n, part to sustain.

"In the summer of 1858 I was summoned to Mr. Dodd's residence at the
City Wharf, New North Road, Hoxton, to give consent to be a trustee,
with Messrs. Cobden and Bright, for five acres of land, which Mr. Dodd
was about to give for the building of a dramatic college, which had been
resolved on at a public meeting, held on the 21st of July in this year,
in the Princess's Theatre, Mr. Charles Kean acting as chairman. 'I give
this most freely,' said Mr. Dodd to me, 'for it is to the stage I am
indebted for my education; to it I owe whatsoever may be good in me.'
That there was much good in him, thousands can testify; and thousands
yet to come will be evidence to his benevolence. Of course, I felt
pleased in being selected to act as a trustee for this gift. I
conceived, and I suppose I was correct, that Mr. Dodd intended that his
gift was strictly for a dramatic college, and for no other purpose, then
or thereafter. Having expressed my willingness and resolution to be
faithful to the trust, I said, 'I presume, Mr. Dodd, you stipulate for a
presentation?' He looked rather surprised; and asked his solicitor, who
sat by him, how they came to overlook this? Both of them directly agreed
that this simple return should be required.

"I must leave such of my readers as feel inclined, to search in the
public journals for the correspondence between the directors and Mr.
Dodd up to the 13th of January, 1859, when, at a meeting held in the
Adelphi Theatre, Lord Tenterden in the chair, it was stated that Mr.
Dodd evinced, through his solicitor, a disposition to fence round his
gift with legal restrictions and stipulations, which apprised the
committee of coming difficulty; and the meeting unanimously agreed to
decline Mr. Dodd's offer of land. Previously and subsequently to this,
Mr. Dodd was most discourteously commented on and attacked in the
newspapers, the editors of which, however, sided with him. I was told
that the stipulation for a presentation was the great offence; but I
should think that the provision made against the improper use of the
land must have been the real grievance. In the very last letter I
received from Mr. Dodd, not very long anterior to his death, he says
that Mark Lemon told him that Charles Dickens had said he had never
occasion to repent but of two things, one being his conduct to Mr. Dodd.
That Dickens, Thackeray, and others sincerely believed they were taking
the best steps for accompl