Letter From Charles Dickens Concerning: Tavistock House, Tavistock Square Fourteenth January, 1854 My dear 3ir, When the Queen and His Royal Highness Prince Albert had the kindness to express thelr interest in the general scheme of the Guild of Literature and Art, I had the honor of writing to you to beg that whenever it should come to be matured, I might venture to submit 1ts details to your notice. This arrangement has been a matter of great difficulty, involving the consideration of many interests and needs, the pursuit of a higher object through a patient course of present usefulness (to which principle I have myself attached the highest importance), and the consideration of a vast number of contingencies in which the advice of a skillful actuary has been frequently indispensable. Even now, in taking the liberty of enclosing to you the plan which is the result of all these deliberations, I have to add that its publication and operation are for the present suspended by the Law's rendering it necessary that a scheme so comprehensive should be established under an Act of Parliament. This we hope to obtain in the course of the next ensuing session; and in the meanwhile, as a proof that we have not been idle and therefore undeserving of the Queen's and His Royal Highness's condescension, I trouble you with the present communication. : I have the honor to be, dear fir, Your faithful and obliged Servant CHARLES DICKENS Colonel the Hon: C. B. Phlpps Size of one: 8 1/2 x 11 in.