[156] The mention of this name may remind me to state that I have
received, in reference to the account in my first volume of Dickens's
repurchase of his _Sketches_ from Mr. Macrone, a letter from the
solicitor and friend of that gentleman so expressed that I could have
greatly wished to revise my narrative into nearer agreement with its
writer's wish. But farther enquiry, and an examination of the books of
Messrs. Chapman and Hall, have confirmed the statement given. Mr.
Hansard is in error in supposing that "unsold impressions" of the books
were included in the transaction (the necessary requirement being simply
that the small remainders on hand should be transferred with a view to
being "wasted"): I know myself that it could not have included any
supposed right of Mr. Macrone to have a novel written for him, because
upon that whole matter, and his continued unauthorised advertisements of
the tale, I decided myself the reference against him: and Mr. Hansard
may be assured that the L2000 was paid for the copyright alone. For the
same copyright, a year before, Dickens had received L250, both the first
and second series being included in the payment; and he had already had
about the same sum as his half share of the profits of sales. I quote
the close of Mr. Hansard's letter. "Macrone no doubt was an adventurer,
but he was sanguine to the highest degree. He was a dreamer of dreams,
putting no restraint on his exultant hopes by the reflection that he was
not dealing justly towards others. But reproach has fallen upon him from
wrong quarters. He died in poverty, and his creditors received nothing
from his estate. But that was because he had paid away all he had, and
all he had derived from trust and credit, _to authors_." This may have
been so, but Dickens was not among the authors so benefited. The
_Sketches_ repurchased for the high price I have named never afterwards
really justified such an outlay.

[157] Mr. Sala's first paper appeared in September 1851, and in the same
month of the following year I had an allusion in a letter from Dickens
which I shall hope to have Mr. Sala's forgiveness for printing. "That
was very good indeed of Sala's" (some essay he had written). "He was
twenty guineas in advance, by the bye, and I told Wills delicately to
make him a present of it. I find him a very conscientious fellow. When
he gets money ahead, he is not like the imbecile youth who so often do
the like in Wellington-street" (the