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    MR. CHARLES DICKENS AND THE "EDINBURGH R...

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    Election Committees. Ipswich.—The Commit...

    been able tp get any money from either of them . They only made a fool of him . " la cross-examination , Symons added that ^ he did not get a fartliing for bis vote , although he tried very hard and lost a good deal of time about it . He did not ask for a bribe , but for something for his vote . The subtle casuistry of that distinction ia -worthy of a Jesuit . Yarmouth . — -Charles "VVoolven , who voted for Mr M'Cullagh at the last election , has been ordered into custody by the Chairman of the Committee for refusing to answer questions which were put to him . The Speaker has since issued a warrant , committing him to Newgate .

    Dbogheda . — - The committee appointed to inquire into the petitions against the return of Mr . M'Cann , met on Thursday for the first time . Two petitions have been presented in this case . One of them was issued by Mr . Brodigan , the defeated candidate , and alleged that the return of Mr . M'Cann had been procured by violent , outrageous , and unconstitutional means ; that intimidation 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 .

    Mr. Charles Dickens And The "Edinburgh R...

    MR . CHARLES DICKENS AND THE "EDINBURGH REVIEW . " - ( From Household Words . ) CURIOUS MISPREST IN THE " BDESBUEGH KEVIBW . " Thk Edivihurg 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 in 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 all eomplainers . Mr . Thackeray may write upon Snobs , bitt there must be none in the superior governments departments . There is no positive objection to 3 VTr . Reade . having to do , in a Platonic way , with a Scottish , fiahwoman or so ; but he must by no means connect himself with Prison Discipline . That is the inalienable property of official personages ; , and , until Mr . Reads can ; show that he has so much a year , paid quarterly ,. foT understanding ( or not understanding ) the subject , it is none of his , and it is impossible that he can . be allowed to deal with it .

    The name of Mr . Dickens is at the head of this page , and the hand of Mr . Diekena writes this paper . He will shelter himself under no affectation of being any one else * , in having a few word 3 of earnest but temperate remonstrance with . the Edinburgh Review , before pointing out its curious misprint . Temperate , for the honour of Literature 5 •< temperate , because of the great services ¦ which the , Edinburgh lievieio has rendered in . its time to 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 Licence of Modern Novelists ia a taking title . Bat it suggests another , — the Licence of Modern Reviewers * Mr . Dickena ' a libel on the wonderfully exact and vigorous'English government , which ia always ready for any emergency , and which , as everybody knows , has never shown itself to be at all feeble at a pinch within the memory of men , ia Licence in a Novelist "Will the Edinburgh Review forgive Mr . Dickens tm taking the liberty to point out what is License in a Reviewer ? " Even the catastrophe in Little Doi « rit is evidently l > orrowed from the recent full of houses in Tottenhamcourt-road , which happens to have appeared in the newspapewnt a cemveniant period . "

    Thus , the Reviewer . The Novelist begs to ask him whether there is no Licence in , hi * writing ; thenso words and stating that assumption as a truth , when" any man , ^ accustomed to the critical examination of a book ; cannot fail , attentively turning over the pages of Little J ? orrit r to observe that that catastrophe is carefully prepared for from the very first presentation , of the old house ia the Btory : that when Rigaud , the man who ia crushed by th « ftttt of the house , first onters it ( hundreds of pages before the end ) , he ia besot by a mysterious fear and slraddtorinff ; that the rottou and crazy atate of the

    house Is F & tooriously kept beforo the reader , whenever the house ia shown ; thut the way to the demolition of the man and the house together , ia paved all through the book with a painful minuteness and reiterated care of preparation , the necessity of which ( in order tbafc the thread may be kept in the wader's mind through nearly two years ) , ia one of the adyeree incidents of that social form of publication ? It may be nothing to thei question , that Mr . Dickens now publicly declares , on his -word and honour , that that catastrophe was . written , woa engraven on Bteel , "w « w printed , had passed through tU « hand * of

    compositors , readers for the press , and pressmen , and was in , type and in proof in the Printing House of Messrs . Bradbury and Evans , before the accident in Tottenham-court-road occurred . But , it is much to the question that an honourable reviewer might have easily traced this oat in the internal evidence of the book itself , before he stated , for a fact , what is utterly and entirely , in every particular and respect , untrue , More ; if the Editor of the Edinburgh Review ( unbending from the severe official duties of a blameless branch of tlie Circumlocution Office ) had happened , to condescend to cast his eye on the passage , and had referred even its mechanical probabilities and improbabilities to his publishers , those experienced gentlemen must have warned him that he was getting into danger ; must have told him that on a comparison of dates , and with a reference

    to the number printed of Little Dor-rit , with that very incident illustrated , and to the date of the publication of the completed book in a volume , they hardly perceived bow Mr . Dickens could have waited , with such a desperate Micawbwism , 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 and yellow glass-house , and yet throw such big stones over the roof ? Will the licensed Eeviewer apologize to the licensed Novelist , for his little Circumlocution Office ? Will he ' examine the justice ' of his own ' general charges , ' as well as Mr . Dickens ' a ? " 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 lie 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 . Martm ' s-le-Grand m 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 the leading share in carrying it out , and yet this is the government which Mr . Dickens declares to be a sworn foe to talent , and a systematic enemy to

    ingenuity . " The curious misprint , here , is the name of i « Ir . Rowland Hill . Some other and perfectly- different name must have been , seat to the printer . Mr . Rowland Hill !! Why , if Mr . Rowland Hill were not , in toughness , a man of a hundred thousand ; if be had pot had in the strugg les of his career a steadfastness of purpose overriding , all sensitiveness , and steadily staring grim despair out t > £ countenance , the Circumlocution Oilice 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 moat heartily hated Mr . Rowland Hill ; that the Circumlocution Office most characteristically opposed him as long as opposition was in 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 and his troublesome penny project to the grave

    together . Mr . Rowland Hill !! Now , see the impossibility of 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 his being mute on a mighty job that was jobbed in that very Post-office when Mr . Rowland Hill was taboo there , and £ t shall not rely upon his courtesy in vain : though there be breezes on the southern side of niid-Strand ,, London , in which the scent of it is yet strong on quarter-days . But , the Edinburgh Review never can have put up Mr . Rowland Hill for the putting down of Mr . Dickens's idle fiction of a Circumlocution Office . The ' licence' would have been too great , the absurdity would have been too transparent , the Circumlocution Office dictation and partisanship would hove been mncli too manifest .

    " The Circumlocution Office adopted' his scheme , nml gave him the loading sharq 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 docs , and will state it here , exactly ; in apite of its being one of the eternal decrees that the Reviewer , in virtue of his licence , shall kiww everything , and that the Novelist in virtue of hit licence , shall know nothing . M « . Rowland . UU 1 published , his pamphlet on the establishment of ono uniform penny postage , in the beginnipg . of the year eighteen hundred and thirty-seven . Mr . "Wallace ,, member , for Greanock , who had long been ' opposed to the tlwa existing Poet Office system , moved for a . Couamittea « a the subject . Its appointment was opposed by the Government—or , lot us & oy , the

    Circumlocution Office—but wa 3 afterwards conceded . Before that Committee , the Circumlocution Office and ftlr . Rowland Hill were perpetually in conflict on question : of fact ; and it invariably turned out that Mr . Rowland Hill was always right in his facts , and that the Circumlocution Office was always wrong . Even on so plain a point as the average number of letters at that veiy time passing through the Post Oflice , Mr . Rowland Hill wa 3 right , and the Circumlocution Office was wrong . Says the Edinburgh Review , in what it calls a ' general ' way , " The Circumlocution Office adopted his scheme . " Did it ? Not just then , cer tainly ; for , nothing whatever was done , arising out of the inqtiiries of that Committee . Bur , it happened that the Whig Government

    afterwards came to be beaten on the Jamaica question , by reason of the Radicals , voting against them . Sir Kobert Peel was commanded to form a Government , but failed , in consequence of the difficulties that arose ( our readers will remember them ) about tho Ladies of the Bedchamber . The Ladies of the Bedchamber brought the Whigs in 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 that 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 Office had , to that time , done nothing towards the penny postage , but oppose , delav , contradict , and show itself uniformly .

    wrong . " They adopted his scheme , and gave him the leading share 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 Oflice , but to the Treasury . Was he appointed to the Treasury to carry out his own scheme ? No . He was appointed ' to advise . ' In other word * , 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 Circumlocution Oflice gave Mr . Rowland Hill ' the leading share in carrying it out ?' Not exactly , bnt it gave him the leading share in carrying himself out : for , in eighteen hundred and forty-two , it summarily dismissed Mr . Rowland Hill altogether !

    When the Circumlocution Office had come to that pass in its patriotic course , so muck admired , by the Edinburgh Review , of . protecting and patronizing Mr . Rowland Hill , whom any child who i * not a Novelist can perceive to have ~ been its peculiar protege , the public mind ( always , perverse ) became much excited 011 the subject . Sir Thomas Wilde moved , for another Committee . Circumlocution Oflice interposed . Nothing- was done . The public subscribed and presented to Mr . Itowlanu Hill Sixteen . Thousand Pounds . Circumlocution Office remained true to itself and its functions . Did nothing ; would do nothing . It was not until eighteen hundred

    ami forty-six , four years afterwards , that Mr . Rowland Hill was appointed to a placo in the Post Oilice . Was he appointed , oven then , to the ' leading share in carrying out' hia scheme ? He was permitted to creep into the Post Office up the back stairs , through having a place created for him . This post of dignity and honour , this Circumlocution Office crown , was called ' Secretary to the Post-Master General ; ' there being already a Secretary to the Post Office , of whom the Circumlocution Office had declared , as its reasons for dismissing Mr . Rowland Hill , that his functions andJVIr . Rowland Hill's could not be made to harmonize .

    They did not harmonize . They were in perpetual discord . Penny postage is but one reform of a number of Post Office reforms effected by Mr . Rowland Hill ; and these , for eight years longer , wero thwarted and oppo . sed by tho Circumlocution Ollico , tooth and nnil . It was not until eighteen hundred and fifty-four , fourteen years after tho appointment of Mr . Wallace's Committee , that Mr . Rowland Hill ( having , as was openly stated at the time , threatened to resign and to givo his reasons for doing so ) was at last made solo Secretary at the

    Post Office , and the inharmonious secretary ( of whom no more shall be said ) was otherwise disposed of . It ia only since that date of eighteen hundred nnd fifty-four , thflfc sucli reforms as the amalgamation of tho general and district posts , tho division of London into ton town . * , the earlier delivery of letters all over tho country , tho book nnd parcels post , tho increase of letter-receiving houses everywhere , and the management of tho 1 ' o . it Oilice with n greatly increased ellioloney , have boon brought about by Mr . Rowland Hill for tUo publiu benefit and the public convenience . to

    If tho Edinburgh Review could sorionbly want know how Mr . Dickens accounts for tho etiruor of Mr-Rowland Hill , ' Mr . Dickons would account for it by his being a Birmingham man of such importurbablu steadiness and strength of purpose , that the Circumlocution Office , by its utmost ondoavours , vuvy frouly tried , could not wqaken his determination , sharpen hit * maor , or brook his heart . By his being a man in whoso beliali tho . pubjio gallantry was roused , anil the publly apint awakened . By his having a project , in its nature so plainly and directly tending , to the immediate benefit or overy man , woman , and child In , the State ,, that tho Cii ' -

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 1, 1857, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01081857/page/6/