Charles Dickens - Autographed letter signed [Household Words & Suez Canal Pioneer] - 1865

Charles DICKENS – Autographed letter signed – Household Words & Suez Canal Pioneer - 1865

Autographed letter signed by Charles DICKENS (1812-1870), Gads Hill Place, Higham (Kent), 12 December 1865, 2 pages in-8, to his address, in English.

Following a request for support for Miss Waghorn’s pension, Dickens expressed his admiration for Lieutenant Thomas Waghorn*, an English naval officer, founder of the land route to India and pioneer who promoted and claimed the idea of a new route from Great Britain to India overland through Egypt prior to the development of the Suez Canal, whose services “are upon record in Public Offices”. Dickens recalls that he signed two or three “memorials” this year for pensions still pending.
He also recalls that when he was editor of the journal Household Words**, he published articles on the services of Lieutenant Waghorn.

“I have been absent for a day; otherwise I would have answered your letter immediately.
I regret that I cannot enter into the merits of Miss Waghorns’ case, or urge upon any member of the government her appeal for a pension. Apart from the fact that the services of her late brother [Lieutenant Thomas Waghorn] are upon record in public offices, and that I can add nothing to the general knowledge of them. […] I have within this year signed two or three memorials for pensions in consideration of claims with which I am personally or professionally acquainted. Those cases are still pending, and while they remain so, I should not consider it reasonable to urge others […].
Some years ago, as conductor of Household Words I urged the services and claims attaching to Lieutenant Waghorn, as you remember.”

* Thomas Fletcher Waghorn (1800–1850) was an English sailor, navy officer, and postal pioneer who promoted and claimed the idea of a new route from Great Britain to India overland through Egypt prior to the development of the Suez Canal.
**Household Words was an English weekly magazine published by Charles Dickens in the 1850s. Dickens's publications include "The Life and Labors of Lieutenant Waghorn." Household Words, vol 1, March 30 to Sept. 21, 1850.

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