of impossibility of leading you to a more charitable
judgment of Mr. Dickens.

Nevertheless, I will put the truth before you. Scarcely a day of my life
passes, or has passed for many years, without bringing me some letters
similar to yours. Often they will come by dozens--scores--hundreds. My
time and attention would be pretty well occupied without them, and the
claims upon me (some very near home), for all the influence and means of
help that I do and do not possess, are not commonly heavy. I have no
power to aid you towards the attainment of your object. It is the simple
exact truth, and nothing can alter it. So great is the disquietude I
constantly undergo from having to write to some new correspondent in
this strain, that, God knows, I would resort to another relief if I
could.

Your studies from nature appear to me to express an excellent
observation of nature, in a loving and healthy spirit. But what then?
The dealers and dealers' prices of which you complain will not be
influenced by that honest opinion. Nor will it have the least effect
upon the President of the Royal Academy, or the Directors of the School
of Design. Assuming your supposition to be correct that these
authorities are adverse to you, I have no more power than you have to
render them favourable. And assuming them to be quite disinterested and
dispassionate towards you, I have no voice or weight in any appointment
that any of them make.

I will retain your packet over to-morrow, and will then cause it to be
sent to your house. I write under the pressure of occupation and
business, and therefore write briefly.

Faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: M. de Cerjat.]

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND," _Friday, Feb. 1st, 1861._

MY DEAR CERJAT,

You have read in the papers of our heavy English frost. At Gad's Hill it
was so intensely cold, that in our warm dining-room on Christmas Day we
could hardly sit at the table. In my study on that morning, long after a
great fire of coal and wood had been lighted, the thermometer was I
don't know where below freezing. The bath froze, and all the pipes
froze, and remained in a stony state for five or six weeks. The water in
the bedroom-jugs froze, and blew up the crockery. The snow on the top of
the house froze, and was imperfectly removed with axes. My beard froze
as I walked about, and I couldn't detach my cravat and coat from it
until I was thaw