the perilous swarm of the wild, the lawless, the wretched, and
the ignorant, instead of being, as by God's blessing they are, decent
and comfortable, earning an honest livelihood, and adorning the
community to which they belong." _Letter of Lord Shaftesbury in the
Times of the 13th of November, 1871._

CHAPTER III.

CHUZZLEWIT DISAPPOINTMENTS AND CHRISTMAS CAROL.

1843-1844.

Sale of _Chuzzlewit_--Publishers and
Authors--Unlucky Clause in _Chuzzlewit_
Agreement--Resolve to have other Publishers--A
Plan for seeing Foreign Cities--Confidence in
Himself--Preparation of _Carol_--Turning-point
of his Career--Work and its
Interruptions--Superiority of _Martin
Chuzzlewit_ to former Books--News from
America--A Favourite Scene of
Thackeray's--Grand Purpose of the Satire of
_Chuzzlewit_--Publication of _Christmas
Carol_--Unrealized Hopes--Agreement with
Bradbury and Evans.

CHUZZLEWIT had fallen short of all the expectations formed of it in
regard to sale. By much the most masterly of his writings hitherto, the
public had rallied to it in far less numbers than to any of its
predecessors. The primary cause of this, there is little doubt, had been
the change to weekly issues in the form of publication of his last two
stories; for into everything in this world mere habit enters more
largely than we are apt to suppose. Nor had the temporary withdrawal to
America been favourable to an immediate resumption by his readers of
their old and intimate relations. This also is to be added, that the
excitement by which a popular reputation is kept up to the highest
selling mark, will always be subject to lulls too capricious for
explanation. But whatever the causes, here was the undeniable fact of a
grave depreciation of sale in his writings, unaccompanied by any falling
off either in themselves or in the writer's reputation. It was very
temporary; but it was present, and to be dealt with accordingly. The
forty and fifty thousand purchasers of _Pickwick_ and _Nickleby_, the
sixty and seventy thousand of the early numbers of the enterprize in
which the _Old Curiosity Shop_ and _Barnaby Rudge_ appeared, had fallen
to little over twenty thousand. They rose somewhat on Martin's ominous
announcement, at the end of the fourth number, that he'd _go to
America_; but though it was believed that this resolve, which Dickens
adopted as