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The Centenary edition of the works of Charles Dickens (1911)
The Centenary edition of the works of Charles Dickens - 1911 Author:Charles Dickens Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME OF "MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK" COMPRISING "BARNABY RUDGE " If the object an author has had, in writing a book, cannot be discovered ... more »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 these shameful tumults, while they reflected 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 these disturbances are set forth in the following pages, they are impartially painted by one who hasno sympathies with the Roman 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 made 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, th...« less