The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-11 00:00:00

THE LATE CHARLES DICKENS

The public regret for the sudden loss of so widely
PcPular an author as Charles Dickens is vividly displayed
in the eagerness to obtain every scrap of intelligence
which his friends or associates can furnish. Many sin-
gular and touching incidents have been mentioned in con-
nection with his unlooked-for end. A melancholy signi-
ficance now attaches to the last words in the last num-
ber of "Edwin Drood," in which the story, in the author's
words, " Comes to an end for a time." 'lt is
related of him that when startled -and distressed by
the news of the death of Thackeray even more
Sudden than his own, Charles Dickens said, " I wonder
whether I shall be missed as much." If he could have
foreseen the universal expressions of regret from the
Queen herself downwards, which are current to-day, he
w°old not have doubted the answer. Her Majesty always
Prompt in expressing the sentiments of her people when
those sentiments most deserve the expression, has lost no
time in communicating her regret to the bereaved family,
and the following telegram has, through the agency of
the "Central Press," been forwarded throughout the
country :

"Mr. Arthur Helps, on becoming acquainted with the
death of Mr. Charles Dickens, telegraphed the lamentable
intelligence to the Queen at Balmoral, and immediately
received the following sympathetic reply :
" From Colonel Ponsonby to Mr. Helps, Council Office.
"The Queen commands me to express her deepest re-
gret at the sad news of Charles Dickens's death."
' This feeling message was at once transmitted to the
ethermany at Gadshill, and will doubtless tend more than any
expression of human sympathy could possibly do, to
soothe them in their distress.
4,,,The -Daily News states that when Mr. Dickens visited
the Queen a few months since her Majesty was personally
°she °light in her public capacity, express her sense of the
of Mr. Dickens's services to his country and to
literature. The Queen was ready to confer any distinction
jay.illeh Mr. Dickens's known views and tastes would permit
Lux to accept, and after more than one title of
'allour had been declined, her Majesty desired that he
Would,
at least, accept a place in her Privy Council. A
Ipleasant anecdote of the Queen's kindly appreciation of
11,8 works has been told. When Mr. Helps, the Clerk of
Is" Council, was last at Balmoral, her Majesty called
"ma into her own private library, and shewed him the
set of Mr. Dickens's works which he
'adpl
recently sent to her- among her chosen
authors. She directed Mr. Helps, knowing his
mrjeudship for Charles Dickens, to tell the author where
esa d placed his books. She little thought the kindly
b,ge would come too late, for it did not reach Gads-
'"'LL till its owner lay unconscious. The following
liarticulars of the circumstances attending Mr. Dickens'
eath have been supplied :—Some particulars are sup-
klied to us of the circumstances surrounding the
death of Mr. Charles Dickens. He was at
Rochester on Tuesday the 7th inst. ; on Wednesday he
IAB employed at his literary labours until dinner time.
hen at dinner he was seized with a violent pain in the
ad, and fell down becoming totally unconscious.
14e was placed on a sofa in the dining-room as
wae not considered advisable to remove him upstairs.
r• S. Steele, of Strood, his local medical adviser, was
Bent for, and found him labouring under a severe form of
4P°Plexy. Stertorous breathing had taken place, and the
extreraities.very soon became cold. Mr. Steele remained
sorb him until near midnight, when Mr. F. Carr Beard,
Ogeun, of Welbeck-street, London, an old per.ional
nd a Mr. Dickens, arrived with Mrs. Collins, and
6,,1as Dickens, daughters of the great novelist. Mr. Beard
Vuediately consulted with Mr. Steele, but they had
rttle hope. Mr. Dickens was still unconscious, and
)I°l•tined in that state up to the time of his death. Mr.
beard remained with him all night. , Dr. J. Russell
aleYnolda, the eminent physician of Grosvenor-
afteet, was telegraphed Messrs and arrived on Thursdy
•er°°°ll He agreed with . Beard and Steele, in
Oeusidering the case a hopeless one from the first. The
eath took place at a quarter past six. The deceased
ass Well on the Wednesday, and wrote agreat deal during
f , ueaY. He had lately had no premonitory symptomsaffection of the brain. He had not been ill since his
hdisposition, about twelve months since, arising from
ha, fatigue of travelling. A post-most examination
d oeen talked of, but seems uncertain. The day of his
eath was strange to say, the anniversary of the StaplF-
"urt accident, in which it will be remembered he was
.in
great peril, and fromwhich some of those nearst to him
e°lleider he receivedw a physical shock from which he
f ever really recovered. The friends in the habit
e 'fleeting Mr. Dickens privately recall now the
scene,ellrgY with which he depicted that dreadful
dr and how as the climax of his story came, and its
utead interest grew, he would rise from the table, and
h,,,erallY act the parts of the several sufferers to whom he
.p„,`"' lent a helping hand. Now that he is gone it is re-
j4l-telabered, too with absolute pain, that one of the first
aug eons a the 'day, who was preseht when this Staple-
th-ar.' story was told soon after its occurrence, remarked
di the the worst of these railway accidents was the
ten,`"itY of determining the period at which the sys-
th;', Fould be said to have survived the shock, and
liostances were on record of two or three years having
Q„
,t—e.by before the life sufferer knew that he was seriously
mate But the medical testimony as to the imme-
cause of Mr. Dickens's death is definite and
bra-ce• Apoplexy—an effusion of blood on the
reat the cause an overstrained system, and the
agn ttule which was only staved off
injunctionstwelemonths
and' he was induced to obey his doctor's
..
a„,_ suspend his readings in public—has carried him
at a conmaratively early age. Several of our con-
4e'Lulloraries give interesting details Of matters which have
,7° specially under their individual observati M. The
News, with which Dickens was so intimately
-Bociated, tells us how he carried his habit of thorough
i.`PrrgY and earnestness, even into his amateur theatricals.
uharles Dickens was eminently dramatic in his genius
w4iledrelliB tastes. Some of time
dearest and closest friends
and m the time of Mr. Macready to that
,I,Mra:ckertsCherhifsrcehosen intimates included many of the
chief lights of the British stage. As an amateur actor he
self was unsurpassed and unsurpassable. Those
remember the performances on behalf of
Guild of Literature and Art; those given
privately at Tavistock-house about a dozen years
Memorial
and those held on behalf of the Douglas Jerrold
i'eulorial Fund, know that the dramatic readings which
f°°k the world by storm of late years were the ripened
:1;114 of a long and intense admiration for and leaning to
Ire stage. The most powerful and the most painful of
R•_. Dickens's impersonations—Fagin, the Jew—Bill
tht(es, the murderer, and his victim—had their germ in
_e, delineation of the light-house keepsr, in the drama
girletten
Mr. Wilkie Collins expressly for his
hap ; and some of the most competent judges
in,„v, declared that the English stage lost an orna-
da„? which would have revived its brightest
Qb.? bY Charles Dickens succeeding as an author and
earnest literature his profession. But Mr. Dickens's
shnidlteurees was such that he not only took upon his own
"late 8 the most arduous tasks connected with the
he 8 oftperformances for charitable objects with which
1„_ en associated himself, but superintended the
sure detail, and often worked with his own hands to en-
uvien what he held to be the necessary effect. There are men
day g who remember his occupying himself for a whole
xeli Trith
rp, ..anarner and nails on the stage of Miss
had
while it was matter for playful jocularity
c•On •ave spirits who have gone before that Dickens
eat iLerted himself into an amateur check-taker, and
long at the re,.ceipt of custom with Arthur Smith all day
Performki-allery of Illustration, when the Jerrold
raue toances 'were about to be given. This is not the
~e5t0,4,e,,, °Peak of the intense and laborious care he
Lond,„", upon the performances given at his
auPer-in-t ""se, or of the days he devoted to the
at endence of stage effects. The only place
tirn,':'s°l?. there was a chance of seeing Dickens at this
there 41d hici intimates, was on the amateur stage, and
foinvi absorbed in the subject of the hour, he would be
at ti-l`e, resting one arm in the hand of the other, looking
corni„ 1:11:0108, and cogitating upon their effect for the
PropePligilt or working like any scene-shifter at the
and lea,
'his was Dickens all over. He never rested,
alas seemed to tire. His active mind has,
Xemp,„„lvf°,lll out his frame, and he has died, like
411 is a,We.it, pen in hand, literally from over-work."
rernark I,vltY he carried into everything. It has been
Iletha,7u that " Thackeray in Houndsditch, Thackeray in
a,„
'°taale--"n or at Camden-town, would have appeared
lhorrie 'lB ;as well could we icture Carlyle at ere-
when Tennyson at Garraway's_, • but Charles Dickens,
Lthose , was übiquitous. He was to bo mot, by
4-1101%3 '',;) knew hmi, everywhere—and who did not
seem • Who had not heard him, and who had not
°llluibue's Photographs in the shop windows ? The
bittt;
air, conductors knew him, the street-boys knew
have b:__P,Frhaps the locality where his recognition would
of the Ilileaq frequent—for all that he was a member
w,ould turn•"-11e11Pli Club—was Pall-mall. Elsewhere he
c'elneup in the odd t places and in the most hill, on
'weather •in es'
• Ha
,Ratchff Hig way, on vers. took-
to andaworterwell-ren, in Gray's Inn-lane, the
wt. FolgateLl oad, at Hammersmith Broadway, in Nor-
uled 'and at Rensal New Town. A handsome
,uere Y the Bell and Horns at Brompton, and
The s' Bien:ltkjrinenagriles. Dickens striding, as with seven-league
y in the direction of North-end, Fulham.
atation.gro Politan Railway sent you forth at
mg Bneedviefy aild You met Charle.s Dickens plod-
to be towards the Yorkshire Stingo. He
/et of the met rapidly skirting the grim brick
be°a46 the grisou in Coldbath-fields, or trudging
Aierg, under even Sisters-road at Holloway, or
waw,
or r a steadypress of sail, underneath Highgate
th loihau tridPursuing the even tenor of his way up the
ge-road. He seemed to prefer the lengthy
anc:ireMfarea
better4ltrioate of
our exterior boulevards to narrow
acid nstreets. They offered, perhaps,. a
°llPort
task for tile° ItY for fair and honest walking,
he , of _ Performance of that self-appointed
atpa,d
uileuestrianism which for so many years
rua,,,whereveerrtic°ll, an which well-nigh undeviatingly,
Whrood-ee, in hal e was sin London, at home at Gadshill,
aild furl or in America—he performed to its last
ere and
had looked Where he had travelled longes.t,
hailer Londo_ deepest and learned most, was in
fundßarb. u• Re was no Regent-street lounger
_.es to .r?ioever. mentions Pall Mall he rarely
'l4l°/lable Piccadilly : he is not much at home in
I°B' Mile quares ; he is not to be found in the
vilent'a park he is not at home at Brompton, or in the
10,4 Ric or in Great Gaunt-street, or at Green-
atreet °Y Thack!!u, or any of the localities so well be-
)l,4_ 8 behinA '-;L.R. But he knew all about the back
,„,tiough.
_u liolborn, the courts and alleys of the
aqui!,
orhs,Ve'ec__ Shabby sidling streets of the remoter ler; ozy crooked little alleys of the City, the dank
ouusae ts of tne water-side. He was at home in all
483 station-houses, cottages, hovels, Cheap

Jacks' caravans, workhouses, prisons, school-rooms,
chandlers' shops, back attics, barbers' shops, areas, back
yards, dark entries, public-houses, rag-shops, police-courts,
and markets in poor neighbourhoods. And, curiously,
from these localities, unseemly and unsavoury as they
might be, he brought pictures of life and manners, and
produced characters of men and women and children that
have been the wonder and delight and edification of
millions, not only of his own countrymen, but of strangers,
at the uttermost ends of the earth."

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

H OUSE OF COMMONS. —FRIDAY.
The SPEAKER took the chair at five minutes to four
o'clock.

SOUTH-EASTERN RAILWAY BILL.

Mr. GILPIN moved the second reading of this bill.
Mr. G. GREGORY thought it was not an unfit oppoltu.
nity of considering the state of the railway company, par-
ticularly with respect to fares and tolls. He admitted
that the railway was well worked, but he thought the
company should not have such enormous powers without
the House considering the bill. He should not oppose
the second reading, but he hoped that any committee to
which the bill might be referred would have the attention
of the department of the Government to which such ques-
tions belonged.
Mr. GILPIN said that-the bill contained no allusion to
the subject on which the hon. member had been speaking.
That was the first time he had heard of any intended or
suggested opposition. During the progress of the bill in
another place, no petition had been received complaining of
the South Eastern Company's actual charges, nor had the
company had any complaint made to them. The hon.
member went on to shew that the company were required
to run by law 30 third class trains, whereas, they actually
run 524. He also spoke of the.facilities afforded in respect
of workmen's trains.
The bill was read a second time.
THE BOROUGH OF SLIGO.

Colonel FRENCH presented a petition against the pro.
posed disfranchisement of the borough of Sligo.
THE GAMBIA SETTLEMENT.

Mr. ROBERT FOWLER asked the Under Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, whether it was true that ne

gotiations had taken place with the view of the transfer
of the settlement of the Gambia to the Emperor of the

French,

Mr. MONSELL said negotiations had been going on be-
tween the Governments of France and England with re-
spect to the determination of the limits of the
territory belonging to the countries on the West Coast of
Africa and the transfer of the settlement of the Gambia
was one of them. The English inhabitants of that settle-
ment consisted of 39 males and 8 females. (Laughter).