the Court had received a great many more hard opinions than it
merited; that they had been parsimoniously obliged to perform a
great amount of business by a very inadequate number of judges; but
that more recently the number of judges had been increased to
seven, and there was reason to hope that all business brought
before it would now be performed without unnecessary delay.
“Mr. Dickens alluded playfully to this item of intelligence; said
he was exceedingly happy to hear it, as he trusted now that a suit,
in which he was greatly interested, would speedily come to an end.
I heard a little by-conversation between Mr. Dickens and a
gentleman of the bar, who sat opposite me, in which the latter
seemed to be reiterating the same assertions, and I understood him
to say, that a case not extraordinarily complicated might be got
through with in three months. Mr. Dickens said he was very happy
to hear it; but I fancied there was a little shade of incredulity
in his manner; however, the incident showed one thing, that is,
that the chancery were not insensible to the representations of
Dickens; but the whole tone of the thing was quite good-natured and
agreeable.”
SPEECH: BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 30, 1853.
Page 33
Dickens, Charles – Speeches, Literary & Social
[The first of the Readings generously given by Mr. Charles Dickens
on behalf of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, took place on
Tuesday evening, December 27, 1853, at the Birmingham Town Hall,
where, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, nearly two
thousand persons had assembled. The work selected was the
CHRISTMAS CAROL. The high mimetic powers possessed by Mr. Dickens
enabled him to personate with remarkable force the various
characters of the story, and with admirable skill to pass rapidly
from the hard, unbelieving Scrooge, to trusting and thankful Bob
Cratchit, and from the genial fulness of Scrooge’s nephew, to the
hideous mirth of the party assembled in Old Joe the Ragshopkeeper’s
parlour. The reading occupied more than three hours, but
so interested were the audience, that only one or two left the Hall
previously to its termination, and the loud and frequent bursts of
applause attested the successful discharge of the reader’s arduous
task. On Thursday evening Mr. Dickens read THE CRICKET ON THE
HEARTH. The Hall was again well ruled, and the tale, though
deficient in the dramatic interest of the CAROL, was listened to
with attention, and rewarded with repeated applause. On Friday
evening, the CHRISTMAS CAROL was read a second time to a large
assemblage of work-people, for whom, at Mr. Dickens’s special
request, the major part of the vast edifice was reserved. Before
commencing the tale, Mr. Dickens delivered the following brief
address, almost every sentence of which was received with loudly
expressed applause.]
MY GOOD FRIENDS, – When I first imparted to the committee of the
projected Institute my particular wish that on one of the evenings
of my readings here the main body of my audience should be composed
of working men and their families, I was animated by two desires;
first, by the wish to have the great pleasure of meeting you face
to face at this Christmas time, and accompany you myself through
one of my little Christmas books; and second, by the wish to have
an opportunity of stating publicly in your presence, and in the
presence of the committee, my earnest hope that the Institute will,
from the beginning, recognise one great principle – strong in
reason and justice – which I believe to be essential to the very
life of such an Institution. It is, that the working man shall,
from the first unto the last, have a share in the management of an
Institution which is designed for his benefit, and which calls
itself by his name.
I have no fear here of being misunderstood – of being supposed to
mean too much in this. If there ever was a time when any one class
could of itself do much for its own good, and for the welfare of
society – which I greatly doubt – that time is unquestionably past.
It is in the fusion of different classes, without confusion; in the