2 1 4 ^ISEN B V PERSE VERANCE. 



int(;nded, what I have resolved upon (and this is the con- 

 fidence I seek to place in you), is, on my return to England, in 

 my o\vn person to bear, for the behoof of my countrymen, 

 such testimony to the gigantic changes in this country as 

 I have hinted at to-night. Also to record that, wherever 

 I have been, in the smallest places equally with the largest, 

 I have been received with unsurpassable politeness, delicacy, 

 sweet temper, hospitality, consideration, and with unsur- 

 passable respect for the privacy daily enforced upon me 

 by the nature of my avocation here and the state of my 

 health. This testimony, so long as I live, and so long as 

 my descendants have any legal right in my books, I shall 

 cause to be republished as an appendix to every copy 

 of those two books of mine in which I have referred to 

 America. And this I will do and cause to be done, not 

 in mere love and thankfulness, but because I regard it as 

 an act of plain justice and honour.' 



The time for Mr. Dickens' departure was now close at 

 hand. His last reading was given at the Steinway Hall, on 

 the ensuing Monday evening. The task finished, he was 

 about to retire, but a tremendous burst of applause stopped 

 him. He knew what his audience wanted — a few words, 

 a parting greeting before saying good-bye. Their illustrious 

 visitor did not disappoint them. ' The shadow of one word 

 has impended over me this evening,' said Mr. Dickens, ' and 

 the time has come at length when the shadow must fall. 

 It is but a very short one, but the weight of such things 

 is not measured by their length, and two much shorter 

 words express the round of our human existancc. When I 

 was reading David Copperfield a few evenings since, I felt 

 there >vas more than usual significance in the words of 



