DICKENS, CHARLES. 



221 



n:n:il:-r:imatcd in ono united left, which 

 ><w a majority in the Folkcthing, and on 

 I, 1870, elected the Speaker of the 

 ('humliiT, two vice-presidents, and four sec- 

 ies, ont of its own ranks. The common 

 t, of the left wing is in the direction of 

 country reforms, and to some of ks members 

 ;idical ecclesiastical reforms, with a view 

 i eventual disestablishment of the state 

 Church. A striking peculiarity of the Danish 

 radicals is that they do not subscribe to some 

 of tho dogmas which are the main pillars of 

 Mrctigth to radicalism abroad. The groat 

 majority is even royalistic in its tendencies. 

 Republican ideas, which, on tho whole, find 

 but little acceptance in Denmark, are indiffer- 

 ently represented in the left centre, and by the 

 followers of Grundtwig. 



DICKENS, CHARLES, the most eminent of 

 modern novelists, born in Landport, one of the 

 suburbs of Portsmouth, England, February 7, 

 1^1-2; died at Gadshill, Kent, June 9, 1870. 

 lie- was tho eldest son, and second child of Mr. 

 John Dickens, who at that time held a position 

 in the Navy pay department, from which ho 

 retired on a pension in 1815, and, removing to 

 London, became a parliamentary reporter for 

 one of tho daily papers. In London, his son 

 attended good schools, and received a fair edu- 

 cation, but never attempted a collegiate course. 

 "When he had reached tho proper age, he was 

 placed as clerk in an attorney's office. He re- 

 mained there for a brief period, a year or so ; 

 long enough to acquire a sufficient mastery of 

 tho machinery and phraseology of the law to 

 be able to use it with capital effect in his sub- 

 sequent writings ; but not long enough to sub- 

 duo his lively imagination, or to dull his keen 

 and rich humor. On abandoning the law, he 

 entered upon his father's profession, that of a 

 newspaper reporter. In " David Copperfield," 

 which is understood to be in more than one 

 particular a partial reflection of his own life, 

 we have some amusing descriptions of David's 

 troubles in learning how to take down speeches 

 in short-hand, and his still more serious trouble 

 in learning how to decipher his own notes. 

 There was a better field, however, for the young 

 reporter than the gallery of the House of Com- 

 mons. The streets of London, the prisons, the 

 lodging-houses, the cheap halls of amusement, 

 tho great realm of Cockaigne in all its subdi- 

 visions, and that rich variety of life which 

 Thackeray has immortalized as tho " Shabby- 

 Gentoel," were full of opportunities which 

 waited to bo developed, humors so. racy and so 

 obvious that, now the master has shown them, 

 wo wonder they were so long concealed. His 

 first engagement was on tho True Sun, a liber'al 

 journal then struggling for existence. His con- 

 nection with this paper, however, was brief 

 and not very profitable. Dickens next attached 

 himself to tho Morning Chronicle, and it was 

 while associated with this paper that he first 

 earned reputation for ability and originality. 

 Ho attracted the attention of the editor, who 



requested him to contribute articles other than 

 those in the regular performance of his ropor- 

 tri;il ilntics. I Jo at onoe complied with this re- 

 quest, and published in the Morning Chronicle 

 a series of papers, under tho title of " Sketches 

 of English Life and Character," which became 

 very popular. It was in these sketches that 

 ho first used the nom de plume of "Boz" 

 " tho nickname," ho tells us, " of a pot child, 

 a younger brother, whom I dnbbed Moses, in 

 honor of the Vicar of Wakefield, which, being 

 facetiously pronounced through the nose, 

 became Hoses, and being shortened became 

 Boz." The name of Boz, however, was not 

 peculiar to the Morning Chronicle ; it had been 

 appended also to some clever sketches in tho 

 old Monthly Magazine, and the author tells, in 

 a preface to a late edition of " Pickwick," how 

 his first article, the "Sketch," entitled Mr. 

 Minn* and his Cousin, was dropped stealthily 

 ono evening at twilight, with fear and trem- 

 bling, into a dark letter-box, in a dark office, 

 up a dark court in Fleet-street. "When it " ap- 

 peared in all the glory of print," continues he, 

 "I walked down to "Westminster Hall, and 

 turned into it for half an hour, because my 

 eyes were so dimmed with joy and pride that 

 they could not bear the street, and were not 

 fit to be seen there." From that modest be- 

 ginning came so soon a certain degree of fame, 

 that the Sketches were still running in The 

 Chronicle when Messrs. Chapman & Hall, the 

 publishers of The Monthly Magazine, conceived 

 tho excellent idea of employing Boz to writo 

 the text illustrative of a series of sporting pic- 

 tures by the comic artist, Seymour, which it 

 was proposed to publish in monthly numbers. 

 There was a great rage in those days for cari- 

 caturing the haps and mishaps of cockney 

 sportsmen, and the new series of drawings and 

 sketches was originally intended to record tho 

 doings of a " Nimrod Club ; " but Mr. Dickens, 

 being no great sportsman, objected to this, and 

 demanded permission to write what he chose, 

 letting the pictures arise naturally out of tho 

 text. So came into existence the immortal 

 Pickwick Club Mr. Pickwick himself being 

 drawn from the life, and Mr. "Winkle put in for 

 the express benefit of Mr. Seymour. The pre- 

 liminary advertisements informed tjie public 

 that "the Pickwick Papers, the Pickwick 

 Diary, the Pickwick Correspondence, in short 

 tho whole of the Pickwick Papers, had been 

 purchased from the patriotic secretary at an 

 immense expense, and placed in the hands of 

 Boz, the author of ' Sketches of E very-day Life 

 and Every-day People,' a gentleman whom tho 

 publishers consider highly qualified for tho task 

 of arranging these important documents and 

 placing them before the public in an attractive 

 form, and who is at present deeply immersed 

 in his arduous labors." Tho first number ap- 

 peared on the 31st of March, 1836. Before 

 the second was issued Mr. Seymour committed 

 suicide, and.Hablot K. Browne "Phiz" was 

 employed to complete his unfinished task. For 



