do what is asked for the sake of their friends and comrades around
Page 113
Dickens, Charles – Speeches, Literary & Social
them, assured that they will be the happier and the better for the
deed.
Ladies and gentlemen, this little “labour of love” of mine is now
done. I most heartily wish that I could charm you now not to see
me, not to think of me, not to hear me – I most heartily wish that
I could make you see in my stead the multitude of innocent and
bereaved children who are looking towards these schools, and
entreating with uplifted hands to be let in. A very famous
advocate once said, in speaking of his fears of failure when he had
first to speak in court, being very poor, that he felt his little
children tugging at his skirts, and that recovered him. Will you
think of the number of little children who are tugging at my
skirts, when I ask you, in their names, on their behalf, and in
their little persons, and in no strength of my own, to encourage
and assist this work?
At a later period of the evening Mr. Dickens proposed the health of
the President of the Institution, Lord John Russell. He said he
should do nothing so superfluous and so unnecessary as to descant
upon his lordship’s many faithful, long, and great public services,
upon the honour and integrity with which he had pursued his
straightforward public course through every difficulty, or upon the
manly, gallant, and courageous character, which rendered him
certain, in the eyes alike of friends and opponents, to rise with
every rising occasion, and which, like the seal of Solomon, in the
old Arabian story, enclosed in a not very large casket the soul of
a giant. In answer to loud cheers, he said he had felt perfectly
certain, that that would be the response for in no English assembly
that he had ever seen was it necessary to do more than mention the
name of Lord John Russell to ensure a manifestation of personal
respect and grateful remembrance.
SPEECH: LONDON, MAY 8, 1858.
[The forty-eighth Anniversary of the establishment of the Artists’
Benevolent Fund took place on the above date at the Freemasons’
Tavern. The chair was taken by Mr. Charles Dickens, who, after
having disposed of the preliminary toasts with his usual felicity,
proceeded to advocate the claims of the Institution in whose
interest the company had assembled, in the following terms:-]
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, – There is an absurd theatrical story which
was once told to me by a dear and valued friend, who has now passed
from this sublunary stage, and which is not without its moral as
applied to myself, in my present presidential position. In a
certain theatrical company was included a man, who on occasions of
emergency was capable of taking part in the whole round of the
British drama, provided he was allowed to use his own language in
getting through the dialogue. It happened one night that Reginald,
in the CASTLE SPECTRE, was taken ill, and this veteran of a hundred
characters was, of course, called up for the vacant part. He
responded with his usual promptitude, although knowing nothing
whatever of the character, but while they were getting him into the
dress, he expressed a not unreasonable wish to know in some vague
way what the part was about. He was not particular as to details,
but in order that he might properly pourtray his sufferings, he
thought he should have some slight inkling as to what really had
happened to him. As, for example, what murders he had committed,
Page 114
Dickens, Charles – Speeches, Literary & Social
whose father he was, of what misfortunes he was the victim, – in
short, in a general way to know why he was in that place at all.
They said to him, “Here you are, chained in a dungeon, an unhappy
father; you have been here for seventeen years, during which time
you have never seen your daughter; you have lived upon bread and
water, and, in consequence, are extremely weak, and suffer from
occasional lowness of spirits.” – “All right,” said the actor of