We have, unfortunately, very few letters of interest in this year. But
we are able to give the commencement of Charles Dickens's correspondence
with his beloved friends, Mr. Douglas Jerrold and Mr. Clarkson
Stanfield; with Lord Morpeth (afterwards Lord Carlisle), for whom he
always entertained the highest regard; and with Mr. Charles Babbage.
He was at work upon "Martin Chuzzlewit" until the end of the year, when
he also wrote and published the first of his Christmas stories--"The
Christmas Carol."
He was much distressed by the sad fate of Mr. Elton (a respected actor),
who was lost in the wreck of the _Pegasus_, and was very eager and
earnest in his endeavours to raise a fund on behalf of Mr. Elton's
children.
We are sorry to be unable to give any explanation as to the nature of
the Cockspur Street Society, mentioned in this first letter to Mr.
Charles Babbage. But we publish it notwithstanding, considering it to be
one of general interest.
The "Little History of England" was never finished--not, that is to say,
the one alluded to in the letter to Mr. Jerrold.
Mr. David Dickson kindly furnishes us with an explanation of the letter
dated 10th May. "It was," he says, "in answer to a letter from me,
pointing out that the 'Shepherd' in 'Pickwick' was apparently reflecting
on the scriptural doctrine of the new birth."
The beginning of the letter to Mr. Jerrold (15th June) is, as will be
readily understood, an imaginary cast of a purely imaginary play. A
portion of this letter has already been published, in Mr. Blanchard
Jerrold's life of his father. It originated in a proposal of Mr.
Webster's--the manager of the Haymarket Theatre--to give five hundred
pounds for a prize comedy by an English author.
The opera referred to in the letter to Mr. R. H. Horne was called "The
Village Coquettes," and the farce was "The Strange Gentleman," already
alluded to by us, in connection with a letter to Mr. Harley.
[Sidenote: Mr. Charles Babbage.]