Letter from Charles Dickens, London, to Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1849 January 11 : autograph manuscript signed.

Discussing the emigration of three inmates and the issue of the "possibility of Marriage" that he wrote about in his "little address" (see MA 1352.79a); saying "I have thought, much and often, of that point in the little address, which encourages them with the possibility of Marriage. I am quite satisfied and convinced that it is a powerful, and a justly powerful, incentive to patience and good conduct; and I can not, of my own deed, take it out of the paper. If they, or any of them, labor under any mistake on this point, I suppose it to be a part of Miss Cunliffe's business to set them right. You will not think me claiming much, if I claim to know much better than she does, or by any possibility can, what the force of that suggestion secretly is. I even think it - to say the truth - a little presumptuous in her, coming to the consideration of such things so freshly, to suggest the alteration. Of its being an alteration enormously for the worse, I have no more doubt than I have of my writing this note with my right hand;" adding "Charley had a very merry birthday - I had the honor of conjuring for the party, in a chinese dress and a very large mask - and his noble cake was the admiration and wonder of all beholders. We are at present engaged in getting up a play in a toy theatre. I am steeped to the very eyebrows in glue and paste."