s dinner" by Cooper's company's coach leaving
the Bush at half-past six next morning; and by the first Ball's coach on
Thursday morning he will forward the report of the Bath dinner,
indorsing the parcel for immediate delivery, with extra rewards for the
porter. Beard is to go over to Bath next morning. He is himself to come
back by the mail from Marlborough; he has no doubt, if Lord John makes a
speech of any ordinary dimensions, it can be done by the time
Marlborough is reached; "and taking into consideration the immense
importance of having the addition of saddle-horses from thence, it is,
beyond all doubt, worth an effort. . . . I need not say," he continues,
"that it will be sharp work and will require two of us; for we shall
both be up the whole of the previous night, and shall have to sit up all
night again to get it off in time." He adds that as soon as they have
had a little sleep they will return to town as quickly as they can; but
they have, if the express succeeds, to stop at sundry places along the
road to pay money and notify satisfaction. And so, for himself and
Beard, he is his editor's very sincerely.

Another anecdote of these reporting days, with its sequel, may be added
from his own alleged relation, in which, however, mistakes occur that it
seems strange he should have made. The story, as told, is that the late
Lord Derby, when Mr. Stanley, had on some important occasion made a
speech which all the reporters found it necessary greatly to abridge;
that its essential points had nevertheless been so well given in the
_Chronicle_ that Mr. Stanley, having need of it for himself in greater
detail, had sent a request to the reporter to meet him in Carlton House
Terrace and take down the entire speech; that Dickens attended and did
the work accordingly, much to Mr. Stanley's satisfaction; and that, on
his dining with Mr. Gladstone in recent years, and finding the aspect of
the dining-room strangely familiar, he discovered afterwards on inquiry
that it was there he had taken the speech. The story, as it actually
occurred, is connected with the brief life of the _Mirror of
Parliament_. It was not at any special desire of Mr. Stanley's, but for
that new record of the debates, which had been started by one of the
uncles of Dickens and professed to excel _Hansard_ in giving verbatim
reports, that the famous speech against O'Connell was taken as
described. The young reporter went to the room in Carlton Terrace
be