Charles Dickens.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [January 28, 1860.] 325

as successive years pass, many a widow will think of
your noble conduct, and the tears of gratitude flow
down many a cheek, the tribute of a thankful heart,
when other things are forgotten for ever.

A father writes:

I am at a loss to find words to sufficiently express
my gratitude to you for your kindness to my son
Richard upon the melancholy occasion of his visit to
his dear brother's body, and also for your ready
attention in pronouncing our beautiful burial service
over my poor unfortunate son's remains. God grant
that your prayers over him may reach the Mercy
Seat, and that his soul may be received (through
Christ's intercession) into heaven!

His dear mother begs me to convey to you her
heartfelt thanks.

Those who were received at the clerygyman's
house, write thus, after leaving it:

DEAR AND NEVER-TO-BE-FORGOTTEN FRIENDS.
I arrived here yesterday morning without accident,
and am about to proceed to my home by railway.

I am overpowered when I think of you and your
hospitable home. No words could speak language
suited to my heart. I refrain. God reward you
with the same measure you have meted with!

I enumerate no names, but embrace you all.

MY BELOVED FRIENDS. This is the first day
that I have been able to leave my bedroom since I
returned, which will explain the reason of my not
writing sooner.

If I could only have had my last melancholy hope
realised in recovering the body of my beloved and
lamented son, I should have returned home somewhat
comforted, and I think I could then have been com-
paratively resigned.

I fear now there is but little prospect, and I mourn
as one without hope.

The only consolation to my distressed mind is in
my having been so feelingly allowed by you to leave
the matter in your hands, by whom I well know
that everything will be done that can be, according
to arrangements made before I left the scene of the
awful catastrophe, both as to the identification of
my dear son, and also his interment.

I feel most anxious to hear whether anything
fresh has transpired since I left you; will you add
another to the many deep obligations I am under to
you by writing to me? And, should the body of
my dear and unfortunate son be identified, let me
hear from you immediately, and I will come again.

Words cannot express the gratitude I feel I owe
to you all for your benevolent aid, your kindness,
and your sympathy.

MY DEARLY BELOVED FRIENDS. I arrived in
safety at my house yesterday, and a night's rest has
restored and tranquillised me. I must again repeat,
that language has no words by which I can express
my sense of obligation to you. You are enshrined
in my heart of hearts.

I have seen him! and can now realise my misfor-
tune more than I have hitherto been able to do. Oh,
the bitterness of the cup I drink! But I bow sub-
missive. God must have done right. I do not want
to feel less, but to acquiesce more simply.

There were some Jewish passengers on board
the Royal Charter, and the gratitude of the
Jewish people is feelingly expressed in the fol-
lowing letter, bearing date from " the Office of
the Chief Rabbi:"

REVEREND SIR. I cannot refrain from expressing

to you my heartfelt thanks on behalf of those of my
flock whose relatives have unfortunately been among
those who perished at the late wreck of the Royal
Charter. You have, indeed, like Boaz, " not left off
your kindness to the living and the dead."

You have not alone acted kindly towards the
living by receiving them hospitably at your house,
and energetically assisting them in their mournful
duty, but also towards the dead, by exerting yourself
to have our co-religionists buried in our ground, and
according to our rites. May our heavenly Father
reward you for your acts of humanity and true
philanthropy!

The " Old Hebrew congregation of Liver-
pool" thus express themselves through their
secretary:

REVEREND SIR. The wardens of this congrega-
tion have learned with great pleasure that, in addi-
tion to those indefatigable exertions, at the scene of
the late disaster to the Royal Charter, which have
received universal recognition, you have very bene-
volently employed your valuable efforts to assist
such members of our faith as have sought the
bodies of lost friends to give them burial in our
consecrated grounds, with the observances and rites
prescribed by the ordinances of our religion.

The wardens desire me to take the earliest avail-
able opportunity to offer to you, on behalf of our
community, the expression of their warm acknow-
ledgments and grateful thanks, and their sincere
wishes for your continued welfare and prosperity.

A Jewish gentleman writes:

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR. I take the oppor-
tunity of thanking you right earnestly for the
promptness you displayed in answering my note
with full particulars concerning my much-lamented
brother, and I also herein beg to express my sincere
regard for the willingness you displayed and for the
facility you afforded for getting the remains of my
poor brother exhumed. It has been to us a most
sorrowful and painful event, but when we meet with
such friends as yourself, it in a measure, somehow
or other, abates that mental anguish, and makes the
suffering so much easier to be borne. Considering
the circumstances connected with my poor brother's
fate, it does, indeed, appear a hard one. He had been
away in all seven years; he returned four years ago
to see his family. He was then engaged to a very
amiable young lady. He had been very successful
abroad, and was now returning to fulfil his sacred
vow; he brought all his property with him in gold
uninsured. We heard from him when the ship
stopped at Queenstown, when he was in the highest
of hope, and in a few short hours afterwards all
was washed away.

Mournful in the deepest degree, but too sacred
for quotation here, were the numerous references
to those miniatures of women worn round the
necks of rough men (and found there after
death), those locks of hair, those scraps of let-
ters, those many many slight memorials of hidden
tenderness. One man cast up by the sea bore
about him, printed on a perforated lace card,
the following singular (and unavailing) charm:

A BLESSING.

May the blessing of God await thee. May the
sun of glory shine around thy bed; and may the
gates of plenty, honour, and happiness be ever open
to thee. May no sorrow distress thy days; may no
grief disturb thy nights. May the pillow of peace