Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1852-05-05 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

COMMENCEMENT OF MR. C. DICKENS'S CARISER. —His first en7agement was on the True Sun, an ultra.liberal paper, then carrying on a fierce struggle for existence, from t staff of which he afterwards passed into the reporting rinks of the Morning Chronicle. On that paper he obtain. I reputation as a first-rate man—his re. ports being exceedingly rapid, and no less correct. In the columns of the Cerouk/e he soon gave proof of other talents than those of a reporter; for in the evening edition of that journal appeared the Sketches of English Life and Character, afterwards collected to form the two well known volumes of Sketches by Hos, published respectively in 1836 and 1837. These at once attracted considerable notice, and obtained great success : and the publisher of the col. lected edition, anxious to make the most of the prize which had fallen to his lot, gladly came to an arrangement with Mr. Dickens and Seymour, the comic draughtsman —the one to write, and the other to illustrate a book which should exhibit the adventures of a party of cockney sportsmen, Hence the appearance of Pickwick, a book which made its author's reputation and the publisher's fortune, After the work had commenced poor Seymour committed suicide, and Mr. }Tablet K. Browne was selected to continue the illustrations, which he did under the signature of " Phiz." Meanwhile Mr. Dickens hail married the daughter of Mr. George Hogarth, then, and now, a musical writer; a man of considerable attainments, and who, in his earlier days, was a writer to the Signet in Edinburgh. TIIE LAST CONVICT CONSPIRACY IN NORFOLK IsLa NT —Obnoxious constables were to he destroyed, and the island to be seized. One morning, immediately after inspection, as the various gangs were being marched to their work, the revolt was opened by a simultaneous rush, and convicts scattered themselves over the settlement in search of their victims,—eertairi constables who lived in , detached cottages near the beach. Those who had been on duty the preceding night were, in one cottage, barbarously murdered in their sleep. The soldiery, after much exertion, got the greater number of the convicts hark within the gaol ; but some were scattered still among the hills, and three or four had seized a boat upon the beach, and made their escape to Philip Island. Philip Island is is lonely rock, lying about six miles from the settlement, inhabited by goats and rabbits, by the sea birds, mad by a peculiar kind of green parrot. It is a place occasionally ' visited by officers of the convict garrison, for a day's shooting. On l'hilip Island, these three or four men were able for a long time to elude the vigilance of those sent in pursuit. At length, however, all but one were taken, or had thought it prudent to surrender. For eighteen months that one M aa, hunted by his fellows, lived on in his desolation, and escaped from every one of the many searching parties sent to capture him, who were to be heard shouting about the rock from time to time—the only human voices that disturbed his solitude. At length his lair was discovered. The desperate man then climbed swiftly to the highest pinnacle of rock in the small island. There he quietly awaited his pm:suers. With much toil they had nearly scaled the height on which he stood ; he gave them a wild look of hatred rind defiance, eovered his head with his jacket, and leapt downward, rebounding from rock to rock, and falling a shattered mass into the sea.—Picirarl's Household Words.  _THE