The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-07 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

DIE " CHARLES DICKENS" edition of Nicholas
Nickleby and David Copperaeld. Chapman
and flail.

Since we noticed, but very recently, this latest
edidon of the writings of Mr. Charles Dickens, two
more volumes of the series have come to hand—
" Nicholas Nickleby" and "David Copperfield."
As stories, these two are, perhaps, the very best of
our author's more highly-elaborated works. " David
Copperfield," we have always regarded, indeed, as
among all his larger works, his masterpiece. Just
as among his smaller works " The Christmas
Carol," to our thinking, stands forth pre-eminent.
It will, therefore, be especially iuterestiug to those
who coincide with us in awarding the pas, in the
order of precedence, to " David Copperfield," when
they find that the author himself avows, in his
Preface to the present edition of it, his own indi-
vidual preference for that one among all his writings.
lie does so in these words--appended to his admis-
sions or confessions in the Preface to previous edi-
tions of the book —" I can only take the reader into
one cinfidence more. Of all my books I like this
the best. It will be e tsily believed that lam a fond
parent to every child of my fancy, and that no one
can even love that family as dearly as I love them.
But, like many foul parents, I have in my heart of
hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Cop-
perfield." In keeping with this, is the circumstance
that in the frontispiece to " David Copperfield "
not to " Pickwick," but to " David Copperfield," we
find, here, very charmingly engraved, the likeness
of Mr. Dickens taken from the best of all the pho-
tographs of him, the one produced by Mr. John
Watkins, of Parliament-street, Westminster. As
additional adornments to the volume, there are,
besides this portrait of the author, several of the
original etchings by Phiz, scattered through the
letterpress. Appended to the Preface to "Nicholas
Nickleby," there is another paragraph " confidence"
from the author, sufficiently characteristic in its way
to deserve, now, some special reference, en passant.
It is where, having referred to the extraordinary mul-
titude of letters drawn down upon his devoted head
by one "unlucky" remark of his towards the close of
" Nicholas Nickleby"—a passage in which he makes
mention of the ever ready benevolence of the
Brothers Cheeryble—he observes—" 1 believe that
the applications for loans, gifts, and offices of profit
that I have been requested to forward to the ori-
ginals of the Brothers Cheeryble (with whom I
never interchanged any communication in my life)
would have exhausted the combined patronage of
all the Lord Chancellors since the accession of the
House of Brunswick, and would have broken the
Rest of the Bank of England." As an effectual
preventive of anything like a repetition of these
applications he adds, not in a separate sentence
merely, but in a separate paragraph (of half a line)
" The Brothers .are now dead." Turning over
the ten or fifteen illustrations selected from the
eighty etchings with which these two works in the
original editions were embellished by the hand of
Phiz, one longs to see that same Phis back again (if
he could but return in full force), as the illustrator
almost by right of Charles Dickens's next new
serial, when the familiar green leaves come to be
put forth anew.

A SIIORT WAY WITH VAGRANTS.—" Casual
wards? Yes, certainly; you shall see them now. But
our guardians, I may tell you, are almost unanimous
against tramps, and we've fewer of 'em than any work-
house iu the neighbourhood. Why ? Because (trium-
phantly) We give 'em nothing to eat ! That's the way,
sir, depend on it ; and, in my opinion, if tramps weren't
fed, there'd be an end of vagrancy. We don't work 'em
mind, or give 'em bedding, or let 'em wash. No, sir.
We tried all that sort of new-faugled work, and it didn't
answer— not it. They'd eat their suppers or their break-
fasts fast enough ; but when work-time came, they'd
rather run away than do it. System of control—labour-
master ? Bless you, no. We tried 'em with stone-break-
ing, we tried 'em with oakum-picking, and we tried 'em
with carrying water ; but they took to none of them, and
made off every morning, as regular as the clock came
round. Not likely to take to it, unless they're made, you
say ? Give 'em decent beds, and bread and gruel, and
take care to make 'em work it out the next morning, as is
done successfully elsewhere ? Why should we, when our
present plan answers as well as it does ? Why, we've
fewer trumps in our wards than any of the workhouses
near, and why? Just because they ain't coddled here, and
don't get fed. Why, sir, if my plan was adopted, I'd back
myself to clear the whole country of vagrants in three
mouths. What is my plan ? Well, lot the unions com-
bine—for it's no use trying it, mind you, unless all act
alike—and put out a. notice saying that, after a certain
date, no tramps will be relieved, on any pretence whatever.
Now, I've had a good deal of experience —I have ; nine
and twenty years I've been master here, and I say that
if a good white hoard were put outside every workhouse in
England, and this notice written on it in largo letters, and
acted up there'd soon be an end of vagrancy. There
should be fair notice given 'em—three mouths, say, and
after that, let 'em look out! What are vagrants ? That's
what I want to know. Nasty, good-for-nothing fellows,
who leave their parishes, if they ever had parishes—which
is doubtful—and coma for help to people who've enough
to do with their own poor. Have 1 ever heard of ' A Short
Way with Dissenters,' by the man that wrote Robinson
Crusoe ? •No, sir, I can't say I have ; but I'd make a pre-
cious short way with vagrants, If I'd my will."— Dickens's"
All the Fear Round."

Emma Hardinge, the zealous and eloquent advo-
,2ato for the abolition of capital punishment, will deliver
t lecture on the subject in St. George's Hall, Langham-
place, Regent-street, on Thursday evening next, Dec. 12,
at 8 o'clock. Admission free.