ll
conceivable scales and shapes, do also firmly believe it to be. For
example, if Nations abstained from stealing, what need were there of
fighting,--with its butcherings and burnings, decidedly the most
expensive thing in this world? How much more two Nations, which, as I
said, are but one Nation; knit in a thousand ways by Nature and
Practical Intercourse; indivisible brother elements of the same great
SAXONDOM, to which in all honorable ways be long life!

"When Mr. Robert Roy M'Gregor lived in the district of Menteith on the
Highland border two centuries ago, he for his part found it more
convenient to supply himself with beef by stealing it alive from the
adjacent glens, than by buying it killed in the Stirling butchers'
market. It was Mr. Roy's plan of supplying himself with beef in those
days, this of stealing it. In many a little 'Congress' in the district
of Menteith, there was debating, doubt it not, and much specious
argumentation this way and that, before they could ascertain that,
really and truly, buying was the best way to get your beef; which,
however, in the long run they did with one assent find it indisputably
to be: and accordingly they hold by it to this day."

This brave letter was an important service rendered at a critical time,
and Dickens was very grateful for it. But, as time went on, he had other
and higher causes for gratitude to its writer. Admiration of Carlyle
increased in him with his years; and there was no one whom in later life
he honored so much, or had a more profound regard for.

FOOTNOTES:

[47] On the 22d of May, 1842.

[48] The dinner was on the 10th of May, and early the following morning
I had a letter about it from Mr. Blanchard, containing these words:
"Washington Irving couldn't utter a word for trembling, and Moore was as
little as usual. But, poor Tom Campbell--great Heavens! what a
spectacle! Amid roars of laughter he began a sentence three times about
something that Dugald Stewart or Lord Bacon had said, and never could
get beyond those words. The Prince was capital, though deucedly
frightened. He seems unaffected and amiable, as well as very clever."

CHAPTER XXI.

PHILADELPHIA, WASHINGTON, AND THE SOUTH.

1842.

At Philadelphia--Rule in Printing
Letters--Promise as to Railroads--Experience of
them--Railway-cars--Charcoal Stoves--Ladies'
Cars--Spittoons--Massachusetts and New
York--Police-cells and Prisons--Ho