other distinguished characters being present and assenting, the vote of
censure of which I inclose a copy was unanimously passed upon you for
gross negligence in the discharge of your duty, and most unjustifiable
disregard of the best interests of the Society. I am, Sir, your most
obedient servant, Charles Dickens, Honorary Secretary. To John Forster,
Esquire."

[25] Not Mr. Procter, as, by an oversight of his own, Dickens caused to
be said in an interesting paper on Wainewright which appeared in his
weekly periodical.

[26] I quote from a letter dated Llangollen, Friday morning, 3d Nov.
1838: "I wrote to you last night, but by mistake the letter has gone on
Heaven knows where in my portmanteau. I have only time to say, go
straight to Liverpool by the first Birmingham train on Monday morning,
and at the Adelphi Hotel in that town you will find me. I trust to you
to see my dear Kate and bring the latest intelligence of her and the
darlings. My best love to them."

[27] One of these disputes is referred to by Charles Knight in his
Autobiography; and I see in Dickens's letters the mention of another in
which I seem to have been turned by his kindly counsel from some folly I
was going to commit: "I need not, I am sure, impress upon you the
sincerity with which I make this representation. Our close and hearty
friendship happily spares me the necessity. But I will add this--that
feeling for you an attachment which no ties of blood or other
relationship could ever awaken, and hoping to be to the end of my life
your affectionate and chosen friend, I am convinced that I counsel you
now as you would counsel me if I were in the like case; and I hope and
trust that you will be led by an opinion which I am sure cannot be wrong
when it is influenced by such feelings as I bear towards you, and so
many warm and grateful considerations."

[28] This was the butler of Mr. Gilbert Winter, one of the kind
Manchester friends whose hospitality we had enjoyed with Mr. Ainsworth,
and whose shrewd, quaint, old-world ways come delightfully back to me as
I write his once well-known and widely-honored name.

CHAPTER XI.

NEW LITERARY PROJECT.

1839.

Thoughts for the Future--Doubts of old Serial
Form--Suggestion for his Publishers--My
Mediation with them--Proposed Weekly
Publication--Design of it--Old Favorites to be
revived--Subjects to be dealt with--Chapters on
Chambers--Gog and M