The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To HENRY G. WARREN,1 3 JANUARY 1861

MS Søren Vangsgaard Gravesen, Rare Books.

OFFICE OF ALL THE YEAR ROUND, 

Thursday Third January 1861.

Dear Sir

I am exceedingly glad to find that the Committee of the Newspaper Press Fund2 agree with me in the main, as to the [ ]3 inexpediency of holding a public dinner, in the present condition of that Society.4 I beg you to assure them that I shall be heartily at their service, when the case for a public appeal may seem to all of us more hopeful. The reason you assign in partial explanation of the scanty list of subscribers who belong to the daily press, is undoubtedly entitled to its full weight. I had taken it into account (having heard of those changes in the system), before I wrote to you. Allow me to enclose a small subscription5 with my best wishes.

Henry George Warren Esquire

Dear Sir | Faithfully Yours 

 CHARLES DICKENS

• 1. Joint Hon. Secretary, Newspaper Press Fund, 296 Strand (the premises of the White Hart).
• 2. Founded June 1858 by the Parliamentary reporters of London newspapers, to relieve members or families of deceased members of the Fund. Opposed by The Times, it had not prospered so far.
• 3. “exp” deleted by CD.
• 4. See To Warren, 19 Dec 60, Pilgrim Letters 9, p. 360.
• 5. After CD’s letter had been read, it was ordered that he be thanked for his “handsome donation” of £10 (CD’s Account-book, MS Messrs Coutts) and the expression of his sympathy for the Fund in his letters of 19 Dec 60 and 3 Jan 61 (Newspaper Press Fund Minute Book, 12 Jan 61).