Manuscripts By Dickens

Whafc have becorue of the manuscripts Df Dickens' earlier works? Some light ÍS thrown on the qnestion iu Mr. Shooling's paper in The Strand. The manuscript of "Our Mutual Friend" was givsn, as is well kuown, by the anthor to liis friend Mr. Dallas, and subsequently bought by Mr. Childs, the publisher, oí Philadelphia The manuscript of 'Pickwick" was, Miss Georgiua Hogarth states, never preserved in its entirety, though stray fraginents have turned up, and are dispersed abont the world, but it was not given by its author to any one. "I don 't think, " adds Miss Hogarth, "he attached nauch importance to his mannscripts in those early days. " Portions of the original manuscript of "Oliver Twist" figure among the nnmerous interesting facsímiles which accompany the article They are taken from a fragment of the manuscript still remaining, which begins with the twelfth chapter and ends with what is now called the forty-third shapter, "whereiu is shown how the Artful Dodger got into trouble. " "Oliver Twist" was written in a nxnch larger hand than were most of the later works. The manuscript shows some notable variations. The manuscript of "Nicholas Nickleby' ' is one of those which have vanished, but a facsimile is given of part of the revised proof of the preface, which shows a long passage struck out by Charles Dickens.