The materials for the solution of the ‘Edwin Drood’ problems must first of all be found in the text of the unfinished volume. Hitherto it has not been observed that the book we have is not precisely what it was when Dickens left it. Three parts had been issued by Dickens himself. After his death the remaining three parts were issued by John Forster. Dickens had corrected his proofs up to and including chapter xxi. The succeeding chapters xxii. and xxiii. are untouched. I discovered to my great surprise on examining the proofs in the Forster Collection that Forster had in every case ignored Dickens’s erasures, and had replaced all the omitted passages in the text. Thus it happens that we do not read the book as Dickens intended us to read it. We have passages which on consideration he decided not to print. It is unnecessary to criticise the action of Forster, but it seems clear that he should at least have given warning to the reader. I now print the passages erased by Dickens and restored by Forster. * * * * * SENTENCES AND PARTS OF SENTENCES ERASED BY DICKENS In Chapter XVII.:— _an eminent public character_, _once known to fame as Frosty faced Fogo_, * * * * * _by_, _always_, _as it seemed_, _on errands of antagonistically snatching something from somebody_, _and never giving anything to anybody_. * * * * * ‘_Sir_,’ _said Mr. Honeythunder_, _in his tremendous voice_, _like a schoolmaster issuing orders to a boy of whom he had a bad opinion_, ‘_sit down_.’ _Mr. Crisparkle seated himself_. _Mr. Honeythunder having signed the remaining few score of a few thousand circulars_, _calling upon a corresponding number of families without means to come forward_, _stump up instantly_, _and be Philanthropists_, _or go to the Devil_, _another shabby stipendiary Philanthropist_ (_highly disinterested_, _if in earnest_) _gathered these into a basket and walked off with them_. * * * * * _when they were alone_, * * * * * _Mr. Crisparkle rose_; _a little heated in the face_, _but with perfect command of himself_. ‘_Mr. Honeythunder_,’ _he said_, _taking up the papers referred to_: ‘_my being better or worse employed than I am at present is a matter of taste and opinion_. _You might think me better employed in enrolling myself a member of your Society_.’ ‘_Ay_, _indeed_, _sir_!’ _retorted Mr. Honeythunder_, _shaking his head in a threatening manner_. ‘_It would have been better for you if you had done that long ago_!’ ‘_I think otherwise_.’