The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-15 00:00:00

ADVERTISEMENT.

The concluding portion of these volumes—that is to say,
from page 185, vol. iii., to the end--is not mine. " Quite
Alone" has been finished during my absence from Eng-
land by "another hand." It is now my duty, in fair-
ness to the public, and in justice to my publishers and
myself, briefly and candidly to explain how it has como
about that a work put forth under my name contains
many pages not written by me.

I will at once drop the convenient, but very frequently
disingenuous, plea of ill health. I was, it is true, when
I left this country more than a year since, exceedingly
unwell, and have had since then several attacks of in-
fluenza, a calenture or two, a low fever, and a touch of
what seemed to be premonitory of the vomito mgro ; but,
on the whole, I have been no more an invalid than could be
expected in the case of a traveller rushing from one trying•
climate to another, and have, thank God, "kept my health"
in a remarkable degree.

When I quitted home, in November, 1863, the novel
of " Quite Alone" was about halt finished. It was entirely
owing to the exceptional kindness of Mr Charles Dickens
that its publication was commenced in " All the Year
Round:" it being, I believe, the rule with the proprietors
of that periodical never to commence a serial story with-
out the whole of the manuscript having come into their
hands, But Mr Dickens was good enough t 3 hope, and
I was sanguine enough to believe, that I could, within
four or five months from the date of my departure, remit to
him the concluding portion of the work, lam sure I
did my best to bring about this consummation, so de-
sirable to us both ; but I signally failed. Page by page,
like so many drops of blood, abatit two hundred slips of
manuscript oozad from me between spring and summer.
They were written with a hard lead penoil on slips of
carbonised paper placed upon dam% I was obliged to
"manifold" my manuscript, to guard against the uncer-
tainties of the post. They were written at intervals of
many days, and of thousands of miles, They were written
in a hammock in Cuba, onboard steamers, in railway cars,
in hotel verandahs, in the midst of noise, confusion, smoke,
cursing and swearing, battle, murder, and sudden death.
In the month of August I broke down altogether, and
the mails went out without any more of my tissue paper.
I had lost the thread of my narrative. I had forgotten the
very names of my dratnaiis personce, I was in a new coup•
try—a new world, among strange scenes and strange people,
hurrying from place to place, badgered and baited and
hated, always abused, often in peril of my life, and under
all hazard compelled to send home every week from six to
eight columns of matter to a London newspaper. To those
who may accuse me of idleness or carelessness, I can only
plead that I was the correspondent for 12 months in the
United States and Mexico of the Daily Telegraph.
As regards " Quite Alone," I had undertaken a task which
I was utterly unable to acoompli,h. It was the Thirteenth
labour of Hercules ; the last straw; and it broke my back.
When I endeavoured subsequently to catch up the lost link
I found that it was too late. The conductors of " All the
Year Round," reduced to desperation by the non-arrival of
any more copy, and anxious to keep faith with their readers,
confided my unfinished story to "another hand," by
whom it was brought to a close, sans bien que mai Till I
returned to Engtand I never knew who that other hand
was. Under the circumstances it is impossible for me to
complain of the manner in which the selection was made ;
and I am sure that I am infinitely beholden to the gentle.
man who, at a very brief notice, addressed himself to such
an unthankful task.

• Returning, then, to commence fresh labours and incur
fresh literary responsibilities, I found, to my dismay, that
" Quite Alone*,' was advertised for re-publication in a col-
lected form. In common justice to Messrs. Chapman and
Hall, in whose interest the book was originally projected,
I could not deny my consent to its being so re-published.
Those gentlemen had treated me throughout with infinite
liberality, courtesy, and forbearance, and I.felt that I had
no right to spoil their market and to keep their capital
lying dead, when the delay to which they had been sub-
jected was due simply to my own laches.
In conclusion, I beg respectfully to say that if the public
will !lesiva the first edition of " Quite Alone.; in a tolerant
and charitable spirit, and if the demand for it should warrant
the issue of another edition, it will be my duty and pleasure
to complete it according to the original plan mapped out,
and to the very best of my ability. And that charity and
tolerance I am confident enough to hope for from a public
whose laborious servant I have been for sixteen years.

GEORGB AUGUSTUS GALA.
61, Guildford-street, Russell-bquare,
_ . .......

December, 1864.

At the Central Criminal Court yesterday Alfred
Thomas Jackson was tried on the charge of murder-
ing a fellow-workman named Roberts in Clerkenwell. The
jury found him guilty of manslaughter, and he was sen-
tenced to penal servitude for life, Another case tried during
the day was that of Mr. Withers. He was charged with
having cmsed the death of Mary Duthie, It will be re-
membered that she rushed into the street, in Barbican.. with
her dress in flames. She was so much injured that she
died a few days afterwards in the hospital. Before her
death, however, she stated that she had met with the acci-
dent while endeavouring to escape from Withers, her em-
ployer, who wished to take liberties with her. Upon this
he was charged with manslaughter. The jury yesterday
acquitted him,