"Stop him," roared Dowler, "hold him--keep him tight--shut him in till I come down--I'll cut his throat--give me a knife--from ear to ear, Mrs. Craddock, I will." And Captain Waters: "Ah! what do I see? Slaughter, your sabre--unhand me--the villain's life!" In the same story we have an anticipation of another incident: the shutting up and detection of Pipkin in the cupboard, who is discovered by a pipe being required, just as young Tuggs was by his coughing from the tobacco smoke. Boz was partial to this method of discovery, for, at the close, Snodgrass was thus concealed and shut up at Osborne's Hotel. His detection, through the stupidity of the Fat Boy, is singularly natural and original. Some of Dowler's dictatorial ways may have been suggested by Boz's friend, the redoubtable John Forster. There is one passage in the Bath chapters where we almost seem to hear our old friend speaking, when he took command of his friends and introduced them, "My friend, Angelo Cyrus Bantam, Esquire, know each other." "Bantam; Mr. Pickwick and his friends are strangers. _They must put their names down_. _Where's the book_?" Then adds: "This is a long call. It's time to go; I shall be here again in an hour. _Come_." And at the assembly he still continued his patronage and direction of everybody. "Step in the tea-room--take your sixpenn'orth. They lay on hot water and call it tea. Drink it," said Mr. Dowler, _in a loud voice_, _directing Mr. Pickwick_." Forster "all over." We have heard him "direct" on many an occasion. When starting from the White Horse Cellars, Dowler, fancying that more passengers were to be squeezed into the coach, said he would be d---d if there were; he'd bring an action against the company, and take a post chaise. II.--Thackeray In Thackeray's "Newcomes," the writer had some reminiscences of a place like Eatanswill, for we are told of the rival newspapers, "The Newcome Independent" and "The Newcome Sentinel," the former being edited by one Potts. These journals assailed each other like their brethren in "Pickwick." "Is there any man in Newcome except, perhaps, our _twaddling old contemporary_, _the Sentinel_," &c. Doyle's picture of the election is surely a reminiscence of Phiz's. There is the same fight between the bandsmen--the drum which someone is kicking a hole in, the brass instrument used, placards, flags, and general _melee_.