The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Little Dorrit. No. XIII. By Charles Dickens.
Although we have now got to the end of the
eleventh chapter of the second moiety of Little
Dorrit, we cannot for the life of us guess oar way
out of the tangled labyrinth of the plot. Tatty-
coram, M. Blandois, Miss Wade, Harry Gowan—
all the abominables of the book, including amongst
the number Mr. Casby, Mrs. Clennam, and Mr.
Flintwinch, not forgetting, by the way, the princi-
pal members of the Central Dorrit Family, to wit,
Tip, Fanny, and the quondam Father of the Mar-
shalsea—fairly puzzle us. It is impossible to con-
jecture what on earth they are all driving at. We
look for a murder, at least, as a sequel to all this
ominous and diabolic preparation. Poor Cavalletto,
we presume, is still waiting in his garret in Bleed.
ing Heart Yard—for something to happen Young
John is still pining, we suppose, in the Groves—_
of clothes hanging out to dry ! The Patriarch
still with his list shoes on the fender—twirls
his thumbs down to the end of the chapter—until
Pancks the Tug can muster courage enough to
" do" for his Proprietor, aveneingly, by cutting
his hair off ! Sparkler is still feeling his pulse at
his shirt collars ! Barnacle junior still wonder-
ingly goggles through his eye-glass at Clennam's
wanting to know you know ! Blandois' moustache
still goes up and his nose still comes down in
an evil smile a't everything and everybody I
Mistress A.ffery wanders about the grim old
house-upon-crutches, with leer apron thrown
up over her white face—a ghostly appearance
dreading a ghostly appearance ! The Objection-
able dog, poisoned by Rigaud, still rots some-
where at the "ooze and bottom "of one of the
canals of Tenice! Old Mr. Nandy, out from
the Union upon holidays, still chirrups about
Daphne and Phillis to the delight of the Plornish.
children ! Honest Daniel Doyce dreams still his
matter-of-fact dreams about working out his pet
invention in spite of all the tangling red tape of
the dread Office of Circumlocution ! And so on,
with all the rest of these vividly depicted and
motley characters : nevertheless, out of the throng
of them we cannot for the life of us, we repeat,
see our way yet in any one direction. We don't
know what is to come of it all. lt seems to us for all
the world, to employ the language of one of Mr.
Dickens's own characters (vide "Hard Times"),
to use the phrase of Stephen Blackpool—" Aw a
muddle !" Scarcely any progress of any kind what-
ever is made in the prtsent number. Arthur
Clennam, fired by a sympathetic interest, takes up
anew the abandoned hobby of his partner Boyce—
intent upon forcing it,if possible, at last, through the
Circumlocution Office, in spite of all the Barnacles
sticking to all the posts set up by all those who
are, ever and ever, despatch-boxing the compass
in the cause of Misrule, though iu the name of
good Government. In illustration of the course
pursued by Arthur in his new enterprise, we come
upon the following inimitable passage :
"The waiting-rooms of that department soon began
to be familiar with his presence, and be was generally
ushered into them by its janitors much as a pickpocket
might be shown into a police-office ; the principal differ-
ence being that the object of the latter class of public
business is to keep the pickpocket, while the Circumlo•
cution object was to get rid of Clennam. Hewever, he
was resolved to stick to the great department ; and so
the work of form-filling, corresponding, minuting, ne-
morandnm-making, signing, counter-signing, counter
counter-signing, referring backwards and forwards, and
referring sideways, crosswise, and zigzag, recommenced.
" Here arises a feature of the Circumlocution cl jce,
not previously mentioned in the present record. When
that admirable department got into trouble, and was,
by some infuriated member of Parliament, whom the
smaller Barnacles almost suspected of labouring under
diabolic possession, attacked, on the merits of no indi-
vidual case, but as an institution wholly abominable and
Bedlarnite ; then the noble or right honourable Barna-
cle who represented it in the house, would smite that
member and cleave him asunder with a statement of the
gaantity of business (for the prevention of business) done
by the Circumlocution Office. Then would that noble
or right honourable Barnacle hold in his hand a paper con-
taining a few figures, to which, with the permission of
the house, he would entreat its attention. Then would
the inferior Barnacles exclaim, obeying orders, " Hear,
hear, hear," and " Read !" Then would the noble or
right honourable Barnacle perceive, sir, from this little
document, which he thought might carry conviction
even to the perversest minds—(derisive laughter and
cheering from the Barnacle fry)—that within the short
compass of the last financial half-year, this much-ma-
ligned department—(cheers)—had written and received
fifteen thousand letters—(loud cheers)—twenty-four
thousand minutes—(louder cheers)—and thirty-two
thousand five hu.ndred and seventeen memoranda. (Ve-
hement cheering.) Nay, an ingenious gentleman con•
nected with the department, and himself a valuable pub.
lic servant, had done him the favour to make a curious
calculation of the amount of stationery consumed in it
during the same period. It formed a part of this same
short document ; and he derived from it the remarkable
fact, that the sheets of foolscap paper it bad devoted to
the public service would pave the footways on both sides
of Oxford-street from end to end, and leave nearly a
quarter of a milt- to spare for the park—(immense cheer-
ing and laughter)—while of tape—red tape—it bad used
enough to stretch, in graceful festoons, from Hyde-park-
corner to the General Post-office. Then, amidst a burst
of official exultation, would the noble or right honour.
able Barnacle sit down, leaving the mutilated fragment.
of the member on the field. No one, atter that exem-
plary demolition of him, would have the hardihood to
hint that the more the Circumlocution Office did, the
less was done, and that the greatest blessing it could
confer on an unhappy public would be to do nothing."
An admirably humorous passage, this, occurring
in the course of chapter viii., in which we are told
to our infinite amusement how "The Dowager
Mrs. Gowan, is reminded that it never does."
Chapter ix. affords us, through Arthur Clennam's
eyes, a horrid momentary glimpse or two of Miss
Wade and Tattycoram—miserable young female
nondescripts, the latter of whom first startles Mrs.
Tickit with a ghost-like " Appearance and Disap-
pearance." Going in quest of them to the Pa-
triarch Casby's, Arthur has there a brief passage
of arms with Mr. F.'s Aunt—enough by reason of
its sheer extravagance to make the reader, as
the saying is, fairly die a-laughing ! How
many of these half-witted people Mr. Dickens
has drawn to be sure !—Miss Flite in " Bleak
House," Mr. Dick in " David Copperfield,"
Barnaby Rudge himself, the Mad Gentle-
man in " Nicholas Nickleby," and, now
again, Mr. F.'s Aunt, last but not by any means
least in her amazing ridiculousness. Chapter x.,
in which " The Dreams of Mrs. Flintwinch
Thicken," opens threateningly with a description
of the lurid surroundings of the House-upon-
Crutches, and closes almost awfully with Arthur
mast) hhoeuseca,
Illseahviinmgseilof
iCtlethne mnamu'srdreertereratßfirgaomudt,h.eosra,
latterly, Blandois, in grim conference with Mrs.
Olennara and her old hunx of a partner Flintwinch.
Lastly, we have in chapter xi. another gentle,
genial, tender letter from Dear Little Dorrit, giving
us a glimpse of the Gowans' life in Rome, whither
they have been followed by excellent Father and
Mother Meagles, and where Minnie gives birth to
a little baby-boy. And so the number closes with
an affecting glimpse of Domestic Felicity and
Infelicity.