass-house , and yet throw such big stones over , the roof ? Will the licensed Reviewer , apologize to tlie licensed Novelist , for his little Cixcuailocution . Office ? Will he ' examine the justice *
of his own ' general charges , ' as well as Mr . Dickens ' s ? Will he apply his- own words to himself , and come to the conclusion that it really is " a little curious to consider what qualifications a man . ought to possess , before he could with any kind of propriety hold this language ?" The Novelist now proceeds to the Reviewer ' s curious misprint . The Reviewer , in his laudation of the great official departments , and in , his indignant denial of there being any trace of a Circumlocution Office to be detected among them all , begs to know , " what does Mr . Dickens think of the whole organisation of the Post-office , and of the system of cheap Postage ? "" Taking St . Martin '
s-le-Grand , in tow , the wrathful Circumlocution steamer , puffing at Mr . Dickens to crush him with all the weight of that first-rate vessel , demands " to take a single and well-known example , how does he account for the career of Mr . Rowland Hill ? A gentleman in a private and not very conspicuous position , writes a pamphlet recommending what amounted to a revolution in a most important department of the Government . Did the Circumlocution Office neglect him , traduce him , break his heart , and ruin his fortune ? They adopted his scheme , and gave him tlie leading share in carrying it ^ , and yet this is the government which Mr . Dickenaf declares to be a sworn foe to talent , and a systematic enemy to
ingenuity . The curious misprint , here , is the name of Mr . Rowland Hill . Some other and perfectly . different name must have been sent to the printer . Mr . Rowland Hill I ! "Why , if Mr . Rowland Hill were not , in toughness , a man of a hundred thousand ; if he had not had in the struggles of his career a steadfastness of purpose overriding all sensitiveness , and steadily staring grim despair out of countenance , the Circumlocution Office
would have made : a dead man of him long and long ago . Mr . Dickens , among his other darings , dares to state , that the Circumlocution Office most heartily hated Mr . Rowland Hill ; that the Circumlocution Office most characteristically opposed him as long as opposition was ia any way possible ; that the . Circumlocution Office would have been most devoutly glad if it could have harried Mr . Rowland Hill ' s soul out of his body , and consigned him aad his troublesome penny project to the grave together . Hill 11 the of
Mr . Rowland Now , see impossibility Mr . Rowland Hill being the same which the Edinburgh Review sent to the printer . It may have relied on the forbearance of Mr . Dickens towards living gentlemen , for hia being mute on a mighty job that was jobbed in that very Post-office when Mr . Rowland Hill was taboo there , and it shall not rely upon his courtesy in vain : though there be breezes on the southern side of mid-Strand ,. London , in which the scent of it ia yet strong on quarterr-daya . But , the Edinburgh Review never cou havo put up Mr . Rowland Hill for the putting dowa of Mr . Pickens's idle fiction of a Circumlocution Office The licence' would havo been too great , the absurdity would have been too transparent , the Circumlocution Offico dictation andt partisanship would have been much too manifest .
" The Circumlocution OfiRco adopted his scheme , and gave him the loading share in carrying it out . " The words are clearly not applicable to Mr . Rowland Hill . Does the Reviewer remember the history of Mr . Rowland Hill ' s scheme ? The Novelist does , and will state it hero , exactly ; in spite of its being ; ono of the eternal decrees that the Reviewer , in virtue of his licence , shall know everything , and that tho Novelist ia virtue of . Ms liconco , shall know nothlngi Mr .. Rowland Hill published hia , pamphlet « n the . establishment of / one uniform penny postage , , ia the , beginning of the y ^ earoightefinJhun 4 i : « d , and ) tb , lj ? ty-si 6- » en , Mr * Wallace , mej » bw for . Grxacivoek ,, wjw * h * d long , been opposed to the them oxiahing Poat > Oij&co , ayetem , moved for a Committee on tlie subject ., Ita- appointment woa opposed by . the Government— -or , lftt . ua , say „ tho
Cireumlocations Office—but waa > afiberwamis concHde&i . Before that Committee } , tlie GijraaaBilbc » ti « it ( Office and Mfc Rowland ! Hill were , perpetually iai conf lict . on > questions off fact ; and it invariably turned out that Mr-i . Bowland . Hill wa 3 ; aL-waysjr % ht . in . has facts , and that the Circuajlocntion pf&ce was . always wrong . Even , on so plain w point as . the average number of letters at that : very time passing- throug h , the Post Office ^ Me . Rowland Hill , wa * right , and thtt Gircttmlocution Office ; ttos wrong . Say * the -EdinlyiiTrg h lieview f in what it calls a . ' general ? way , " The- eircunalocuti jn- OdSce adopted hia scheme . " Did it 2 H-ot just tuenr cettainily ; foe , nothing whatever was . doney ai"ising- oat ' of the inquiries of tbatConv . mittee . But , it happened that , the WMg Go . vernment
afterwards came to be beaten on tha Jamaica question , by reason of the Radicals voting against them . Sir Robert Peel was commanded to form a > Government , but failed , in consequence of the difficulties that arose ( oitr readers ^ will remember them ) about the Ladies of the Bedchamber . The Ladies , of thei Bedcliambeu brought the Whigs io again , and then the Radicals ( being always for the destruction of everything ) made it one of the conditions of their rendering their support to the new Whig Government tiiat the penny postage system should be adopted . This was two years after the appointment of the Committee : that is to say , in eighteen hundred and thirty-nine . The Circumlocution Offtce had , to that time , done nothing towards the penny postage , but oppose , delav , contradict , and show itself uniformly
wrongv " They adopted his scheme , amd gave him the leadingshare in carrying it out . " Of course they gave him the leading share in carrying it out , then , at the time when they adopted it , and took the credit and popularity of it £ Not . so . In eighteen , hundred and thirty-nine , Mr . Rowland Hill was appointed—not to the Post Office , but to the Treasury . Was he appointed to the Treasury to carry out his own scheme ? No . Hewas appointed'to advise . ' lit other words , to instruct the ignorant Circumlocution , Office how to do without him , if it by any means could . On the tenth of January , eighteen hundred and forty , the penny-postage system was adopted . Then , of course , the Circuudocutioa Office gave Mr . Rowland Hill ' the- , leading share in carrying it out ?' Not exactly , but it gave him the leadijig share in carrying himself out :, for , in . eighteen hundred and forty-two , it summarily dismissed . Miv Rowland HilL altogether !
When the Circumlocution Office had come to that pass in its patriotic course , so niucb . admired b . y theEdinburgh Review , of protecting and patronizing Mr . Rowland Hill , whoni any child who is not a Novelist can perceive to have been its peculiar protege , the public mind ( always perverse ) , became much excited oa the subject . Sir Thomas Wilde moved for another Committee . Circumlocution Office interposed . Nothing was done . Tho public subscribed and presented to Mr . Rowland Hill Sbcteeu , Thousand Pounds . Circumlocutioa Office rermaiaed true to itself and its functions .. Did nothing ; would do . nothin g * It was not until eighteen hundred
and forty-six , four years . afterwards , that Mr . Rowland Hill was appointed to a place in the Post Office . Was he appointed , even then , to the l leadiu ^ share in carrying out' hia scheme ? He was permitted to creep into the PostOffi . ee up the back stairs , through having a place created for him . This post of dignity and honour , this Circumlocution Offico crown , was called ' Secretary to tho Post-Master General ; ' there being already a Secretary to tho Post Office , of whom the Circumlocution Office had declared , as its reasons for dismissing Mr-Rowland Hill , that his functions and Mr , Rowland Hill's could not bo made to harmonize .
They did not harmonize . They were in perpetual discord . Penny postage is but one roform of a number of Post Office reforms effected by Mr . Rowland Hill ; and these , for eight years longer , were thwarted and opposed by tho Circumlocution Oflico , tooth and nail . It was not until eighteen hundred and fifty-four , fourteen years aftor the appointment of Mr . Wallace ' s Committee , that Mr . Rowland Hill ( having , as was openly stated at the time , threatened to resign and to give his reasons for doing so ) was at last made sole Secretary at the
Post Office , and the inharmonious secretary ( of whom no more shall be said ) was otherwise disposed of . It 'a only sinco that date of eighteen hundred- and fifty-four , that such reforms as the amalgamation of the general nnd district posts , tho division of London into ton towns , the earlier delivery of letters all over the country , tho book and parcels post , tho iitcreaso of lettor-rocoiving houses everywhere , and the management of tho Post Office with a greatly increased etficioncy , have been brought about by Mr . Rowland Hill Toe tho public benefit and tho public convenience .
If tho Edinburgh Review could seriously want to know ' how Mr . Dickens accounts for the career of Mr . Rowland Hill , ' Mr . Dickens would account for it by bis being a Birmingham man of such imperturbable steadiness and strength of purpose , that tho Girouinlocution , Office , by ita utmost endeavours , very freely tried , could not weaken hia determination , shai ^ on hia razor , or break , his . heart . By hia being , a man ia whoso behalf the , public , gallantry was roused ,, and tJUo public sujnt awakened . By hia haying a project ,, ia , its nature sa plainly and . directly tending to . the . iauuedjuUo . bonefii of e yejfy inan > Yroauuw and , oUUd in the State , that tho Clr-
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72 ^ :. - . ' . Til IEIDIE .- [ K 6 .-S 84 ^ AGmrnml ^ IS 5 S .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 1, 1857, page 726, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2203/page/6/
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