CHARLES DICKENS. 



215 



Pcggotty, " My future life lies over the sea." . . , Tlie 

 relations which have been set up between us must now be 

 broken for ever. Be assured, however, that you will not 

 pass from my mind. I shall often realize you as I see you 

 now, equally by my winter fire and in the green English 

 summer weather. I shall never recall you as a mere public 

 audience, but rather as a host of personal friends, and ever 

 with the greatest gratitude, tenderness, and consideration. 

 Ladies and gentlemen, I beg to bid you farewell. God 

 bless you, and God bless the land in which I leave you ! ' 



The sums gained by his last American readings were very 

 large. His agent Dolby v/as paid in commission about 

 ;;/^2 888, the commission received by Messrs. Ticknor & 

 Fields was ^looo, besides five per cent, on Boston receipts. 

 The preliminary expenses for this series of readings were 

 ;^6i4, the expenses in America amounted to ;^i 3,000. 

 His own profits were within a hundred or so of ;;^i9,oooj 

 united to his English receipts, he had thus gained ^^33,000 in 

 two years. Towards the close of 1868 Dickens began his series of 

 * Farewell Readings,' which were previously settled to take place 

 in the chief towns of England, Ireland, and Scotland. When in 

 Liverpool in 1869, he was entertained at a splendid banquet 

 in the St. George's Hall, the Mayor presiding. The number 

 of ladies and gentlemen who sat down to dinner was upwards 

 of seven hundred. In allusion to a remark in Lord Houghton's 

 speech, that had he sought Parliamentary honours, he might 

 have done good service to his countiy, he said: 'When I first 

 took literature as my profession in England, I calmly resolved 

 within myself that, whether I succeeded or whether I failed, 

 literature should be my sole profession. It appeared to me 

 at that time that it was not so well understood in England 



