17. The Missouri Compromise was the name given to the arrangement
arrived at by Congress during 1819-21 whereby Missouri was admitted
as a State of the Union but restrictions on slavery.were imposed.
The Compromise was done away with in 1854.
18. Dickens convinced himself, however, that there would be less
risk to his health on the projected American Reading Tour than there
had been on his first visit: 'When I went to America in '42, I was
so much younger, but (I think) very much weaker, too. I had had a
painful surgical operation performed, shortly before going out,
and had had the labour from week to week to Master Humphry's Clock.
My life in the States was a life of continual speech-making (quite
as laborious as Reading), and I was less patient and more irritable
then, than I am now' (Nonesuch Lettersvol. 3, p. 530)
19. Forster was anxious about Dickens's health but also 'had a personal dislike
to America and the Americans', according to Dolby (op.cit., p.137):
'He was certain there was no money in America, and, even if there were,
Mr. Dickens would not get any of it; and if he didthe Irish (by some
means I could not quite understand), and the booksellers between them, would
break into the hotel and rob him of it. Even if the money were disposited in
a bank, the bank would fail on purpose'.
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