On the same day a leading article in the Manchester Guardian, referring to Dickens’s words, said:—
“The whole passage is concerned with letters, and it seems quite easy and natural to take the words ‘interchanged any communication’ in the limited sense of communication by letter. Assuming that Dickens had nevertheless met the brothers Grant in person, there is, of course, a suppression of the truth and consequent suggestion of a falsehood, though not perhaps so heinous as to be unpardonable in a passage written to put off begging letter writers. All that Dickens was obliged to say was, ‘I am not in correspondence with the originals of the Cheeryble Brothers.’”
This opinion was held also by Mr. W. Hewitson of the “Bury Times,” and had been duly weighed and deemed inadequate by myself.
On March 13th the “Manchester Guardian” had what follows:—
“Another piece of testimony in favour of the view that Dickens met the originals of the Cheerybles is added by Mr. John Ambler to those cited in our leader columns yesterday. He writes:— ‘It was my privilege to listen to the interesting lecture by the Rev. W. Hume Elliot on “The Cheeryble Brothers” at the meeting of the Dickens Fellowship the other evening. The
