purpose. His facile execution
and singular subtilty of fancy were, we hoped, destined to enrich these
pages for many a year. It has been willed otherwise, and we lament the
loss of a comrade of invaluable skill, and the death of one of the
kindliest and gentlest of our associates, the power of whose hand was
equalled by the goodness of his heart." Charles Bennett was only
thirty-seven when he died.

He left a widow and eight children unprovided for, for his health having
precluded it, no life insurance had been effected. The _Punch_ men,
however, with the unselfishness which so nobly characterizes them, put
their shoulders to the wheel for the family of their stricken comrade.
"We shall have to do something," said Shirley Brooks in his diary of the
3rd of April; and they did it accordingly. A committee was immediately
started, on which we find the names of Messrs. Arthur Lewis,[184]
Wilbert Beale, Mark Lemon, Du Maurier, John Tenniel, Arthur Sullivan,
and W. H. Bradbury. Then came rehearsals, and, on the 11th of May, a
performance at the Adelphi in aid of the Bennett fund. Mr. Arthur
Sullivan had, in conjunction with Mr. F. C. Burnand, converted the
well-known farce of "Box and Cox" into an operetta of the most ludicrous
description. This was the opening piece--the forerunner of "Pinafore,"
"Pirates," "Patience," and other triumphs. Arthur Sullivan himself
conducted, and the players were Mr. Du Maurier, Mr. Quinton, and Mr.
Arthur Blunt. Then followed "A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing," in which
Mesdames Kate Terry, Florence Terry, Mrs. Stoker, Mrs. Watts (the
present Ellen Terry), and Messrs. Mark Lemon, Tom Taylor, Tenniel,
Burnand, Silver, Pritchett, and Horace Mayhew took part. This was
succeeded by Offenbach's "Blind Beggars," who were admirably personated
by Mr. Du Maurier and Mr. Harold Power. The evening concluded with a
number of part songs and madrigals sung by the Moray Minstrels--so
called from their chiefly performing at Moray Lodge, the residence of
Mr. Arthur Lewis. Between the two portions of their entertainment,
Shirley Brooks came on and delivered an address written by himself,
which contained the following allusion to him for whose family the
generous work had been undertaken:--

"Only some friends of a lost friend, whose name
Is all the inheritance his children claim
(Save memory of his goodness), think it due
To make some brief acknowledgment to you.
Brief but not cold; some thanks that y