In addition to the manuscripts in the Forster Collection in the Museum there are corrected proofs of a portion of the _Pickwick Papers_, _Dombey and Son_, _David Copperfield_, _Bleak House_, and _Little Dorrit_. Some of the corrections in _Dombey and Son_ are said to be in the handwriting of Mr. Forster. All these proofs show marvellous attention to detail--one of the most conspicuous of Dickens's characteristics. Nothing with him was worth doing unless it was done well. As an illustration of work in this direction, it may be mentioned that a proof copy of the speech delivered at the meeting of the Administrative Reform Association at Drury Lane Theatre on Wednesday, June 27th, 1855, in the possession of the writer of these lines, has over a hundred corrections on the nine pages of which it consists, and many of these occur in punctuation. On careful examination, the alterations show that the correction in every case is a decided improvement on the original. The following _fac-similes_ from the _Hand-Book_ to the _Dyce and Forster Collection_, and from Forster's _Life_, illustrate the earlier, later, and latest handwritings of Charles Dickens as shown in the MSS. of _Oliver Twist_, 1837, _Hard Times_, 1854, and _Edwin Drood_, 1870. [Illustration: "OLIVER TWIST," 1837, vol. i. ch. xii.] [Illustration: "HARD TIMES," 1854, vol. i. ch. i.] [Illustration: "DAVID COPPERFIELD," 1850 (corrected proof), ch. xiv.] [Illustration: "EDWIN DROOD," 1870, ch. xxiii. p. 189 (_last MS. page_).] A proof of the fourteenth Chapter of _David Copperfield_, 1850, shows that the allusion to "King Charles the First's head"--about which Mr. Dick was so much troubled--was _not_ contained in the first draft of the story, for the passage originally had reference to "the date when that bull got into the china warehouse and did so much mischief." The subsequent reference to King Charles's head was a happy thought of Dickens, and furthered Mr. Dick's idea of the mistake "of putting some of the trouble out of King Charles's head" into his own. Mr. R. F. Sketchley, the able and courteous custodian of the collection, allows us to see some of the other rarities in the museum not displayed in the cabinet--prefaces, dedications, and memoranda relating to the novels; letters addressed by Dickens to Forster, Maclise, and others; rare play-bills; and the originals of invitations to the public dinner and ball at New York, which Dickens received on the occasion of his first visit to America in 1842. After turning these over with reverential care, we regretfully leave behind us one of the most interesting and important literary collections ever presented to the Nation.