Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/202

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NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. v. MAR. 2, 1912,

book on ' The Decline of England ' : " The British lion in the last stage of consumption." " English society about to fall with a fearful crash.'' Well, fifty years have passed, and the British lion can still do a roar, and at times wag his tail.

Thanks to the industry of Mr. Matz, we now Jcnow the contributions made by Dickens to his magazine. Among them in No. 25, September 14th, 1850, are three detective stories. In these he was assisted by Inspector Field of the detective police force, a man of handsome presence and of the most kindly and courteous manners. He was a constant attendant at Bloomsbury Chapel, then under its first minister, William Brock. At the opening of the Great Exhibition on the 1st of TVIay, 1851, Brock, having a wedding in the morning, found that he could not get to the Exhibition in time without special help to get through the crowds, and Field, on hearing of the difficulty, at once gave him a special pass.

In No. 3, dated the 13th of April, Mr. Dickens announces on the first page that closely associated with Household Words will appear a separate publication entitled The Household Narrative, to be issued at the end of each month as a supplementary number to the monthly part this to contain " a comprehensive Abstract or History of all the occurrences of that month, native and Foreign, xmder the title of ' The Household Xarra-

tive of Current Events.' On the completion

of the Annual Volume a copious index will appear and a title-page to the volume."

Thus a complete chronicle of the year's events, arranged for easy reference, was to be printed at a price within the reach of " the humblest purchaser." This publica- tion brought Dickens into collision with the Government, it being, as is well known, at that time illegal to publish news unless the paper was stamped and had acquired the privileges of a newspaper. The House- hold Narrative could hardly be said to contain news, as the events were for the most part a month old before they appeared in its columns. Notwithstanding this, the Govern- ment entered into a prosecution for penalties against the proprietors, on the ground that the matter consisted wholly of news ; and it was said that the prosecution was com- menced in order to test the law, and put down that class of monthlies. " A pretty policy! " indignantly observed Milner Gibson in one of his speeches,

" when they talked of educating the people, to attempt to prevent a man, with a heart and

intellect like Mr. Dickens, from addressing the greatest possible number of his countrymen, by stupid laws which were a disgrace to the legisla- ture."

The prosecution failed, and although the Government at first intended to try to get the decision of the judges reversed, the matter was finally allowed to drop.*

My father at this period was freqi, summoned to Somerset House to appear before the authorities on account of infor- mation which had appeared in The Athe- nceum. He would protest that the para- graphs complained of were not news, and would be dismissed with a warning to " be careful." My father had a strong suspicion that the Society for (lie Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge caused Athenaeums to be sent to Somerset House with paragraphs marked " Is this news ? " The Society did all they could to get The Athenaeum prosecuted, hoping that in the case of a paper holding such a high position the furor over the prosecution would be so great, that it would bring about repeal. I remember my father laughingly telling me that at one of the meetings of the Society he was sitting on the platform, when a speaker pointed him out : " There- sits John Francis of The Athenaeum, who owes in fines millions to the Government."

The publisher of Punch was also occa- sionally summoned to Somerset House, but the idea of prosecuting that paper was too ridiculous, and any such suggestion made in the House of Commons was received with roars of laughter. The Athenaeum and Punch at that time had the privilege of having two issues, one stamped and the other unstamped, and it was the unstamped issues that the Government were attacking. The abolition of the compulsory stamp was. not, however, an unmixed blessing, as the stamp carried the privilege of free postage without limit as to the number of times.

Mr. R. C. Lehmann has done good service by giving to the public the letters written by Dickens to his great-uncle, W. H. Wills, and the title of his book, just published by Smith & Elder, ' Charles Dickens as Editor,' is no misleading one, for through its pages we obtain a clear insight into the novelist in this role. Mr. Wills was? born in Plymouth, January 13th, 1810- At his father's death, ihe 'D.X.B/ states, the support of his family devolved upon him ; he became a journalist, writ ng articles for the Penny and Saturday

Them,' by Henry J. Nicoll.
 * ' Great Movements and Those who Achieved