Dickens : Father and Son.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 372, 29 May 1889, Page 6

Dickens : Father and Son.

Twenty-kight years ago, when the late Charles Dickens was invited to stand for Finsbury, he replied that ' nothing would induce him to offer himself as a Parliament tary representative of the place, or of any other under the sun,' adding, ' I declare that^as to all matters on the face of this teeming earth, it appears to me that the House of Commons and Parliament alto* gether is become just the dreariest failure and nuisance that ever bothered this much - bothered world.' A good many Englishman of the present day are of the sauie opinion. Nob so, however, the great novelist's youngest son, Mr Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, who, according to recent advices from New South Wales, is probably by this time a member of Parliament at the Antipodes. The contrast between father and son is .strongly marked in more than one respect. Charles Dickens repeatedly gave expression to the hope that he should make ' every man in England feel something of the contempt for Parliament that he had.' Edward Dickens aspires to legislate for the country of his choice. The former was an absolute and enthusiastic freetrader. The latter has prosecuted a vigorous canvass as a true blue protectionist of the deepest dye. The London ' Daily Telegraph ' is responsible for the preceding remarks, and doubtless there is a sufficient reason for the contrast to which the writer refers. Charles Dickens had had experience as a Parliamentary reporter. His son Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, has been buried alive for many years past om the back blocks of New South Wales, as, a sheepbreeder. The experienced Parliamentary reporter who has not a supreme contempt for the institution of Parliament, by reason!. of the despicable hypocrisy of the leading lights in it, and the successful back-blocks grazier, the summit of whose ambition is the privilege of dangling a gold trinket which will * frank ' him over all the Australian railways, will be equally interesting curiosities. Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens is a genuine, genial, goodnatured fellow, but from a literary poinfc of view he has been sadly misnamed,

Smart Wife— Don't worry, George. • wrote an article for the paper to-day show ing how to get up a family dinner for $1, and I took it around and the editor gave me a dollar. Husband— That's a rare piece of good luck. What are you going to do with the dollar ? Smart Wife—l'm going - to try that recipe myself and see if it will work