Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/154

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NOTES AND QUERIES. m 8. v. FEB. 17, 1912.

Twelfth Night characters, being detained at the Custom House for Jesuitical surveillance ! "

By the close of June, 1845, Dickens was back in London. While he had been away, Forster had had to mourn the loss of his only brother. Dickens consoled him with the thought that

" he had a brother left. One bound by ties as strong as ever Nature forged. By ties never to be broken, weakened, changed in any way but to be knitted tighter up, if that be possible, until the same end comes to them, as has come to these that end but the bright beginning of a happier union."

The death also occurred, while Dickens was in Italy, of John Overs, author of ' The Evenings of a Working-Man,' which had been published by Newby through Dickens's influence, and to which he had written a preface. The poor carpenter was even then dying of consumption, and Newby wrote to Dickens that " he hoped to be able to give Overs more money than was agreed on." Newby was an interesting man. Besides being a publisher, he was a practical printer, and once told me that he had written, printed, bound, and published a book without assistance.

When Overs was dying, he suddenly asked his wife for a pen and ink, and wrote in a copy of his book to be sent to Dickens " with his devotion."

Now that Dickens was again in England, the old restlessness was full upon him, and his desire was to start a weekly periodical. He " really thought he had an idea, and not a bad one." The proposed price was to be three halfpence, and *he contents partly original, partly selected notices of books, theatres, all good things, all bad ones.

" Carol philosophy, cheerful views, sharp anatomization of humbug, jolly good temper ; papers always in season, pat to the time of year ; and a vein of glowing, hearty, generous, mirthful, beaming reference in everything to Home, and Fireside ; and I would call it

The Cricket.

A cheerful creature that chirrups on the Hearth. Natural History."

Dickens proposed to himself to " chirp, chirp away in every number until I chirped it up to well, you [Forster] shall say how many hundred thousand ! " This proposal was swept away by a far larger scheme, which had long been under discussion, that of a daily paper, and he decided that " it would be a delicate and beautiful fancy for a Christmas book, making the Cricket a little household god." Thus was originated the title of the Christmas book of 1845 :
 * The Cricket on the Hearth.'

He came to " a dead-lock in this Christmas story sick, bothered, and depressed " " never was in such bad writing cue as I am this week, in all my life." This was owing to his anxiety as to the new paper, to which he had all but consented to have his name publicly attached. Forster, although he knew not then the difficult terms, physical as well as mental, upon which his friend held his imaginative life, knew enough to be fully convinced and correctly, as it very soon afterwards proved that he was entirely unable to bear the wear and strain of the editorship of a daily paper ; for " his habits were robust, but not his health," and that secret had been disclosed to Forster before his visit to America.

Forster's remonstrance, however, was vain: while Dickens was grateful to his friend for his affectionate anxiety, he was deter- mined to go on, and the prospectus of Th& Daily News, written by him, was issued. At six o'clock on the morning of the 21st of January, 1846, Dickens wrote to Forster r " before going home," to tell him, "Been at press three quarters of an hour, and we are out before The Times." A second note,, written in the night of Monday, the 9th of February, contained the words " tired to> death and quite worn out," and also told Forster that he had just resigned. As the description of his Italian travels (turned afterwards into ' Pictures from Italy ') had begun with its first number, his name could not be at once withdrawn ; and for the time during which they were still to appear,, he consented to contribute other occasional letters on important social questions. But the interval they covered was short.

On Dickens leaving, Mr. Dilke was called in as " consulting physician," with absolute power in all business matters, and hi* iriendl Forster became editor. They at once agreed to lower the price from 5d. to 21 d. r which in those days, before the abolition of the compulsory stamp, meant but lrf, to the publisher The immediate result was to raise the circulation from a declining one of 4,000 and under, to an increasing circulation of 22,000 and over. My father worked with Mr. Dilke, purely as a volunteer, in the business department, push- ing the sale and advertisements in all direc- tions. , This he did because he so thoroughly- approved of the views, of the paper on education and social reforms, for which he had long been an ardent worker. Mr Dilke was very successful in securing first new* of important events. Among these was- that of the French Revolution of 1848;;