The original manuscript of An Appeal to the English People on Behalf of Italian Refugees in England.

1849. They seek a refuge here in England, almost the only free land where they may set foot The original manuscript of an appeal on behalf of Italian refugees by a committee of Victorian notables, which by its handwriting confirms Dickens as its principal author. The appeal was published in the English newspapers, reprinted by Forster in the Examiner of 8 September 1849, and was also translated into Italian for Mazzini's Italia del Popolo. "But for the discovery of this manuscript, the fact that [Dickens] wrote it might never have been revealed" (The Dickensian). Despite its re-discovery in 1914, the manuscript has since been lost to modern scholarship. The immediate cause of the influx of Italian refugees was the defeat of the Republic army defending Rome from the French army in July 1849. Garibaldi withdrew from the city with 4,000 troops and took temporary refuge in San Marino, before he and his revolutionaries were forced into temporary exile. In England, an Italian Appeal Committee was formed, comprising several Members of Parliament, together with Charles Dickens, John Forster, Douglas Jerrold, Walter Savage Landor, Frank Stone, and W. M. Thackeray. Dickens, already a friend of the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini and a frequent visitor to Italy, was the natural choice to write the appeal. Dickens wrote to Frank Stone on 22 August 1849, assuring him he would "do my best with the Refugee Statement", and that Stone should "rely on its being, at least, earnest, and having a drop of heart's blood in it". On 26 August, he wrote to James Stansfeld, one of the two honorary secretaries of the appeal committee, mentioning some "alterations" to the text. Besides making minor corrections during composition, Dickens subsequently made additions in black ink (distinct from his compositional blue ink). He sent the manuscript to William Greening (1799-1869), a founder of Bradbury and Evans. The original envelope, signed by Dickens is bound at the back of the volume, addressed "For Greening, Messrs Bradbury and Evans". It is headed: "Please to make the additional corrections enclosed CD". There are differences between the manuscript and the published version. In the second paragraph, for example, Dickens originally appealed for "a compassionate relief" (published as "a generous relief"). He also reduces the size of the French army from "fifty thousand strong" to "forty thousand strong", the attack on More O'Ferrall was originally shorter, and "The Exiles appeal through the Committee named above to Englishmen" becomes a slightly more distanced "The committee named above appeals in their behalf to Englishmen".) These textual emendations were not reproduced in either the original published article or The Dickensian and are hitherto unknown. When the editors of the Pilgrim Edition of the Letters referred to the manuscript, they relied on the published transcription in the absence of the original. The manuscript lacks the conclusion of the penultimate sentence and the last sentence (mostly comprising names of the committee or banking details), but is otherwise complete. When publicized in The Dickensian in 1914, the manuscript was in the possession of Walter T. Spencer (1863-1936), a London bookdealer with premises at 27 New Oxford Street specializing in Dickensiana. The location was next recorded in the same journal in 1917 by William Miller and T. W. Hill in an article on "Charles Dickens's Manuscripts", as remaining with "W. T. Spencer". The manuscript was acquired by a private collector in Lincolnshire, probably in the 1950s, and was bought by us from his family. We cannot currently trace any appearance of it within the book trade or at auction. 2 leaves (222 x 186 mm), manuscript in blue and black ink with several corrections, together with envelope including embossed "CD" design to flap and 5 leaves of calligraphic transcription in red, black and blue ink, bound in early 20th-century green morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, spine with raised bands, spine and front cover lettered in gilt with additional gilt borders, front cover with author's facsimile signature in gilt, rear cover with author's lion couchant crest and "CD" in gilt, ruled dentelles in gilt, all edges gilt. Housed in a green cloth folding box. Original folds, two minor marks, browning to free endpapers, folding box worn: near-fine. "Charles Dickens and the Italian Refugees of 1849", The Dickensian, 1 December 1914, pp. 319-322; Miller and Hill, "Charles Dickens's Manuscripts", The Dickensian, 1 July 1917, pp. 181-185 & 1 August 1917, pp. 217-219; M. Gabriell Caponi-Doherty, "Charles Dickens and the Italian Risorgimento", Dickens Quarterly, September 1996, pp. 151-163.