MR. G. A. SALA'S MEMOIR OF THE LATE CHARLES DICKENS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 443, 14 October 1870, Page 3

MR. G. A. SALA'S MEMOIR OF THE LATE CHARLES DICKENS.

Mr. Sala lias written for publication by Messrs, Kentledge, and at their request, a memoir of the late Mr. Charles Dickens, an amplification of the essay which Mr. Sala wrote for, and which appeared in the “ Daily Telegraph ” on the day following Mr. Dickon's death. We extract the following remarkable passage from the preface:- “ ll« was my master, and but hr his friendship and encouragement I should never have been a journalist or a writer of hooks. My first coherent production was published hy him, in 1851 ; the first five poun 1 note I ever earned hy literature came from his kind han 1 ; I wrote for him, and and for no other chief, for seven years ; he sent me to Russia ; wo quarrelled (of course I was wrong), and he laughingly forgave me my transgression, my debts, and my evil temper ; he urged me to enter into the lists of journalism, and watched with interest my progress in the newspaper with which L have, been connected for thirteen years in which 1 have written nearly three thousand leafing articles, and by whose proprietors I have been despatched to almost every part of the world—with the treatment of a gentleman, and the wages of an ambassador. My relations with him were not dissolved by ray engagements as a writer in a newspaper. With the single exception of ‘No Thoroughfare, ’ noChristraasnuraherof 1 Household Words 1 or 'All the Year Round ’ was planne I without his asking my co-ope ration ; less than a year ago, I wrote an article in the last named publication ; Iwas writing an article for him at tho very moment when he was stricken down ; and the last words he ever said to me, when I shook his hanand, with Andrew Halliday, hade him farewell at Edgehill after the Liverpool banquet, were ‘ God bless you !’ And this is tho whole history of my lettered life.”

The “ Gentleman’s Magazine ” speaking af Charles Dichens says.—“ His hours and (lays were spent by rule. Ho rose at a cor-

tain time, ho retired at another and though no precisian, it was not often that his arrangements varied. His hours for writing wore between breakfast and luncheon, and when there was work to he done, no temptation was sufficiently strong to cause it to bo neglected. This (irder and regularity followed him through the day. His mind was essential y methodical, and in his long walks, in his recreations, in his labour, he was governed by rules laid down for himself by himself, rules well studied beforehand, and rarely departed from. The so calle' men of business, the people whose own exclusive devotion to the science of profit and loss makes them regard doubtfully all to whom that same science is not the main object of life, would have been delighted and amazed at this si e of Dickon’s character. Although his intimate friend and partner, Mr. W. H Wills, filled the post of acting editor until twelve or eighteen months ago (when he resigned the position to Mr, Charles Dickens, the younger), and saved Mr. Dickens much of the labour of selection, we believe we are correct in stating that every article iu ‘ Household Words and Ab the Year Bound passed Under the conductor’s eye, and that every proof was read and corrected by him. By a codicil to his will dated seven days before his death, he bequeathed the whole of his interestin ‘ All the Year Bound ’ to his actfug editor and eldest son, coupling the bequest with such private instructions as won 11, lie believed, ensure the character aud merit of the periodical remaining unchanged after he had gone. To say that Mr. Dickens’s affairs were left in perfect order, that every preparation had been made, that all documents U ill be in thenproper places, and that none of the confusion and unc-rtainty which too often follow upon sudden death will arise here, is to s y nothing to those who knew Dickens personally. On one point Mr. Dickens's injunctions are, we un lerstand, precise. It is his earnest wish to have no publicity about his funeral ; none of the well assembling].,f friends when his remains are committed to the earth. AVe believe that neither the time nor place is to be made known before-hand, aud that the List rites will be of the simplest character. This is strictly in accordance with all that Mr Dickens has written, and was known to think. The wretched mockery of woe—the paraphernalia of the undertaker, the most abject form of human vanity aud ostentation —had no stronger foe than the author of “ David Copperfield.” An incident is mentionel as showing iu how great regard Mr. Dick-ns, as a man, and as an slither, was field by the Queui:Shortly before Ids death, he sent to Her Majesty an edition of his collected works a id when the Clerk of the Council went to Balmoral last week, the Queen, know.ng th • friendship that existed hctwoiu Mr. Dickens and Mr, Helps, showed the latter where she had placed the gift of the great novelist. . This was in her private library, an i Her Majesty expressed her desire that Mr. lljlps shoul inform Dickens of this arrangement On his return from Balmoral, Mr. Helps wrote to Air. Dickens ea pursuance of Her Majvsty’sdesire ; but the letter that contained so remarkable a tribute to the great novelist could only nave reached Gadshill while he 1 y unconscious and dying. The following letter was written by Air. Dickens on the day of his death. A person had written to him with reference to a passage iu “ Edwin Drood,” suggesting that—without the intention of hurting the religions feelings of any of his readers—lie had perhaps forgotten that the figure of speech alia ed to by him, in a way which was distasteful to some of his" admirers* was drawn from a passage of Holy Writ reverence 1 by a large number of his countrymen. The reply was as follows : Gad s Hill-place, Higham by Eoches'er, Kent, Wednesday, the Sth June, 1870. Dear Sir, —It would be quite inconceivable to me—but for your letter—that any reasonable reader ooul: possibly attach a scriptural reference to a passage in a book of mine, reproducing a much-abused figure of speech, impres edinto all sorts of servic 6 on all sorts of inappropriate occasions, without the faintest connection of it with its original source. 1 am tru y shocked to find that any reader can make the mistake. I have always striven in my writing to express veneration fer the life an-l lessons of our Saviour ; because I feel it ; and because I re-wrote that history for my children—every one of whom knew it from having it repeate 1 to them, long before they cculd read, and almost as soon as they could speak. But I have never made proclamation of this from the house-tops,—Faith-fully yours, Charles Dickens.,’