Barnaby Rudge First Edition/Preface
PREFACE TO BARNABY RUDGE.
If the object an author has had in writing a book cannot be discovered from its perusal, the probability is that it is either very deep, or very shallow. Hoping that mine may lie somewhere between these two extremes, I shall say very little about it, and that only in reference to one point.
No account of the Gordon Riots having been, to my knowledge, introduced into any Work of Fiction, and the subject presenting very extraordinary and remarkable features. I was led to project this Tale.
It is unnecessary to say, that those shameful tumults, while they reflect indelible disgrace upon the time in which they occurred, and all who had act or part in them, teach a good lesson. That what we falsely call a religious cry is easily raised by men who have no religion, and who in their daily practice set at nought the commonest principles of right and wrong; that it is begotten of intolerance and persecution; that it is senseless, besotted, inveterate, and unmerciful; all History teaches us. But perhaps we do not know it in our hearts too well, to profit by even so humble and familiar an example as the "No Popery" riots of seventeen hundred and eighty.
However imperfectly those disturbances are set forth in the following pages, they are impartially painted by one who has no sympathy with the Romish Church, although he acknowledges, as most men do, some esteemed friends among the followers of its creed.
It may be observed that, in the description of the principal outrages, reference has been had to the best authorities of that time, such as they are; and that the account given in this Tale, of all the main features of the riots, is substantially correct.
It may be further remarked, that Mr. Dennis's allusions to the flourishing condition of his trade in those days, have their foundation in truth, not in the Author's fancy. Any file of old newspapers, or odd volume of the Annual Register, will prove this with terrible ease.
Even the case of Mary Jones, dwelt upon with so much pleasure by the same character, is no effort of invention. The facts were stated exactly as they are stated here, in the House of Commons. Whether they afforded as much entertainment to the merry gentlemen assembled there, as some other most affecting circumstances of a similar nature mentioned by Sir Samuel Romilly, is not recorded.
It is a great pleasure to me to add in this place—for which I have reserved the acknowledgment—that for a beautiful thought, in the last chapter but one of "The Old Curiosity Shop," I am indebted to Mr. Rogers. It is taken from his charming Tale, "Ginevra:"
"And long might'st thou have seen
An old man wandering as in quest of something,
Something he could not find—he knew not what."
Devonshire Terrace, York Gate,
November, 1841.