Year: 1870

The Queen and the Great Novelist-London In


Mr.. Smalley writes to the New York Tribune
letter from England upon the death of Mr.
Dickens, from which we extract the following
passages:-


The suddenpess of his death has taken the
London press by surprise. There seems to have
been at first desire to keep his illness a secret
He was attacked at bis home near Rochester
about twenty-five miles from London, Wednes-
day evening at dinner. Nothing was known of
it by the evening papers of the day following
Physicians arrived in rapid succession from the
neighboring town and from London. They all
agreed that the case was hopeless from the first
moment


His was; one of those thoroughbred natures
that go on working at full speed till the last
moment; then, without any premonitory symp
toms of weakness or any sensible failure of
energies or faculties break up in any moment.
His sster-in-law was with him. his son and two
daughters were telegraphed for and arrived in
time to stand by his bed as the lamp went finally
out. From the first moment to the last he re-
mained unconscious, and no spoken farewell
softened the bitter grief of relatives and friends


Among his sincere mourners is the Queen.
The relations between her and Mr.. Dickens were
once so far from being true that Mr. Dickens
felt himself obliged to decline an invitation to
the Court. He was, in fact, invited as an anna
teur actor and reader, but being invited only as
such refused. With a sense of the dignity of
his profession only too rare in England, he
said that while he yielded to nobody in
proper respect for his sovereign he
would not enter any house professionally
where he could not be received on equal terms
socially. 1t was the ridiculous punctilio of some
waiting that stood between the
Queen and Mr.. Dickens, and it happened so
long ago that it is only worth remembering to
show how much wiser the Queen has proved in
such matters than her counsellors. She put
aside, or probably there was no need to put
aside, the foolish suggestions of etiquette, and
of late years the Queen has welcomed Mr..
Dickens to her house, as she welcomes any
other guest of distinction. There had
grown up between them q feeling of personal
friendship. The Queen sent him her book, with
graceful note saying how unworthy such a
trifle was of the acceptance of him who was the
chief among the writers of her time. Mr. Dick
ens not long before his death, gave to the Queen
a copy of the library edition of his works. She
put it in her private cabinet, and asked Mr..
Helps to let Mr.. Dickens know that his gift was
placed where it would be always plainest in
her sight and readiest to her hand. The letter
containing this message reached the great
novelist's home while he lay slowly dying and
unconscious.


1t is known that public honors have been
pressed by the Queen and her advisers upon Mr..
Dickens. After what he said at Liverpool last
year he could not well be offered a peerage,
but he might have had that or any lesser title if
he would Times have changed little since
Macaulay was happy and proud to accept what
Dickens could refuse without pride or offense,
but simply because he thought the dignity un-
suited to him. When he had gratefully declined
everything else, the Queen asked him to accept
a seat in her Privy Council. If he would not
have that either presume it was because it
confers the title of Right Honorable, and he
preferred to be simply Charles Dickens.
Intelligence of his death was sent by
telegraph to Balmoral, and Colonel Pom
sonby, one of the household officers,
replied, "The Queen commands me to express
her deepest regret at the sad news of Charles
Dickens death" need not go on to say how
universal is the sorrow among the English peo-
pie. The press is filled with eulogies, is only
natural, but what is remarkable is that On the
second day after the announcement, after the
leading articles and biographies had been duly
published, every journal returns to the same
sad topic. In most of them the later articles
are filed with personal "reminiscences, aud of d
kind that mark how genuine is the feeling that
spreads through the community.


His Last Letter.


Mr.. Dickens last letter was addressed to his son
at Cambridge; but the following was written on the
day of his seizure with apopexy:-


GADsHILL PLACE HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER,, Kent,
WEDNESDAY June {, 187O-Dear Sir-It would be quite
nconceivabe but for your etter-that any
able reader could possibly attach Scrptural reference
to passage in a book of mine, reproducing much
service all sorts of inappropriate occasions without
the fantest connection of it with it's original


am truly shocked to find that reader make the
mistake. have always striven writings
for the life and lessons of Saviour because
feel and because rewrote that history for children
every of whom knew from having it repeated to
they could speak But have made proclamation
this from the housetops. Faithfully yours Sc ,>r,,,
CHARLES DICKENS.