Retitled 'The Boiled Beef of New England' in collected editions of the series.

In 'The Great Baby' and 'The Poor Man and His Beer', Dickens had attacked the combination of patronage and mistrust of the working man evinced by many charity workers and social reformers.

Similar ideas are rehearsed in both the present item and an AYR article of 26 March 1864, 'Working Men's Clubs', co-written by Dickens and Edmund Ollier. Writing to Ollier about the project, Dickens insists on a similar series of principles to those stressed in the present item, namely: that '...to trust a man, as one of a body of men, is to place him under a wholesome restraint of social opinion, and is a very much better thing than to make a baby of him'; that 'the rejection of beer in this club, tobacco in that club... are instances that such clubs are founded on mere whims, and therefore cannot successfully address human nature in the general...'; and, finally, that 'Patronage is the curse and blight of all such endeavours, and to impress upon the working men that they must originate and manage for themselves' (letter given in Pilgrim, Vol. X, pp. 369-370).

The idea of cheap dining halls run for the benefit of working men, had been mooted in Dickens's journals as early as 1855, in the penultimate instalment of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South (HW, 20 January 1855), but had been given a new impetus by the high unemployment in manufacturing towns caused by the American Civil War in the early 1860s. More than a dozen dining halls, or 'Depôts' as they were commonly known, had been opened in Glasgow and Manchester, following models proposed by Scottish merchant Thomas Corbett, and by John Pender and Hugh Birley, stimulating some argument over whether such institutions should ideally be charitable or independent (see The Times, 20 April 1863, p. 7, col. d). By the time Dickens came to research and write his views on the issue, there was something of a race between rival associations in London to set up 'dining-halls for the million'.

The initiative which attracted Dickens's attention was the 'Association for Providing the Establishment in London of Self-Supporting Cooking Depôts for the Working Classes', whose Hon. Secretary, Alexander Burrell, wrote to The Times on 7 April to inform readers that 'an eligible site in Whitechapel' had been secured, and that 'the leading feature of Mr. Corbett's scheme, that the depôts should ...be ...self-supporting' would be strictly preserved (p. 7, col. d). Burrell also wrote to Dickens in May/June 1863, publicising the new depot, and mentioning Edwin Chadwick's name in their connection. Dickens wrote to Chadwick on 24 July that he had inspected the Whitechapel dining-hall—which stood on the corner of Flower & Dean Street (since re-named Flower & Dean Walk) and Commercial Street—'some ten days ago', and was considering his proposals for establishing a dining-hall or 'early breakfast room' specifically for the newsboys of the metropolis (see Pilgrim, Vol. X, pp. 274, 474 [Appendix B]).

The 'appalling accident' referred to was the death on 20 July 1863 of Selina Powell, alias Madame Genevieve, 'The Female Blondin', from a 30-foot fall onto gravel during a highwire performance at a fête organised by the Order of Foresters at Aston Park, Birmingham. Only a few weeks before, on 25 June, artist Carlo Valerio had met his death falling from a high-wire at Cremorne Gardens. A lengthy editorial in The Times of 23 July condemned the members of the Foresters Committee, who, notwithstanding the accident, 'determined 'to go on with the programme, omitting the dangerous parts'', but considered it 'even more revolting ...that the spectators ...continued to enjoy themselves as if nothing had happened'. Such heartlessness was not characteristic of the English in general, the editorial opined, 'and we should be sorry to think it could have been shown thus offensively anywhere but in the 'Black Country'' ('The Female Blondin at Aston Park', p. 10, col. e). Dickens clearly responds to The Times in the present item, and comes to the defence of the spectators. He did not blame the public for wanting to see successful spectacles of daring, but objected strongly when commercial exploitation and lax safety precautions were involved (see Vol. 3 of the Dent edition, Item 13, p. 92)

Textual note:

• copytext has 'This is the text ...fashions': Uncommercial Traveller, Charles Dickens Edition (1868) has 'This is a text ...fashions'.

Literary allusions:

• the title chosen by Dickens for the volume publication of this paper plays on that of 'The Roast Beef of Old England' (words and music by Richard Leveridge);
• 'called by Providence to walk all his days in a station in life...': '...keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life', The Book of Common Prayer, 'A Catechism'.

Author: John Drew; © J. M. Dent/Orion Publishing Group, Dickens' Journalism Volume IV: 'The Uncommercial Traveller' and Other Papers, 1859-1870, 2000.

DJO gratefully acknowledges permission to reproduce this material.

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