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

LITERATURE.

THE " CHARLES DICKENS" edition of Nicholas
Nickleby and David Copperfield. Chapman
and Hall.

Since we noticed, but very recently, this latest
edition 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 aro, 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 interesting 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 confidence more. Of all my books I like this
the best. It will be easily 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 fond parents, I have i❑ 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 oo-
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 Phi; 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
Nichol is Nickleby"—a passage in which ho makes
mention of the ever ready benevolence of the
Brothers Cheeryble—he observes—" 1 believe that
the applications fur loans, gifts, and of ices of profit
that I have bee, 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 L"rd 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 acids, 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 SHORT 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 in 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. Wo don't work 'em
mind, or give 'ern bedding, or let 'em wash. No, sir.
We tried all that sort of new-fangled 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 'ten
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 tramps 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, let 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 board were put outside every workhouse in
England, and this notice written on it in large letters, and
acted up to, there'd soon be an end of vagrancy. There
should be fair notice given 'em—three months, say, and
after that, let 'em look out! What aro 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 come for help to people who've enough
to do with their own poor. Have 1 over 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 Year Round."

Emma Hardiuge, the zealous and eloquent advo-
cate for the abolition of capital punishment, will deliver
a lecture on the subject in St. George's flail, Langhatn-
place, Regent-street, on Thursday evening next, Dec. 12,
at 8 o'clock. Admission free.