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CHARLES DICKENS. 2n 



ft-hom I left there ; to see the faces of a multitude of new 

 friends upon whom I have never looked ; and though last, 

 not least, to use my best endeavours to lay down a third cable 

 of intercommunication and alliance between the Old World 

 and the New. ■ 



'Twelve years ago, when. Heaven knows, I little thought 

 I should ever be bound upon the voyage which now lies 

 before me, I wrote, in that form of my writings which obtains 

 by far the most extensive circulation, these words about the 

 American nation : " I know full well that, whatever little 

 motes my beamy eyes may have described in theirs, they 

 are a kind, large-hearted, generous, and great people." In 

 that faith I am going to see them again. In that faith I shall, 

 please God, return from them in the spring, in that same faith 

 to live and to die. My lords, ladies, and gentlemen, I told 

 you in the beginning that I could not thank you enough, and, 

 Heaven knows, I have most thoroughly kept my word. If I 

 may quote one other short sentence from myself, let it imply 

 all that I have left unsaid, and yet deeply feel ; let it, putting 

 a girdle round the earth, comprehend both sides of the 

 Atlantic at once in this moment. As Tiny Tim observed, 

 " God bless us every one." ' 



He arrived in Boston, safe and well, on the night of 

 Tuesday, 19th November. His first reading came off at 

 Boston on the 2d December, and was thus described by 

 himself: — 'It is really impossible to exaggerate the magni- 

 ficence of the reception or the effect of the reading. The 

 whole city will talk of nothing else and hear of nothing 

 else to-day. Every ticket for those announced here and in 

 New York is sold. All are sold at the highest price, for 

 vhich in our calculation we made no allowance ; and it is 



