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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:37:10 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:37:10 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11524-0.txt b/11524-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2e729c --- /dev/null +++ b/11524-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8495 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11524 *** + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VIII--DECEMBER, 1861.--NO. L. + + + + +THE HOME OF LAFAYETTE. + + +After General Lafayette's visit to the United States, in 1824, every +American who went to France went with a firm conviction that he had +a right to take as much as he chose of the old gentleman's time and +hospitality, at his own estimate of their value. Fortunately, the number +of travellers was not great in those days, although a week seldom passed +without bringing two or three new faces to the Rue d'Anjou or La Grange. +It was well both for the purse and the patience of the kind-hearted old +man that ocean steamers were still a doubtful problem, and first-class +packets rarely over five hundred tons. + +It could hardly be expected that a boy of sixteen should have more +discretion than his elders; and following the universal example of my +countrymen, the first use that I made of a Parisian cabriolet was to +drive to No. 6, Rue d'Anjou. The _porte cochère_ was open, and the +porter in his lodge,--a brisk little Frenchman, somewhat past middle +age, with just bows enough to prove his nationality, and very expressive +gestures, which I understood much better than I did his words; for they +said, or seemed to say,--"The General is out, and I will take charge +of your letter and card." There was nothing else for me to do, and +so, handing over my credentials, I gave the rest of the morning to +sightseeing, and, being a novice at it and alone, soon got tired and +returned to my hotel. + +I don't know how that hotel would look to me now; but to my untrained +eyes of that day it looked wonderfully fine. I liked the name,--the +Petit Hôtel Montmorenci,--for I knew enough of French history to know +that Montmorenci had always been a great name in France. Then it was the +favorite resort of Americans; and although I was learning the phrases +in Blagdon as fast as I could, I still found English by far the most +agreeable means of communication for everything beyond an appeal to the +waiter for more wood or a clean towel. Table d'Hôte, too, brought us +all together, with an abundant, if not a rich, harvest of personal +experiences gathered during the day from every quarter of the teeming +city. Bradford was there with his handsome face and fine figure,--an old +resident, as it then seemed to me; for he had been abroad two years, and +could speak what sounded to my ears as French-like as any French I had +ever heard. Poor fellow! scarce three years had passed when he laid him +down to his last sleep in a convent of Jerusalem, without a friend to +smooth his pillow or listen to his last wishes. Of most of the others +the names have escaped me; but I shall never forget how wide I opened +my eyes, one evening, at the assertion of a new-comer, that he had done +more for the enlightenment of France than any man living or dead. The +incomparable gravity with which the assertion was made drew every eye to +the speaker, who, after enjoying our astonishment for a while, told us +that he had been the first to send out a whaler from Havre, and had +secured almost a monopoly of the oil-trade. Some years afterwards I made +a passage with his brother, and learned from him the history of +this Yankee enterprise, which had filled two capacious purses, and +substituted the harpoon for the pruning-knife, the whale-ship for the +olive-orchard, in the very stronghold of the emblem of peace; and now +the collier with his pickaxe has driven them both from the field. But +the Petit Hotel Montmorenci did not wait for the change. Its broad court +was never enlivened by gas. Its tables and mantels were decked to the +last hour with the alabaster whiteness of those pure wax tapers which +shed such a soft light upon your book, and grew up into such formidable +items in your bills. A long passage--one of those luxuries of rainy, +muddy Paris, lined with stores that you cannot help lingering over, if +for nothing else, to wonder at the fertility of the human brain when it +makes itself the willing minister of human caprice--covers the whole +space which the hotel stood on, and unites the Neuve St. Marc with the +once distant Boulevard. + +As I passed the porter's lodge, he handed me a letter. The hand was one +that I had never seen before; the address was in French; and the seal, +red wax thinly spread, but something which had been put on it before it +was cool had entirely effaced the impress: as I afterwards learned, it +was the profile of Washington. I opened it, and judge my surprise and +delight on reading the following words:-- + +"Paris, Thursday. + +"I am very sorry not to have had the pleasure to see you when you have +called this morning, my dear Sir. My stay in town will be short. But you +will find me to-morrow from nine in the morning until twelve. I hope we +shall see you soon at La Grange, which I beg of you to consider as +your home, being that of your grandfather's most intimate friend and +brother-in-arms. + +"LAFAYETTE." + +It was nearly eleven when I reached the Rue d'Anjou and began for +the first time to mount the broad stairway of a Parisian palace. The +General's apartments were on the entresol, with a separate staircase +from the first landing of the principal one; for his lameness made +it difficult for him to go up-stairs, and the entresol, a half-story +between the ground floor and the first story, when, as was the case +here, high enough in the ceiling, is one of the freest and pleasantest +parts of a French house. His apartments comprised five rooms on a +line,--an antechamber, a dining-room, two parlors, and a bed-room, +with windows on the street,--and the same number of smaller rooms on a +parallel line, with their windows on the court-yard, which served for +his secretary and servants. The furniture throughout was neat and plain: +the usual comfortable arm-chairs and sofas, the indispensable clock and +mirror over the mantelpiece, and in each fireplace a cheerful wood-fire. +There were two or three servants in the antechamber, well-dressed, but +not in livery; and in the parlor, into which I was shown on handing my +card, two or three persons waiting for an audience. Fortunately for me, +they were there on business, and the business was soon despatched; and +passing, in turn, into the reception parlor, I found myself in the +presence of the friend of Washington and my grandfather. + +He received me so cordially, with such kind inquiries into the object +and cause of my journey, such a fatherly interest in my plans and aims, +such an earnest repetition of the invitation he had given me in his note +to look upon La Grange as my home, that I felt at once that I was no +longer without a guide and protector in a foreign land. It was some time +before I could observe him closely enough to get a just idea of his +appearance; for I had never before been consciously in the presence of +a man who had filled so many pages of real history, and of the history +which above all others I was most interested in. I felt as if a veil had +been suddenly lifted, and the great men I had read of and dreamed of +were passing before me. There were the features which, though changed, +had so often called up a smile of welcome to the lips of Washington; +there was the man who had shared with my grandfather the perils of the +Brandywine and Monmouth, the long winter encampment, and the wearisome +summer march; the man whom Napoleon had tried all the fascinations of +his art upon, and failed to lure him from his devotion to the cause of +freedom; whom Marat and Robespierre had marked out for destruction, and +kings and emperors leagued against in hatred and fear. It was more like +a dream than a reality, and for the first twenty minutes I was almost +afraid to stir for fear I might wake up and find the vision gone. But +when I began to look at him as a being of real flesh and blood, I found +that Ary Scheffer's portrait had not deceived me. Features, expression, +carriage, all were just as it had taught me to expect them, and it +seemed to me as if I had always known him. The moment I felt this I +began to feel at my ease; and though I never entirely lost the feeling +that I had a living chapter of history before me, I soon learned to look +upon him as a father. + +As I was rising to go, a lady entered the room, and, without waiting for +an introduction, held out her hand so cordially that I knew it must be +one of his daughters. It was Madame de Lasteyrie, who, like her mother +and sister, had shared his dungeon at Olmütz. Her English, though +perfectly intelligible, was not as fluent as her father's, but she had +no difficulty in saying some pleasant things about family friendship +which made me very happy. She lived in the same street, though not in +the same house with the General, and that morning my good-fortune had +brought the whole family together at No. 6. + +The occasion was a singular one. One of those heartless speculators to +whom our Government has too often given free scope among the Indian +tribes of our borders had brought to France a party of Osages, on +an embassy, as he gave them to understand, but in reality with the +intention of exhibiting them, very much as Van Amburgh exhibits his wild +beasts. General Lafayette was determined, if possible, to counteract +this abominable scheme; but as, unfortunately, there was no one who +could interpret for him but the speculator himself, he found it +difficult to make the poor Indians understand their real position. He +had already seen and talked with them, and was feeling very badly at not +being able to do more. This morning he was to receive them at his house, +and his own family, with one or two personal friends, had been invited +to witness the interview. + +Madame de Lasteyrie was soon followed by her daughters, and in a few +moments I found myself shaking some very pretty hands, and smiled upon +by some very pretty faces. It was something of a trial for one who had +never been in a full drawing-room in his life, and whom Nature had +predestined to _mauvaise honte_ to the end of his days. Still I made the +best of it, and as there is nothing so dreadful, after all, in a bright +eye and rosy lip, and the General's invitation to look upon his house as +my home was so evidently to be taken in its literal interpretation, I +soon began to feel at my ease. + +The rooms gradually filled. Madame de Maubourg came in soon after her +sister, and, as I was talking to one of the young ladies, a gentleman +with a countenance not altogether unlike the General's, though nearly +bald, and with what was left of his hair perfectly gray, came up and +introduced himself to me as George Lafayette. It was the last link in +the chain. The last letter that my grandfather ever wrote to General +Lafayette had been about a project which they had formed at the close +of the war, to bring up their sons--"the two George Washingtons" +--together; and as soon after General Greene's death as the necessary +arrangement could be made, my poor uncle was sent to France and placed +under the General's care. It was of him that General Washington had +written to Colonel Wadsworth, "But should it turn out differently, and +Mrs. Greene, yourself, and Mr. Rutledge" (General Greene's executors) +"should think proper to intrust my namesake, G.W. Greene, to my care, +I will give him as good an education as this country (I mean North +America) will afford, and will bring him up to either of the genteel +professions that his friends may choose or his own inclination shall +lead him to pursue, at my own cost and charge." "He is a lively boy," +wrote General Knox to Washington, on returning from putting him on board +the French packet, "and, with a good education, will probably be an +honor to the name of his father and the pride of his friends." + +I may be pardoned for dwelling a moment on the scanty memorials of one +whose name is often mentioned in the letters of Washington, and whose +early promise awakened the fondest expectations. He was a beautiful boy, +if the exquisite little miniature before me may be trusted, blending +sweetly the more characteristic traits of his father and mother in his +face, in a way that must have made him very dear to both. With the +officers and soldiers he was a great favorite, and it cost his father a +hard effort to deny himself the gratification of having him always with +him at camp during the winter. But the sense of paternal duty prevailed, +and as soon as he was thought old enough to profit by it, he was put +under the charge of Dr. Witherspoon at Princeton. "I cannot omit +informing you," writes General Washington, in 1783, "that I let no +opportunity slip to inquire after your son George at Princeton, and +that it is with pleasure I hear he enjoys good health, and is a fine, +promising boy." He remained in France till 1792, when his mother's +anxiety for his safety overcame her desire for the completion of his +studies, and she wrote to Gouverneur Morris, who was then in France, to +send him home. "Mr. Jefferson," reads the autograph before me, "presents +his most respectful compliments to Mrs. Greene, and will with great +pleasure write to Mr. Morris on the subject of her son's return, +forwarding her letter at the same time. He thinks Mrs. Greene concluded +that he should return by the way of London. If he is mistaken, she will +be so good as to correct him, as his letter to Mr. Morris will otherwise +be on that supposition." He returned a large, vigorous, athletic man, +full of the scenes he had witnessed, and ready to engage in active life +with the ardor of his age and the high hopes which his name authorized; +for it was in the days of Washington and Hamilton and Knox, men who +extended to the son the love they had borne to the father. But his first +winter was to be given to his home, to his mother and sisters; and +there, while pursuing too eagerly his favorite sport of duck-shooting +from a canoe on the Savannah, his boat was overset, and, though his +companion escaped by clinging to the canoe, he was borne down by the +weight of his accoutrements and drowned. The next day the body was +recovered, and the vault which but six years before had prematurely +opened its doors to receive the remains of the father was opened again +for the son. Not long after, his family removed to Cumberland Island and +ceased to look upon Savannah as their burial-place; and when, for the +first time, after the lapse of more than thirty years, and at the +approach of Lafayette on his last memorable visit to the United States, +a people awoke from their lethargy and asked where the bones of the hero +of the South had been laid, there was no one to point out their +resting-place. Happy, if what the poet tells us be true, and "still in our +ashes live their wonted fires," that they have long since mingled +irrevocably with the soil of the land that he saved, and can never become +associated with a movement that has been disgraced by the vile flag of +Secession! + +But to return to the Rue d'Anjou. A loud noise in the street announced +the approach of the Indians, whose appearance in an open carriage had +drawn together a dense crowd of sight-loving Parisians; and in a few +moments they entered, decked out in characteristic finery, but without +any of that natural grace and dignity which I had been taught to look +for in the natives of the forest. The General received them with the +dignified affability which was the distinctive characteristic of his +manner under all circumstances; and although there was nothing in the +occasion to justify it, I could not help recalling Madame de Staël's +comment upon his appearance at Versailles, on the fearful fifth of +October:--"M. de la Fayette was perfectly calm; nobody ever saw him +otherwise." Withdrawing with them into an inner room, he did his best, +as he afterwards told me, to prevail upon them to return home, though +not without serious doubts of the honesty of their interpreter. It was +while this private conference was going on that I got my first sight of +Cooper,--completing my morning's experience by exchanging a few words +with the man, of all others among my countrymen, whom I had most wished +to know. Meanwhile the table in the dining-room was spread with cakes +and preserves, and before the company withdrew, they had a good +opportunity of convincing themselves, that, if the American Indian had +made but little progress in the other arts of civilization, he had +attained to a full appreciation of the virtues of sweetmeats and pastry. + +I cannot close this portion of my story without relating my second +interview with my aboriginal countrymen, not quite so satisfactory as +the first, but at least with its amusing, or rather its laughable side. +I was living in Siena, a quiet old Tuscan town, with barely fifteen +thousand inhabitants to occupy a circuit of wall that had once held +fifty,--but with all the remains of its former greatness about it, noble +palaces, a cathedral second in beauty to that of Milan alone, churches +filled with fine pictures, an excellent public library, (God's blessing +be upon it, for it was in one of its dreamy alcoves that I first read +Dante,) a good opera in the summer, and good society all the year round. +Month was gliding after month in happy succession. I had dropped readily +into the tranquil round of the daily life, had formed many acquaintances +and two or three intimate ones, and, though reminded from time to time +of the General by a paternal letter, had altogether forgotten the +specimens of the children of the forest whom I had seen under his roof. +One evening--I do not remember the month, though I think it was late in +the autumn--I had made up my mind to stay at home and study, and was +just sitting down to my books, when a friend came in with the air of a +man who had something very interesting to say. + +"Quick, quick! shut your book, and come with me to the theatre." + +"Impossible! I'm tired, and, moreover, have something to do which I must +do to-night." + +"To-morrow night will do just as well for that, but not for the +theatre." + +"Why?" + +"Because there are some of your countrymen here who are going to be +exhibited on the stage, and the Countess P---- and all your friends want +you to come and interpret for them." + +"Infinitely obliged. And pray, what do you mean by saying that some of +my countrymen are to be exhibited on the stage? Do you take Americans +for mountebanks?" + +"No, I don't mean that; but it is just as I tell you. Some Americans +will appear on the stage to-night and make a speech in American, and you +must come and explain it to us." + +I must confess, that, at first, my dignity was a little hurt at the idea +of an exhibition of Americans; but a moment's reflection convinced me +that I had no grounds for offence, and all of a sudden it occurred to +me that the "Americans" might be my friends of the Rue d'Anjou, whose +"guide and interpreter," though hardly their "friend," had got them +down as far as Siena on the general embassy. I was resolved to see, and +accordingly exchanging my dressing-gown and slippers for a dress-box +costume, I accompanied my friend to the theatre. My appearance at the +pit-door was the signal for nods and beckonings from a dozen boxes; but +as no one could dispute the superior claims of the Countess P----, I soon +found myself seated in the front of her Ladyship's box, and the chief +object of attention till the curtain rose. + +"And now, my dear G----, tell us all about these strange countrymen +of yours,--how they live,--whether it is true that they eat one +another,--what kind of houses they have,--how they treat their +women,--and everything else that we ought to know." + +Two or three years later, when Cooper began to be translated, they would +have known better; but now nothing could convince them that I was not +perfectly qualified to answer all their questions and stand interpreter +between my countrymen and the audience. Fortunately, I had read Irving's +beautiful paper in the "Sketch-Book," and knew "The Last of the +Mohicans" by heart; and putting together, as well as I could, the ideas +of Indian life I had gained from these sources, I accomplished my task +to the entire satisfaction of my interrogators. At last the curtain +rose, and, though reduced in number, and evidently much the worse for +their protracted stay in the land of civilization and brandy, there +they were, the very Osages I had seen at the good old General's. The +interpreter came forward and told his story, making them chiefs of rank +on a tour of pleasure. And a burly-looking fellow, walking up and down +the stage with an air that gave the lie to every assertion of the +interpreter, made a speech in deep gutturals to the great delight of +the listeners. Fortunately for me, the Italian love of sound kept my +companions still till the speech was ended, and then, just as they were +turning to me for a translation, the interpreter announced his intention +of translating it for them himself. Nothing else, I verily believe, +could have saved my reputation, and enabled me to retain my place as a +native-born American. When the exhibition was over,--and even with the +ludicrousness of my part of it, to me it was a sad one,--I went behind +the scenes to take a nearer view of these poor victims of avarice. They +were sitting round a warming-pan, looking jaded and worn, brutalized +beyond even what I had first imagined. It was my last sight of them, and +I was glad of it; how far they went, and how many of them found their +way back to their native land, I never was able to learn. + +Before I left the Rue d'Anjou, it was arranged, that, as soon as I had +seen a little more of Paris, I should go to La Grange. "One of the young +ladies will teach you French," said the General, "and you can make your +plans for the winter at your leisure." + + +LA GRANGE. + + +It was on a bright autumn morning that I started for the little village +of Rosay,--some two leagues from Paris, and the nearest point by +_diligence_ to La Grange. A railroad passes almost equally near to +it now, and the French _diligence_, like its English and American +counterpart, the stage-coach, has long since been shorn of its honors. +Yet it was a pleasant mode of travelling, taking you from place to place +in a way to give you a good general idea of the country you were +passing through, and bringing you into much closer relations with your +fellow-travellers than you can form in a rail-car. There was the crowd +at the door of the post-house where you stopped to change horses, and +the little troop of wooden-shoed children that followed you up the +hill, drawling out in unison, "_Un peu de charité, s'il vous plaît_," +gradually quickening their pace as the horses began to trot, and +breaking all off together and tumbling in a heap as they scrambled for +the _sous_ that were thrown out to them. + +For a light, airy people, the French have a wonderful facility in making +clumsy-looking vehicles. To look at a _diligence_, you would say that it +was impossible to guide it through a narrow street, or turn it into a +gate. The only thing an American would think of likening it to would be +three carriages of different shapes fastened together. First came the +_Coupé_, in shape like an old-fashioned chariot, with a seat for three +persons, and glass windows in front and at the sides that gave you a +full view of everything on the road. This was the post of honor, higher +in price, and, on long journeys, always secured a day or two beforehand. +Not the least of its advantages was the amusement it afforded you in +watching the postilion and his horses,--a never-failing source of +merriment; and what to those who know how important it is, in a set of +hungry travellers, to secure a good seat at table, the important +fact that the _coupé_-door was the first door opened, and the +_coupé_-passengers received as the most distinguished personages of the +party. The _Intérieur_ came next: somewhat larger than our common coach, +with seats for six, face to face, two good windows at the sides, and +netting above for parcels of every kind and size: a comfortable place, +less exposed to jolts than the _coupé_ even, and much to be desired, if +you could but make sure of a back-corner and an accommodating companion +opposite to you. Last of all was the _Rotonde_, with its entrance from +the rear, its seats length-wise, room for six, and compensating in part +for its comparative inferiority in other respects by leaving you free +to get in and out as you chose, without consulting the conductor. This, +however, was but the first story, or the rooms of state of this castle +on wheels. On a covered dicky, directly above the _coupé_, and thus on +the very top of the whole machine, was another row of passengers, with +the conductor in front, looking down through the dust upon the world +beneath them, not very comfortable when the sun was hot, still less +comfortable of a rainy day, but just in the place which of all others +a real traveller would wish to be in at morning or evening or of a +moonlight night. The remainder of the top was reserved for the baggage, +carefully packed and covered up securely from dust and rain. + +I had taken the precaution to engage a seat in the _coupé_ the day +before I set out. Of my companions, I am sorry to say, I have not the +slightest recollection. But the road was good,--bordered, as so many +French roads are, with trees, and filled with a thousand objects full of +interest to a young traveller. There was the _roulage_: an immense cart +filled with goods of all descriptions, and drawn by four or five horses, +ranged one before another, each decked with a merry string of bells, and +generally rising in graduated proportions from the full-sized leader +to the enormous thill horse, who bore the heat and burden of the day. +Sometimes half a dozen of them would pass in a row, the drivers walking +together and whiling away the time with stories and songs. Now and then +a post-chaise would whirl by with a clattering of wheels and cracking of +whip that were generally redoubled as it came nearer to the _diligence_, +and sank again, when it was passed, into comparative moderation both of +noise and speed. There were foot travellers, too, in abundance; and as +I saw them walking along under the shade of the long line of trees +that bordered the road, I could not help thinking that this thoughtful +provision for the protection of the traveller was the most pleasing +indication I had yet seen of a country long settled. + +While I was thus looking and wondering, and drawing perhaps the hasty +comparisons of a novice, I saw a gentleman coming towards us with a +firm, quick step, his blue surtout buttoned tight over his breast, a +light walking-stick in his hand, and with the abstracted air of a man +who saw something beyond the reach of the bodily eye. It was Cooper, +just returning from a visit to the General, and dreaming perhaps of +his forest-paths or the ocean. His carriage with his family was coming +slowly on behind. A day earlier and I should have found them all at La +Grange. + +It was evident that the good people of Rosay were accustomed to the +sight of travellers on their way to La Grange with a very small stock of +French; for I had hardly named the place, when a brisk little fellow, +announcing himself as the guide of all the _Messieurs Américains_, +swung my portmanteau upon his back and set out before me at the regular +jog-trot of a well-trained porter. The distance was but a mile, the +country level, and we soon came in sight of the castle. Castle, indeed, +it was, with its pointed Norman towers, its massive walls, and broad +moat,--memorials of other days,--and already gray with age before the +first roof-tree was laid in the land which its owner had helped to build +up to a great nation. On a hill-side its appearance would have been +grand. As it was, it was impressive, and particularly as first seen +from the road. The portcullis was gone, but the arched gateway still +remained, flanked by towers that looked sombre and stern, even amidst +the deep green of the ivy which covered the left tower almost to the +battlements. I was afterwards told that the ivy itself had a special +significance,--having been planted by Charles Fox, during a visit to La +Grange not long before his death. And Fox, it will be remembered, had +exerted all his eloquence to induce the English Government to demand the +liberation of Lafayette from Olmütz,--an act which called down upon him +at the time the bitterest invectives of party rhetoric, but which the +historian of England now records as a bright page in the life of one of +her greatest men. Ah, how different would our record be, if we could +always follow our instinct of immortality, and in all our actions look +thoughtfully forward to the judgment of the future! + +Passing under the massive arch, I found myself in the castle court. +Three sides of the edifice were still standing, darkened, indeed, and +distained by the winds and rains of centuries, but with an air of modern +comfort and neatness about the doors and windows that seemed more in +keeping than the moat and towers with the habits of the present day. +The other curtain had been thrown down years before,--how or why nobody +could tell me, but not improbably in some of the domestic wars which +fill and defile the annals of mediaeval Europe. In those days the loss +of it must have been a serious one; but for the modern occupant it was a +real gain,--letting in the air and sunlight, and opening a pleasant view +of green plantations from every window of the court. + +A servant met me at the main entrance, a broad stairway directly +opposite the gate, and, taking my card, led me up to a spacious hall, +where he asked me to wait while he went to announce my arrival to +the General. The hall was a large oblong room, plainly, but neatly +furnished, with a piano at one end, its tessellated oaken floor highly +polished, and communicating by folding-doors with an inner room, in +which I caught a glimpse of a bright wood-fire, and a portrait of Bailly +over the mantel. On the wall, to the left of the folding-doors, was +suspended an American flag with its blue field of stars and its red and +white stripes looking down upon me in a way that made my American veins +tingle. + +But I had barely time to look around me before I heard a heavy step on +the stairs, and the next moment the General entered. This time he gave +me a French greeting, pressing me in his arms and kissing me on both +cheeks. "We were expecting you," said he, "and you are in good season +for dinner. Let me show you your room." + +If I had had my choice of all the rooms in the castle, I should have +chosen the very one that had been assigned me. It was on the first--not +the ground--floor, at the end of a long vaulted gallery and in a tower. +There was a deep alcove from the bed,--a window looking down upon the +calm waters of the moat, and giving glimpses, through the trees, of +fields and woods beyond,--a fireplace with a cheerful fire, which had +evidently been kindled the moment my arrival was known,--the tessellated +floor with its waxen gloss,--and the usual furniture of a French +bed-room, a good table and comfortable chairs. A sugar-bowl filled +with sparkling beet sugar, and a decanter of fresh water, on the +mantel-piece, would have shown me, if there had been nothing else to +show it, that I was in France. The General looked round the room to make +sure that all was comfortably arranged for me, and then renewing his +welcome, and telling me that the castle-bell would ring for dinner in +about half an hour, left me to take possession of my quarters and change +my dress. + +If I had not been afraid of getting belated, I should have sat down +awhile to collect my thoughts and endeavor to realize where I was. But +as it was, I could do little more than unpack my trunk, arrange my books +and writing-materials on the table, and change my dusty clothes, before +the bell rang. Oh, how that bell sounded through the long corridor from +its watch-tower over the gateway! And how I shrank back when I found +myself on the threshold of the hall and saw the inner room full! The +General must have divined my feelings; for, the moment he saw me, he +came forward to meet me, and, taking me by the arm, presented me to all +the elders of the party in turn. He apparently supposed, that, with +the start I had had in the Rue d'Anjou, I should make my way among the +younger ones myself. + +It was a family circle covering three generations: the General, his son +and daughter-in-law and two daughters, and ten grandchildren,--among +whom I was glad to see some of both sexes sufficiently near my own age +to open a very pleasant prospect for me whenever I should have learnt +French enough to feel at home among them. Nor was the domestic character +of the group broken by the presence of a son of Casimir Périer, who was +soon to marry George Lafayette's eldest daughter, the Count de Ségur, +the General's uncle, though but a month or two his elder, and the Count +de Tracy, father of Madame George de Lafayette, and founder of the +French school of Ideology, companions, both of them, of the General's +youth, and, at this serene close of a life of strange vicissitudes and +bitter trials, still his friends. Levasseur, his secretary, who had +accompanied him in his visit to the United States, with his German wife, +a young gentleman whose name I have forgotten, but who was the private +tutor of young Jules de Lasteyrie, and Major Frye, an English half-pay +officer, of whom I shall have a good deal more to say by-and-by, +completed the circle. We formed a long procession to the dining-room, +and I shall never forget how awkward I felt on finding myself walking, +with the General's arm in mine, at the head of it. There was a certain +air of high breeding, of respect for others founded on self-respect, and +a perfect familiarity with all the forms of society, which relieved +me from much of my embarrassment by making me feel instinctively that +nobody would take unpleasant notice of it. Still, that first dinner was +a trial to my nerves, though I do not remember that the trial interfered +with my appetite. It was served, of course, in courses, beginning with +soup and ending with fruit. Most of the dishes, as I afterwards learned, +were the produce of the farm, and they certainly bore good witness to +the farmer's judgment and skill. The General was a hearty eater, as most +Frenchmen are; but he loved to season his food with conversation, and, +much as he relished his meals, he seemed to relish the pleasant +talk between the courses still more. As I was unable to follow the +conversation of the table, I came in for a large share of the General's +attention, who would turn to me every now and then with something +pleasant to say. He had had the consideration, too, to place one of the +young ladies next to me, directly on my right, as I was on his; and her +English, though not perfectly fluent, was fluent enough to enable us to +keep up a lively interlude. + +On returning to the drawing-room, the General led me up to a portrait of +my grandfather, and indulged himself for a while in endeavoring to trace +a resemblance between us. I say indulged; for he often, down to the last +time that I ever saw him, came back to this subject, and seemed to +take a peculiar pleasure in it. He had been warmly attached to General +Greene, and the attachment which both of them bore to Washington served +to strengthen their attachment to each other. This portrait, a copy +from Peale, had been one of the fruits of his last visit to the United +States, and hung, with those of some other personal friends,--great men +all of them,--on the drawing-room wall. His Washington was a bronze from +Houdon's bust, and stood opposite the mantel-piece on a marble pedestal. +Conversation and music filled up the rest of the evening, and before +I withdrew for the night it had been arranged that I should begin my +French the next morning, with one of the young ladies for teacher. And +thus ended my first day at La Grange. + + +EVERY-DAY LIFE AT LA GRANGE. + + +The daily life at La Grange was necessarily systematic. The General's +position compelled him to see a great deal of company and exposed him to +constant interruptions. He kept a kind of open table, at which part +of the faces seemed to be changing every day. Then there were his own +children, with claims upon his attention which he was not disposed to +deny, and a large family of grandchildren to educate, upon all of whose +minds he wished to leave personal impressions of their intercourse with +him which should make them feel how much he loved and cherished them +all. Fortunately, the size of the castle made it easy to keep the family +rooms distant from the rooms of the guests; and a judicious division +of time enabled him to preserve a degree of freedom in the midst of +constraint, which, though the rule in Europe, American hosts in town or +country have very little conception of. + +Every one rose at his own hour, and was master of his time till eleven. +If he wanted an early breakfast, he could have a cup of coffee +or chocolate or milk in his room for the asking. But the family +breakfast-hour was at eleven, a true French breakfast, and attended with +all the forms of dinner except in dress. The castle-bell was rung; the +household collected in the parlor; and all descended in one order to the +dining-room. It was pleasant to see this morning gathering. The General +was almost always among the first to come in and take his stand by +the fireplace, with a cordial greeting for each guest in turn. As his +grandchildren entered, they went up to offer their morning salutations +to him first of all, and there was the paternal kiss on the forehead and +a pleasant word for each. His son and daughters generally saw him in his +own room before they came down. + +Breakfast was a cheerful meal, served in courses like dinner, and +seasoned with conversation, in which every one was free to take a part +or listen, as he felt disposed. There was no hurry, no confusion about +it; all sat down and rose at the same time; and as every one that worked +at all had evidently done part of his day's work before he came to +table, all came with good appetites. Then came the family walk, all +starting out in a group, but always sure to break up into smaller groups +as they went on: the natural law of affinities never failing to make +itself felt, and they who found most pleasure in each other's society +generally ending their walk together. Sometimes the General would come a +little way with us, but soon turned off to the farm, or dropped behind +and went back to his books and letters. An hour in the grounds passed +quickly,--too quickly, I often used to think; and then, unless, as +occasionally happened, there was an excursion on foot which all were +to take part in, the members of the family withdrew to their own +apartments, and the guests were left free to fill up the time till +dinner as they chose. With books, papers, and visits from room to room, +or strolls about the grounds, the hours never lagged; and much as one +day seemed like another, there was always something of its own to +remember it by. Of course, this regularity was not the result of +chance. Behind the visible curtain was the invisible spirit guiding +and directing all. It was no easy task to provide abundantly, and yet +judiciously, for a family always large, but which might at any moment +be almost doubled without an hour's notice. The farm, as I have already +said, furnished a full proportion of the daily supplies, and the General +was the farmer. But the daily task of distribution and arrangement fell +to the young ladies, each of whom took her week of housekeeping in turn. +The very first morning I was admitted behind the scenes. "If you want +anything before breakfast," said one of the young ladies, as the evening +circle was breaking up, "come down into the butler's room and get it." +And to the butler's room I went; and there, in a calico fitted as neatly +as the rich silk of the evening before, with no papers in her hair, with +nothing but a richer glow to distinguish the morning from the evening +face, with laughing eyes and busy hands, issuing orders and inspecting +dishes, stood the very girl with whom I was to begin at nine my +initiation into the mysteries of French. There must have been something +peculiar in the grass which the cows fed on at La Grange; for I used to +go regularly every morning for my cup of milk, and it never disagreed +with me. + + +MY FRENCH. + + +Oh, that lesson of French! Two seats at the snug little writing-table, +and only one witness of my blunders; for nobody ever thought of coming +into the drawing-room before the breakfast-bell. Unfortunately for me, +Ollendorff had not yet published his thefts from Manesca; and instead of +that brisk little war of question and answer, which loosens the tongue +so readily to strange sounds and forms the memory so promptly to the +combinations of a new idiom, I had to struggle on through the scanty +rules and multitudinous exceptions of grammar, and pick my way with the +help of a dictionary through the harmonious sentences of "Télémaque." +And never had sentences seemed so harmonious to my ears before; and +never, I fear, before had my young friend's patience been so sorely +tried, or her love of fun put under so unnatural a restraint. "_Calypso +ne pouvait se consoler_," over and over and over again, her rosy lips +moving slowly in order to give distinctness to every articulation, and +her blue eyes fairly dancing with repressed laughter at my awkward +imitation. If my teacher's patience could have given me a good +pronunciation, mine would have been perfect. Day after day she came back +to her task, and ever as the clock told nine would meet me at the door +with the same genial smile. + +Nearly twenty years afterwards I found myself once more in Paris, and at +a large party at the house of the American Minister, the late Mr. King. +As I was wandering through the rooms, looking at group after group of +unknown faces, my eye fell upon one that I should have recognized at +once as that of my first teacher of French, if it had not seemed to me +impossible that twenty years could have passed over it so lightly. + +"Who is that lady?" I asked of a gentleman near me, whom it was +impossible not to set down at once for an American. + +"Why, that is Madame de ----, a grand-daughter of General Lafayette." + +I can hardly account, at this quiet moment, for the sudden impulse that +seized me; but resist it I could not; and walking directly up to her, I +made my lowest bow, and, without giving her time to look me well in +the face, repeated, with all the gravity I could command, "_Calypso ne +pouvait se consoler du départ d'Ulysse_." + +"O! Monsieur Greene," said she, holding out both her hands, "it must be +you!" + + +THE GENERAL. + + +General Lafayette had just entered his seventy-first year. In his +childhood he had been troubled by a weakness of the chest which gave his +friends some anxiety. But his constitution was naturally good, and air, +exercise, and exposure gradually wore away every trace of his original +debility. In person he was tall and strongly built, with broad +shoulders, large limbs, and a general air of strength, which was rather +increased than diminished by an evident tending towards corpulency. +While still a young man, his right leg--the same, I believe, that had +been wounded in rallying our broken troops at the Brandywine--was +fractured by a fall on the ice, leaving him lame for the rest of his +days. This did not prevent him, however, from walking about his farm, +though it cut him off from the use of the saddle, and gave a halt to his +gait, which but for his dignity of carriage would have approached to +awkwardness. Indeed, he had more dignity of bearing than any man I ever +saw. And it was not merely the dignity of self-possession, which early +familiarity with society and early habits of command may give even to +an ordinary man, but that elevation of manner which springs from an +habitual elevation of thought, bearing witness to the purity of its +source, as a clear eye and ruddy cheek bear witness to the purity of the +air you daily breathe. In some respects he was the mercurial Frenchman +to the last day of his life; yet his general bearing, that in which +he comes oftenest to my memory, was of calm earnestness, tempered and +mellowed by quick sympathies. + +His method of life was very regular,--the regularity of thirty years +of comparative retirement, following close upon fifteen years of active +public life, begun at twenty in the army of Washington, and ending in a +Prussian and Austrian dungeon at thirty-five. + +His private apartments consisted of two rooms on the second floor. The +first was his bed-room, a cheerful, though not a large room, nearly +square, with a comfortable fireplace, and a window looking out upon the +lawn and woods behind the castle. Just outside of the bed-room, and the +first object that struck your eye on approaching it from the gallery, +was a picture by one of his daughters, representing the burly turnkey +of Olmütz in the act of unlocking his dungeon-door. "It is a good +likeness," said the General to me, the first time that he took me to his +rooms,--"a very good likeness. I remember the features well." From the +bed-room a door opened into a large turret-room, well lighted and airy, +and which, taking its shape from the tower in which it stood, was +almost a perfect circle. This was the General's library. The books were +arranged in open cases, filling the walls from floor to ceiling, and +with a neatness and order which revealed an artistic appreciation of +their effect. It was lighted by two windows, one opening on the lawn, +the other on the farm-yards, and both, from the thickness of the +walls, looking like deep recesses. In the window that looked upon the +farm-yards was the General's writing-table and seat. A spy-glass lay +within reach, enabling him to overlook the yard-work without rising from +his chair; and on the table were his farm-books, with the record of +crops and improvements entered in regular order with his own hand. +Charles Sumner, who visited La Grange last summer, tells me that they +lie there still. + +The library was miscellaneous, many of the books being +presentation-copies, and most of them neatly bound. Its predominant +character, as nearly as I can recollect, was historical; the history in +which he had borne so important a part naturally coming in for a full +share. Though not a scholar from choice, General Lafayette loved books, +and was well read. His Latin had stood him in stead at Olmütz for his +brief communication with his surgeon; and I have a distinct impression, +though I cannot vouch for the correctness of it, that he never dropped +it altogether. His associations were too much among men of thought as +well as men of action, and the responsibilities that weighed upon him +were too grave, to permit so conscientious a man to neglect the aid of +books. Of the historians of our Revolution, he preferred Ramsay, who +had, as he said, put everything into his two volumes, and abridged as +well as Eutropius. It was, perhaps, the presence of something of the +same quality that led him to give the preference, among the numerous +histories of the French Revolution, to Mignet, though, in putting +him into my hands, he cautioned me against that dangerous spirit +of fatalism, which, making man the unconscious instrument of an +irresistible necessity, leaves him no real responsibility for evil or +for good. + +It was in this room that he passed the greater part of the time that was +not given to his farm or his guests. I never entered it without finding +him at his desk, with his pen or a book in hand. His correspondence was +so extensive that he was always obliged to keep a secretary, though a +large portion of his letters were written with his own hand. He wrote +rapidly in fact, though not rapidly to the eye; and you were surprised, +in seeing his hand move over the paper, to find how soon it reached the +bottom of the sheet, and how closely it filled it up. His handwriting +was clear and distinct, neither decidedly French nor decidedly +English,--like all his habits and opinions, formed early and never +changed. I have letters of his to my grandfather, written during the +Revolution, and letters of his to myself, written fifty years after it, +in which it is almost impossible to trace the difference between the old +man and the young one. English he seemed to write as readily as French, +although a strong Gallicism would every now and then slip from his pen, +as it slipped from his tongue. "I had to learn in a hurry," said he, +giving me one day the history of his English studies. "I began on my +passage out, as soon as I got over my sea-sickness, and picked up the +rest in camp. I was compelled to write and talk, and so I learned to +write and talk. The officers were very kind and never laughed at me. +After the peace, Colonel Tarleton came over to Paris, and was presented +to the King one day when I happened to be at Court. The King asked him +how I spoke English. 'I cannot say how he speaks it, Sire,' said the +Colonel, 'but I occasionally had the good-luck to pick up some of his +letters that were going the wrong way, and I can assure your Majesty +that they were very well written.'" + +His valet was an old soldier, who had served through the Peninsular War, +and who moved about with the orderly gait and quiet air of a man who had +passed his heyday under the forming influences of camp discipline. +He was a most respectable-looking man, as well as a most respectful +servant; and it was impossible to see him busying himself about the +General at his morning toilet, and watch his delicate handling of the +lather-brush and razor, without feeling, that, however true the old +proverb may have been in other cases, Bastien's master was a hero to +him. + +The General's dress was always simple, though studiously neat. His +republicanism was of the school of Washington, and would have shrunk +from a public display of a bare neck and shirt-sleeves. Blue was his +usual winter color; a frock-coat in the morning, and a dress-coat for +dinner, and both near enough to the prevailing fashion to escape remark. +He had begun serious life too early to have ever been anything of a +dandy, even if Nature had seen fit to contradict herself so far as to +have intended him for one. + +Jewelry I never saw him wear; but there was one little compartment in +his library filled with what in a certain sense might be called jewelry, +and of a kind that he had good reason to be proud of. In one of the +drawers was a sword made out of a key of the Bastile, and presented to +him by the city of Paris. The other key he sent to Washington. When he +was a young man the Bastile was a reality, and those keys still plied +their dismal work at the bidding of a power as insensible to the +suffering it caused as the steel of which they were made. Of the +hundreds who with sinking hearts had heard them turn in their massive +wards, how few had ever come back to tell the tale of their misery! +Lafayette himself, but for the quick wit of a servant-maid, might have +passed there some of the youthful days that he passed at the side of +Washington, and gazed dimly, as at a dream, in the Bastile, at what he +could look back upon as a proud reality in Olmütz. Another of his relics +was a civic crown, oak-leaf wrought in gold, the gift of the city of +Lyons; but this belonged to a later period, his last visit to Auvergne, +the summer before the Revolution of July, and which called forth as +enthusiastic a display of popular affection as that which had greeted +his last visit to America. But the one which he seemed to prize most was +a very plain pair of eye-glasses, in a simple horn case, if my memory +does not deceive me, but which, in his estimation, neither gold nor +jewels could have replaced, for they had once belonged to Washington. +"He gave them to me," said the General, "on my last visit to Mount +Vernon." + +He was an early riser, and his work began the moment he left his pillow. +First came his letters, always a heavy drain upon his time; for he had +been so long a public man that everybody felt free to consult him, and +everybody that consulted him was sure of a polite answer. Then his +personal friends had their claims, some of them running back to youth, +some the gradual accession of later years, and all of them cherished +with that genial and confiding expansiveness which was the great charm +of his private life, and the chief source, when he did err, of his +errors as a public man. Like all the men of Washington's school, he +was systematically industrious; and by dint of system and industry his +immense correspondence was seldom allowed to get the start of him. +Important letters were answered as they came, and minutes or copies of +the answers kept for reference. He seemed to love his pen, and to write +without effort,--never aiming, it is true, at the higher graces of +style, somewhat diffuse, too, both in French and in English, but +easy, natural, idiomatic, and lucid, with the distinctness of clear +conceptions rather than the precision of vigorous conceptions, and a +warmth which in his public letters sometimes rose to eloquence, and in +his private letters often made you feel as if you were listening instead +of reading. + +He was fond of anecdote, and told his stories with the fluency of a man +accustomed to public speaking, and the animation and point of a man +accustomed to the society of men of wit as well as of men of action. +His recollections were wonderfully distinct, and it always gave me a +peculiar thrill to hear him talk about the great men he had lived and +acted with in both hemispheres, as familiarly as if he had parted from +them only an hour before. It was bringing history very close to me, and +peopling it with living beings,--beings of flesh and blood, who ate and +drank and slept and wore clothes as we do; for here was one of them, the +friend and companion of the greatest among them all, whom I had known +through books, as I knew them long before I knew him in actual life, +and every one of whose words and gestures seemed to give me a clearer +conception of what they, too, must have been. + +Still he never appeared to live in the recollections of his youth, as +most old men do. His life was too active a one for this, and the +great principles he had consecrated it to were too far-reaching and +comprehensive, too full of living, actual interest, too fresh and +vigorous in their vitality, to allow a man of his sanguine and active +temperament to forget himself in the past when there was so much to do +in the present. This gave a peculiar charm to his conversation; for, +no matter what the subject might be, he always talked like a man who +believed what he said, and whose faith, a living principle of thought +and action, was constantly kept in a genial glow by the quickness +and depth of his sympathies. His smile told this; for it was full of +sweetness and gentleness, though with a dash of earnestness about it, an +under-current of serious thought, that made you feel as if you wanted to +look behind it, and reminded you, at times, of a landscape at sunset, +when there is just light enough to show you how many things there are +in it that you would gladly dwell upon, if the day were only a little +longer. + +His intercourse with his children was affectionate and confiding,--that +with his daughters touchingly so. They had shared with him two years of +his captivity at Olmütz, and he seemed never to look at them without +remembering it. They had been his companions when he most needed +companionship, and had learnt to enter into his feelings and study his +happiness at an age when most girls are absorbed in themselves. The +effect of this early discipline was never lost. They had found happiness +where few seek it, in self-denial and self-control, a religious +cultivation of domestic affections, and a thoughtful development +of their minds as sources of strength and enjoyment. They were +happy,--happy in what they had done and in what they were +doing,--entering cheerfully upon the serene evening of lives consecrated +to duty, with children around them to love them as they had loved their +father and mother, and that father still with them to tell them that +they had never deceived him. + + + + +A FIELD NIGHT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. + + +To an intelligent American visiting London for the first time, few +places of interest will present stronger attractions than the House of +Commons during an animated debate. Commencing its existence with the +first crude ideas of popular liberty in England, steadily advancing in +influence and importance with the increasing wealth and intelligence of +the middling class, until it came to hold the purse and successfully +defend the rights of the people, illustrated for many generations by the +eloquence and the statesmanship of the kingdom, and to-day wielding the +power and directing the destinies of the foremost nation in the world, +it is not strange that an American, speaking the same language, and +proud of the same ancestry, should visit with the deepest interest the +scene of so many and so important transactions. Especially will this be +the case, if by experience or observation he has become familiar with +the course of proceedings in our own legislative assemblies. For, +although the English House of Commons is the parent of all similar +deliberative bodies in the civilized world, yet its rules and +regulations are in many respects essentially unique. + +Assuming that many of my readers have never enjoyed the opportunity of +"sitting out a debate" in Parliament, I have ventured to hope that a +description of some of the distinctive features which are peculiar to +the House of Commons, and a sketch of some of its prominent members, +might not be unwelcome. + +In 1840 the corner-stone of the New Palace of Westminster was laid, and +at the commencement of the session of 1852 the first official occupation +of the House of Commons took place. The House of Peers was first used in +1847. It is not consistent with the object of this article to speak of +the dimensions and general appearance of this magnificent structure. It +is sufficient to say, that in its architectural design, in its interior +decorations, and in its perfect adaptation to the purposes for which it +was erected, it is alike creditable to the public spirit of the nation, +and to the improved condition of the fine and useful arts in the present +century. + +The entrance to the House of Commons is through Westminster Hall. What +wealth of historical recollections is suggested by this name! As, +however, we are dealing with the present, we dare not even touch upon so +fruitful a theme, but must hasten through the grand old hall, remarking +only in passing that it is supposed to have been originally built +in 1097, and was rebuilt by Richard II. in 1398. With a single +exception,--the Hall of Justice in Padua,--it is the largest apartment +unsupported by pillars in the world. Reluctantly leaving this historical +ground, we enter St. Stephen's Hall. This room, rich in architectural +ornaments and most graceful in its proportions, is still further adorned +with statues of "men who rose to eminence by the eloquence and abilities +they displayed in the House of Commons." Who will dispute their claims +to this distinction? The names selected for such honorable immortality +are Selden, Hampden, Falkland, Lord Clarendon, Lord Somers, Sir Robert +Walpole, Lord Chatham, Lord Mansfield, Burke, Fox, Pitt, and Grattan. + +We have now reached the Great Central Hall, out of which open two +corridors, one of which leads to the lobby of the House of Lords. +Passing through the other, we find ourselves in the lobby of the House +of Commons. Here we must pause and look about us. We are in a large +apartment brilliantly lighted and richly decorated. As we stand with our +backs to the Great Central Hall, the passage-way to the right conducts +to the library and refreshment rooms, that on the left is the private +entrance of the members through the old cloisters, of Stephen's, that in +front is the main entrance to the floor of the House. In the corner on +our right is a small table, garnished with all the materials for a +cold lunch for the use of those members who have no time for a more +substantial meal in the dining-room. Stimulants of various kinds are +not wanting; but the habits of Englishmen and the presence of vigilant +policemen prevent any abuse of this privilege. The refreshments thus +provided are open to all, and in this qualified sense I may say that I +have lunched with Disraeli, Lord John Russell, and Lord Palmerston. + +But the hour has nearly come for opening the debate; members are rapidly +arriving and taking their seats, and we shall do well to decide upon the +best mode of gaining admission to the House. There are a few benches +on the floor reserved, as of right, for peers and their sons, and, +by courtesy, for gentlemen introduced by them. I may be pardoned for +presuming that this high privilege is beyond our reach. Our only +alternative, then, is the galleries. These are, the Speaker's Gallery, +on the south side of the House, and directly opposite the Speaker's +chair, affording room for between twenty and thirty, and the Strangers' +Gallery, behind this, with seats for about sixty. Visitors have only +these limited accommodations. The arrangement deprives members of all +temptation to "speak to the galleries," and is consistent with the +English theory, that all debates in the House should be strictly of a +business character. And as to anything like applause on the part of the +spectators, what punishment known to any criminal code among civilized +nations would be too severe for such an offence? + +The American Minister (and of course every representative of a foreign +power) has the right to give two cards of admission, entitling the +bearer of each to a seat in the Speaker's Gallery. But these cards admit +only on a specified evening, and if not used then, are worthless. If +you have called on our distinguished representative at the Court of St. +James, you have probably discovered that his list is full for the next +fortnight at least, and, although the Secretary of Legation politely +asks your name, and promises you the earliest opportunity, you retire +with a natural feeling of disappointment. Many Americans, having only a +few days to spend in London, leave the city without making any further +effort to visit the House of Commons. It would certainly have been well +to forward, in advance of your arrival in London, a written application +to the Minister; but as this has not been done, what remains? Ask your +banker for a note of introduction to some member of the House, and, +armed with this epistle, make your appearance in the lobby. Give the +note, with your card, to that grave, clerical-looking man in a little +box on the left of the main entrance, and patiently await the approach +of the "honorable gentleman." If the Speaker's Gallery is not full, he +will have no difficulty in procuring for you the desired admission; and +if at leisure, he will undoubtedly spend a few moments in pointing out +the distinguished men who may chance to be in attendance. Be sure and +carry an opera-glass. Without this precaution, you will not be able to +study to your satisfaction the faces of the members, for the House is by +no means brilliantly illuminated. If for any reason this last expedient +does not succeed, must we despair for this evening? We are on the +ground, and our engagements may not leave another so good opportunity. I +have alluded to the presence of policemen in the lobby. Do I dream, or +has it been whispered to me, that half a crown, opportunely and adroitly +invested, may be of substantial advantage to the waiting stranger? But +by all means insist on the Speaker's Gallery. The Strangers' Gallery is +less desirable for many reasons, and, being open to everybody who has a +member's order, is almost invariably crowded. At all events, it should +be reserved as a dernier resort. As an illustration of the kindly +feeling towards Americans, I may mention, parenthetically, that I have +known gentlemen admitted to the Speaker's Gallery on their simple +statement to the door-keeper that they were from the United States. On +one of these occasions, the official, a civil personage, but usually +grave to the verge of solemnity,--the very last man you would have +selected as capable of waggery,--assumed a comical counterfeit of +terror, and said,--"Bless me! we must be obliging to Americans, or who +knows what may come of it?" + +It should be observed, however, that on a "field night" not one of +the modes of admission which I have described will be of any service. +Nothing will avail you then but a place on the Speaker's list, and even +in that case you must be promptly at your post, for "First come first +served" is the rule. + +But we have lingered long enough in the Lobby. Let us take our places +in the Speaker's Gallery,--for the essayist has hardly less power than, +according to Sydney Smith, has the novelist, and a few strokes of the +pen shall show you what many have in vain longed to see. + +Once there, our attention is instantly attracted by observing that +almost every member, who is not speaking, wears his hat. This, although +customary, is not compulsory. Parliamentary etiquette only insists +that a member while speaking, or moving from place to place, shall be +uncovered. The gallery opposite the one in which we are seated is for +the use of the reporters. That ornamental brass trellis in the rear +of the reporters, half concealing a party of ladies, is a curious +compromise between what is due to traditional Parliamentary regulations +and the courtesy to which the fair sex is entitled. This relaxation of +the old rules dates only from the erection of the new building. + +The perfect order which prevails among members is another marked feature +during the debates. The bewigged and berobed Speaker, seated in his +imposing high-backed chair, seems rather to be retained in his place out +of due deference to time-honored custom than because a presiding officer +is necessary to preserve proper decorum. To be sure, demonstrations +of applause at a good bit, or of discontent with a prosy speaker, are +common, but anything approaching disorder is of rare occurrence. + +The adherence to forms and precedents is not a little amusing. Take, for +example, a "division," which corresponds to a call for the Ayes and Noes +with us. To select an instance at random,--there happens this evening to +be a good deal of excitement about some documents which it is alleged +the Ministry dare not produce; so the minority, who oppose the bill +under debate, make a great show of demanding the papers, and, not being +gratified, move to adjourn the debate, with the design of postponing the +passage of the obnoxious measure. + +"I move that the debate be adjourned." + +"Who seconds?" + +"I do." + +"Those in the affirmative," etc., etc. + +Feeble "Aye." + +Most emphatic "No." + +"The noes have it." + +"No!" "No!" + +"Aye!" "Aye!" + +"Divide!" "Divide!" in a perfect Babel of orderly confusion. + +(Speaker, very solemnly and decidedly,)-- + +"Strangers must withdraw!" + +Is the gallery immediately cleared? Not a bit of it. Every man retains +his place. Some even seem, to my fancy, to look a sort of grim defiance +at the Speaker, as a bold Briton should. It is simply a form, which +many years ago had some meaning, and, having once been used, cannot be +discontinued without putting the Constitution in jeopardy. Five times +this evening, the minority, intent on postponing the debate, call for +a division,--and as many times are strangers gravely admonished to +withdraw. + +There are two modes of adjourning the House,--by vote of the members, +and by want of a quorum. The method of procedure in the latter case is +somewhat peculiar, and has, of course, the sanction of many generations. +Suppose that a dull debate on an unimportant measure, numerous +dinner-parties, a fashionable opera, and other causes, have combined to +reduce the number of members in attendance to a dozen. It certainly +is not difficult to decide at a glance that a quorum (forty) is not +present, and I presume you are every instant expecting, in your +innocence, to hear, "Mr. Speaker, I move," etc. Pause a moment, my +impatient friend, too long accustomed to the reckless haste of our +Republican assemblies. Do not, even in thought, tamper with the +Constitution. "The wisdom of our ancestors" has bequeathed another and +undoubtedly a better mode of arriving at the same result. Some member +quietly intimates to the Speaker that forty members are not present. +That dignified official then rises, and, using his cocked hat as an +index or pointer, deliberately counts the members. Discovering, as the +apparent result of careful examination, that there really is no +quorum, he declares the House adjourned and sits down; whereupon the +Sergeant-at-Arms seizes the mace, shoulders it, and marches out, +followed by the Speaker. Then, and not until then, is the ceremony +complete and the House duly adjourned. + +This respect for traditional usage admits of almost endless +illustration. One more example must suffice. When the Speaker discovers +symptoms of disorder in the House, he rises in his place and says with +all suitable solemnity, "Unless Honorable Members preserve order, I +shall name names!" and quiet is instantly restored. What mysterious and +appalling consequences would result from persistent disobedience, nobody +in or out of the House has ever known, or probably ever will know,--at +any rate, no Speaker in Parliamentary annals has been compelled to adopt +the dreaded alternative. Shall I be thought wanting in patriotism, if +I venture to doubt whether so simple an expedient would reduce to +submission an insubordinate House of Representatives at Washington? + +Like everything else thoroughly English, speaking in the House of +Commons is eminently practical. "The bias of the nation," says Mr. +Emerson, "is a passion for utility." Conceive of a company of gentlemen +agreeing to devote, gratuitously, a certain portion of each year to the +consideration of any questions which may concern the public welfare, and +you have the theory and the practice of the House of Commons. Of course +there are exceptions to this general statement. There are not wanting +constituencies represented by unfit men; but such members are not +allowed to consume the time which belongs of right to men of capacity +and tried ability. The test is sternly, almost despotically applied. A +fair trial is given to a new member. If he is "up to his work," his +name goes on the list of men whom the House will hear. If, however, +his maiden speech is a failure, "farewell, a long farewell" to all his +political aspirations. Few men have risen from such a fall. Now and +then, as in the well-known instances of Sheridan, Disraeli, and some +less prominent names, real genius, aided by dogged determination, has +forced its way upward in spite of early ill-success; but such cases are +very rare. The rule may work occasional injustice, but is it after all +so very unreasonable? "Talking," they contend, "must be done by those +who have something to say." + +Everything one sees in the House partakes of this practical tendency. +There are no conveniences for writing. A member who should attempt to +read a manuscript speech would never get beyond the first sentence. Nor +does anybody ever dream of writing out his address and committing it +to memory. In fact, nothing can be more informal than their manner in +debate. You see a member rising with his hat in one hand, and his gloves +and cane in the other. It is as if he had just said to his neighbor, "I +have taken a good deal of interest in the subject under discussion, and +have been at some pains to understand it. I am inclined to tell the +House what I think of it." So you find him on the floor, or "on his +legs," in parliamentary phrase, carrying this intention into effect in +a simple, business-like, straightforward way. But if our friend is very +long, or threatens to be tedious, I fear that unequivocal and increasing +indications of discontent will oblige him to resume his seat in +undignified haste. + +Perhaps no feature of the debates in the House of Commons deserves more +honorable mention than the high-toned courtesy which regulates the +intercourse of members. + +Englishmen have never been charged with a want of spirit; on the +contrary, they are proverbially "plucky," and yet the House is never +disgraced by those shameful brawls which have given to our legislative +assemblies, state and national, so unenviable a reputation throughout +the civilized world. How does this happen? To Englishmen it does not +seem a very difficult matter to manage. If one member charges another +with ungentlemanly or criminal conduct, he must follow up his charge +and prove it,--in which case the culprit is no longer recognized as a +gentleman; or if he fails to make good his accusation, and neglects +to atone for his offence by ample and satisfactory apologies, he is +promptly "sent to Coventry" as a convicted calumniator. No matter how +high his social position may have been, whether nobleman or commoner, +he shall not escape the disgrace he has deserved. And to forfeit one's +standing among English gentlemen is a punishment hardly less severe +than to lose caste in India. In such a community, what need of duels to +vindicate wounded honor or establish a reputation for courage? + +The members of the present House of Commons were elected in the spring +of 1859. Among their number are several men who, in point of capacity, +eloquence, and political experience, will compare not unfavorably with +the ablest statesmen whom England has known for generations. I +have thought that some description of their appearance and mental +characteristics might not be unacceptable to American readers. As the +best mode of accomplishing this object, I shall select an occasion, +which, from the importance of the question under discussion, the deep +interest which it awakened, and the ability with which it was treated, +certainly presented as favorable an opportunity as could ever occur to +form a correct opinion of the best speaking talent in the kingdom. The +debate to which I allude took place early in the month of July, 1860. + +My name being fortunately on the first list for the Speaker's Gallery, +I had no difficulty in taking my place the moment the door was open. It +will be readily believed that every seat was soon filled. In front of +the Speaker's Gallery is a single row of seats designed for foreign +ambassadors and peers. The first man to enter it was Mr. Dallas, and he +was presently followed by other members of the diplomatic corps, and +several distinguished noblemen. + +It was very interesting to an American that almost the first business of +the evening concerned his own country. Some member of the House asked +Lord John Russell, then Secretary for Foreign Affairs, if he had +received any recent despatches from the United States relating to the +San Juan difficulty. It will be remembered, or would be, but for the +rapid march of more momentous events, that only a short time before, +news had reached England that General Harney, violating the explicit +instructions of General Scott, so wisely and opportunely issued, had +claimed for the United States exclusive jurisdiction over the island +of San Juan. Lord John replied by stating what had been the highly +honorable and judicious policy of General Scott, and the unwarrantable +steps subsequently taken by General Harney,--that Lord Lyons had +communicated information of the conduct of General Harney to President +Buchanan, who had recalled that officer, and had forwarded instructions +to his successor to continue in the course marked out by General Scott. +This gratifying announcement was greeted in the House with hearty +cheers,--a spontaneous demonstration of delight, which proved not only +that the position of affairs on this question was thought to be serious, +but also the genuine desire of Englishmen to remain in amicable +relations with the United States. + +To this brief business succeeded the great debate of the session. Let me +endeavor, at the risk of being tedious, to explain the exact question +before the House. Mr. Gladstone, in his speech on the Budget, had +pledged the Ministry to a considerable reduction of the taxes for the +coming year. In fulfilment of this pledge, it had been decided to remit +the duty on paper, thereby abandoning about £1,500,000 of revenue. A +bill to carry this plan into effect passed to its second reading by a +majority of fifty-three. To defeat the measure the Opposition devoted +all its energies, and with such success that the bill passed to its +third reading by the greatly reduced majority of nine. Emboldened by +this almost victory, the Conservatives determined to give the measure +its _coup de grâce_ in the House of Lords. The Opposition leaders, Lord +Derby, Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Ellenborough, and others, attacked the bill, +and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, its acknowledged author, with as +much bitterness and severity as are ever considered compatible with the +dignified decorum of that aristocratic body; all the Conservative forces +were rallied, and, what with the votes actually given and the proxies, +the Opposition majority was immense. + +Now all this was very easily and very quickly done. The Conservatives +were exultant, and even seemed sanguine enough to believe that the +Ministry had received a fatal blow. But they forgot, in the first flush +of victory, that they were treading on dangerous ground,--that they were +meddling with what had been regarded for centuries as the exclusive +privilege of the House of Commons. English Parliamentary history teaches +no clearer lesson than that the right to pass "Money Bills," without +interference from the House of Lords, has been claimed and exercised by +the House of Commons for several generations. The public was not slow to +take the alarm. To be sure, several causes conspired to lessen somewhat +the popular indignation. Among these were the inevitable expenses of +the Chinese War, the certainty of an increased income tax, if the bill +became a law, and the very small majority which the measure finally +received in the House of Commons. + +Nevertheless, the public mind was deeply moved. The perils of such +a precedent were evident enough to any thinking man. Although the +unwearied exertions of Bright, Roebuck, and other leading Radicals, +could not arouse the people to that state of unreasoning excitement in +which these demagogues delight, yet the tone of the press and the spirit +of the public meetings gave proof that the importance of the crisis +was not wholly underrated. These meetings were frequent and largely +attended; inflammatory speeches were made, strong resolutions passed, +and many petitions numerously signed, protesting against the recent +conduct of the Lords, were presented to the popular branch of +Parliament. + +In the House of Commons the action was prompt and decided. A committee +was immediately appointed to search for precedents, and ascertain if +such a proceeding was justified by Parliamentary history. The result of +this investigation was anxiously awaited both by the Commons and the +nation. To the disappointment of everybody, the committee, after patient +and protracted research, submitted a report, giving no opinion whatever +on the question, but merely reciting all the precedents that bore on the +subject. + +It must be confessed that the condition of affairs was not a little +critical. Both the strength of the Ministry and the dignity of the House +of Commons were involved in the final decision. But, unfortunately, the +Ministerial party was far from being a unit on the question. Bright and +the "Manchester School" demanded an uncompromising and defiant attitude +towards the Lords. Lord Palmerston was for asserting the rights and +privileges of the Commons, but for avoiding a collision. Where Mr. +Gladstone would be found could not be precisely predicted; but he was +understood to be deeply chagrined at the defeat of his favorite measure, +and to look upon the action of the Peers as almost a personal insult. +Lord John Russell was supposed to occupy a position somewhere between +the Premier and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. If the leaders were +thus divided in opinion, there was no less diversity of views among +their followers. Some did not at all appreciate the nature or magnitude +of the question, a few sympathized with the Conservatives, and very many +were satisfied that a mistake had been made in sacrificing so large a +source of revenue at a time when the immediate prospect of war with +China and the condition of the national defences rendered it important +to increase, rather than diminish the available funds in the treasury. +The Opposition, of course, were ready to take advantage of any weak +points in the position of their adversaries, and were even hoping that +the Ministerial dissensions might lead to a Ministerial defeat. + +It was under these circumstances that Lord Palmerston rose to define +the position of the Ministry, to vindicate the honor and dignity of the +Commons, to avert a collision with the House of Lords, and, in general, +to extricate the councils of the nation from an embarrassing and +dangerous dilemma. + +A word about the _personnel_ of the Premier, and a glance at some of his +political antecedents. His Lordship has been for so many years in +public life, and a marked man among English statesmen, that, either by +engraving, photograph, or personal observation, his face is familiar to +many Americans. And, certainly, there is nothing in his features or in +the expression of his countenance to indicate genius or even ability. +He is simply a burly Englishman, of middling height, with an air of +constant good-humor and a very pleasant understanding with himself. +Perhaps the first thing about him which impresses an American, +accustomed at home to dyspeptic politicians and statesmen prematurely +old, is his physical activity. Fancy a man of seventy-six, who has been +in most incessant political life for more than fifty years, sitting out +a debate of ten hours without flinching, and then walking to his house +in Piccadilly, not less than two miles. And his body is not more active +than his mind. He does something more than sit out a debate. Not a word +escapes him when a prominent man is on his legs. Do not be deceived by +his lazy attitude, or his sleepy expression. Not a man in the House +has his wits more thoroughly about him. Ever ready to extricate +his colleagues from an awkward difficulty, to evade a dangerous +question,--making, with an air of transparent candor, a reply in +which nothing is answered,--to disarm an angry opponent with a few +conciliatory or complimentary words, or to demolish him with a little +good-humored raillery which sets the House in a roar; equally skilful +in attack and retreat: such, in a word, is the bearing of this gay and +gallant veteran, from the beginning to the end of each debate, during +the entire session of Parliament. He seems absolutely insensible to +fatigue. "I happened," said a member of the House, writing to a friend, +last summer, "to follow Lord Palmerston, as he left the cloak-room, the +other morning, after a late sitting, and, as I was going his way, I +thought I might as well see how he got over the ground. At first he +seemed a little stiff in the legs; but when he warmed to his work he +began to pull out, and before he got a third of the way he bowled along +splendidly, so that he put me to it to keep him in view. Perhaps in a +few hours after that long sitting and that walk home, and the brief +sleep that followed, the Premier might have been seen standing bolt +upright at one end of a great table in Cambridge House, receiving a +deputation from the country, listening with patient and courteous +attention to some tedious spokesman, or astonishing his hearers by +his knowledge of their affairs and his intimacy with their trade or +business." On a previous night, I had seen Lord Palmerston in his seat +in the House from 4 P.M. until about 2 A.M., during a dull debate, and +was considerably amused when he rose at that late or early hour, and +"begged to suggest to honorable gentlemen," that, although he was +perfectly willing to sit there until daylight, yet he thought something +was due to the Speaker, (a hale, hearty man, sixteen years his junior,) +and as there was to be a session at noon of that day, he hoped the +debate would be adjourned. The same suggestion had been fruitlessly made +half a dozen times before; but the Premier's manner was irresistible, +and amid great laughter the motion prevailed. The Speaker, with a +grateful smile to the member for Tiverton, immediately and gladly +retired, but the indefatigable leader remained at his post an hour +longer, while the House was sitting in Committee on Supplies. + +But his Parliamentary duties by no means fill up the measure of his +public labors. Deputations representing all sorts of interests wait +on him almost daily, his presence is indispensable at all Cabinet +consultations, and as Prime Minister he gives tone and direction to +the domestic and foreign policy of the English government. How much is +implied in these duties and responsibilities must be apparent to all who +speak the English language. + +Now what is the secret of this vigorous old age, after a life spent in +such arduous avocations? Simply this, that a constitution robust by +nature has been preserved in its strength by regular habits and out-door +exercise. If I were to repeat the stories I have heard, and seen +stated in English newspapers, of the feats, pedestrian and equestrian, +performed by Lord Palmerston from early manhood down to the present +writing, I fear I should be suspected by some of my readers of offering +an insult to their understanding. I must therefore content myself with +saying that very few young men of our day and country could follow him +in the field or keep up with him on the road. + +A word about Lord Palmerston's political antecedents. Beginning as +Junior Lord of the Admiralty in the Duke of Portland's Ministry, +in 1808, he has since been once Secretary of War, five times Prime +Minister, and once Secretary of State. From 1811 to 1831 he represented +Cambridge University. Since 1835 he has represented Tiverton. It may be +safely asserted that no man now living in England has been so long or +so prominently in public office, and probably no man presents a more +correct type of the Liberal, although not Radical, sentiment of England. + +It may be well to state that on this evening there was an unusually +large attendance of members. Not only were all the benches on the floor +of the House filled, but the rare spectacle was presented of members +occupying seats in the east and west galleries. These unfortunates +belonged to that class who are seldom seen in their places, but who are +sometimes whipped in by zealous partisans, when important questions are +under consideration, and a close vote may be expected. Their listless +faces and sprawling attitudes proved clearly enough that they were +reluctant and bored spectators of the scene. It deserves to be +mentioned, also, that, although there are six hundred and fifty-six +actual members of the House, the final vote on the question showed, +that, even on that eventful night, only four hundred and sixty-two were +present. The average attendance is about three hundred. + +At half-past four, the Premier rose to address the House. He had already +given due notice that he should introduce three resolutions, which, +considering the importance of the subject, I make no apology for giving +in full. + +"1. That the right of granting aids and supplies to the Crown is in +the Commons alone as an essential part of their Constitution, and the +limitation of all such grants, as to the matter, manner, measure, and +time, is only in them. + +"2. That, although the Lords have exercised the power of rejecting bills +of several descriptions relating to taxation by negativing the whole, +yet the exercise of that power by them has not been frequent, and is +justly regarded by this House with peculiar jealousy, as affecting the +right of the Commons to grant the supplies and to provide the ways and +means for the service of the year. + +"3. That, to guard for the future against an undue exercise of that +power by the Lords, and to secure to the Commons their rightful control +over taxation and supply, this House has in its own hands the power so +to impose and remit taxes, and to frame Bills of Supply, that the right +of the Commons as to the matter, manner, measure, and time may be +maintained inviolate." + +The burden of the speech by which the Premier supported these +resolutions was this. The assent of both Houses is necessary to a bill, +and each branch possesses the power of rejection. But in regard to +certain bills, to wit, Money Bills, the House claims, as its peculiar +and exclusive privilege, the right of originating, altering, or amending +them. As the Lords have, however, the right and power of assenting, they +have also the right and power of rejecting. He admitted that they had +frequently exercised this right of rejection. Yet it must be observed, +that, when they had done so, it had been in the case of bills involving +taxes of small amount, or connected with questions of commercial +protection. No case had ever occurred precisely like this, where a bill +providing for the repeal of a tax of large amount, and on the face of it +unmixed with any other question, had been rejected by the Lords. + +"But, in point of fact," he continued, "was there not another question +involved? Was it not clear, that, the bill having passed by a majority +greatly reduced since its second reading, the Lords may have thought +that it would be well to give the Commons further time to reflect? +Indeed, was there not abundant reason to believe that the Lords were not +really initiating a new and dangerous policy, that of claiming to be +partners with the House in originating and disposing of Money Bills? +Therefore, would it not be sufficient for the House firmly to assert its +rights, and to intimate the jealous care with which it intended to guard +against their infringement?" + +Of course, this brief and imperfect abstract of an hour's speech can +do no sort of justice to its merits. It is much easier to describe its +effect upon the House. From the moment when the Premier uttered his +opening sentence, "I rise upon an occasion which will undoubtedly rank +as one of the first in importance among those which have occurred in +regard to our Parliamentary proceedings," he commanded the closest +attention of the House. And yet he was neither eloquent, impressive, nor +even earnest. There was not the slightest attempt at declamation. His +voice rarely rose above a conversational tone, and his gestures were not +so numerous or so decided as are usual in animated dialogue. His air and +manner were rather those of a plain, well-informed man of business, not +unaccustomed to public speaking, who had some views on the subject under +discussion which he desired to present, and asked the ear of the House +for a short hour while he defined his position. + +No one who did not appreciate the man and the occasion would have +dreamed that he was confronting a crisis which might lead to a change +in the Ministry, and might array the two Houses of Parliament in angry +hostility against each other. But here lay the consummate skill of the +Premier. He was playing a most difficult role, and he played it to +perfection. He could not rely on the support of the Radicals. He must +therefore make amends for their possible defection by drawing largely +on the Conservative strength. The great danger was, that, while +conciliating the Conservatives by a show of concession, he should +alienate his own party by seeming to concede too much. Now, that the +effect which he aimed to produce excluded all declamation, all attempt +at eloquence, anything like flights of oratory or striking figures of +rhetoric, nobody understood better than Lord Palmerston. + +In view of all these circumstances, the adroitness, the ability, the +sagacity, and the success of his speech were most wonderful. Gladstone +was more philosophical, statesmanlike, and eloquent; Whiteside more +impassioned and vehement; Disraeli more witty, sarcastic, and telling; +but Lord Palmerston displayed more of those qualities without which no +one can be a successful leader of the House of Commons. The result was, +that two of the resolutions passed without a division, and the third was +carried by an immense majority. The Prime Minister had understood the +temper of the House, and had shaped his course accordingly. As we have +seen, he succeeded to a marvel. But was it such a triumph as a great and +far-reaching statesman would have desired? And this brings us to the +other side of the picture. + +Dexterous, facile, adroit, politic, versatile,--as Lord Palmerston +certainly is,--fertile in resources, prompt to seize and use to the +utmost every advantage, endowed with unusual popular gifts, and blessed +with imperturbable good-humor, it cannot be denied that in many of the +best and noblest attributes of a statesman he is sadly deficient. His +fondness for political power and his anxiety to achieve immediate +success inevitably lead him to resort to temporary and often unworthy +expedients. A manly reliance on general principles, and a firm faith in +the ultimate triumph of right and justice, constitute no part of his +character. He lives only in the present. That he is making history seems +never to occur to him. He does not aspire to direct, but only aims to +follow, or at best to keep pace with public opinion. What course he will +pursue on a given question can never be safely predicted, until you +ascertain, as correctly as he can, what is the prevailing temper of the +House or the nation. That he will try to "make things pleasant," to +conciliate the Opposition without weakening the strength of his own +party, you may be sure; but for, any further clue to his policy you must +consult the press, study the spirit of Parliament, and hear the voice of +the people. I know no better illustration to prove the justice of this +view of the Premier's political failing than his bearing in the debate +which I am attempting to describe. Here was a grave constitutional +question. The issue was a simple and clear one. Had the Lords the +right to reject a Money Bill which had passed the House? If historical +precedents settled the question clearly, then there was no difficulty +in determining the matter at once, and almost without discussion. If, +however, there were no precedents bearing precisely on this case, then +it was all the more important that this should be made the occasion of a +settlement of the question so unequivocal and positive as effectually +to guard against future complication and embarrassment. Now how did the +Premier deal with this issue? He disregarded the homely wisdom contained +in the pithy bull of Sir Boyle Roche, that "the best way to avoid a +dilemma is to meet it plump." He dodged the dilemma. His resolutions, +worded with ingenious obscurity, skilfully evaded the important aspect +of the controversy, and two of them, the second and third, gave equal +consolation to the Liberals and the Conservatives. So that, in fact, it +is reserved for some future Parliament, in which it cannot be doubted +that the Radical element will be more numerous and more powerful, to +determine what should have been decided on this very evening. It was +cleverly done, certainly, and extorted from all parties and members of +every shade of political opinion that admiration which the successful +performance of a difficult and critical task must always elicit. But was +it statesmanlike, or in any high sense patriotic or manly? + +The Premier was followed by R.P. Collier, representing Plymouth. He had +been on the committee to search for precedents, and he devoted an hour +to showing that there was not, in all Parliamentary history, a single +precedent justifying the action of the Lords. His argument was clear and +convincing, and the result of it was, that no bill simply imposing or +remitting a tax had ever in a single instance been rejected by the Upper +House. In all the thirty-six cases relied on by the Opposition there +was always some other principle involved, which furnished plausible +justification for the course adopted by the Lords. + +To this speech I observed that Mr. Gladstone paid strict attention, +occasionally indicating his assent by an approving nod, or by an +encouraging "Hear! Hear!" It is rare, indeed, that any speaker in the +House secures the marked attention or catches the eye of the Chancellor +of the Exchequer. + +To Collier succeeded Coningham, member for Brighton. Now as this +honorable member was prosy and commonplace, not to say stupid, I +should not detain my readers with any allusion to his speech, but as +illustrating a prominent and very creditable feature of the debates +in the House. That time is of some value, and that no remarks can be +tolerated, unless they are intelligent and pertinent, are cardinal +doctrines of debate, and are quite rigidly enforced. At the same time +mere dulness is often overlooked, as soon as it appears that the speaker +has something to say which deserves to be heard. But there is one +species of oratory which is never tolerated for a moment, and that +is the sort of declamation which is designed merely or mainly for +home-consumption,--speaking for Buncombe, as we call it. The instant, +therefore, that it was evident that Mr. Coningham was addressing, +not the House of Commons, but his constituents at Brighton, he was +interrupted by derisive cheers and contemptuous groans. Again and again +did the indignant orator attempt to make his voice heard above the +confusion, but in vain; and when, losing all presence of mind, he made +the fatal admission,--"I can tell Honorable Gentlemen that I have just +returned from visiting my constituents, and I can assure the House that +more intelligent"--the tumult became so great, that the remainder of the +sentence was entirely lost. Seeing his mistake, Mr. Coningham changed +his ground. "I appeal to the courtesy of Honorable Members; I do not +often trespass upon the House; I implore them to give me a patient +and candid hearing." This appeal to the love of "fair play," so +characteristic of Englishmen, produced immediately the desired effect, +and the member concluded without further interruption. + +Mr. Edwin James was the next prominent speaker. He has won a wide +reputation as a barrister, chiefly in the management of desperate +criminal cases, culminating in his defence of Dr. Barnard, charged with +being accessory to the attempted assassination of Louis Napoleon. The +idol of the populace, he was elected by a large majority in May, 1859, +as an extreme Liberal or Radical, to represent Marylebone in the present +Parliament. His warmest admirers will hardly contend that since his +election he has done anything to distinguish himself, or even to sustain +the reputation which his success as an advocate had earned for him. +The expensive vices to which he has long been addicted have left him +bankrupt in character and fortune. His large professional income has +been for some years received by trustees, who have made him a liberal +allowance for his personal expenses, and have applied the remainder +toward the payment of his debts. His recent disgraceful flight from +England, and the prompt action of his legal brethren in view of his +conduct, render it highly improbable that he will ever return to the +scene of his former triumphs and excesses. Besides its brevity, which +was commendable, his speech this evening presented no point worthy of +comment. + +Since the opening remarks of Lord Palmerston, five Radicals had +addressed the House. Without exception they had denounced the action of +the Lords, and more than one had savagely attacked the Opposition for +supporting the proceedings of the Upper House. They had contended that +the Commons were becoming contemptible in the eyes of the nation by +their failure to take a manly position in defence of their rights. To +a man, they had assailed the resolutions of the Premier as falling far +short of the dignity of the occasion and the importance of the crisis, +or, at best, as intentionally ambiguous. Thus far then the Radicals. +The Opposition had listened to them in unbroken and often contemptuous +silence, enjoying the difference of opinion in the Ministerial party, +but reserving themselves for some foeman worthy of their steel. Nor +was there, beyond a vague rumor, any clue to the real position of the +Cabinet on the whole question. Only one member had spoken for the +Government, and it was more than suspected that he did not quite +correctly represent the views of the Ministry. + +If any one of my readers had been in the Speaker's Gallery on that +evening, his attention would have been arrested by a member on the +Ministerial benches, a little to the right of Lord Palmerston. His face +is the most striking in the House,--grave, thoughtful, almost stern, +but lighting up with wonderful beauty when he smiles. Usually, his air +is rather abstracted,--not, indeed, the manner of one whose thoughts +are wandering from the business under debate, but rather of one who is +thinking deeply upon what is passing around him. His attitude is not +graceful: lolling at full length, his head resting on the back of the +seat, and his legs stretched out before him. He is always neatly, but +never carefully dressed, and his bearing is unmistakably that of a +scholar. Once or twice since we have been watching him, he has scratched +a few hasty memoranda on the back of an envelope, and now, amid the +silence of general expectation, the full, clear tones of his voice are +heard. He has not spoken five minutes before members who have taken +advantage of the dulness of recent debaters to dine, or to fortify +themselves in a less formal way for the night's work before them, begin +to flock to their seats. Not an eye wanders from the speaker, and the +attention which he commands is of the kind paid in the House only to +merit and ability of the highest order. And, certainly, the orator is +not unworthy of this silent, but most respectful tribute to his talents. +His manner is earnest and animated, his enunciation is beautifully +clear and distinct, the tones of his voice are singularly pleasing and +persuasive, stealing their way into the hearts of men, and charming them +into assent to his propositions. One can easily understand why he is +called the "golden-tongued." + +This is Mr. Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer, by right of +eloquence, statesmanship, and scholarly attainments, the foremost man in +England. I cannot hope to give a satisfactory description of his speech, +nor of its effect upon the House. His eloquence is of that quality to +which no sketch, however accurate, can do justice. Read any one of +his speeches, as reported with astonishing correctness in the London +"Times," and you will appreciate the clear, philosophical statement of +political truth,--the dignified, elevated, statesmanlike tone,--the rare +felicity of expression,--the rhetorical beauty of style, never usurping +the place of argument, though often concealing the sharp angles of his +relentless logic,--the marvellous ease with which he makes the +dry details of finance not only instructive, but positively +fascinating,--his adroitness in retrieving a mistake, or his sagacity +in abandoning, in season, an indefensible position,--the lofty and +indignant scorn with which he sometimes condescends to annihilate an +insolent adversary, or the royal courtesy of his occasional compliments. +But who shall be able to describe those attributes of his eloquence +which address themselves only to the ear and eye: that clear, resonant +voice, never sinking into an inaudible whisper, and never rising into an +ear-piercing scream, its tones always exactly adapted to the spirit of +the words,--that spare form, wasted by the severe study of many years, +which but a moment before was stretched in languid ease on the Treasury +benches, now dilated with emotion,--that careworn countenance inspired +with great thoughts: what pen or pencil can do justice to these? + +If any one of that waiting audience has been impatiently expectant of +some words equal to this crisis, some fearless and manly statement +of the real question at issue, his wish shall be soon and most fully +gratified. Listen to his opening sentence, which contains the key-note +to his whole speech:--"It appears to be the determination of one moiety +of this House that there shall be no debate upon the constitutional +principles which are involved in this question; and I must say, that, +considering that gentlemen opposite are upon this occasion the partisans +of a gigantic innovation,--the most gigantic and the most dangerous that +has been attempted in modern times,--I may compliment them upon the +prudence they show in resolving to be its silent partisans." After this +emphatic exordium, which electrified the House, and was followed by +such a tempest of applause as for some time to drown the voice of the +speaker, he proceeded at once to demonstrate the utter folly and error +of contending that the action of the Lords was supported or justified +by any precedent. Of course, as a member of the Cabinet, he gave his +adhesion to the resolutions before the House, and indorsed the speech +of the Premier. But, from first to last, he treated the question as its +importance demanded, as critical and emergent, not to be passed by in +silence, nor yet to be encountered with plausible and conciliatory +expedients. He reserved to himself "entire freedom to adopt any mode +which might have the slightest hope of success, for vindicating by +action the rights of the House." + +In fact, he alone of all the speakers of the evening rose to "the height +of the great argument." He alone seemed to feel that the temporary +success of this or that party or faction was as nothing compared with +the duty of settling definitely and for all posterity this conflict of +rights between the two Houses. Surveying the question from this high +vantage-ground, what wonder that in dignity and grandeur he towered +above his fellows? Here was a great mind grappling with a great +subject,--a mind above temporary expedients for present success, +superior to the fear of possible defeat. To denounce the Conservatives +for not attacking the Ministerial resolutions may have been indiscreet. +He may have been guilty of an apparent breach of Parliamentary +etiquette, when he practically condemned the passive policy of the +Cabinet, of which he was himself a leading member. But may we not pardon +the natural irritation produced by the defeat of his favorite measure, +in view of the noble and patriotic sentiments of his closing sentences? + +"I regard the whole rights of the House of Commons, as they have been +handed down to us, as constituting a sacred inheritance, upon which I, +for my part, will never voluntarily permit any intrusion or plunder to +be made. I think that the very first of our duties, anterior to the duty +of dealing with any legislative measure, and higher and more sacred than +any such duties, high and sacred though they may be, is to maintain +intact that precious deposit." + +The effect of this speech was indescribable. The applause with which he +was frequently interrupted, and which greeted him as he took his seat, +was such as I have never heard in a deliberative assembly. And not the +least striking feature of this display of enthusiasm was that it mainly +proceeded from the extreme Liberal wing of the Ministerial party, with +which Mr. Gladstone, representing that most conservative of all English +constituencies, Oxford University, had hitherto been by no means +popular. For several days the rumor was rife that the Chancellor of the +Exchequer would resign his place in the Cabinet, and be the leader +of the Radicals! But Mr. Gladstone had other views of his duty, and +probably he was never more firmly intrenched in the confidence of the +nation, and more influential in the councils of the Government, than he +is at this moment. + +Mr. Gladstone had hardly taken his seat, when the long and significant +silence of the Opposition was broken by Mr. Whiteside. This gentleman +represents Dublin University, has been Attorney-General and +Solicitor-General for Ireland, and was one of the most able and eloquent +defenders of O'Connell and his friends in 1842. He is said to be the +only Irishman in public life who holds the traditions of the great Irish +orators,--the Grattans, the Currans, and the Sheridans. I will not +detain my readers with even a brief sketch of his speech. It was very +severe upon Mr. Gladstone, very funny at the expense of the Radicals, +and very complimentary to Lord Palmerston. As a whole, it was an +admirable specimen of Irish oratory. In the _élan_ with which the +speaker leaped to his feet and dashed at once into his subject, full of +spirit and eager for the fray, in his fierce and vehement invective and +the occasional ferocity of his attacks, in the fluency and fitness of +his language and the rapidity of his utterance, in the unstudied grace +and sustained energy of his manner, it was easy to recognize the +elements of that irresistible eloquence by which so many of his gifted +countrymen have achieved such brilliant triumphs at the forum and in the +halls of the debate. + +It might perhaps heighten the effect of the picture, if I were to +describe the appearance of Mr. Gladstone during the delivery of this +fierce Philippic,--the contracted brow, the compressed lip, the uneasy +motion from side to side, and all the other customary manifestations of +anger, mortification, and conscious defeat. But if my sketch be dull, +it shall at least have the homely merit of being truthful. In point of +fact, the whole harangue was lost upon Mr. Gladstone; for he left the +House immediately after making his own speech, and did not return until +some time after Mr. Whiteside had finished. In all probability he did +not know how unmercifully he had been handled until he read his "Times" +the next morning. + +Six more speeches on the Liberal side, loud in praise of the Chancellor +of the Exchequer, bitter in denunciation of the Conservatives, and by +no means sparing the policy of the Prime Minister, followed in quick +succession. They were all brief, pertinent, and spirited; with which +comprehensive criticism I must dismiss them. Their delivery occupied +about two hours, and many members availed themselves of this opportunity +to leave the House for a while. Some sauntered on the broad stone +terrace which lines the Thames. Not a few regaled themselves with the +popular Parliamentary beverage,--sherry and soda-water; and others, +who had resolutely kept their seats since the opening of the debate, +rewarded their devotion to the interests of the public by a more +elaborate repast. Now and then a member in full evening dress would +lounge into the House, with that air of perfect self-satisfaction +which tells of a good dinner by no means conducted on total-abstinence +principles. + +It was midnight when Mr. Disraeli rose to address the House. For years +the pencil of "Punch" has seemed to take particular delight in sketching +for the public amusement the features of this well-known novelist, +orator, and statesman. After making due allowance for the conceded +license of caricature, we must admit that the likeness is in the main +correct, and any one familiar with the pages of "Punch" would recognize +him at a glance. The impression which he leaves on one who studies his +features and watches his bearing is not agreeable. Tall, thin, and quite +erect, always dressed with scrupulous care, distant and reserved in +manner, his eye dull, his lips wearing habitually a half-scornful, +half-contemptuous expression, one can readily believe him to be a man +addicted to bitter enmities, but incapable of warm friendships. + +He had been sitting, as his manner is, very quietly during the evening, +never moving a muscle of his face, save when he smiled coldly once +or twice at the sharp sallies of Whiteside, or spoke, as he did very +rarely, to some member near him. A stranger to his manner would have +supposed him utterly indifferent to what was going on about him. Yet it +is probable that no member of the House was more thoroughly absorbed in +the debate or watched its progress with deeper interest. Excepting his +political ambition, Mr. Disraeli is actuated by no stronger passion than +hatred of Mr. Gladstone. To have been a warm admirer and _protégé_ of +Sir Robert Peel would have laid a sufficient foundation for intense +personal dislike. But Mr. Disraeli has other and greater grievances to +complain of. This is not the place to enter at large into the history of +the political rivalry between these eminent men. Enough to say, that +in the spring of 1852 Mr. Disraeli realized the dream of his lifelong +ambition by being appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the Ministry +of Lord Derby. Late in the same year he brought forward his Budget, +which he defended at great length and with all his ability. This Budget, +and the arguments by which it was supported, Mr. Gladstone--who had +already refused to take the place in the Derby Cabinet--attacked in a +speech of extraordinary power, demolishing one by one the positions +of his opponent, rebuking with dignified severity the license of +his language, and calling upon the House to condemn the man and his +measures. Such was the effect of this speech that the Government was +defeated by a decided majority. Thus dethroned, Mr. Disraeli had the +additional mortification of seeing his victorious opponent seated in his +vacant chair. For, in the Ministry of Lord Aberdeen, which immediately +succeeded, Mr. Gladstone accepted the appointment of Chancellor of +the Exchequer. The Budget brought forward by the new Minister took by +surprise even those who had already formed the highest estimate of his +capacity; and the speech in which he defended and enforced it received +the approval of Lord John Russell, in the well-known and well-merited +compliment, that "it contained the ablest expositions of the true +principles of finance ever delivered by an English statesman." Since +that memorable defeat, Disraeli has lost no opportunity of attacking the +member for Oxford University. To weaken his wonderful ascendency over +the House has seemed to be the wish nearest his heart, and the signal +failure which has thus far attended all his efforts only gives a keener +edge to his sarcasm and increases the bitterness of his spirit. That +persistent and inflexible determination which, from a fashionable +novelist, has raised him to the dignity of leader of the Conservative +party in the House of Commons, that unsparing and cold-blooded malignity +which poisoned the last days of Sir Robert Peel, and those powers of wit +and ridicule which make him so formidable an adversary, have all been +impressed into this service. + +His speech this evening was only a further illustration of his +controlling desire to enjoy an ample and adequate revenge for past +defeats; and, undoubtedly, Mr. Disraeli displayed a great deal of a +certain kind of power. He was witty, pungent, caustic, full of telling +hits which repeatedly convulsed the House with laughter, and he showed +singular dexterity in discovering and assailing the weak points in his +adversary's argument. Still, it was a painful exhibition, bad in temper, +tone, and manner. It was too plainly the attempt of an unscrupulous +partisan to damage a personal enemy, rather than the effort of a +statesman to enlighten and convince the House and the nation. It was +unfair, uncandid, and logically weak. Its only possible effect was to +irritate the Liberals, without materially strengthening the position of +the Conservatives. When "Dizzy" had finished, the floor was claimed +by Lord John Russell and Mr. Bright. It was sufficiently evident that +members, without distinction of party, desired to hear the last-named +gentleman, for cries of "Bright," "Bright," came from all parts of the +House. The member for Birmingham is stout, bluff, and hearty, looking +very much like a prosperous, well-dressed English yeoman. He is +acknowledged to be the best declaimer in the House. Piquant, racy, and +entertaining, he is always listened to with interest and pleasure; but +somehow he labors under the prevalent suspicion of being insincere, and +beyond a small circle of devoted admirers has no influence whatever in +Parliament. + +To the manifest discontent of the House, the Speaker decided that the +Honorable Secretary for Foreign Affairs was entitled to the floor. Lord +John Russell deserves a more extended historical and personal notice +than the legitimate limits of this article will allow. But, as his +recent elevation to the peerage has led the English press to give a +review of his political antecedents, and as these articles have been +copied quite generally into our own leading newspapers, it may be +fairly presumed that most of my readers are familiar with the prominent +incidents in his long and honorable public career. As a speaker he is +decidedly prosy, with a hesitating utterance, a monotonous voice, and an +uninteresting manner. Yet he is always heard with respectful attention +by the House, in consideration of his valuable public services, his +intrinsic good sense, and his unselfish patriotism. On the question at +issue, he took ground midway between Lord Palmerston and Mr. Gladstone. + +It was now about two, A.M. Since the commencement of the debate eighteen +members had addressed the House. At this point a motion prevailed to +adjourn until noon of the same day. + +On the reopening of the debate at that hour, Mr. Bright and a few other +members gave their views upon the resolutions of the Premier, and the +final vote was then taken with the result already indicated. + + + + +A LEGEND OF THE LAKE. + + + Should you go to Centre-Harbor, + As haply you some time may, + Sailing up the Winnipisauke, + From the hills of Alton Bay,-- + + Into the heart of the highlands, + Into the north-wind free, + Through the rising and vanishing islands, + Over the mountain sea,-- + + To the little hamlet lying + White in its mountain-fold, + Asleep by the lake, and dreaming + A dream that is never told,-- + + And in the Red Hill's shadow + Your pilgrim home you make, + Where the chambers open to sunrise, + The mountains and the lake,-- + + If the pleasant picture wearies, + As the fairest sometimes will, + And the weight of the hills lies on you, + And the water is all too still,-- + + If in vain the peaks of Gunstock + Redden with sunrise fire, + And the sky and the purple mountains + And the sunset islands tire,-- + + If you turn from the in-door thrumming + And clatter of bowls without, + And the folly that goes on its travels + Bearing the city about,-- + + And the cares you left behind you + Come hunting along your track, + As Blue-Cap in German fable + Rode on the traveller's pack,-- + + Let me tell you a tender story + Of one who is now no more, + A tale to haunt like a spirit + The Winnipisauke shore,-- + + Of one who was brave and gentle, + And strong for manly strife, + Riding with cheering and music + Into the tourney of life. + + Faltering and falling midway + In the Tempter's subtle snare, + The chains of an evil habit + He bowed himself to bear. + + Over his fresh, young manhood + The bestial veil was flung,-- + The curse of the wine of Circe, + The spell her weavers sung. + + Yearly did hill- and lake-side + Their summer idyls frame; + Alone in his darkened dwelling, + He hid his face for shame. + + The music of life's great marches + Sounded for him in vain; + The voices of human duty + Smote on his ear like pain. + + In vain over island and water + The curtains of sunset swung; + In vain on the beautiful mountains + The pictures of God were hung. + + The wretched years crept onward, + Each sadder than the last; + All the bloom of life fell from him, + All the freshness and greenness passed. + + But deep in his heart forever + And unprofaned he kept + The love of his saintly Mother, + Who in the grave-yard slept. + + His house had no pleasant pictures; + Its comfortless walls were bare; + But the riches of earth and ocean + Could not purchase his Mother's Chair,-- + + The old chair, quaintly carven, + With oaken arms outspread, + Whereby, in the long gone twilights, + His childish prayers were said. + + For thence, in his lone night-watches, + By moon or starlight dim, + A face full of love and pity + And tenderness looked on him. + And oft, as the grieving presence + Sat in his mother's chair, + The groan of his self-upbraiding + Grew into wordless prayer. + + At last, in the moonless midnight, + The summoning angel came, + Severe in his pity, touching + The house with fingers of flame. + + The red light flashed from its windows + And flared from its sinking roof; + And baffled and awed before it, + The villagers stood aloof. + + They shrank from the falling rafters, + They turned from the furnace-glare; + But its tenant cried, "God help me! + I must save my mother's chair." + + Under the blazing portal, + Over the floor of fire, + He seemed, in the terrible splendor, + A martyr on his pyre! + + In his face the mad flames smote him + And stung him on either side; + But he clung to the sacred relic,-- + By his mother's chair he died! + + O mother, with human yearnings! + O saint, by the altar-stairs! + Shall not the dear God give thee + The child of thy many prayers? + + O Christ! by whom the loving, + Though erring, are forgiven, + Hast Thou for him no refuge, + No quiet place in heaven? + + Give palms to Thy strong martyrs, + And crown Thy saints with gold, + But let the mother welcome + Her lost one to Thy fold! + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO. + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +ELSIE PUSHES HER SCHEME. + + +The good Father Antonio returned from his conference with the cavalier +with many subjects for grave pondering. This man, as he conjectured, so +far from being an enemy either of Church or State, was in fact in many +respects in the same position with his revered master,--as nearly so as +the position of a layman was likely to resemble that of an ecclesiastic. +His denial of the Visible Church, as represented by the Pope and +Cardinals, sprang not from an irreverent, but from a reverent spirit. To +accept _them_ as exponents of Christ and Christianity was to blaspheme +and traduce both, and therefore he only could be counted in the highest +degree Christian who stood most completely opposed to them in spirit and +practice. + +His kind and fatherly heart was interested in the brave young nobleman. +He sympathized fully with the situation in which he stood, and he even +wished success to his love; but then how was he to help him with Agnes, +and above all with her old grandmother, without entering on the awful +task of condemning and exposing that sacred authority which all the +Church had so many years been taught to regard as infallibly inspired? +Long had all the truly spiritual members of the Church who gave ear to +the teachings of Savonarola felt that the nearer they followed Christ +the more open was their growing antagonism to the Pope and the +Cardinals; but still they hung back from the responsibility of inviting +the people to an open revolt. + +Father Antonio felt his soul deeply stirred with the news of the +excommunication of his saintly master; and he marvelled, as he tossed +on his restless bed through the night, how he was to meet the storm. He +might have known, had he been able to look into a crowded assembly in +Florence about this time, when the unterrified monk thus met the news of +his excommunication:-- + +"There have come decrees from Rome, have there? They call me a son of +perdition. Well, thus may you answer:--He to whom you give this name +hath neither favorites nor concubines, but gives himself solely to +preaching Christ. His spiritual sons and daughters, those who listen +to his doctrine, do not pass their time in infamous practices. They +confess, they receive the communion, they live honestly. This man gives +himself up to exalt the Church of Christ: you to destroy it. The time +approaches for opening the secret chamber: we will give but one turn of +the key, and there will come out thence such an infection, such a +stench of this city of Rome, that the odor shall spread through all +Christendom, and all the world shall be sickened." + +But Father Antonio was of himself wholly unable to come to such a +courageous result, though capable of following to the death the master +who should do it for him. His was the true artist nature, as unfit to +deal with rough human forces as a bird that flies through the air is +unfitted to a hand-to-hand grapple with the armed forces of the lower +world. There is strength in these artist natures. Curious computations +have been made of the immense muscular power that is brought into +exercise when a swallow skims so smoothly through the blue sky; but the +strength is of a kind unadapted to mundane uses, and needs the ether for +its display. Father Antonio could create the beautiful; he could warm, +could elevate, could comfort; and when a stronger nature went before +him, he could follow with an unquestioning tenderness of devotion: but +he wanted the sharp, downright power of mind that could cut and cleave +its way through the rubbish of the past, when its institutions, instead +of a commodious dwelling, had come to be a loathsome prison. Besides, +the true artist has ever an enchanted island of his own; and when this +world perplexes and wearies him, he can sail far away and lay his soul +down to rest, as Cytherea bore the sleeping Ascanius far from the din of +battle, to sleep on flowers and breathe the odor of a hundred undying +altars to Beauty. + +Therefore, after a restless night, the good monk arose in the first +purple of the dawn, and instinctively betook him to a review of his +drawings for the shrine, as a refuge from troubled thought. He took his +sketch of the Madonna and Child into the morning twilight and began +meditating thereon, while the clouds that lined the horizon were glowing +rosy purple and violet with the approaching day. + +"See there!" he said to himself, "yonder clouds have exactly the rosy +purple of the cyclamen which my little Agnes loves so much;--yes, I am +resolved that this cloud on which our Mother standeth shall be of a +cyclamen color. And there is that star, like as it looked yesterday +evening, when I mused upon it. Methought I could see our Lady's clear +brow, and the radiance of her face, and I prayed that some little power +might be given to show forth that which transports me." + +And as the monk plied his pencil, touching here and there, and +elaborating the outlines of his drawing, he sang,-- + + "Ave, Maris Stella, + Dei mater alma, + Atque semper virgo, + Felix coeli porta! + + "Virgo singularis, + Inter omnes mitis, + Nos culpis solutos + Mites fac et castos! + + "Vitam praesta puram, + Iter para tutum, + Ut videntes Jesum + Semper collaetemur!"[A] + +[Footnote A: + + Hail, thou Star of Ocean, + Thou forever virgin + Mother of the Lord! + Blessed gate of Heaven, + Take our heart's devotion! + + Virgin one and only, + Meekest 'mid them all, + From our sins set free, + Make us pure like thee, + Freed from passion's thrall! + + Grant that in pure living, + Through safe paths below, + Forever seeing Jesus, + Rejoicing we may go! +] + +As the monk sang, Agnes soon appeared at the door. + +"Ah, my little bird, you are there!" he said, looking up. + +"Yes," said Agnes, coming forward, and looking over his shoulder at his +work. + +"Did you find that young sculptor?" she asked. + +"That I did,--a brave boy, too, who will row down the coast and dig us +marble from an old heathen temple, which we will baptize into the name +of Christ and his Mother." + +"Pietro was always a good boy," said Agnes. + +"Stay," said the monk, stepping into his little sleeping-room; "he sent +you this lily; see, I have kept it in water all night." + +"Poor Pietro, that was good of him!" said Agnes. "I would thank him, if +I could. But, uncle," she added, in a hesitating voice, "did you see +anything of that--other one?" + +"That I did, child,--and talked long with him." + +"Ah, uncle, is there any hope for him?" + +"Yes, there is hope,--great hope. In fact, he has promised to receive me +again, and I have hopes of leading him to the sacrament of confession, +and after that"---- + +"And then the Pope will forgive him!" said Agnes, joyfully. + +The face of the monk suddenly fell; he was silent, and went on +retouching his drawing. + +"Do you not think he will?" said Agnes, earnestly. "You said the Church +was ever ready to receive the repentant." + +"The True Church will receive him," said the monk, evasively; "yes, my +little one, there is no doubt of it." + +"And it is not true that he is captain of a band of robbers in the +mountains?" said Agnes. "May I tell Father Francesco that it is not so?" + +"Child, this young man hath suffered a grievous wrong and injustice; for +he is lord of an ancient and noble estate, out of which he hath been +driven by the cruel injustice of a most wicked and abominable man, the +Duke di Valentinos,[B] who hath caused the death of his brothers and +sisters, and ravaged the country around with fire and sword, so that he +hath been driven with his retainers to a fortress in the mountains." + +[Footnote B: Caesar Borgia was created Duc de Valentinois by Louis XII. +of France.] + +"But," said Agnes, with flushed cheeks, "why does not our blessed Father +excommunicate this wicked duke? Surely this knight hath erred; instead +of taking refuge in the mountains, he ought to have fled with his +followers to Rome, where the dear Father of the Church hath a house for +all the oppressed. It must be so lovely to be the father of all men, and +to take in and comfort all those who are distressed and sorrowful, and +to right the wrongs of all that are oppressed, as our dear Father at +Rome doth!" + +The monk looked up at Agnes's clear glowing face with a sort of +wondering pity. + +"Dear little child," he said, "there is a Jerusalem above which is +mother of us all, and these things are done there. + + 'Coelestis urbs Jerusalem, + Beata pacis visio, + Quae celsa de viventibus + Saxis ad astra tolleris, + Sponsaeque ritu cingeris + Mille angelorum millibus!'" + +The face of the monk glowed as he repeated this ancient hymn of the +Church,[C] as if the remembrance of that general assembly and church of +the first-born gave him comfort in his depression. + +[Footnote C: This very ancient hymn is the fountainhead from which +through various languages have trickled the various hymns of the +Celestial City, such as-- + +"Jerusalem, my happy home!" + +and Quarles's-- + +"O mother dear, Jerusalem!"] + +Agnes felt perplexed, and looked earnestly at her uncle as he stooped +over his drawing, and saw that there were deep lines of anxiety on his +usually clear, placid face,--a look as of one who struggles mentally +with some untold trouble. + +"Uncle," she said, hesitatingly, "may I tell Father Francesco what you +have been telling me of this young man?" + +"No, my little one,--it were not best. In fact, dear child, there be +many things in his case impossible to explain, even to you;--but he is +not so altogether hopeless as you thought; in truth, I have great hopes +of him. I have admonished him to come here no more, but I shall see him +again this evening." + +Agnes wondered at the heaviness of her own little heart, as her kind +old uncle spoke of his coming there no more. Awhile ago she dreaded his +visits as a most fearful temptation, and thought perhaps he might come +at any hour; now she was sure he would not, and it was astonishing what +a weight fell upon her. + +"Why am I not thankful?" she asked herself. "Why am I not joyful? Why +should I wish to see him again, when I should only be tempted to sinful +thoughts, and when my dear uncle, who can do so much for him, has his +soul in charge? And what is this which is so strange in his case? There +is some mystery, after all,--something, perhaps, which I ought not to +wish to know. Ah, how little can we know of this great wicked world, and +of the reasons which our superiors give for their conduct! It is ours +humbly to obey, without a question or a doubt. Holy Mother, may I not +sin through a vain curiosity or self-will! May I ever say, as thou +didst, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord! be it unto me according to His +word!'" + +And Agnes went about her morning devotions with fervent zeal, and did +not see the monk as he dropped the pencil, and, covering his face with +his robe, seemed to wrestle in some agony of prayer. + +"Shepherd of Israel," he said, "why hast Thou forgotten this vine of Thy +planting? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, the wild beast of the +field doth devour it. Dogs have encompassed Thy beloved; the assembly of +the violent have surrounded him. How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost +Thou not judge and avenge?" + +"Now, really, brother," said Elsie, coming towards him, and interrupting +his meditations in her bustling, business way, yet speaking in a low +tone that Agnes should not hear,--"I want you to help me with this child +in a good common-sense fashion: none of your high-flying notions about +saints and angels, but a little good common talk for every-day people +that have their bread and salt to look after. The fact is, brother, this +girl must be married. I went last night to talk with Antonio's mother, +and the way is all open as well as any living girl could desire. Antonio +is a trifle slow, and the high-flying hussies call him stupid; but his +mother says a better son never breathed, and he is as obedient to all +her orders now as when he was three years old. And she has laid up +plenty of household stuff for him, and good hard gold pieces to boot: +she let me count them myself, and I showed her that which I had scraped +together, and she counted it, and we agreed that the children that come +of such a marriage would come into the world with something to stand on. +Now Agnes is fond of you, brother, and perhaps it would be well for you +to broach the subject. The fact is, when I begin to talk, she gets her +arms round my old neck and falls to weeping and kissing me at such a +rate as makes a fool of me. If the child would only be rebellious, one +could do something; but this love takes all the stiffness out of one's +joints; and she tells me she never wants a husband, and she will be +content to live with me all her life. The saints know it isn't for my +happiness to put her out of my old arms; but I can't last forever,--my +old back grows weaker every year; and Antonio has strong arms to defend +her from all these roystering fellows who fear neither God nor man, and +swoop up young maids as kites do chickens. And then he is as gentle and +manageable as a this-year ox; Agnes can lead him by the horn,--she will +be a perfect queen over him; for he has been brought up to mind the +women." + +"Well, sister," said the monk, "hath our little maid any acquaintance +with this man? Have they ever spoken together?" + +"Not much. I have never brought them to a very close acquaintance; and +that is what is to be done. Antonio is not much of a talker; to tell the +truth, he does not know as much to say as our Agnes: but the man's place +is not to say fine things, but to do the hard work that shall support +the household." + +"Then Agnes hath not even seen him?" + +"Yes, at different times I have bid her regard him, and said to her, +'There goes a proper man and a good Christian,--a man who minds his work +and is obedient to his old mother: such a man will make a right good +husband for some girl some day.'" + +"And did you ever see that her eye followed him with pleasure?" + +"No, neither him nor any other man, for my little Agnes hath no thought +of that kind; but, once married, she will like him fast enough. All +I want is to have you begin the subject, and get it into her head a +little." + +Father Antonio was puzzled how to meet this direct urgency of his +sister. He could not explain to her his own private reasons for +believing that any such attempt would be utterly vain, and only bring +needless distress on his little favorite. He therefore answered,-- + +"My good sister, all such thoughts lie so far out of the sphere of us +monks, that you could not choose a worse person for such an errand. I +have never had any communings with the child than touching the beautiful +things of my art, and concerning hymns and prayers and the lovely +world of saints and angels, where they neither marry nor are given in +marriage; and so I should only spoil your enterprise, if I should put my +unskilful hand to it." + +"At any rate," said Elsie, "don't you approve of my plan?" + +"I should approve of anything that would make our dear little one safe +and happy, but I would not force the matter against her inclinations. +You will always regret it, if you make so good a child shed one needless +tear. After all, sister, what need of haste? 'Tis a young bird yet. Why +push it out of the nest? When once it is gone, you will never get it +back. Let the pretty one have her little day to play and sing and be +happy. Does she not make this garden a sort of Paradise with her little +ways and her sweet words? Now, my sister, these all belong to you; but, +once she is given to another, there is no saying what may come. One +thing only may you count on with certainty: that these dear days, when +she is all day by your side and sleeps in your bosom all night, are +over,--she will belong to you no more, but to a strange man who hath +neither toiled nor wrought for her, and all her pretty ways and dutiful +thoughts must be for him." + +"I know it, I know it," said Elsie, with a sudden wrench of that jealous +love which is ever natural to strong, passionate natures. "I'm sure it +isn't for my own sake I urge this. I grudge him the girl. After all, +he is but a stupid head. What has he ever done, that such good-fortune +should befall him? He ought to fall down and kiss the dust of my shoes +for such a gift, and I doubt me much if he will ever think to do it. +These men think nothing too good for them. I believe, if one of the +crowned saints in heaven were offered them to wife, they would think it +all quite natural, and not a whit less than their requirings." + +"Well, then, sister," said the monk, soothingly, "why press this matter? +why hurry? The poor little child is young; let her frisk like a lamb, +and dance like a butterfly, and sing her hymns every day like a bright +bird. Surely the Apostle saith, 'He that giveth his maid in marriage +doeth well, but he that giveth her not doeth better.'" + +"But I have opened the subject already to old Meta," said Elsie; "and +if I don't pursue it, she will take it into her head that her son is +lightly regarded, and then her back will be up, and one may lose the +chance; and on the whole, considering the money and the fellow, I don't +know a safer way to settle the girl." + +"Well, sister, as I have remarked," said the monk, "I could not order +my speech to propose anything of this kind to a young maid; I should so +bungle that I might spoil all. You must even propose it yourself." + +"I would not have undertaken it," said Elsie, "had I not been frightened +by that hook-nosed old kite of a cavalier that has been sailing and +perching round. We are two lone women here, and the times are unsettled, +and one never knows, that hath so fair a prize, but she may be carried +off, and then no redress from any quarter." + +"You might lodge her in the convent," said the monk. + +"Yes, and then, the first thing I should know, they would have got her +away from me entirely. I have been well pleased to have her much with +the sisters hitherto, because it kept her from hearing the foolish talk +of girls and gallants,--and such a flower would have had every wasp and +bee buzzing round it. But now the time is coming to marry her, I much +doubt these nuns. There's old Jocunda is a sensible woman, who knew +something of the world before she went there,--but the Mother Theresa +knows no more than a baby; and they would take her in, and make her as +white and as thin as that moon yonder now the sun has risen; and little +good should I have of her, for I have no vocation for the convent,--it +would kill me in a week. No,--she has seen enough of the convent for the +present. I will even take the risk of watching her myself. Little has +this gallant seen of her, though he has tried hard enough! But to-day I +may venture to take her down with me." + +Father Antonio felt a little conscience-smitten in listening to these +triumphant assertions of old Elsie; for he knew that she would pour all +her vials of wrath on his head, did she know, that, owing to his absence +from his little charge, the dreaded invader had managed to have two +interviews with her grandchild, on the very spot that Elsie deemed the +fortress of security; but he wisely kept his own counsel, believing in +the eternal value of silence. In truth, the gentle monk lived so much +in the unreal and celestial world of Beauty, that he was by no means +a skilful guide for the passes of common life. Love, other than that +ethereal kind which aspires towards Paradise, was a stranger to his +thoughts, and he constantly erred in attributing to other people natures +and purposes as unworldly and spiritual as his own. Thus had he fallen, +in his utter simplicity, into the attitude of a go-between protecting +the advances of a young lover with the shadow of his monk's gown, and +he became awkwardly conscious, that, if Elsie should find out the whole +truth, there would be no possibility of convincing her that what had +been done in such sacred simplicity on all sides was not the basest +manoeuvring. + +Elsie took Agnes down with her to the old stand in the gateway of the +town. On their way, as had probably been arranged, Antonio met them. +We may have introduced him to the reader before, who likely enough has +forgotten by this time our portraiture; so we shall say again, that the +man was past thirty, tall, straight, well-made, even to the tapering of +his well-formed limbs, as are the generality of the peasantry of that +favored region. His teeth were white as sea-pearl; his cheek, though +swarthy, had a deep, healthy flash; and his great velvet black eyes +looked straight out from under their long silky lashes, just as do the +eyes of the beautiful oxen of his country, with a languid, changeless +tranquillity, betokening a good digestion, and a well-fed, kindly animal +nature. He was evidently a creature that had been nourished on sweet +juices and developed in fair pastures, under genial influences of sun +and weather,--one that would draw patiently in harness, if required, +without troubling his handsome head how he came there, and, his labor +being done, would stretch his healthy body to rumination, and rest with +serene, even unreflecting quietude. + +He had been duly lectured by his mother, this morning, on the propriety +of commencing his wooing, and was coming towards them with a bouquet in +his hand. + +"See there," said Elsie,--"there is our young neighbor Antonio coming +towards us. There is a youth whom I am willing you should speak +to,--none of your ruffling gallants, but steady as an ox at his work, +and as kind at the crib. Happy will the girl be that gets him for a +husband!" + +Agnes was somewhat troubled and saddened this morning, and absorbed in +cares quite new to her life before; but her nature was ever kindly +and social, and it had been laid under so many restrictions by her +grandmother's close method of bringing up, that it was always ready to +rebound in favor of anybody to whom she allowed her to show kindness. +So, when the young man stopped and shyly reached forth to her a knot +of scarlet poppies intermingled with bright vetches and wild blue +larkspurs, she took it graciously, and, frankly beaming a smile into his +face, said,-- + +"Thank you, my good Antonio!" Then fastening them in the front of her +bodice,--"There, they are beautiful!" she said, looking up with the +simple satisfaction of a child. + +"They are not half so beautiful as you are," said the young peasant; +"everybody likes you." + +"You are very kind, I am sure," said Agnes. "I like everybody, as far as +grandmamma thinks it best." + +"I am glad of that," said Antonio, "because then I hope you will like +me." + +"Oh, yes, certainly, I do; grandmamma says you are very good, and I like +all good people." + +"Well, then, pretty Agnes," said the young man, "let me carry your +basket." + +"Oh, you don't need to; it does not tire me." + +"But I should like to do something for you," insisted the young man, +blushing deeply. + +"Well, you may, then," said Agnes, who began to wonder at the length +of time her grandmother allowed this conversation to go on without +interrupting it, as she generally had done when a young man was in the +case. Quite to her astonishment, her venerable relative, instead of +sticking as close to her as her shadow, was walking forward very fast +without looking behind. + +"Now, Holy Mother," said that excellent matron, "do help this young man +to bring this affair out straight, and give an old woman, who has had a +world of troubles, a little peace in her old age!" + +Agnes found herself, therefore, quite unusually situated, alone in the +company of a handsome young man, and apparently with the consent of her +grandmother. Some girls might have felt emotions of embarrassment, +or even alarm, at this new situation; but the sacred loneliness and +seclusion in which Agnes had been educated had given her a confiding +fearlessness, such as voyagers have found in the birds of bright foreign +islands which have never been invaded by man. She looked up at Antonio +with a pleased, admiring smile,--much such as she would have given, if +a great handsome stag, or other sylvan companion, had stepped from the +forest and looked a friendship at her through his large liquid eyes. She +seemed, in an innocent, frank way, to like to have him walking by her, +and thought him very good to carry her basket,--though, as she told him, +he need not do it, it did not tire her in the least. + +"Nor does it tire me, pretty Agnes," said he, with an embarrassed laugh. +"See what a great fellow I am,--how strong! Look,--I can bend an iron +bar in my hands! I am as strong as an ox,--and I should like always to +use my strength for you." + +"Should you? How very kind of you! It is very Christian to use one's +strength for others, like the good Saint Christopher." + +"But I would use my strength for you because--I love you, gentle Agnes!" + +"That is right, too," replied Agnes. "We must all love one another, my +good Antonio." + +"You must know what I mean," said the young man. "I mean that I want to +marry you." + +"I am sorry for that, Antonio," replied Agnes, gravely; "because I do +not want to marry you. I am never going to marry anybody." + +"Ah, girls always talk so, my mother told me; but nobody ever heard of +a girl that did not want a husband; that is impossible," said Antonio, +with simplicity. + +"I believe girls generally do, Antonio; but I do not: my desire is to go +to the convent." + +"To the convent, pretty Agnes? Of all things, what should you want to +go to the convent for? You never had any trouble. You are young, and +handsome, and healthy, and almost any of the fellows would think himself +fortunate to get you." + +"I would go there to live for God and pray for souls," said Agnes. + +"But your grandmother will never let you; she means you shall marry me. +I heard her and my mother talking about it last night; and my mother +bade me come on, for she said it was all settled." + +"I never heard anything of it," said Agnes, now for the first time +feeling troubled. "But, my good Antonio, if you really do like me and +wish me well, you will not want to distress me?" + +"Certainly not." + +"Well, it _will_ distress me very, very much, if you persist in wanting +to marry me, and if you say any more on the subject." + +"Is that really so?" said Antonio, fixing his great velvet eyes with an +honest stare on Agnes. + +"Yes, it is so, Antonio; you may rely upon it." + +"But look here, Agnes, are you quite sure? Mother says girls do not +always know their mind." + +"But I know mine, Antonio. Now you really will distress and trouble me +very much, if you say anything more of this sort." + +"I declare, I am sorry for it," said the young man. "Look ye, Agnes,--I +did not care half as much about it this morning as I do now. Mother +has been saying this great while that I must have a wife, that she was +getting old; and this morning she told me to speak to you. I thought you +would be all ready,--indeed I did." + +"My good Antonio, there are a great many very handsome girls who would +be glad, I suppose, to marry you. I believe other girls do not feel as I +do. Giulietta used to laugh and tell me so." + +"That Giulietta was a splendid girl," said Antonio. "She used to make +great eyes at me, and try to make me play the fool; but my mother would +not hear of her. Now she has gone off with a fellow to the mountains." + +"Giulietta gone?" + +"Yes, haven't you heard of it? She's gone with one of the fellows of +that dashing young robber-captain that has been round our town so much +lately. All the girls are wild after these mountain fellows. A good, +honest boy like me, that hammers away at his trade, they think nothing +of; whereas one of these fellows with a feather in his cap has only to +twinkle his finger at them, and they are off like a bird." + +The blood rose in Agnes's cheeks at this very unconscious remark; but +she walked along for some time with a countenance of grave reflection. + +They had now gained the street of the city, where old Elsie stood at a +little distance waiting for them. + +"Well, Agnes," said Antonio, "so you really are in earnest?" + +"Certainly I am." + +"Well, then, let us be good friends, at any rate," said the young man. + +"Oh, to be sure, I will," said Agnes, smiling with all the brightness +her lovely face was capable of. "You are a kind, good man, and I like +you very much. I will always remember you kindly." + +"Well, good-bye, then," said Antonio, offering his hand. + +"Good-bye," said Agnes, cheerfully giving hers. + +Elsie, beholding the cordiality of this parting, comforted herself that +all was right, and ruffled all her feathers with the satisfied pride of +a matron whose family plans are succeeding. + +"After all," she said to herself, "brother was right,--best let young +folks settle these matters themselves. Now see the advantage of such an +education as I have given Agnes! Instead of being betrothed to a good, +honest, forehanded fellow, she might have been losing her poor silly +heart to some of these lords or gallants who throw away a girl as one +does an orange when they have sucked it. Who knows what mischief this +cavalier might have done, if I had not been so watchful? Now let him +come prying and spying about, she will have a husband to defend her. A +smith's hammer is better than an old woman's spindle, any day." + +Agnes took her seat with her usual air of thoughtful gravity, her +mind seeming to be intensely preoccupied, and her grandmother, though +secretly exulting in the supposed cause, resolved not to open the +subject with her till they were at home or alone at night. + +"I have my defence to make to Father Francesco, too," she said to +herself, "for hurrying on this betrothal against his advice; but one +must manage a little with these priests,--the saints forgive me! I +really think sometimes, because they can't marry themselves, they would +rather see every pretty girl in a convent than with a husband. It's +natural enough, too. Father Francesco will be like the rest of the +world: when he can't help a thing, he will see the will of the Lord in +it." + +Thus prosperously the world seemed to go with old Elsie. Meantime, when +her back was turned, as she was kneeling over her basket, sorting out +lemons, Agnes happened to look up, and there, just under the arch of the +gateway, where she had seen him the first time, sat the cavalier on a +splendid horse, with a white feather streaming backward from his black +riding-hat and dark curls. + +He bowed low and kissed his hand to her, and before she knew it her eyes +met his, which seemed to flash light and sunshine all through her; and +then he turned his horse and was gone through the gate, while she, +filled with self-reproach, was taking her little heart to task for the +instantaneous throb of happiness which had passed through her whole +being at that sight. She had not turned away her head, nor said a +prayer, as Father Francesco told her to do, because the whole thing had +been sudden as a flash; but now it was gone, she prayed, "My God, help +me not to love him!--let me love Thee alone!" But many times in the +course of the day, as she twisted her flax, she found herself wondering +whither he could be going. Had he really gone to that enchanted +cloud-land, in the old purple Apennines, whither he wanted to carry +her,--gone, perhaps, never to return? That was best. But was he +reconciled with the Church? Was that great, splendid soul that looked +out of those eyes to be forever lost, or would the pious exhortations of +her uncle avail? And then she thought he had said to her, that, if she +would go with him, he would confess and take the sacrament, and be +reconciled with the Church, and so his soul be saved. + +She resolved to tell this to Father Francesco. Perhaps he +would----No,--she shivered as she remembered the severe, withering look +with which the holy father had spoken of him, and the awfulness of his +manner,--he would never consent. And then her grandmother----No, there +was no possibility. + +Meanwhile Agnes's good old uncle sat in the orange-shaded garden, busily +perfecting his sketches; but his mind was distracted, and his thoughts +wandered,--and often he rose, and, leaving his drawings, would pace up +and down the little place, absorbed in earnest prayer. The thought of +his master's position was hourly growing upon him. The real world with +its hungry and angry tide was each hour washing higher and higher up on +the airy shore of the ideal, and bearing the pearls and enchanted shells +of fancy out into its salt and muddy waters. + +"Oh, my master, my father!" he said, "is the martyr's crown of fire +indeed waiting thee? Will God desert His own? But was not Christ +crucified?--and the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant +above his lord. But surely Florence will not consent. The whole city +will make a stand for him;--they are ready, if need be, to pluck out +their eyes and give them to him. Florence will certainly be a refuge +for him. But why do I put confidence in man? In the Lord alone have I +righteousness and strength." + +And the old monk raised the psalm, "_Quare fremunt gentes_," and his +voice rose and fell through the flowery recesses and dripping grottoes +of the old gorge, sad and earnest like the protest of the few and feeble +of Christ's own against the rushing legions of the world. Yet, as +he sang, courage and holy hope came into his soul from the sacred +words,--just such courage as they afterwards brought to Luther, and to +the Puritans in later times. + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE MONK'S DEPARTURE. + + +The three inhabitants of the little dovecot were sitting in their garden +after supper, enjoying the cool freshness. The place was perfumed with +the smell of orange-blossoms, brought out by gentle showers that had +fallen during the latter part of the afternoon, and all three felt the +tranquillizing effects of the sweet evening air. The monk sat bending +over his drawings, resting the frame on which they lay on the mossy +garden-wall, so as to get the latest advantage of the rich golden +twilight which now twinkled through the sky. Agnes sat by him on the +same wall,--now glancing over his shoulder at his work, and now leaning +thoughtfully on her elbow, gazing pensively down into the deep shadows +of the gorge, or out where the golden light of evening streamed under +the arches of the old Roman bridge, to the wide, bright sea beyond. + +Old Elsie bustled about with unusual content in the lines of her keen +wrinkled face. Already her thoughts were running on household furnishing +and bridal finery. She unlocked an old chest which from its heavy quaint +carvings of dark wood must have been some relic of the fortunes of her +better days, and, taking out of a little till of the same a string of +fine silvery pearls, held them up admiringly to the evening light. +A splendid pair of pearl ear-rings also was produced from the same +receptacle. + +She sighed at first, as she looked at these things, and then smiled with +rather an air of triumph, and, coming to where Agnes reclined on the +wall, held them up playfully before her. + +"See here, little one!" she said. + +"Oh, what pretty things!--where did they come from?" said Agnes, +innocently. + +"Where did they? Sure enough! Little did you or any one else know old +Elsie had things like these! But she meant her little Agnes should hold +up her head with the best. No girl in Sorrento will have such wedding +finery as this?" + +"Wedding finery, grandmamma," said Agnes, faintly,--"what does that +mean?" + +"What does that mean, sly-boots? Ah, you know well enough! What were you +and Antonio talking about all the time this morning? Did he not ask you +to marry him?" + +"Yes, grandmamma; but I told him I was not going to marry. You promised +me, dear grandmother, right here, the other night, that I should not +marry till I was willing; and I told Antonio I was not willing." + +"The girl says but true, sister," said the monk; "you remember you gave +her your word that she should not be married till she gave her consent +willingly." + +"But, Agnes, my pretty one, what can be the objection?" said old Elsie, +coaxingly. "Where will you find a better-made man, or more honest, or +more kind?--and he is handsome;--and you will have a home that all the +girls will envy." + +"Grandmamma, remember, you promised me,--you _promised_ me," said Agnes, +looking distressed, and speaking earnestly. + +"Well, well, child! but can't I ask a civil question, if I did? What is +your objection to Antonio?" + +"Only that I don't want to be married." + +"Now you know, child," said Elsie, "I never will consent to your going +to a convent. You might as well put a knife through my old heart as talk +to me of that. And if you don't go, you must marry somebody; and who +could be better than Antonio?" + +"Oh, grandmamma, am I not a good girl? What have I done, that you are +so anxious to get me away from you?" said Agnes. "I like Antonio well +enough, but I like you ten thousand times better. Why cannot we live +together just as we do now? I am strong. I can work a great deal harder +than I do. You ought to let me work more, so that you need not work so +hard and tire yourself,--let me carry the heavy basket, and dig round +the trees." + +"Pooh! a pretty story!" said Elsie. "We are two lone women, and the +times are unsettled; there are robbers and loose fellows about, and we +want a protector." + +"And is not the good Lord our protector?--has He not always kept us, +grandmother?" said Agnes. + +"Oh, that's well enough to say, but folks can't always get along +so;--it's far better trusting the Lord with a good strong man +about,--like Antonio, for instance. I should like to see the man that +would dare be uncivil to _his_ wife. But go your ways,--it's no use +toiling away one's life for children, who, after all, won't turn their +little finger for you." + +"Now, dear grandmother," said Agnes, "have I not said I would do +everything for you, and work hard for you? Ask me to do anything else +in the world, grandmamma; I will do anything to make you happy, except +marry this man,--that I cannot." + +"And that is the only thing I want you to do. Well, I suppose I may as +well lock up these things; I see my gifts are not cared for." + +And the old soul turned and went in quite testily, leaving Agnes with a +grieved heart, sitting still by her uncle. + +"Never weep, little one," said the kind old monk, when he saw the silent +tears falling one after another; "your grandmother loves you, after all, +and will come out of this, if we are quiet." + +"This is such a beautiful world," said Agnes, "who would think it would +be such a hard one to live in?--such battles and conflicts as people +have here!" + +"You say well, little heart; but great is the glory to be revealed; so +let us have courage." + +"Dear uncle, have you heard any ill-tidings of late?" asked Agnes. "I +noticed this morning you were cast down, and to-night you look so tired +and sad." + +"Yes, dear child,--heavy tidings have indeed come. My dear master at +Florence is hard beset by wicked men, and in great danger,--in danger, +perhaps, of falling a martyr to his holy zeal for the blessed Jesus and +his Church." + +"But cannot our holy father, the Pope, protect him? You should go to +Rome directly and lay the case before him." + +"It is not always possible to be protected by the Pope," said Father +Antonio, evasively. "But I grieve much, dear child, that I can be with +you no longer. I must gird up my loins and set out for Florence, to see +with my own eyes how the battle is going for my holy master." + +"Ah, must I lose you, too, my dear, best friend?" said Agnes. "What +shall I do?" + +"Thou hast the same Lord Jesus, and the same dear Mother, when I am +gone. Have faith in God, and cease not to pray for His Church,--and for +me, too." + +"That I will, dear uncle! I will pray for you more than ever,--for +prayer now will be all my comfort. But," she added, with hesitation, +"oh, uncle, you promised to visit _him_!" + +"Never fear, little Agnes,--I will do that. I go to him this very +night,--now, even,--for the daylight waxes too scant for me to work +longer." + +"But you will come back and stay with us to-night, uncle?" + +"Yes, I will,--but to-morrow morning I must be up and away with the +birds; and I have labored hard all day to finish the drawings for the +lad who shall carve the shrine, that he may busy himself thereon in my +absence." + +"Then you will come back?" + +"Certainly, dear heart, I will come back; of that be assured. Pray God +it be before long, too." + +So saying, the good monk drew his cowl over his head, and, putting his +portfolio of drawings under his arm, began to wend his way towards the +old town. + +Agnes watched him departing, her heart in a strange flutter of eagerness +and solicitude. What were these dreadful troubles which were coming upon +her good uncle?--who those enemies of the Church that beset that saintly +teacher he so much looked up to? And why was lawless violence allowed +to run such riot in Italy, as it had in the case of the unfortunate +cavalier? As she thought things over, she was burning with a repressed +desire to _do_ something herself to abate these troubles. + +"I am not a knight," she said to herself, "and I cannot fight for the +good cause. I am not a priest, and I cannot argue for it. I cannot +preach and convert sinners. What, then, can I do? I can pray. Suppose I +should make a pilgrimage? Yes,--that would be a good work, and I will. +I will walk to Rome, praying at every shrine and holy place; and then, +when I come to the Holy City, whose very dust is made precious with +the blood of the martyrs and saints, I will seek the house of our dear +father, the Pope, and entreat his forgiveness for this poor soul. He +will not scorn me, for he is in the place of the blessed Jesus, and the +richest princess and the poorest maiden are equal in his sight. Ah, that +will be beautiful! Holy Mother," she said, falling on her knees before +the shrine, "here I vow and promise that I will go praying to the Holy +City. Smile on me and help me!" + +And by the twinkle of the flickering lamp which threw its light upon the +picture, Agnes thought surely the placid face brightened to a tender +maternal smile, and her enthusiastic imagination saw in this an omen of +success. + +Old Elsie was moody and silent this evening,--vexed at the thwarting +of her schemes. It was the first time that the idea had ever gained a +foothold in her mind, that her docile and tractable grandchild could +really have for any serious length of time a will opposed to her own, +and she found it even now difficult to believe it. Hitherto she had +shaped her life as easily as she could mould a biscuit, and it was all +plain sailing before her. The force and decision of this young will rose +as suddenly upon her as the one rock in the middle of the ocean which a +voyager unexpectedly discovered by striking on it. + +But Elsie by no means regarded the game as lost. She mentally went over +the field, considering here and there what was yet to be done. + +The subject had fairly been broached. Agnes had listened to it, and +parted in friendship from Antonio. Now his old mother must be soothed +and pacified; and Antonio must be made to persevere. + +"What is a girl worth that can be won at the first asking?" quoth Elsie. +"Depend upon it, she will fall to thinking of him, and the next time she +sees him she will give him a good look. The girl never knew what it was +to have a lover. No wonder she doesn't take to it at first; there's +where her bringing up comes in, so different from other girls'. Courage, +Elsie! Nature will speak in its own time." + +Thus soliloquizing, she prepared to go a few steps from their dwelling, +to the cottage of Meta and Antonio, which was situated at no great +distance. + +"Nobody will think of coming here this time o' night," she said, "and +the girl is in for a good hour at least with her prayers, and so I think +I may venture. I don't really like to leave her, but it's not a great +way, and I shall be back in a few moments. I want just to put a word +into old Meta's ear, that she may teach Antonio how to demean himself." + +And so the old soul took her spinning and away she went, leaving Agnes +absorbed in her devotions. + +The solemn starry night looked down steadfastly on the little garden. +The evening wind creeping with gentle stir among the orange-leaves, and +the falling waters of the fountain dripping their distant, solitary way +down from rock to rock through the lonely gorge, were the only sounds +that broke the stillness. + +The monk was the first of the two to return; for those accustomed to +the habits of elderly cronies on a gossiping expedition of any domestic +importance will not be surprised that Elsie's few moments of projected +talk lengthened imperceptibly into hours. + +Agnes came forward anxiously to meet her uncle. He seemed wan and +haggard, and trembling with some recent emotion. + +"What is the matter with you, dear uncle?" she asked. "Has anything +happened?" + +"Nothing, child, nothing. I have only been talking on painful subjects, +deep perplexities, out of which I can scarcely see my way. Would to God +this night of life were past, and I could see morning on the mountains!" + +"My uncle, have you not, then, succeeded in bringing this young man to +the bosom of the True Church?" + +"Child, the way is hedged up, and made almost impassable by difficulties +you little wot of. They cannot be told to you; they are enough to +destroy the faith of the very elect." + +Agnes's heart sank within her; and the monk, sitting down on the wall +of the garden, clasped his hands over one knee and gazed fixedly before +him. + +The sight of her uncle,--generally so cheerful, so elastic, so full of +bright thoughts and beautiful words,--so utterly cast down, was both a +mystery and a terror to Agnes. + +"Oh, my uncle," she said, "it is hard that I must not know, and that I +can do nothing, when I feel ready to die for this cause! What is one +little life? Ah, if I had a thousand to give, I could melt them all into +it, like little drops of rain in the sea! Be not utterly cast down, good +uncle! Does not our dear Lord and Saviour reign in the heavens yet?" + +"Sweet little nightingale!" said the monk, stretching his hand towards +her. "Well did my master say that he gained strength to his soul always +by talking with Christ's little children!" + +"And all the dear saints and angels, they are not dead or idle either," +said Agnes, her face kindling; "they are busy all around us. I know not +what this trouble is you speak of; but let us think what legions of +bright angels and holy men and women are caring for us." + +"Well said, well said, dear child! There is, thank God, a Church +Triumphant,--a crowned queen, a glorious bride; and the poor, +struggling Church Militant shall rise to join her! What matter, then, +though our way lie through dungeon and chains, through fire and sword, +if we may attain to that glory at last?" + +"Uncle, are there such dreadful things really before you?" + +"There may be, child. I say of my master, as did the holy Apostles: 'Let +us also go, that we may die with him.' I feel a heavy presage. But I +must not trouble you, child. Early in the morning I will be up and away. +I go with this youth, whose pathway lies a certain distance along mine, +and whose company I seek for his good as well as my pleasure." + +"You go with _him_?" said Agnes, with a start of surprise. + +"Yes; his refuge in the mountains lies between here and Rome, and he +hath kindly offered to bring me on my way faster than I can go on +foot; and I would fain see our beautiful Florence as soon as may be. O +Florence, Florence, Lily of Italy! wilt thou let thy prophet perish?" + +"But, uncle, if he die for the faith, he will be a blessed martyr. That +crown is worth dying for," said Agnes. + +"You say well, little one,--you say well! '_Ex oribus parvulorum._' +But one shrinks from that in the person of a friend which one could +cheerfully welcome for one's self. Oh, the blessed cross! never is it +welcome to the flesh, and yet how joyfully the spirit may walk under +it!" + +"Dear uncle, I have made a solemn vow before our Holy Mother this +night," said Agnes, "to go on a pilgrimage to Rome, and at every shrine +and holy place to pray that these great afflictions which beset all of +you may have a happy issue." + +"My sweet heart, what have you done? Have you considered the unsettled +roads, the wild, unruly men that are abroad, the robbers with which the +mountains are filled?" + +"These are all Christ's children and my brothers," said Agnes; "for them +was the most holy blood shed, as well as for me. They cannot harm one +who prays for them." + +"But, dear heart of mine, these ungodly brawlers think little of prayer; +and this beautiful, innocent little face will but move the vilest and +most brutal thoughts and deeds." + +"Saint Agnes still lives, dear uncle,--and He who kept her in worse +trial. I shall walk through them all pure as snow,--I am assured I +shall. The star which led the wise men and stood over the young child +and his mother will lead me, too." + +"But your grandmother?" + +"The Lord will incline her heart to go with me. Dear uncle, it does +not beseem a child to reflect on its elders, yet I cannot but see that +grandmamma loves this world and me too well for her soul's good. This +journey will be for her eternal repose." + +"Well, well, dear one, I cannot now advise. Take advice of your +confessor, and the blessed Lord and his holy Mother be with you! But +come now, I would soothe myself to sleep; for I have need of good rest +to-night. Let us sing together our dear master's hymn of the Cross." + +And the monk and the maiden sang together:-- + + "Iesù, sommo conforto, + Tu sei tutto il mio amore + E 'l mio beato porto, + E santo Redentore. + O gran bontà , + Dolce pietà , + Felice quel che teco unito sta! + + "Deh, quante volte offeso + T' ha l' alma e 'l cor meschino, + E tu sei in croce steso + Per salvar me, tapino! + + "Iesù, fuss' io confitto + Sopra quel duro ligno, + Dove ti vedo afflitto, + Iesù, Signor benigno! + + "O croce, fammi loco, + E le mie membra prendi, + Che del tuo dolce foco + Il cor e l' alma accendi! + + "Infiamma il mio cor tanto + Dell' amor tuo divino, + Ch' io arda tutto quanto, + Che paia un serafino! + + "La croce e 'l Crocifisso + Sia nel mio cor scolpito, + Ed io sia sempre affisso + In gloria ov' egli è ito!"[D] + +[Footnote D: + + Jesus, best comfort of my soul, + Be thou my only love, + My sacred saviour from my sins, + My door to heaven above! + O lofty goodness, love divine, + Blest is the soul made one with thine! + + Alas, how oft this sordid heart + Hath wounded thy pure eye! + Yet for this heart upon the cross + Thou gav'st thyself to die! + + Ah, would I were extended there, + Upon that cold, hard tree, + Where I have seen thee, gracious Lord, + Breathe out thy life for me! + + Cross of my Lord, give room! give room! + To thee my flesh be given! + Cleansed in thy fires of love and pain, + My soul rise pure to heaven! + + Burn in my heart, celestial flame, + With memories of him, + Till, from earth's dross refined, I rise + To join the seraphim! + + Ah, vanish each unworthy trace + Of earthly care or pride, + Leave only, graven on my heart, + The Cross, the Crucified! +] + +As the monk sang, his soul seemed to fuse itself into the sentiment with +that natural grace peculiar to his nation. He walked up and down the +little garden, apparently forgetful of Agnes or of any earthly presence, +and in the last verses stretched his hands towards heaven with streaming +tears and a fervor of utterance indescribable. + +The soft and passionate tenderness of the Italian words must exhale in +an English translation, but enough may remain to show that the hymns +with which Savonarola at this time sowed the mind of Italy often +mingled the Moravian quaintness and energy with the Wesleyan purity and +tenderness. One of the great means of popular reform which he proposed +was the supplanting of the obscene and licentious songs, which at that +time so generally defiled the minds of the young, by religious words and +melodies. The children and young people brought up under his influence +were sedulously stored with treasures of sacred melody, as the safest +companions of leisure hours, and the surest guard against temptation. + +"Come now, my little one," said the monk, after they had ceased singing, +as he laid his hand on Agnes's head. "I am strong now; I know where I +stand. And you, my little one, you are one of my master's 'Children of +the Cross.' You must sing the hymns of our dear master, that I have +taught you, when I am far away. A hymn is a singing angel, and goes +walking through the earth, scattering the devils before it. Therefore he +who creates hymns imitates the most excellent and lovely works of our +Lord God, who made the angels. These hymns watch our chamber-door, they +sit upon our pillow, they sing to us when we awake; and therefore our +master was resolved to sow the minds of his young people with them, as +our lovely Italy is sown with the seeds of all colored flowers. How +lovely has it often been to me, as I sat at my work in Florence, to hear +the little children go by, chanting of Jesus and Mary,--and young men +singing to young maidens, not vain flatteries of their beauty, but the +praises of the One only Beautiful, whose smile sows heaven with stars +like flowers! Ah, in my day I have seen blessed times in Florence! Truly +was she worthy to be called the Lily City!--for all her care seemed to +be to make white her garments to receive her Lord and Bridegroom. Yes, +though she had sinned like the Magdalen, yet she loved much, like her. +She washed His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her +head. Oh, my beautiful Florence, be true to thy vows, be true to thy +Lord and Governor, Jesus Christ, and all shall be well!" + +"Amen, dear uncle!" said Agnes. "I will not fail to pray day and night, +that thus it may be. And now, if you must travel so far, you must go +to rest. Grandmamma has gone long ago. I saw her steal by as we were +singing." + +"And is there any message from my little Agnes to this young man?" asked +the monk. + +"Yes. Say to him that Agnes prays daily that he may be a worthy son and +soldier of the Lord Jesus." + +"Amen, sweet heart! Jesu and His sweet Mother bless thee!" + + * * * * * + + +A NEW COUNTERBLAST + + +"He that taketh tobacco saith he cannot leave it, it doth bewitch +him."--KING JAMES'S COUNTERBLAST TO TOBACCO. + +America is especially responsible to the whole world for tobacco, since +the two are twin-sisters, born to the globe in a day. The sailors first +sent on shore by Columbus came back with news of a new continent and +a new condiment. There was solid land, and there was a novel perfume, +which rolled in clouds from the lips of the natives. The fame of the two +great discoveries instantly began to overspread the world; but the smoke +travelled fastest, as is its nature. There are many races which have not +yet heard of America: there are very few which have not yet tasted of +tobacco. A plant which was originally the amusement of a few savage +tribes has become in a few centuries the fancied necessary of life to +the most enlightened nations of the earth, and it is probable that there +is nothing cultivated by man which is now so universally employed. + +And the plant owes this width of celebrity to a combination of natural +qualities so remarkable as to yield great diversities of good and evil +fame. It was first heralded as a medical panacea, "the most sovereign +and precious weed that ever the earth tendered to the use of man," and +was seldom mentioned, in the sixteenth century, without some reverential +epithet. It was a plant divine, a canonized vegetable. Each nation +had its own pious name to bestow upon it. The French called it +_herbe sainte, herbe sacrée, herbe propre à tous maux, panacée +antarctique_,--the Italians, _herba santa croce_,--the Germans, _heilig +wundkraut_. Botanists soberly classified it as _herba panacea_ and +_herba sancta_, and Gerard in his "Herbal" fixed its name finally +as _sana sancta Indorum_, by which title it commonly appears in the +professional recipes of the time. Spenser, in his "Faërie Queene," +bids the lovely Belphoebe gather it as "divine tobacco," and Lilly the +Euphuist calls it "our holy herb Nicotian," ranking it between violets +and honey. It was cultivated in France for medicinal purposes solely, +for half a century before any one there used it for pleasure, and till +within the last hundred years it was familiarly prescribed, all over +Europe, for asthma, gout, catarrh, consumption, headache; and, in short, +was credited with curing more diseases than even the eighty-seven which +Dr. Shew now charges it with producing. + +So vast were the results of all this sanitary enthusiasm, that the use +of tobacco in Europe probably reached its climax in a century or two, +and has since rather diminished than increased, in proportion to the +population. It probably appeared in England in 1586, being first used in +the Indian fashion, by handing one pipe from man to man throughout the +company; the medium of communication being a silver tube for the higher +classes, and a straw and walnut-shell for the baser sort. Paul Hentzner, +who travelled in England in 1598, and Monsieur Misson, who wrote +precisely a century later, note almost in the same words "a perpetual +use of tobacco"; and the latter suspects that this is what makes "the +generality of Englishmen so taciturn, so thoughtful, and so melancholy." +In Queen Elizabeth's time, the ladies of the court "would not scruple +to blow a pipe together very socially." In 1614 it was asserted that +tobacco was sold openly in more than seven thousand places in London, +some of these being already attended by that patient Indian who still +stands seductive at tobacconists' doors. It was also estimated that the +annual receipts of these establishments amounted to more than three +hundred thousand pounds. Elegant ladies had their pictures painted, at +least one in 1650 did, with pipe and box in hand. Rochefort, a rather +apocryphal French traveller in 1672, reported it to be the general +custom in English homes to set pipes on the table in the evening for +the females as well as males of the family, and to provide children's +luncheon-baskets with a well-filled pipe, to be smoked at school, under +the directing eye of the master. In 1703, Lawrence Spooner wrote that +"the sin of the kingdom in the intemperate use of tobacco swelleth and +increaseth so daily that I can compare it to nothing but the waters of +Noah, that swelled fifteen cubits above the highest mountains." The +deluge reached its height in England--so thinks the amusing and +indefatigable Mr. Fairholt, author of "Tobacco and its Associations"--in +the reign of Queen Anne. Steele, in the "Spectator," (1711,) describes +the snuff-box as a rival to the fan among ladies; and Goldsmith pictures +the belles at Bath as entering the water in full bathing costume, each +provided with a small floating basket, to hold a snuff-box, a kerchief, +and a nosegay. And finally, in 1797, Dr. Clarke complains of the handing +about of the snuff-box in churches during worship, "to the great scandal +of religious people,"--adding, that kneeling in prayer was prevented by +the large quantity of saliva ejected in all directions. In view of such +formidable statements as these, it is hardly possible to believe +that the present generation surpasses or even equals the past in the +consumption of tobacco. + +And all this sudden popularity was in spite of a vast persecution which +sought to unite all Europe against this indulgence, in the seventeenth +century. In Russia, its use was punishable with amputation of the +nose; in Berne, it ranked next to adultery among offences; Sandys, the +traveller, saw a Turk led through the streets of Constantinople mounted +backward on an ass with a tobacco-pipe thrust through his nose. Pope +Urban VIII., in 1624, excommunicated those who should use it in +churches, and Innocent XII., in 1690, echoed the same anathema. Yet +within a few years afterwards travellers reported that same free use +of snuff in Romish worship which still astonishes spectators. To see +a priest, during the momentous ceremonial of High Mass, enliven the +occasion by a voluptuous pinch, is a sight even more astonishing, though +perhaps less disagreeable, than the well-used spittoon which decorates +so many Protestant pulpits. + +But the Protestant pulpits did their full share in fighting the habit, +for a time at least. Among the Puritans, no man could use tobacco +publicly, on penalty of a fine of two and sixpence, or in a private +dwelling, if strangers were present; and no two could use it together. +That iron pipe of Miles Standish, still preserved at Plymouth, must have +been smoked in solitude or not at all. This strictness was gradually +relaxed, however, as the clergy took up the habit of smoking; and I +have seen an old painting, on the panels of an ancient parsonage in +Newburyport, representing a jovial circle of portly divines sitting pipe +in hand around a table, with the Latin motto, "In essentials unity, in +non-essentials liberty, in all things charity." Apparently the tobacco +was one of the essentials, since there was unity respecting that. +Furthermore, Captain Underhill, hero of the Pequot War, boasted to the +saints of having received his assurance of salvation "while enjoying a +pipe of that good creature, tobacco," "since when he had never doubted +it, though he should fall into sin." But it is melancholy to relate +that this fall did presently take place, in a very flagrant manner, and +brought discredit upon tobacco conversions, as being liable to end in +smoke. + +Indeed, some of the most royal wills that ever lived in the world have +measured themselves against the tobacco-plant and been defeated. Charles +I. attempted to banish it, and in return the soldiers of Cromwell puffed +their smoke contemptuously in his face, as he sat a prisoner in the +guard-chamber. Cromwell himself undertook it, and Evelyn says that the +troopers smoked in triumph at his funeral. Wellington tried it, and +the artists caricatured him on a pipe's head with a soldier behind him +defying with a whiff that imperial nose. Louis Napoleon is said to +be now attempting it, and probably finds his subjects more ready to +surrender the freedom of the press than of the pipe. + +The more recent efforts against tobacco, like most arguments in which +morals and physiology are mingled, have lost much of their effect +through exaggeration. On both sides there has been enlisted much loose +statement, with some bad logic. It is, for instance, unreasonable to +hold up the tobacco-plant to general indignation because Linnaeus +classed it with the natural order _Luridae_,--since he attributed the +luridness only to the color of those plants, not to their character. It +is absurd to denounce it as belonging to the poisonous nightshade tribe, +when the potato and the tomato also appertain to that perilous domestic +circle. It is hardly fair even to complain of it for yielding a +poisonous oil, when these two virtuous plants--to say nothing of the +peach and the almond--will under sufficient chemical provocation do the +same thing. Two drops of nicotine will, indeed, kill a rabbit; but so, +it is said, will two drops of solanine. Great are the resources of +chemistry, and a well-regulated scientific mind can detect something +deadly almost anywhere. + +Nor is it safe to assume, as many do, that tobacco predisposes very +powerfully to more dangerous dissipations. The non-smoking Saxons were +probably far more intemperate in drinking than the modern English; and +Lane, the best authority, points out that wine is now far less used by +the Orientals than at the time of the "Arabian Nights," when tobacco +had not been introduced. And in respect to yet more perilous sensual +excesses, tobacco is now admitted, both by friends and foes, to be quite +as much a sedative as a stimulant. + +The point of objection on the ground of inordinate expense is doubtless +better taken, and can be met only by substantial proof that the enormous +outlay is a wise one. Tobacco may be "the anodyne of poverty," as +somebody has said, but it certainly promotes poverty. This narcotic +lulls to sleep all pecuniary economy. Every pipe may not, indeed, cost +so much as that jewelled one seen by Dibdin in Vienna, which was valued +at a thousand pounds; or even as the German meerschaum which was passed +from mouth to mouth through a whole regiment of soldiers till it was +colored to perfection, having never been allowed to cool,--a bill of one +hundred pounds being ultimately rendered for the tobacco consumed. But +how heedlessly men squander money on this pet luxury! By the report of +the English University Commissioners, some ten years ago, a student's +annual tobacco-bill often amounts to forty pounds. Dr. Solly puts thirty +pounds as the lowest annual expenditure of an English smoker, and knows +many who spend one hundred and twenty pounds, and one three hundred +pounds a year, on tobacco alone. In this country the facts are hard to +obtain, but many a man smokes twelve four-cent cigars a day, and many +a man four twelve-cent cigars,--spending in either case about half +a dollar a day and not far from two hundred dollars per annum. An +industrious mechanic earns his two dollars and fifty cents a day or +a clerk his eight hundred dollars a year, spends a quarter of it on +tobacco, and the rest on his wife, children, and miscellaneous expenses. + +But the impotency which marks some of the stock arguments against +tobacco extends to most of those in favor of it. My friend assures me +that every one needs some narcotic, that the American brain is too +active, and that the influence of tobacco is quieting,--great is the +enjoyment of a comfortable pipe after dinner. I grant, on observing him +at that period, that it appears so. But I also observe, that, when the +placid hour has passed away, his nervous system is more susceptible, his +hand more tremulous, his temper more irritable on slight occasions, than +during the days when the comfortable pipe chances to be omitted. The +only effect of the narcotic appears, therefore, to be a demand for +another narcotic; and there seems no decided advantage over the life +of the birds and bees, who appear to keep their nervous systems in +tolerably healthy condition with no narcotic at all. + +The argument drawn from a comparison of races is no better. Germans are +vigorous and Turks are long-lived, and they are all great smokers. But +certainly the Germans do not appear so vivacious, nor the Turks so +energetic, as to afford triumphant demonstrations in behalf of the +sacred weed. Moreover, the Eastern tobacco is as much milder than ours +as are the Continental wines than even those semi-alcoholic mixtures +which prevail at scrupulous communion-tables. And as for German health, +Dr. Schneider declares, in the London "Lancet," that it is because of +smoke that all his educated countrymen wear spectacles, that an immense +amount of consumption is produced in Germany by tobacco, and that +English insurance companies are proverbially cautious in insuring German +lives. Dr. Carlyon gives much the same as his observation in Holland. +These facts may be overstated, but they are at least as good as those +which they answer. + +Not much better is the excuse alleged in the social and genial +influences of tobacco. It certainly seems a singular way of opening +the lips for conversation by closing them on a pipe-stem, and it would +rather appear as if Fate designed to gag the smokers and let the +non-smokers talk. But supposing it otherwise, does it not mark a +condition of extreme juvenility in our social development, if no +resources of intellect can enable a half-dozen intelligent men to be +agreeable to each other, without applying the forcing process, by +turning the room into an imperfectly organized chimney? Brilliant women +can be brilliant without either wine or tobacco, and Napoleon always +maintained that without an admixture of feminine wit conversation grew +tame. Are all male beings so much stupider by nature than the other +sex, that men require stimulants and narcotics to make them mutually +endurable? + +And as the conversational superiorities of woman disprove the supposed +social inspirations of tobacco, so do her more refined perceptions yet +more emphatically pronounce its doom. Though belles of the less mature +description, eulogistic of sophomores, may stoutly profess that they +dote on the Virginian perfume, yet cultivated womanhood barely tolerates +the choicest tobacco-smoke, even in its freshness, and utterly recoils +from the stale suggestions of yesterday. By whatever enthusiasm misled, +she finds something abhorrent in the very nature of the thing. In vain +did loyal Frenchmen baptize the weed as the queen's own favorite, _Herba +Catherinae Medicae_; it is easier to admit that Catherine de' Medici was +not feminine than that tobacco is. Man also recognizes the antagonism; +there is scarcely a husband in America who would not be converted from +smoking, if his wife resolutely demanded her right of moiety in the +cigar-box. No Lady Mary, no loveliest Marquise, could make snuff-taking +beauty otherwise than repugnant to this generation. Rustic females +who habitually chew even pitch or spruce-gum are rendered thereby so +repulsive that the fancy refuses to pursue the horror farther and +imagine it tobacco; and all the charms of the veil and the fan can +scarcely reconcile the most fumacious American to the _cigarrito_ of +the Spanish fair. How strange seems Parton's picture of General Jackson +puffing his long clay pipe on one side of the fireplace and Mrs. Jackson +puffing hers on the other! No doubt, to the heart of the chivalrous +backwoodsman those smoke-dried lips were yet the altar of early +passion,--as that rather ungrammatical tongue was still the music of +the spheres; but the unattractiveness of that conjugal counterblast is +Nature's own protest against smoking. + +The use of tobacco must, therefore, be held to mark a rather coarse and +childish epoch in our civilization, if nothing worse. Its most ardent +admirer hardly paints it into his picture of the Golden Age. It is +difficult to associate it with one's fancies of the noblest manhood, +and Miss Muloch reasonably defies the human imagination to portray +Shakspeare or Dante with pipe in mouth. Goethe detested it; so did +Napoleon, save in the form of snuff, which he apparently used on +Talleyrand's principle, that diplomacy was impossible without it. Bacon +said, "Tobacco-smoking is a secret delight serving only to steal away +men's brains." Newton abstained from it: the contrary is often claimed, +but thus says his biographer, Brewster,--saying that "he would make no +necessities to himself." Franklin says he never used it, and never met +with one of its votaries who advised him to follow the example. +John Quincy Adams used it in early youth, and after thirty years of +abstinence said, that, if every one would try abstinence for three +months, it would annihilate the practice, and add five years to the +average length of human life. + +In attempting to go beyond these general charges of waste and +foolishness, and to examine the physiological results of the use of +tobacco, one is met by the contradictions and perplexities which haunt +all such inquiries. Doctors, of course, disagree, and the special cases +cited triumphantly by either side are ruled out as exceptional by the +other. It is like the question of the precise degree of injury done by +alcoholic drinks. To-day's newspaper writes the eulogy of A.B., who +recently died at the age of ninety-nine, without ever tasting ardent +spirits; to-morrow's will add the epitaph of C.D., aged one hundred, who +has imbibed a quart of rum a day since reaching the age of indiscretion; +and yet, after all, both editors have to admit that the drinking usages +of society are growing decidedly more decent. It is the same with the +tobacco argument. Individual cases prove nothing either way; there is +such a range of vital vigor in different individuals, that one may +withstand a life of error, and another perish in spite of prudence. The +question is of the general tendency. It is not enough to know that Dr. +Parr smoked twenty pipes in an evening, and lived to be seventy-eight; +that Thomas Hobbes smoked thirteen, and survived to ninety-two; that +Brissiac of Trieste died at one hundred and sixteen, with a pipe in his +mouth; and that Henry Hartz of Schleswig used tobacco steadily from the +age of sixteen to one hundred and forty-two; nor would any accumulation +of such healthy old sinners prove anything satisfactory. It seems +rather overwhelming, to be sure, when Mr. Fairholt assures us that his +respected father "died at the age of seventy-two: he had been twelve +hours a day in a tobacco-manufactory for nearly fifty years; and he both +smoked and chewed while busy in the labors of the workshop, sometimes in +a dense cloud of steam from drying the damp tobacco over the stoves; and +his health and appetite were perfect to the day of his death: he was a +model of muscular and stomachic energy; in which his son, who neither +smokes, snuffs, nor chews, by no means rivals him." But until we know +precisely what capital of health the venerable tobacconist inherited +from his fathers, and in what condition he transmitted it to his sons, +the statement certainly has two edges. + +For there are facts equally notorious on the other side. It is not +denied that it is found necessary to exclude tobacco, as a general +rule, from insane asylums, or that it produces, in extreme cases, among +perfectly sober persons, effects akin to delirium tremens. Nor is it +denied that terrible local diseases follow it,--as, for instance, +cancer of the mouth, which has become, according to the eminent surgeon, +Brouisson, the disease most dreaded in the French hospitals. He has +performed sixty-eight operations for this, within fourteen years, in the +Hospital St. Eloi, and traces it entirely to the use of tobacco. Such +facts are chiefly valuable as showing the tendency of the thing. Where +the evils of excess are so glaring, the advantages of even moderate use +are questionable. Where weak persons are made insane, there is room for +suspicion that the strong may suffer unconsciously. You may say that +the victims must have been constitutionally nervous; but where is the +native-born American who is not? + +In France and England the recent inquiries into the effects of tobacco +seem to have been a little more systematic than our own. In the former +country, the newspapers state, the attention of the Emperor was called +to the fact that those pupils of the Polytechnic School who used this +indulgence were decidedly inferior in average attainments to the rest. +This is stated to have led to its prohibition in the school, and to the +forming of an anti-tobacco organization, which is said to be making +great progress in France. I cannot, however, obtain from any of our +medical libraries any satisfactory information as to the French +agitation, and am led by private advices to believe that even these +general statements are hardly trustworthy. The recent English +discussions are, however, more easy of access. + +"The Great Tobacco Question," as the controversy in England was called, +originated in a Clinical Lecture on Paralysis, by Mr. Solly, Surgeon of +St. Thomas's Hospital, which was published in the "Lancet," December 13, +1856. He incidentally spoke of tobacco as an important source of this +disease, and went on to say,--"I know of no single vice which does so +much harm as smoking. It is a snare and a delusion. It soothes the +excited nervous system at the time, to render it more irritable and +feeble ultimately. It is like opium in this respect; and if you want to +know all the wretchedness which this drug can produce, you should +read the 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.'" This statement was +presently echoed by J. Ranald Martin, an eminent surgeon, "whose Eastern +experience rendered his opinion of immense value," and who used language +almost identical with that of Mr. Solly:--"I can state of my own +observation, that the miseries, mental and bodily, which I have +witnessed from the abuse of cigar-smoking, far exceed anything detailed +in the 'Confessions of an Opium-Eater.'" + +This led off a controversy which continued for several months in the +columns of the "Lancet,"--a controversy conducted in a wonderfully +good-natured spirit, considering that more than fifty physicians took +part in it, and that these were almost equally divided. The debate took +a wide range, and some interesting facts were elicited: as that Lord +Raglan, General Markham, and Admirals Dundas and Napier always abandoned +tobacco from the moment when they were ordered on actual service; that +nine-tenths of the first-class men at the Universities were non-smokers; +that two Indian chiefs told Power, the actor, that "those Indians who +smoked gave out soonest in the chase"; and so on. There were also +American examples, rather loosely gathered: thus, a remark of the +venerable Dr. Waterhouse, made many years ago, was cited as the +contemporary opinion of "the Medical Professor in Harvard University"; +also it was mentioned, as an acknowledged fact, that the American +_physique_ was rapidly deteriorating because of tobacco, and that +coroners' verdicts were constantly being thus pronounced on American +youths: "Died of excessive smoking." On the other hand, that eminent +citizen of our Union, General Thomas Thumb, was about that time +professionally examined in London, and his verdict on tobacco was quoted +to be, that it was "one of his chief comforts"; also mention was made of +a hapless quack who announced himself as coming from Boston, and who, +to keep up the Yankee reputation, issued a combined advertisement of +"medical advice gratis" and "prime cigars." + +But these stray American instances were of course quite outnumbered +by the English, and there is scarcely an ill which was not in this +controversy charged upon tobacco by its enemies, nor a physical or moral +benefit which was not claimed for it by its friends. According to these, +it prevents dissension and dyspnoea, inflammation and insanity, saves +the waste of tissue and of time, blunts the edge of grief and lightens +pain. "No man was ever in a passion with a pipe in his mouth." There are +more female lunatics chiefly because the fumigatory education of the +fair sex has been neglected. Yet it is important to notice that these +same advocates almost outdo its opponents in admitting its liability +to misuse, and the perilous consequences. "The injurious effects +of excessive smoking,"--"there is no more pitiable object than +the inveterate smoker,"--"sedentary life is incompatible with +smoking,"--highly pernicious,--general debility,--secretions all +wrong,--cerebral softening,--partial paralysis,--trembling of +the hand,--enervation and depression,--great irritability,--neuralgia, +--narcotism of the heart: this Chamber of Horrors forms a part of the +very Temple of Tobacco, as builded, not by foes, but by worshippers. +"All men of observation and experience," they admit, "must be able to +point to instances of disease and derangement from the abuse of this +luxury." Yet they advocate it, as the same men advocate intoxicating +drinks; not meeting the question, in either case, whether it be wise, +or even generous, for the strong to continue an indulgence which is +thus confessedly ruinous to the weak. + +The controversy had its course, and ended, like most controversies, +without establishing anything. The editor of the "Lancet," to be sure, +summed up the evidence very fairly, and it is worth while to quote +him:--"It is almost unnecessary to make a separate inquiry into the +pathological conditions which follow upon excessive smoking. Abundant +evidence has been adduced of the gigantic evils which attend the abuse +of tobacco. Let it be granted at once that there is such a thing as +moderate smoking, and let it be admitted that we cannot accuse tobacco +of being guilty of the whole of Cullen's 'Nosology'; it still remains +that there is a long catalogue of frightful penalties attached to its +abuse." He then proceeds to consider what is to be called abuse: as, for +instance, smoking more than one or two cigars or pipes daily,--smoking +too early in the day or too early in life,--and in general, the use of +tobacco by those with whom it does not agree,--which rather reminds one +of the early temperance pledges, which bound a man to drink no more rum +than he found to be good for him. But the Chief Justice of the Medical +Court finally instructs his jury of readers that young men should +give up a dubious pleasure for a certain good, and abandon +tobacco altogether:--"Shun the habit of smoking as you would shun +self-destruction. As you value your physical and moral well-being, avoid +a habit which for you can offer no advantage to compare with the dangers +you incur." + +Yet, after all, neither he nor his witnesses seem fairly to have hit +upon what seem to this present writer the two incontrovertible arguments +against tobacco; one being drawn from theory, and the other from +practice. + +First, as to the theory of the thing. The laws of Nature warn every man +who uses tobacco for the first time, that he is dealing with a poison. +Nobody denies this attribute of the plant; it is "a narcotic poison of +the most active class." It is not merely that a poison can by chemical +process be extracted from it, but it is a poison in its simplest form. +Its mere application to the skin has often produced uncontrollable +nausea and prostration. Children have in several cases been killed by +the mere application of tobacco ointment to the head. Soldiers have +simulated sickness by placing it beneath the armpits,--though in most +cases our regiments would probably consider this a mistaken application +of the treasure. Tobacco, then, is simply and absolutely a poison. + +Now to say that a substance is a poison is not to say that it inevitably +kills; it may be apparently innocuous, if not incidentally beneficial. +King Mithridates, it is said, learned habitually to consume these +dangerous commodities; and the scarcely less mythical Du Chaillu, after +the fatigues of his gorilla warfare, found decided benefit from two +ounces of arsenic. But to say that a substance is a poison is to say +at least that it is a noxious drug,--that it is a medicine, not an +aliment,--that its effects are pathological, not physiological,--and +that its use should therefore be exceptional, not habitual. Not tending +to the preservation of a normal state, but at best to the correction of +some abnormal one, its whole value, if it have any, lies in the rarity +of its application. To apply a powerful drug at a certain hour every day +is like a schoolmaster's whipping his pupil at a certain hour every day: +the victim may become inured, but undoubtedly the specific value of the +remedy must vanish with the repetition. + +Thus much would be true, were it proved that tobacco is in some cases +apparently beneficial. No drug is beneficial, when constantly employed. +But, furthermore, if not beneficial, it then is injurious. As Dr. Holmes +has so forcibly expounded, every medicine is in itself hurtful. All +noxious agents, according to him, cost a patient, on an average, five +per cent. of his vital power; that is, twenty times as much would kill +him. It is believed that they are sometimes indirectly useful; it is +known that they are always directly hurtful. That is, I have a neighbor +on one side who takes tobacco to cure his dyspepsia, and a neighbor on +the other side who takes blue pill for his infirmities generally. The +profit of the operation may be sure or doubtful; the outlay is certain, +and to be deducted in any event. I have no doubt, my dear Madam, that +your interesting son has learned to smoke, as he states, in order to +check that very distressing toothache which so hindered his studies; but +I sincerely think it would be better to have the affliction removed by +a dentist at a cost of fifty cents than by a drug at an expense of five +per cent. of vital power. + +Fortunately, when it comes to the practical test, the whole position is +conceded to our hands, and the very devotees of tobacco are false to +their idol. It is not merely that the most fumigatory parent dissuades +his sons from the practice; but there is a more remarkable instance. +If any two classes can be singled out in the community as the largest +habitual consumers of tobacco, it must be the college students and the +city "roughs" or "rowdies," or whatever the latest slang name is,--for +these roysterers, like oysters, incline to names with an _r_ in. Now the +"rough," when brought to a physical climax, becomes the prize-fighter; +and the college student is seen in his highest condition as the +prize-oarsman; and both these representative men, under such +circumstances of ambition, straightway abandon tobacco. Such a +concession, from such a quarter, is worth all the denunciations of good +Mr. Trask. Appeal, O anxious mother! from Philip smoking to Philip +training. What your progeny will not do for any considerations of ethics +or economy, to save his sisters' olfactories or the atmosphere of +the family altar,--that he does unflinchingly at one word from the +stroke-oar or the commodore. In so doing, he surrenders every inch +of the ground, and owns unequivocally that he is in better condition +without tobacco. The old traditions of training are in some other +respects being softened: strawberries are no longer contraband, and the +last agonies of thirst are no longer a part of the prescription; but +training and tobacco are still incompatible. There is not a regatta or a +prize-fight in which the betting would not be seriously affected by the +discovery that either party used the beguiling weed. + +The argument is irresistible,--or rather, it is not so much an argument +as a plea of guilty under the indictment. The prime devotees of tobacco +voluntarily abstain from it, like Lord Raglan and Admiral Napier, when +they wish to be in their best condition. But are we ever, any of us, in +too good condition? Have all the sanitary conventions yet succeeded in +detecting one man, in our high-pressure America, who finds himself too +well? If a man goes into training for the mimic contest, why not for the +actual one? If he needs steady nerves and a cool head for the play of +life,--and even prize-fighting is called "sporting,"--why not for its +earnest? Here we are all croaking that we are not in the health in which +our twentieth birthday found us, and yet we will not condescend to the +wise abstinence which even twenty practises. Moderate training is simply +a rational and healthful life. + +So palpable is this, that there is strong reason to believe that the +increased attention to physical training is operating against tobacco. +If we may trust literature, as has been shown, its use is not now so +great as formerly, in spite of the vague guesses of alarmists. "It is +estimated," says Mr. Coles, "that the consumption of tobacco in this +country is eight times as great as in France and three times as great as +in England, in proportion to the population"; but there is nothing +in the world more uncertain than "It is estimated." It is frequently +estimated, for instance, that nine out of ten of our college students +use tobacco; and yet by the statistics of the last graduating class +at Cambridge it appears that it is used by only thirty-one out of +seventy-six. I am satisfied that the extent of the practice is often +exaggerated. In a gymnastic club of young men, for instance, where I +have had opportunity to take the statistics, it is found that less +than one-quarter use it, though there has never been any agitation or +discussion of the matter. These things indicate that it can no longer +be claimed, as Molière asserted two centuries ago, that he who lives +without tobacco is not worthy to live. + +And as there has been some exaggeration in describing the extent to +which Tobacco is King, so there has doubtless been some overstatement +as to the cruelty of his despotism. Enough, however, remains to condemn +him. The present writer, at least, has the firmest conviction, from +personal observation and experience, that the imagined benefits of +tobacco-using (which have never, perhaps, been better stated than in an +essay which appeared in this magazine, in August, 1860) are ordinarily +an illusion, and its evils a far more solid reality,--that it stimulates +only to enervate, soothes only to depress,--that it neither permanently +calms the nerves nor softens the temper nor enlightens the brain, but +that in the end its tendencies are precisely the opposites of +these, beside the undoubted incidental objections of costliness and +uncleanness. When men can find any other instance of a poisonous drug +which is suitable for daily consumption, they will be more consistent +in using this. When it is admitted to be innocuous to those who are in +training for athletic feats, it may be possible to suppose it beneficial +to those who are out of training. Meanwhile there seems no ground for +its supporters except that to which the famous Robert Hall was reduced, +as he says, by "the Society of Doctors of Divinity." He sent a message +to Dr. Clarke, in return for a pamphlet against tobacco, that he could +not possibly refute his arguments and could not possibly give up +smoking. + + * * * * * + + +THE WOLVES. + + + Ye who listen to stories told, + When hearths are cheery and nights are cold, + + Of the lone wood-side, and the hungry pack + That howls on the fainting traveller's track,-- + + Flame-red eyeballs that waylay, + By the wintry moon, the belated sleigh,-- + + The lost child sought in the dismal wood, + The little shoes and the stains of blood + + On the trampled snow,--O ye that hear, + With thrills of pity or chills of fear, + + Wishing some angel had been sent + To shield the hapless and innocent,-- + + Know ye the fiend that is crueller far + Than the gaunt gray herds of the forest are? + + Swiftly vanish the wild fleet tracks + Before the rifle and woodman's axe: + + But hark to the coming of unseen feet, + Pattering by night through the city street! + + Each wolf that dies in the woodland brown + Lives a spectre and haunts the town. + + By square and market they slink and prowl, + In lane and alley they leap and howl. + + All night they snuff and snarl before + The poor patched window and broken door. + + They paw the clapboards and claw the latch, + At every crevice they whine and scratch. + + Their tongues are subtle and long and thin, + And they lap the living blood within. + + Icy keen are the teeth that tear, + Red as ruin the eyes that glare. + + Children crouched in corners cold + Shiver in tattered garments old, + + And start from sleep with bitter pangs + At the touch of the phantoms' viewless fangs. + + Weary the mother and worn with strife, + Still she watches and fights for life. + + But her hand is feeble, and weapon small: + One little needle against them all! + + In evil hour the daughter fled + From her poor shelter and wretched bed. + + Through the city's pitiless solitude + To the door of sin the wolves pursued. + + Fierce the father and grim with want, + His heart is gnawed by the spectres gaunt. + + Frenzied stealing forth by night, + With whetted knife, to the desperate fight, + + He thought to strike the spectres dead, + But he smites his brother man instead. + + O you that listen to stories told, + When hearths are cheery and nights are cold, + + Weep no more at the tales you hear, + The danger is close and the wolves are near. + + Shudder not at the murderer's name, + Marvel not at the maiden's shame. + + Pass not by with averted eye + The door where the stricken children cry. + + But when the beat of the unseen feet + Sounds by night through the stormy street, + + Follow thou where the spectres glide; + Stand like Hope by the mother's side; + + And be thyself the angel sent + To shield the hapless and innocent. + + He gives but little who gives his tears, + He gives his best who aids and cheers. + + He does well in the forest wild + Who slays the monster and saves the child; + + But he does better, and merits more, + Who drives the wolf from the poor man's door. + + * * * * * + + +A STORY OF TO-DAY. + + +PART III. + + +Now that I have come to the love part of my story, I am suddenly +conscious of dingy common colors on the palette with which I have been +painting. I wish I had some brilliant dyes. I wish, with all my heart, I +could take you back to that "Once upon a time" in which the souls of our +grandmothers delighted,--the time which Dr. Johnson sat up all night to +read about in "Evelina,"--the time when all the celestial virtues, all +the earthly graces were revealed in a condensed state to man through the +blue eyes and sumptuous linens of some Belinda Portman or Lord Mortimer. +None of your good-hearted, sorely-tempted villains then! It made your +hair stand on end only to read of them,--dyed at their birth clear +through with Pluto's blackest poison, going about perpetually seeking +innocent maidens and unsophisticated old men to devour. That was the +time for holding up virtue and vice; no trouble then in seeing which +were sheep and which were goats! A person could write a story with a +moral to it, then, I should hope! People that were born in those days +had no fancy for going through the world with half-and-half characters, +such as we put up with; so Nature turned out complete specimens of each +class, with all the appendages of dress, fortune, _et cetera_, chording +decently. At least, so those veracious histories say. The heroine, for +instance, glides into life full-charged with rank, virtues, a name +three-syllabled, and a white dress that never needs washing, ready to +sail through dangers dire into a triumphant haven of matrimony;--all +the aristocrats have high foreheads and cold blue eyes; all the +peasants are old women, miraculously grateful, in neat check aprons, or +sullen-browed insurgents planning revolts in caves. + +Of course, I do not mean that these times are gone: they are alive (in +a modern fashion) in many places in the world; some of my friends have +described them in prose and verse. I only mean to say that I never was +there; I was born unlucky. I am willing to do my best, but I live in +the commonplace. Once or twice I have rashly tried my hand at dark +conspiracies, and women rare and radiant in Italian bowers; but I have a +friend who is sure to say, "Try and tell us about the butcher next door, +my dear." If I look up from my paper now, I shall be just as apt to see +our dog and his kennel as the white sky stained with blood and Tyrian +purple. I never saw a full-blooded saint or sinner in my life. The +coldest villain I ever knew was the only son of his mother, and she a +widow,--and a kinder son never lived. I have known people capable of a +love terrible in its strength; but I never knew such a case that some +one did not consider its expediency as "a match" in the light of dollars +and cents. As for heroines, of course I know beautiful women, and good +as fair. The most beautiful is delicate and pure enough for a type of +the Madonna, and has a heart almost as warm and holy as hers who was +blessed among women. (Very pure blood is in her veins, too, if you care +about blood.) But at home they call her Tode for a nickname; all we can +do, she will sing, and sing through her nose; and on washing-days she +often cooks the dinner, and scolds wholesomely, if the tea-napkins are +not in order. Now, what is anybody to do with a heroine like that? I +have known old maids in abundance, with pathos and sunshine in their +lives; but the old maid of novels I never have met, who abandoned +her soul to gossip,--nor yet the other type, a lifelong martyr of +unselfishness. They are mixed generally, and are not unlike their +married sisters, so far as I can see. Then as to men, certainly I know +heroes. One man, I knew, as high a chevalier in heart as any Bayard of +them all; one of those souls simple and gentle as a woman, tender in +knightly honor. He was an old man, with a rusty brown coat and rustier +wig, who spent his life in a dingy village office. You poets would have +laughed at him. Well, well, his history never will be written. The kind, +sad, blue eyes are shut now. There is a little farm-graveyard overgrown +with privet and wild grape-vines, and a flattened grave where he was +laid to rest; and only a few who knew him when they were children care +to go there, and think of what he was to them. But it was not in the far +days of Chivalry alone, I think, that true and tender souls have stood +in the world unwelcome, and, hurt to the quick, have turned away and +dumbly died. Let it be. Their lives are not lost, thank God! + +I meant only to ask you, How can I help it, if the people in my story +seem coarse to you,--if the hero, unlike all other heroes, stopped to +count the cost before he fell in love,--if it made his fingers thrill +with pleasure to touch a full pocket-book as well as his mistress's +hand,--not being withal, this Stephen Holmes, a man to be despised? A +hero, rather, of a peculiar type,--a man, more than other men: the very +mould of man, doubt it who will, that women love longest and most madly. +Of course, if I could, I would have blotted out every meanness or +flaw before I showed him to you; I would have given you Margaret an +impetuous, whole-souled woman, glad to throw her life down for her +father without one bitter thought of the wife and mother she might have +been; I would have painted her mother tender as she was, forgetting how +pettish she grew on busy days: but what can I do? I must show you men +and women as they are in that especial State of the Union where I live. +In all the others, of course, it is very different. Now, being prepared +for disappointment, will you see my hero? + +He had sauntered out from the city for a morning walk,--not through +the hills, as Margaret went, going home, but on the other side, to +the river, over which you could see the Prairie. We are in Indiana, +remember. The sunlight was pure that morning, powerful, tintless, the +true wine of life for body or spirit. Stephen Holmes knew that, being a +man of delicate animal instincts, and so used it, just as he had used +the dumb-bells in the morning. All things were made for man, weren't +they? He was leaning against the door of the school-house,--a red, +flaunting house, the daub on the landscape: but, having his back to +it, he could not see it, so through his half-shut eyes he suffered the +beauty of the scene to act on him. Suffered: in a man, according to his +creed, the will being dominant, and all influences, such as beauty, +pain, religion, permitted to act under orders. Of course. + +It was a peculiar landscape,--like the man who looked at it, of a +thoroughly American type. A range of sharp, dark hills, with a sombre +depth of green shadow in the clefts, and on the sides massed forests of +scarlet and flame and crimson. Above, the sharp peaks of stone rose into +the wan blue, wan and pale themselves, and wearing a certain air of +fixed calm, the type of an eternal quiet. At the base of the hills lay +the city, a dirty mass of bricks and smoke and dust, and at its far edge +flowed the Wabash,--deep here, tinted with green, writhing and gurgling +and curdling on the banks over shelving ledges of lichen and mud-covered +rock. Beyond it yawned the opening to the great West,--the Prairies. +Not the dreary deadness here, as farther west. A plain dark russet in +hue,--for the grass was sun-scorched,--stretching away into the vague +distance, intolerable, silent, broken by hillocks and puny streams that +only made the vastness and silence more wide and heavy. Its limitless +torpor weighed on the brain; the eyes ached, stretching to find some +break before the dull russet faded into the amber of the horizon and was +lost. An American landscape: of few features, simple, grand in outline +as a face of one of the early gods. It lay utterly motionless before +him, not a fleck of cloud in the pure blue above, even where the mist +rose from the river; it only had glorified the clear blue into clearer +violet. + +Holmes stood quietly looking; he could have created a picture like +this, if he never had seen one; therefore he was able to recognize it, +accepted it into his soul, and let it do what it would there. + +Suddenly a low wind from the far Pacific coast struck from the amber +line where the sun went down. A faint tremble passed over the great +hills, the broad sweeps of color darkened from base to summit, then +flashed again,--while below, the prairie rose and fell like a dun sea, +and rolled in long, slow, solemn waves. + +The wind struck so broad and fiercely in Holmes's face that he caught +his breath. It was a savage freedom, he thought, in the West there, +whose breath blew on him,--the freedom of the primitive man, the untamed +animal man, self-reliant and self-assertant, having conquered Nature. +Well, this fierce masterful freedom was good for the soul, sometimes, +doubtless. It was old Knowles's vital air. He wondered if the old man +would succeed in his hobby, if he could make the slavish beggars and +thieves in the alleys yonder comprehend this fierce freedom. They craved +leave to live on sufferance now, not knowing their possible divinity. +It was a desperate remedy, this sense of unchecked liberty; but their +disease was desperate. As for himself, he did not need it; that element +was not lacking. In a mere bodily sense, to be sure. He felt his arm. +Yes, the cold rigor of this new life had already worn off much of the +clogging weight of flesh, strengthened the muscles. Six months more in +the West would toughen the fibres to iron. He raised an iron weight that +lay on the steps, carelessly testing them. For the rest, he was going +back here; something of the cold, loose freshness got into his brain, +he believed. In the two years of absence his power of concentration had +been stronger, his perceptions more free from prejudice, gaining every +day delicate point, acuteness of analysis. He drew a long breath of +the icy air, coarse with the wild perfume of the prairie. No, his +temperament needed a subtiler atmosphere than this, rarer essence than +mere brutal freedom. The East, the Old World, was his proper sphere for +self-development. He would go as soon as he could command the means, +leaving all clogs behind. _All_? His idle thought balked here, suddenly; +the sallow forehead contracted sharply, and his gray eyes grew in an +instant shallow, careless, formal, as a man who holds back his thought. +There was a fierce warring in his brain for a moment. Then he brushed +his Kossuth hat with his arm, and put it on, looking out at the +landscape again. Somehow its meaning was dulled to him. Just then a +muddy terrier came up, and rubbed itself against his knee. "Why, Tige, +old boy!" he said, stooping to pat it kindly. The hard, shallow look +faded out, and he half smiled, looking in the dog's eyes. A curious +smile, unspeakably tender and sad. It was the idiosyncrasy of the man's +face, rarely seen there. He might have looked with it at a criminal, +condemning him to death. But he would have condemned him, and, if no +hangman could be found, would have put the rope on with his own hands, +and then most probably would have sat down pale and trembling, and +analyzed his sensations on paper,--being sincere in all. + +He sat down on the school-house step, which the boys had hacked and +whittled rough, and waited; for he was there by appointment, to meet Dr. +Knowles. + +Knowles had gone out early in the morning to look at the ground he was +going to buy for his Phalanstery, or whatever he chose to call it. He +was to bring the deed of sale of the mill out with him for Holmes. The +next day it was to be signed. Holmes saw him at last lumbering across +the prairie, wiping the perspiration from his forehead. Summer or +winter, he contrived to be always hot. There was a cart drawn by an old +donkey coming along beside him. Knowles was talking to the driver. +The old man clapped his hands as stage-coachmen do, and drew in long +draughts of air, as if there were keen life and promise in every breath. +They came up at last, the cart empty, and drying for the day's work +after its morning's scrubbing, Lois's pock-marked face all in a glow +with trying to keep Barney awake. She grew quite red with pleasure +at seeing Holmes, but went on quickly as the men began to talk. Tige +followed her, of course; but when she had gone a little way across +the prairie, they saw her stop, and presently the dog came back with +something in his mouth, which he laid down beside his master, and bolted +off. It was only a rough wicker-basket which she had filled with damp +plushy moss, and half-buried in it clusters of plumy fern, delicate +brown and ashen lichens, masses of forest-leaves all shaded green with a +few crimson tints. It had a clear woody smell, like far-off myrrh. The +Doctor laughed as Holmes took it up. + +"An artist's gift, if it is from a mulatto," he said. "A born colorist." + +The men were not at ease, for some reason; they seized on every trifle +to keep off the subject which had brought them together. + +"That girl's artist-sense is pure, and her religion, down under the +perversion and ignorance of her brain. Curious, eh?" + +"Look at the top of her head, when you see her," said Holmes. "It is +necessity for such brains to worship. They let the fire lick their +blood, if they happen to be born Parsees. This girl, if she had been a +Jew when Christ was born, would have known him as Simeon did." + +Knowles said nothing,--only glanced at the massive head of the speaker, +with its overhanging brow, square development at the sides, and lowered +crown, and smiled significantly. + +"Exactly," laughed Holmes, putting his hand on his head. "Crippled there +by my Yorkshire blood,--my mother. Never mind; outside of this life, +blood or circumstance matters nothing." + +They walked on slowly towards town. Surely there was nothing in the +bill-of-sale which the old man had in his pocket but a mere matter of +business; yet they were strangely silent about it, as if it brought +shame to some one. There was an embarrassed pause. The Doctor went back +to Lois for relief. + +"I think it is the pain and want of such as she that makes them +susceptible to religion. The self in them is so starved and humbled that +it cannot obscure their eyes; they see God clearly." + +"Say rather," said Holmes, "that the soul is so starved and blind that +it cannot recognize itself as God." + +The Doctor's intolerant eye kindled. + +"Humph! So that's your creed! Not Pantheism. _Ego sum_. Of course you go +on with the conjugation: _I have been, I shall be_. I,--that covers the +whole ground, creation, redemption, and commands the hereafter?" + +"It does so," said Holmes, coolly. + +"And this wretched huckster carries her deity about her,--her +self-existent soul? How, in God's name, is her life to set it free?" + +Holmes said nothing. The coarse sneer could not be answered. Men with +pale faces and heavy jaws like his do not carry their religion on +their tongue's end; their creeds leave them only in the slow oozing +life-blood, false as the creeds may be. + +Knowles went on hotly, half to himself, seizing on the new idea +fiercely, as men and women do who are yet groping for the truth of life. + +"What is it your Novalis says? 'The true Shechinah is man.' You know no +higher God? Pooh! the idea is old enough; it began with Eve. It works +slowly, Holmes. In six thousand years, taking humanity as one, this +self-existent soul should have clothed itself with a freer, royaller +garment than poor Lois's body,--or mine," he added, bitterly. + +"It works slowly," said the other, quietly. "Faster soon, in America. +There are yet many ills of life for the divinity within to conquer." + +"And Lois and the swarming mass yonder in those dens? It is late for +them to begin the fight?" + +"Endurance is enough for them here. Their religions teach them that they +could not bear the truth. One does not put a weapon into the hands of a +man dying of the fetor and hunger of the siege." + +"But what will this life, or the lives to come, give to you champions +who know the truth?" + +"Nothing but victory," he said, in a low tone, looking away. + +Knowles looked at the pale strength of the iron face. + +"God help you, Stephen!" he broke out, his shallow jeering falling off. +"For there _is_ a God higher than we. The ills of life you mean to +conquer will teach it to you, Holmes. You'll find the Something above +yourself, if it's only to curse Him and die." + +Holmes did not smile at the old man's heat,--walked gravely, steadily. + +There was a short silence. The old man put his hand gently on the +other's arm. + +"Stephen," he hesitated, "you're a stronger man than I. I know what you +are; I've watched you from a boy. But you're wrong here. I'm an old man. +There's not much I know in life,--enough to madden me. But I do know +there's something stronger,--some God outside of the mean devil they +call 'Me.' You'll learn it, boy. There's an old story of a man like you +and the rest of your sect, and of the vile, mean, crawling things that +God sent to bring him down. There are such things yet. Mean passions in +your divine soul, low, selfish things, that will get the better of you, +show you what you are. You'll do all that man can do. But they are +coming, Stephen Holmes! they're coming!" + +He stopped, startled. For Holmes had turned abruptly, glancing over at +the city with a strange wistfulness. It was over in a moment. He resumed +the slow, controlling walk beside him. They went on in silence into +town, and when they did speak, it was on indifferent subjects, not +referring to the last. The Doctor's heat, as it usually did, boiled out +in spasms on trifles. Once he stumped his toe, and, I am sorry to say, +swore roundly about it, just as he would have done in the new Arcadia, +if one of the jail-birds comprising that colony had been ungrateful for +his advantages. Philanthropists, for some curious reason, are not the +most amiable members of small families. + +He gave Holmes the roll of parchment he had in his pocket, looking +keenly at him, as he did so, but only saying, that, if he meant to sign +it, it would be done to-morrow. As Holmes took it, they stopped at the +great door of the factory. He went in alone, Knowles going down the +street. One trifle, strange in its way, he remembered afterwards. +Holding the roll of paper in his hand that would make the mill his, he +went, in his slow, grave way, down the long passage to the loom-rooms. +There was a crowd of porters and firemen there, as usual, and he thought +one of them hastily passed him in the dark passage, hiding behind an +engine. As the shadow fell on him, his teeth chattered with a chilly +shudder. He smiled, thinking how superstitious people would say that +some one trod on his grave just then, or that Death looked at him, and +went on. Afterwards he thought of it. Going through the office, the fat +old book-keeper, Huff, stopped him with a story he had been keeping for +him all day. He liked to tell a story to Holmes; he could see into a +joke; it did a man good to hear a fellow laugh like that. Holmes did +laugh, for the story was a good one, and stood a moment, then went in, +leaving the old fellow chuckling over his desk. Huff did not know how, +lately, after every laugh, this man felt a vague scorn of himself, as if +jokes and laughter belonged to a self that ought to have been dead long +ago. Perhaps, if the fat old book-keeper had known it, he would have +said that the man was better than he knew. But then,--poor Huff! He +passed slowly through the long alleys between the great looms. Overhead +the ceiling looked like a heavy maze of iron cylinders and black +swinging bars and wheels, all in swift, ponderous motion. It was enough +to make a brain dizzy with the clanging thunder of the engines, the +whizzing spindles of red and yellow, and the hot daylight glaring over +all. The looms were watched by women, most of them bold, tawdry girls +of fifteen or sixteen, or lean-jawed women from the hills, wives of the +coal-diggers. There was a breathless odor of copperas. As he went from +one room to another up through the ascending stories, he had a vague +sensation of being followed. Some shadow lurked at times behind the +engines, or stole after him in the dark entries. Were there ghosts, +then, in mills in broad daylight? None but the ghosts of Want and Hunger +and Crime, he might have known, that do not wait for night to walk our +streets: the ghosts that poor old Knowles hoped to lay forever. + +Holmes had a room fitted up in the mill, where he slept. He went up +to it slowly, holding the paper tightly in one hand, glancing at the +operatives, the work, through his furtive half-shut eye. Nothing escaped +him. Passing the windows, he did not once look out at the prophetic +dream of beauty he had left without. In the mill he was of the mill. +Yet he went slowly, as if he shrank from the task waiting for him. +Why should he? It was a simple matter of business, this transfer of +Knowles's share in the mill to himself; to-day he was to decide whether +he would conclude the bargain. If any dark history of wrong lay +underneath, if this simple decision of his was to be the struggle for +life and death with him, his cold, firm face told nothing of it. Let us +be just to him, stand by him, if we can, in the midst of his desolate +home and desolate life, and look through his cold, sorrowful eyes at +the deed he was going to do. Dreary enough he looked, going through the +great mill, despite the power in his quiet face. A man who had strength +to be alone; yet, I think, with all his strength and power, his mother +could not have borne to look back from the dead that day, to see her boy +so utterly alone. The day was the crisis of his life, looked forward to +for years; he held in his hand a sure passport to fortune. Yet he thrust +the hour off, perversely, trifling with idle fancies, pushing from him +the one question which all the years past and to come had left for this +day to decide. + +Some such idle fancy it may have been that made the man turn from the +usual way down a narrow passage into which opened doors from small +offices. Margaret Howth, he had learned to-day, was in the first one. He +hesitated before he did it, his sallow face turning a trifle paler; then +he went on in his hard, grave way, wondering dimly if she remembered his +step, if she cared to see him now. She used to know it,--she was the +only one in the world who ever had cared to know it,--silly child! +Doubtless she was wiser now. He remembered he used to think, that, when +this woman loved, it would be as he himself would love, with a simple +trust which the wrong of years could not touch. And once he had +thought--Well, well, he was mistaken. Poor Margaret! Better as it was. +They were nothing to each other. She had put him from her, and he had +suffered himself to be put away. Why, he would have given up every +prospect of life, if he had done otherwise! Yet he wondered bitterly if +she had thought him selfish,--if she thought it was money he cared for, +as the others did. It mattered nothing what they thought, but it wounded +him intolerably that she should wrong him. Yet, with all this, whenever +he looked forward to death, it was with the certainty that he should +find her there beyond. There would be no secrets then; she would know +then how he had loved her always. Loved her? Yes; he need not hide it +from himself, surely. + +He was now by the door of the office;--she was within. Little Margaret, +poor little Margaret! struggling there day after day for the old father +and mother. What a pale, cold little child she used to be! such a child! +yet kindling at his look or touch, as if her veins were filled with +subtile flame. Her soul was like his own, he thought. He knew what it +was,--he only. Even now he glowed with a man's triumph to know he held +the secret life of this woman bare in his hand. No other human power +could ever come near her; he was secure in possession. She had put him +from her;--it was better for both, perhaps. Their paths were separate +here; for she had some unreal notions of duty, and he had too much to do +in the world to clog himself with cares, or to idle an hour in the rare +ecstasy of even love like this. + +He passed the office, not pausing in his slow step. Some sudden impulse +made him put his hand on the door as he brushed against it: just a +quick, light touch; but it had all the fierce passion of a caress. He +drew it back as quickly, and went on, wiping a clammy sweat from his +face. + +The room he had fitted up for himself was whitewashed and barely +furnished; it made one's bones ache to look at the iron bedstead and +chairs. Holmes's natural taste was more glowing, however smothered, than +that of any saffron-robed Sybarite. It needed correction, he knew, and +this was the discipline. Besides, he had set apart the coming three or +four years of his life to make money in, enough for the time to come. He +would devote his whole strength to that work, and so be sooner done with +it. Money, or place, or even power, was nothing but means to him: other +men valued them because of their influence on others. As his work in the +world was only the development of himself, it was different, of course. +What would it matter to his soul the day after death, if millions called +his name aloud in blame or praise? Would he hear or answer then? What +would it matter to him then, if he had starved with them or ruled over +them? People talked of benevolence. What would it matter to him then, +the misery or happiness of those yet working in this paltry life of +ours? In so far as the exercise of kindly emotions or self-denial +developed the higher part of his nature, it was to be commended; as +for its effect on others, that he had nothing to do with. He practised +self-denial constantly to strengthen the benevolent instincts. That +very morning he had given his last dollar to Joe Byers, a half-starved +cripple. "Chucked it at me," Joe said, "like as he'd give a bone to a +dog, and be damned to him! Who thanks him?" To tell the truth, you will +find no fairer exponent than this Stephen Holmes of the great idea of +American sociology,--that the object of life is _to grow_. Circumstances +had forced it on him, partly. Sitting now in his room, where he was +counting the cost of becoming a merchant prince, he could look back to +the time of a boyhood passed in the depths of ignorance and vice. He +knew what this Self within him was; he knew how it had forced him to +grope his way up, to give this hungry, insatiate soul air and freedom +and knowledge. All men around him were doing the same,--thrusting and +jostling and struggling, up, up. It was the American motto, Go ahead; +mothers taught it to their children; the whole system was a scale of +glittering prizes. He at least saw the higher meaning of the truth; he +had no low ambitions. To lift this self up into a higher range of +being when it had done with the uses of this,--that was his work. +Self-salvation, self-elevation,--the ideas that give birth to, and +destroy half of our Christianity, half of our philanthropy! Sometimes +sleeping instincts in the man struggled up to assert a divinity more +terrible than this growing self-existent soul that he purified and +analyzed day by day: a depth of tender pity for outer pain; a fierce +longing for rest, on something, in something, he cared not what. He +stifled such rebellious promptings,--called them morbid. He called it +morbid, too, the passion now that chilled his strong blood, and wrung +out these clammy drops on his forehead, at the mere thought of this girl +below. + +He shut the door of his room tightly: he had no time to-day for lounging +visitors. + +For Holmes, quiet and steady, was sought for, if not popular, even in +the free-and-easy West; one of those men who are unwillingly masters +among men. Just and mild, always; with a peculiar gift that made men +talk their best thoughts to him, knowing they would be understood; if +any core of eternal flint lay under the simple, truthful manner of the +man, nobody saw it. + +He laid the bill of sale on the table; it was an altogether practical +matter on which he sat in judgment, but he was going to do nothing +rashly. A plain business document: he took Dr. Knowles's share in the +factory; the payments made with short intervals; John Herne was to be +his indorser: it needed only the names to make it valid. Plain enough; +no hint there of the tacit understanding that the purchase-money was a +wedding dowry; even between Herne and himself it never was openly put +into words. If he did not marry Miss Herne, the mill was her father's; +that of course must be spoken of, arranged to-morrow. If he took it, +then? if he married her? Holmes had been poor, was miserably poor yet, +with the position and habits of a man of refinement. God knows it was +not to gratify those tastes that he clutched at this money. All the slow +years of work trailed up before him, that were gone,--of hard, wearing +work for daily bread, when his brain had been starving for knowledge, +and his soul dulled, debased with sordid trading. Was this to be always? +Were these few golden moments of life to be traded for the bread and +meat he ate? To eat and drink,--was that what he was here for? + +As he paced the floor mechanically, some vague recollection crossed his +brain of a childish story of the man standing where the two great roads +of life parted. They were open before him now. Money, money,--he took +the word into his heart as a miser might do. With it, he was free from +these carking cares that were making his mind foul and muddy. If he had +money! Slow, cool visions of triumphs rose before him outlined on the +years to come, practical, if Utopian. Slow and sure successes of science +and art, where his brain could work, helpful and growing. Far off, yet +surely to come,--surely for him,--a day to come when a pure social +system should be universal, should have thrust out its fibres of light +knitting into one the nations of the earth, when the lowest slave should +find its true place and rightful work, and stand up, knowing itself +divine. "To insure to every man the freest development of his +faculties": he said over the hackneyed dogma again and again, while the +heavy, hateful years of poverty rose before him that had trampled him +down. "To insure to him the freest development," he did not need to wait +for St. Simon, or the golden year, he thought with a dreary gibe; money +was enough, and--Miss Herne. + +It was curious, that, when this woman, whom he saw every day, came up in +his mind, it was always in one posture, one costume. You have noticed +that peculiarity in your remembrance of some persons? Perhaps you would +find, if you looked closely, that in that look or indelible gesture +which your memory has caught there lies some subtile hint of the tie +between your soul and theirs. Now, when Holmes had resolved coolly +to weigh this woman, brain, heart, and flesh, to know how much of a +hindrance she would be, he could only see her, with his artist's sense, +as delicate a bloom of coloring as eye could crave, in one immovable +posture,--as he had seen her once in some masquerade or _tableau +vivant_. June, I think it was, she chose to represent that evening,--and +with her usual success; for no woman ever knew more thoroughly her +material of shape or color, or how to work it up. Not an ill-chosen +fancy, either, that of the moist, warm month. Some tranced summer's day +might have drowsed down into such a human form by a dank pool, or on the +thick grass-crusted meadows. There was the full contour of the limbs hid +under warm green folds, the white flesh that glowed when you touched it +as if some smothered heat lay beneath, the sleeping face, the amber hair +uncoiled in a languid quiet, while yellow jasmines deepened its hue into +molten sunshine, and a great tiger-lily laid its sultry head on her +breast. June? Could June become incarnate with higher poetic meaning +than that which this woman gave it? Mr. Kitts, the artist I told you +of, thought not, and fell in love with June and her on the spot, which +passion became quite unbearable after she had graciously permitted him +to sketch her,--for the benefit of Art. Three medical students and one +attorney Miss Herne numbered as having been driven into a state +of dogged despair on that triumphal occasion. Mr. Holmes may have +quarrelled with the rendering, doubting to himself if her lip were not +too thick, her eye too brassy and pale a blue for the queen of months; +though I do not believe he thought at all about it. Yet the picture +clung to his memory. + +As he slowly paced the room to-day, thinking of this woman as his +wife, light blue eyes and yellow hair and the unclean sweetness of +jasmine-flowers mixed with the hot sunshine and smells of the mill. He +could think of her in no other light. He might have done so; for the +poor girl had her other sides for view. She had one of those sharp, +tawdry intellects whose possessors are always reckoned "brilliant women, +fine talkers." She was (aside from the necessary sarcasm to keep up this +reputation) a good-humored soul enough,--when no one stood in her way. +But if her shallow virtues or vices were palpable at all to him to-day, +they became one with the torpid beauty of the oppressive summer day, +and weighed on him alike with a vague disgust. The woman luxuriated in +perfume; some heavy odor always hung about her. Holmes, thinking of her +now, fancied he felt it stifling the air, and opened the window for +breath. Patchouli or copperas,--what was the difference? The mill and +his future wife came to him together; it was scarcely his fault, if he +thought of them as one, or muttered, "Damnable clog!" as he sat down to +write, his cold eye growing colder. But he did not argue the question +any longer; decision had come keenly in one moment, fixed, unalterable. + +If, through the long day, the starved heart of the man called feebly for +its natural food, he called it a paltry weakness; or if the old thought +of the quiet, pure little girl in the office below came back to him, +he--he wished her well, he hoped she might succeed in her work, he +would always be ready to lend her a helping hand. So many years (he was +ashamed to think how many) he had built the thought of this girl as his +wife into the future, put his soul's strength into the hope, as if love +and the homely duties of husband and father were what life was given +for! A boyish fancy, he thought. He had not learned then that all dreams +must yield to self-reverence and self-growth. As for taking up this life +of poverty and soul-starvation for the sake of a little love, it would +be an ignoble martyrdom, the sacrifice of a grand unmeasured life to a +shallow pleasure. He was no longer a young man now; he had no time to +waste. Poor Margaret! he wondered if it hurt her now. + +He left the writing in the slow, quiet way natural to him, and after +a while stooped to pat the dog softly, who was trying to lick his +hand,--with the hard fingers shaking a little, and a smothered +fierceness in the half-closed eye, like a man who is tortured and alone. + +There is a miserable drama acted in other homes than the Tuileries, when +men have found a woman's heart in their way to success, and trampled +it down under an iron heel. Men like Napoleon must live out the law of +their natures, I suppose,--on a throne or in a mill. + +So many trifles that day roused the under-current of old thoughts and +old hopes that taunted him,--trifles, too, that he would not have heeded +at another time. Pike came in on business, a bunch of bills in his hand. +A wily, keen eye he had, looking over them,--a lean face, emphasized +only by cunning. No wonder Dr. Knowles cursed him for a "slippery +customer," and was cheated by him the next hour. While he and Holmes +were counting out the bills, a little white-headed girl crept shyly +in at the door, and came up to the table,--oddly dressed, in an +old-fashioned frock fastened with great horn buttons, and with an +old-fashioned anxious pair of eyes, the color of blue Delft. Holmes +smoothed her hair, as she stood beside them; for he never could help +caressing children or dogs. Pike looked up sharply,--then half smiled, +as he went on counting. + +"Ninety, ninety-five, _and_ one hundred, all right,"--tying a bit of +tape about the papers. "My Sophy, Mr. Holmes. Good girl, Sophy is. Bring +her up to the mill sometimes," he said, apologetically, "on 'count of +not leaving her alone. She gets lonesome at th' house." + +Holmes glanced at Pike's felt hat lying on the table: there was a rusty +strip of crape on it. + +"Yes," said Pike, in a lower tone, "I'm father and mother, both, to +Sophy now." + +"I had not heard," said Holmes, kindly. "How about the boys, now?" + +"Pete and John's both gone West," the man said, his eyes kindling +eagerly. "'S fine boys as ever turned out of Indiana. Good eddications I +give 'em both. I've felt the want of that all my life. Good eddications. +Says I, 'Now, boys, you've got your fortunes, nothing to hinder your +bein' President. Let's see what stuff's in ye,' says I. So they're doin' +well. Wrote fur me to come out in the fall. But I'd rather scratch on, +and gather up a little for Sophy here, before I stop work." + +He patted Sophy's tanned little hand on the table, as if beating some +soft tune. Holmes folded up the bills. Even this man could spare time +out of his hard, stingy life to love, and be loved, and to be generous! +But then he had no higher aim, knew nothing better. + +"Well," said Pike, rising, "in case you take th' mill, Mr. Holmes, +I hope we'll be agreeable. I'll strive to do my best,"--in the old +fawning manner, to which Holmes nodded a curt reply. + +The man stopped for Sophy to gather up her bits of broken China with +which she was making a tea-party on the table, and went down-stairs. + +Towards evening Holmes went out,--not going through the narrow passage +that led to the offices, but avoiding it by a circuitous route. If it +cost him any pain to think why he did it, he showed none in his calm, +observant face. Buttoning up his coat as he went: the October sunset +looked as if it ought to be warm, but he was deathly cold. On the street +the young doctor beset him again, with bows and news: Cox was his name, +I believe; the one, you remember, who had such a Talleyrand nose for +ferreting out successful men. He had to bear with him but for a few +moments, however. They met a crowd of workmen at the corner, one of +whom, an old man freshly washed, with honest eyes looking out of +horn spectacles, waited for them by a fire-plug. It was Polston, the +coal-digger,--an acquaintance, a far-off kinsman of Holmes, in fact. + +"Curious person making signs to you, yonder," said Cox; "hand, I +presume." + +"My cousin Polston. If you do not know him, you'll excuse me?" + +Cox sniffed the air down the street, and twirled his rattan, as he went. +The coal-digger was abrupt and distant in his greeting, going straight +to business. + +"I will keep yoh only a minute, Mr. Holmes"---- + +"Stephen," corrected Holmes. + +The old man's face warmed. + +"Stephen, then," holding out his hand, "sence old times dawn't shame +yoh, Stephen. That's hearty, now. It's only a wured I want, but it's +immediate. Concernin' Joe Yare,--Lois's father, yoh know? He's back." + +"Back? I saw him to-day, following me in the mill. His hair is gray? I +think it was he." + +"No doubt. Yes, he's aged fast, down in the lock-up; goin' fast to the +end. Feeble, pore-like. It's a bad life, Joe Yare's; I wish 'n' 't would +be better to the end"---- + +He stopped with a wistful look at Holmes, who stood outwardly attentive, +but with little thought to waste on Joe Yare. The old coal-digger +drummed on the fire-plug uneasily. + +"Myself, 't was for Lois's sake I thowt on it. To speak plain,--yoh'll +mind that Stokes affair, th' note Yare brought? Yes? Ther's none knows +o' that but yoh an' me. He's safe, Yare is, only fur yoh an' me. Yoh +speak the wured an' back he goes to the lock-up. Fur life. D' yoh see?" + +"I see." + +"He's tryin' to do right, Yare is." + +The old man went on, trying not to be eager, and watching Holmes's face. + +"He's tryin'. Sendin' him back--yoh know how _that_ 'll end. Seems like +as we'd his soul in our hands. S'pose,--what d' yoh think, if we give +him a chance? It's yoh he fears. I see him a-watchin' yoh; what d' yoh +think, if we give him a chance?" catching Holmes's sleeve. "He's old, +an' he's tryin'. Heh?" + +Holmes smiled. + +"We didn't make the law he broke. Justice before mercy. Haven't I heard +you talk to Sam in that way, long ago?" + +The old man loosened his hold of Holmes's arm, looked up and down the +street, uncertain, disappointed. + +"The law. Yes. That's right! Yoh're a just man, Stephen Holmes." + +"And yet?"---- + +"Yes. I dun'no'. Law's right, but Yare's had a bad chance, an' he's +tryin'. An' we're sendin' him to hell. Somethin's wrong. But I think +yoh're a just man," looking keenly in Holmes's face. + +"A hard one, people say," said Holmes, after a pause, as they walked on. + +He had spoken half to himself, and received no answer. Some blacker +shadow troubled him than old Yare's fate. + +"My mother was a hard woman,--you knew her?" he said, abruptly. + +"She was just, like yoh. She was one o' th' elect, she said. Mercy's fur +them,--an' outside, justice. It's a narrer showin', I'm thinkin'." + +"My father was outside," said Holmes, some old bitterness rising up in +his tone, his gray eye lighting with some unrevenged wrong. + +Polston did not speak for a moment. + +"Dunnot bear malice agin her. They're dead, now. It wasn't left fur her +to judge him out yonder. Yoh've yer father's eyes, Stephen, 'times. +Hungry, pitiful, like women's. His got desper't' 't th' last. Drunk +hard,--died of't, yoh know. But _she_ killed him,--th' sin was writ down +fur her. Never was a boy I loved like him, when we was boys." + +There was a short silence. + +"Yoh're like yer mother," said Polston, striving for a lighter tone. +"Here,"--motioning to the heavy iron jaws. "She never--let go. Somehow, +too, she'd the law on her side in outward showin', an' th' right. But I +hated religion, knowin' her. Well, ther's a day of makin' things clear, +comin'." + +They had reached the corner now, and Polston turned down the lane. + +"Yoh'll think o' Yare's case?" he said. + +"Yes. But how can I help it," Holmes said, lightly, "if I am like my +mother here?"--putting his hand to his mouth. + +"God help us, how can yoh? It's harrd to think father and mother leave +their souls fightin' in their childern, cos th' love was wantin' to make +them one here." + +Something glittered along the street as he spoke: the silver mountings +of a low-hung phaëton drawn by a pair of Mexican ponies. One or two +gentlemen on horseback were alongside, attendant on a lady within. She +turned her fair face, and pale, greedy eyes, as she passed, and lifted +her hand languidly in recognition of Holmes. Polston's face colored. + +"I've heered," he said, holding out his grimy hand. "I wish yoh well, +Stephen, boy. So'll the old 'oman. Yoh'll come an' see us, soon? Ye 'r' +lookin' fagged, an' yer eyes is gettin' more like yer father's. I'm glad +things is takin' a good turn with yoh; an' yoh'll never be like him, +starvin' fur th' kind wured, an' havin' to die without it. I'm glad +yoh've got true love. She'd a fair face, I think. I wish yoh well, +Stephen." + +Holmes shook the grimy hand, and then stood a moment looking back to +the mill, from which the hands were just coming, and then down at the +phaëton moving idly down the road. How cold it was growing! People +passing by had a sickly look, as if they were struck by the plague. He +pushed the damp hair back, wiping his forehead, with another glance at +the mill-women coming out of the gate, and then followed the phaëton +down the hill. + + * * * * * + + +HEALTH IN THE HOSPITAL. + + +In preparing to do the duty of society towards the wounded or sick +soldier, the first consideration is, What is a Military Hospital? No two +nations seem to have answered this question in the same way; yet it is a +point of the first importance to them all. + +When England went to war last time, after a peace of forty years, the +only idea in the minds of her military surgeons was of Regimental +Hospitals. There was to be a place provided as an infirmary for a +certain number of soldiers; a certain number of orderlies were to be +appointed as nurses; and the regimental doctor and hospital-sergeant +were to have the charge of the inmates. In each of these Regimental +Hospitals there might be patients ill of a great variety of disorders, +from the gravest to the lightest, all to be treated by the same doctor +or doctors. These doctors had to make out statements of all the diets, +as well as all the medicines required by their patients, and send in +their requisitions; and it might be said that arrangements had to be +separately made for every individual patient in the whole army. The +doctors went to work each in his own way, even in the case of epidemics. +There was no knowing, except by guess, what diseases were the most to be +apprehended in particular places or circumstances; nor what remarkable +phenomena of disease were showing themselves on any extended scale; nor +what improvements could be suggested in the treatment. There was no +possibility of such systematic cleanliness and such absolute regularity +of management as can be secured by organization on a large scale. Yet +the medical officers preferred the plan to any other. One plea was, that +the medical officers and the patients were acquainted with and attached +to each other: and this was very true. Another consideration was, that +each surgeon liked to have his field of duty to himself, and found it an +advantage to have a large variety of ailments to treat, to the constant +improvement of his experience. They said that doctors and patients and +nurses all liked the Regimental Hospital best, and this was clear proof +that it was the best. They could at that time say also, that every +soldier and every doctor had a horror of General Hospitals, where the +mortality was so excessive during the Peninsular War that being carried +to the General Hospital was considered the same thing as being sentenced +to death. + +Such being the state of opinion and feeling in the profession, it +naturally happened that British army-surgeons stuck to their Regimental +Hospitals as long as they could, and, when compelled to cooperate in a +General Hospital, made the institution as like as possible to a group +of Regimental Hospitals,--resisting all effective organization, and +baffling all the aims of the larger institution. + +In busy times, no two Regimental Hospitals were alike in their +management, because the scheme was not capable of expansion. The surgeon +and his hospital-sergeant managed everything. The surgeon saw and +treated the cases, and made out his lists of articles wanted. It was his +proper business to keep the books,--to record the admissions, and make +the returns, and keep the accounts, and post up all the documents: but +professional men do not like this sort of work, when they want to be +treating disease; and the books were too often turned over to the +hospital-sergeant. His indispensable business was to superintend the +wards, and the attendance on the patients, the giving them their +medicines, etc., which most of us would think enough for one man: but he +had besides to keep up the military discipline in the establishment,--to +prepare the materials for the surgeon's duty at the desk,--to take +charge of all the orders for the diet of all the patients, and see them +fulfilled,--to keep the record of all the provisions ordered and used +in every department,--and to take charge of the washing, the hospital +stores, the furniture, the surgery, and the dispensary. In short, the +hospital-sergeant had to be at once ward-master, steward, dispenser, +sergeant, clerk, and purveyor; and, as no man can be a six-sided +official, more or fewer of his duties were deputed to the orderly, or to +anybody within call. + +Nobody could dispute the superior economy and comfort of having a +concentration of patients arranged in the wards according to their +ailments, with a general kitchen, a general laundry, a dispensary and +surgery, and a staff of officials, each with his own distinct business, +instead of as many jacks-of-all-trades, each doing a little of +everything. Yet the obstinacy of the fight made by the surgeons for the +system of Regimental Hospitals was almost insuperable. There was no +desire on any hand to abolish their hospitals, which must always be +needed for slight, and also for immediately pressing cases. What was +asked of them was to give way when epidemics, or a sudden influx of +wounded, or protracted cases put a greater strain upon the system than +it would bear. + +The French, meantime, had three sorts of hospitals,--the Divisional ones +coming between the Regimental and the General. Only the very slightest +cases ever enter their Regimental Hospital; those which may last weeks +are referred to the Divisional; and those which may last months, with +prospect of recovery, to the General Hospital. The Sardinian plan was +nearly the same. The Russians had Divisional Hospitals at various +stations; and all cases were carried to them. + +The Regimental Hospitals are wherever the regiments are. The advantage +is, that aid can be immediately rendered,--not only in case of wounds, +but of cholera, in which it is desirable to lay a patient down in the +nearest bed to which he can be conveyed. The disadvantages are the +hap-hazard quality of the site, the absence of quiet and seclusion, and +the liability of being near the scene of conflict. These things cause +the French to prefer the Divisional Hospital, which, while still within +reach, is set farther back from the force, in a picked situation, and +managed on a large scale and with nicer exactitude. + +The General Hospital is understood to be at the base of operations: and +this supposes, as a part of its organization, a system of transport, not +only good of its kind, but adequate to any demands consequent on a +great battle, or the spread of an epidemic in the camp. The nearer the +hospital is to the active force, the better, of course; but there are +conditions to be fulfilled first. It must be safe from the enemy. It +must be placed in a permanent station. It must be on a good road, and +within immediate reach of markets. It ought also to be on the way home, +for the sake of the incurable or the incapacitated who must be sent +home. + +In the Regimental Hospital, the surgeon may be seen going from the man +who has lost a finger to a fever patient,--and then to one who has +ophthalmia,--passing on to a fellow raving in delirium tremens,--next to +whom is a sufferer under bronchitis, who will not be allowed to go out +of doors for weeks to come; and if half a dozen are brought in with +cholera in the course of the day, the officials do not know which way to +turn. It is possible that the surgeon may be found making starch over +the kitchen fire, because there is nobody at hand who understands how to +make starched bandages; or he may be at the desk, casting up columns of +figures, or writing returns, when he is urgently wanted at the bedside. +Such things can hardly happen now; but they have happened within ten +years. The Russians, meantime, would be carrying all manner of patients +to one of their hospital-stations,--each sufferer to the hospital of his +own division. The French would leave the men with scratches and slight +diarrhea and delirium tremens in the Regimental Hospital,--would send +the fever and bronchitis and scorbutic patients to the Divisional,--and +any gravely wounded, or rheumatic, or other very long cases to the +General Hospital at the base of operations. + +Such arrangements, however, are of no use, if the last be not so +organized as to render it fit to supply what the others cannot give, and +to answer purposes which the others cannot even propose. + +When doctors and soldiers alike shuddered at the mention of the General +Hospital as a necessary institution at or near the seat of war, they +were thinking of what they had seen or heard of during the Peninsular +Campaigns. There were such infirmaries wherever there was a line of +march in Spain; and they seemed to be all alike. Hospital gangrene set +in among the wounded, and fever among the sick, so that the soldiers +said, "To send a poor fellow to the hospital is to send him to death." +Yet there was nothing else to be done; for it was impossible to treat +the seriously sick and wounded at the spot where they fell. During that +war, nearly twice the number which composed the army passed through the +hospitals every year; and of these there were known deaths to the amount +of thirteen thousand five hundred; and thousands more were never the +same men again. When the case was better understood,--as during the last +year in the Crimea,--the mortality in the hospitals barely exceeded that +of the Guards in their barracks at home! Recovery had become the rule, +and death a remarkable event. General Hospitals had come to surpass all +other means of curing patients, while fulfilling their own peculiar +service to society through new generations. + +What are the functions of General Hospitals, besides curing the sick and +wounded? some readers may ask, who have never particularly attended to +the subject. + +The first business of such institutions is undoubtedly to restore as +many as possible of the sufferers brought into them: and this includes +the duty of bringing in the patients in the most favorable way, +receiving them in an orderly and quiet manner, doctoring, nursing, +feeding, clothing, and cleaning them, keeping their minds composed and +cheerful, and their manners creditable, promoting their convalescence, +and dismissing them in a state of comfort as to equipment. This is the +first duty, in its many subdivisions. The next is to obviate, as far as +possible, future disease in any army. The third grows out of this. It is +to improve the science of the existing generation by a full use of the +peculiar opportunities of observation afforded by the crop of sickness +and wounds yielded by an army in action. To take these in their reverse +order. + +There must be much to learn from any great assemblage of sickness, under +circumstances which can be fully ascertained, even at home,--and much +more in a foreign climate. The medical body of every nation has very +imperfect knowledge of classes and modifications of diseases; so that +one of the strongest desires of the most learned physicians is for +an improved classification and constantly improving nomenclature of +diseases; and hospital-records afford the most direct way to this +knowledge. Thus, while the phenomena are frittered away among +Regimental or unorganized General Hospitals, a well-kept record in each +well-organized hospital will do more than all other means to promote the +scientific understanding of disease. + +The statistics of disease in armies, the ascertainment of the numbers +who sicken and who die of particular diseases, would save more lives +in future generations than can be now appreciated; but what can the +regimental surgeon do towards furnishing any trustworthy materials to +such an inquiry? A dozen doctors, with each his smattering of patients, +can learn and teach but little while they work apart: whereas a regular +system of inquiry and record, in action where the sick are brought in in +battalions, is the best possible agency. Not only are these objects lost +when surgeons are allowed to make the great hospital a mere receptacle +for a cluster of small and desultory hospitals, but the advantages of a +broad study of diseases and their treatment are lost. Inestimable facts +of treatment are learned by watching, at the same time and in the same +place, a ward full of patients ill of the same disease. People of all +countries know this by the special learning which their physicians +obtain in large civil hospitals: and the same thing happens in military +hospitals, with the additional advantage that the information and +improved art tend to the special safety of the future soldiery, in +whatever climate they may be called on to serve. + +There has long been some general notion of the duty of army-surgeons +to record what they saw in foreign campaigns; but no benefit has been +reaped till of late. The works of French field-surgeons have long been +justly celebrated; but I do not know that in the statistics and the +nomenclature of disease they have done much more than others. The +English surgeons carried or sent home in 1810 a mass of papers about the +Walcheren fever, and afterwards of the diseases of the Peninsular force: +but the Director General of the Medical Department considered such a +bulk of records troublesome, and ordered them to be burnt! Such an +act will never be perpetrated again; but directors will have a more +manageable mass of documents to deal with henceforth. With a regular +system of record, at a central station of observation, much more may be +done with much less fatigue to all parties. + +But how is it to be done? may well be asked. In the hurry and confusion +of a war, and amidst the pressure of hundreds of new cases in a day, +what can the surgeons of the hospital be expected to do for science, or +even for the improvement of medical and surgical practice?--The answer +is seen in the new arrangements in England, where a statistical branch +has been established in the Army Medical Department. Of course, no one +but the practising surgeon or physician can furnish the pathological +facts in each individual case; but this is what every active and earnest +practitioner does always and everywhere, when he sees reason for it. +His note-book or hospital-journal provides that raw material which the +statistical department is to arrange and utilize. The result will be +that a flood of light will be cast on matters affecting the health and +life of soldiers and other men, in regard to which we might have gone on +groping for centuries among the confusion of regimental records, without +getting what we wanted. As to the method of proceeding, I may have +something to say farther on. Meantime, we must turn to the primary +object of the institution of the Military Hospital,--the cure of the +wounded and sick of the army. + +In the case of active war, foreign or civil, the General Hospital is +usually an extemporized establishment, the building a makeshift, and +the arrangements such as the building will admit. In Spain, the British +obtained any houses they could get; and the soldiers were sometimes +crowded into half a dozen of them in one town. In the last war, the +great buildings at Scutari were engaged three months before they were +wanted for extensive use; so that there was plenty of time for making +them clean, airy, warm, and commodious, and for storing them with all +conveniences. This was not done; and the failure and its consequences +afford a lesson by which every people engaged in war should profit. A +mere outline of what was not done at Scutari may be an indication of +what should be done with all convenient speed elsewhere. + +There was a catgut manufactory close at hand, which filled the +neighborhood with stench. Half a dozen dead dogs festered under the +windows in the sun; and a dead horse lay in the aqueduct for six weeks. +The drain-pipes within the building were obstructed and had burst, +spreading their contents over the floors and walls. The sloping boarded +divans in the wards, used for sleeping-places, were found, after the +building became crowded, to be a cover for a vast accumulation of dead +rats, old rags, and the dust of years. Like all large stone buildings in +the East, it was intolerably cold in winter, with its stagnant air, +its filthy damps, and its vaultings and chill floors. This wonderful +building was very grandly reported of to England, for its size and +capacity, its imposing character, and so forth; and the English +congratulated themselves on the luck of the wounded in having such a +hospital. Yet, in the next January, fourteen hundred and eighty were +carried out dead. + +It appears that nobody knew how to go to work. Everybody writes to +somebody else to advise them to "observe"; and there are so many +assurances that everybody means to "observe," that there seems to have +been no leisure to effect anything. One thinks that this, that, or the +other should be attended to; and another states that the matter is +under consideration. It was some weeks before anybody got so far in +definiteness as to propose whitewash. Somebody understood that somebody +else was intending to have the corridors scoured; and representations +were to be made to the Turkish authorities about getting the drain-pipes +mended. The Turkish authorities wished to employ their own workmen in +putting in the stoves; and on the 18th of December the responsible +British officer hoped the stoves would be put up immediately, but could +not be certain, as Turkish workmen were in question. This was a month +after large companies of wounded and sick had been sent in from the seat +of war. Even then, nothing had been done for ventilation, or, on any +sufficient scale, for putting the poor sufferers comfortably to bed. + +These things confirm the necessity of a regulated cooperation between +the sanitary, the medical, and the military officers of an army. The +sanitary officer should be secure of the services of engineers enough to +render the hospital, as well as the camp, safely habitable. As soon as +any building is taken possession of for a hospital, men and their tools +should be at command for exploring the drains and making new ones,--for +covering or filling up ditches,--for clearing and purifying the +water-courses, and leading in more water, if needed,--for removing all +nuisances for a sufficient distance round,--and for improving to the +utmost the means of access to the house. There must be ventilating +spaces in the roof, and in the upper part of all the wards and passages. +Every vaulted space, or other receptacle of stagnant air, should have a +current established through it. All decaying wood in the building should +be removed, and any portion ingrained with dirt should be planed clean. +A due water-supply should be carried up to every story, and provided +for the bathrooms, the wash-houses, and the kitchen. Every edifice in +America is likely to be already furnished with means of warmth; and +the soldiers are probably in no danger of shivering over the uncertain +promise of stoves on the 18th of December. + +Next comes the consideration of store-place, which can be going forward +while busy hands are cleaning every inch of ceiling, walls, floors, +and windows within. There must be sheds and stables for the transport +service; and a surgery and dispensary planned with a view to the utmost +saving of time and trouble, so that medicines and utensils may be +within reach and view, and the freest access allowed to applicants. The +kitchens must have the best stoves and boilers, dressers and scales, and +apparatus of every kind that is known to the time; for more lives depend +on perfect food being administered with absolute punctuality than +upon any medical treatment. There must be large and abundant and airy +store-places for the provisions, and also for such stocks of linen and +bedding as perhaps nobody ever dreamed of before the Crimean War. + +The fatal notions of Regimental Hospital management caused infinite +misery at Scutari. In entering the Regimental Hospital, the soldier +carries his kit, or can step into his quarters for it: and the +regulations, therefore, suppose him to be supplied with shirts and +stockings, towel and soap, brushes and comb. This supposition was +obstinately persevered in, at Scutari, till private charity had shamed +the authorities into providing for the men's wants. When the wounded +were brought from the Alma, embarked on crowded transports straight from +the battle-field, how could they bring their kits? Miss Nightingale, +and benevolent visitors from England, bought up at Constantinople, +and obtained from home, vast supplies of body- and bed-linen, towels, +basins, and water-cans; and till they did so, the poor patients lay on +a single blanket or coarse canvas sheet, in their one shirt, perhaps +soaked in blood and dirt. There were some stores in the hospital, though +not enough; and endless difficulty was made about granting them, lest +any man should have brought his kit, and thus have a double supply. +Amidst the emergencies of active war, it seems to be an obvious +provision that every General Hospital should have in store, with ample +bedding, body-linen enough for as many patients as can occupy the +beds,--the consideration being kept in view, that, where the sick and +wounded are congregated, more frequent changes of linen are necessary +than under any other circumstances. + +The excellent and devoted managers of the hospitals of the Union army +need no teaching as to the daily administration of the affairs of +the wards. They will never have to do and dare the things that Miss +Nightingale had to decide upon, because they have happily had the +privilege of arranging their hospitals on their own principles. They +will not know the exasperation of seeing sufferers crowded together on a +wooden divan (with an under-stratum of dead rats and rotting rags) while +there is an out-house full of bedsteads laid up in store under lock and +key. Not being disposed to acquiesce in such a state of things, and +failing in all attempts to get at the authority which had charge of the +locked door, Miss Nightingale called to an orderly or two, and commanded +them to break open the door. They stared; but she said she assumed the +responsibility; and presently there were as many men in bed as there +were bedsteads. Her doctrine and practice have always been,--instant +and silent obedience to medical and disciplinary orders, without any +qualification whatever; and by her example and teaching in this respect +she at length overcame the jealousy and prejudices of authorities, +medical and military: but in such a case as the actual presence of +necessaries for the sick, sent out by Government or by private charity +for their use, she claimed the benefit, and helped her patients to it, +when there was no other obstruction in the way than forms and rules +never meant to apply to the case. + +What the jealousy was appeared through very small incidents. A leading +medical officer declared, in giving evidence, that the reason why the +patients' meals were sometimes served late and cold, or half-cooked, +was, that Miss Nightingale and her nurses were forever in the way in the +general kitchen, keeping the cooks from the fire: whereas the fact was, +that neither Miss Nightingale nor any nurse had ever entered the general +kitchen, on any occasion whatever. Their way was to have a kitchen of +their own. The very idea of that kitchen was savory in the wards; for +out of it came, always at the right moment, arrowroot, hot and of the +pleasantest consistence,--rice puddings, neither hard on the one hand +nor clammy on the other,--cool lemonade for the feverish, cans full of +hot tea for the weary, and good coffee for the faint. When the sinking +sufferer was lying with closed eyes, too feeble to make moan or sign, +the hospital spoon was put between his lips, with the mouthful of strong +broth or hot wine which rallied him till the watchful nurse came round +again. The meat from that kitchen was tenderer than any other; the +beef-tea was more savory. One thing that came out of it was a lesson on +the saving of good cookery. The mere circumstance of the boiling water +being really boiling there made a difference of two ounces of rice in +every four puddings, and of more than half the arrowroot used. The same +quantity of arrowroot which made a pint, thin and poor, in the general +kitchen, made two pints, thick and good, in Miss Nightingale's. + +Then there was the difference in readiness and punctuality. Owing +to cumbrous forms and awkward rules, the orderlies charged with the +business were running round almost all day about the food for their +wards; and the patients were disgusted with it at last. There were +endless orders and details, whenever the monotonous regular diet was +departed from; whereas the establishment of several regular diets, +according to the classifications in the wards, would have simplified +matters exceedingly. When everything for dysentery patients, or for +fever patients, or for certain classes of wounded was called "extra +diet," there were special forms to be gone through, and orders and +contradictions given, which threw everything into confusion, under +the name of discipline. The authority of the ward would allow some +extra,--butter, for instance; and then a higher authority, seeing the +butter, and not knowing how it came there, would throw it out of the +window, as "spoiling the men." Between getting the orders, and getting +the meat and extras, and the mutual crowding of the messengers, some +of the dinners were not put on the fire till an hour or two after the +fainting patient should have had his meal: and then, of course, he could +not take it. The cold mutton-chop with its opaque fat, the beef with its +caked gravy, the arrowroot stiff and glazed, all untouched, might be +seen by the bedsides in the afternoons, while the patients were lying +back, sinking for want of support. Probably the dinners had been brought +up on a tray, cooling all the way up-stairs and along the corridors; and +when brought in, there was the cutting up, in full view of the intended +eaters,--sometimes on the orderly's own bed, when the tables were +occupied. Under such a system, what must it have been to see the quick +and quiet nurses enter, as the clock struck, with their hot-water tins, +hot morsels ready-cut, hot plates, bright knife and fork and spoon,--and +all ready for instant eating! This was a strong lesson to those who +would learn; and in a short time there was a great change for the +better. The patients who were able to sit at table were encouraged to +rise, and dress, and dine in cheerful company, and at the proper hour. +It was discovered, that, if an alternation was provided of soups, +puddings, fish, poultry, and vegetables, with the regular beef dinner, +the great mass of trouble about extras was swept away at once; for these +varieties met every case in hospital except the small number which +required slops and cordials, or something very unusual. By this +clearance, time was saved to such an extent that punctuality became +possible, and the refusal of food almost ceased. + +All these details point to the essential badness of the system of +requisitions. In the old days, when war was altogether a mass of +formalities,--and in peace times, when soldiers and their guardians had +not enough to do, and it was made an object and employment to save the +national property by hedging round all expenditure of that property with +difficulties, the system of requisitions might suit the period and the +parties. Amidst the rapid action and sharp emergencies of war it is +out of place. It was found intolerable that nothing whatever could be +had,--not a dose of medicine, nor a candle, nor a sheet, nor a spoon or +dish, nor a bit of soap,--without a series of permits, and applications, +and orders, and vouchers, which frittered away the precious hours, +depressed the sick, worried their nurses, and wasted more of money's +worth in official time, paper, and expensive cross-purposes than could +possibly have been saved by all the ostentatious vigilance of the +method. The deck-loads of vegetables at Balaklava, thrown overboard +because they were rotten before they were drawn, were not the only +stores wasted for want of being asked for. When the Scutari hospitals +had become healthy and comfortable, there was a thorough opening-out of +all the stores which had before been made inaccessible by forms. No +more bedsteads, no more lime-juice, no more rice, no more beer, no +more precious medicines were then locked away, out of the reach or the +knowledge of those who were dying, or seeing others die, for want of +them. + +One miserable consequence of the cumbrous method was, that there was no +certainty at any hour of some essential commodity not falling short. It +would have been a dismal day for the most suffering of the patients when +there was not fuel enough to cook "extras," if Miss Nightingale had not +providently bought four boat-loads of wood to meet such a contingency. +It was a dreadful night in the hospital, when, as cholera patients were +brought in by the score, the surgeons found there were no candles to be +had. In that disease, of all maladies, they had to tend their patients +in the dark all night; and a more shocking scene can scarcely be +conceived. + +Every great influx of patients was terrible, whether from an epidemic +or after a battle; but experience and devotedness made even this +comparatively easy before the troops turned homewards. The arrival of +a transport was, perhaps, the first intimation of the earlier battles. +Then all was hurry-skurry in the hospitals; everybody was willing to +help, but the effectual organization was not yet ready. + +Of every hundred on board the transport, an average of ten had died +since leaving the Crimea. The names and causes of death of these men +ought to be recorded; but the surgeons of the transport are wholly +occupied in despatching their living charge to the hospital; and the +surgeons there have enough to do in receiving them. Attempts are made to +obtain the number and names and injuries of the new patients: there may +or may not be a list furnished from the ship; and the hospital surgeons +inquire from bed to bed: but in such a scene mistakes are sure to arise; +and it was found, in fact, that there was always more or less variation +between the numbers recorded as received or dead and the proper number. +No one could wonder at this who had for a moment looked upon the scene. +The poor fellows just arrived had perhaps not had their clothes off +since they were wounded or were seized with cholera, and they were +steeped in blood and filth, and swarming with vermin. To obtain shirts +and towels was hard work, because it had to be proved that they brought +none with them. They were laid on the floor in the corridors, as close +as they could be packed, thus breathing and contaminating the air which +was to have refreshed the wards within. If laid upon so-called sheets, +they entreated that the sheets might be taken away; for they were of +coarse canvas, intolerable to the skin. Before the miserable company +could be fed, made clean, and treated by the surgeons, many were dead; +and a too large proportion were never to leave the place more, though +struggling for a time with death. It was amidst such a scene that +Florence Nightingale refused to despair of five men so desperately +wounded as to be set aside by the surgeons. The surgeons were right. As +they said, their time was but too little for the cases which were not +hopeless. And Florence Nightingale was right in finding time, if she +could, to see whether there was really no chance. She ascertained that +these five were absolutely given over; and she and her assistants +managed to attend to them through the night. She cleaned and comforted +them, and had spoonfuls of nourishment ready whenever they could be +swallowed. By the morning round of the surgeons, these men were ready to +be operated upon; and they were all saved. + +It would have been easier work at a later period. Before many months +were over, the place was ready for any number to be received in peace +and quietness. Instead of being carried from one place to another, +because too many had been sent to one hospital and too few to another, +the poor fellows were borne in the shortest and easiest way from the +boat to their beds. They were found eager for cleanliness; and presently +they were clean accordingly, and lying on a good bed, between clean, +soft sheets. They did not come in scorbutic, like their predecessors; +and they had no reason to dread hospital gangrene or fever. Every floor +and every pane in the windows was clean; and the air came in pure from +the wide, empty corridors. There was a change of linen whenever it was +desired; and the shirts came back from the wash perfectly sweet and +fresh. The cleaning of the wards was done in the mornings, punctually, +quickly, quietly, and thoroughly. The doctors came round, attended by +a nurse who received the orders, and was afterwards steady in the +fulfilment of them. The tables of the medicines of the day were hung up +in the ward; and the nurse went round to administer them with her own +hand. Where she was, there was order and quietness all day, and the +orderlies were worth twice as much as before the women came. Their +manners were better; and they gave their minds more to their business. +The nurse found time to suit each patient who wished it with a book or a +newspaper, when gifts of that sort arrived from England. Kind visitors +sat by the beds to write letters for the patients, undertaking to see +the epistles forwarded to England. When the invalids became able to rise +for dinner, it was a turning-point in their case; and they were soon +getting into the apartment where there were games and books and meetings +of old comrades. As I have said before, those who died at these +hospitals were finally scarcely more than those who died in--not the +hospitals--but the barracks of the Guards at home. + +What were the changes in organization needed to produce such a +regeneration as this? + +They were such as must appear to Americans very simple and easy. The +wonder will be rather that they were necessary at last than that they +should have been effected with any difficulty. But Americans have never +known what it is to have a standing army as a long-established and +prominent national institution; and they can therefore hardly conceive +of the strength of the class-spirit which grows up in the various +departments of the military organization. This jealousy, egotism, and +stiffness of prejudice were much aggravated by the long peace, in which +a great rusting of the apparatus of the system took place, without at +all impairing the complacency of those who formed a part of it. The old +medical officers were incapable, pedantic, and jealous; and no proper +relation had ever been established between them and the military +authorities. The imbecility of the system cost the lives of others than +the soldiers who died in hospital. Brave men arose, as in all such +crises, to bear the consequences of other men's mistakes, and the burden +of exposing them; and several physicians and surgeons died, far from +home, in the effort to ameliorate a system which they found unworkable. +The greatest benefactor in exhibiting evils and suggesting remedies, Dr. +Alexander, lived to return home, and instigate reforms, and receive the +honors which were his due; but he soon sank under the consequences of +his labors. So did Lord Herbert, the Secretary of War, to whom, in +conjunction with Miss Nightingale, the British army, at home, in India, +and everywhere, owes its redemption from special sickness and undue +mortality. In America the advantages may be enjoyed without tax or +drawback. The citizens are accustomed to organize themselves for action +of all sorts; and no stiff-necked classes stand in the way of good +management. The difficulty in America must rather be to understand how +anything so perverse as the management of British military hospitals ten +years ago can have existed to so late a date. + +It was supposed, ten years since, that there must be nine separate +departments in every Military General Hospital, and the officials +bore titles accordingly; but there was such an odd confusion in their +functions that every one of the nine was often seen doing the business +of some other. The medical officers were drawing corks and tasting wines +and inspecting provisions, when they should have been by the bedside. +The purveyor was counting the soldiers' money, and noting its amount, +when he should have been marketing, or ordering the giving out of the +provisions for the day. The paymaster could scarcely find time to +discharge the bills, so much was his day filled up with doing eternal +sums about the stoppages in the pay of the patients. There were thirteen +kinds of stoppages in the army, three of which were for the sick in +hospital: the paymaster could never be quite certain that he had +reckoned rightly with every man to the last penny; the men were never +satisfied; and the confusion was endless. The commissariat, the +purveyor, and the paymaster were all kept waiting to get their books +made up, while soldiers were working the sums,--being called from their +proper business to help about the daily task of the stoppages. Why there +should not be one uniform stoppage out of the pay of men in hospital no +person of modern ideas could see; and the paymaster's toils would +have been lessened by more than one-half, if he had had to reckon the +deduction from the patients' pay at threepence or fourpence each, all +round, instead of having to deal with thousands per day individually, +under three kinds of charge upon the pay. + +The commandant's post was the hardest,--he being supposed to control +every province, and have every official under his orders, and yet being +powerless in regard to two or three departments, the business of which +he did not understand. The officers of those departments went each his +own way; and all unity of action in the establishment was lost. This is +enough to say of the old methods. + +In the place of them, a far simpler system was proposed at the end of +the war. The eternal dispute as to whether the commandant should be +military or medical, a soldier or a civilian, was set aside by the +decision that he should be simply the ablest administrator that could +be found, and be called the Governor, to avoid the military title. Why +there should be any military management of men who are sick as men, and +not as soldiers, it is difficult to see; and when the patients are about +to leave the hospital, a stated supervision from the adjutant-general's +department is all that can be required. Thus is all the jealousy between +military and medical authority got rid of. The Governor's authority must +be supreme, like that of the commandant of a fortress, or the commander +of a ship. He will not want to meddle in the doctors' professional +business; and in all else he is to be paramount,--being himself +responsible to the War-Office. The office, as thus declared, is +equivalent to three of the nine old ones, namely, the Commandant, the +Adjutant-General, and the Quartermaster-General. + +Next to the Governor, the Chief Medical Officer must be the most +important man in the establishment. He is to be concerned with +professional business only, and to see that all under him are to be +devoted in the same way. For this purpose there must be an end to the +system of requisitions. There must be a Steward, taking his orders from +the Governor alone, and administering a simple and liberal system +of diets and appliances of all sorts. It is his business to provide +everything for the consumption of the establishment, and to keep the +contractors up to their duty. The Treasurer's function speaks for +itself. All the accounts and payments under the Governor's warrant are +in his charge. + +There is one more office, rendered necessary by the various and active +service always going on,--the superintendent of that service, or Captain +of the Wards. He is to have the oversight of the orderlies, cooks, +washers, and storekeepers; he is to keep order throughout the house; and +he is to be referred to in regard to everything that is wanted in the +wards, except what belongs to the department of the medical officers or +the steward. + +As for the medical department, there is now a training provided for such +soldiers as wish to qualify themselves for hospital duty. Formerly, the +hospital was served by such men as the military officers thought fit to +spare for the purpose; and they naturally did not send the best. These +men knew nothing of either cleaning wards or nursing patients. Their +awkwardness in sweeping and scouring and making beds was extreme; and +they were helpless in case of anything being wanted to a blister or a +sore. One was found, one day, earnestly endeavoring to persuade his +patient to eat his poultice. It is otherwise now. The women, where +there are any, ought to have the entire charge of the sweeping and +cleaning,--the housemaid's work of the wards; and as to the rest, the +men of the medical-staff corps have the means of learning how to dress +a blister, and poultice a sore, and apply plasters, lint, and bandages, +and administer medicine, and how to aid the sick in their ablutions, in +getting their meals with the least fatigue, and so on. + +Of female nurses it is not necessary to say much in America, any more +than in England or France. They are not admissible into Regimental +Hospitals, in a general way; but in great military and civil hospitals +they are a priceless treasure. + +The questions in regard to them are two. Shall their office be confined +to the care of the linen and stores, and the supplying of extra diets +and comforts? If admitted to officiate in the wards, how far shall that +function extend? + +In England, there seems to be a strong persuasion that some time must +elapse, and perhaps a generation of doctors must pass away, before the +ministration of female nurses in military hospitals can become a custom, +or even an unquestioned good. No rational person can doubt what a +blessing it would be to the patients to have such nurses administer +nourishment, when the rough orderlies would not have discernment or +patience to give the frequent spoonful when the very life may hang upon +it. Nobody doubts that wounds would be cleansed which otherwise go +uncleansed,--that much irritation and suffering would be relieved which +there are otherwise no hands to undertake. Nobody doubts that many lives +would be saved in every great hospital from the time that fevered frames +and the flickerings of struggling vitality were put under the charge of +the nurses whom Nature made. But the difficulties and risks are great. +On the whole, it seems to be concluded by those who know best, that +only a few female nurses should be admitted into military and naval +hospitals: that they should be women of mature age and ascertained good +sense, thoroughly trained to their business: that they should be +the women who have been, or who would be, the head nurses in other +hospitals, and that they should be paid on that scale: that they should +have no responsibility,--being wholly subject to the surgeons in +ward affairs, and to their own superintendent in all others: that no +enthusiasts or religious devotees should be admitted,--because that very +qualification shows that they do not understand the business of nursing: +that everything that can be as well done by men should be done by +trained orderlies: that convalescents should, generally speaking, be +attended on by men,--and if not, that each female nurse of convalescents +should have a hundred or so in her charge, whereas of the graver cases +forty or fifty are as many as one nurse can manage, with any amount +of help from orderlies. These proposals give some idea of what is +contemplated with regard to the ordinary nurses in a General Military +Hospital. The superintendent of the nurses in each institution must be a +woman of high quality and large experience. And she will show her good +sense, in the first place, by insisting on a precise definition of her +province, that there maybe no avoidable ill-will on the part of the +medical officers, and no cause of contention with the captain of +service, or whatever the administrator of the interior may be called. +She must have a decisive voice in the choice of her nurses; and she +will choose them for their qualifications as nurses only, after being +satisfied as to their character, health, and temper. + +No good nurse can endure any fuss about her work and her merits. +Enthusiasts and devotees find immediately that they are altogether out +of place in a hospital,--or, as we may now say, they would find this, if +they were ever to enter a hospital: for, in fact, they never now arrive +there. The preparation brings them to a knowledge of themselves; and the +two sorts of women who really and permanently become nurses are those +who desire to make a living by a useful and valued and well-paid +occupation, and those who benevolently desire to save life and mitigate +suffering, with such a temper of sobriety and moderation as causes them +to endure hardship and ill-usage with firmness, and to dislike praise +and celebrity at least as much as hostility and evil construction. +The best nurses are foremost in perceiving the absurdity and +disagreeableness of such heroines of romance as flourished in the press +seven years ago,--young ladies disappointed in love, who went out to +the East, found their lovers in hospital, and went off with them, to +be happy ever after, without any anxiety or shame at deserting their +patients in the wards without leave or notice. Not of this order was +Florence Nightingale, whose practical hard work, personal reserve, and +singular administrative power have placed her as high above impeachment +for feminine weaknesses as above the ridicule which commonly attends the +striking out of a new course by man or woman. Those who most honor her, +and most desire to follow her example, are those who most steadily bring +their understandings and their hearts to bear upon the work which +she began. Her ill-health has withdrawn her from active nursing and +administration; but she has probably done more towards the saving of +life by working in connection with the War-Office in private than by her +best-known deeds in her days of health. Through her, mainly, it is that +every nation has already studied with some success the all-important +subject of Health in the Camp and in the Hospital. It now lies in the +way of American women to take up the office, and, we may trust, to +"better the instruction." + + * * * * * + + +A STORY OF THANKSGIVING-TIME. + + +Old Jacob Newell sat despondent beside his sitting-room fire. +Gray-haired and venerable, with a hundred hard lines, telling of the +work of time and struggle and misfortune, furrowing his pale face, he +looked the incarnation of silent sorrow and hopelessness, waiting in +quiet meekness for the advent of the King of Terrors: waiting, but not +hoping, for his coming; without desire to die, but with no dread of +death. + +At a short distance from him, in an ancient straight-backed +rocking-chair, dark with age, and clumsy in its antique carvings, sat +his wife. Stiffly upright, and with an almost painful primness in dress +and figure, she sat knitting rapidly and with closed eyes. Her face was +rigid as a mask; the motion in her fingers, as she plied her needles, +was spasmodic and machine-like; the figure, though quiet, wore an air of +iron repose that was most uneasy and unnatural. Still, through the mask +and from the figure there stole the aspect and air of one who had within +her deep wells of sweetness and love which only strong training or power +of education had thus covered up and obscured. She looked of that stern +Puritanical stock whose iron will conquered the severity of New England +winters and overcame the stubbornness of its granite hills, and whose +idea of a perfect life consisted in the rigorous discharge of all +Christian duties, and the banishment, forever and at all times, of the +levity of pleasure and the folly of amusement. She could have walked, +if need were, with composure to the stake; but she could neither have +joined in a game at cards, nor have entered into a romp with little +children. All this was plainly to be seen in the stern repose of her +countenance and the stiff harshness of her figure. + +Upon the stained deal table, standing a little in the rear and partially +between the two, reposed an open Bible. Between its leaves lay a pair of +large, old-fashioned, silver-bowed spectacles, which the husband had but +recently laid there, after reading the usual daily chapter of Holy Writ. +He had ceased but a moment before, and had laid them down with a heavy +sigh, for his heart to-day was sorely oppressed; and no wonder; for, +following his gaze around the room, we find upon the otherwise bare +walls five sad mementos of those who had "gone before,"--five coarse and +unartistic, but loving tributes to the dead. + +There they hang, framed in black, each with its white tomb and +overhanging willow, and severally inscribed to the memories of Mark, +John, James, Martha, and Mary Newell. All their flock. None left to +honor and obey, none to cheer, none to lighten the labor or soothe the +cares. All gone, and these two left behind to travel hand in hand, but +desolate, though together, to the end of their earthly pilgrimage. + +There had, indeed, been one other, but for him there hung no loving +memorial. He was the youngest of all, and such a noble, strong, and +lusty infant, that the father, in the pride of his heart, and with his +fondness for Scriptural names, had christened him Samson. He, too, had +gone; but in the dread gallery that hung about the room there was no +framed funereal picture "To the Memory of Samson Newell." If in the tomb +of his father's or mother's heart he lay buried, no outward token gave +note thereof. + +So the old couple sat alone before the sitting-room fire. It was not +often used, this room,--scarcely ever now, except upon Sunday, or on +those two grave holidays that the Newells kept,--Thanksgiving- and +Fast-Day. This was Thanksgiving-Day. The snow without was falling thick +and fast. It came in great eddies and white whirls, obscuring the +prospect from the windows and scudding madly around the corners. It lay +in great drifts against the fences, and one large pile before the middle +front-window had gathered volume till it reached half up the second row +of panes; for it had snowed all night and half the day before. The roads +were so blocked by it that they would have been rendered impassable but +for the sturdy efforts of the farmers' boys, who drove teams of four and +five yokes of oxen through the drifts with heavily laden sleds, breaking +out the ways. The sidewalks in the little village were shovelled and +swept clean as fast as the snow fell; for, though all business was +suspended, according to the suggestion in the Governor's proclamation, +and in conformity to old usage, still they liked to keep the paths open +on Thanksgiving-Day,--the paths and the roads; for nearly half the +families in the place expected sons and daughters from far away to +arrive on the train which should have been at the railroad-station on +the previous evening, but had been kept back by the snow. + +But Jacob and Ruth Newell had neither son nor daughter, grandchild, +cousin, relation of any nearness or remoteness, to expect; for the white +snow covered with a cold mantle scores of mounds in many graveyards +where lay their dead. And they sat this day and thought of all their +kindred who had perished untimely,--all save one. + +Whether he lived, or whether he had died,--where he lay buried, if +buried he were,--or where he rioted, if still in the land of the living, +they had no notion. And why should they care? + +He had been a strong-willed and wild lad. He had disobeyed the +injunctions of his parents while yet a boy. He had not loved the stiff, +sad Sabbaths, nor the gloomy Saturday nights. He had rebelled against +the austerities of Fast- and Thanksgiving-Days. He had learned to play +at cards and to roll tenpins with the village boys. He had smoked in the +tavern bar-room of evenings. In vain had his father tried to coerce him +into better ways; in vain had his mother used all the persuasions of +a maternal pride and fondness that showed themselves only, of all her +children, to this brave, handsome, and reckless boy. He had gone from +worse to worse, after the first outbreaking from the strict home rules, +until he had become at length a by-word in the village, and anxious +mothers warned their sons against companionship with wicked Samson +Newell,--and this when he was only seventeen years of age. + +Perhaps mildness might have worked well with the self-willed boy, but +his father knew nothing but stern command and prompt obedience in family +management; and so the son daily fell away, until came the inevitable +day when his wrong-doing reached a climax and he left his father's roof +forever. + +It was on a Thanksgiving-Day, fifteen years ago, that the boy Samson, +then seventeen years old, was brought home drunk and bleeding. He had +passed the previous night at a ball at the tavern, against the express +command of his father, who would have gone to fetch him away, but that +he could not bear to enter upon a scene he thought so wicked, and +especially upon such an errand. When the dance was over, the boy had +lingered at the bar, drinking glass after glass, until he got into a +fight with the bully of the village, whom he thrashed within an inch +of his life, and then he had sat down in a small side-room with a few +choice spirits, with the avowed purpose of getting drunk over his +victory. He had got drunk, "gloriously drunk" his friends at the tavern +styled it, and had been carried in that state home. + +Oh, the bitterness of the misery of that Thanksgiving-Day to Jacob +Newell! He may live a hundred years and never know such another. + +The next day Samson awoke from a wretched stupor to find himself weak, +nervous, and suffering from a blinding headache. In this condition his +father forced him to the barn, and there, with a heavy raw-hide, flogged +him without mercy. That night Samson Newell disappeared, and was +thenceforward seen no more in the village. + +The same night one of the village stores was entered, the door of an +ancient safe wrenched open, and something over a hundred dollars in +specie taken therefrom. So that on Samson Newell's head rested the crime +of filial disobedience, and the suspicion, amounting, with nearly all, +to a certainty, that he had added burglary to his other wrong-doing. + +His name was published in the papers throughout the county, together +with a personal description and the offer of a reward for his arrest and +return. But as he was never brought back nor heard of more, the matter +gradually died away and was forgotten by most in the village; the more +so as, from respect and pity for Jacob Newell, it was scarce ever +mentioned, except privately. + +Eight years elapsed from the time of his flight and supposed crime, when +the fellow he had thrashed at the tavern was arrested, tried, +convicted, and sentenced to death for a murder committed in a midnight +tavern-brawl. In a confession that he made he exonerated Samson Newell +from any participation in or knowledge of the burglary for which his +reputation had so long suffered, stating in what manner he had himself +committed the deed. So the memory of the erring son of Jacob Newell was +relieved from the great shadow that had darkened it. Still he was never +mentioned by father or mother; and seven years more rolled wearily on, +till they sit, to-day, alone and childless, by the flickering November +fire. + +Sore trouble had fallen on them since their youngest son had +disappeared. One by one, the elder children had passed away, each +winter's snow for five years covered a fresh grave, till the new +afflictions that were in store for them scarcely seemed to affect them +otherwise than by cutting yet deeper into the sunken cheeks the deep +lines of sorrow and regret. + +Jacob Newell had been known for years as a "forehanded man" in the rural +neighborhood. His lands were extensive, and he had pursued a liberal +system of cultivation, putting into the soil in rich manures more in +strength than he took from it, until his farm became the model one of +the county, and his profits were large and ever increasing. Particularly +in orchards of choice fruit did he excel his neighbors, and his apples, +pears, and quinces always commanded the best price in the market. So he +amassed wealth, and prospered. + +But, unfortunately, after death had taken away his children, and the +work in the fields was all done by hired hands, the old man became +impatient of the dulness of life, and a spirit of speculation seized +him. Just at that time, railroad-stock was in high favor throughout the +country. Steam-drawn carriages were to do away with all other modes of +public travel, (as, indeed, they generally have done,) and the fortunate +owners of railroad-stock were to grow rich without trouble in a short +time. In particular, a certain line of railroad, to run through the +village where he lived, was to make Jacob Newell and all his neighbors +rich. It would bring a market to their doors, and greatly increase the +value of all they produced; but above all, those who took stock in it +would be insured a large permanent income. Better the twenty and thirty +per cent. that must accrue from this source than to loan spare cash at +six per cent., or invest their surplus in farm improvements. So said +a very fluent and agreeable gentleman from Boston, who addressed the +people on the subject at a "Railroad Meeting" held in the town-hall; +and incautious Jacob Newell (hitherto most prudent throughout his life) +believed. + +Only twenty per cent. was to be paid down; no more, said the circular +issued by the directors, might be required for years; perhaps there +would never be any further call: but that would depend very materially +on how generously the farmers through whose lands the road would pass +should give up claims for land-damages. Jacob Newell needed excitement +of some sort, and it took the form of speculation. He believed in the +railroad, and subscribed for two hundred shares of the stock, for which +he paid four thousand dollars down. He also gave the company the right +of way where the track crossed his farm. + +In six months he was called upon for two thousand dollars more; three +months afterwards another two thousand was wanted; and so it ran till he +was obliged to mortgage his farm, and finally to sell the greater part +of it, to meet his subscription. In vain he begged for mercy, and +pleaded the statement that only twenty per cent. would be needed. A new +set of directors laughed him, and others like him, to scorn. He would +have sold his stock, but he found it quoted at only twenty-five cents on +the dollar, and that price he could not prevail upon himself to take. + +So he sat on this drear Thanksgiving-Day despondent beside his hearth. +With a hundred hard lines furrowing his pale face, telling of the work +of time and struggle and misfortune, he looked the incarnation of silent +sorrow and hopelessness, waiting in quiet meekness for the coming of +Death,--without desire, but without dread. + +It was not strange that on this day there should come into the hearts of +both Jacob and Ruth, his wife, sad and dismal memories. Still his gaze +wandered silently about the room, and she plied unceasingly her stiff, +bright knitting-needles. One would have thought her a figure of stone, +sitting so pale and bolt upright, but for the activity of the patiently +industrious fingers. + +Presently Jacob spoke. + +"Ruth," he said, "it is a bitter time for us, and we are sore oppressed; +but what does the Psalmist say to such poor, worn-out creatures as we +are? 'The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth +in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the +Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet +have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' +Wife, we are not forsaken of the Lord, although all earthly things seem +to go wrong with us." + +She made no verbal reply; but there was a nervous flutter in the poor, +wan fingers, as she still plied the needles, and two large tears rolled +silently down her checks and fell upon the white kerchief she wore over +her shoulders. + +"We have still a house over our heads," continued Jacob, "and +wherewithal to keep ourselves fed and clothed and warmed; we have but a +few years more to live; let us thank God for what blessings He has yet +vouchsafed us." + +She arose without a word, stiff, angular, ungainly, and they knelt +together on the floor. + +Meanwhile the snow fell thicker and faster without, and blew in fierce +clouds against the windows. The wind was rising and gaining power, and +it whistled wrathfully about the house, howling as in bitter mockery at +the scene within. Sometimes it swelled into wild laughter, and again +dropped into low and plaintive wailings. It was very dismal out in the +cold, and hardly more cheerful in the warm sitting-room, where those two +jaded souls knelt in earnest prayer. + + * * * * * + +A railway-train was fast in a snow-bank. There it had stuck, unable +to move either backward or forward, since nine o'clock on Wednesday +evening; it was now Thursday morning, the snow was still falling, and +still seemed likely to fall, blocking up more and more the passage +of the unfortunate train. There were two locomotives, with a huge +snow-plough on the forward one, a baggage and express-car, and four cars +filled with passengers. Two hundred people, all anxious, most of them +grumbling, were detained there prisoners, snow-bound and helpless. It +was a hard case, for they were more than two miles distant--with three +feet depth of snow between--from the nearest house. The nearest village +was five miles away at least. + +It was Thanksgiving-Day, too, and they had almost all of them "lotted" +upon a New-England Thanksgiving-dinner with old friends, brothers, +fathers, mothers, and grandparents. And there they were, without so much +as a ration of crackers and cheese. + +It was noticeable that the women on the train--and there were quite +a number, and most of them with children in their arms or by their +sides--made, as a general rule, less disturbance and confusion than the +men. The children, however, were getting very hungry and noisy by this +Thanksgiving-morning. + +In one of the cars were clustered as fine a family-group as the eye +would desire to rest upon. It consisted of a somewhat large and florid, +but firmly and compactly built man of thirty years or thereabout, +a woman, evidently his wife and apparently some two or three years +younger, and three beautiful children. + +The man was large in frame, without being coarse, with a chest broad and +ample as a gymnast's, and with arms whose muscular power was evident at +every movement. His hair and beard (which latter he wore full, as was +just beginning to be the custom) were dark brown in color, and thick and +strong almost to coarseness in texture; his eye was a clear hazel, full, +quick, and commanding, sometimes almost fierce; while an aquiline nose, +full, round forehead, and a complexion bronzed by long exposure to all +sorts of weather, gave him an aspect to be noted in any throng he might +be thrown into. There was a constant air of pride and determination +about the man, which softened, however, whenever his glance fell upon +wife or children. At such times his face lighted up with a smile of +peculiar beauty and sweetness. + +The woman was of middle size, with fair hair, inclining towards auburn, +blue eyes, and a clear red and white complexion. Her expression was +one of habitual sweetness and good-humor, while a continual half-smile +played about her rosy mouth. She was plump, good-natured, and +cozy,--altogether a most lovable and delicious woman. + +This pair, with their bright-looking children, occupied two seats +near the stove, and were in constant pleasant converse, save when an +occasional anxious and impatient shadow flitted across the face of +the husband and father. On the rack over their heads reposed a small +travelling-bag, which the day before had been filled with luncheon for +the children. Upon its bottom was painted in small white letters the +name, "Samson Newell." + +It was, indeed, the long-lost son, returning on this day to answer, so +much as in him lay, the prayers repeated for fifteen years by his father +and mother,--returning to see his former home once more, and here, +nearly on the threshold, stopped by a snow-storm almost unprecedented at +that season. There was occasional bitterness in his impatience at the +wearying detention, but he controlled it as well as he was able. + +During the night the passengers had been quiet and uncomplaining. Wood +taken from the tenders of the two locomotives in small quantities, and, +when the engineers stopped the supplies in that quarter, rails torn from +neighboring fences and broken up for firewood, kept them warm; but +after the day had dawned, when the little treasures of luncheon were +exhausted, and all began to feel the real pangs of hunger, things +assumed a more serious aspect. Children in all the cars were crying for +breakfast, and even the older passengers began to feel cross and jaded. + +One pleasant fellow, with an apparently inexhaustible flask of whiskey +in his pocket, and good-humor oozing from every pore of his jolly +countenance, passed from car to car, retailing a hundred jokes to every +fresh batch of listeners. But presently the passengers began to tire of +his witticisms, and one after another "poohed" and "pshawed" at him as +he approached. Then with infinite good-nature and philosophy he retired +to one of the saloons and peacefully fell asleep. + +Almost equally amusing was a wizened, bent, and thin old man, draped +from head to foot in coarse butternut-colored homespun, and called "Old +Woollen" by the funny fellow, who walked from car to car bewailing his +hard lot. + +"I've left the old woman to home," he whined, "with all the things on +her hands, an' more 'n fifty of our folks comin' to eat dinner with +us to-day; an' I've got a note of a hundred an' fifty dollars to +pay,--to-morrow's the last day of grace,--an' I've been sixty-five mile +to get the money to pay it. Now look here!" suddenly and sharply to the +Funny Man, "what do _you_ think o' _that_?" + +"Old Woollen," said the Funny Man, with a tremulous voice and tears in +his eyes, "it's a hard case!" + +"So't is! That's a fact! Call an' see us, when you come round our way!" + +And the old gentleman, greatly mollified by the sympathy of his new +friend, moved on to find fresh auditors for his tale of woe. + +It came to be nine o'clock on the morning of Thanksgiving-Day, and still +the snow fell with unabated violence, and still drifts piled higher and +higher about the captive train. The conductor and one of the firemen had +started off on foot at early dawn in search of food for the passengers, +and now there arrived, ploughing nearly breast-high through the snow, a +convoy from one of the nearest farm-houses carefully guarding a valuable +treasure of bread, cheese, bacon, eggs, and pumpkin-pies; but so many +were the mouths to fill that it scarcely gave a bite apiece to the men, +after the women and children had been cared for. + +Then the passengers began to grow clamorous. Even the Funny Man had his +woes, for some rogue entered the saloon where he slept and stole the +whiskey-flask from his pocket. When he awoke and discovered his loss, he +remarked that he knew where there was more of the same sort, and turned +over to sleep again. But all were not so philosophical as he. Some +cursed the railroad company, some cursed the fate that had placed them +there, some cursed their folly in leaving comfortable quarters in order +to fast in the snow on Thanksgiving-Day. + +Presently the impatiently-pulled-out watches showed ten o'clock, and +still it snowed. Then a rumor ran through the train that there were +a couple of barrels of chickens, ready-dressed for market, in the +express-car, and a general rush in that direction followed. One of the +first to hear of it, and one of the first to be on the spot, was Samson +Newell. + +"Stand back, gentlemen," he cried to the foremost of the throng that +poured eagerly into the car,--"stand back a moment. This poultry is in +charge of the express messenger, and we have no right to take it without +his license." + +As he spoke, he placed himself beside the messenger. There was a +determination in his eye and manner that held the crowd back for a short +time. + +"The chickens are mine," the messenger said; "I bought them on +speculation; they will spoil before I can get anywhere with them, and +they are now too late for Thanksgiving. You may have them for what I +gave." + +"I will give five dollars towards paying for them"; and Samson Newell +drew out his pocket-book. + +"Here's a dollar!" "I'll give a half!" "Count me in for two dollars!" +cried the crowd, favorably struck with the notion of paying for their +provender. + +But one hulking fellow, with a large mock diamond in his shirt-front, +and clumsy rings on his coarse and dirty fingers, stepped forward and +said that he was a hungry man, that he had lost money by the---- +company already, waiting a day and a night in that blamed snow-bank, +and that he was going to have a chicken,--or two chickens, if he wanted +them,--and he was decidedly of the opinion that there was no express +messenger on the train who would see the color of _his_ money in the +transaction. + +Samson Newell was evidently a man of few words in a case of emergency. +He paused for only an instant to assure himself that the man was in +earnest, then he slid open one of the side-doors of the express-car, and +stretched forth a hand whose clutch was like the closing of a claw of +steel. He seized the bejewelled stranger by the coat-collar, shook him +for an instant, and dropped him,--dropped him into a soft snow-drift +whose top was level with the car-floor. Whether the unfortunate worked +a subterranean passage to one of the passenger-cars and there buried +himself in the privacy of a saloon is not known; he certainly was not +seen again till after relief came to the imprisoned train. + +There was neither noise nor confusion in the matter of paying for and +dividing the poultry. Samson Newell had already made himself prominent +among the captive travellers. He had eaten nothing himself, that he +might the better provide, so far as his limited provision went, for his +wife and children; he had even gone through the cars with his scanty +luncheon of cakes and apples, and economically fed other people's little +ones, besides administering to the wants of an invalid lady upon the +train, who was journeying alone. He was, therefore, a favorite with all +on board. His action, enforcing payment for the provision that would +very likely, but for him, have been taken by force, caused the +passengers to defer to him as a leader whose strength and courage fitted +him for the post, and so he presided at the distribution of the chickens +without dispute. + +The fuel in the stoves was replenished, and quite a large space was +cleared to the leeward of the locomotive, where a fire was built from +the neighboring fences, so that in an hour's time from the finding of +the poultry the entire body of passengers were busy picking the bones of +roasted and broiled fowls. It was not so bad a dinner! To be sure, it +was rather chilly, now and then, when the opening of a car-door, to +let in a half-frozen gentleman with a half-cooked chicken in his hand, +admitted with him a snow-laden blast from without; and then the viands +were not served _à la Soyer_, but there was an appetite for sauce and a +certain gypsy-like feeling of being at a picnic that served as a relish. +And so, in the year of our Lord 18--, two hundred strangers sat down +together at a most extraordinary Thanksgiving-dinner, of which no +account has hitherto been published, if I except a vote of thanks, +"together with an exceedingly chaste and richly chased silver goblet," +(so the newspaper description read,) which were presented to the +conductor by "the surviving passengers," after he had procured help and +rescued them from their perplexing predicament. + +But dinners end. Twelve o'clock came, and still the snow was falling +thick and fast, and still the white plain about them mounted slowly and +surely towards the skies. Then the passengers became yet more weary and +unhappy. Old Woollen, the unfortunate, detailed his woes to more and +more appreciative audiences. Even the Funny Man--with a fresh flask of +whiskey--sighed almost dismally between frequent uneasy "cat-naps." And +Samson Newell, first seeing his wife comfortably settled, and his little +ones safely disposed about her, strode up and down, from car to car, +with a gloom of disappointment on his face that was almost ferocious. +"Too bad!" he muttered, "too bad! too bad! too bad!" + +One o'clock came, and the snow held up! At first the passengers noticed +that the flakes fell less thickly. Then, gradually and ever slowly +decreasing, they finally ceased falling altogether. The clouds drifted +from before the face of the heavens, and the sun came out. It shone over +a broad surface of glistening snow, with here and there a fence-post +obtruding into notice, but otherwhere a cold, blank expanse of +whiteness. One or two remote farm-houses, with blue smoke rising in +thin, straight columns from their chimneys, a wide stretch of woodland +to the right, distant hills bounding all the prospect,--and everywhere +snow. No fences, no roads, no paths,--but only snow! + +The passengers gazed out of the windows or stood upon the +platforms,--drawn thither by the warmth of the sun,--with feelings +almost akin to despair. Presently it was proposed to make for the +farm-houses, and fifteen of the more adventurous started. A few struggled +through and arrived in something over an hour at the nearest house, +wet to the skin with melted snow, and too much fatigued to think of +returning,--but most of them gave out at the end of the first half-mile, +and came back to the train. + +So the prisoners sat down and whiled away the time as best they might, +in the relation of anecdotes, telling stories, and grumbling. A few +slept, and a large number tried to do so, without success. + +The slow hand of Time, moving more slowly for them than they remembered +it to have ever moved before, crept on to three o'clock, and still there +was no prospect of relief and no incident of note save the arrival +through the snow of a dozen men sent by the conductor. They brought word +that help was approaching from the nearest station where a sufficiently +powerful locomotive could be obtained, and that they would probably be +started on their way during the next forenoon. These messengers also +brought a small supply of provisions and a number of packs of cards, +with the latter of which many of the passengers were soon busy. They now +resigned themselves to another night in the drift. + +But at half after three occurred an incident that restored hope of a +more speedy deliverance to a few of the captives. + +Through the low pine-lands to the right ran a road which was very +thoroughly protected from drifting snow by the overhanging trees, and +along this road there now appeared two pair of oxen. In front of the +oxen were five men armed with wooden snow-shovels, with which they beat +down and scattered the snow. Behind all was a small, square box on +runners. It was very small and contained only one board seat. Three +persons could sit and three stand in it: no more. + +Upon the appearance of this squad of road-breakers with their team, +three hearty cheers went up from the train. They were immediately +answered by the approach of the apparent leader of the expedition. He +was a small, active, spare old fellow, so incrusted with frozen snow, +which hung all over him in tiny white pellets, as to resemble more an +active, but rather diminutive white bear, than anything else known to +Natural History. He scrambled and puffed through the snow till he found +a mounting-place upon an unseen fence, when he arose two or three feet +above the surrounding surface, and spoke,-- + +"There's five on us, an' two yoke." + +A pause. + +"Two yoke yender, an' five on us." + +"Well! supposing there is?" from the train. + +"Five mile to town," continued the White Bear, "an' been sence nine this +mornin' gittin' here. Five times five is twenty-five, but, seein' it's +you, I'll call it twelve 'n' 'arf." + +"Call _what_ 'twelve 'n' 'arf,' Sheep-Shanks?" from the train. + +"_That_ man don't ride, nohow! I've marked _him_! I don't cal'late to +take no sarse _this_ trip! Take any six or eight for twelve dollars an' +fifty cents right straight to the tahvern! Who bids?" + +"I'll give you fifteen dollars, my friend, to take myself, my wife, and +three children to the village." + +It was Samson Newell who spoke. + +"'M offered fifteen," cried the White Bear, pricking up his ears; "goin' +to the tahvern at fifteen; who says fifteen 'n' arf?" + +"I do!" from a pursy passenger with a double chin and a heavy fob-chain. + +He glanced round a little savagely, having made his bid, as who should +say, "And I should like to see the man who will raise it!" + +"'N' 'arf! 'n' 'arf! 'n' 'arf! 'n' 'arf!" cried the White Bear, growing +much excited,--"an' who says sixteen?" + +Samson Newell nodded. + +"Sixteen dollars! sixteen! sixteen! We can't tarry, gentlemen!" + +The White Bear proved the truth of this latter assertion by suddenly +disappearing beneath the snow. He reappeared in an instant and resumed +his outcry. + +"I see the gentleman's sixteen," quoth the man who had called the White +Bear "Sheep-Shanks," "and go fifty cents better!" + +"I see _you_," replied the auctioneer, "an' don't take your bid! Who +says sixteen 'n' 'arf?" + +"I do!" quoth the Double Chin; and he glowered upon his +fellow-passengers wrathfully. + +At this instant appeared Old Woollen on the scene. In one hand he bore +his pocket-book; in the other, a paper covered with calculations. The +latter he studied intently for a moment, then,-- + +"I'll give you sixteen dollars an' sixty-two 'n' a half cents; an' if +you ever come round our way"-- + +The jubilant auctioneer, fairly dancing upon the fence in the energy of +his delight, broke in here,-- + +"Can't take no bids, gentlemen, short of a half-dollar rise, each time!" + +Old Woollen retired, discomfited, and was seen no more. + +From this point the bidding ran up rapidly till it reached twenty-five +dollars, where it stopped, Samson Newell being the successful bidder. + +It was a study to watch the man, now that his chance for reaching home +that day brightened. Instead of being elate, his spirits seemed to fall +as he made his arrival at the village certain. + +"Ah!" he thought, "are my father and mother yet living? How will my +brothers and sisters welcome me home?" + +How, indeed? + + * * * * * + +In the village where dwelt Jacob Newell and his wife, an old man, lame +and totally blind, had been for over thirty years employed by the town +to ring the meetinghouse-bell at noon, and at nine o'clock in the +evening. For this service, the salary fixed generations before was five +dollars, and summer and winter, rain or shine, he was always at his post +at the instant. + +When the old man rang the evening-bell on the Thanksgiving-Day whereof I +write, he aroused Jacob and his wife from deep reverie. + +"Oh, Jacob!" said the latter, "such a waking dream as I have had! I +thought they all stood before me,--all,--every one,--none missing! And +they were little children again, and had come to say their prayers +before going to bed! They were all there, and I could not drive it from +my heart that I loved Samson best!" + +His name had hardly been mentioned between them for fifteen years. + +Jacob Newell, with a strange look, as though he were gazing at some +dimly defined object afar off, slowly spoke,-- + +"I have thought sometimes that I should like to know where he lies, if +he is dead,--or how he lives, if he be living. Shall we meet him? Shall +we meet him? Five goodly spirits await us in heaven; will _he_ be there, +also? Oh, no! he was a bad, bad, bad son, and he broke his father's +heart!" + +"He was a bad son, Jacob, giddy and light-headed, but not wholly bad. +Oh, he was so strong, so handsome, so bright and brave! If he is living, +I pray God that he may come back to see us for a little, before we +follow our other lost ones!" + +"If he should come back," said Jacob, turning very white, but speaking +clearly and distinctly, "I would drive him from my door, and tell him +to be gone forever! A wine-bibber, dissolute, passionate, headstrong, +having no reverence for God or man, no love for his mother, no sense +of duty towards his father; I have disowned him, once and forever, and +utterly cast him out! Let him beware and not come back to tempt me to +curse him!" + +Still from the distance, overpowering and drowning the headlong rush of +passion, came the soft booming of the evening-bell. + +"I hear the church-bell, Jacob: we have not long to hear it. Let us not +die cursing our son in our hearts. God gave him to us; and if Satan led +him astray, we know not how strong the temptation may have been, nor how +he may have fought against it." + +Jacob Newell had nought to say in answer to this, but, from the passion +in his heart, and from that egotism that many good men have whose +religious education has taught them to make their personal godliness a +matter to vaunt over, he spoke, foolishly and little to the point,-- + +"Ruth, did Satan ever lead _me_ astray?" + +"God knows!" she replied. + +There came a rap at the door. + +The melody of the church-bell was fast dying away. The last cadences of +sound, the last quiver in the air, when the ringer had ceased to ring +and the hammer struck the bell no more, lingered still, as a timid and +uncertain tapping fell upon the door. + +"Come in!" said Jacob Newell. + +The door was slowly opened. + +Then there stood within it a tall, muscular man, a stranger in those +parts, with a ruddy face, and a full, brown beard. He stood grasping +the door with all his might, and leaning against it as for support. +Meanwhile his gaze wandered about the room with a strange anxiety, as +though it sought in vain for what should assuredly have been found +there. + +"Good evening, Sir," said Jacob Newell. + +The stranger made no reply, but still stood clinging to the door, with a +strange and horrible expression of mingled wonder and awe in his face. + +"'Tis a lunatic!" whispered Ruth to her husband. + +"Sir," said Jacob, "what do you want here to-night?" + +The stranger found voice at length, but it was weak and timorous as that +of a frightened child. + +"We were on the train, my wife and I, with our three little ones,--on +the train snowed in five miles back,--and we ask, if you will give it, +a night's lodging, it being necessary that we should reach home without +paying for our keeping at the hotel. My wife and children are outside +the door, and nearly frozen, I assure you." + +Then Ruth's warm heart showed itself. + +"Come in," she said. "Keep you?--of course we can. Come in and warm +yourselves." + +A sweet woman, with one child in her arms, and two shivering beside her, +glided by the man into the room. They were immediately the recipients of +the good old lady's hospitality; she dragged them at once, one and all, +to the warmest spot beside the hearth. + +Still the man stood, aimless and uncertain, clutching the door and +swaying to and fro. + +"Why do you stand there at the door? Why not come in?" said Jacob +Newell. "You must be cold and hungry. Ruth--that's my wife, Sir--will +get you and your family some supper." + +Then the man came in and walked with an unsteady step to a chair placed +for him near the fire. After he had seated himself he shook like one in +an ague-fit. + +"I fear you are cold," said Ruth. + +"Oh, no!" he said. + +His voice struggled to his lips with difficulty and came forth +painfully. + +The old lady went to a corner cupboard, and, after a moment's search, +brought forth a black bottle, from which she poured something into a +glass. It smelt like Jamaica rum. With this she advanced towards the +stranger, but she was bluntly stopped by Jacob,-- + +"I am afraid the gentleman has had too much of that already!" + +For an instant, like a red flash of lightning, a flush of anger passed +across his features before the stranger meekly made answer that he had +tasted no liquor that day. Ruth handed him the glass and he drained it +at a gulp. In a moment more he sat quietly upright and proceeded gravely +to divest himself of his heavy shawl and overcoat, after which he +assisted in warming and comforting the children, who were growing sleepy +and cross. + +Ruth bustled about with her preparations for giving the strangers a +comfortable supper, and Jacob and his unexpected guest entered into +conversation. + +"I used to be acquainted hereabout," the stranger began, "and I feel +almost like getting among friends, whenever I visit the place. I rode +over with old Gus Parker to-day, from where the train lies bedded near +the five-mile cut, but I was too busy keeping the children warm to ask +him any questions. I came here because your son Mark Newell and I were +old cronies at school together. I--I don't see him here to-night,"--the +stranger's voice trembled now,--"where is he?" + +"Where we must all follow him, sooner or later,--in the grave!" + +"But he had brothers,--I've heard him say," the stranger +continued,--with an anxiety in his tone that he could by no means +conceal; "I believe he had--let me see--three brothers and two sisters. +Where are _they_?" + +"All gone!" cried Jacob Newell, rising and pacing the room. Then +suddenly facing his singular guest, he continued, speaking rapidly and +bitterly, "You have three children,--I had six! Yours are alive and +hearty; but so were mine; and when I was a young man, like you, I +foolishly thought that I should raise them all, have them clustering +around me in my old age, die before any of them, and so know no +bereavements! To-day I stand here a solitary old man, sinking rapidly +into the grave, and without a relation of any kind, that I know of, on +the face of the earth! Think that such a fate may yet be yours! But the +bitterness of life you will not fully know, unless one of your boys--as +one of mine did--turns out profligate and drunken, leaves your fireside +to associate with the dissolute, and finally deserts his home and all, +forever!" + +"If that son of yours be yet alive, and were ever to return,--suddenly +and without warning, as I have broken in upon you to-night,--if he +should come to you and say, 'Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and +before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son!' what should +you say to him?" + +"I should say, 'For fifteen years you have deserted me without giving +mark or token that you were in the body; now you have come to see me +die, and you may stay to bury me!' I should say that, I think, though +I swore to Ruth but now that I would curse him, if ever he +returned,--curse him and drive him from my door!" + +"But if he came back penitent indeed for past follies and offences, and +only anxious to do well in the future,--if your son should come in that +way, convincing you with tears of his sincerity, you surely would be +more gentle to him than that! You would put away wrath, would you not? I +ask you," the stranger continued, with emotion, "because I find myself +in the position we suppose your son to be placed in. I am going home +after an absence of years, during all which time I have held no +communication with my family. I have sojourned in foreign lands, and now +I come to make my father and my mother happy, if it be not too late for +that! I come half hoping and half fearing; tell me what I am to expect? +Place yourself in my father's position and read me my fate!" + +While he spoke, his wife, sitting silent by the fire, bent low over the +child she held, and a few quiet tears fell upon the little one's frock. + +Ruth Newell, moving back and forth, in the preparation of the stranger's +supper, wore an unquiet and troubled aspect, while the old farmer +himself was agitated in a manner painful to see. It was some seconds +before he broke the silence. When he spoke, his voice was thick and +husky. + +"If I had a son like you,--if those little children were my +grandchildren,--if the sweet lady there was my son's wife,--ah, +then!----But it is too late! Why do you come here to put turbulent, +raging regrets into my heart, that but for you would be beating calmly +as it did yesterday, and the day before, and has for years? Ah! if my +son were indeed here! If Samson were indeed here!" + +The stranger half arose, as though to spring forward, then sank back +into his seat again. + +But the little child sitting in her mother's lap by the fire clapped her +hands and laughed a childish, happy laugh. + +"What pleases my little girl?" asked the mother. + +"Why, '_Samson_'" the child said,--"_that's what you call papa!_" + +Then Ruth, who stood by the table with a pitcher of water in her +hand, staggered backwards like one stricken a violent and sudden +blow!--staggered backwards, dropping the pitcher with a heavy crash as +she retreated, and crossing her hands upon her bosom with quick, short +catchings of the breath! Then crying, "My son! my son!" she threw +herself, with one long, long sob, upon the stranger's neck! + + * * * * * + +The story is told. What lay in his power was done by the returned +prodigal, who did not come back empty-handed to the paternal roof. His +wife and children fostered and petted the old people, till, after the +passage of two or three more Thanksgiving-Days, they became as cheerful +as of old, and they are now considered one of the happiest couples in +the county. Do not, on that account, O too easily influenced youth, +think that happiness for one's self and others is usually secured by +dissolute habits in early life, or by running away from home. Half the +occupants of our jails and alms-houses can tell you to the contrary. + + * * * * * + + +SONG IN A DREAM. + + + Winter rose-leaves, silver-white, + Drifting o'er our darling's bed,-- + He's asleep, withdrawn from sight,-- + All his little prayers are said, + And he droops his shining head. + + Winter rose-leaves, falling still, + Go and waken his sad eyes, + Touch his pillowed rest, until + He shall start with glad surprise, + And from slumber sweet arise! + + * * * * * + + +ENGLAND AND EMANCIPATION. + + +In the British House of Commons, some eighty years ago, two newly chosen +members took their places, each of whom afterwards became distinguished +in the history of that body. They had become acquainted at the +University of Cambridge, were strongly united by friendship, and had +each, on attaining to manhood, formed the deliberate purpose of entering +public life. Of these two, one was William Pitt, the other was William +Wilberforce. + +Neither of these members of Parliament had at this time passed the age +of twenty-one, and the latter was of extremely youthful appearance. +Small of stature and slight in frame, his delicate aspect was redeemed +from effeminacy by a head of classic contour, a penetrating and +melodious voice, an address which always won attention. His superior +social endowments were fully recognized by the companions of his +leisure; nor was his influence lessened by the fact, that by the death +of his father and uncle he had become the only male representative of +his family and the master of a goodly inheritance. He paid from the +first close attention to the business of the House, and, though by +no means anxious to be heard, showed, that, when called out by any +occasion, he was fully competent to meet it. Representing his native +city of Hull, his first public speech was on a topic immediately +connected with her interests. + +The brilliant career of Mr. Pitt commenced, as the reader knows, in +early life. Passing by the mental exploits of his boyhood, we meet him +at his entrance upon the public service. He had no sooner become a +member of the House of Commons than it began to be remarked that in him +appeared to be reproduced those same qualities of statesmanship which +had marked his illustrious father, Lord Chatham. Such powers, evinced +by one who was but just stepping upon the stage of public life, first +excited surprise, which was quickly followed by admiration. That +strength of thought and keenness of analysis, which, seizing upon a +subject, bring out at once its real elements of importance, and present +them in their practical bearings, deducing the course dictated by a wise +policy, had hitherto been regarded, by those who found themselves the +willing auditors of a youth, as the ripened fruits of experience alone. + +England was at this time at war not only with her American colonies, but +with France, Spain, and Holland. Weakened by these prolonged conflicts, +her finances drained, her huge debt increasing every day, her condition +called loudly for a change of policy. The cause of American Independence +was not without its advocates in the House, and among these Mr. Pitt +was soon found, uttering his sentiments without reserve. Probably no +individual of that body exerted a stronger influence than he in securing +for this country the full recognition of her rights. Of the manner in +which he was accustomed to treat of the American War, here is a single +specimen. After speaking of it as "conceived in injustice, brought forth +and nurtured in folly," and continually draining the country of its +vital resources of men and treasure, he proceeds:-- + +"And what had the British nation gained in return? Nothing but a series +of ineffective victories and severe defeats,--victories celebrated only +by a temporary triumph over our brethren, whom we were endeavoring to +trample down and destroy,--which filled the land with mourning for +dear and valuable relatives slain in the vain attempt to enforce +unconditional submission, or with narratives of the glorious exertions +of men struggling under every difficulty and disadvantage in the sacred +cause of liberty. Where was the Englishman, who, on reading the accounts +of these sanguinary and well-fought battles, could refrain from +lamenting the loss of so much British blood spilled in such a contest, +or from weeping, whichever side victory might be declared?" + +It was not unusual for Mr. Pitt, when he addressed the House on a topic +of sufficient magnitude to call forth his powers, to be followed +by plaudits so loud and long-continued that the next speaker found +difficulty in securing quiet in order to be heard. While in the youth +was recognized the sagacity of the late Lord Chatham, it was declared +that the eloquence of the father was exceeded by that of the son. Signal +services to the country were augured, even by his opponents, from one of +such extraordinary abilities and manifest integrity of purpose. He began +to be looked upon as capable of holding the highest trusts, fitted for +the gravest responsibilities. Hardly can history furnish a parallel to +the case of so young a person solicited by his sovereign to take the +lead of his administration, and declining the honor. Yet such, in this +instance, was the fact. + +A change in the Ministry having become necessary, it was proposed that +Mr. Pitt should be appointed First Lord of the Treasury in the place of +Lord Shelburne. That this appointment should be made was known to be +expressly desired by the King. The friends of the young statesman were +delighted. They advised by all means that the offer should at once be +accepted. But, undazzled by his own unprecedented success, he weighed +the matter coolly and deliberately. + +That Mr. Pitt had a due sense of his own powers is evident. Early in his +political life he had expressed his unwillingness to hold office under +circumstances where he must execute measures which had originated in +other minds rather than his own. As this was declining beforehand all +subordinate office, an excessive modesty could hardly have been the +cause of his backwardness at this juncture. It must be sought elsewhere. +It is found in the opinion which he entertained that the Ministry now +about to be formed could never be an efficient one. The union which had +recently taken place between parties whose political enmity had +been extreme indicated to him an equally extreme opposition to the +Government. The coalition between Lord North and Mr. Fox would, he +anticipated, be the occasion of such a tide of hostility in the House of +Commons as he was too wary to be willing to stem. + +It was argued that he was needed; that an exigency had arisen which no +one but himself could adequately meet; the country, in her adverse hour, +must have his services; the King desired them, solicited them. With a +remarkable degree of reticence he declined all these overtures, and in +a letter addressed to his sovereign gave a most respectful, but decided +negative. + +Yet fame still followed him, and honor and office still claimed him +as their rightful recipient. With the lapse of time came changes, and +public affairs presented themselves in new and unexpected aspects. The +vast empire of the East loomed up before the vision of statesmen and +legislators in hitherto unimagined splendors, and with claims +upon attention which could not be set aside. At the India House +considerations of momentous interest had arisen. Mr. Pitt entered deeply +into these affairs, connected as they were with the onward progress of +British rule in Hindostan. A crisis occurred at this time, in which, +having the power, he could serve his country with manifest advantage to +her interests. At this juncture the offer of the King was renewed. It +came now just at the right time, and the young statesman was found as +ready to accept as he had before been prompt to decline. Mr. Pitt became +the Prime-Minister of George III., and henceforth his history is blended +with the movements of the Government. + +Mr. Wilberforce had also at this time taken a strong hold upon public +life. His energies were enlisted in favor of the Governmental party, +of which Mr. Pitt had become the leader. Returning from a journey into +France, which they had made together, these two friends entered +upon their respective duties. With regard to the question at issue, +Yorkshire, the largest county in England, had not yet defined her +position with a sufficient degree of distinctness. Here Mr. Wilberforce +possessed landed estates, and here he was prepared to uphold the +consistency and integrity of the Administration. That peculiar +persuasive power, that silver-toned eloquence, which in after years won +for him so much influence in the House of Commons, here perhaps for the +first time found full play and triumphant success. His power over the +minds of men certainly was brought to a rigorous test. + +It was on a chilly day, amid falling hail, that he addressed a crowd of +people in the castle-yard at York. They had listened already to several +speakers, were weary, and about to separate, when Mr. Wilberforce +appeared on the stand and began to speak. Silence was at once secured, +and so perfectly were they swayed by his words that all signs +of opposition or impatience disappeared. For more than an hour, +notwithstanding unfavorable circumstances, he held their attention, +winning them to harmony with his own political views. This was not all. +Before the assembly dispersed, it was whispered from one to another, "We +must have this man for our county member." The election of a member for +Yorkshire was nigh at hand, and when its results were made known, he +found himself in the influential position of "a representative of the +tenth part of England." + +To this same member for Yorkshire, in conjunction with the +Prime-Minister of England, we are indebted for the first Parliamentary +agitation of a topic which has since been fruitful enough in discussion, +--AFRICAN SLAVERY. + +The introduction of this subject into Parliament, during the +administration of Pitt, was by no means the fruit of a sudden impulse, +but was rather the matured expression of a series of preliminary +efforts. In private circles, the Slave-Trade had been already denounced +and protested against, as unworthy of a civilized, not to say a +Christian people. In certain quarters, too, the press had become the +exponent of these sentiments. Possibly, in their beginnings, no person +did more in the exertion of those means which have wrought into the +heart of the English people such undying hatred to Negro Slavery than +the amiable recluse whose writings can never die so long as lovers of +poetry continue to live. Who has not at times turned away from the +best-loved of the living poets, to regale himself with the compact, +polished, sweetly ringing numbers of Cowper? On the subject of Slavery +he had already given expression to his thoughts in language which at the +present day, in certain portions of the United States, must subject his +works to a strict expurgatorial process. He had exposed to the world the +injustice of the system, and had thrown around his words the magic of +song. + +It would not, of course, be possible to proceed in these reminiscences +without coming at once upon the names of Granville Sharp and Thomas +Clarkson. The clerk who became a law-student, that he might be qualified +to substantiate the truth that a slave could not exist on British +soil, the Cambridge graduate, awakened by the preparation of his own +prize-essay to a sympathy with the slave, which never, during a long +life, flagged for an hour, need not be eulogized to-day. The latter of +these gentlemen repeatedly visited Mr. Wilberforce and conferred with +him upon this subject, imparting to him the fruit of his own careful and +minute investigations. These consisted of certain well-authenticated +items of information and documentary evidence concerning the trade and +the cruelties growing out of it. The public efforts which followed, +though hardly originated by these conferences, were probably hastened +by them. Nor should it be forgotten that a small knot of individuals, +mostly Quakers, had associated themselves under the name of "The London +Committee." This, if not an anti-slavery society, was the nucleus of +what afterwards became one. These hitherto unrecognized efforts were +about to receive fresh encouragement and acquire new efficiency. The +influences which had worked in silence and among a few were about to be +brought out to the light. + +It was on the 5th of May, 1788, that a motion was introduced into the +House of Commons having for its object the abolition of the Slave-Trade. +It was brought forward by Mr. Pitt. He intended to secure its discussion +early in the next session. Mr. Wilberforce, he hoped, would then be +present, whose seat was now vacant by reason of severe illness. He had +been, indeed, at one time, given over by his physicians, but had been +assured by Mr. Pitt, that, even in case of a fatal result of his +disease, the cause of African freedom should not die. + +The idea of possible legislation on this subject was no sooner broached +than it was at once taken up and found able advocates. Here Pitt and Fox +were of one mind, and were supported by the veteran advocate for justice +and right, Edmund Burke. The latter had some years before attempted to +call attention to this very subject. Certain Bristol merchants, +his wealthy constituents, had thus been grievously offended at the +aberrations of the representative of their city. As early as 1780 he had +drawn up an elaborate "Negro Code," of which it may be said, that, had +some of its regulations been heeded, at least one leaf in the world's +history would have presented a different reading from that which it now +bears. Mr. Burke was at this time in the decline of life, and was well +pleased that other and younger advocates were enlisted in the same great +cause. + +A bill was brought forward at this session, by one of the friends of the +cause, Sir W. Dolben, for lessening immediately the cruelties of the +trade. It will be remembered that up to this time slave-ships had sailed +up the Thames all unmolested, were accustomed to fit out for their +voyages, and, having disposed of their cargoes, to return. A vessel of +this description had arrived at the port of London. The subject of the +traffic having become invested with interest, a portion of the members +of the House paid a visit to the ill-starred craft. The deplorably +narrow quarters where hundreds of human beings were to be stowed away +during the weeks that might be necessary to make their passage produced +upon the minds of these gentlemen a most unfavorable impression. The +various insignia of the trade did not tend to lessen this, but rather +changed disgust into horror. Something must be done for the reformation +of these abuses, and that immediately. The bill for regulating the trade +passed both Houses, notwithstanding a vigorous opposition, and became +a law. By the provisions of this bill the trade was so restricted that +owners and officers of vessels were forbidden by law to receive such +excessive cargoes as they had hitherto done. The number of slaves should +henceforth be limited and regulated by the tonnage of the ship. This was +something gained. But the anti-slavery party, though in its infancy, had +already begun to show the features of its maturer days. Its strenuous +and uncompromising nature began to manifest itself. The law for +regulating the trade displeased the members who sought its abolition. +They were, however, pacified by the assurance that this was by no means +regarded as a remedy for the evil, but simply as a check upon its +outrages. + +In the spring of the following year, in pursuance of Mr. Pitt's motion, +the subject was again brought forward. Mr. Wilberforce was now ready for +the occasion, and on the 12th of May, 1789, in a speech of three hours +and a half, he held the attention of the House, while he unfolded the +African Slave-Trade in its several points of view,--its nature, being +founded in injustice, its cruelties, the terrible mortality of the +slave-ship, the demoralizing influence of the trade upon British +sailors, and the astonishing waste of life among them, as well as among +the captive negroes. + +The speech was declared to be one of the ablest ever delivered before +the House. The speaker was also well sustained by Pitt and Fox. Mr. +Burke said of this performance,--"The House, the nation, and Europe are +under great and serious obligations to the honorable gentleman, for +having brought forward the subject in a manner the most masterly, +impressive, and eloquent." "It was," said Bishop Porteus, who was +present, "a glorious night for this country." + +The subject was now fairly afloat. The anti-slavery agitation had sprung +to a vigorous life. The "irrepressible conflict" was begun. Nor can it +be denied that its beginning was highly respectable. If there be any +good in elevated social rank joined to distinguished ability, if there +be any advantage in the favor of honorable and right-minded men, any +dignity in British halls of legislation, the advocate of anti-slavery +doctrines may claim alliance with them all. + +One inevitable effect of the interest thus awakened was to render those +enlisted in favor of the trade aware of their position, and alert to +prevent any interference on the part of the Government. The alarm +spread. The merchants of Liverpool and Bristol must maintain their +ground. In various quarters were set forth the advantages of the trade. +It was no injustice to the negro, but rather a benefit. The trader was +no robber or oppressor; he was a benefactor, in that by his means the +native African was taken from a heathen land and brought to live among +Christians. At home, he was the victim of savage warfare; by the +slave-ship his life was prolonged and his salvation rendered possible. + +Witnesses on both sides were now summoned for examination before +Parliamentary committees. The premises from which conclusions had been +drawn must be thoroughly sifted. The evidence collected was manifold; +to dispose of it required time, and with time the opponents of the +Abolition Bill gathered strength. The next year and the following +its advocates still maintained its claims. The third year of its +presentation opened with high hopes of its success. Its friends had +increased in number, and so marked was the inferiority of their +opponents in talents and influence, at this time, that the contest was +known as "The War of the Pigmies against the Giants." But the pigmies, +being numerous, gained the vote, and it only remained for the giants to +return with renewed vigor to the contest in the following year. + +In 1792 the debate began with spirit. During this discussion Mr. Pitt +was most prominent. The great subject of the Resources of Africa had +recently engaged his attention. This subject, then an almost untried +theme, seems not unlikely in our day to take precedence of all others +in connection with the fate of the negro. It has been argued, and that +wisely, that only by strengthening the African at home can he ever be +respected abroad. In the productions of his native soil lie materials +for trade vastly better than the buying and selling of men, women, and +children. The fomenting of wars, whereby captives may be secured, +may well be superseded by the culture of the coffee-tree and the +cotton-plant. + +Mr. Clarkson, who left no effort untried which might in any manner +promote the interests of the cause, regarded as one important means +to this end the diffusion of knowledge concerning that unknown and +mysterious region. He had therefore procured from Africa specimens of +some of the actual products of the country, to which he called the +attention of the Premier. The specimens of ivory and gold, of ebony and +mahogany, of valuable gums and cotton cloth, awoke a new vein of thought +in the mind of the statesman. The resources of such a country should be +brought into use for her own benefit and for the promotion of commerce. +When his turn came to address the House, he presented this view, +pursuing it at some length, and attacking on this ground the trade in +slaves. That exuberant imagination which he was accustomed to rein in, +yet which well knew how to sport itself in its own airy realm, was +here suffered to take wing. He pictured to his enraptured audience the +civilization and glory of Africa, when, in coming years, delivered +from the curse of the Slave-Trade, she should take her place among the +nations. + +Wilberforce, in writing to one of his friends concerning this speech, +after mentioning the admiration expressed by one who was no friend to +Pitt, adds,--"For the last twenty minutes he seemed really inspired." + +A bill was introduced at this time for putting an end to the whole +business in a certain number of years. The year 1800 was named as the +extreme limit of the continuance of the traffic, that department of it +by which British vessels supplied foreign nations being abandoned at +once. + +The bill for gradual abolition displeased those who were most deeply +interested in the matter. The clear-headed sagacity of Pitt, the +patriotism of Fox, and the moral sense of Wilberforce led them to the +expression of the same view. There could be no compromise between right +and wrong; that which required redress some years hence required it now. +It was, moreover, they were certain, in some minds only a pretext for +delay, as the event proved. + +If the advocates of the discontinuance of the Slave-Trade had in the +beginning anticipated an easy victory, they had before this become +convinced of their mistake. The prospect, which had looked bright +and hopeful, pointing to a happy consummation, after a period of +encouragement again grew dark and doubtful. Instead of a speedy +adjustment, they found themselves involved in a long contest. Opponents +increased in strength and activity. Wars and convulsions, rending the +nations of Europe, engrossed the thoughts of public men. As years passed +on, the Abolition Bill became a sort of fixture. It grew into a saying, +that "only the eloquence of Pitt and Wilberforce" made the House willing +to endure its mention at all. The amount of documentary evidence became +formidable in quantity and tedious in detail. For collecting this +evidence Mr. Clarkson had now the most ample means, in the persons of +those who, whether as sailors, soldiers, or scientific men, had become +acquainted with Western Africa. In the work of reducing these masses of +facts to a system, making them available for purposes of public debate, +a most efficient aid was found in Mr. Zachary Macaulay. The father of +the celebrated historian was most unrelaxing in his zeal for Abolition, +and, possessing a memory of singular tenacity, he came to be +regarded, in this peculiar department of knowledge, as a very perfect +encyclopedia. Nor, in mentioning the advocates of the suppression of the +monster evil, should we ever forget one who to an overflowing goodness +of heart added an inimitable richness and delicacy of humor,--James +Stephen. His influence in Parliament was always given in favor of +Abolition, and he was also the author of several able pamphlets on the +subject. He had been at one period of his life a resident in the West +India Colonies, and the hatred of the slave-system which he there +imbibed remained unchanged through life. + +While, as has been seen, these labors were becoming complicated and +arduous, the opposition was growing not only strong, but violent. +Anti-slavery petitions, intended for presentation in Parliament, must be +sent in strong boxes, addressed, not to the leaders of the cause, but +to private persons, lest they should be opened and their contents +destroyed. Mr. Wilberforce is requested, when writing to a friend +in Liverpool, not to frank his own letter, lest it should never be +received. Correspondence on this subject must be carried on anonymously, +and addressed to persons not known to be interested. This was not the +worst. To random words of defiant opposition were added threats +of personal violence. For a space of two years the friends of Mr. +Wilberforce were annoyed by a desperate man who had declared that he +would take the life of the Yorkshire member. But, to do justice to the +advocates of the trade, there was one form of violence which they appear +never to have contemplated:--secession. The injured slave-merchants of +that time never thought of conspiring against the government under which +they lived. That was reserved for a later day. + +Yet, while appearances were so dark, the cause was actually gaining +ground. The moral sense of the nation was becoming aroused. The +scattered sympathies of the religious classes were concentrating. +Already public sentiment in certain quarters was outgrowing the +movements of Parliament, and the impatient friends of the negro declared +that the leaders of the cause had given up! + +In rebutting this charge, Mr. Wilberforce took high ground. He declared +that for himself his aim in this thing was the service of God, and, that +having committed himself to this enterprise, he was not at liberty to go +back. Believing that these efforts on behalf of an injured people were +in accordance with the will of the Almighty, he expressed himself +confident that the divine attributes were enlisted in the work and sure +of the ultimate success of the cause. Of his sincerity and honesty in +this matter we need not speak. By common consent he takes place among +those who in this world have been permitted to illustrate on an extended +scale the power and beauty of the Christian life. As a reformer of the +abuses of society he is often cited as a model, uniting to a singular +purity and sweetness of spirit an immovable firmness of will. To these +blended and diverse qualities was owing, in a great measure, the final +success of the long-contested Abolition Bill. Seldom, indeed, has the +patience of an advocate been put to a severer test than during the +protracted period that the bill for the suppression of the Slave-Trade +was before the House. To push it forward when there was an opening, +and to withdraw when effort was useless or worse than useless, was the +course pursued for a series of years. The subject, meanwhile, was never +lost sight of; when nothing more could be done, the House were reminded +that it was still in reserve. + +Early in the present century a favorable conjuncture of events led to +vigorous efforts for the attainment of the long desired object. The +antagonistic policy was now rather to hinder the progress of the +Abolition Bill than to oppose the ultimate extinction of the trade. Of +the supporters of this policy it was remarked by Mr. Pitt, that "they +who wished to protract the season of conflict, whatever might be their +professions, really wished to uphold the system." + +Notwithstanding certain covert efforts on the part of the opposition, +the prospect gradually brightened. Several new and influential members +were added to the London Society,--among them Henry Brougham. The Irish +members, who, in consequence of the completed union with England, took +their seats in Parliament, were almost to a man in favor of Abolition. +In 1805 success seemed about to be obtained. But before the final +passage of the Abolition Bill came sorrow of heart to its friends. Mr. +Pitt, having run a political career whose unexampled brilliancy and +usefulness had well fulfilled his early promise, died in the very prime +of life. A year had hardly passed, when his great political rival, Mr. +Fox, was no more. Both of these distinguished men had been, as we have +seen, from the beginning of the contest, the friends of Abolition. +Said Mr. Fox, on his death-bed,--"Two things I wish earnestly to see +accomplished: peace with Europe, and the abolition of the Slave-Trade; +but of the two I wish the latter." + +Notwithstanding the death of its friends, the Abolition Bill was +steadily making its way. The "vexed question" of near twenty years was +about to be set at rest. Opposition had grown feeble, and in May, 1807, +the bill which made the Slave-Trade a crime wherever the British rule +extended passed both Houses and became a law. + +It was a day of triumphant joy. This was felt by the friends of +Abolition at large, and especially by its advocates. These received +everywhere the warmest congratulations. Mr. Wilberforce, on entering the +House of Commons just before the passage of the bill, was greeted with +rounds of applause. + +That Slavery had received its death-blow was fully believed at this +time. Africa being delivered from the traffic, the institution itself, +its supplies being cut off, must necessarily wither and die. This was +the common view of the matter; and the more effectually to secure this +result, negotiations were entered into with other European governments +for the suppression of the trade in their dominions. In America, the +Congress of the United States passed a law prohibiting the African +Slave-Trade after the year 1808, the period indicated in the +Constitution,--the law taking effect a few years later. Napoleon, +restored from his first banishment, and once more wielding the sceptre +of power, caused a law to be passed forbidding the trade in the French +Colonies. The friends of the negro were everywhere high in hope that the +days of Slavery were numbered. Starved out, the monster must inevitably +die. So sure were they of this result, that in England their efforts had +all along been directed against the trade. The institution itself had +been comparatively untouched. + +A few years passed, and it began to be evident to those who had been +active in the great conflict that the law against the Slave-Trade was +less effectual than had been anticipated. The ocean was wide, the +African coast a thousand miles long, and desperate men were not wanting +who were disposed to elude the statute for the sake of large gains. +Nor need they fail to secure suitable markets for the sale of their +ill-gotten cargoes. But into this part of our subject it may not be well +to pry too closely. + +If the friends of the African cause had supposed their work +accomplished, when their first success was attained, their error was +soon corrected. It was pleasant to repose upon the laurels so dearly +won; but another battle must be fought, and this necessity soon became +apparent. But a few years elapsed and the negro was again made the +subject of legislative consideration. Mr. Wilberforce was still a member +of the House, though most of those with whom he had been associated at +the beginning of his public life were dead. Forty years had passed since +he first took his seat, but he was ready once more to take up the cause +of the defenceless. The abuses perpetrated against the West Indian negro +called loudly for Governmental interference. + +Since 1807 little had been done save the passage of the Registry Bill, +which had been secured by Mr. Wilberforce in 1816. This was of the +nature of an investigation into the actual state of the West India +Colonies with respect to the illicit commerce in slaves. Mild as this +measure appeared, it proved the opening wedge of much that followed. It +was in fact the first of a series of movements which issued in momentous +events, even the emancipation of all the slaves in the British Colonies. +The passage of this bill was followed by an increased expression of +interest in the matter of Negro Slavery; this was evinced in a number of +valuable publications issued at this time,--able pamphlets from the pens +of Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Stephen, and others. The labors of the London +Society have already been noticed; and after the passage of the law of +1807 we find in existence the "African Institution," under which name +the friends of the negro were associated for the purpose of watching +over his interests, more particularly with regard to the operation +of the law. But during the period of repose which followed the first +anti-slavery triumph, a portion of this body, losing its original +activity, had become comparatively supine. + +In 1818, Thomas Fowell Buxton, whose Quaker mother had instilled into +him a hatred of African Slavery, became a member of Parliament. Having +soon after joined himself to the African Institution, he became somewhat +mortified at the apathy of the friends of the slave, as here embodied. +He was frank and outspoken, and gave expression to his indignant feeling +without reserve. The next day the young member for Weymouth found +himself addressed by Wilberforce, for whom he entertained a high +veneration, and warmly thanked for the earnest utterance of his +sentiments the evening before. + +After this Mr. Wilberforce conferred freely with Mr. Buxton upon the +subject of Slavery in its manifold details. In a letter written not far +from this time he unfolded the matter concerning the negroes of the West +Indian plantations, the cruelties to which they were subjected, and the +abuses which grew out of the system. Something must be done. Measures +must be taken of a protective character at least, and the work must be +prosecuted with vigor. Such was the view presented by Mr. Wilberforce. +Warned by age and infirmity that the period of his retirement from +public life could not be far distant, he wished that the cause which +had been with him a paramount one might be passed to able and faithful +hands. + +How Mr. Buxton responded to this call the subsequent history of the +anti-slavery cause unfolds. He had already shown, that, as a member of +the House, he was to make no light impression, whatever might be the +objects which should enlist his efforts. + +At this juncture there was formed in London a new anti-slavery society. +Its object was explicitly stated to be "the mitigation and gradual +abolition of Slavery throughout the British dominions." In looking over +the names of its officers and leading members, we find not those of the +early Abolitionists alone: by the side of Zachary Macaulay we find the +name of his more distinguished son, and that of Wilberforce is similarly +followed. + +In behalf of the African there existed a somewhat widely spread public +sympathy, the fruit of the previous long-continued presentation of +the subject, and at this time it seemed about to be aroused. Several +petitions, having reference to Slavery, were sent into the House of +Commons. The first of these came from the Quakers, and Mr. Wilberforce, +on presenting it, took occasion to make an address to the House. In +place of Mr. Pitt now stood Mr. Canning, who inquired of Mr. Wilberforce +if he intended to found upon his remarks any motion. He replied,--"No; +but that such was the intention of an esteemed friend of his." Mr. +Buxton then announced his intention of submitting to the House a +motion that the state of Slavery in the British Colonies be taken into +consideration. + +On the 15th of May, 1823, the expected debate took place. Mr. Buxton +began by moving a resolution, "That the state of Slavery is repugnant +to the principles of the British Constitution and of the Christian +Religion, and that it ought to be gradually abolished throughout the +British Colonies, with as much expedition as may be found consistent +with a due regard to the well-being of the parties concerned." + +A lively debate followed, and certain resolutions drawn up by Mr. +Canning were finally carried. These articles, as well as Mr. Buxton's +motion, had in view a gradual improvement in the condition and character +of the slaves. In pursuance of the object to be attained, circular +letters were addressed to the Colonial authorities, recommending, with +regard to the negroes, certain enlargements of privileges. These +letters were extremely moderate in their tone. The reforms were simply +recommended, not authoritatively enjoined; in the language of Mr. +Canning, the movement was such a one "as should be compatible with the +well-being of the slaves themselves, with the safety of the Colonies, +and with a fair and equitable consideration of the rights of private +property." + +Moderate as were the measures first set on foot for the improvement +of the social state of the slaves, the authors were not by that means +secured from opposition. This was accompanied, on the part of the West +India planters, by such an extreme violence as was hardly expected, at +least by the Premier, who had so favorably met the introduction of the +subject, if he had not actually committed himself to the work. The +leaders of the movement, who had but just now been borne onward by the +wave of public approval, found themselves fiercely denounced. Here is a +brief paragraph which appeared at that time in a Jamaica newspaper:-- + +"We pray the imperial Parliament to amend their origin, which is +bribery; to cleanse their consciences, which are corrupt; to throw +off their disguise, which is hypocrisy; to break off with their false +allies, who are the saints; and finally, to banish from among them the +purchased rogues, who are three-fourths of their number." + +Among the reforms recommended to the Colonists, by the circular letters +of the Government, was one which had reference to the indecent flogging +of the female slaves, and also a suggestive restraint upon corporal +punishment in general. This called forth in a Colonial paper +the following, which certainly has the merit of being entirely +unambiguous:-- + +"We did and do declare the whip to be essential to West India +discipline, ay, as essential, my Lord Calthorpe, as the freedom of the +press and the trial by jury to the liberty of the subject in Britain, +and to be justified on equally legitimate ground. The comfort, welfare, +and happiness of our laboring classes cannot subsist without it." + +These specimens of the fierceness of abuse with which the Government +was assailed may perhaps prepare the reader for that last resort of +indignant discontent on the part of the governed,--the threat of +secession! Yes; Jamaica will break away from the tyranny of which she is +the much abused object, she will free herself from the oppression of the +mother country, and then,--what next?--she will seek for friendship and +protection from the United States! How soon this threat, if persisted in +and carried out into action, would have been silenced by the thunder of +British cannon, we need not stay to consider. + +To this clamor of the opposition the more timid of the Anti-Slavery +party were disposed to yield, at least for a season. The Government +showed little disposition to press the improvements which it had +recommended. Mr. Canning seemed apprehensive that he had committed +himself too far, and was inclined to postpone, to wait for a season, to +give the West Indians time for reflection, before legislating further. +The chief advocate of the slave began to realize, that, of those who +had encouraged and coöperated with him, but few, in a moment of real +difficulty, could be relied upon. But he was not to be baffled. "Good, +honest Buxton" had made up his mind that the world should be somewhat +the better for his having lived in it, and he had chosen as the object +of his beneficent labors the very lowest of his fellow-subjects,--the +negro slave of the West Indies. He was, moreover, a vigorous thinker +and an invincible debater, and, once embarked in this cause, he had no +thought of drawing back. So exclusive was his zeal, that at one time Mr. +O'Connell, vexed that the claims of his constituents were set aside, +electrified the House by exclaiming, "Oh! I wish we were blacks!" The +Irish orator had all along supported the Abolition cause, and spoken +words of good cheer to Mr. Buxton; but now his impatient patriotism +finds vent in exclaiming,--"If the Irish people were but black, we +should have the honorable member from Weymouth coming down as large as +life, supported by all the 'friends of humanity' in the back rows, to +advocate their cause." + +There was truth here, as well as wit, showing not only Mr. Buxton's +absorption in the cause which he had espoused, but his inspiring +influence on other minds. His indomitable energy was always sure to grow +stronger after defeat, and the strength of his own belief in the justice +of his cause of itself increased the faith of its friends. + +In the onward course of events the violence of the West Indians assumed +different phases, and one of the most memorable of these had respect to +the religious teachers of the slaves. They had been sent out by various +bodies of Christians in England, commencing nearly a hundred years +before these anti-slavery efforts. The object of the missionary was a +definite one, to christianize the negroes. He knew well, before engaging +in his work, that those who might come under his instruction were +slaves, and because they were slaves the call was all the louder upon +his compassion. Yet his path of duty lay wide enough from any attempt +to render the objects of his Christian efforts other than they were in +their civil relations. Such were the instructions which the missionaries +were accustomed to receive, on leaving England for a residence among the +Colonists. Nor was there ever, from the beginning to the ending of this +stirring chapter in the history of Slavery, reason to believe that these +instructions had been disobeyed. Their labors had in some instances been +encouraged by the planters, and their influence acknowledged to be a +valuable aid in the management of the negroes. But in these days +of excitement and insubordination the missionaries were accused of +encouraging disobedience in the slaves. When outbreaks occurred, the +guilt was laid to the charge of the Christian teachers. Upon a mere +suspicion, without a shadow of evidence, they were seized and thrown +into prison. One of the most melancholy instances of this was that of +the Rev. J. Smith, who was sentenced to be hanged, but died in prison, +through hardships endured, before the day of execution arrived. He was +only one of several who suffered at the hands of the West Indians the +grossest injustice. The case of Mr. Shrewsbury was at one time brought +before the House. Mr. Canning made reference to him as "a gentleman in +whose conduct there did not appear to be the slightest ground of blame +or suspicion." He was a Wesleyan missionary at Barbadoes, and, having +fallen under suspicion, was also condemned to die. Among other charges, +he was accused of having corresponded with Mr. Buxton. Said the latter, +in an address to the House,--"I never wrote to him a single letter, +nor did I know that such a man existed, till I happened to take up a +newspaper, and there read, with some astonishment, that _he was going to +be hanged for corresponding with me!_" + +If Englishmen and Christian ministers were condemned to death on such +allegations, adduced at mock trials, it is not strange that negroes +sometimes lost their lives on similar grounds. After a rising among +these people, several having been executed, the evidence of the guilt of +a certain portion was reviewed in the House of Commons. The witness was +asked whether he had found guns among the insurgents. He replied, "No; +but he was shown a place where guns had been"! Had he found bayonets? +"No; but he was shown a basket where bayonets had been"! Unfortunately, +the victims of this species of evidence were already hung when the +review of the trial took place. + +This last incident brings us to another feature of those times, the +actual insurrections which took place among the slaves. Passing by the +lesser excitements of Barbadoes and Demerara, we come to the great +rising in Jamaica in 1832. A servile war is generally represented as +displaying at every point its banners of flame, plashing its feet +meanwhile in the blood of women and children. But the great insurrection +of 1832, which, as it spread, included fifty thousand negroes in its +train, was in the beginning simply a refusal to work. + +Fiercely discussed by the masters, emancipation began to be spoken of +among the slaves. Necessarily they must know something about it; but, in +their distorted and erroneous impressions, they believed that "the +Great King of England" had set them free, and the masters were wilfully +withholding the boon. + +There was one, a negro slave, whose dark glittering eye fascinated +his fellows, and whose wondrous powers of speech drew them, despite +themselves, into the conspiracy. But he planned no murders, designed no +house-burnings; to those who, under solemn pledge of secrecy, joined +him, he propounded a single idea. It was this. If we, the negroes, who +are as five to one, compared to the white men, refuse to work any more +until freedom is given, we shall have it. There will be some resistance, +and a few of us will be killed; but that we must expect. This, in +substance, was the ground taken by Sharpe, who, as a slave, had +always been a favorite both with his master and others. This was the +commencement of the great insurrection. Its leader had not counted upon +the excitable spirit of the slaves when once aroused. Holding as sacred +the property of his master, he believed his followers would do the same, +until the light of burning barns and out-houses revealed the mischief +which had begun to work. Yet, in the sanguinary struggle which followed, +it is to be remembered that the excesses which were committed, the +wanton waste of life, were on the part of the white residents, who meted +out vengeance with an unsparing hand,--not on the part of the negroes. + +One effect of this uprising of the slaves was, in England, to deepen the +impression of the evils of the system under which they were held. If the +mere discussion of Slavery were fraught with such terrible consequences, +how could safety ever consist with the thing itself? By discussion they +had but exercised their own rights as Englishmen. Of what use to them +was Magna Charta, if they must seal their lips in silence when a public +abuse required to be corrected, a gigantic wrong to be righted? Must +they give up the ocean and the land to the dominion of the slave-owner +and slave-trader, hushing the word of remonstrance, lest it should lead +to war and bloodshed? No; they would not do this. The thing itself which +had caused these commotions must perish. + +Here was a decided gain for the friends of the slave in Parliament. +Mr. Buxton, in alluding to the fearful aspect of the times, asks the +pertinent question, "How is the Government prepared to act in case of a +general insurrection among the slaves?" We give the closing paragraphs +of his speech at this crisis. + +"I will refer the House to the sentiments of Mr. Jefferson, the +President of the United States. Mr. Jefferson was himself a slave-owner, +and full of the prejudices of slave-owners; yet he left this memorable +memorial to his country: 'I do, indeed, tremble for my country when I +remember that God is just, and that His justice may not sleep forever. A +revolution is among possible events; the Almighty has no attribute which +would side with us in such a struggle.' + +"This is the point which weighs most heavily with me. The Almighty has +no attribute that will side with us in such a struggle. A war with an +overwhelming physical force, a war with a climate fatal to the European +constitution, a war in which the heart of the people of England would +lean toward the enemy: it is hazarding all these terrible evils; but all +are light and trivial, compared with the conviction I feel that in such +a warfare it is not possible to ask nor can we expect the countenance of +Heaven." + +While events tended to bring the whole system of Slavery into odium, the +leaders of the Abolition party were themselves changing their ground. +They had begun with the hope of mitigating the hardships of the slave's +lot,--to place him upon the line of progression, and so ultimately to +fit him for freedom. But they had found themselves occupying a false +position. Slowly they came to the conclusion that for the slave little +could be accomplished in the way of improvement, so long as he remained +a slave. The complete extinction of the system was now the object aimed +at. At a crowded Anti-Slavery meeting held in May, 1830, Mr. Wilberforce +presided. The first resolution, moved by Mr. Buxton, was this,--"That no +proper or practicable means be left unattempted for effecting, at the +earliest period, the entire abolition of Slavery throughout the British +dominions." At a meeting held in Edinburgh similar language was used by +Lord Jeffrey. Said Dr. Andrew Thomson, one of the most influential of +the Scottish clergy,--"We ought to tell the legislature, plainly and +strongly, that no man has a right to property in man,--that there +are eight hundred thousand individuals sighing in bondage, under the +intolerable evils of West Indian Slavery, who have as good a right to be +free as we ourselves have,--that they ought to be free, and that they +_must_ be made free!" + +Another element at this time wrought in favor of the Abolitionists. Of +the missionaries who had suffered persecution in the Colonies, numbers +had returned to England. These religious teachers, while plying their +vocation in the West Indies, had acted in obedience to the instructions +received from the societies which employed them. Necessarily, while in a +slave country, they had been silent upon the subject of Slavery. But in +truth they liked the institution as little as Mr. Buxton himself. Once +in England, the seal of silence melted from their lips. Everywhere +in public and in private they made known the evils and cruelties of +Slavery. Some of these persons had been examined by Parliamentary +committees, and being acquitted of every suspicion of mis-statement, +their testimony received this additional sanction. The tale of wrong +which they revealed was not told in vain. Each returned missionary +exerted an influence upon the religious body which he represented. The +aggregate of this influence was great. + +If, in the latter stages of the Emancipation effort, the backwardness of +the Administration was an evil omen, making final success a difficult +achievement, this was balanced by reform in Parliament. At the recent +elections, anti-slavery sentiments in the candidate were in some +quarters requisite to success. A story is told of a gentleman who had +spent some time canvassing and found abundant evidence of this. At an +obscure village he had been hailed with the question, whether he was +trying to get into the Lords or Commons. "But," added the simple +questioners, "whichever you do get into, you must vote for the poor +slaves." + +To the aid of the Emancipation leaders there came now a new element, a +power so strong that it required no small share of skill to hold it in, +that it might work no evil in contributing to the desired end. + +Since the commencement of efforts for the slave a considerable period +had passed. These efforts extended, in fact, over nearly half a century. +During that time, pamphlet after pamphlet and volume after volume had +set forth the evils and abominations of Slavery, forcing the subject +upon the public attention. The leaven had worked slowly, and for a +portion of the time in comparative silence; but the work was done. The +British people were aroused. The great heart of the nation was beating +in response to the appeals for justice and right which were made in +their ears. The world can scarce furnish a parallel to this spectacle of +moral sublimity. It was the voice of a people, calling, in tones that +must be heard, for justice and freedom,--and that not for themselves, +but for a distant, a defenceless race. + +The publication of a circular inviting Anti-Slavery delegates to London, +a movement made by the leaders of the cause, in its results took the +most enthusiastic by surprise. More than three hundred appeared in +answer to the call. Mr. Buxton met them in Exeter Hall. With a rampant +freedom of opinion, there was little prospect of harmony of action being +attained, however desirable it might be. Through the influence of Mr. +Buxton and his coadjutors, these men of conflicting theories were +brought into such a degree of harmonious action that an address was +drawn up embodying their sentiments and laid before Lord Althorp, at +that time the head of the Administration. The strong outside pressure of +the nation at large upon the Government was evident. The strength of the +Emancipationists in Parliament, also, had been carefully estimated, and +success could no longer be doubted. + +The fourteenth of May, 1833, witnessed an animated debate in the House. +While the advocates of Emancipation desired for the negro unconditional +freedom, they found the measure fettered by the proposal of Mr. Stanley, +the Colonial Secretary, that he be placed for a number of years in a +state of apprenticeship. Twelve years of this restricted freedom was, +by the influence of Mr. Buxton, reduced to seven, and the sum of twenty +millions of pounds sterling being granted to the slave-owners, the bill +for the abolition of Negro Slavery passed the House of Commons. With +some delay it went through the Upper House, and on the 28th of August, +receiving the royal assent, it became a law. The apprenticeship system +was but short-lived, its evil-working leading to its abolition in its +fourth year. + + * * * * * + +It has been often said, with how much of truth it is not our purpose +here to inquire, that in this country the mention of the evils of +Slavery is and must be fraught with most evil consequences. Yet the +agitation of this subject, whether for good or evil, in the United +States, is intimately connected with the whole movement in England. In +the earlier stages of the measures directed against the trade, a hearty +response was awakened here; nor could the subsequent act of emancipation +fail to produce an impression everywhere, and most of all among +ourselves. United to the English nation by strong affinities, one with +them in language and literature, yet cleaving still to the institution +which England had so energetically striven to destroy, could it be +otherwise than that such a movement on her part should awaken an eager +interest among us? Could such an event as the release from slavery +of eight hundred thousand negroes in the British Colonies pass by +unnoticed? To suppose this is preposterous. It is not too much to say, +that the effect of British emancipation was, at the time it took place, +to give in certain portions of the United States an increased degree of +life to the anti-slavery sentiment. No words could have been uttered, +which, reaching the shores of America, would have been half so emphatic +as this one act of the British nation. Among the causes which have +nourished and strengthened the anti-slavery sentiment among us this, has +its place. Verily, if England gave us the poison, she has not been slow +to proffer to us the antidote. + + * * * * * + +Concerning the actual fruits of Emancipation, it may be asked, What have +they been? The world looked on inquiringly as to how the enfranchised +negroes would demean themselves. One fact has never been disputed. This +momentous change in the social state of near a million of people took +place without a single act of violence on the part of the liberated +slaves. Neither did the measure carry violence in its train. So far the +act was successful. But that all which the friends of Emancipation hoped +for has been attained, no one will assert. When, however, we hear of the +financial ruin of the Islands, as a consequence of that measure, it may +be well to inquire into their condition previous to its taking place. +That the West India Colonies were trembling on the brink of ruin at the +close of the last century is evident from their repeated petitions +to the mother country to take some measures to save them from utter +bankruptcy. This can hardly be laid to the extinction of Slavery, for +both Slavery and the Slave-Trade were at that time in the height of +successful operation. + +Again, if the West Indian negro is not to-day all that might be wished, +or even all that, under the influence of freedom, he had been expected +to become, there may possibly be a complication of causes which has +prevented his elevation. He has been allowed instruction, indeed, to +some extent; the continued labors of those who contended for his freedom +have secured to him the schoolmaster and the missionary. But this is not +enough. Has he been taught the use of improved methods of agriculture, +the application of machinery to the production of required results? Has +he been encouraged to works of skill, to manufacturing arts even of the +ruder kind? Has he not rather been subjected to the same policy which, +before the Revolution, discountenanced manufactures among ourselves, +and has caused the fabrics of the East Indies to be disused, and the +factories of Ireland to stand still? + +These questions need not be pursued. Yet, amid the conflicting voices of +the evil days upon which we are fallen, now and then we hear lifted up a +plea for Emancipation, an entreaty for the removal of the accursed thing +which has plunged the happiest nation upon earth into the direst of +calamities. + +Of the causes which have affected the success of Emancipation in the +case before us, it may be remarked, that, so far as their action has +been pernicious, they would operate among ourselves less than in any +colony of Great Britain, abundantly less than in the West Indies. The +greater variety of employments with which the Maryland or Kentucky negro +is familiar, his more frequent proficiency in mechanical pursuits, +combined with other circumstances, render him decidedly a more eligible +subject for freedom than the negro of Jamaica. + +The changes which may issue in this country from the present commotions +it were vain to predict. It may not, however, be unwise, in considering, +as we have done, an achievement nobly conceived and generously +accomplished, to examine carefully into the causes which may have +rendered it otherwise than completely successful in its results. + + * * * * * + + +UNION AND LIBERTY. + + + Flag of the heroes who left us their glory, + Borne through their battle-fields' thunder and flame, + Blazoned in song and illumined in story, + Wave o'er us all who inherit their fame! + Up with our banner bright, + Sprinkled with starry light, + Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, + While through the sounding sky + Loud rings the Nation's cry,-- + UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE! + + Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation, + Pride of her children, and honored afar, + Let the wide beams of thy full constellation + Scatter each cloud that would darken a star! + Up with our banner bright, etc. + + Empire unsceptred! what foe shall assail thee, + Bearing the standard of Liberty's van? + Think not the God of thy fathers shall fail thee, + Striving with men for the birthright of man! + Up with our banner bright, etc. + Yet if, by madness and treachery blighted, + Dawns the dark hour when the sword thou must draw, + Then, with the arms of thy millions united, + Smite the bold traitors to Freedom and Law! + Up with our banner bright, etc. + + Lord of the Universe! shield us and guide us, + Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun! + Thou, hast united us: who shall divide us? + Keep us, O, keep us, the MANY IN ONE! + Up with our banner bright, + Sprinkled with starry light, + Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, + While through the sounding sky + Loud rings the Nation's cry,-- + UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE! + + * * * * * + + + +HOW TO ROUGH IT. + + +"Life has few things better than this," said Dr. Johnson, on feeling +himself settled in a coach, and rolling along the road. We cannot agree +with the great man. Times have changed since the Doctor and Mr. Boswell +travelled for pleasure; and we much prefer an expedition to Moosehead, +or a tramp in the Adirondack, to being boxed up in a four-wheeled ark +and made "comfortable," according to the Doctor's idea of felicity. + +Francis Galton, Explorer, and Secretary to the Royal Geographical +Society, we thank you sincerely for teaching us how to travel! Few +persons know the important secrets of how to walk, how to run, how to +ride, how to cook, how to defend, how to ford rivers, how to make rafts, +how to fish, how to hunt, in short, how to do the essential things that +every traveller, soldier, sportsman, emigrant, and missionary should +be conversant with. The world is full of deserts, prairies, bushes, +jungles, swamps, rivers, and oceans. How to "get round" the dangers of +the land and the sea in the best possible way, how to shift and contrive +so as to come out all right, are secrets well worth knowing, and Mr. +Galton has found the key. In this brief article we shall frequently +avail ourselves of the information he imparts, confident that in these +war-days his wise directions are better than fine gold to a man who is +obliged to rough it over the world, no matter where his feet may wander, +his horse may travel, or his boat may sail. + +Wherewithal shall a man be clothed? We begin at the beginning with +flannel always. Experience has taught us that flannel next the skin is +indispensable for health to a traveller, and the sick- and dead-lists +always include largely the names of those who neglect this material. +Cotton stands Number Two on the list, and linen nowhere. Only last +summer jolly Tom Bowers got his _quietus_ for the season by getting hot +and wet and cold in one of his splendid Paris linen shirts, and now he +wears calico ones whenever he wishes to "appear proper" at Nahant or +Newport. + +"The hotter the ground the thicker your socks," was the advice of an old +traveller who once went a thirty-days' tramp at our side through the +Alp country in summer. We have seen many a city bumpkin start for a +White-Mountain walk in the thinnest of cotton foot-coverings, but we +never knew one to try them a second time. + +Stout shoes are preferable to boots always, and a wise traveller never +omits to grease well his leather before and during his journey. Don't +forget to put a pair of old slippers into your knapsack. After a hard +day's toil, they are like magic, under foot. Let us remind the traveller +whose feet are tender at starting that a capital remedy for blistered +feet is to rub them at night with spirits mixed with tallow dropped +from a candle. An old friend of ours thought it a good plan to soap the +inside of the stocking before setting out, and we have seen him break a +raw egg into his shoes before putting them on, saying it softened the +leather and made him "all right" for the day. + +Touching coat, waistcoat, and trousers, there can be but one choice. +Coarse tweed does the best business on a small capital. Cheap and +strong, we have always found it the most "paying" article in our +travelling-wardrobe. Avoid that tailor-hem so common at the bottom +of your pantaloons which retains water and does no good to anybody. +Waistcoats would be counted as superfluous, were it not for the +convenience of the pockets they carry. Take along an old dressing-gown, +if you want solid comfort in camp or elsewhere after sunset. + +Gordon Cumming recommends a wide-awake hat, and he is good authority on +that head. A man "_clothed_ in his right mind" is a noble object; but +six persons out of every ten who start on a journey wear the wrong +apparel. The writer of these pages has seen four individuals at once +standing up to their middles in a trout-stream, all adorned with black +silk tiles, newly imported from the Rue St. Honoré. It was a sight to +make Daniel Boone and Izaak Walton smile in their celestial abodes. + +A light water-proof outside-coat and a thick pea-jacket are a proper +span for a roving trip. Don't forget that a couple of good blankets also +go a long way toward a traveller's paradise. + +We will not presume that an immortal being at this stage of the +nineteenth century would make the mistake, when he had occasion to tuck +up his shirt-sleeves, of turning them outwards, so that every five +minutes they would be tumbling down with a crash of anathemas from the +wearer. The supposition that any sane son of Adam would tuck up his +sleeves inside out involves a suspicion, to say the least, that his wits +had been overrated by doting relatives. + +"Grease and dirt are the savage's wearing-apparel," says the Swedish +proverb. No comment is necessary in speaking with a Christian on this +point, for cold water is one of civilization's closest allies. Avoid the +bath, and the genius of disease and crime stalks in. "Cleanliness is +next to godliness," remember. + +In packing your knapsack, keep in mind that sixteen or twenty pounds are +weight enough, till, by practice, you can get pluck and energy into your +back to increase that amount. + +_Roughing it_ has various meanings, and the phrase is oftentimes +ludicrously mistaken by many individuals. A friend with whom we once +travelled thought he was roughing it daily for the space of three +weeks, because he was obliged to lunch on _cold_ chicken and _un-iced_ +Champagne, and when it rained he was forced to seek shelter inside very +inelegant hotels on the road. To rough it, in the best sense of that +term, is to lie down every night with the ground for a mattress, a +bundle of fagots for a pillow, and the stars for a coverlet. To sleep in +a tent is semi-luxury, and tainted with too much effeminacy to suit the +ardor of a first-rate "Rough." Parkyns, Taylor, Gumming, Fremont, and +Kane have told us how much superior are two trunks of trees, rolled +together for a bed, under the open sky, to that soft heating apparatus +called a bed in the best chamber. Every man to his taste,--of course, +but there come occasions in life when a man must look about him and +arrange for himself, _somehow_. The traveller who has never slept in the +woods has missed an enjoyable sensation. A clump of trees makes a +fine leafy post-bedstead, and to awake in the morning amid a grove of +sheltering nodding oaks is lung-inspiring. It was the good thought of a +wanderer to say, "The forest is the poor man's jacket." Napoleon had a +high opinion of the bivouac style of life, and on the score of health +gave it the preference over tent-sleeping. Free circulation is a great +blessing, albeit we think its eulogy rather strongly expressed by the +Walden-Pondist, when he says, "I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have +it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. I would rather +ride on earth in an ox-cart with a free circulation, than go to heaven +in the fancy car of an excursion-train, and breathe a _malaria_ all the +way." The only objection to out-door slumber is dampness; but it is easy +to protect one's self in wet weather from the unhealthy ground by boughs +or India-rubber blankets. + +One of the great precautions requisite for a tramp is to provide against +thirst. Want of water overtakes the traveller sometimes in the most +annoying manner, and it is well to know how to fight off the dry fiend. +Sir James Alexander cautions all who rough it to drink well before +starting in the morning, and drink nothing all day till the halt,--and +to keep the lips shut as much as possible. Another good authority +recommends a pebble or leaf to be held in the mouth. Habit, however, +does much in this case as in every other, and we have known a man, who +had been accustomed at home to drink at every meal four tumblers of +water, by force of will bring his necessity down to a pint of liquid per +day, during a long tramp through the forest. One of the many excellent +things which Plutarch tells of Socrates is this noteworthy incident of +his power of abstinence. He says, whenever Socrates returned from any +exercise, though he might be extremely dry, he refrained nevertheless +from drinking till he had thrown away the first bucket of water he had +drawn, that he might exercise himself to patience, and accustom his +appetite to wait the leisure of reason. + +From water to fire is a natural transition. How to get a blaze just when +you want it puzzles the will sometimes hugely. Every traveller should +provide himself with a good handy steel, proper flint, and unfailing +tinder, because lucifers are liable to many accidents. Pliny recommended +the wood of mulberry, bay-laurel, and ivy, as good material to be rubbed +together in order to procure a fire; but Pliny is behind the times, and +must not be trusted to make rules for General McLellan's boys. Of course +no one would omit to take lucifers on a tramp; but steel, flint, and +tinder are three warm friends that in an emergency will always come up +to the strike. To find firewood is a knack, and it ought to be well +cultivated. Don't despise bits of dry moss, fine grass, and slips of +bark, if you come across them. Twenty fires are failures in the open air +for one that succeeds, unless the operator knows his business. A novice +will use matches, wood, wind, time, and violent language enough to burn +down a city, and never get any satisfaction out of all the expenditure; +while a knowing hand will, out of the stump of an old, half-rotten tree, +bring you such magnificent, permanent heat, that your heart and your +tea-kettle will sing together for joy over it. In making a fire, depend +upon it, there is something more than _luck_,--there is always talent +in it. We once saw Charles Lever (Harry Lorrequer's father) build up a +towering blaze in a woody nook out of just nothing but what he scraped +up from the ground, and his rare ability. You remember Mr. Opie the +painter's answer to a student who asked him what he mixed his colors +with. "Brains, Sir," was the artist's prompt, gruff, and right reply. It +takes brains to make a fire in a rainy night out in the woods; but it +can be done,--if you only know how to begin. We have seen a hearth made +of logs on a deep snow sending out a cheerful glow, while the rain +dripped and froze all about the merry party assembled. + +A traveller ought to be a good swimmer. There are plenty of watery +crossings to be got over, and often there are no means at hand but what +Nature has provided in legs and arms. But one of the easiest things in +the world to make is a raft. Inflatable India-rubber boats also are now +used in every climate, and a full-sized one weighs only forty pounds. +General Fremont and Dr. Livingstone have tested their excellent +qualities, and commend them as capable of standing a wonderful amount +of wear and tear. But a boat can be made out of almost anything, if one +have the skill to put it together. A party of sailors whose boat had +been stolen put out to sea and were eighteen hours afloat in a crazy +craft made out of a large basket woven with boughs such as they could +pick up, and covered with their canvas tent, the inside being plastered +with clay to keep out as much of the water as possible. + +In fording streams, it is well, if the water be deep and swift, to carry +heavy stones in the hands, in order to resist being borne away by the +current. Fords should not be deeper than three feet for men, or four +feet for horses. + +Among the small conveniences, a good strong pocket-knife, a small "hard +chisel," and a file should not be forgotten. A great deal of real work +can be done with very few tools. One of Colt's rifles is a companion +which should be specially cared for, and a water-proof cover should +always be taken to protect the lock during showers. There is one rule +among hunters which ought always to be remembered, namely,--"Look at +the gun, but never let the gun look at you, or at your companions." +Travellers are always more or less exposed to the careless handling of +fire-arms, and numerous accidents occur by carrying the piece with the +cock down on the nipple. Three-fourths of all the gun accidents are +owing to this cause; for a blow on the back of the cock is almost sure +to explode the cap, while a gun at half-cock is comparatively safe. + +Don't carry too many eatables on your expeditions. Dr. Kane says his +party learned to modify and reduce their travelling-gear, and found that +in direct proportion to its simplicity and to their apparent privation +of articles of supposed necessity were their actual comfort and +practical efficiency. Step by step, as long as their Arctic service +continued, they went on reducing their sledging-outfit, until they at +last came to the Esquimaux ultimatum of simplicity,--_raw meat and a fur +bag_. Salt and pepper are needful condiments. Nearly all the rest are +out of place on a roughing expedition. Among the most portable kinds of +solid food are pemmican, jerked meat, wheat flour, barley, peas, cheese, +and biscuit. Salt meat is a disappointing dish, and apt to be sadly +uncertain. Somebody once said that water had tasted of sinners ever +since the flood, and salted meat sometimes has a taint full as vivid. +Twenty-eight ounces of real nutriment _per diem_ for a man in rough +work as a traveller will be all that he requires; if he perform severe +tramping, thirty ounces. + +The French say, _C'est la soupe qui fait le soldat_, and we have always +found on a tramping expedition nothing so life-restoring after fatigue +and hunger as the portable soup now so easily obtained at places where +prepared food is put up for travellers' uses. Spirituous liquors are no +help in roughing it. On the contrary, they invite sunstroke, and various +other unpleasant visitors incident to the life of a traveller. Habitual +brandy-drinkers give out sooner than cold-water men, and we have seen +fainting red noses by the score succumb to the weather, when boys +addicted to water would crow like chanticleer through a long storm of +sleet and snow on the freezing Alps. + +It is not well to lose your way; but in case this unpleasant luck befall +you, set _systematically_ to work to find it. Throw terror to the idiots +who always flutter and flounder, and so go wrong inevitably. Galton the +Plucky says,--and he has as much cool wisdom to impart as a traveller +needs,--when you make the unlively discovery that you are lost, ask +yourself the three following questions:-- + +1. What is the least distance that I can with certainty specify, within +which the path, the river, the sea-shore, etc., that I wish to regain, +lies? + +2. What is the direction, in a vague, general way, in which the path or +river runs, or the sea-coast tends? + +3. When I last left the path, etc., did I turn to the left or to the +right? + +As regards the first, calculate deliberately how long you have been +riding or walking, and at what pace, since you left your party; subtract +for stoppages and well-recollected zigzags; allow a mile and a half per +hour as the pace when you have been loitering on foot, and three and a +half when you have been walking fast. Occasional running makes an almost +inappreciable difference. A man is always much nearer the lost path than +he is inclined to fear. + +As regards the second, if you recollect the third, and also know the +course of the path within eight points of the compass, (or one-fourth +of the whole horizon,) it is a great gain; or even if you know your +direction within twelve points, or one-third of the whole horizon, that +knowledge is worth something. Don't hurry, if you get bewildered. Stop +and think. Then arrange matters, and you are safe. When Napoleon was +once caught in a fog, while riding with his staff across a shallow arm +of the Gulf of Suez, he _thought_, as usual. His way was utterly lost, +and going forward he found himself in deeper water. So he ordered his +staff to ride from him in radiating lines in all directions, and such +of them as should find shallow water to shout out. If Napoleon had been +alone on that occasion, he would have set his five wits to the task of +finding the right way, and he would have found it. + +Finally, cheerfulness in large doses is the best medicine one can take +along in his out-door tramps. We once had the good-luck to hear old +Christopher North try his lungs in the open air in Scotland. Such +laughter and such hill-shaking merry-heartedness we may never listen to +again among the Lochs, but the lesson of the hour (how it rained that +black night!) is stamped for life upon our remembrance. "Clap your back +against the cliff," he shouted, "and never mind the deluge!" Rest, +glorious Christopher, under the turf you trod with such a gallant +bearing! Few mortals knew how to rough it like you! + + * * * * * + + +SELF-POSSESSION vs. PREPOSSESSION. + + +Timoleon, a man prosperous in all his undertakings, was wont to ascribe +his successes to good-luck; but that he did not mean to give credit to +any blind Goddess of Fortune is evident from his having built an altar +to a certain divine something which he called Automatia, signifying +Spontaneousness, or a happy promptitude in following the dictates of his +own genius. The Liberator of Sicily, to be sure, did not live in an age +of newspapers, and was not liable at every turn to have his elbow jogged +by Public Opinion; but it is plain that his notion of a man fit to lead +was, that he should be one who never waited to seize Opportunity from +behind, and who knew that events become the masters of him who is slow +to make them his servants. + +Thus far nothing has been more remarkable in the history of our civil +war than that its signal opportunities have failed to produce on either +side any leader who has proved himself to be gifted with this happy +faculty. Even our statesmen seem not to have felt the kindling +inspiration of a great occasion. The country is going through a +trial more crucial, if possible, than that of the Revolution; but no +state-paper has thus far appeared, comparable in anything but quantity +to the documents of our heroic period. Even Mr. Seward seems to have +laid aside his splendid art of generalization, or to have found out the +danger of those specious boomerangs of eloquence, which, launched from +the platform with the most graceful curves of rhetoric, come back not +seldom to deal an untimely blow to him who sets them flying. The people +begin to show signs of impatience that the curtain should be so slow to +rise and show them the great actor in our national tragedy. They are so +used to having a gigantic bubble of notoriety blown for them in a week +by the newspapers, though it burst in a day or two, leaving but a drop +of muddy suds behind it, that they have almost learned to think the +making of a great character as simple a matter as that of a great +reputation. Bewildered as they have been with a mob of statesmen, +generals, orators, poets, and what not, all of them the foremost of this +or any other age, they seem to expect a truly great man on equally easy +terms with these cheap miracles of the press,--grown as rapidly, to be +forgotten as soon, as the prize cauliflower of a county show. We have +improvised an army; we have conjured a navy out of nothing so rapidly +that pines the jay screamed in last summer may be even now listening for +the hum of the hostile shot from Sumter; why not give another rub at our +Aladdin's lamp and improvise a genius and a hero? + +This is, perhaps, very natural, but it is nevertheless unreasonable. +Heroes and geniuses are never to be had ready-made, nor was a tolerable +specimen of either ever produced at six months' notice. Dearly do +nations pay for such secular births; still more dearly for their +training. They are commonly rather the slow result than the conscious +cause of revolutions in thought or polity. It is no imputation on +democratic forms of government, it is the unexampled prosperity of +nearly half a century that is in fault, if a sudden and unforewarned +danger finds us without a leader, whether civil or military, whom the +people are willing to trust implicitly, and who can in some sense +control events by the prestige of a great name. Carlyle and others have +for years been laying to the charge of representative and parliamentary +government the same evils whose germ certain British critics, as +ignorant of our national character as of our geography, are so kindly +ready to find in our democracy. Mr. Stuart Mill, in his essay on +"Liberty," has convinced us that even the tyranny of Public Opinion is +not, as we had hastily supposed, a peculiarly American institution, but +is to the full as stringent and as fertile of commonplace in intellect +and character under a limited as under a universal system of suffrage. + +The truth is, that it is not in our institutions, but in our history, +that we are to look for the causes of much that is superficially +distasteful and sometimes unpleasantly disappointing in our national +habits,--we would not too hastily say in our national character. Our +most incorrigible blackguards, and the class of voters who are at the +mercy of venal politicians, have had their training, such as it is, +under forms of government and amid a social order very unlike ours. +Disgust at the general dirtiness and corruption of our politics, we are +told, keeps all our leading men out of public life. This appears to us, +we confess, a rather shallow misconception. Our politics are no dirtier +or more corrupt than those of our neighbors. The famous _Quam parvâ +sapientiâ regitur mundus_ was not said in scorn by the minister of a +republic, but in sober sadness by one whose dealings had been lifelong +with the courts and statesmen of princes. The real disgust lies in the +selfish passions that are called into play by the strife of party and +the small ambitions of public men, and not in any mere coarseness in the +expression of them. We are not an elegant people: rather less so, on the +whole, even in the aristocratic South than in the democratic North. In +this past year of our Lord eighteen hundred sixty-one, we have no doubt, +and we shudder to think of it, that by far the larger proportion of +our fellow-citizens shovelled their green-peas into their mouths with +uncanonical knife-blades, just as Sir Philip Sidney did in a darker age, +when yet the "Times" and the silver fork were not. Nay, let us make a +clean breast of all these horrors at once, it is probably true that +myriads of fair salmon were contaminated with the brutal touch of +steel in scenes of unhallowed family-festival. The only mitigating +circumstance is that such luxuries are within the reach of ten Americans +where one European sees them any nearer than through the windows of the +victualler. No, we must yield the point. We are not an elegant people, +least of all in our politics; but we do not believe it is this which +keeps our first-rate men out of political life, or that it is the result +of our democratic system. + +It has been our good-fortune hitherto that our annals have been of that +happy kind which write themselves on the face of a continent and in the +general well-being of a people, rather than in those more striking and +commonly more disastrous events which attract the historian. We have +been busy, thriving, and consequently, except to some few thoughtful +people like De Tocqueville, profoundly uninteresting. We have been +housekeeping; and why does the novelist always make his bow to the hero +and heroine at the church-door, unless because he knows, that, if they +are well off, nothing more is to be made of them? Prosperity is the +forcing-house of mediocrity; and if we have ceased to produce great men, +it is because we have not, since we became a nation, been forced to pay +the terrible price at which alone they can be bought. Great men are +excellent things for a nation to have had; but a normal condition that +should give a constant succession of them would be the most wretched +possible for the mass of mankind. We have had and still have honest and +capable men in public life, brave and able officers in our army and +navy; but there has been nothing either in our civil or military history +for many years to develop any latent qualities of greatness that may +have been in them. It is only first-rate events that call for and mould +first-rate characters. If there has been less stimulus for the more +showy and striking kinds of ambition, if the rewards of a public career +have been less brilliant than in other countries, yet we have shown, +(and this is a legitimate result of democracy,) perhaps beyond the +measure of other nations, that plebeian genius for the useful which has +been chiefly demanded by our circumstances, and which does more than war +or state-craft to increase the well-being and therefore the true glory +of nations. Few great soldiers or great ministers have done so much for +their country as Whitney's cotton-gin and McCormick's reaper have done +for ours. We do not believe that our country has degenerated under +democracy, but our position as a people has been such as to turn our +energy, capacity, and accomplishment into prosaic channels. Physicians +call certain remedies, to be administered only in desperate cases, +_heroic_, and Providence reserves heroes for similar crises in the body +politic. They are not sent but in times of agony and peril. If we have +lacked the thing, it is because we have lacked the occasion for it. +And even where truly splendid qualities have been displayed, as by our +sailors in the War of 1812, and by our soldiers in Mexico, they have +been either on so small a scale as to means, or on a scene so remote +from European interests, that they have failed of anything like +cosmopolitan appreciation. Our great actors have been confined to what, +so far as Europe is concerned, has been a provincial theatre; and an +obscure stage is often as fatal to fame as the want of a poet. + +But meanwhile has not this been very much the case with our critics +themselves? Leading British statesmen may be more accomplished scholars +than ours, Parliament may be more elegantly bored than Congress; but we +have a rooted conviction that commonplace thought and shallow principles +do not change their nature, even though disguised in the English of +Addison himself. Mr. Gladstone knows vastly more Greek than Mr. Chase, +but we may be allowed to doubt if he have shown himself an abler +finance-minister. Since the beginning of the present century it is safe +to say that England has produced no statesmen whom her own historians +will pronounce to be more than second- or third-rate men. The Crimean +War found her, if her own journalists were to be believed, without a +single great captain whether on land or sea, with incompetence in every +department, civil and military, and driven to every shift, even to +foreign enlistment and subsidy, to put on foot an army of a hundred +thousand men. What an opportunity for sermonizing on the failure of +representative government! In that war England lost much of her old +prestige in the eyes of the world, and felt that she had lost it. But +nothing would have been more unphilosophical than to have assumed that +England was degenerate or decrepit. It was only that her training had +been for so long exclusively mechanical and peaceful. The terrible, but +glorious, experience of the Indian Rebellion showed that Englishmen +still possessed in as full measure as ever those noble characteristics +on which they justly pride themselves, and of which a nation of kindred +blood would be the last to deny them the praise. When the heroic +qualities found their occasion, they were not wanting. + +We do not say this as unduly sensitive to the unfriendly, often +insulting and always unwise, criticisms of a large proportion of the +press and the public men of England. In ordinary times we could afford +to receive them with a good-natured smile. The zeal of certain new +converts to Adam Smith in behalf of the free-trade principles whose +cross they have assumed, their hatred and contempt for all heretics to +what is their doxy and therefore according to Dean Swift orthodoxy, and +the _naïve_ unconsciousness with which they measure and weigh the +moral qualities of other nations by the yards of cotton or tons of +manufactured iron which they consume for the benefit of Manchester and +Sheffield, are certainly as comic as anything in Aristophanes. The +madness of the philosopher who deemed himself personally answerable for +the obliquity of the ecliptic has more than its match in the sense of +responsibility shown by British journalists for the good conduct of the +rest of mankind. All other kingdoms, potentates, and powers would seem +to be minors or lunatics, and they the divinely appointed guardians +under bonds to see that their unhappy wards do no harm to themselves or +others. We confess, that, in reading the "Times," we have been sometimes +unable to suppress a feeling of humorous pity for the young man who +_does_ the leading articles, and who finds himself, fresh from Oxford +or Cambridge and the writing of Latin verses, called suddenly to the +autocracy of the Universe. We must pardon a little to the _imperii +novitas_, to the necessity of having universal misinformation always on +tap in his inkstand. He summons emperors, kings, ministers, even whole +nations, to the inexorable blackboard. His is the great normal school of +philosophy, statesmanship, political economy, taste, and deportment. He +must help Cavour to a knowledge of Italy, teach Napoleon to appreciate +the peculiarities of French character, interpret the American +Constitution for Mr. Lincoln. He holds himself directly accountable to +heaven and earth, alike for the right solution of the Papal Question +and for the costume of his countrymen in foreign parts. Theology or +trousers, he is infallible in both. Gregory the Seventh's wildest +dream of a universal popedom is more than fulfilled in him. He is the +unapproachable model of quack advertisers. He pats Italy on the head and +cries, "Study constitutional government as exemplified in England, and +try Mechi's razor-strops." For France he prescribes a reduction of army +and navy, and an increased demand for Manchester prints. America he +warns against military despotism, advises a tonic of English iron, and a +compress of British cotton, as sovereign against internal rupture. What +a weight for the shoulders of our poor Johannes Factotum! He is the +_commissionnaire_ of mankind, their guide, philosopher, and friend, +ready with a disinterested opinion in matters of art or _virtù_, and +eager to furnish anything, from a counterfeit Buddhist idol to a +poisoned pickle, for a commission, varying according to circumstances. + +But whatever one may think of the wisdom or the disinterestedness of the +organs of English commercial sentiment, it cannot be denied that it is +of great importance to us that the public opinion of England should be +enlightened in regard to our affairs. It would be idle to complain that +her policy is selfish; for the policy of nations is always so. It would +be foolish to forget that the sympathy of the British people has always +declared itself, sooner or later, in favor of free institutions, and of +a manly and upright policy toward other nations, or that this sympathy +has been on the whole more outspoken and enduring among Englishmen +than in any other nation of the Old World. We may justly complain that +England should see no difference between a rebel confederacy and a +nation to which she was bound by treaties and with which she had so long +been on terms of amity gradually ripening to friendship. But do not +let us be so childish as to wish for the suppression of the "Times +Correspondent," a shrewd, practised, and, for a foreigner, singularly +accurate observer, to whom we are indebted for the only authentic +intelligence from Secessia since the outbreak of the Rebellion, and +whose strictures, (however we may smile at his speculations,) if rightly +taken, may do us infinite service. Did he tell us anything about the +shameful rout of Bull Run which could not have been predicted beforehand +of raw troops, or which, indeed, General Scott himself had not +foreboded? That was not an especially American disgrace. Every +nationality under heaven was represented there, and an alarm among the +workmen on the Plains of Shinar that the foundations of the Tower +of Babel were settling could not have set in motion a more polyglot +_stampede_. The way to blot out Bull Run is as our brave Massachusetts +and Pennsylvania men did at Ball's Bluff, with their own blood, poured +only too lavishly. To our minds, the finest and most characteristic +piece of English literature, more inspiring even than Henry's speech +to his soldiers on the eve of Agincourt, is Nelson's signal, "England +expects every man to do his duty." When we have risen to that level and +are content to stand there, with no thought of self, but only of our +country and what we owe her, we need wince at no hostile sneer nor dread +any foreign combination. Granted that we have been a little boyish and +braggart, as was perhaps not unnatural in a nation hardly out of its +teens, our present trial is likely to make men of us, and to leave us, +like our British cousins, content with the pleasing consciousness +that we are the supreme of creation and under no necessity of forever +proclaiming it. Our present experience, also, of the unsoundness of +English judgment and the narrowness of English views concerning our +policy and character may have the good result of making our independence +in matters of thought and criticism as complete as our political +emancipation. + +Those who have watched the tendencies of opinion among educated +Englishmen during the last ten or fifteen years could hardly be +surprised, that, when the question was presented to them as being +between aristocratic and democratic ideas, between a race of gentlemen +and a mob of shopkeepers and snobs, they should have been inclined to +sympathize with the South. There have been unmistakable symptoms of +a reaction in England, since 1848 especially, against liberalism in +politics and in favor of things as they are. We are not to wonder that +Englishmen did not stop to examine too closely the escutcheon and +pedigree of this self-patented nobility. With one or two not very +striking exceptions, like Lord Fairfax and Washington, (who was of kin +to one of the few British peers that have enjoyed the distinction of +being hanged,) the entire population of America is descended from the +middle and lower classes in the old countries. The difference has been, +that the man at the South who raised cotton and sold it has gradually +grown to consider himself a superior being by comparison with his own +negroes, while the man at the North who raised potatoes and sold them +has been content with the old Saxon notion that he was as good as his +neighbors. The descendant of the Huguenot tradesman or artisan, if in +Boston, builds Faneuil Hall or founds Bowdoin College; if in Charleston, +he deals in negroes and persuades himself that he is sprung from the +loins of Baldwin, King of Jerusalem. The mass of the population at the +South is more intensely democratic, so far as white men are concerned, +than the same class at the North. + +There is a little inconsistency in the English oracles in this respect; +for, while they cannot conceal a kind of sympathy with the Southern +Rebels in what is supposed to be their war upon democratic institutions, +they tell us that they would heartily espouse our cause, if we would but +proclaim a crusade against Slavery. Suppose the Squires of England had +got up a rebellion because societies had been formed for the abolition +of the Corn-Laws; which would the "Times" have gone for putting down +first, the rebellion or the laws? England professes not to be able to +understand the principles of this wicked, this unholy war, as she calls +it. Yet she was not so slow to understand the necessity of putting down +the Irish Insurrection of 1848, or the Indian Rebellion ten years later. +She thinks it impossible for the Government of the United States to +subdue and hold provinces so vast as the Cotton States of America; yet +she neither foreboded nor as yet has found any impracticability in +renewing and retaining her hold on the vaster provinces of British +India,--provinces inhabited, all of them, by races alien in blood, +religion, and manners, and many by a population greatly exceeding that +of our Southern States, brave, warlike, and, to some extent, trained in +European tactics. To have abandoned India would have been to surrender +the greatness of England. English writers and speakers, in discussing +our affairs, overlook wholly the fact that a rebellion may be crushed by +anything except force of arms. Among a people of the same lineage and +the same language, but yesterday contented under the same Constitution, +and in an age when a victory in the stock-market is of more consequence +than successes in the field, political and economical necessities may be +safely reckoned on as slow, but effective, allies of the old order of +things. The people of this country are too much used to sudden and +seemingly unaccountable political revolutions not to be able to forfeit +their consistency without any loss of self-respect; and the rapidity +with which the Southern Rebellion was forced up to its present +formidable proportions, mainly by party management, is not unlikely to +find its parallel in suddenness of collapse. But whether this prove to +be the fact or not, nay, even if the reëstablishment of the Union had +been hopeless from the first, a government which should have abandoned +its capital, which should have flinched from the first and plainest duty +of self-preservation, which should have admitted by a cowardly surrender +that force was law, that treason was constitutional, and fraud +honorable, would have deserved and received the contempt of all +civilized nations, of England among the first. + +There is no such profound and universal alienation, still less such an +antagonism in political theory, between the people of the Northern and +Southern parts of the Union, as some English journals would infer from +the foolish talk of a few conceited persons in South Carolina and +Virginia. There is no question between landholders on the one side and +manufacturers and merchants on the other. The bulk of the population, +North and South, are holders of land, while the average size of the +holdings of land under cultivation is probably greater in the Free than +in the Slave States. The largest single estate in the country is, we +believe, in Illinois. Generalizations are commonly unsafe in proportion +as they are tempting; and this, together with its pretty twin-brother +about Cavaliers and Roundheads, would seem to have been hatched from the +same egg and in the same mare's-nest. If we should take the statements +of Dr. Cullen and Mr. Smith O'Brien for our premises, instead of the +manifest facts of the case, our conclusion in regard to Ireland would +be an anachronism which no Englishman would allow to be within half +a century of the actual condition of things. And yet could the Irish +revolutionists of thirteen years ago have had the advantage of a +ministry like that of Mr. Buchanan,--had every Irish officer and soldier +been false to his honor and his allegiance,--had Ireland been supplied +and England stripped of arms and munitions of war by the connivance +of the Government,--the riot of 1848 might have become a rebellion as +formidable as our own in everything but territorial proportions. Equally +untrue is the theory that our Tariff is the moving cause of Southern +discontent. Louisiana certainly would hardly urge this as the reason of +her secession; and if the Rebel States could succeed in establishing +their independence, they would find more difficulty in raising a +national revenue by direct taxes than the North, and would be driven +probably to a tariff more stringent than that of the present United +States. If we are to generalize at all, it must be on broader and +safer grounds. Prejudices and class-interests may occasion temporary +disturbances in the current of human affairs, but they do not +permanently change the course of the channel. That is governed by +natural and lasting causes, and commerce, in spite of Southern +Commercial Conventions, will no more flow up-hill than water. It is +possible, we will not say probable, that our present difficulties may +result to the advantage both of England and America: to England, by +giving her a real hold upon India as the source of her cotton-supply, +and to America by making the North the best customer for the staple of +the South. + +We believe the immediate cause of the Southern Rebellion to be something +far deeper than any social prejudice or political theory on the part of +slaveholders, or any general apprehension of danger to their peculiar +property. That cause is a moral one, and is to be found in the +recklessness, the conceit, the sophistry, the selfishness, which are +necessarily engendered by Slavery itself. A generation of men educated +to justify a crime against the Law of Nature because it is profitable, +will hardly be restrained long by any merely political obligation, when +they have been persuaded to see their advantage in the breach of it. Why +not, then, at once lay the axe to the root of the mischief? Why did not +England attack Irish Catholicism in 1848? Why does not Louis Napoleon +settle the Papal Question with a stroke of his pen? Because the action +of a constitutional government is limited by constitutional obligations. +Because every government, even if despotic, must be guided by policy +rather than abstract right or reason. Because, in our own case, so much +pains have been taken to persuade the people of some peculiar sanctity +in human property, and to teach them the duty of yielding their moral +instincts to their duty as citizens, that even the Free States are by no +means ripe for a crusade. The single and simple duty of the Government +is to put down resistance to its legitimate authority; it meddles, +and can meddle, with no claim of right except the monstrous one of +rebellion. An absolute ruler in advance of his people has been more +than once obliged to abandon his reforms to save his throne; a popular +government which should put itself in the same position might endanger +not only its own hold upon power, (a minor consideration,) but, in such +a crisis as ours, the very frame of society itself. We must admit +that the administration of Mr. Lincoln has sometimes seemed to us +over-cautious; that, while it has not scrupled, and wisely has not +scrupled, to go behind the letter of the law to its spirit, in dealing +with open abettors of treason in the Free States, because they were +perverting private right to public wrong, it has been as scrupulous of +meddling with a rebel's legal right in man, though that man were being +used for a weapon or a tool against itself, as if to touch it were +anathema. The divinity, which is only a hedge about a king, becomes a +wall of triple brass about a slaveholder. + +But while we should prefer a more daring, or at least a more definite +policy on the part of the Government, we do not think the time has come +for turning the war into a crusade. The example of saints, martyrs, +and heroes, who could disregard consequences because the consequences +concerned only themselves and their own life, is for the private man, +and not for the statesman who is responsible for the complex life of the +commonwealth. To carry on a war we must have money, to get money we must +have the confidence of the money-holders, who would not advance a dollar +on a pledge of the finest sentiments in the world. There is something +instructive in the fate of that mob of enthusiasts who followed the +banner of Walter the Penniless, a name of evil omen. It saves trouble to +say that we must fight the Devil with fire; though, when the Devil is +incarnate in human beings, that policy has never been very successful +at Smithfield or elsewhere. But in trying the fiery cure of a servile +insurrection, we should run the risk of converting the whole white +population of the South into devils of the most desperate sort, with +whom any kind of reconciliation, even truce, would be impossible. + +We hope and believe that the end of this war will see the snake of +Slavery scotched, if not killed. Events move,--slowly, to be sure, but +they move,--and the thought of the people moves with them unconsciously +to fulfil the purposes of God. Government can do little, perhaps, in +controlling them; but it has no right to the power it holds, if it has +not the insight and the courage to make use of them at the right moment. +If the supreme question should arise of submitting to rebellion or of +crushing it in a common ruin with the wrong that engendered it, we +believe neither the Government nor the people would falter. The time for +answering that question may be nearer than we dream; but meanwhile +we would not hasten what would at best be a terrible necessity, and +justifiable only as such. We believe this war is to prepare the way for +the extinction of Slavery by the action of economical causes, and we +should prefer that solution to one of fire and blood. Already the system +has received a death-blow in Maryland and Missouri. In Western Virginia +it is practically extinct. If the war is carried on with vigor, it +may become so before long in East Tennessee. Texas should be taken +possession of and held at any cost, and a territory capable of supplying +the world with cotton to any conceivable amount thrown open to free +labor. + +However regarded, this war into which we have been driven is, in fact, a +war against Slavery. But emancipation is not and could not be the object +of the war. It will be time enough to consider the question as one of +military necessity when our armies advance. To proclaim freedom from the +banks of the Potomac to an unarmed, subject, and dispirited race, when +the whole white population is in arms, would be as futile as impolitic. +Till we can equip our own army, it is idle to talk of arming the slaves; +and to incite them to insurrection without arms, and without the +certainty of support at first and protection afterward, would be merely +sacrificing them to no good end. It is true, the war may lack the ardent +stimulus that would for a time be imparted to it by a direct and obvious +moral purpose. But we doubt whether the impulse thus gained would hold +out long against the immense practical obstacles with which it would be +confronted and the chill of disappointment which is sure to follow an +attempt to realize ideal good by material means. Nor would our gain in +this respect more than compensate for the strength which would be added +to the rebels by despair. It is a question we have hardly the heart to +discuss, where our wishes, our hopes, almost our faith in God, are on +one side, our understanding and experience on the other. + +Nor are we among those who would censure the Government for undue +leniency. If democracy has made us a good-natured people, it is a strong +argument in its favor, and we need have no fear that the evil passions +of men will ever be buried beyond hope of resurrection. We would not +have this war end without signal and bitter retribution, and especially +for all who have been guilty of deliberate treachery; for that is a kind +of baseness that should be extirpated at any cost. If, in moments of +impatience, we have wished for something like the rough kingship +of Jackson, cooler judgment has convinced us that the strength of +democratic institutions will be more triumphantly vindicated by success +under an honest Chief Magistrate of average capacity than under a man +exceptional, whether by force of character or contempt of precedent. + +Is this, then, to be a commonplace war, a prosaic and peddling quarrel +about Cotton? Shall there be nothing to enlist enthusiasm or kindle +fanaticism? Are we to have no Cause like that for which our English +republican ancestors died so gladly on the field, with such dignity +on the scaffold?--no Cause that shall give us a hero, who knows but a +Cromwell? To our minds, though it may be obscure to Englishmen who look +on Lancashire as the centre of the universe, no army was ever enlisted +for a nobler service than ours. Not only is it national life and a +foremost place among nations that is at stake, but the vital principle +of Law itself, the august foundation on which the very possibility of +government, above all of self-government, rests as in the hollow of +God's own hand. If democracy shall prove itself capable of having +raised twenty millions of people to a level of thought where they can +appreciate this cardinal truth, and can believe no sacrifice too great +for its defence and establishment, then democracy will have vindicated +itself beyond all chance of future cavil. Here, we think, is a Cause the +experience of whose vicissitudes and the grandeur of whose triumph +will be able to give us heroes and statesmen. The Slave-Power must be +humbled, must be punished,--so humbled and so punished as to be a +warning forever; but Slavery is an evil transient in its cause and its +consequences, compared with those which would result from unsettling the +faith of a nation in its own manhood, and setting a whole generation of +men hopelessly adrift in the formless void of anarchy. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Armies of Europe: Comprising Descriptions in Detail of the Military +Systems of England, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sardinia, +adapting their Advantages to all Arms of the United States Service; and +embodying the Report of Observations in Europe during the Crimean War, +as Military Commissioner from the United Stales Government in 1855-56_. +By GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Major-General U.S. Army. Originally published +under the Direction of the War Department, by Order of Congress. +Illustrated with a Fine Steel Portrait and Several Hundred Engravings. +Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 8vo. + +It is an interesting study to examine into the causes or motives which +have produced military books of the higher order; for we are thus +vouchsafed an insight into the writer's genius, and an intelligence of +the circumstances amidst which he wrote, and of which he was often an +important controller. The Archduke Charles wrote his "Grundsätze der +Strategie," etc., as a vindication of his splendid movements in 1796, +against the French armies of the Rhine and the Sambre-et-Meuse; and +it has remained at once a monument to his achievements and a standard +text-book in military science. Marmont, the Marshal Duke of Ragusa, +collecting the principles of the art of war from "long and frequent +conversations with Napoleon, twenty campaigns, and more than half a +century of experience," has given us, in his "Esprit des Institutions +Militaires," a condensed view of his own military life, as complete, if +not as pleasantly diffuse, as his large volumes of "Mémoires." Jomini, +from an extended experience, and a study of the genius of Napoleon, +which his Russian position could never induce him to undervalue, +has produced those standard works which must always remain the +treasure-houses of military knowledge. We admire veracity, but let no +soldier confess that he has not read the "Vie Politique et Militaire," +and the "Précis de l'Art de la Guerre." But, in all these cases, the +_litera scripta_ has been but the closing act,--the signing of the name +to History's bead-roll of passing greatness,--the _testamentum_ of the +old soldier whose _personalty_ is worth bequeathing to the world. + +The work before us, although of great value and present importance, is +of a very different character; as a glance at the circumstances +which produced it will show. It has, however, we would fondly hope, +anticipated for its youthful author a greater success. + +In 1855, Mr. Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, sent a military +commission to Europe, composed of Major Delafield of the Engineers, +Major Mordecai of the Ordnance, and Captain McClellan, just promoted +from a Lieutenancy of Engineers to a Captaincy in the Cavalry. Major +Delafield was charged with the special subject of Engineering; Major +Mordecai with Ordnance and Gunnery; and to Captain McClellan was +assigned the duty of a general report upon the Organization of Armies, +with a special hearing upon the formation of Infantry and Cavalry. Each +of these gentlemen has written a book, and that of McClellan, originally +published as a Report to the Secretary of War,--in unmanageable quarto, +and at a more unmanageable price,--is now issued, in the volume before +us, with the very appropriate title, "The Armies of Europe," and in a +convenient form for the eye and the purse. + +Whatever of technical value the other reports may have,--and they +are, we doubt not, excellent,--McClellan's is the only one of popular +interest, the only one of rounded proportions and general importance; +and if it also contain much addressed to the professional soldier, it +must be remembered that the country is now being educated up to the +intelligent perusal of such books. + +Travelling in all the principal countries of Europe,--Montesquieu's +assertion is now verified, that "only great nations can have large +armies,"--the commission met everywhere proper facilities for +observation. McClellan made full notes upon the spot, procured all the +books of Tactics, Regulations, Military Laws, etc., and provided himself +with such models of arms, equipments, saddles, bridles, tents, etc., +as were easily transported. Operations of a difficult and laborious +character, such as carrying horses on shipboard, are fully demonstrated +with diagrams. Marches, manoeuvres, detachments, battles, are fully +disclosed. Such investigations, when the French, Italian, or German +language was the medium, were comparatively easy; but in order to give a +proper comparative view, he was obliged also to study Russian, which he +did successfully; by this means he has given us a masterly summary +of the Russian system, with its immense battalions, its thousands of +military schools, and its Cossack skirmishers, of wonderful endurance +and formidable fierceness. + +The volume is a complete description in detail of the principal armies, +and of wider scope than would be expected; for, while the author has +been very full upon the special topics assigned him, which did not +include the duties of Engineers and Engineer Troops, it is easy to see +everywhere that these latter would intrude themselves with the siren +charms of a first love, and nothing but the record could dissolve the +spell. Indeed, he urgently recommends to the Government the organization +of Engineer troops, specifying their equipments, points of instruction, +and duties. In this department, his description of Military Bridges is +of great value. Incident to the faithful descriptions contained in the +Report, and by far the most valuable feature of the work, we would +specify his comments upon all that he saw. They are manly and bold, but +_raisonnés_ and just. They give token of that originality of thought +which we call genius. The opening chapter on the Crimean War is the only +fair critique of that gallant, but mismanaged campaign we remember to +have seen. The author's object is to exhibit the movements of both +Allies and Russians + + "As truth will paint them, and as bards will + not." + +When MeClellan's work first appeared, the "Athenaeum" took up spear +and shield; but, _selon conseil_, McClellan declined to reply, and the +champion fought the air, without injuring the record. + +A prime interest attaches to this work, because, unconsciously, the +author has given us, in advance, his repertory of instruments and +principles. From the written word we may anticipate the brilliant +achievement, while in every case the action may be tested by a reference +to the recorded principle. + +The retirement of Scott places McClellan in a position where he will +have neither partner nor censor in his plans and movements. The graceful +and appropriate manner in which the old veteran leaves the field, which +age and infirmity will no longer allow him to command, is but a fitting +prelude to the military rule of one upon whose brow the dew of youth +still rests, and who brings to his responsible task the highest +qualities, combined with a veneration for the noble virtues and an +emulation of the magnanimous career of his predecessor, at once +honorable and inspiring. + + +_Spare Hours_. By JOHN BROWN, M.D., Author of "Rab and his Friends." +Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. + +It has not yet been satisfactorily explained why doctors are such shrewd +and genial men, and, when they appear in the literary field, such +charming writers. This is one of the curious problems of the day, and +undoubtedly holds its own answer in solution, but has not yet seen fit +to make an observable precipitate. Perhaps this is because the times are +stirring, and the facts cannot settle. A delightful exhibition is made +of something extremely good to take, which we swallow unscrupulously: +in other words, we can only guess how many scruples, and of what, this +blessed medicine for the mind contains. As it is eminently fit for every +American to have an hypothesis upon every subject, we might now, with +proper recklessness, rush into print with a few unhesitating suggestions +upon this singular phenomenon of doctors gifted and graceful with the +pen. + +We observe, at any rate, that it is something independent of climate and +locality, and not at all endemic. Otherwise it might be true that the +restless and inquisitive climate of the Atlantic coast, which wears the +ordinary Yankee to leanness, and "establishes a raw" upon the nervous +system, does soften to acuteness, mobility, and racy corrugation in the +breast of its natural ally, the Doctor. For autocratic tempers are bland +towards each other, and murderous characteristics can mutually impart +something homologous to the refining interchange of beautiful souls. +Therefore we do not yet know how much our climate is indebted to our +doctors. It may be suspected that they understand each other, as the +quack and the fool do, whose interests are identical. + +But this will not account for the literary talent of the doctors. For +they write books in England and Scotland, in France and temperate +Germany, in every latitude and _with_ a good deal; they are, however, +defective in longitude, which is remarkable, when we consider how they +will protract their cases. With their pens they are prompt, clean, +humane in the matter of ink, their first intention almost always +successful, their thought expelled by natural cerebral contraction +without stimulus, (we speak of ergot, but of "old rye" we know nothing,) +their passion running to its crisis in the minimum of time, and their +affections altogether pleasanter than anything of the kind they accuse +us of having, as well as less lingering. But with their pills--well, we +all know how our ills are nursed by medicine. Is it a relief that their +precept is less tedious than their practice? It is good policy for us, +perhaps, if our minds are to be under treatment from their books,--and +it grows plainer every day that no person of mind can well escape from +them,--that our bodies should continue subject to their boluses. Thus +we may die daily, but our incorporeal part is better acclimated in the +invisible world of truths and realities. + +No,--the doctors owe nothing to climate or race. The intelligent ones +are everywhere broad, acute, tender, and religious. They uniformly see +what is natural and what is morbid, what is fact and what is fancy, what +is cutaneous and what is vital, in men and women. They stand on unreal, +conventional terms with nothing. They know healthy from inflamed +tissues, and run down, grab, and give one dexterous fatal shake to a +tissue of lies. One of Dr. Brown's terriers is not more swift, exact, +and uncompromising after vermin. This excellent sense for unvarnished +realities has been attributed by some to their habit of visiting so many +interiors--of men and of their houses--whose swell-fronts are pervious +to the sincerity of pain. We never see a doctor's chaise anchored at a +door but we imagine the doctor taking in freight up-stairs. In these +days he is beginning to receive more than he gives. Let no sarcastic +person allude to doctors' fees. We mean that the physician, whose +humanity and intelligence are broad diplomas, on presenting which the +doors of hearts and houses open with a welcome, enters into the choicest +field of his education and research, where his tender observation walks +the wards of thought, feeling, and motive, to amass the facts of health +and suffering, to be refined at the true drama of pathos, to be ennobled +by the spectacle of fair and lofty spiritual traits, to be advised of +the weaknesses which he learns to touch lightly with his caustic, while +his knowing and friendly look deprecates all excess of pain. It is a +school of shrewdness, gentleness, and faith. + +But a rich subject is here, altogether too wide for a book-notice, and +worthy of deliberate, but enthusiastic treatment. Dr. John Brown of +Edinburgh has consulted his own interior, and frequented those of +his diocese, to some purpose. The pieces in this volume, which the +publishers have selected from the two volumes of "Horae Subsecivae," +omitting the more professional papers, are full of humor, tenderness, +and common sense. They betray only occasionally, in a technical way, +that the author is a disciple, as well as admirer, of Sydenham, and his +own countryman, Cullen. But they overflow with the best specifics of the +healing art, shrewdness, independence, nice observation; they have a +woman's kindness and a man's sturdiness. They honor human nature not the +less because the writer knows how to manage it, to raise a smile at its +absurdities, to rally, pique, and guide it into health and good-humor. +He is very clever with the edge-tools in his surgeon's-case; he whips +you out an excrescence before you are quite aware that he meditated +an operation, and you find that he had chloroformed you with a shrewd +writer's best anaesthetic, a humorous and genial temper. + +There is a great deal of nice writing here. Happy words come at a call +and occupy their inevitable places. Now and then a Scotch word, with a +real terrier phiz and the best qualities of "black and tan," gives the +page a local flavor which we should not like to miss. But the writing +is not provincial. There is Scotch character everywhere: the keenness, +intensity, reverence, shaggy humor, sly fun, and just a touch of the +intolerance. The somewhat literal regard for Scripture, the awe, and the +unquestioning, childlike way of being religious, with the independence +of Kirk and Sessions and National Establishments, all belong to the best +intelligence of Edinburgh. But the literary felicity, the scholarship, +the various reading, the cultivated appreciation of books, men, and +systems, while they make us admire--as a good many bright volumes +printed in Edinburgh have done before--the mental power and refinement +which that most picturesque of Northern cities nourishes, do still +belong to the great commonwealth of letters, remind us not of wynds and +closes, and run away from the littleness of time and place. + +If the reader would understand the difference between the sentimental +and the pathetic treatment of a subject, let him see in "Rab and his +Friends" how the pen of Dr. Brown follows the essential lines of that +most pure and tender of all stories. In doing so he has given us a new +creation in Ailie Noble. Not a line can be effectively added to that +ideal narrative of a true history, not a word can be pushed from its +place. The whole treatment is at once delicate, incisive, tender, +reserved, and dramatic. And after reading it,--with or without tears, +according to your capacity for dogged resistance to a distended +lachrymal duct,--you will be conscious of bearing away a sweet and +subduing impression, like that which a rare friend can sometimes give, +which lingers many days. + +Let nobody omit to read the "Letter to John Cairns, D.D.," because he +does not care for J.C. or know who he is. It contains some reminiscences +by Dr. Brown of his father, a noted clergyman, of whose life and +character Dr. Cairns had prepared a memoir. In this, and in the Essay +upon Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Brown shows his capacity to observe and +portray human moods and characteristics. There are his usual literary +excellences, brought to the service of a keen and faithfully reporting +eye, and his fine humane qualities, his tenderness, reverence, and +humor. + +This volume is one of the best ventures of the literary year. + + +_Cecil Dreeme_. By THEODORE WINTHROP. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. + +In the death of Major Winthrop, at the promising commencement of his +military career, the nation lost one of its purest, noblest, and most +capable spirits. His industry, sagacity, and intrepidity all rested on a +firm basis of fixed principle and deep enthusiasm; and had he lived, we +have little doubt that both his moral and practical power would have +been felt among the palpable forces of the country. In the articles he +contributed to this magazine, describing his brief military experience, +every reader must have recognized the singular brightness of his mind +and the singular joyousness of his courage. Powers which, in meditation, +worked at the bidding of pensive or melancholy sentiments, seemed to +be braced by action into unwonted healthiness and hilarity; and had he +survived the experience of the present war, there can be little doubt +that his intellect and imagination would, by contact with events, have +been developed to their full capacity, and found expression in literary +works of remarkable power. + +"Cecil Dreeme" is one of several novels he wrote before the war broke +out, and it conveys a striking impression of his genius and disposition. +The utmost sensitiveness and delicacy of moral sense were combined in +him with a rough delight in all the manifestations of manly strength; +and these two tendencies of his nature are fitly embodied and +exquisitely harmonized in the characters of Cecil Dreeme and Robert +Byng. They are opposites which by their very nature are necessarily +attracted to each other. The obstacle to their mental and moral union +is found in a third person, Densdeth, in whom manly strength and genius +have been corrupted by selfishness and sensuality into the worst form +of spiritual evil. This person is simply abhorred by Cecil, while Byng +finds in him something which tempts appetite, piques curiosity, develops +sensuous feeling, and provokes pride, as well as something which excites +moral disgust and loathing. Byng's distrustful love for Emma Denman +admirably represents this stage of his moral experience. + +Densdeth is undoubtedly the central character of the book. It proves +its creator to be a true spiritual as well as physical descendant of +President Edwards; and not even his ancestor has shown more vividly the +"exceeding sinfulness of sin." Densdeth is one of those evil natures +in whom delight in evil pleasures has subsided into a delight in evil +itself, and a desire to communicate it to others. He has the diabolical +power of calling out the latent evil in all natures with whom his own +comes in contact, and he corrupts, not so much by example, as by a +direct communication of the corrupt spiritual life of his individual +being. He is an accomplished devil, wearing the guise of a New-York man +of fashion and fortune,--a devil such as tempts every person thrown into +the vortex of our daily commonplace life. Every pure sentiment, noble +aspiration, and manly instinct, every natural affection, gentle feeling, +and religious principle, is tainted by his contaminating companionship. +He infuses a subtle skepticism of the reality of goodness by the mere +magnetism of his evil presence. Persons who have been guarded against +the usual contrivances by which the conventional Devil works his wonders +find themselves impotent before the fascinations of Densdeth. They +follow while they detest him, and are at once his victims and his +accomplices. In those whose goodness, like that of Cecil Dreeme, is +founded on purity of sentiment and strength of principle, he excites +unmitigated abhorrence and strenuous opposition; but on all those whose +excellence is "respectable" rather than vital, who are good by the +felicity of their circumstances rather than the force of their +conscience, he exercises a fascination almost irresistible. To +everybody, indeed, who has in him any latent evil not overbalanced by +the habitual performance of positive duties, Densdeth's companionship +is morally blighting. The character, fearful in its way as the +Mephistopheles of Goethe, is represented with considerable artistic +skill. + +Though the most really prominent person in the drama, he is, in the +representation, kept in the background,--a cynical, sneering, brilliant +demi-devil, who appears only when some plot against innocence is +beginning its wiles or approaching its consummation. + +The incidents of the novel occur in some of the best-known localities +of New York. Nobody can mistake Chuzzlewit Hotel and Chrysalis College. +Every traveller has put up at the first and visited some literary +or artistic friend at the second. Indeed, Winthrop seems to have +deliberately chosen the localities of his story with the special +purpose of showing that passions almost as terrible as those which are +celebrated in the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles may rage in the +ordinary lodging-houses of New York. He has succeeded in throwing an +atmosphere of mystery over places which are essentially commonplace; +and he has done it by the intensity with which he has conceived and +represented the internal thoughts, struggles, and emotions of the men +and women by whom these edifices of brick and stone are inhabited. + +Though a clear narrator, when the story required clear narration, +Winthrop perfectly understood the art of narrating by implication and +allusion. He paints distinctly and minutely, not omitting a single +detail, when the occasion demands such faithful representation of real +facts and localities; but he has also the power of flashing his meaning +by suggestive hints which the most labored description and explication +could not make more effective. He makes the mind of the reader work +sympathetically with his own in building up the idea he seeks to convey. +Crimes which are nameless are mutually understood by this refined +communion between author and reader. The mystery of the plot is not +directly explained, but each party seems to bring, as in private +conversation, his individual sagacity to bear upon the right +interpretation. + +The style of the book is admirable. It is brief almost to abruptness. +The words are few, and are crammed with all the meaning they can hold. +There is not a page which does not show that the writer is an economist +of expression, and desirous of conveying his matter with the slightest +possible expenditure of ink. Charles Reade himself does not condense +with a more fretful impatience of all circumlocution and a profounder +reliance on the absolute import of single words. + +We might easily refer to particular scenes from this book, illustrative +of the author's descriptive and representative powers. Among many which +might be noticed, we will allude to only two,--that in which Cecil is +revived from his "sleep of death," and that in the opera-house, where +Byng is apprised of the guilt of Emma Denman. Nobody can read either +without feeling that in the disastrous fight of Great Bethel we lost a +great novelist as well as a chivalrous soldier and a noble man. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Gypsy's Prophecy. A Tale of Real Life. By Mrs. Emma D.E.N. +Southworth. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 455. +$1.25. + +The Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. Illustrated from +Drawings by F.O.C. Darley and John Gilbert. Great Expectations. 2 vols. +New York. James G. Gregory. 16mo. pp. 336, 334. $1.50. + +The Silver Cord. A Novel. By Shirley Brooks. With Illustrations by John +Tenniel. New York. Harper & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 268. $1.00. + +Astoria; or, Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. By +Washington Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New York. G.P. Putnam. 8vo. +pp. viii., 519. $1.50. + +Revised Regulations for the Army of the United States, 1861. With a Full +Index. By Authority of the War Department. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott +& Co. 8vo. pp. 559. $2.00. + +Manual of Internal Rules and Regulations for Men-of-War. By Captain U.P. +Levy, U.S.N., late Flag-Officer commanding United States Naval Forces in +the Mediterranean; Originator of the Abolition of Corporal Punishment in +the United States Navy. New York. D. Van Nostrand. 18mo. pp. 70. 30 cts. + +The Rejected Stone: or, Insurrection _vs._ Resurrection in America. By a +Native of Virginia. Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. 16mo. pp. 132. 50 cts. + +Sermons preached in the Chapel of Harvard College. By James Walker, D.D. +Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. vi., 397. $1.50. + +Lady Maud, the Wonder of Kingswood Chase; or, Earl Gower; or, The +Secret Marriage. By Pierce Egan. Only Complete and Unabridged Edition. +Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 365. $1.25. + +The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, and +Lord High Chancellor of England. Collected and edited by James Spedding, +M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge; Robert Leslie Ellis, M.A., +late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Douglas Denon Heath, +Barrister-at-Law, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Vol. II. +Boston. Brown & Taggard. 12mo. pp. 503. $1.50. + +Cecil Dreeme. By Theodore Winthrop. With a Biographical Introduction by +George William Curtis. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 360. $1.00. + +Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada. From the Manuscripts of Fray +Antonio Agapida. By Washington Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New +York. G.P. Putnam. 12mo. pp. 548. $1.50. + +Woman's Rights under the Law. In Three Lectures, delivered in Boston, +January, 1861. By Caroline H. Dall, Author of "Woman's Right to Labor," +"Historical Pictures Retouched," etc., etc. Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. +16mo. pp. xx., 165. 50 cts. + +Eugénie Grandet; or, The Miser's Daughter. From the French of Honoré de +Balzac. Translated by O.W. Wight and F.B. Goodrich. 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With Maps and Illustrations. New York. Harper +& Brothers. 8vo. pp. 414. $2.00. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 50, +December, 1861, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11524 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 50, December, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 9, 2004 [EBook #11524] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NO. 50 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VIII--DECEMBER, 1861.--NO. L. + + + + +THE HOME OF LAFAYETTE. + + +After General Lafayette's visit to the United States, in 1824, every +American who went to France went with a firm conviction that he had +a right to take as much as he chose of the old gentleman's time and +hospitality, at his own estimate of their value. Fortunately, the number +of travellers was not great in those days, although a week seldom passed +without bringing two or three new faces to the Rue d'Anjou or La Grange. +It was well both for the purse and the patience of the kind-hearted old +man that ocean steamers were still a doubtful problem, and first-class +packets rarely over five hundred tons. + +It could hardly be expected that a boy of sixteen should have more +discretion than his elders; and following the universal example of my +countrymen, the first use that I made of a Parisian cabriolet was to +drive to No. 6, Rue d'Anjou. The _porte cochère_ was open, and the +porter in his lodge,--a brisk little Frenchman, somewhat past middle +age, with just bows enough to prove his nationality, and very expressive +gestures, which I understood much better than I did his words; for they +said, or seemed to say,--"The General is out, and I will take charge +of your letter and card." There was nothing else for me to do, and +so, handing over my credentials, I gave the rest of the morning to +sightseeing, and, being a novice at it and alone, soon got tired and +returned to my hotel. + +I don't know how that hotel would look to me now; but to my untrained +eyes of that day it looked wonderfully fine. I liked the name,--the +Petit Hôtel Montmorenci,--for I knew enough of French history to know +that Montmorenci had always been a great name in France. Then it was the +favorite resort of Americans; and although I was learning the phrases +in Blagdon as fast as I could, I still found English by far the most +agreeable means of communication for everything beyond an appeal to the +waiter for more wood or a clean towel. Table d'Hôte, too, brought us +all together, with an abundant, if not a rich, harvest of personal +experiences gathered during the day from every quarter of the teeming +city. Bradford was there with his handsome face and fine figure,--an old +resident, as it then seemed to me; for he had been abroad two years, and +could speak what sounded to my ears as French-like as any French I had +ever heard. Poor fellow! scarce three years had passed when he laid him +down to his last sleep in a convent of Jerusalem, without a friend to +smooth his pillow or listen to his last wishes. Of most of the others +the names have escaped me; but I shall never forget how wide I opened +my eyes, one evening, at the assertion of a new-comer, that he had done +more for the enlightenment of France than any man living or dead. The +incomparable gravity with which the assertion was made drew every eye to +the speaker, who, after enjoying our astonishment for a while, told us +that he had been the first to send out a whaler from Havre, and had +secured almost a monopoly of the oil-trade. Some years afterwards I made +a passage with his brother, and learned from him the history of +this Yankee enterprise, which had filled two capacious purses, and +substituted the harpoon for the pruning-knife, the whale-ship for the +olive-orchard, in the very stronghold of the emblem of peace; and now +the collier with his pickaxe has driven them both from the field. But +the Petit Hotel Montmorenci did not wait for the change. Its broad court +was never enlivened by gas. Its tables and mantels were decked to the +last hour with the alabaster whiteness of those pure wax tapers which +shed such a soft light upon your book, and grew up into such formidable +items in your bills. A long passage--one of those luxuries of rainy, +muddy Paris, lined with stores that you cannot help lingering over, if +for nothing else, to wonder at the fertility of the human brain when it +makes itself the willing minister of human caprice--covers the whole +space which the hotel stood on, and unites the Neuve St. Marc with the +once distant Boulevard. + +As I passed the porter's lodge, he handed me a letter. The hand was one +that I had never seen before; the address was in French; and the seal, +red wax thinly spread, but something which had been put on it before it +was cool had entirely effaced the impress: as I afterwards learned, it +was the profile of Washington. I opened it, and judge my surprise and +delight on reading the following words:-- + +"Paris, Thursday. + +"I am very sorry not to have had the pleasure to see you when you have +called this morning, my dear Sir. My stay in town will be short. But you +will find me to-morrow from nine in the morning until twelve. I hope we +shall see you soon at La Grange, which I beg of you to consider as +your home, being that of your grandfather's most intimate friend and +brother-in-arms. + +"LAFAYETTE." + +It was nearly eleven when I reached the Rue d'Anjou and began for +the first time to mount the broad stairway of a Parisian palace. The +General's apartments were on the entresol, with a separate staircase +from the first landing of the principal one; for his lameness made +it difficult for him to go up-stairs, and the entresol, a half-story +between the ground floor and the first story, when, as was the case +here, high enough in the ceiling, is one of the freest and pleasantest +parts of a French house. His apartments comprised five rooms on a +line,--an antechamber, a dining-room, two parlors, and a bed-room, +with windows on the street,--and the same number of smaller rooms on a +parallel line, with their windows on the court-yard, which served for +his secretary and servants. The furniture throughout was neat and plain: +the usual comfortable arm-chairs and sofas, the indispensable clock and +mirror over the mantelpiece, and in each fireplace a cheerful wood-fire. +There were two or three servants in the antechamber, well-dressed, but +not in livery; and in the parlor, into which I was shown on handing my +card, two or three persons waiting for an audience. Fortunately for me, +they were there on business, and the business was soon despatched; and +passing, in turn, into the reception parlor, I found myself in the +presence of the friend of Washington and my grandfather. + +He received me so cordially, with such kind inquiries into the object +and cause of my journey, such a fatherly interest in my plans and aims, +such an earnest repetition of the invitation he had given me in his note +to look upon La Grange as my home, that I felt at once that I was no +longer without a guide and protector in a foreign land. It was some time +before I could observe him closely enough to get a just idea of his +appearance; for I had never before been consciously in the presence of +a man who had filled so many pages of real history, and of the history +which above all others I was most interested in. I felt as if a veil had +been suddenly lifted, and the great men I had read of and dreamed of +were passing before me. There were the features which, though changed, +had so often called up a smile of welcome to the lips of Washington; +there was the man who had shared with my grandfather the perils of the +Brandywine and Monmouth, the long winter encampment, and the wearisome +summer march; the man whom Napoleon had tried all the fascinations of +his art upon, and failed to lure him from his devotion to the cause of +freedom; whom Marat and Robespierre had marked out for destruction, and +kings and emperors leagued against in hatred and fear. It was more like +a dream than a reality, and for the first twenty minutes I was almost +afraid to stir for fear I might wake up and find the vision gone. But +when I began to look at him as a being of real flesh and blood, I found +that Ary Scheffer's portrait had not deceived me. Features, expression, +carriage, all were just as it had taught me to expect them, and it +seemed to me as if I had always known him. The moment I felt this I +began to feel at my ease; and though I never entirely lost the feeling +that I had a living chapter of history before me, I soon learned to look +upon him as a father. + +As I was rising to go, a lady entered the room, and, without waiting for +an introduction, held out her hand so cordially that I knew it must be +one of his daughters. It was Madame de Lasteyrie, who, like her mother +and sister, had shared his dungeon at Olmütz. Her English, though +perfectly intelligible, was not as fluent as her father's, but she had +no difficulty in saying some pleasant things about family friendship +which made me very happy. She lived in the same street, though not in +the same house with the General, and that morning my good-fortune had +brought the whole family together at No. 6. + +The occasion was a singular one. One of those heartless speculators to +whom our Government has too often given free scope among the Indian +tribes of our borders had brought to France a party of Osages, on +an embassy, as he gave them to understand, but in reality with the +intention of exhibiting them, very much as Van Amburgh exhibits his wild +beasts. General Lafayette was determined, if possible, to counteract +this abominable scheme; but as, unfortunately, there was no one who +could interpret for him but the speculator himself, he found it +difficult to make the poor Indians understand their real position. He +had already seen and talked with them, and was feeling very badly at not +being able to do more. This morning he was to receive them at his house, +and his own family, with one or two personal friends, had been invited +to witness the interview. + +Madame de Lasteyrie was soon followed by her daughters, and in a few +moments I found myself shaking some very pretty hands, and smiled upon +by some very pretty faces. It was something of a trial for one who had +never been in a full drawing-room in his life, and whom Nature had +predestined to _mauvaise honte_ to the end of his days. Still I made the +best of it, and as there is nothing so dreadful, after all, in a bright +eye and rosy lip, and the General's invitation to look upon his house as +my home was so evidently to be taken in its literal interpretation, I +soon began to feel at my ease. + +The rooms gradually filled. Madame de Maubourg came in soon after her +sister, and, as I was talking to one of the young ladies, a gentleman +with a countenance not altogether unlike the General's, though nearly +bald, and with what was left of his hair perfectly gray, came up and +introduced himself to me as George Lafayette. It was the last link in +the chain. The last letter that my grandfather ever wrote to General +Lafayette had been about a project which they had formed at the close +of the war, to bring up their sons--"the two George Washingtons" +--together; and as soon after General Greene's death as the necessary +arrangement could be made, my poor uncle was sent to France and placed +under the General's care. It was of him that General Washington had +written to Colonel Wadsworth, "But should it turn out differently, and +Mrs. Greene, yourself, and Mr. Rutledge" (General Greene's executors) +"should think proper to intrust my namesake, G.W. Greene, to my care, +I will give him as good an education as this country (I mean North +America) will afford, and will bring him up to either of the genteel +professions that his friends may choose or his own inclination shall +lead him to pursue, at my own cost and charge." "He is a lively boy," +wrote General Knox to Washington, on returning from putting him on board +the French packet, "and, with a good education, will probably be an +honor to the name of his father and the pride of his friends." + +I may be pardoned for dwelling a moment on the scanty memorials of one +whose name is often mentioned in the letters of Washington, and whose +early promise awakened the fondest expectations. He was a beautiful boy, +if the exquisite little miniature before me may be trusted, blending +sweetly the more characteristic traits of his father and mother in his +face, in a way that must have made him very dear to both. With the +officers and soldiers he was a great favorite, and it cost his father a +hard effort to deny himself the gratification of having him always with +him at camp during the winter. But the sense of paternal duty prevailed, +and as soon as he was thought old enough to profit by it, he was put +under the charge of Dr. Witherspoon at Princeton. "I cannot omit +informing you," writes General Washington, in 1783, "that I let no +opportunity slip to inquire after your son George at Princeton, and +that it is with pleasure I hear he enjoys good health, and is a fine, +promising boy." He remained in France till 1792, when his mother's +anxiety for his safety overcame her desire for the completion of his +studies, and she wrote to Gouverneur Morris, who was then in France, to +send him home. "Mr. Jefferson," reads the autograph before me, "presents +his most respectful compliments to Mrs. Greene, and will with great +pleasure write to Mr. Morris on the subject of her son's return, +forwarding her letter at the same time. He thinks Mrs. Greene concluded +that he should return by the way of London. If he is mistaken, she will +be so good as to correct him, as his letter to Mr. Morris will otherwise +be on that supposition." He returned a large, vigorous, athletic man, +full of the scenes he had witnessed, and ready to engage in active life +with the ardor of his age and the high hopes which his name authorized; +for it was in the days of Washington and Hamilton and Knox, men who +extended to the son the love they had borne to the father. But his first +winter was to be given to his home, to his mother and sisters; and +there, while pursuing too eagerly his favorite sport of duck-shooting +from a canoe on the Savannah, his boat was overset, and, though his +companion escaped by clinging to the canoe, he was borne down by the +weight of his accoutrements and drowned. The next day the body was +recovered, and the vault which but six years before had prematurely +opened its doors to receive the remains of the father was opened again +for the son. Not long after, his family removed to Cumberland Island and +ceased to look upon Savannah as their burial-place; and when, for the +first time, after the lapse of more than thirty years, and at the +approach of Lafayette on his last memorable visit to the United States, +a people awoke from their lethargy and asked where the bones of the hero +of the South had been laid, there was no one to point out their +resting-place. Happy, if what the poet tells us be true, and "still in our +ashes live their wonted fires," that they have long since mingled +irrevocably with the soil of the land that he saved, and can never become +associated with a movement that has been disgraced by the vile flag of +Secession! + +But to return to the Rue d'Anjou. A loud noise in the street announced +the approach of the Indians, whose appearance in an open carriage had +drawn together a dense crowd of sight-loving Parisians; and in a few +moments they entered, decked out in characteristic finery, but without +any of that natural grace and dignity which I had been taught to look +for in the natives of the forest. The General received them with the +dignified affability which was the distinctive characteristic of his +manner under all circumstances; and although there was nothing in the +occasion to justify it, I could not help recalling Madame de Staël's +comment upon his appearance at Versailles, on the fearful fifth of +October:--"M. de la Fayette was perfectly calm; nobody ever saw him +otherwise." Withdrawing with them into an inner room, he did his best, +as he afterwards told me, to prevail upon them to return home, though +not without serious doubts of the honesty of their interpreter. It was +while this private conference was going on that I got my first sight of +Cooper,--completing my morning's experience by exchanging a few words +with the man, of all others among my countrymen, whom I had most wished +to know. Meanwhile the table in the dining-room was spread with cakes +and preserves, and before the company withdrew, they had a good +opportunity of convincing themselves, that, if the American Indian had +made but little progress in the other arts of civilization, he had +attained to a full appreciation of the virtues of sweetmeats and pastry. + +I cannot close this portion of my story without relating my second +interview with my aboriginal countrymen, not quite so satisfactory as +the first, but at least with its amusing, or rather its laughable side. +I was living in Siena, a quiet old Tuscan town, with barely fifteen +thousand inhabitants to occupy a circuit of wall that had once held +fifty,--but with all the remains of its former greatness about it, noble +palaces, a cathedral second in beauty to that of Milan alone, churches +filled with fine pictures, an excellent public library, (God's blessing +be upon it, for it was in one of its dreamy alcoves that I first read +Dante,) a good opera in the summer, and good society all the year round. +Month was gliding after month in happy succession. I had dropped readily +into the tranquil round of the daily life, had formed many acquaintances +and two or three intimate ones, and, though reminded from time to time +of the General by a paternal letter, had altogether forgotten the +specimens of the children of the forest whom I had seen under his roof. +One evening--I do not remember the month, though I think it was late in +the autumn--I had made up my mind to stay at home and study, and was +just sitting down to my books, when a friend came in with the air of a +man who had something very interesting to say. + +"Quick, quick! shut your book, and come with me to the theatre." + +"Impossible! I'm tired, and, moreover, have something to do which I must +do to-night." + +"To-morrow night will do just as well for that, but not for the +theatre." + +"Why?" + +"Because there are some of your countrymen here who are going to be +exhibited on the stage, and the Countess P---- and all your friends want +you to come and interpret for them." + +"Infinitely obliged. And pray, what do you mean by saying that some of +my countrymen are to be exhibited on the stage? Do you take Americans +for mountebanks?" + +"No, I don't mean that; but it is just as I tell you. Some Americans +will appear on the stage to-night and make a speech in American, and you +must come and explain it to us." + +I must confess, that, at first, my dignity was a little hurt at the idea +of an exhibition of Americans; but a moment's reflection convinced me +that I had no grounds for offence, and all of a sudden it occurred to +me that the "Americans" might be my friends of the Rue d'Anjou, whose +"guide and interpreter," though hardly their "friend," had got them +down as far as Siena on the general embassy. I was resolved to see, and +accordingly exchanging my dressing-gown and slippers for a dress-box +costume, I accompanied my friend to the theatre. My appearance at the +pit-door was the signal for nods and beckonings from a dozen boxes; but +as no one could dispute the superior claims of the Countess P----, I soon +found myself seated in the front of her Ladyship's box, and the chief +object of attention till the curtain rose. + +"And now, my dear G----, tell us all about these strange countrymen +of yours,--how they live,--whether it is true that they eat one +another,--what kind of houses they have,--how they treat their +women,--and everything else that we ought to know." + +Two or three years later, when Cooper began to be translated, they would +have known better; but now nothing could convince them that I was not +perfectly qualified to answer all their questions and stand interpreter +between my countrymen and the audience. Fortunately, I had read Irving's +beautiful paper in the "Sketch-Book," and knew "The Last of the +Mohicans" by heart; and putting together, as well as I could, the ideas +of Indian life I had gained from these sources, I accomplished my task +to the entire satisfaction of my interrogators. At last the curtain +rose, and, though reduced in number, and evidently much the worse for +their protracted stay in the land of civilization and brandy, there +they were, the very Osages I had seen at the good old General's. The +interpreter came forward and told his story, making them chiefs of rank +on a tour of pleasure. And a burly-looking fellow, walking up and down +the stage with an air that gave the lie to every assertion of the +interpreter, made a speech in deep gutturals to the great delight of +the listeners. Fortunately for me, the Italian love of sound kept my +companions still till the speech was ended, and then, just as they were +turning to me for a translation, the interpreter announced his intention +of translating it for them himself. Nothing else, I verily believe, +could have saved my reputation, and enabled me to retain my place as a +native-born American. When the exhibition was over,--and even with the +ludicrousness of my part of it, to me it was a sad one,--I went behind +the scenes to take a nearer view of these poor victims of avarice. They +were sitting round a warming-pan, looking jaded and worn, brutalized +beyond even what I had first imagined. It was my last sight of them, and +I was glad of it; how far they went, and how many of them found their +way back to their native land, I never was able to learn. + +Before I left the Rue d'Anjou, it was arranged, that, as soon as I had +seen a little more of Paris, I should go to La Grange. "One of the young +ladies will teach you French," said the General, "and you can make your +plans for the winter at your leisure." + + +LA GRANGE. + + +It was on a bright autumn morning that I started for the little village +of Rosay,--some two leagues from Paris, and the nearest point by +_diligence_ to La Grange. A railroad passes almost equally near to +it now, and the French _diligence_, like its English and American +counterpart, the stage-coach, has long since been shorn of its honors. +Yet it was a pleasant mode of travelling, taking you from place to place +in a way to give you a good general idea of the country you were +passing through, and bringing you into much closer relations with your +fellow-travellers than you can form in a rail-car. There was the crowd +at the door of the post-house where you stopped to change horses, and +the little troop of wooden-shoed children that followed you up the +hill, drawling out in unison, "_Un peu de charité, s'il vous plaît_," +gradually quickening their pace as the horses began to trot, and +breaking all off together and tumbling in a heap as they scrambled for +the _sous_ that were thrown out to them. + +For a light, airy people, the French have a wonderful facility in making +clumsy-looking vehicles. To look at a _diligence_, you would say that it +was impossible to guide it through a narrow street, or turn it into a +gate. The only thing an American would think of likening it to would be +three carriages of different shapes fastened together. First came the +_Coupé_, in shape like an old-fashioned chariot, with a seat for three +persons, and glass windows in front and at the sides that gave you a +full view of everything on the road. This was the post of honor, higher +in price, and, on long journeys, always secured a day or two beforehand. +Not the least of its advantages was the amusement it afforded you in +watching the postilion and his horses,--a never-failing source of +merriment; and what to those who know how important it is, in a set of +hungry travellers, to secure a good seat at table, the important +fact that the _coupé_-door was the first door opened, and the +_coupé_-passengers received as the most distinguished personages of the +party. The _Intérieur_ came next: somewhat larger than our common coach, +with seats for six, face to face, two good windows at the sides, and +netting above for parcels of every kind and size: a comfortable place, +less exposed to jolts than the _coupé_ even, and much to be desired, if +you could but make sure of a back-corner and an accommodating companion +opposite to you. Last of all was the _Rotonde_, with its entrance from +the rear, its seats length-wise, room for six, and compensating in part +for its comparative inferiority in other respects by leaving you free +to get in and out as you chose, without consulting the conductor. This, +however, was but the first story, or the rooms of state of this castle +on wheels. On a covered dicky, directly above the _coupé_, and thus on +the very top of the whole machine, was another row of passengers, with +the conductor in front, looking down through the dust upon the world +beneath them, not very comfortable when the sun was hot, still less +comfortable of a rainy day, but just in the place which of all others +a real traveller would wish to be in at morning or evening or of a +moonlight night. The remainder of the top was reserved for the baggage, +carefully packed and covered up securely from dust and rain. + +I had taken the precaution to engage a seat in the _coupé_ the day +before I set out. Of my companions, I am sorry to say, I have not the +slightest recollection. But the road was good,--bordered, as so many +French roads are, with trees, and filled with a thousand objects full of +interest to a young traveller. There was the _roulage_: an immense cart +filled with goods of all descriptions, and drawn by four or five horses, +ranged one before another, each decked with a merry string of bells, and +generally rising in graduated proportions from the full-sized leader +to the enormous thill horse, who bore the heat and burden of the day. +Sometimes half a dozen of them would pass in a row, the drivers walking +together and whiling away the time with stories and songs. Now and then +a post-chaise would whirl by with a clattering of wheels and cracking of +whip that were generally redoubled as it came nearer to the _diligence_, +and sank again, when it was passed, into comparative moderation both of +noise and speed. There were foot travellers, too, in abundance; and as +I saw them walking along under the shade of the long line of trees +that bordered the road, I could not help thinking that this thoughtful +provision for the protection of the traveller was the most pleasing +indication I had yet seen of a country long settled. + +While I was thus looking and wondering, and drawing perhaps the hasty +comparisons of a novice, I saw a gentleman coming towards us with a +firm, quick step, his blue surtout buttoned tight over his breast, a +light walking-stick in his hand, and with the abstracted air of a man +who saw something beyond the reach of the bodily eye. It was Cooper, +just returning from a visit to the General, and dreaming perhaps of +his forest-paths or the ocean. His carriage with his family was coming +slowly on behind. A day earlier and I should have found them all at La +Grange. + +It was evident that the good people of Rosay were accustomed to the +sight of travellers on their way to La Grange with a very small stock of +French; for I had hardly named the place, when a brisk little fellow, +announcing himself as the guide of all the _Messieurs Américains_, +swung my portmanteau upon his back and set out before me at the regular +jog-trot of a well-trained porter. The distance was but a mile, the +country level, and we soon came in sight of the castle. Castle, indeed, +it was, with its pointed Norman towers, its massive walls, and broad +moat,--memorials of other days,--and already gray with age before the +first roof-tree was laid in the land which its owner had helped to build +up to a great nation. On a hill-side its appearance would have been +grand. As it was, it was impressive, and particularly as first seen +from the road. The portcullis was gone, but the arched gateway still +remained, flanked by towers that looked sombre and stern, even amidst +the deep green of the ivy which covered the left tower almost to the +battlements. I was afterwards told that the ivy itself had a special +significance,--having been planted by Charles Fox, during a visit to La +Grange not long before his death. And Fox, it will be remembered, had +exerted all his eloquence to induce the English Government to demand the +liberation of Lafayette from Olmütz,--an act which called down upon him +at the time the bitterest invectives of party rhetoric, but which the +historian of England now records as a bright page in the life of one of +her greatest men. Ah, how different would our record be, if we could +always follow our instinct of immortality, and in all our actions look +thoughtfully forward to the judgment of the future! + +Passing under the massive arch, I found myself in the castle court. +Three sides of the edifice were still standing, darkened, indeed, and +distained by the winds and rains of centuries, but with an air of modern +comfort and neatness about the doors and windows that seemed more in +keeping than the moat and towers with the habits of the present day. +The other curtain had been thrown down years before,--how or why nobody +could tell me, but not improbably in some of the domestic wars which +fill and defile the annals of mediaeval Europe. In those days the loss +of it must have been a serious one; but for the modern occupant it was a +real gain,--letting in the air and sunlight, and opening a pleasant view +of green plantations from every window of the court. + +A servant met me at the main entrance, a broad stairway directly +opposite the gate, and, taking my card, led me up to a spacious hall, +where he asked me to wait while he went to announce my arrival to +the General. The hall was a large oblong room, plainly, but neatly +furnished, with a piano at one end, its tessellated oaken floor highly +polished, and communicating by folding-doors with an inner room, in +which I caught a glimpse of a bright wood-fire, and a portrait of Bailly +over the mantel. On the wall, to the left of the folding-doors, was +suspended an American flag with its blue field of stars and its red and +white stripes looking down upon me in a way that made my American veins +tingle. + +But I had barely time to look around me before I heard a heavy step on +the stairs, and the next moment the General entered. This time he gave +me a French greeting, pressing me in his arms and kissing me on both +cheeks. "We were expecting you," said he, "and you are in good season +for dinner. Let me show you your room." + +If I had had my choice of all the rooms in the castle, I should have +chosen the very one that had been assigned me. It was on the first--not +the ground--floor, at the end of a long vaulted gallery and in a tower. +There was a deep alcove from the bed,--a window looking down upon the +calm waters of the moat, and giving glimpses, through the trees, of +fields and woods beyond,--a fireplace with a cheerful fire, which had +evidently been kindled the moment my arrival was known,--the tessellated +floor with its waxen gloss,--and the usual furniture of a French +bed-room, a good table and comfortable chairs. A sugar-bowl filled +with sparkling beet sugar, and a decanter of fresh water, on the +mantel-piece, would have shown me, if there had been nothing else to +show it, that I was in France. The General looked round the room to make +sure that all was comfortably arranged for me, and then renewing his +welcome, and telling me that the castle-bell would ring for dinner in +about half an hour, left me to take possession of my quarters and change +my dress. + +If I had not been afraid of getting belated, I should have sat down +awhile to collect my thoughts and endeavor to realize where I was. But +as it was, I could do little more than unpack my trunk, arrange my books +and writing-materials on the table, and change my dusty clothes, before +the bell rang. Oh, how that bell sounded through the long corridor from +its watch-tower over the gateway! And how I shrank back when I found +myself on the threshold of the hall and saw the inner room full! The +General must have divined my feelings; for, the moment he saw me, he +came forward to meet me, and, taking me by the arm, presented me to all +the elders of the party in turn. He apparently supposed, that, with +the start I had had in the Rue d'Anjou, I should make my way among the +younger ones myself. + +It was a family circle covering three generations: the General, his son +and daughter-in-law and two daughters, and ten grandchildren,--among +whom I was glad to see some of both sexes sufficiently near my own age +to open a very pleasant prospect for me whenever I should have learnt +French enough to feel at home among them. Nor was the domestic character +of the group broken by the presence of a son of Casimir Périer, who was +soon to marry George Lafayette's eldest daughter, the Count de Ségur, +the General's uncle, though but a month or two his elder, and the Count +de Tracy, father of Madame George de Lafayette, and founder of the +French school of Ideology, companions, both of them, of the General's +youth, and, at this serene close of a life of strange vicissitudes and +bitter trials, still his friends. Levasseur, his secretary, who had +accompanied him in his visit to the United States, with his German wife, +a young gentleman whose name I have forgotten, but who was the private +tutor of young Jules de Lasteyrie, and Major Frye, an English half-pay +officer, of whom I shall have a good deal more to say by-and-by, +completed the circle. We formed a long procession to the dining-room, +and I shall never forget how awkward I felt on finding myself walking, +with the General's arm in mine, at the head of it. There was a certain +air of high breeding, of respect for others founded on self-respect, and +a perfect familiarity with all the forms of society, which relieved +me from much of my embarrassment by making me feel instinctively that +nobody would take unpleasant notice of it. Still, that first dinner was +a trial to my nerves, though I do not remember that the trial interfered +with my appetite. It was served, of course, in courses, beginning with +soup and ending with fruit. Most of the dishes, as I afterwards learned, +were the produce of the farm, and they certainly bore good witness to +the farmer's judgment and skill. The General was a hearty eater, as most +Frenchmen are; but he loved to season his food with conversation, and, +much as he relished his meals, he seemed to relish the pleasant +talk between the courses still more. As I was unable to follow the +conversation of the table, I came in for a large share of the General's +attention, who would turn to me every now and then with something +pleasant to say. He had had the consideration, too, to place one of the +young ladies next to me, directly on my right, as I was on his; and her +English, though not perfectly fluent, was fluent enough to enable us to +keep up a lively interlude. + +On returning to the drawing-room, the General led me up to a portrait of +my grandfather, and indulged himself for a while in endeavoring to trace +a resemblance between us. I say indulged; for he often, down to the last +time that I ever saw him, came back to this subject, and seemed to +take a peculiar pleasure in it. He had been warmly attached to General +Greene, and the attachment which both of them bore to Washington served +to strengthen their attachment to each other. This portrait, a copy +from Peale, had been one of the fruits of his last visit to the United +States, and hung, with those of some other personal friends,--great men +all of them,--on the drawing-room wall. His Washington was a bronze from +Houdon's bust, and stood opposite the mantel-piece on a marble pedestal. +Conversation and music filled up the rest of the evening, and before +I withdrew for the night it had been arranged that I should begin my +French the next morning, with one of the young ladies for teacher. And +thus ended my first day at La Grange. + + +EVERY-DAY LIFE AT LA GRANGE. + + +The daily life at La Grange was necessarily systematic. The General's +position compelled him to see a great deal of company and exposed him to +constant interruptions. He kept a kind of open table, at which part +of the faces seemed to be changing every day. Then there were his own +children, with claims upon his attention which he was not disposed to +deny, and a large family of grandchildren to educate, upon all of whose +minds he wished to leave personal impressions of their intercourse with +him which should make them feel how much he loved and cherished them +all. Fortunately, the size of the castle made it easy to keep the family +rooms distant from the rooms of the guests; and a judicious division +of time enabled him to preserve a degree of freedom in the midst of +constraint, which, though the rule in Europe, American hosts in town or +country have very little conception of. + +Every one rose at his own hour, and was master of his time till eleven. +If he wanted an early breakfast, he could have a cup of coffee +or chocolate or milk in his room for the asking. But the family +breakfast-hour was at eleven, a true French breakfast, and attended with +all the forms of dinner except in dress. The castle-bell was rung; the +household collected in the parlor; and all descended in one order to the +dining-room. It was pleasant to see this morning gathering. The General +was almost always among the first to come in and take his stand by +the fireplace, with a cordial greeting for each guest in turn. As his +grandchildren entered, they went up to offer their morning salutations +to him first of all, and there was the paternal kiss on the forehead and +a pleasant word for each. His son and daughters generally saw him in his +own room before they came down. + +Breakfast was a cheerful meal, served in courses like dinner, and +seasoned with conversation, in which every one was free to take a part +or listen, as he felt disposed. There was no hurry, no confusion about +it; all sat down and rose at the same time; and as every one that worked +at all had evidently done part of his day's work before he came to +table, all came with good appetites. Then came the family walk, all +starting out in a group, but always sure to break up into smaller groups +as they went on: the natural law of affinities never failing to make +itself felt, and they who found most pleasure in each other's society +generally ending their walk together. Sometimes the General would come a +little way with us, but soon turned off to the farm, or dropped behind +and went back to his books and letters. An hour in the grounds passed +quickly,--too quickly, I often used to think; and then, unless, as +occasionally happened, there was an excursion on foot which all were +to take part in, the members of the family withdrew to their own +apartments, and the guests were left free to fill up the time till +dinner as they chose. With books, papers, and visits from room to room, +or strolls about the grounds, the hours never lagged; and much as one +day seemed like another, there was always something of its own to +remember it by. Of course, this regularity was not the result of +chance. Behind the visible curtain was the invisible spirit guiding +and directing all. It was no easy task to provide abundantly, and yet +judiciously, for a family always large, but which might at any moment +be almost doubled without an hour's notice. The farm, as I have already +said, furnished a full proportion of the daily supplies, and the General +was the farmer. But the daily task of distribution and arrangement fell +to the young ladies, each of whom took her week of housekeeping in turn. +The very first morning I was admitted behind the scenes. "If you want +anything before breakfast," said one of the young ladies, as the evening +circle was breaking up, "come down into the butler's room and get it." +And to the butler's room I went; and there, in a calico fitted as neatly +as the rich silk of the evening before, with no papers in her hair, with +nothing but a richer glow to distinguish the morning from the evening +face, with laughing eyes and busy hands, issuing orders and inspecting +dishes, stood the very girl with whom I was to begin at nine my +initiation into the mysteries of French. There must have been something +peculiar in the grass which the cows fed on at La Grange; for I used to +go regularly every morning for my cup of milk, and it never disagreed +with me. + + +MY FRENCH. + + +Oh, that lesson of French! Two seats at the snug little writing-table, +and only one witness of my blunders; for nobody ever thought of coming +into the drawing-room before the breakfast-bell. Unfortunately for me, +Ollendorff had not yet published his thefts from Manesca; and instead of +that brisk little war of question and answer, which loosens the tongue +so readily to strange sounds and forms the memory so promptly to the +combinations of a new idiom, I had to struggle on through the scanty +rules and multitudinous exceptions of grammar, and pick my way with the +help of a dictionary through the harmonious sentences of "Télémaque." +And never had sentences seemed so harmonious to my ears before; and +never, I fear, before had my young friend's patience been so sorely +tried, or her love of fun put under so unnatural a restraint. "_Calypso +ne pouvait se consoler_," over and over and over again, her rosy lips +moving slowly in order to give distinctness to every articulation, and +her blue eyes fairly dancing with repressed laughter at my awkward +imitation. If my teacher's patience could have given me a good +pronunciation, mine would have been perfect. Day after day she came back +to her task, and ever as the clock told nine would meet me at the door +with the same genial smile. + +Nearly twenty years afterwards I found myself once more in Paris, and at +a large party at the house of the American Minister, the late Mr. King. +As I was wandering through the rooms, looking at group after group of +unknown faces, my eye fell upon one that I should have recognized at +once as that of my first teacher of French, if it had not seemed to me +impossible that twenty years could have passed over it so lightly. + +"Who is that lady?" I asked of a gentleman near me, whom it was +impossible not to set down at once for an American. + +"Why, that is Madame de ----, a grand-daughter of General Lafayette." + +I can hardly account, at this quiet moment, for the sudden impulse that +seized me; but resist it I could not; and walking directly up to her, I +made my lowest bow, and, without giving her time to look me well in +the face, repeated, with all the gravity I could command, "_Calypso ne +pouvait se consoler du départ d'Ulysse_." + +"O! Monsieur Greene," said she, holding out both her hands, "it must be +you!" + + +THE GENERAL. + + +General Lafayette had just entered his seventy-first year. In his +childhood he had been troubled by a weakness of the chest which gave his +friends some anxiety. But his constitution was naturally good, and air, +exercise, and exposure gradually wore away every trace of his original +debility. In person he was tall and strongly built, with broad +shoulders, large limbs, and a general air of strength, which was rather +increased than diminished by an evident tending towards corpulency. +While still a young man, his right leg--the same, I believe, that had +been wounded in rallying our broken troops at the Brandywine--was +fractured by a fall on the ice, leaving him lame for the rest of his +days. This did not prevent him, however, from walking about his farm, +though it cut him off from the use of the saddle, and gave a halt to his +gait, which but for his dignity of carriage would have approached to +awkwardness. Indeed, he had more dignity of bearing than any man I ever +saw. And it was not merely the dignity of self-possession, which early +familiarity with society and early habits of command may give even to +an ordinary man, but that elevation of manner which springs from an +habitual elevation of thought, bearing witness to the purity of its +source, as a clear eye and ruddy cheek bear witness to the purity of the +air you daily breathe. In some respects he was the mercurial Frenchman +to the last day of his life; yet his general bearing, that in which +he comes oftenest to my memory, was of calm earnestness, tempered and +mellowed by quick sympathies. + +His method of life was very regular,--the regularity of thirty years +of comparative retirement, following close upon fifteen years of active +public life, begun at twenty in the army of Washington, and ending in a +Prussian and Austrian dungeon at thirty-five. + +His private apartments consisted of two rooms on the second floor. The +first was his bed-room, a cheerful, though not a large room, nearly +square, with a comfortable fireplace, and a window looking out upon the +lawn and woods behind the castle. Just outside of the bed-room, and the +first object that struck your eye on approaching it from the gallery, +was a picture by one of his daughters, representing the burly turnkey +of Olmütz in the act of unlocking his dungeon-door. "It is a good +likeness," said the General to me, the first time that he took me to his +rooms,--"a very good likeness. I remember the features well." From the +bed-room a door opened into a large turret-room, well lighted and airy, +and which, taking its shape from the tower in which it stood, was +almost a perfect circle. This was the General's library. The books were +arranged in open cases, filling the walls from floor to ceiling, and +with a neatness and order which revealed an artistic appreciation of +their effect. It was lighted by two windows, one opening on the lawn, +the other on the farm-yards, and both, from the thickness of the +walls, looking like deep recesses. In the window that looked upon the +farm-yards was the General's writing-table and seat. A spy-glass lay +within reach, enabling him to overlook the yard-work without rising from +his chair; and on the table were his farm-books, with the record of +crops and improvements entered in regular order with his own hand. +Charles Sumner, who visited La Grange last summer, tells me that they +lie there still. + +The library was miscellaneous, many of the books being +presentation-copies, and most of them neatly bound. Its predominant +character, as nearly as I can recollect, was historical; the history in +which he had borne so important a part naturally coming in for a full +share. Though not a scholar from choice, General Lafayette loved books, +and was well read. His Latin had stood him in stead at Olmütz for his +brief communication with his surgeon; and I have a distinct impression, +though I cannot vouch for the correctness of it, that he never dropped +it altogether. His associations were too much among men of thought as +well as men of action, and the responsibilities that weighed upon him +were too grave, to permit so conscientious a man to neglect the aid of +books. Of the historians of our Revolution, he preferred Ramsay, who +had, as he said, put everything into his two volumes, and abridged as +well as Eutropius. It was, perhaps, the presence of something of the +same quality that led him to give the preference, among the numerous +histories of the French Revolution, to Mignet, though, in putting +him into my hands, he cautioned me against that dangerous spirit +of fatalism, which, making man the unconscious instrument of an +irresistible necessity, leaves him no real responsibility for evil or +for good. + +It was in this room that he passed the greater part of the time that was +not given to his farm or his guests. I never entered it without finding +him at his desk, with his pen or a book in hand. His correspondence was +so extensive that he was always obliged to keep a secretary, though a +large portion of his letters were written with his own hand. He wrote +rapidly in fact, though not rapidly to the eye; and you were surprised, +in seeing his hand move over the paper, to find how soon it reached the +bottom of the sheet, and how closely it filled it up. His handwriting +was clear and distinct, neither decidedly French nor decidedly +English,--like all his habits and opinions, formed early and never +changed. I have letters of his to my grandfather, written during the +Revolution, and letters of his to myself, written fifty years after it, +in which it is almost impossible to trace the difference between the old +man and the young one. English he seemed to write as readily as French, +although a strong Gallicism would every now and then slip from his pen, +as it slipped from his tongue. "I had to learn in a hurry," said he, +giving me one day the history of his English studies. "I began on my +passage out, as soon as I got over my sea-sickness, and picked up the +rest in camp. I was compelled to write and talk, and so I learned to +write and talk. The officers were very kind and never laughed at me. +After the peace, Colonel Tarleton came over to Paris, and was presented +to the King one day when I happened to be at Court. The King asked him +how I spoke English. 'I cannot say how he speaks it, Sire,' said the +Colonel, 'but I occasionally had the good-luck to pick up some of his +letters that were going the wrong way, and I can assure your Majesty +that they were very well written.'" + +His valet was an old soldier, who had served through the Peninsular War, +and who moved about with the orderly gait and quiet air of a man who had +passed his heyday under the forming influences of camp discipline. +He was a most respectable-looking man, as well as a most respectful +servant; and it was impossible to see him busying himself about the +General at his morning toilet, and watch his delicate handling of the +lather-brush and razor, without feeling, that, however true the old +proverb may have been in other cases, Bastien's master was a hero to +him. + +The General's dress was always simple, though studiously neat. His +republicanism was of the school of Washington, and would have shrunk +from a public display of a bare neck and shirt-sleeves. Blue was his +usual winter color; a frock-coat in the morning, and a dress-coat for +dinner, and both near enough to the prevailing fashion to escape remark. +He had begun serious life too early to have ever been anything of a +dandy, even if Nature had seen fit to contradict herself so far as to +have intended him for one. + +Jewelry I never saw him wear; but there was one little compartment in +his library filled with what in a certain sense might be called jewelry, +and of a kind that he had good reason to be proud of. In one of the +drawers was a sword made out of a key of the Bastile, and presented to +him by the city of Paris. The other key he sent to Washington. When he +was a young man the Bastile was a reality, and those keys still plied +their dismal work at the bidding of a power as insensible to the +suffering it caused as the steel of which they were made. Of the +hundreds who with sinking hearts had heard them turn in their massive +wards, how few had ever come back to tell the tale of their misery! +Lafayette himself, but for the quick wit of a servant-maid, might have +passed there some of the youthful days that he passed at the side of +Washington, and gazed dimly, as at a dream, in the Bastile, at what he +could look back upon as a proud reality in Olmütz. Another of his relics +was a civic crown, oak-leaf wrought in gold, the gift of the city of +Lyons; but this belonged to a later period, his last visit to Auvergne, +the summer before the Revolution of July, and which called forth as +enthusiastic a display of popular affection as that which had greeted +his last visit to America. But the one which he seemed to prize most was +a very plain pair of eye-glasses, in a simple horn case, if my memory +does not deceive me, but which, in his estimation, neither gold nor +jewels could have replaced, for they had once belonged to Washington. +"He gave them to me," said the General, "on my last visit to Mount +Vernon." + +He was an early riser, and his work began the moment he left his pillow. +First came his letters, always a heavy drain upon his time; for he had +been so long a public man that everybody felt free to consult him, and +everybody that consulted him was sure of a polite answer. Then his +personal friends had their claims, some of them running back to youth, +some the gradual accession of later years, and all of them cherished +with that genial and confiding expansiveness which was the great charm +of his private life, and the chief source, when he did err, of his +errors as a public man. Like all the men of Washington's school, he +was systematically industrious; and by dint of system and industry his +immense correspondence was seldom allowed to get the start of him. +Important letters were answered as they came, and minutes or copies of +the answers kept for reference. He seemed to love his pen, and to write +without effort,--never aiming, it is true, at the higher graces of +style, somewhat diffuse, too, both in French and in English, but +easy, natural, idiomatic, and lucid, with the distinctness of clear +conceptions rather than the precision of vigorous conceptions, and a +warmth which in his public letters sometimes rose to eloquence, and in +his private letters often made you feel as if you were listening instead +of reading. + +He was fond of anecdote, and told his stories with the fluency of a man +accustomed to public speaking, and the animation and point of a man +accustomed to the society of men of wit as well as of men of action. +His recollections were wonderfully distinct, and it always gave me a +peculiar thrill to hear him talk about the great men he had lived and +acted with in both hemispheres, as familiarly as if he had parted from +them only an hour before. It was bringing history very close to me, and +peopling it with living beings,--beings of flesh and blood, who ate and +drank and slept and wore clothes as we do; for here was one of them, the +friend and companion of the greatest among them all, whom I had known +through books, as I knew them long before I knew him in actual life, +and every one of whose words and gestures seemed to give me a clearer +conception of what they, too, must have been. + +Still he never appeared to live in the recollections of his youth, as +most old men do. His life was too active a one for this, and the +great principles he had consecrated it to were too far-reaching and +comprehensive, too full of living, actual interest, too fresh and +vigorous in their vitality, to allow a man of his sanguine and active +temperament to forget himself in the past when there was so much to do +in the present. This gave a peculiar charm to his conversation; for, +no matter what the subject might be, he always talked like a man who +believed what he said, and whose faith, a living principle of thought +and action, was constantly kept in a genial glow by the quickness +and depth of his sympathies. His smile told this; for it was full of +sweetness and gentleness, though with a dash of earnestness about it, an +under-current of serious thought, that made you feel as if you wanted to +look behind it, and reminded you, at times, of a landscape at sunset, +when there is just light enough to show you how many things there are +in it that you would gladly dwell upon, if the day were only a little +longer. + +His intercourse with his children was affectionate and confiding,--that +with his daughters touchingly so. They had shared with him two years of +his captivity at Olmütz, and he seemed never to look at them without +remembering it. They had been his companions when he most needed +companionship, and had learnt to enter into his feelings and study his +happiness at an age when most girls are absorbed in themselves. The +effect of this early discipline was never lost. They had found happiness +where few seek it, in self-denial and self-control, a religious +cultivation of domestic affections, and a thoughtful development +of their minds as sources of strength and enjoyment. They were +happy,--happy in what they had done and in what they were +doing,--entering cheerfully upon the serene evening of lives consecrated +to duty, with children around them to love them as they had loved their +father and mother, and that father still with them to tell them that +they had never deceived him. + + + + +A FIELD NIGHT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. + + +To an intelligent American visiting London for the first time, few +places of interest will present stronger attractions than the House of +Commons during an animated debate. Commencing its existence with the +first crude ideas of popular liberty in England, steadily advancing in +influence and importance with the increasing wealth and intelligence of +the middling class, until it came to hold the purse and successfully +defend the rights of the people, illustrated for many generations by the +eloquence and the statesmanship of the kingdom, and to-day wielding the +power and directing the destinies of the foremost nation in the world, +it is not strange that an American, speaking the same language, and +proud of the same ancestry, should visit with the deepest interest the +scene of so many and so important transactions. Especially will this be +the case, if by experience or observation he has become familiar with +the course of proceedings in our own legislative assemblies. For, +although the English House of Commons is the parent of all similar +deliberative bodies in the civilized world, yet its rules and +regulations are in many respects essentially unique. + +Assuming that many of my readers have never enjoyed the opportunity of +"sitting out a debate" in Parliament, I have ventured to hope that a +description of some of the distinctive features which are peculiar to +the House of Commons, and a sketch of some of its prominent members, +might not be unwelcome. + +In 1840 the corner-stone of the New Palace of Westminster was laid, and +at the commencement of the session of 1852 the first official occupation +of the House of Commons took place. The House of Peers was first used in +1847. It is not consistent with the object of this article to speak of +the dimensions and general appearance of this magnificent structure. It +is sufficient to say, that in its architectural design, in its interior +decorations, and in its perfect adaptation to the purposes for which it +was erected, it is alike creditable to the public spirit of the nation, +and to the improved condition of the fine and useful arts in the present +century. + +The entrance to the House of Commons is through Westminster Hall. What +wealth of historical recollections is suggested by this name! As, +however, we are dealing with the present, we dare not even touch upon so +fruitful a theme, but must hasten through the grand old hall, remarking +only in passing that it is supposed to have been originally built +in 1097, and was rebuilt by Richard II. in 1398. With a single +exception,--the Hall of Justice in Padua,--it is the largest apartment +unsupported by pillars in the world. Reluctantly leaving this historical +ground, we enter St. Stephen's Hall. This room, rich in architectural +ornaments and most graceful in its proportions, is still further adorned +with statues of "men who rose to eminence by the eloquence and abilities +they displayed in the House of Commons." Who will dispute their claims +to this distinction? The names selected for such honorable immortality +are Selden, Hampden, Falkland, Lord Clarendon, Lord Somers, Sir Robert +Walpole, Lord Chatham, Lord Mansfield, Burke, Fox, Pitt, and Grattan. + +We have now reached the Great Central Hall, out of which open two +corridors, one of which leads to the lobby of the House of Lords. +Passing through the other, we find ourselves in the lobby of the House +of Commons. Here we must pause and look about us. We are in a large +apartment brilliantly lighted and richly decorated. As we stand with our +backs to the Great Central Hall, the passage-way to the right conducts +to the library and refreshment rooms, that on the left is the private +entrance of the members through the old cloisters, of Stephen's, that in +front is the main entrance to the floor of the House. In the corner on +our right is a small table, garnished with all the materials for a +cold lunch for the use of those members who have no time for a more +substantial meal in the dining-room. Stimulants of various kinds are +not wanting; but the habits of Englishmen and the presence of vigilant +policemen prevent any abuse of this privilege. The refreshments thus +provided are open to all, and in this qualified sense I may say that I +have lunched with Disraeli, Lord John Russell, and Lord Palmerston. + +But the hour has nearly come for opening the debate; members are rapidly +arriving and taking their seats, and we shall do well to decide upon the +best mode of gaining admission to the House. There are a few benches +on the floor reserved, as of right, for peers and their sons, and, +by courtesy, for gentlemen introduced by them. I may be pardoned for +presuming that this high privilege is beyond our reach. Our only +alternative, then, is the galleries. These are, the Speaker's Gallery, +on the south side of the House, and directly opposite the Speaker's +chair, affording room for between twenty and thirty, and the Strangers' +Gallery, behind this, with seats for about sixty. Visitors have only +these limited accommodations. The arrangement deprives members of all +temptation to "speak to the galleries," and is consistent with the +English theory, that all debates in the House should be strictly of a +business character. And as to anything like applause on the part of the +spectators, what punishment known to any criminal code among civilized +nations would be too severe for such an offence? + +The American Minister (and of course every representative of a foreign +power) has the right to give two cards of admission, entitling the +bearer of each to a seat in the Speaker's Gallery. But these cards admit +only on a specified evening, and if not used then, are worthless. If +you have called on our distinguished representative at the Court of St. +James, you have probably discovered that his list is full for the next +fortnight at least, and, although the Secretary of Legation politely +asks your name, and promises you the earliest opportunity, you retire +with a natural feeling of disappointment. Many Americans, having only a +few days to spend in London, leave the city without making any further +effort to visit the House of Commons. It would certainly have been well +to forward, in advance of your arrival in London, a written application +to the Minister; but as this has not been done, what remains? Ask your +banker for a note of introduction to some member of the House, and, +armed with this epistle, make your appearance in the lobby. Give the +note, with your card, to that grave, clerical-looking man in a little +box on the left of the main entrance, and patiently await the approach +of the "honorable gentleman." If the Speaker's Gallery is not full, he +will have no difficulty in procuring for you the desired admission; and +if at leisure, he will undoubtedly spend a few moments in pointing out +the distinguished men who may chance to be in attendance. Be sure and +carry an opera-glass. Without this precaution, you will not be able to +study to your satisfaction the faces of the members, for the House is by +no means brilliantly illuminated. If for any reason this last expedient +does not succeed, must we despair for this evening? We are on the +ground, and our engagements may not leave another so good opportunity. I +have alluded to the presence of policemen in the lobby. Do I dream, or +has it been whispered to me, that half a crown, opportunely and adroitly +invested, may be of substantial advantage to the waiting stranger? But +by all means insist on the Speaker's Gallery. The Strangers' Gallery is +less desirable for many reasons, and, being open to everybody who has a +member's order, is almost invariably crowded. At all events, it should +be reserved as a dernier resort. As an illustration of the kindly +feeling towards Americans, I may mention, parenthetically, that I have +known gentlemen admitted to the Speaker's Gallery on their simple +statement to the door-keeper that they were from the United States. On +one of these occasions, the official, a civil personage, but usually +grave to the verge of solemnity,--the very last man you would have +selected as capable of waggery,--assumed a comical counterfeit of +terror, and said,--"Bless me! we must be obliging to Americans, or who +knows what may come of it?" + +It should be observed, however, that on a "field night" not one of +the modes of admission which I have described will be of any service. +Nothing will avail you then but a place on the Speaker's list, and even +in that case you must be promptly at your post, for "First come first +served" is the rule. + +But we have lingered long enough in the Lobby. Let us take our places +in the Speaker's Gallery,--for the essayist has hardly less power than, +according to Sydney Smith, has the novelist, and a few strokes of the +pen shall show you what many have in vain longed to see. + +Once there, our attention is instantly attracted by observing that +almost every member, who is not speaking, wears his hat. This, although +customary, is not compulsory. Parliamentary etiquette only insists +that a member while speaking, or moving from place to place, shall be +uncovered. The gallery opposite the one in which we are seated is for +the use of the reporters. That ornamental brass trellis in the rear +of the reporters, half concealing a party of ladies, is a curious +compromise between what is due to traditional Parliamentary regulations +and the courtesy to which the fair sex is entitled. This relaxation of +the old rules dates only from the erection of the new building. + +The perfect order which prevails among members is another marked feature +during the debates. The bewigged and berobed Speaker, seated in his +imposing high-backed chair, seems rather to be retained in his place out +of due deference to time-honored custom than because a presiding officer +is necessary to preserve proper decorum. To be sure, demonstrations +of applause at a good bit, or of discontent with a prosy speaker, are +common, but anything approaching disorder is of rare occurrence. + +The adherence to forms and precedents is not a little amusing. Take, for +example, a "division," which corresponds to a call for the Ayes and Noes +with us. To select an instance at random,--there happens this evening to +be a good deal of excitement about some documents which it is alleged +the Ministry dare not produce; so the minority, who oppose the bill +under debate, make a great show of demanding the papers, and, not being +gratified, move to adjourn the debate, with the design of postponing the +passage of the obnoxious measure. + +"I move that the debate be adjourned." + +"Who seconds?" + +"I do." + +"Those in the affirmative," etc., etc. + +Feeble "Aye." + +Most emphatic "No." + +"The noes have it." + +"No!" "No!" + +"Aye!" "Aye!" + +"Divide!" "Divide!" in a perfect Babel of orderly confusion. + +(Speaker, very solemnly and decidedly,)-- + +"Strangers must withdraw!" + +Is the gallery immediately cleared? Not a bit of it. Every man retains +his place. Some even seem, to my fancy, to look a sort of grim defiance +at the Speaker, as a bold Briton should. It is simply a form, which +many years ago had some meaning, and, having once been used, cannot be +discontinued without putting the Constitution in jeopardy. Five times +this evening, the minority, intent on postponing the debate, call for +a division,--and as many times are strangers gravely admonished to +withdraw. + +There are two modes of adjourning the House,--by vote of the members, +and by want of a quorum. The method of procedure in the latter case is +somewhat peculiar, and has, of course, the sanction of many generations. +Suppose that a dull debate on an unimportant measure, numerous +dinner-parties, a fashionable opera, and other causes, have combined to +reduce the number of members in attendance to a dozen. It certainly +is not difficult to decide at a glance that a quorum (forty) is not +present, and I presume you are every instant expecting, in your +innocence, to hear, "Mr. Speaker, I move," etc. Pause a moment, my +impatient friend, too long accustomed to the reckless haste of our +Republican assemblies. Do not, even in thought, tamper with the +Constitution. "The wisdom of our ancestors" has bequeathed another and +undoubtedly a better mode of arriving at the same result. Some member +quietly intimates to the Speaker that forty members are not present. +That dignified official then rises, and, using his cocked hat as an +index or pointer, deliberately counts the members. Discovering, as the +apparent result of careful examination, that there really is no +quorum, he declares the House adjourned and sits down; whereupon the +Sergeant-at-Arms seizes the mace, shoulders it, and marches out, +followed by the Speaker. Then, and not until then, is the ceremony +complete and the House duly adjourned. + +This respect for traditional usage admits of almost endless +illustration. One more example must suffice. When the Speaker discovers +symptoms of disorder in the House, he rises in his place and says with +all suitable solemnity, "Unless Honorable Members preserve order, I +shall name names!" and quiet is instantly restored. What mysterious and +appalling consequences would result from persistent disobedience, nobody +in or out of the House has ever known, or probably ever will know,--at +any rate, no Speaker in Parliamentary annals has been compelled to adopt +the dreaded alternative. Shall I be thought wanting in patriotism, if +I venture to doubt whether so simple an expedient would reduce to +submission an insubordinate House of Representatives at Washington? + +Like everything else thoroughly English, speaking in the House of +Commons is eminently practical. "The bias of the nation," says Mr. +Emerson, "is a passion for utility." Conceive of a company of gentlemen +agreeing to devote, gratuitously, a certain portion of each year to the +consideration of any questions which may concern the public welfare, and +you have the theory and the practice of the House of Commons. Of course +there are exceptions to this general statement. There are not wanting +constituencies represented by unfit men; but such members are not +allowed to consume the time which belongs of right to men of capacity +and tried ability. The test is sternly, almost despotically applied. A +fair trial is given to a new member. If he is "up to his work," his +name goes on the list of men whom the House will hear. If, however, +his maiden speech is a failure, "farewell, a long farewell" to all his +political aspirations. Few men have risen from such a fall. Now and +then, as in the well-known instances of Sheridan, Disraeli, and some +less prominent names, real genius, aided by dogged determination, has +forced its way upward in spite of early ill-success; but such cases are +very rare. The rule may work occasional injustice, but is it after all +so very unreasonable? "Talking," they contend, "must be done by those +who have something to say." + +Everything one sees in the House partakes of this practical tendency. +There are no conveniences for writing. A member who should attempt to +read a manuscript speech would never get beyond the first sentence. Nor +does anybody ever dream of writing out his address and committing it +to memory. In fact, nothing can be more informal than their manner in +debate. You see a member rising with his hat in one hand, and his gloves +and cane in the other. It is as if he had just said to his neighbor, "I +have taken a good deal of interest in the subject under discussion, and +have been at some pains to understand it. I am inclined to tell the +House what I think of it." So you find him on the floor, or "on his +legs," in parliamentary phrase, carrying this intention into effect in +a simple, business-like, straightforward way. But if our friend is very +long, or threatens to be tedious, I fear that unequivocal and increasing +indications of discontent will oblige him to resume his seat in +undignified haste. + +Perhaps no feature of the debates in the House of Commons deserves more +honorable mention than the high-toned courtesy which regulates the +intercourse of members. + +Englishmen have never been charged with a want of spirit; on the +contrary, they are proverbially "plucky," and yet the House is never +disgraced by those shameful brawls which have given to our legislative +assemblies, state and national, so unenviable a reputation throughout +the civilized world. How does this happen? To Englishmen it does not +seem a very difficult matter to manage. If one member charges another +with ungentlemanly or criminal conduct, he must follow up his charge +and prove it,--in which case the culprit is no longer recognized as a +gentleman; or if he fails to make good his accusation, and neglects +to atone for his offence by ample and satisfactory apologies, he is +promptly "sent to Coventry" as a convicted calumniator. No matter how +high his social position may have been, whether nobleman or commoner, +he shall not escape the disgrace he has deserved. And to forfeit one's +standing among English gentlemen is a punishment hardly less severe +than to lose caste in India. In such a community, what need of duels to +vindicate wounded honor or establish a reputation for courage? + +The members of the present House of Commons were elected in the spring +of 1859. Among their number are several men who, in point of capacity, +eloquence, and political experience, will compare not unfavorably with +the ablest statesmen whom England has known for generations. I +have thought that some description of their appearance and mental +characteristics might not be unacceptable to American readers. As the +best mode of accomplishing this object, I shall select an occasion, +which, from the importance of the question under discussion, the deep +interest which it awakened, and the ability with which it was treated, +certainly presented as favorable an opportunity as could ever occur to +form a correct opinion of the best speaking talent in the kingdom. The +debate to which I allude took place early in the month of July, 1860. + +My name being fortunately on the first list for the Speaker's Gallery, +I had no difficulty in taking my place the moment the door was open. It +will be readily believed that every seat was soon filled. In front of +the Speaker's Gallery is a single row of seats designed for foreign +ambassadors and peers. The first man to enter it was Mr. Dallas, and he +was presently followed by other members of the diplomatic corps, and +several distinguished noblemen. + +It was very interesting to an American that almost the first business of +the evening concerned his own country. Some member of the House asked +Lord John Russell, then Secretary for Foreign Affairs, if he had +received any recent despatches from the United States relating to the +San Juan difficulty. It will be remembered, or would be, but for the +rapid march of more momentous events, that only a short time before, +news had reached England that General Harney, violating the explicit +instructions of General Scott, so wisely and opportunely issued, had +claimed for the United States exclusive jurisdiction over the island +of San Juan. Lord John replied by stating what had been the highly +honorable and judicious policy of General Scott, and the unwarrantable +steps subsequently taken by General Harney,--that Lord Lyons had +communicated information of the conduct of General Harney to President +Buchanan, who had recalled that officer, and had forwarded instructions +to his successor to continue in the course marked out by General Scott. +This gratifying announcement was greeted in the House with hearty +cheers,--a spontaneous demonstration of delight, which proved not only +that the position of affairs on this question was thought to be serious, +but also the genuine desire of Englishmen to remain in amicable +relations with the United States. + +To this brief business succeeded the great debate of the session. Let me +endeavor, at the risk of being tedious, to explain the exact question +before the House. Mr. Gladstone, in his speech on the Budget, had +pledged the Ministry to a considerable reduction of the taxes for the +coming year. In fulfilment of this pledge, it had been decided to remit +the duty on paper, thereby abandoning about £1,500,000 of revenue. A +bill to carry this plan into effect passed to its second reading by a +majority of fifty-three. To defeat the measure the Opposition devoted +all its energies, and with such success that the bill passed to its +third reading by the greatly reduced majority of nine. Emboldened by +this almost victory, the Conservatives determined to give the measure +its _coup de grâce_ in the House of Lords. The Opposition leaders, Lord +Derby, Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Ellenborough, and others, attacked the bill, +and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, its acknowledged author, with as +much bitterness and severity as are ever considered compatible with the +dignified decorum of that aristocratic body; all the Conservative forces +were rallied, and, what with the votes actually given and the proxies, +the Opposition majority was immense. + +Now all this was very easily and very quickly done. The Conservatives +were exultant, and even seemed sanguine enough to believe that the +Ministry had received a fatal blow. But they forgot, in the first flush +of victory, that they were treading on dangerous ground,--that they were +meddling with what had been regarded for centuries as the exclusive +privilege of the House of Commons. English Parliamentary history teaches +no clearer lesson than that the right to pass "Money Bills," without +interference from the House of Lords, has been claimed and exercised by +the House of Commons for several generations. The public was not slow to +take the alarm. To be sure, several causes conspired to lessen somewhat +the popular indignation. Among these were the inevitable expenses of +the Chinese War, the certainty of an increased income tax, if the bill +became a law, and the very small majority which the measure finally +received in the House of Commons. + +Nevertheless, the public mind was deeply moved. The perils of such +a precedent were evident enough to any thinking man. Although the +unwearied exertions of Bright, Roebuck, and other leading Radicals, +could not arouse the people to that state of unreasoning excitement in +which these demagogues delight, yet the tone of the press and the spirit +of the public meetings gave proof that the importance of the crisis +was not wholly underrated. These meetings were frequent and largely +attended; inflammatory speeches were made, strong resolutions passed, +and many petitions numerously signed, protesting against the recent +conduct of the Lords, were presented to the popular branch of +Parliament. + +In the House of Commons the action was prompt and decided. A committee +was immediately appointed to search for precedents, and ascertain if +such a proceeding was justified by Parliamentary history. The result of +this investigation was anxiously awaited both by the Commons and the +nation. To the disappointment of everybody, the committee, after patient +and protracted research, submitted a report, giving no opinion whatever +on the question, but merely reciting all the precedents that bore on the +subject. + +It must be confessed that the condition of affairs was not a little +critical. Both the strength of the Ministry and the dignity of the House +of Commons were involved in the final decision. But, unfortunately, the +Ministerial party was far from being a unit on the question. Bright and +the "Manchester School" demanded an uncompromising and defiant attitude +towards the Lords. Lord Palmerston was for asserting the rights and +privileges of the Commons, but for avoiding a collision. Where Mr. +Gladstone would be found could not be precisely predicted; but he was +understood to be deeply chagrined at the defeat of his favorite measure, +and to look upon the action of the Peers as almost a personal insult. +Lord John Russell was supposed to occupy a position somewhere between +the Premier and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. If the leaders were +thus divided in opinion, there was no less diversity of views among +their followers. Some did not at all appreciate the nature or magnitude +of the question, a few sympathized with the Conservatives, and very many +were satisfied that a mistake had been made in sacrificing so large a +source of revenue at a time when the immediate prospect of war with +China and the condition of the national defences rendered it important +to increase, rather than diminish the available funds in the treasury. +The Opposition, of course, were ready to take advantage of any weak +points in the position of their adversaries, and were even hoping that +the Ministerial dissensions might lead to a Ministerial defeat. + +It was under these circumstances that Lord Palmerston rose to define +the position of the Ministry, to vindicate the honor and dignity of the +Commons, to avert a collision with the House of Lords, and, in general, +to extricate the councils of the nation from an embarrassing and +dangerous dilemma. + +A word about the _personnel_ of the Premier, and a glance at some of his +political antecedents. His Lordship has been for so many years in +public life, and a marked man among English statesmen, that, either by +engraving, photograph, or personal observation, his face is familiar to +many Americans. And, certainly, there is nothing in his features or in +the expression of his countenance to indicate genius or even ability. +He is simply a burly Englishman, of middling height, with an air of +constant good-humor and a very pleasant understanding with himself. +Perhaps the first thing about him which impresses an American, +accustomed at home to dyspeptic politicians and statesmen prematurely +old, is his physical activity. Fancy a man of seventy-six, who has been +in most incessant political life for more than fifty years, sitting out +a debate of ten hours without flinching, and then walking to his house +in Piccadilly, not less than two miles. And his body is not more active +than his mind. He does something more than sit out a debate. Not a word +escapes him when a prominent man is on his legs. Do not be deceived by +his lazy attitude, or his sleepy expression. Not a man in the House +has his wits more thoroughly about him. Ever ready to extricate +his colleagues from an awkward difficulty, to evade a dangerous +question,--making, with an air of transparent candor, a reply in +which nothing is answered,--to disarm an angry opponent with a few +conciliatory or complimentary words, or to demolish him with a little +good-humored raillery which sets the House in a roar; equally skilful +in attack and retreat: such, in a word, is the bearing of this gay and +gallant veteran, from the beginning to the end of each debate, during +the entire session of Parliament. He seems absolutely insensible to +fatigue. "I happened," said a member of the House, writing to a friend, +last summer, "to follow Lord Palmerston, as he left the cloak-room, the +other morning, after a late sitting, and, as I was going his way, I +thought I might as well see how he got over the ground. At first he +seemed a little stiff in the legs; but when he warmed to his work he +began to pull out, and before he got a third of the way he bowled along +splendidly, so that he put me to it to keep him in view. Perhaps in a +few hours after that long sitting and that walk home, and the brief +sleep that followed, the Premier might have been seen standing bolt +upright at one end of a great table in Cambridge House, receiving a +deputation from the country, listening with patient and courteous +attention to some tedious spokesman, or astonishing his hearers by +his knowledge of their affairs and his intimacy with their trade or +business." On a previous night, I had seen Lord Palmerston in his seat +in the House from 4 P.M. until about 2 A.M., during a dull debate, and +was considerably amused when he rose at that late or early hour, and +"begged to suggest to honorable gentlemen," that, although he was +perfectly willing to sit there until daylight, yet he thought something +was due to the Speaker, (a hale, hearty man, sixteen years his junior,) +and as there was to be a session at noon of that day, he hoped the +debate would be adjourned. The same suggestion had been fruitlessly made +half a dozen times before; but the Premier's manner was irresistible, +and amid great laughter the motion prevailed. The Speaker, with a +grateful smile to the member for Tiverton, immediately and gladly +retired, but the indefatigable leader remained at his post an hour +longer, while the House was sitting in Committee on Supplies. + +But his Parliamentary duties by no means fill up the measure of his +public labors. Deputations representing all sorts of interests wait +on him almost daily, his presence is indispensable at all Cabinet +consultations, and as Prime Minister he gives tone and direction to +the domestic and foreign policy of the English government. How much is +implied in these duties and responsibilities must be apparent to all who +speak the English language. + +Now what is the secret of this vigorous old age, after a life spent in +such arduous avocations? Simply this, that a constitution robust by +nature has been preserved in its strength by regular habits and out-door +exercise. If I were to repeat the stories I have heard, and seen +stated in English newspapers, of the feats, pedestrian and equestrian, +performed by Lord Palmerston from early manhood down to the present +writing, I fear I should be suspected by some of my readers of offering +an insult to their understanding. I must therefore content myself with +saying that very few young men of our day and country could follow him +in the field or keep up with him on the road. + +A word about Lord Palmerston's political antecedents. Beginning as +Junior Lord of the Admiralty in the Duke of Portland's Ministry, +in 1808, he has since been once Secretary of War, five times Prime +Minister, and once Secretary of State. From 1811 to 1831 he represented +Cambridge University. Since 1835 he has represented Tiverton. It may be +safely asserted that no man now living in England has been so long or +so prominently in public office, and probably no man presents a more +correct type of the Liberal, although not Radical, sentiment of England. + +It may be well to state that on this evening there was an unusually +large attendance of members. Not only were all the benches on the floor +of the House filled, but the rare spectacle was presented of members +occupying seats in the east and west galleries. These unfortunates +belonged to that class who are seldom seen in their places, but who are +sometimes whipped in by zealous partisans, when important questions are +under consideration, and a close vote may be expected. Their listless +faces and sprawling attitudes proved clearly enough that they were +reluctant and bored spectators of the scene. It deserves to be +mentioned, also, that, although there are six hundred and fifty-six +actual members of the House, the final vote on the question showed, +that, even on that eventful night, only four hundred and sixty-two were +present. The average attendance is about three hundred. + +At half-past four, the Premier rose to address the House. He had already +given due notice that he should introduce three resolutions, which, +considering the importance of the subject, I make no apology for giving +in full. + +"1. That the right of granting aids and supplies to the Crown is in +the Commons alone as an essential part of their Constitution, and the +limitation of all such grants, as to the matter, manner, measure, and +time, is only in them. + +"2. That, although the Lords have exercised the power of rejecting bills +of several descriptions relating to taxation by negativing the whole, +yet the exercise of that power by them has not been frequent, and is +justly regarded by this House with peculiar jealousy, as affecting the +right of the Commons to grant the supplies and to provide the ways and +means for the service of the year. + +"3. That, to guard for the future against an undue exercise of that +power by the Lords, and to secure to the Commons their rightful control +over taxation and supply, this House has in its own hands the power so +to impose and remit taxes, and to frame Bills of Supply, that the right +of the Commons as to the matter, manner, measure, and time may be +maintained inviolate." + +The burden of the speech by which the Premier supported these +resolutions was this. The assent of both Houses is necessary to a bill, +and each branch possesses the power of rejection. But in regard to +certain bills, to wit, Money Bills, the House claims, as its peculiar +and exclusive privilege, the right of originating, altering, or amending +them. As the Lords have, however, the right and power of assenting, they +have also the right and power of rejecting. He admitted that they had +frequently exercised this right of rejection. Yet it must be observed, +that, when they had done so, it had been in the case of bills involving +taxes of small amount, or connected with questions of commercial +protection. No case had ever occurred precisely like this, where a bill +providing for the repeal of a tax of large amount, and on the face of it +unmixed with any other question, had been rejected by the Lords. + +"But, in point of fact," he continued, "was there not another question +involved? Was it not clear, that, the bill having passed by a majority +greatly reduced since its second reading, the Lords may have thought +that it would be well to give the Commons further time to reflect? +Indeed, was there not abundant reason to believe that the Lords were not +really initiating a new and dangerous policy, that of claiming to be +partners with the House in originating and disposing of Money Bills? +Therefore, would it not be sufficient for the House firmly to assert its +rights, and to intimate the jealous care with which it intended to guard +against their infringement?" + +Of course, this brief and imperfect abstract of an hour's speech can +do no sort of justice to its merits. It is much easier to describe its +effect upon the House. From the moment when the Premier uttered his +opening sentence, "I rise upon an occasion which will undoubtedly rank +as one of the first in importance among those which have occurred in +regard to our Parliamentary proceedings," he commanded the closest +attention of the House. And yet he was neither eloquent, impressive, nor +even earnest. There was not the slightest attempt at declamation. His +voice rarely rose above a conversational tone, and his gestures were not +so numerous or so decided as are usual in animated dialogue. His air and +manner were rather those of a plain, well-informed man of business, not +unaccustomed to public speaking, who had some views on the subject under +discussion which he desired to present, and asked the ear of the House +for a short hour while he defined his position. + +No one who did not appreciate the man and the occasion would have +dreamed that he was confronting a crisis which might lead to a change +in the Ministry, and might array the two Houses of Parliament in angry +hostility against each other. But here lay the consummate skill of the +Premier. He was playing a most difficult role, and he played it to +perfection. He could not rely on the support of the Radicals. He must +therefore make amends for their possible defection by drawing largely +on the Conservative strength. The great danger was, that, while +conciliating the Conservatives by a show of concession, he should +alienate his own party by seeming to concede too much. Now, that the +effect which he aimed to produce excluded all declamation, all attempt +at eloquence, anything like flights of oratory or striking figures of +rhetoric, nobody understood better than Lord Palmerston. + +In view of all these circumstances, the adroitness, the ability, the +sagacity, and the success of his speech were most wonderful. Gladstone +was more philosophical, statesmanlike, and eloquent; Whiteside more +impassioned and vehement; Disraeli more witty, sarcastic, and telling; +but Lord Palmerston displayed more of those qualities without which no +one can be a successful leader of the House of Commons. The result was, +that two of the resolutions passed without a division, and the third was +carried by an immense majority. The Prime Minister had understood the +temper of the House, and had shaped his course accordingly. As we have +seen, he succeeded to a marvel. But was it such a triumph as a great and +far-reaching statesman would have desired? And this brings us to the +other side of the picture. + +Dexterous, facile, adroit, politic, versatile,--as Lord Palmerston +certainly is,--fertile in resources, prompt to seize and use to the +utmost every advantage, endowed with unusual popular gifts, and blessed +with imperturbable good-humor, it cannot be denied that in many of the +best and noblest attributes of a statesman he is sadly deficient. His +fondness for political power and his anxiety to achieve immediate +success inevitably lead him to resort to temporary and often unworthy +expedients. A manly reliance on general principles, and a firm faith in +the ultimate triumph of right and justice, constitute no part of his +character. He lives only in the present. That he is making history seems +never to occur to him. He does not aspire to direct, but only aims to +follow, or at best to keep pace with public opinion. What course he will +pursue on a given question can never be safely predicted, until you +ascertain, as correctly as he can, what is the prevailing temper of the +House or the nation. That he will try to "make things pleasant," to +conciliate the Opposition without weakening the strength of his own +party, you may be sure; but for, any further clue to his policy you must +consult the press, study the spirit of Parliament, and hear the voice of +the people. I know no better illustration to prove the justice of this +view of the Premier's political failing than his bearing in the debate +which I am attempting to describe. Here was a grave constitutional +question. The issue was a simple and clear one. Had the Lords the +right to reject a Money Bill which had passed the House? If historical +precedents settled the question clearly, then there was no difficulty +in determining the matter at once, and almost without discussion. If, +however, there were no precedents bearing precisely on this case, then +it was all the more important that this should be made the occasion of a +settlement of the question so unequivocal and positive as effectually +to guard against future complication and embarrassment. Now how did the +Premier deal with this issue? He disregarded the homely wisdom contained +in the pithy bull of Sir Boyle Roche, that "the best way to avoid a +dilemma is to meet it plump." He dodged the dilemma. His resolutions, +worded with ingenious obscurity, skilfully evaded the important aspect +of the controversy, and two of them, the second and third, gave equal +consolation to the Liberals and the Conservatives. So that, in fact, it +is reserved for some future Parliament, in which it cannot be doubted +that the Radical element will be more numerous and more powerful, to +determine what should have been decided on this very evening. It was +cleverly done, certainly, and extorted from all parties and members of +every shade of political opinion that admiration which the successful +performance of a difficult and critical task must always elicit. But was +it statesmanlike, or in any high sense patriotic or manly? + +The Premier was followed by R.P. Collier, representing Plymouth. He had +been on the committee to search for precedents, and he devoted an hour +to showing that there was not, in all Parliamentary history, a single +precedent justifying the action of the Lords. His argument was clear and +convincing, and the result of it was, that no bill simply imposing or +remitting a tax had ever in a single instance been rejected by the Upper +House. In all the thirty-six cases relied on by the Opposition there +was always some other principle involved, which furnished plausible +justification for the course adopted by the Lords. + +To this speech I observed that Mr. Gladstone paid strict attention, +occasionally indicating his assent by an approving nod, or by an +encouraging "Hear! Hear!" It is rare, indeed, that any speaker in the +House secures the marked attention or catches the eye of the Chancellor +of the Exchequer. + +To Collier succeeded Coningham, member for Brighton. Now as this +honorable member was prosy and commonplace, not to say stupid, I +should not detain my readers with any allusion to his speech, but as +illustrating a prominent and very creditable feature of the debates +in the House. That time is of some value, and that no remarks can be +tolerated, unless they are intelligent and pertinent, are cardinal +doctrines of debate, and are quite rigidly enforced. At the same time +mere dulness is often overlooked, as soon as it appears that the speaker +has something to say which deserves to be heard. But there is one +species of oratory which is never tolerated for a moment, and that +is the sort of declamation which is designed merely or mainly for +home-consumption,--speaking for Buncombe, as we call it. The instant, +therefore, that it was evident that Mr. Coningham was addressing, +not the House of Commons, but his constituents at Brighton, he was +interrupted by derisive cheers and contemptuous groans. Again and again +did the indignant orator attempt to make his voice heard above the +confusion, but in vain; and when, losing all presence of mind, he made +the fatal admission,--"I can tell Honorable Gentlemen that I have just +returned from visiting my constituents, and I can assure the House that +more intelligent"--the tumult became so great, that the remainder of the +sentence was entirely lost. Seeing his mistake, Mr. Coningham changed +his ground. "I appeal to the courtesy of Honorable Members; I do not +often trespass upon the House; I implore them to give me a patient +and candid hearing." This appeal to the love of "fair play," so +characteristic of Englishmen, produced immediately the desired effect, +and the member concluded without further interruption. + +Mr. Edwin James was the next prominent speaker. He has won a wide +reputation as a barrister, chiefly in the management of desperate +criminal cases, culminating in his defence of Dr. Barnard, charged with +being accessory to the attempted assassination of Louis Napoleon. The +idol of the populace, he was elected by a large majority in May, 1859, +as an extreme Liberal or Radical, to represent Marylebone in the present +Parliament. His warmest admirers will hardly contend that since his +election he has done anything to distinguish himself, or even to sustain +the reputation which his success as an advocate had earned for him. +The expensive vices to which he has long been addicted have left him +bankrupt in character and fortune. His large professional income has +been for some years received by trustees, who have made him a liberal +allowance for his personal expenses, and have applied the remainder +toward the payment of his debts. His recent disgraceful flight from +England, and the prompt action of his legal brethren in view of his +conduct, render it highly improbable that he will ever return to the +scene of his former triumphs and excesses. Besides its brevity, which +was commendable, his speech this evening presented no point worthy of +comment. + +Since the opening remarks of Lord Palmerston, five Radicals had +addressed the House. Without exception they had denounced the action of +the Lords, and more than one had savagely attacked the Opposition for +supporting the proceedings of the Upper House. They had contended that +the Commons were becoming contemptible in the eyes of the nation by +their failure to take a manly position in defence of their rights. To +a man, they had assailed the resolutions of the Premier as falling far +short of the dignity of the occasion and the importance of the crisis, +or, at best, as intentionally ambiguous. Thus far then the Radicals. +The Opposition had listened to them in unbroken and often contemptuous +silence, enjoying the difference of opinion in the Ministerial party, +but reserving themselves for some foeman worthy of their steel. Nor +was there, beyond a vague rumor, any clue to the real position of the +Cabinet on the whole question. Only one member had spoken for the +Government, and it was more than suspected that he did not quite +correctly represent the views of the Ministry. + +If any one of my readers had been in the Speaker's Gallery on that +evening, his attention would have been arrested by a member on the +Ministerial benches, a little to the right of Lord Palmerston. His face +is the most striking in the House,--grave, thoughtful, almost stern, +but lighting up with wonderful beauty when he smiles. Usually, his air +is rather abstracted,--not, indeed, the manner of one whose thoughts +are wandering from the business under debate, but rather of one who is +thinking deeply upon what is passing around him. His attitude is not +graceful: lolling at full length, his head resting on the back of the +seat, and his legs stretched out before him. He is always neatly, but +never carefully dressed, and his bearing is unmistakably that of a +scholar. Once or twice since we have been watching him, he has scratched +a few hasty memoranda on the back of an envelope, and now, amid the +silence of general expectation, the full, clear tones of his voice are +heard. He has not spoken five minutes before members who have taken +advantage of the dulness of recent debaters to dine, or to fortify +themselves in a less formal way for the night's work before them, begin +to flock to their seats. Not an eye wanders from the speaker, and the +attention which he commands is of the kind paid in the House only to +merit and ability of the highest order. And, certainly, the orator is +not unworthy of this silent, but most respectful tribute to his talents. +His manner is earnest and animated, his enunciation is beautifully +clear and distinct, the tones of his voice are singularly pleasing and +persuasive, stealing their way into the hearts of men, and charming them +into assent to his propositions. One can easily understand why he is +called the "golden-tongued." + +This is Mr. Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer, by right of +eloquence, statesmanship, and scholarly attainments, the foremost man in +England. I cannot hope to give a satisfactory description of his speech, +nor of its effect upon the House. His eloquence is of that quality to +which no sketch, however accurate, can do justice. Read any one of +his speeches, as reported with astonishing correctness in the London +"Times," and you will appreciate the clear, philosophical statement of +political truth,--the dignified, elevated, statesmanlike tone,--the rare +felicity of expression,--the rhetorical beauty of style, never usurping +the place of argument, though often concealing the sharp angles of his +relentless logic,--the marvellous ease with which he makes the +dry details of finance not only instructive, but positively +fascinating,--his adroitness in retrieving a mistake, or his sagacity +in abandoning, in season, an indefensible position,--the lofty and +indignant scorn with which he sometimes condescends to annihilate an +insolent adversary, or the royal courtesy of his occasional compliments. +But who shall be able to describe those attributes of his eloquence +which address themselves only to the ear and eye: that clear, resonant +voice, never sinking into an inaudible whisper, and never rising into an +ear-piercing scream, its tones always exactly adapted to the spirit of +the words,--that spare form, wasted by the severe study of many years, +which but a moment before was stretched in languid ease on the Treasury +benches, now dilated with emotion,--that careworn countenance inspired +with great thoughts: what pen or pencil can do justice to these? + +If any one of that waiting audience has been impatiently expectant of +some words equal to this crisis, some fearless and manly statement +of the real question at issue, his wish shall be soon and most fully +gratified. Listen to his opening sentence, which contains the key-note +to his whole speech:--"It appears to be the determination of one moiety +of this House that there shall be no debate upon the constitutional +principles which are involved in this question; and I must say, that, +considering that gentlemen opposite are upon this occasion the partisans +of a gigantic innovation,--the most gigantic and the most dangerous that +has been attempted in modern times,--I may compliment them upon the +prudence they show in resolving to be its silent partisans." After this +emphatic exordium, which electrified the House, and was followed by +such a tempest of applause as for some time to drown the voice of the +speaker, he proceeded at once to demonstrate the utter folly and error +of contending that the action of the Lords was supported or justified +by any precedent. Of course, as a member of the Cabinet, he gave his +adhesion to the resolutions before the House, and indorsed the speech +of the Premier. But, from first to last, he treated the question as its +importance demanded, as critical and emergent, not to be passed by in +silence, nor yet to be encountered with plausible and conciliatory +expedients. He reserved to himself "entire freedom to adopt any mode +which might have the slightest hope of success, for vindicating by +action the rights of the House." + +In fact, he alone of all the speakers of the evening rose to "the height +of the great argument." He alone seemed to feel that the temporary +success of this or that party or faction was as nothing compared with +the duty of settling definitely and for all posterity this conflict of +rights between the two Houses. Surveying the question from this high +vantage-ground, what wonder that in dignity and grandeur he towered +above his fellows? Here was a great mind grappling with a great +subject,--a mind above temporary expedients for present success, +superior to the fear of possible defeat. To denounce the Conservatives +for not attacking the Ministerial resolutions may have been indiscreet. +He may have been guilty of an apparent breach of Parliamentary +etiquette, when he practically condemned the passive policy of the +Cabinet, of which he was himself a leading member. But may we not pardon +the natural irritation produced by the defeat of his favorite measure, +in view of the noble and patriotic sentiments of his closing sentences? + +"I regard the whole rights of the House of Commons, as they have been +handed down to us, as constituting a sacred inheritance, upon which I, +for my part, will never voluntarily permit any intrusion or plunder to +be made. I think that the very first of our duties, anterior to the duty +of dealing with any legislative measure, and higher and more sacred than +any such duties, high and sacred though they may be, is to maintain +intact that precious deposit." + +The effect of this speech was indescribable. The applause with which he +was frequently interrupted, and which greeted him as he took his seat, +was such as I have never heard in a deliberative assembly. And not the +least striking feature of this display of enthusiasm was that it mainly +proceeded from the extreme Liberal wing of the Ministerial party, with +which Mr. Gladstone, representing that most conservative of all English +constituencies, Oxford University, had hitherto been by no means +popular. For several days the rumor was rife that the Chancellor of the +Exchequer would resign his place in the Cabinet, and be the leader +of the Radicals! But Mr. Gladstone had other views of his duty, and +probably he was never more firmly intrenched in the confidence of the +nation, and more influential in the councils of the Government, than he +is at this moment. + +Mr. Gladstone had hardly taken his seat, when the long and significant +silence of the Opposition was broken by Mr. Whiteside. This gentleman +represents Dublin University, has been Attorney-General and +Solicitor-General for Ireland, and was one of the most able and eloquent +defenders of O'Connell and his friends in 1842. He is said to be the +only Irishman in public life who holds the traditions of the great Irish +orators,--the Grattans, the Currans, and the Sheridans. I will not +detain my readers with even a brief sketch of his speech. It was very +severe upon Mr. Gladstone, very funny at the expense of the Radicals, +and very complimentary to Lord Palmerston. As a whole, it was an +admirable specimen of Irish oratory. In the _élan_ with which the +speaker leaped to his feet and dashed at once into his subject, full of +spirit and eager for the fray, in his fierce and vehement invective and +the occasional ferocity of his attacks, in the fluency and fitness of +his language and the rapidity of his utterance, in the unstudied grace +and sustained energy of his manner, it was easy to recognize the +elements of that irresistible eloquence by which so many of his gifted +countrymen have achieved such brilliant triumphs at the forum and in the +halls of the debate. + +It might perhaps heighten the effect of the picture, if I were to +describe the appearance of Mr. Gladstone during the delivery of this +fierce Philippic,--the contracted brow, the compressed lip, the uneasy +motion from side to side, and all the other customary manifestations of +anger, mortification, and conscious defeat. But if my sketch be dull, +it shall at least have the homely merit of being truthful. In point of +fact, the whole harangue was lost upon Mr. Gladstone; for he left the +House immediately after making his own speech, and did not return until +some time after Mr. Whiteside had finished. In all probability he did +not know how unmercifully he had been handled until he read his "Times" +the next morning. + +Six more speeches on the Liberal side, loud in praise of the Chancellor +of the Exchequer, bitter in denunciation of the Conservatives, and by +no means sparing the policy of the Prime Minister, followed in quick +succession. They were all brief, pertinent, and spirited; with which +comprehensive criticism I must dismiss them. Their delivery occupied +about two hours, and many members availed themselves of this opportunity +to leave the House for a while. Some sauntered on the broad stone +terrace which lines the Thames. Not a few regaled themselves with the +popular Parliamentary beverage,--sherry and soda-water; and others, +who had resolutely kept their seats since the opening of the debate, +rewarded their devotion to the interests of the public by a more +elaborate repast. Now and then a member in full evening dress would +lounge into the House, with that air of perfect self-satisfaction +which tells of a good dinner by no means conducted on total-abstinence +principles. + +It was midnight when Mr. Disraeli rose to address the House. For years +the pencil of "Punch" has seemed to take particular delight in sketching +for the public amusement the features of this well-known novelist, +orator, and statesman. After making due allowance for the conceded +license of caricature, we must admit that the likeness is in the main +correct, and any one familiar with the pages of "Punch" would recognize +him at a glance. The impression which he leaves on one who studies his +features and watches his bearing is not agreeable. Tall, thin, and quite +erect, always dressed with scrupulous care, distant and reserved in +manner, his eye dull, his lips wearing habitually a half-scornful, +half-contemptuous expression, one can readily believe him to be a man +addicted to bitter enmities, but incapable of warm friendships. + +He had been sitting, as his manner is, very quietly during the evening, +never moving a muscle of his face, save when he smiled coldly once +or twice at the sharp sallies of Whiteside, or spoke, as he did very +rarely, to some member near him. A stranger to his manner would have +supposed him utterly indifferent to what was going on about him. Yet it +is probable that no member of the House was more thoroughly absorbed in +the debate or watched its progress with deeper interest. Excepting his +political ambition, Mr. Disraeli is actuated by no stronger passion than +hatred of Mr. Gladstone. To have been a warm admirer and _protégé_ of +Sir Robert Peel would have laid a sufficient foundation for intense +personal dislike. But Mr. Disraeli has other and greater grievances to +complain of. This is not the place to enter at large into the history of +the political rivalry between these eminent men. Enough to say, that +in the spring of 1852 Mr. Disraeli realized the dream of his lifelong +ambition by being appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the Ministry +of Lord Derby. Late in the same year he brought forward his Budget, +which he defended at great length and with all his ability. This Budget, +and the arguments by which it was supported, Mr. Gladstone--who had +already refused to take the place in the Derby Cabinet--attacked in a +speech of extraordinary power, demolishing one by one the positions +of his opponent, rebuking with dignified severity the license of +his language, and calling upon the House to condemn the man and his +measures. Such was the effect of this speech that the Government was +defeated by a decided majority. Thus dethroned, Mr. Disraeli had the +additional mortification of seeing his victorious opponent seated in his +vacant chair. For, in the Ministry of Lord Aberdeen, which immediately +succeeded, Mr. Gladstone accepted the appointment of Chancellor of +the Exchequer. The Budget brought forward by the new Minister took by +surprise even those who had already formed the highest estimate of his +capacity; and the speech in which he defended and enforced it received +the approval of Lord John Russell, in the well-known and well-merited +compliment, that "it contained the ablest expositions of the true +principles of finance ever delivered by an English statesman." Since +that memorable defeat, Disraeli has lost no opportunity of attacking the +member for Oxford University. To weaken his wonderful ascendency over +the House has seemed to be the wish nearest his heart, and the signal +failure which has thus far attended all his efforts only gives a keener +edge to his sarcasm and increases the bitterness of his spirit. That +persistent and inflexible determination which, from a fashionable +novelist, has raised him to the dignity of leader of the Conservative +party in the House of Commons, that unsparing and cold-blooded malignity +which poisoned the last days of Sir Robert Peel, and those powers of wit +and ridicule which make him so formidable an adversary, have all been +impressed into this service. + +His speech this evening was only a further illustration of his +controlling desire to enjoy an ample and adequate revenge for past +defeats; and, undoubtedly, Mr. Disraeli displayed a great deal of a +certain kind of power. He was witty, pungent, caustic, full of telling +hits which repeatedly convulsed the House with laughter, and he showed +singular dexterity in discovering and assailing the weak points in his +adversary's argument. Still, it was a painful exhibition, bad in temper, +tone, and manner. It was too plainly the attempt of an unscrupulous +partisan to damage a personal enemy, rather than the effort of a +statesman to enlighten and convince the House and the nation. It was +unfair, uncandid, and logically weak. Its only possible effect was to +irritate the Liberals, without materially strengthening the position of +the Conservatives. When "Dizzy" had finished, the floor was claimed +by Lord John Russell and Mr. Bright. It was sufficiently evident that +members, without distinction of party, desired to hear the last-named +gentleman, for cries of "Bright," "Bright," came from all parts of the +House. The member for Birmingham is stout, bluff, and hearty, looking +very much like a prosperous, well-dressed English yeoman. He is +acknowledged to be the best declaimer in the House. Piquant, racy, and +entertaining, he is always listened to with interest and pleasure; but +somehow he labors under the prevalent suspicion of being insincere, and +beyond a small circle of devoted admirers has no influence whatever in +Parliament. + +To the manifest discontent of the House, the Speaker decided that the +Honorable Secretary for Foreign Affairs was entitled to the floor. Lord +John Russell deserves a more extended historical and personal notice +than the legitimate limits of this article will allow. But, as his +recent elevation to the peerage has led the English press to give a +review of his political antecedents, and as these articles have been +copied quite generally into our own leading newspapers, it may be +fairly presumed that most of my readers are familiar with the prominent +incidents in his long and honorable public career. As a speaker he is +decidedly prosy, with a hesitating utterance, a monotonous voice, and an +uninteresting manner. Yet he is always heard with respectful attention +by the House, in consideration of his valuable public services, his +intrinsic good sense, and his unselfish patriotism. On the question at +issue, he took ground midway between Lord Palmerston and Mr. Gladstone. + +It was now about two, A.M. Since the commencement of the debate eighteen +members had addressed the House. At this point a motion prevailed to +adjourn until noon of the same day. + +On the reopening of the debate at that hour, Mr. Bright and a few other +members gave their views upon the resolutions of the Premier, and the +final vote was then taken with the result already indicated. + + + + +A LEGEND OF THE LAKE. + + + Should you go to Centre-Harbor, + As haply you some time may, + Sailing up the Winnipisauke, + From the hills of Alton Bay,-- + + Into the heart of the highlands, + Into the north-wind free, + Through the rising and vanishing islands, + Over the mountain sea,-- + + To the little hamlet lying + White in its mountain-fold, + Asleep by the lake, and dreaming + A dream that is never told,-- + + And in the Red Hill's shadow + Your pilgrim home you make, + Where the chambers open to sunrise, + The mountains and the lake,-- + + If the pleasant picture wearies, + As the fairest sometimes will, + And the weight of the hills lies on you, + And the water is all too still,-- + + If in vain the peaks of Gunstock + Redden with sunrise fire, + And the sky and the purple mountains + And the sunset islands tire,-- + + If you turn from the in-door thrumming + And clatter of bowls without, + And the folly that goes on its travels + Bearing the city about,-- + + And the cares you left behind you + Come hunting along your track, + As Blue-Cap in German fable + Rode on the traveller's pack,-- + + Let me tell you a tender story + Of one who is now no more, + A tale to haunt like a spirit + The Winnipisauke shore,-- + + Of one who was brave and gentle, + And strong for manly strife, + Riding with cheering and music + Into the tourney of life. + + Faltering and falling midway + In the Tempter's subtle snare, + The chains of an evil habit + He bowed himself to bear. + + Over his fresh, young manhood + The bestial veil was flung,-- + The curse of the wine of Circe, + The spell her weavers sung. + + Yearly did hill- and lake-side + Their summer idyls frame; + Alone in his darkened dwelling, + He hid his face for shame. + + The music of life's great marches + Sounded for him in vain; + The voices of human duty + Smote on his ear like pain. + + In vain over island and water + The curtains of sunset swung; + In vain on the beautiful mountains + The pictures of God were hung. + + The wretched years crept onward, + Each sadder than the last; + All the bloom of life fell from him, + All the freshness and greenness passed. + + But deep in his heart forever + And unprofaned he kept + The love of his saintly Mother, + Who in the grave-yard slept. + + His house had no pleasant pictures; + Its comfortless walls were bare; + But the riches of earth and ocean + Could not purchase his Mother's Chair,-- + + The old chair, quaintly carven, + With oaken arms outspread, + Whereby, in the long gone twilights, + His childish prayers were said. + + For thence, in his lone night-watches, + By moon or starlight dim, + A face full of love and pity + And tenderness looked on him. + And oft, as the grieving presence + Sat in his mother's chair, + The groan of his self-upbraiding + Grew into wordless prayer. + + At last, in the moonless midnight, + The summoning angel came, + Severe in his pity, touching + The house with fingers of flame. + + The red light flashed from its windows + And flared from its sinking roof; + And baffled and awed before it, + The villagers stood aloof. + + They shrank from the falling rafters, + They turned from the furnace-glare; + But its tenant cried, "God help me! + I must save my mother's chair." + + Under the blazing portal, + Over the floor of fire, + He seemed, in the terrible splendor, + A martyr on his pyre! + + In his face the mad flames smote him + And stung him on either side; + But he clung to the sacred relic,-- + By his mother's chair he died! + + O mother, with human yearnings! + O saint, by the altar-stairs! + Shall not the dear God give thee + The child of thy many prayers? + + O Christ! by whom the loving, + Though erring, are forgiven, + Hast Thou for him no refuge, + No quiet place in heaven? + + Give palms to Thy strong martyrs, + And crown Thy saints with gold, + But let the mother welcome + Her lost one to Thy fold! + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO. + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +ELSIE PUSHES HER SCHEME. + + +The good Father Antonio returned from his conference with the cavalier +with many subjects for grave pondering. This man, as he conjectured, so +far from being an enemy either of Church or State, was in fact in many +respects in the same position with his revered master,--as nearly so as +the position of a layman was likely to resemble that of an ecclesiastic. +His denial of the Visible Church, as represented by the Pope and +Cardinals, sprang not from an irreverent, but from a reverent spirit. To +accept _them_ as exponents of Christ and Christianity was to blaspheme +and traduce both, and therefore he only could be counted in the highest +degree Christian who stood most completely opposed to them in spirit and +practice. + +His kind and fatherly heart was interested in the brave young nobleman. +He sympathized fully with the situation in which he stood, and he even +wished success to his love; but then how was he to help him with Agnes, +and above all with her old grandmother, without entering on the awful +task of condemning and exposing that sacred authority which all the +Church had so many years been taught to regard as infallibly inspired? +Long had all the truly spiritual members of the Church who gave ear to +the teachings of Savonarola felt that the nearer they followed Christ +the more open was their growing antagonism to the Pope and the +Cardinals; but still they hung back from the responsibility of inviting +the people to an open revolt. + +Father Antonio felt his soul deeply stirred with the news of the +excommunication of his saintly master; and he marvelled, as he tossed +on his restless bed through the night, how he was to meet the storm. He +might have known, had he been able to look into a crowded assembly in +Florence about this time, when the unterrified monk thus met the news of +his excommunication:-- + +"There have come decrees from Rome, have there? They call me a son of +perdition. Well, thus may you answer:--He to whom you give this name +hath neither favorites nor concubines, but gives himself solely to +preaching Christ. His spiritual sons and daughters, those who listen +to his doctrine, do not pass their time in infamous practices. They +confess, they receive the communion, they live honestly. This man gives +himself up to exalt the Church of Christ: you to destroy it. The time +approaches for opening the secret chamber: we will give but one turn of +the key, and there will come out thence such an infection, such a +stench of this city of Rome, that the odor shall spread through all +Christendom, and all the world shall be sickened." + +But Father Antonio was of himself wholly unable to come to such a +courageous result, though capable of following to the death the master +who should do it for him. His was the true artist nature, as unfit to +deal with rough human forces as a bird that flies through the air is +unfitted to a hand-to-hand grapple with the armed forces of the lower +world. There is strength in these artist natures. Curious computations +have been made of the immense muscular power that is brought into +exercise when a swallow skims so smoothly through the blue sky; but the +strength is of a kind unadapted to mundane uses, and needs the ether for +its display. Father Antonio could create the beautiful; he could warm, +could elevate, could comfort; and when a stronger nature went before +him, he could follow with an unquestioning tenderness of devotion: but +he wanted the sharp, downright power of mind that could cut and cleave +its way through the rubbish of the past, when its institutions, instead +of a commodious dwelling, had come to be a loathsome prison. Besides, +the true artist has ever an enchanted island of his own; and when this +world perplexes and wearies him, he can sail far away and lay his soul +down to rest, as Cytherea bore the sleeping Ascanius far from the din of +battle, to sleep on flowers and breathe the odor of a hundred undying +altars to Beauty. + +Therefore, after a restless night, the good monk arose in the first +purple of the dawn, and instinctively betook him to a review of his +drawings for the shrine, as a refuge from troubled thought. He took his +sketch of the Madonna and Child into the morning twilight and began +meditating thereon, while the clouds that lined the horizon were glowing +rosy purple and violet with the approaching day. + +"See there!" he said to himself, "yonder clouds have exactly the rosy +purple of the cyclamen which my little Agnes loves so much;--yes, I am +resolved that this cloud on which our Mother standeth shall be of a +cyclamen color. And there is that star, like as it looked yesterday +evening, when I mused upon it. Methought I could see our Lady's clear +brow, and the radiance of her face, and I prayed that some little power +might be given to show forth that which transports me." + +And as the monk plied his pencil, touching here and there, and +elaborating the outlines of his drawing, he sang,-- + + "Ave, Maris Stella, + Dei mater alma, + Atque semper virgo, + Felix coeli porta! + + "Virgo singularis, + Inter omnes mitis, + Nos culpis solutos + Mites fac et castos! + + "Vitam praesta puram, + Iter para tutum, + Ut videntes Jesum + Semper collaetemur!"[A] + +[Footnote A: + + Hail, thou Star of Ocean, + Thou forever virgin + Mother of the Lord! + Blessed gate of Heaven, + Take our heart's devotion! + + Virgin one and only, + Meekest 'mid them all, + From our sins set free, + Make us pure like thee, + Freed from passion's thrall! + + Grant that in pure living, + Through safe paths below, + Forever seeing Jesus, + Rejoicing we may go! +] + +As the monk sang, Agnes soon appeared at the door. + +"Ah, my little bird, you are there!" he said, looking up. + +"Yes," said Agnes, coming forward, and looking over his shoulder at his +work. + +"Did you find that young sculptor?" she asked. + +"That I did,--a brave boy, too, who will row down the coast and dig us +marble from an old heathen temple, which we will baptize into the name +of Christ and his Mother." + +"Pietro was always a good boy," said Agnes. + +"Stay," said the monk, stepping into his little sleeping-room; "he sent +you this lily; see, I have kept it in water all night." + +"Poor Pietro, that was good of him!" said Agnes. "I would thank him, if +I could. But, uncle," she added, in a hesitating voice, "did you see +anything of that--other one?" + +"That I did, child,--and talked long with him." + +"Ah, uncle, is there any hope for him?" + +"Yes, there is hope,--great hope. In fact, he has promised to receive me +again, and I have hopes of leading him to the sacrament of confession, +and after that"---- + +"And then the Pope will forgive him!" said Agnes, joyfully. + +The face of the monk suddenly fell; he was silent, and went on +retouching his drawing. + +"Do you not think he will?" said Agnes, earnestly. "You said the Church +was ever ready to receive the repentant." + +"The True Church will receive him," said the monk, evasively; "yes, my +little one, there is no doubt of it." + +"And it is not true that he is captain of a band of robbers in the +mountains?" said Agnes. "May I tell Father Francesco that it is not so?" + +"Child, this young man hath suffered a grievous wrong and injustice; for +he is lord of an ancient and noble estate, out of which he hath been +driven by the cruel injustice of a most wicked and abominable man, the +Duke di Valentinos,[B] who hath caused the death of his brothers and +sisters, and ravaged the country around with fire and sword, so that he +hath been driven with his retainers to a fortress in the mountains." + +[Footnote B: Caesar Borgia was created Duc de Valentinois by Louis XII. +of France.] + +"But," said Agnes, with flushed cheeks, "why does not our blessed Father +excommunicate this wicked duke? Surely this knight hath erred; instead +of taking refuge in the mountains, he ought to have fled with his +followers to Rome, where the dear Father of the Church hath a house for +all the oppressed. It must be so lovely to be the father of all men, and +to take in and comfort all those who are distressed and sorrowful, and +to right the wrongs of all that are oppressed, as our dear Father at +Rome doth!" + +The monk looked up at Agnes's clear glowing face with a sort of +wondering pity. + +"Dear little child," he said, "there is a Jerusalem above which is +mother of us all, and these things are done there. + + 'Coelestis urbs Jerusalem, + Beata pacis visio, + Quae celsa de viventibus + Saxis ad astra tolleris, + Sponsaeque ritu cingeris + Mille angelorum millibus!'" + +The face of the monk glowed as he repeated this ancient hymn of the +Church,[C] as if the remembrance of that general assembly and church of +the first-born gave him comfort in his depression. + +[Footnote C: This very ancient hymn is the fountainhead from which +through various languages have trickled the various hymns of the +Celestial City, such as-- + +"Jerusalem, my happy home!" + +and Quarles's-- + +"O mother dear, Jerusalem!"] + +Agnes felt perplexed, and looked earnestly at her uncle as he stooped +over his drawing, and saw that there were deep lines of anxiety on his +usually clear, placid face,--a look as of one who struggles mentally +with some untold trouble. + +"Uncle," she said, hesitatingly, "may I tell Father Francesco what you +have been telling me of this young man?" + +"No, my little one,--it were not best. In fact, dear child, there be +many things in his case impossible to explain, even to you;--but he is +not so altogether hopeless as you thought; in truth, I have great hopes +of him. I have admonished him to come here no more, but I shall see him +again this evening." + +Agnes wondered at the heaviness of her own little heart, as her kind +old uncle spoke of his coming there no more. Awhile ago she dreaded his +visits as a most fearful temptation, and thought perhaps he might come +at any hour; now she was sure he would not, and it was astonishing what +a weight fell upon her. + +"Why am I not thankful?" she asked herself. "Why am I not joyful? Why +should I wish to see him again, when I should only be tempted to sinful +thoughts, and when my dear uncle, who can do so much for him, has his +soul in charge? And what is this which is so strange in his case? There +is some mystery, after all,--something, perhaps, which I ought not to +wish to know. Ah, how little can we know of this great wicked world, and +of the reasons which our superiors give for their conduct! It is ours +humbly to obey, without a question or a doubt. Holy Mother, may I not +sin through a vain curiosity or self-will! May I ever say, as thou +didst, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord! be it unto me according to His +word!'" + +And Agnes went about her morning devotions with fervent zeal, and did +not see the monk as he dropped the pencil, and, covering his face with +his robe, seemed to wrestle in some agony of prayer. + +"Shepherd of Israel," he said, "why hast Thou forgotten this vine of Thy +planting? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, the wild beast of the +field doth devour it. Dogs have encompassed Thy beloved; the assembly of +the violent have surrounded him. How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost +Thou not judge and avenge?" + +"Now, really, brother," said Elsie, coming towards him, and interrupting +his meditations in her bustling, business way, yet speaking in a low +tone that Agnes should not hear,--"I want you to help me with this child +in a good common-sense fashion: none of your high-flying notions about +saints and angels, but a little good common talk for every-day people +that have their bread and salt to look after. The fact is, brother, this +girl must be married. I went last night to talk with Antonio's mother, +and the way is all open as well as any living girl could desire. Antonio +is a trifle slow, and the high-flying hussies call him stupid; but his +mother says a better son never breathed, and he is as obedient to all +her orders now as when he was three years old. And she has laid up +plenty of household stuff for him, and good hard gold pieces to boot: +she let me count them myself, and I showed her that which I had scraped +together, and she counted it, and we agreed that the children that come +of such a marriage would come into the world with something to stand on. +Now Agnes is fond of you, brother, and perhaps it would be well for you +to broach the subject. The fact is, when I begin to talk, she gets her +arms round my old neck and falls to weeping and kissing me at such a +rate as makes a fool of me. If the child would only be rebellious, one +could do something; but this love takes all the stiffness out of one's +joints; and she tells me she never wants a husband, and she will be +content to live with me all her life. The saints know it isn't for my +happiness to put her out of my old arms; but I can't last forever,--my +old back grows weaker every year; and Antonio has strong arms to defend +her from all these roystering fellows who fear neither God nor man, and +swoop up young maids as kites do chickens. And then he is as gentle and +manageable as a this-year ox; Agnes can lead him by the horn,--she will +be a perfect queen over him; for he has been brought up to mind the +women." + +"Well, sister," said the monk, "hath our little maid any acquaintance +with this man? Have they ever spoken together?" + +"Not much. I have never brought them to a very close acquaintance; and +that is what is to be done. Antonio is not much of a talker; to tell the +truth, he does not know as much to say as our Agnes: but the man's place +is not to say fine things, but to do the hard work that shall support +the household." + +"Then Agnes hath not even seen him?" + +"Yes, at different times I have bid her regard him, and said to her, +'There goes a proper man and a good Christian,--a man who minds his work +and is obedient to his old mother: such a man will make a right good +husband for some girl some day.'" + +"And did you ever see that her eye followed him with pleasure?" + +"No, neither him nor any other man, for my little Agnes hath no thought +of that kind; but, once married, she will like him fast enough. All +I want is to have you begin the subject, and get it into her head a +little." + +Father Antonio was puzzled how to meet this direct urgency of his +sister. He could not explain to her his own private reasons for +believing that any such attempt would be utterly vain, and only bring +needless distress on his little favorite. He therefore answered,-- + +"My good sister, all such thoughts lie so far out of the sphere of us +monks, that you could not choose a worse person for such an errand. I +have never had any communings with the child than touching the beautiful +things of my art, and concerning hymns and prayers and the lovely +world of saints and angels, where they neither marry nor are given in +marriage; and so I should only spoil your enterprise, if I should put my +unskilful hand to it." + +"At any rate," said Elsie, "don't you approve of my plan?" + +"I should approve of anything that would make our dear little one safe +and happy, but I would not force the matter against her inclinations. +You will always regret it, if you make so good a child shed one needless +tear. After all, sister, what need of haste? 'Tis a young bird yet. Why +push it out of the nest? When once it is gone, you will never get it +back. Let the pretty one have her little day to play and sing and be +happy. Does she not make this garden a sort of Paradise with her little +ways and her sweet words? Now, my sister, these all belong to you; but, +once she is given to another, there is no saying what may come. One +thing only may you count on with certainty: that these dear days, when +she is all day by your side and sleeps in your bosom all night, are +over,--she will belong to you no more, but to a strange man who hath +neither toiled nor wrought for her, and all her pretty ways and dutiful +thoughts must be for him." + +"I know it, I know it," said Elsie, with a sudden wrench of that jealous +love which is ever natural to strong, passionate natures. "I'm sure it +isn't for my own sake I urge this. I grudge him the girl. After all, +he is but a stupid head. What has he ever done, that such good-fortune +should befall him? He ought to fall down and kiss the dust of my shoes +for such a gift, and I doubt me much if he will ever think to do it. +These men think nothing too good for them. I believe, if one of the +crowned saints in heaven were offered them to wife, they would think it +all quite natural, and not a whit less than their requirings." + +"Well, then, sister," said the monk, soothingly, "why press this matter? +why hurry? The poor little child is young; let her frisk like a lamb, +and dance like a butterfly, and sing her hymns every day like a bright +bird. Surely the Apostle saith, 'He that giveth his maid in marriage +doeth well, but he that giveth her not doeth better.'" + +"But I have opened the subject already to old Meta," said Elsie; "and +if I don't pursue it, she will take it into her head that her son is +lightly regarded, and then her back will be up, and one may lose the +chance; and on the whole, considering the money and the fellow, I don't +know a safer way to settle the girl." + +"Well, sister, as I have remarked," said the monk, "I could not order +my speech to propose anything of this kind to a young maid; I should so +bungle that I might spoil all. You must even propose it yourself." + +"I would not have undertaken it," said Elsie, "had I not been frightened +by that hook-nosed old kite of a cavalier that has been sailing and +perching round. We are two lone women here, and the times are unsettled, +and one never knows, that hath so fair a prize, but she may be carried +off, and then no redress from any quarter." + +"You might lodge her in the convent," said the monk. + +"Yes, and then, the first thing I should know, they would have got her +away from me entirely. I have been well pleased to have her much with +the sisters hitherto, because it kept her from hearing the foolish talk +of girls and gallants,--and such a flower would have had every wasp and +bee buzzing round it. But now the time is coming to marry her, I much +doubt these nuns. There's old Jocunda is a sensible woman, who knew +something of the world before she went there,--but the Mother Theresa +knows no more than a baby; and they would take her in, and make her as +white and as thin as that moon yonder now the sun has risen; and little +good should I have of her, for I have no vocation for the convent,--it +would kill me in a week. No,--she has seen enough of the convent for the +present. I will even take the risk of watching her myself. Little has +this gallant seen of her, though he has tried hard enough! But to-day I +may venture to take her down with me." + +Father Antonio felt a little conscience-smitten in listening to these +triumphant assertions of old Elsie; for he knew that she would pour all +her vials of wrath on his head, did she know, that, owing to his absence +from his little charge, the dreaded invader had managed to have two +interviews with her grandchild, on the very spot that Elsie deemed the +fortress of security; but he wisely kept his own counsel, believing in +the eternal value of silence. In truth, the gentle monk lived so much +in the unreal and celestial world of Beauty, that he was by no means +a skilful guide for the passes of common life. Love, other than that +ethereal kind which aspires towards Paradise, was a stranger to his +thoughts, and he constantly erred in attributing to other people natures +and purposes as unworldly and spiritual as his own. Thus had he fallen, +in his utter simplicity, into the attitude of a go-between protecting +the advances of a young lover with the shadow of his monk's gown, and +he became awkwardly conscious, that, if Elsie should find out the whole +truth, there would be no possibility of convincing her that what had +been done in such sacred simplicity on all sides was not the basest +manoeuvring. + +Elsie took Agnes down with her to the old stand in the gateway of the +town. On their way, as had probably been arranged, Antonio met them. +We may have introduced him to the reader before, who likely enough has +forgotten by this time our portraiture; so we shall say again, that the +man was past thirty, tall, straight, well-made, even to the tapering of +his well-formed limbs, as are the generality of the peasantry of that +favored region. His teeth were white as sea-pearl; his cheek, though +swarthy, had a deep, healthy flash; and his great velvet black eyes +looked straight out from under their long silky lashes, just as do the +eyes of the beautiful oxen of his country, with a languid, changeless +tranquillity, betokening a good digestion, and a well-fed, kindly animal +nature. He was evidently a creature that had been nourished on sweet +juices and developed in fair pastures, under genial influences of sun +and weather,--one that would draw patiently in harness, if required, +without troubling his handsome head how he came there, and, his labor +being done, would stretch his healthy body to rumination, and rest with +serene, even unreflecting quietude. + +He had been duly lectured by his mother, this morning, on the propriety +of commencing his wooing, and was coming towards them with a bouquet in +his hand. + +"See there," said Elsie,--"there is our young neighbor Antonio coming +towards us. There is a youth whom I am willing you should speak +to,--none of your ruffling gallants, but steady as an ox at his work, +and as kind at the crib. Happy will the girl be that gets him for a +husband!" + +Agnes was somewhat troubled and saddened this morning, and absorbed in +cares quite new to her life before; but her nature was ever kindly +and social, and it had been laid under so many restrictions by her +grandmother's close method of bringing up, that it was always ready to +rebound in favor of anybody to whom she allowed her to show kindness. +So, when the young man stopped and shyly reached forth to her a knot +of scarlet poppies intermingled with bright vetches and wild blue +larkspurs, she took it graciously, and, frankly beaming a smile into his +face, said,-- + +"Thank you, my good Antonio!" Then fastening them in the front of her +bodice,--"There, they are beautiful!" she said, looking up with the +simple satisfaction of a child. + +"They are not half so beautiful as you are," said the young peasant; +"everybody likes you." + +"You are very kind, I am sure," said Agnes. "I like everybody, as far as +grandmamma thinks it best." + +"I am glad of that," said Antonio, "because then I hope you will like +me." + +"Oh, yes, certainly, I do; grandmamma says you are very good, and I like +all good people." + +"Well, then, pretty Agnes," said the young man, "let me carry your +basket." + +"Oh, you don't need to; it does not tire me." + +"But I should like to do something for you," insisted the young man, +blushing deeply. + +"Well, you may, then," said Agnes, who began to wonder at the length +of time her grandmother allowed this conversation to go on without +interrupting it, as she generally had done when a young man was in the +case. Quite to her astonishment, her venerable relative, instead of +sticking as close to her as her shadow, was walking forward very fast +without looking behind. + +"Now, Holy Mother," said that excellent matron, "do help this young man +to bring this affair out straight, and give an old woman, who has had a +world of troubles, a little peace in her old age!" + +Agnes found herself, therefore, quite unusually situated, alone in the +company of a handsome young man, and apparently with the consent of her +grandmother. Some girls might have felt emotions of embarrassment, +or even alarm, at this new situation; but the sacred loneliness and +seclusion in which Agnes had been educated had given her a confiding +fearlessness, such as voyagers have found in the birds of bright foreign +islands which have never been invaded by man. She looked up at Antonio +with a pleased, admiring smile,--much such as she would have given, if +a great handsome stag, or other sylvan companion, had stepped from the +forest and looked a friendship at her through his large liquid eyes. She +seemed, in an innocent, frank way, to like to have him walking by her, +and thought him very good to carry her basket,--though, as she told him, +he need not do it, it did not tire her in the least. + +"Nor does it tire me, pretty Agnes," said he, with an embarrassed laugh. +"See what a great fellow I am,--how strong! Look,--I can bend an iron +bar in my hands! I am as strong as an ox,--and I should like always to +use my strength for you." + +"Should you? How very kind of you! It is very Christian to use one's +strength for others, like the good Saint Christopher." + +"But I would use my strength for you because--I love you, gentle Agnes!" + +"That is right, too," replied Agnes. "We must all love one another, my +good Antonio." + +"You must know what I mean," said the young man. "I mean that I want to +marry you." + +"I am sorry for that, Antonio," replied Agnes, gravely; "because I do +not want to marry you. I am never going to marry anybody." + +"Ah, girls always talk so, my mother told me; but nobody ever heard of +a girl that did not want a husband; that is impossible," said Antonio, +with simplicity. + +"I believe girls generally do, Antonio; but I do not: my desire is to go +to the convent." + +"To the convent, pretty Agnes? Of all things, what should you want to +go to the convent for? You never had any trouble. You are young, and +handsome, and healthy, and almost any of the fellows would think himself +fortunate to get you." + +"I would go there to live for God and pray for souls," said Agnes. + +"But your grandmother will never let you; she means you shall marry me. +I heard her and my mother talking about it last night; and my mother +bade me come on, for she said it was all settled." + +"I never heard anything of it," said Agnes, now for the first time +feeling troubled. "But, my good Antonio, if you really do like me and +wish me well, you will not want to distress me?" + +"Certainly not." + +"Well, it _will_ distress me very, very much, if you persist in wanting +to marry me, and if you say any more on the subject." + +"Is that really so?" said Antonio, fixing his great velvet eyes with an +honest stare on Agnes. + +"Yes, it is so, Antonio; you may rely upon it." + +"But look here, Agnes, are you quite sure? Mother says girls do not +always know their mind." + +"But I know mine, Antonio. Now you really will distress and trouble me +very much, if you say anything more of this sort." + +"I declare, I am sorry for it," said the young man. "Look ye, Agnes,--I +did not care half as much about it this morning as I do now. Mother +has been saying this great while that I must have a wife, that she was +getting old; and this morning she told me to speak to you. I thought you +would be all ready,--indeed I did." + +"My good Antonio, there are a great many very handsome girls who would +be glad, I suppose, to marry you. I believe other girls do not feel as I +do. Giulietta used to laugh and tell me so." + +"That Giulietta was a splendid girl," said Antonio. "She used to make +great eyes at me, and try to make me play the fool; but my mother would +not hear of her. Now she has gone off with a fellow to the mountains." + +"Giulietta gone?" + +"Yes, haven't you heard of it? She's gone with one of the fellows of +that dashing young robber-captain that has been round our town so much +lately. All the girls are wild after these mountain fellows. A good, +honest boy like me, that hammers away at his trade, they think nothing +of; whereas one of these fellows with a feather in his cap has only to +twinkle his finger at them, and they are off like a bird." + +The blood rose in Agnes's cheeks at this very unconscious remark; but +she walked along for some time with a countenance of grave reflection. + +They had now gained the street of the city, where old Elsie stood at a +little distance waiting for them. + +"Well, Agnes," said Antonio, "so you really are in earnest?" + +"Certainly I am." + +"Well, then, let us be good friends, at any rate," said the young man. + +"Oh, to be sure, I will," said Agnes, smiling with all the brightness +her lovely face was capable of. "You are a kind, good man, and I like +you very much. I will always remember you kindly." + +"Well, good-bye, then," said Antonio, offering his hand. + +"Good-bye," said Agnes, cheerfully giving hers. + +Elsie, beholding the cordiality of this parting, comforted herself that +all was right, and ruffled all her feathers with the satisfied pride of +a matron whose family plans are succeeding. + +"After all," she said to herself, "brother was right,--best let young +folks settle these matters themselves. Now see the advantage of such an +education as I have given Agnes! Instead of being betrothed to a good, +honest, forehanded fellow, she might have been losing her poor silly +heart to some of these lords or gallants who throw away a girl as one +does an orange when they have sucked it. Who knows what mischief this +cavalier might have done, if I had not been so watchful? Now let him +come prying and spying about, she will have a husband to defend her. A +smith's hammer is better than an old woman's spindle, any day." + +Agnes took her seat with her usual air of thoughtful gravity, her +mind seeming to be intensely preoccupied, and her grandmother, though +secretly exulting in the supposed cause, resolved not to open the +subject with her till they were at home or alone at night. + +"I have my defence to make to Father Francesco, too," she said to +herself, "for hurrying on this betrothal against his advice; but one +must manage a little with these priests,--the saints forgive me! I +really think sometimes, because they can't marry themselves, they would +rather see every pretty girl in a convent than with a husband. It's +natural enough, too. Father Francesco will be like the rest of the +world: when he can't help a thing, he will see the will of the Lord in +it." + +Thus prosperously the world seemed to go with old Elsie. Meantime, when +her back was turned, as she was kneeling over her basket, sorting out +lemons, Agnes happened to look up, and there, just under the arch of the +gateway, where she had seen him the first time, sat the cavalier on a +splendid horse, with a white feather streaming backward from his black +riding-hat and dark curls. + +He bowed low and kissed his hand to her, and before she knew it her eyes +met his, which seemed to flash light and sunshine all through her; and +then he turned his horse and was gone through the gate, while she, +filled with self-reproach, was taking her little heart to task for the +instantaneous throb of happiness which had passed through her whole +being at that sight. She had not turned away her head, nor said a +prayer, as Father Francesco told her to do, because the whole thing had +been sudden as a flash; but now it was gone, she prayed, "My God, help +me not to love him!--let me love Thee alone!" But many times in the +course of the day, as she twisted her flax, she found herself wondering +whither he could be going. Had he really gone to that enchanted +cloud-land, in the old purple Apennines, whither he wanted to carry +her,--gone, perhaps, never to return? That was best. But was he +reconciled with the Church? Was that great, splendid soul that looked +out of those eyes to be forever lost, or would the pious exhortations of +her uncle avail? And then she thought he had said to her, that, if she +would go with him, he would confess and take the sacrament, and be +reconciled with the Church, and so his soul be saved. + +She resolved to tell this to Father Francesco. Perhaps he +would----No,--she shivered as she remembered the severe, withering look +with which the holy father had spoken of him, and the awfulness of his +manner,--he would never consent. And then her grandmother----No, there +was no possibility. + +Meanwhile Agnes's good old uncle sat in the orange-shaded garden, busily +perfecting his sketches; but his mind was distracted, and his thoughts +wandered,--and often he rose, and, leaving his drawings, would pace up +and down the little place, absorbed in earnest prayer. The thought of +his master's position was hourly growing upon him. The real world with +its hungry and angry tide was each hour washing higher and higher up on +the airy shore of the ideal, and bearing the pearls and enchanted shells +of fancy out into its salt and muddy waters. + +"Oh, my master, my father!" he said, "is the martyr's crown of fire +indeed waiting thee? Will God desert His own? But was not Christ +crucified?--and the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant +above his lord. But surely Florence will not consent. The whole city +will make a stand for him;--they are ready, if need be, to pluck out +their eyes and give them to him. Florence will certainly be a refuge +for him. But why do I put confidence in man? In the Lord alone have I +righteousness and strength." + +And the old monk raised the psalm, "_Quare fremunt gentes_," and his +voice rose and fell through the flowery recesses and dripping grottoes +of the old gorge, sad and earnest like the protest of the few and feeble +of Christ's own against the rushing legions of the world. Yet, as +he sang, courage and holy hope came into his soul from the sacred +words,--just such courage as they afterwards brought to Luther, and to +the Puritans in later times. + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE MONK'S DEPARTURE. + + +The three inhabitants of the little dovecot were sitting in their garden +after supper, enjoying the cool freshness. The place was perfumed with +the smell of orange-blossoms, brought out by gentle showers that had +fallen during the latter part of the afternoon, and all three felt the +tranquillizing effects of the sweet evening air. The monk sat bending +over his drawings, resting the frame on which they lay on the mossy +garden-wall, so as to get the latest advantage of the rich golden +twilight which now twinkled through the sky. Agnes sat by him on the +same wall,--now glancing over his shoulder at his work, and now leaning +thoughtfully on her elbow, gazing pensively down into the deep shadows +of the gorge, or out where the golden light of evening streamed under +the arches of the old Roman bridge, to the wide, bright sea beyond. + +Old Elsie bustled about with unusual content in the lines of her keen +wrinkled face. Already her thoughts were running on household furnishing +and bridal finery. She unlocked an old chest which from its heavy quaint +carvings of dark wood must have been some relic of the fortunes of her +better days, and, taking out of a little till of the same a string of +fine silvery pearls, held them up admiringly to the evening light. +A splendid pair of pearl ear-rings also was produced from the same +receptacle. + +She sighed at first, as she looked at these things, and then smiled with +rather an air of triumph, and, coming to where Agnes reclined on the +wall, held them up playfully before her. + +"See here, little one!" she said. + +"Oh, what pretty things!--where did they come from?" said Agnes, +innocently. + +"Where did they? Sure enough! Little did you or any one else know old +Elsie had things like these! But she meant her little Agnes should hold +up her head with the best. No girl in Sorrento will have such wedding +finery as this?" + +"Wedding finery, grandmamma," said Agnes, faintly,--"what does that +mean?" + +"What does that mean, sly-boots? Ah, you know well enough! What were you +and Antonio talking about all the time this morning? Did he not ask you +to marry him?" + +"Yes, grandmamma; but I told him I was not going to marry. You promised +me, dear grandmother, right here, the other night, that I should not +marry till I was willing; and I told Antonio I was not willing." + +"The girl says but true, sister," said the monk; "you remember you gave +her your word that she should not be married till she gave her consent +willingly." + +"But, Agnes, my pretty one, what can be the objection?" said old Elsie, +coaxingly. "Where will you find a better-made man, or more honest, or +more kind?--and he is handsome;--and you will have a home that all the +girls will envy." + +"Grandmamma, remember, you promised me,--you _promised_ me," said Agnes, +looking distressed, and speaking earnestly. + +"Well, well, child! but can't I ask a civil question, if I did? What is +your objection to Antonio?" + +"Only that I don't want to be married." + +"Now you know, child," said Elsie, "I never will consent to your going +to a convent. You might as well put a knife through my old heart as talk +to me of that. And if you don't go, you must marry somebody; and who +could be better than Antonio?" + +"Oh, grandmamma, am I not a good girl? What have I done, that you are +so anxious to get me away from you?" said Agnes. "I like Antonio well +enough, but I like you ten thousand times better. Why cannot we live +together just as we do now? I am strong. I can work a great deal harder +than I do. You ought to let me work more, so that you need not work so +hard and tire yourself,--let me carry the heavy basket, and dig round +the trees." + +"Pooh! a pretty story!" said Elsie. "We are two lone women, and the +times are unsettled; there are robbers and loose fellows about, and we +want a protector." + +"And is not the good Lord our protector?--has He not always kept us, +grandmother?" said Agnes. + +"Oh, that's well enough to say, but folks can't always get along +so;--it's far better trusting the Lord with a good strong man +about,--like Antonio, for instance. I should like to see the man that +would dare be uncivil to _his_ wife. But go your ways,--it's no use +toiling away one's life for children, who, after all, won't turn their +little finger for you." + +"Now, dear grandmother," said Agnes, "have I not said I would do +everything for you, and work hard for you? Ask me to do anything else +in the world, grandmamma; I will do anything to make you happy, except +marry this man,--that I cannot." + +"And that is the only thing I want you to do. Well, I suppose I may as +well lock up these things; I see my gifts are not cared for." + +And the old soul turned and went in quite testily, leaving Agnes with a +grieved heart, sitting still by her uncle. + +"Never weep, little one," said the kind old monk, when he saw the silent +tears falling one after another; "your grandmother loves you, after all, +and will come out of this, if we are quiet." + +"This is such a beautiful world," said Agnes, "who would think it would +be such a hard one to live in?--such battles and conflicts as people +have here!" + +"You say well, little heart; but great is the glory to be revealed; so +let us have courage." + +"Dear uncle, have you heard any ill-tidings of late?" asked Agnes. "I +noticed this morning you were cast down, and to-night you look so tired +and sad." + +"Yes, dear child,--heavy tidings have indeed come. My dear master at +Florence is hard beset by wicked men, and in great danger,--in danger, +perhaps, of falling a martyr to his holy zeal for the blessed Jesus and +his Church." + +"But cannot our holy father, the Pope, protect him? You should go to +Rome directly and lay the case before him." + +"It is not always possible to be protected by the Pope," said Father +Antonio, evasively. "But I grieve much, dear child, that I can be with +you no longer. I must gird up my loins and set out for Florence, to see +with my own eyes how the battle is going for my holy master." + +"Ah, must I lose you, too, my dear, best friend?" said Agnes. "What +shall I do?" + +"Thou hast the same Lord Jesus, and the same dear Mother, when I am +gone. Have faith in God, and cease not to pray for His Church,--and for +me, too." + +"That I will, dear uncle! I will pray for you more than ever,--for +prayer now will be all my comfort. But," she added, with hesitation, +"oh, uncle, you promised to visit _him_!" + +"Never fear, little Agnes,--I will do that. I go to him this very +night,--now, even,--for the daylight waxes too scant for me to work +longer." + +"But you will come back and stay with us to-night, uncle?" + +"Yes, I will,--but to-morrow morning I must be up and away with the +birds; and I have labored hard all day to finish the drawings for the +lad who shall carve the shrine, that he may busy himself thereon in my +absence." + +"Then you will come back?" + +"Certainly, dear heart, I will come back; of that be assured. Pray God +it be before long, too." + +So saying, the good monk drew his cowl over his head, and, putting his +portfolio of drawings under his arm, began to wend his way towards the +old town. + +Agnes watched him departing, her heart in a strange flutter of eagerness +and solicitude. What were these dreadful troubles which were coming upon +her good uncle?--who those enemies of the Church that beset that saintly +teacher he so much looked up to? And why was lawless violence allowed +to run such riot in Italy, as it had in the case of the unfortunate +cavalier? As she thought things over, she was burning with a repressed +desire to _do_ something herself to abate these troubles. + +"I am not a knight," she said to herself, "and I cannot fight for the +good cause. I am not a priest, and I cannot argue for it. I cannot +preach and convert sinners. What, then, can I do? I can pray. Suppose I +should make a pilgrimage? Yes,--that would be a good work, and I will. +I will walk to Rome, praying at every shrine and holy place; and then, +when I come to the Holy City, whose very dust is made precious with +the blood of the martyrs and saints, I will seek the house of our dear +father, the Pope, and entreat his forgiveness for this poor soul. He +will not scorn me, for he is in the place of the blessed Jesus, and the +richest princess and the poorest maiden are equal in his sight. Ah, that +will be beautiful! Holy Mother," she said, falling on her knees before +the shrine, "here I vow and promise that I will go praying to the Holy +City. Smile on me and help me!" + +And by the twinkle of the flickering lamp which threw its light upon the +picture, Agnes thought surely the placid face brightened to a tender +maternal smile, and her enthusiastic imagination saw in this an omen of +success. + +Old Elsie was moody and silent this evening,--vexed at the thwarting +of her schemes. It was the first time that the idea had ever gained a +foothold in her mind, that her docile and tractable grandchild could +really have for any serious length of time a will opposed to her own, +and she found it even now difficult to believe it. Hitherto she had +shaped her life as easily as she could mould a biscuit, and it was all +plain sailing before her. The force and decision of this young will rose +as suddenly upon her as the one rock in the middle of the ocean which a +voyager unexpectedly discovered by striking on it. + +But Elsie by no means regarded the game as lost. She mentally went over +the field, considering here and there what was yet to be done. + +The subject had fairly been broached. Agnes had listened to it, and +parted in friendship from Antonio. Now his old mother must be soothed +and pacified; and Antonio must be made to persevere. + +"What is a girl worth that can be won at the first asking?" quoth Elsie. +"Depend upon it, she will fall to thinking of him, and the next time she +sees him she will give him a good look. The girl never knew what it was +to have a lover. No wonder she doesn't take to it at first; there's +where her bringing up comes in, so different from other girls'. Courage, +Elsie! Nature will speak in its own time." + +Thus soliloquizing, she prepared to go a few steps from their dwelling, +to the cottage of Meta and Antonio, which was situated at no great +distance. + +"Nobody will think of coming here this time o' night," she said, "and +the girl is in for a good hour at least with her prayers, and so I think +I may venture. I don't really like to leave her, but it's not a great +way, and I shall be back in a few moments. I want just to put a word +into old Meta's ear, that she may teach Antonio how to demean himself." + +And so the old soul took her spinning and away she went, leaving Agnes +absorbed in her devotions. + +The solemn starry night looked down steadfastly on the little garden. +The evening wind creeping with gentle stir among the orange-leaves, and +the falling waters of the fountain dripping their distant, solitary way +down from rock to rock through the lonely gorge, were the only sounds +that broke the stillness. + +The monk was the first of the two to return; for those accustomed to +the habits of elderly cronies on a gossiping expedition of any domestic +importance will not be surprised that Elsie's few moments of projected +talk lengthened imperceptibly into hours. + +Agnes came forward anxiously to meet her uncle. He seemed wan and +haggard, and trembling with some recent emotion. + +"What is the matter with you, dear uncle?" she asked. "Has anything +happened?" + +"Nothing, child, nothing. I have only been talking on painful subjects, +deep perplexities, out of which I can scarcely see my way. Would to God +this night of life were past, and I could see morning on the mountains!" + +"My uncle, have you not, then, succeeded in bringing this young man to +the bosom of the True Church?" + +"Child, the way is hedged up, and made almost impassable by difficulties +you little wot of. They cannot be told to you; they are enough to +destroy the faith of the very elect." + +Agnes's heart sank within her; and the monk, sitting down on the wall +of the garden, clasped his hands over one knee and gazed fixedly before +him. + +The sight of her uncle,--generally so cheerful, so elastic, so full of +bright thoughts and beautiful words,--so utterly cast down, was both a +mystery and a terror to Agnes. + +"Oh, my uncle," she said, "it is hard that I must not know, and that I +can do nothing, when I feel ready to die for this cause! What is one +little life? Ah, if I had a thousand to give, I could melt them all into +it, like little drops of rain in the sea! Be not utterly cast down, good +uncle! Does not our dear Lord and Saviour reign in the heavens yet?" + +"Sweet little nightingale!" said the monk, stretching his hand towards +her. "Well did my master say that he gained strength to his soul always +by talking with Christ's little children!" + +"And all the dear saints and angels, they are not dead or idle either," +said Agnes, her face kindling; "they are busy all around us. I know not +what this trouble is you speak of; but let us think what legions of +bright angels and holy men and women are caring for us." + +"Well said, well said, dear child! There is, thank God, a Church +Triumphant,--a crowned queen, a glorious bride; and the poor, +struggling Church Militant shall rise to join her! What matter, then, +though our way lie through dungeon and chains, through fire and sword, +if we may attain to that glory at last?" + +"Uncle, are there such dreadful things really before you?" + +"There may be, child. I say of my master, as did the holy Apostles: 'Let +us also go, that we may die with him.' I feel a heavy presage. But I +must not trouble you, child. Early in the morning I will be up and away. +I go with this youth, whose pathway lies a certain distance along mine, +and whose company I seek for his good as well as my pleasure." + +"You go with _him_?" said Agnes, with a start of surprise. + +"Yes; his refuge in the mountains lies between here and Rome, and he +hath kindly offered to bring me on my way faster than I can go on +foot; and I would fain see our beautiful Florence as soon as may be. O +Florence, Florence, Lily of Italy! wilt thou let thy prophet perish?" + +"But, uncle, if he die for the faith, he will be a blessed martyr. That +crown is worth dying for," said Agnes. + +"You say well, little one,--you say well! '_Ex oribus parvulorum._' +But one shrinks from that in the person of a friend which one could +cheerfully welcome for one's self. Oh, the blessed cross! never is it +welcome to the flesh, and yet how joyfully the spirit may walk under +it!" + +"Dear uncle, I have made a solemn vow before our Holy Mother this +night," said Agnes, "to go on a pilgrimage to Rome, and at every shrine +and holy place to pray that these great afflictions which beset all of +you may have a happy issue." + +"My sweet heart, what have you done? Have you considered the unsettled +roads, the wild, unruly men that are abroad, the robbers with which the +mountains are filled?" + +"These are all Christ's children and my brothers," said Agnes; "for them +was the most holy blood shed, as well as for me. They cannot harm one +who prays for them." + +"But, dear heart of mine, these ungodly brawlers think little of prayer; +and this beautiful, innocent little face will but move the vilest and +most brutal thoughts and deeds." + +"Saint Agnes still lives, dear uncle,--and He who kept her in worse +trial. I shall walk through them all pure as snow,--I am assured I +shall. The star which led the wise men and stood over the young child +and his mother will lead me, too." + +"But your grandmother?" + +"The Lord will incline her heart to go with me. Dear uncle, it does +not beseem a child to reflect on its elders, yet I cannot but see that +grandmamma loves this world and me too well for her soul's good. This +journey will be for her eternal repose." + +"Well, well, dear one, I cannot now advise. Take advice of your +confessor, and the blessed Lord and his holy Mother be with you! But +come now, I would soothe myself to sleep; for I have need of good rest +to-night. Let us sing together our dear master's hymn of the Cross." + +And the monk and the maiden sang together:-- + + "Iesù, sommo conforto, + Tu sei tutto il mio amore + E 'l mio beato porto, + E santo Redentore. + O gran bontà, + Dolce pietà, + Felice quel che teco unito sta! + + "Deh, quante volte offeso + T' ha l' alma e 'l cor meschino, + E tu sei in croce steso + Per salvar me, tapino! + + "Iesù, fuss' io confitto + Sopra quel duro ligno, + Dove ti vedo afflitto, + Iesù, Signor benigno! + + "O croce, fammi loco, + E le mie membra prendi, + Che del tuo dolce foco + Il cor e l' alma accendi! + + "Infiamma il mio cor tanto + Dell' amor tuo divino, + Ch' io arda tutto quanto, + Che paia un serafino! + + "La croce e 'l Crocifisso + Sia nel mio cor scolpito, + Ed io sia sempre affisso + In gloria ov' egli è ito!"[D] + +[Footnote D: + + Jesus, best comfort of my soul, + Be thou my only love, + My sacred saviour from my sins, + My door to heaven above! + O lofty goodness, love divine, + Blest is the soul made one with thine! + + Alas, how oft this sordid heart + Hath wounded thy pure eye! + Yet for this heart upon the cross + Thou gav'st thyself to die! + + Ah, would I were extended there, + Upon that cold, hard tree, + Where I have seen thee, gracious Lord, + Breathe out thy life for me! + + Cross of my Lord, give room! give room! + To thee my flesh be given! + Cleansed in thy fires of love and pain, + My soul rise pure to heaven! + + Burn in my heart, celestial flame, + With memories of him, + Till, from earth's dross refined, I rise + To join the seraphim! + + Ah, vanish each unworthy trace + Of earthly care or pride, + Leave only, graven on my heart, + The Cross, the Crucified! +] + +As the monk sang, his soul seemed to fuse itself into the sentiment with +that natural grace peculiar to his nation. He walked up and down the +little garden, apparently forgetful of Agnes or of any earthly presence, +and in the last verses stretched his hands towards heaven with streaming +tears and a fervor of utterance indescribable. + +The soft and passionate tenderness of the Italian words must exhale in +an English translation, but enough may remain to show that the hymns +with which Savonarola at this time sowed the mind of Italy often +mingled the Moravian quaintness and energy with the Wesleyan purity and +tenderness. One of the great means of popular reform which he proposed +was the supplanting of the obscene and licentious songs, which at that +time so generally defiled the minds of the young, by religious words and +melodies. The children and young people brought up under his influence +were sedulously stored with treasures of sacred melody, as the safest +companions of leisure hours, and the surest guard against temptation. + +"Come now, my little one," said the monk, after they had ceased singing, +as he laid his hand on Agnes's head. "I am strong now; I know where I +stand. And you, my little one, you are one of my master's 'Children of +the Cross.' You must sing the hymns of our dear master, that I have +taught you, when I am far away. A hymn is a singing angel, and goes +walking through the earth, scattering the devils before it. Therefore he +who creates hymns imitates the most excellent and lovely works of our +Lord God, who made the angels. These hymns watch our chamber-door, they +sit upon our pillow, they sing to us when we awake; and therefore our +master was resolved to sow the minds of his young people with them, as +our lovely Italy is sown with the seeds of all colored flowers. How +lovely has it often been to me, as I sat at my work in Florence, to hear +the little children go by, chanting of Jesus and Mary,--and young men +singing to young maidens, not vain flatteries of their beauty, but the +praises of the One only Beautiful, whose smile sows heaven with stars +like flowers! Ah, in my day I have seen blessed times in Florence! Truly +was she worthy to be called the Lily City!--for all her care seemed to +be to make white her garments to receive her Lord and Bridegroom. Yes, +though she had sinned like the Magdalen, yet she loved much, like her. +She washed His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her +head. Oh, my beautiful Florence, be true to thy vows, be true to thy +Lord and Governor, Jesus Christ, and all shall be well!" + +"Amen, dear uncle!" said Agnes. "I will not fail to pray day and night, +that thus it may be. And now, if you must travel so far, you must go +to rest. Grandmamma has gone long ago. I saw her steal by as we were +singing." + +"And is there any message from my little Agnes to this young man?" asked +the monk. + +"Yes. Say to him that Agnes prays daily that he may be a worthy son and +soldier of the Lord Jesus." + +"Amen, sweet heart! Jesu and His sweet Mother bless thee!" + + * * * * * + + +A NEW COUNTERBLAST + + +"He that taketh tobacco saith he cannot leave it, it doth bewitch +him."--KING JAMES'S COUNTERBLAST TO TOBACCO. + +America is especially responsible to the whole world for tobacco, since +the two are twin-sisters, born to the globe in a day. The sailors first +sent on shore by Columbus came back with news of a new continent and +a new condiment. There was solid land, and there was a novel perfume, +which rolled in clouds from the lips of the natives. The fame of the two +great discoveries instantly began to overspread the world; but the smoke +travelled fastest, as is its nature. There are many races which have not +yet heard of America: there are very few which have not yet tasted of +tobacco. A plant which was originally the amusement of a few savage +tribes has become in a few centuries the fancied necessary of life to +the most enlightened nations of the earth, and it is probable that there +is nothing cultivated by man which is now so universally employed. + +And the plant owes this width of celebrity to a combination of natural +qualities so remarkable as to yield great diversities of good and evil +fame. It was first heralded as a medical panacea, "the most sovereign +and precious weed that ever the earth tendered to the use of man," and +was seldom mentioned, in the sixteenth century, without some reverential +epithet. It was a plant divine, a canonized vegetable. Each nation +had its own pious name to bestow upon it. The French called it +_herbe sainte, herbe sacrée, herbe propre à tous maux, panacée +antarctique_,--the Italians, _herba santa croce_,--the Germans, _heilig +wundkraut_. Botanists soberly classified it as _herba panacea_ and +_herba sancta_, and Gerard in his "Herbal" fixed its name finally +as _sana sancta Indorum_, by which title it commonly appears in the +professional recipes of the time. Spenser, in his "Faërie Queene," +bids the lovely Belphoebe gather it as "divine tobacco," and Lilly the +Euphuist calls it "our holy herb Nicotian," ranking it between violets +and honey. It was cultivated in France for medicinal purposes solely, +for half a century before any one there used it for pleasure, and till +within the last hundred years it was familiarly prescribed, all over +Europe, for asthma, gout, catarrh, consumption, headache; and, in short, +was credited with curing more diseases than even the eighty-seven which +Dr. Shew now charges it with producing. + +So vast were the results of all this sanitary enthusiasm, that the use +of tobacco in Europe probably reached its climax in a century or two, +and has since rather diminished than increased, in proportion to the +population. It probably appeared in England in 1586, being first used in +the Indian fashion, by handing one pipe from man to man throughout the +company; the medium of communication being a silver tube for the higher +classes, and a straw and walnut-shell for the baser sort. Paul Hentzner, +who travelled in England in 1598, and Monsieur Misson, who wrote +precisely a century later, note almost in the same words "a perpetual +use of tobacco"; and the latter suspects that this is what makes "the +generality of Englishmen so taciturn, so thoughtful, and so melancholy." +In Queen Elizabeth's time, the ladies of the court "would not scruple +to blow a pipe together very socially." In 1614 it was asserted that +tobacco was sold openly in more than seven thousand places in London, +some of these being already attended by that patient Indian who still +stands seductive at tobacconists' doors. It was also estimated that the +annual receipts of these establishments amounted to more than three +hundred thousand pounds. Elegant ladies had their pictures painted, at +least one in 1650 did, with pipe and box in hand. Rochefort, a rather +apocryphal French traveller in 1672, reported it to be the general +custom in English homes to set pipes on the table in the evening for +the females as well as males of the family, and to provide children's +luncheon-baskets with a well-filled pipe, to be smoked at school, under +the directing eye of the master. In 1703, Lawrence Spooner wrote that +"the sin of the kingdom in the intemperate use of tobacco swelleth and +increaseth so daily that I can compare it to nothing but the waters of +Noah, that swelled fifteen cubits above the highest mountains." The +deluge reached its height in England--so thinks the amusing and +indefatigable Mr. Fairholt, author of "Tobacco and its Associations"--in +the reign of Queen Anne. Steele, in the "Spectator," (1711,) describes +the snuff-box as a rival to the fan among ladies; and Goldsmith pictures +the belles at Bath as entering the water in full bathing costume, each +provided with a small floating basket, to hold a snuff-box, a kerchief, +and a nosegay. And finally, in 1797, Dr. Clarke complains of the handing +about of the snuff-box in churches during worship, "to the great scandal +of religious people,"--adding, that kneeling in prayer was prevented by +the large quantity of saliva ejected in all directions. In view of such +formidable statements as these, it is hardly possible to believe +that the present generation surpasses or even equals the past in the +consumption of tobacco. + +And all this sudden popularity was in spite of a vast persecution which +sought to unite all Europe against this indulgence, in the seventeenth +century. In Russia, its use was punishable with amputation of the +nose; in Berne, it ranked next to adultery among offences; Sandys, the +traveller, saw a Turk led through the streets of Constantinople mounted +backward on an ass with a tobacco-pipe thrust through his nose. Pope +Urban VIII., in 1624, excommunicated those who should use it in +churches, and Innocent XII., in 1690, echoed the same anathema. Yet +within a few years afterwards travellers reported that same free use +of snuff in Romish worship which still astonishes spectators. To see +a priest, during the momentous ceremonial of High Mass, enliven the +occasion by a voluptuous pinch, is a sight even more astonishing, though +perhaps less disagreeable, than the well-used spittoon which decorates +so many Protestant pulpits. + +But the Protestant pulpits did their full share in fighting the habit, +for a time at least. Among the Puritans, no man could use tobacco +publicly, on penalty of a fine of two and sixpence, or in a private +dwelling, if strangers were present; and no two could use it together. +That iron pipe of Miles Standish, still preserved at Plymouth, must have +been smoked in solitude or not at all. This strictness was gradually +relaxed, however, as the clergy took up the habit of smoking; and I +have seen an old painting, on the panels of an ancient parsonage in +Newburyport, representing a jovial circle of portly divines sitting pipe +in hand around a table, with the Latin motto, "In essentials unity, in +non-essentials liberty, in all things charity." Apparently the tobacco +was one of the essentials, since there was unity respecting that. +Furthermore, Captain Underhill, hero of the Pequot War, boasted to the +saints of having received his assurance of salvation "while enjoying a +pipe of that good creature, tobacco," "since when he had never doubted +it, though he should fall into sin." But it is melancholy to relate +that this fall did presently take place, in a very flagrant manner, and +brought discredit upon tobacco conversions, as being liable to end in +smoke. + +Indeed, some of the most royal wills that ever lived in the world have +measured themselves against the tobacco-plant and been defeated. Charles +I. attempted to banish it, and in return the soldiers of Cromwell puffed +their smoke contemptuously in his face, as he sat a prisoner in the +guard-chamber. Cromwell himself undertook it, and Evelyn says that the +troopers smoked in triumph at his funeral. Wellington tried it, and +the artists caricatured him on a pipe's head with a soldier behind him +defying with a whiff that imperial nose. Louis Napoleon is said to +be now attempting it, and probably finds his subjects more ready to +surrender the freedom of the press than of the pipe. + +The more recent efforts against tobacco, like most arguments in which +morals and physiology are mingled, have lost much of their effect +through exaggeration. On both sides there has been enlisted much loose +statement, with some bad logic. It is, for instance, unreasonable to +hold up the tobacco-plant to general indignation because Linnaeus +classed it with the natural order _Luridae_,--since he attributed the +luridness only to the color of those plants, not to their character. It +is absurd to denounce it as belonging to the poisonous nightshade tribe, +when the potato and the tomato also appertain to that perilous domestic +circle. It is hardly fair even to complain of it for yielding a +poisonous oil, when these two virtuous plants--to say nothing of the +peach and the almond--will under sufficient chemical provocation do the +same thing. Two drops of nicotine will, indeed, kill a rabbit; but so, +it is said, will two drops of solanine. Great are the resources of +chemistry, and a well-regulated scientific mind can detect something +deadly almost anywhere. + +Nor is it safe to assume, as many do, that tobacco predisposes very +powerfully to more dangerous dissipations. The non-smoking Saxons were +probably far more intemperate in drinking than the modern English; and +Lane, the best authority, points out that wine is now far less used by +the Orientals than at the time of the "Arabian Nights," when tobacco +had not been introduced. And in respect to yet more perilous sensual +excesses, tobacco is now admitted, both by friends and foes, to be quite +as much a sedative as a stimulant. + +The point of objection on the ground of inordinate expense is doubtless +better taken, and can be met only by substantial proof that the enormous +outlay is a wise one. Tobacco may be "the anodyne of poverty," as +somebody has said, but it certainly promotes poverty. This narcotic +lulls to sleep all pecuniary economy. Every pipe may not, indeed, cost +so much as that jewelled one seen by Dibdin in Vienna, which was valued +at a thousand pounds; or even as the German meerschaum which was passed +from mouth to mouth through a whole regiment of soldiers till it was +colored to perfection, having never been allowed to cool,--a bill of one +hundred pounds being ultimately rendered for the tobacco consumed. But +how heedlessly men squander money on this pet luxury! By the report of +the English University Commissioners, some ten years ago, a student's +annual tobacco-bill often amounts to forty pounds. Dr. Solly puts thirty +pounds as the lowest annual expenditure of an English smoker, and knows +many who spend one hundred and twenty pounds, and one three hundred +pounds a year, on tobacco alone. In this country the facts are hard to +obtain, but many a man smokes twelve four-cent cigars a day, and many +a man four twelve-cent cigars,--spending in either case about half +a dollar a day and not far from two hundred dollars per annum. An +industrious mechanic earns his two dollars and fifty cents a day or +a clerk his eight hundred dollars a year, spends a quarter of it on +tobacco, and the rest on his wife, children, and miscellaneous expenses. + +But the impotency which marks some of the stock arguments against +tobacco extends to most of those in favor of it. My friend assures me +that every one needs some narcotic, that the American brain is too +active, and that the influence of tobacco is quieting,--great is the +enjoyment of a comfortable pipe after dinner. I grant, on observing him +at that period, that it appears so. But I also observe, that, when the +placid hour has passed away, his nervous system is more susceptible, his +hand more tremulous, his temper more irritable on slight occasions, than +during the days when the comfortable pipe chances to be omitted. The +only effect of the narcotic appears, therefore, to be a demand for +another narcotic; and there seems no decided advantage over the life +of the birds and bees, who appear to keep their nervous systems in +tolerably healthy condition with no narcotic at all. + +The argument drawn from a comparison of races is no better. Germans are +vigorous and Turks are long-lived, and they are all great smokers. But +certainly the Germans do not appear so vivacious, nor the Turks so +energetic, as to afford triumphant demonstrations in behalf of the +sacred weed. Moreover, the Eastern tobacco is as much milder than ours +as are the Continental wines than even those semi-alcoholic mixtures +which prevail at scrupulous communion-tables. And as for German health, +Dr. Schneider declares, in the London "Lancet," that it is because of +smoke that all his educated countrymen wear spectacles, that an immense +amount of consumption is produced in Germany by tobacco, and that +English insurance companies are proverbially cautious in insuring German +lives. Dr. Carlyon gives much the same as his observation in Holland. +These facts may be overstated, but they are at least as good as those +which they answer. + +Not much better is the excuse alleged in the social and genial +influences of tobacco. It certainly seems a singular way of opening +the lips for conversation by closing them on a pipe-stem, and it would +rather appear as if Fate designed to gag the smokers and let the +non-smokers talk. But supposing it otherwise, does it not mark a +condition of extreme juvenility in our social development, if no +resources of intellect can enable a half-dozen intelligent men to be +agreeable to each other, without applying the forcing process, by +turning the room into an imperfectly organized chimney? Brilliant women +can be brilliant without either wine or tobacco, and Napoleon always +maintained that without an admixture of feminine wit conversation grew +tame. Are all male beings so much stupider by nature than the other +sex, that men require stimulants and narcotics to make them mutually +endurable? + +And as the conversational superiorities of woman disprove the supposed +social inspirations of tobacco, so do her more refined perceptions yet +more emphatically pronounce its doom. Though belles of the less mature +description, eulogistic of sophomores, may stoutly profess that they +dote on the Virginian perfume, yet cultivated womanhood barely tolerates +the choicest tobacco-smoke, even in its freshness, and utterly recoils +from the stale suggestions of yesterday. By whatever enthusiasm misled, +she finds something abhorrent in the very nature of the thing. In vain +did loyal Frenchmen baptize the weed as the queen's own favorite, _Herba +Catherinae Medicae_; it is easier to admit that Catherine de' Medici was +not feminine than that tobacco is. Man also recognizes the antagonism; +there is scarcely a husband in America who would not be converted from +smoking, if his wife resolutely demanded her right of moiety in the +cigar-box. No Lady Mary, no loveliest Marquise, could make snuff-taking +beauty otherwise than repugnant to this generation. Rustic females +who habitually chew even pitch or spruce-gum are rendered thereby so +repulsive that the fancy refuses to pursue the horror farther and +imagine it tobacco; and all the charms of the veil and the fan can +scarcely reconcile the most fumacious American to the _cigarrito_ of +the Spanish fair. How strange seems Parton's picture of General Jackson +puffing his long clay pipe on one side of the fireplace and Mrs. Jackson +puffing hers on the other! No doubt, to the heart of the chivalrous +backwoodsman those smoke-dried lips were yet the altar of early +passion,--as that rather ungrammatical tongue was still the music of +the spheres; but the unattractiveness of that conjugal counterblast is +Nature's own protest against smoking. + +The use of tobacco must, therefore, be held to mark a rather coarse and +childish epoch in our civilization, if nothing worse. Its most ardent +admirer hardly paints it into his picture of the Golden Age. It is +difficult to associate it with one's fancies of the noblest manhood, +and Miss Muloch reasonably defies the human imagination to portray +Shakspeare or Dante with pipe in mouth. Goethe detested it; so did +Napoleon, save in the form of snuff, which he apparently used on +Talleyrand's principle, that diplomacy was impossible without it. Bacon +said, "Tobacco-smoking is a secret delight serving only to steal away +men's brains." Newton abstained from it: the contrary is often claimed, +but thus says his biographer, Brewster,--saying that "he would make no +necessities to himself." Franklin says he never used it, and never met +with one of its votaries who advised him to follow the example. +John Quincy Adams used it in early youth, and after thirty years of +abstinence said, that, if every one would try abstinence for three +months, it would annihilate the practice, and add five years to the +average length of human life. + +In attempting to go beyond these general charges of waste and +foolishness, and to examine the physiological results of the use of +tobacco, one is met by the contradictions and perplexities which haunt +all such inquiries. Doctors, of course, disagree, and the special cases +cited triumphantly by either side are ruled out as exceptional by the +other. It is like the question of the precise degree of injury done by +alcoholic drinks. To-day's newspaper writes the eulogy of A.B., who +recently died at the age of ninety-nine, without ever tasting ardent +spirits; to-morrow's will add the epitaph of C.D., aged one hundred, who +has imbibed a quart of rum a day since reaching the age of indiscretion; +and yet, after all, both editors have to admit that the drinking usages +of society are growing decidedly more decent. It is the same with the +tobacco argument. Individual cases prove nothing either way; there is +such a range of vital vigor in different individuals, that one may +withstand a life of error, and another perish in spite of prudence. The +question is of the general tendency. It is not enough to know that Dr. +Parr smoked twenty pipes in an evening, and lived to be seventy-eight; +that Thomas Hobbes smoked thirteen, and survived to ninety-two; that +Brissiac of Trieste died at one hundred and sixteen, with a pipe in his +mouth; and that Henry Hartz of Schleswig used tobacco steadily from the +age of sixteen to one hundred and forty-two; nor would any accumulation +of such healthy old sinners prove anything satisfactory. It seems +rather overwhelming, to be sure, when Mr. Fairholt assures us that his +respected father "died at the age of seventy-two: he had been twelve +hours a day in a tobacco-manufactory for nearly fifty years; and he both +smoked and chewed while busy in the labors of the workshop, sometimes in +a dense cloud of steam from drying the damp tobacco over the stoves; and +his health and appetite were perfect to the day of his death: he was a +model of muscular and stomachic energy; in which his son, who neither +smokes, snuffs, nor chews, by no means rivals him." But until we know +precisely what capital of health the venerable tobacconist inherited +from his fathers, and in what condition he transmitted it to his sons, +the statement certainly has two edges. + +For there are facts equally notorious on the other side. It is not +denied that it is found necessary to exclude tobacco, as a general +rule, from insane asylums, or that it produces, in extreme cases, among +perfectly sober persons, effects akin to delirium tremens. Nor is it +denied that terrible local diseases follow it,--as, for instance, +cancer of the mouth, which has become, according to the eminent surgeon, +Brouisson, the disease most dreaded in the French hospitals. He has +performed sixty-eight operations for this, within fourteen years, in the +Hospital St. Eloi, and traces it entirely to the use of tobacco. Such +facts are chiefly valuable as showing the tendency of the thing. Where +the evils of excess are so glaring, the advantages of even moderate use +are questionable. Where weak persons are made insane, there is room for +suspicion that the strong may suffer unconsciously. You may say that +the victims must have been constitutionally nervous; but where is the +native-born American who is not? + +In France and England the recent inquiries into the effects of tobacco +seem to have been a little more systematic than our own. In the former +country, the newspapers state, the attention of the Emperor was called +to the fact that those pupils of the Polytechnic School who used this +indulgence were decidedly inferior in average attainments to the rest. +This is stated to have led to its prohibition in the school, and to the +forming of an anti-tobacco organization, which is said to be making +great progress in France. I cannot, however, obtain from any of our +medical libraries any satisfactory information as to the French +agitation, and am led by private advices to believe that even these +general statements are hardly trustworthy. The recent English +discussions are, however, more easy of access. + +"The Great Tobacco Question," as the controversy in England was called, +originated in a Clinical Lecture on Paralysis, by Mr. Solly, Surgeon of +St. Thomas's Hospital, which was published in the "Lancet," December 13, +1856. He incidentally spoke of tobacco as an important source of this +disease, and went on to say,--"I know of no single vice which does so +much harm as smoking. It is a snare and a delusion. It soothes the +excited nervous system at the time, to render it more irritable and +feeble ultimately. It is like opium in this respect; and if you want to +know all the wretchedness which this drug can produce, you should +read the 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.'" This statement was +presently echoed by J. Ranald Martin, an eminent surgeon, "whose Eastern +experience rendered his opinion of immense value," and who used language +almost identical with that of Mr. Solly:--"I can state of my own +observation, that the miseries, mental and bodily, which I have +witnessed from the abuse of cigar-smoking, far exceed anything detailed +in the 'Confessions of an Opium-Eater.'" + +This led off a controversy which continued for several months in the +columns of the "Lancet,"--a controversy conducted in a wonderfully +good-natured spirit, considering that more than fifty physicians took +part in it, and that these were almost equally divided. The debate took +a wide range, and some interesting facts were elicited: as that Lord +Raglan, General Markham, and Admirals Dundas and Napier always abandoned +tobacco from the moment when they were ordered on actual service; that +nine-tenths of the first-class men at the Universities were non-smokers; +that two Indian chiefs told Power, the actor, that "those Indians who +smoked gave out soonest in the chase"; and so on. There were also +American examples, rather loosely gathered: thus, a remark of the +venerable Dr. Waterhouse, made many years ago, was cited as the +contemporary opinion of "the Medical Professor in Harvard University"; +also it was mentioned, as an acknowledged fact, that the American +_physique_ was rapidly deteriorating because of tobacco, and that +coroners' verdicts were constantly being thus pronounced on American +youths: "Died of excessive smoking." On the other hand, that eminent +citizen of our Union, General Thomas Thumb, was about that time +professionally examined in London, and his verdict on tobacco was quoted +to be, that it was "one of his chief comforts"; also mention was made of +a hapless quack who announced himself as coming from Boston, and who, +to keep up the Yankee reputation, issued a combined advertisement of +"medical advice gratis" and "prime cigars." + +But these stray American instances were of course quite outnumbered +by the English, and there is scarcely an ill which was not in this +controversy charged upon tobacco by its enemies, nor a physical or moral +benefit which was not claimed for it by its friends. According to these, +it prevents dissension and dyspnoea, inflammation and insanity, saves +the waste of tissue and of time, blunts the edge of grief and lightens +pain. "No man was ever in a passion with a pipe in his mouth." There are +more female lunatics chiefly because the fumigatory education of the +fair sex has been neglected. Yet it is important to notice that these +same advocates almost outdo its opponents in admitting its liability +to misuse, and the perilous consequences. "The injurious effects +of excessive smoking,"--"there is no more pitiable object than +the inveterate smoker,"--"sedentary life is incompatible with +smoking,"--highly pernicious,--general debility,--secretions all +wrong,--cerebral softening,--partial paralysis,--trembling of +the hand,--enervation and depression,--great irritability,--neuralgia, +--narcotism of the heart: this Chamber of Horrors forms a part of the +very Temple of Tobacco, as builded, not by foes, but by worshippers. +"All men of observation and experience," they admit, "must be able to +point to instances of disease and derangement from the abuse of this +luxury." Yet they advocate it, as the same men advocate intoxicating +drinks; not meeting the question, in either case, whether it be wise, +or even generous, for the strong to continue an indulgence which is +thus confessedly ruinous to the weak. + +The controversy had its course, and ended, like most controversies, +without establishing anything. The editor of the "Lancet," to be sure, +summed up the evidence very fairly, and it is worth while to quote +him:--"It is almost unnecessary to make a separate inquiry into the +pathological conditions which follow upon excessive smoking. Abundant +evidence has been adduced of the gigantic evils which attend the abuse +of tobacco. Let it be granted at once that there is such a thing as +moderate smoking, and let it be admitted that we cannot accuse tobacco +of being guilty of the whole of Cullen's 'Nosology'; it still remains +that there is a long catalogue of frightful penalties attached to its +abuse." He then proceeds to consider what is to be called abuse: as, for +instance, smoking more than one or two cigars or pipes daily,--smoking +too early in the day or too early in life,--and in general, the use of +tobacco by those with whom it does not agree,--which rather reminds one +of the early temperance pledges, which bound a man to drink no more rum +than he found to be good for him. But the Chief Justice of the Medical +Court finally instructs his jury of readers that young men should +give up a dubious pleasure for a certain good, and abandon +tobacco altogether:--"Shun the habit of smoking as you would shun +self-destruction. As you value your physical and moral well-being, avoid +a habit which for you can offer no advantage to compare with the dangers +you incur." + +Yet, after all, neither he nor his witnesses seem fairly to have hit +upon what seem to this present writer the two incontrovertible arguments +against tobacco; one being drawn from theory, and the other from +practice. + +First, as to the theory of the thing. The laws of Nature warn every man +who uses tobacco for the first time, that he is dealing with a poison. +Nobody denies this attribute of the plant; it is "a narcotic poison of +the most active class." It is not merely that a poison can by chemical +process be extracted from it, but it is a poison in its simplest form. +Its mere application to the skin has often produced uncontrollable +nausea and prostration. Children have in several cases been killed by +the mere application of tobacco ointment to the head. Soldiers have +simulated sickness by placing it beneath the armpits,--though in most +cases our regiments would probably consider this a mistaken application +of the treasure. Tobacco, then, is simply and absolutely a poison. + +Now to say that a substance is a poison is not to say that it inevitably +kills; it may be apparently innocuous, if not incidentally beneficial. +King Mithridates, it is said, learned habitually to consume these +dangerous commodities; and the scarcely less mythical Du Chaillu, after +the fatigues of his gorilla warfare, found decided benefit from two +ounces of arsenic. But to say that a substance is a poison is to say +at least that it is a noxious drug,--that it is a medicine, not an +aliment,--that its effects are pathological, not physiological,--and +that its use should therefore be exceptional, not habitual. Not tending +to the preservation of a normal state, but at best to the correction of +some abnormal one, its whole value, if it have any, lies in the rarity +of its application. To apply a powerful drug at a certain hour every day +is like a schoolmaster's whipping his pupil at a certain hour every day: +the victim may become inured, but undoubtedly the specific value of the +remedy must vanish with the repetition. + +Thus much would be true, were it proved that tobacco is in some cases +apparently beneficial. No drug is beneficial, when constantly employed. +But, furthermore, if not beneficial, it then is injurious. As Dr. Holmes +has so forcibly expounded, every medicine is in itself hurtful. All +noxious agents, according to him, cost a patient, on an average, five +per cent. of his vital power; that is, twenty times as much would kill +him. It is believed that they are sometimes indirectly useful; it is +known that they are always directly hurtful. That is, I have a neighbor +on one side who takes tobacco to cure his dyspepsia, and a neighbor on +the other side who takes blue pill for his infirmities generally. The +profit of the operation may be sure or doubtful; the outlay is certain, +and to be deducted in any event. I have no doubt, my dear Madam, that +your interesting son has learned to smoke, as he states, in order to +check that very distressing toothache which so hindered his studies; but +I sincerely think it would be better to have the affliction removed by +a dentist at a cost of fifty cents than by a drug at an expense of five +per cent. of vital power. + +Fortunately, when it comes to the practical test, the whole position is +conceded to our hands, and the very devotees of tobacco are false to +their idol. It is not merely that the most fumigatory parent dissuades +his sons from the practice; but there is a more remarkable instance. +If any two classes can be singled out in the community as the largest +habitual consumers of tobacco, it must be the college students and the +city "roughs" or "rowdies," or whatever the latest slang name is,--for +these roysterers, like oysters, incline to names with an _r_ in. Now the +"rough," when brought to a physical climax, becomes the prize-fighter; +and the college student is seen in his highest condition as the +prize-oarsman; and both these representative men, under such +circumstances of ambition, straightway abandon tobacco. Such a +concession, from such a quarter, is worth all the denunciations of good +Mr. Trask. Appeal, O anxious mother! from Philip smoking to Philip +training. What your progeny will not do for any considerations of ethics +or economy, to save his sisters' olfactories or the atmosphere of +the family altar,--that he does unflinchingly at one word from the +stroke-oar or the commodore. In so doing, he surrenders every inch +of the ground, and owns unequivocally that he is in better condition +without tobacco. The old traditions of training are in some other +respects being softened: strawberries are no longer contraband, and the +last agonies of thirst are no longer a part of the prescription; but +training and tobacco are still incompatible. There is not a regatta or a +prize-fight in which the betting would not be seriously affected by the +discovery that either party used the beguiling weed. + +The argument is irresistible,--or rather, it is not so much an argument +as a plea of guilty under the indictment. The prime devotees of tobacco +voluntarily abstain from it, like Lord Raglan and Admiral Napier, when +they wish to be in their best condition. But are we ever, any of us, in +too good condition? Have all the sanitary conventions yet succeeded in +detecting one man, in our high-pressure America, who finds himself too +well? If a man goes into training for the mimic contest, why not for the +actual one? If he needs steady nerves and a cool head for the play of +life,--and even prize-fighting is called "sporting,"--why not for its +earnest? Here we are all croaking that we are not in the health in which +our twentieth birthday found us, and yet we will not condescend to the +wise abstinence which even twenty practises. Moderate training is simply +a rational and healthful life. + +So palpable is this, that there is strong reason to believe that the +increased attention to physical training is operating against tobacco. +If we may trust literature, as has been shown, its use is not now so +great as formerly, in spite of the vague guesses of alarmists. "It is +estimated," says Mr. Coles, "that the consumption of tobacco in this +country is eight times as great as in France and three times as great as +in England, in proportion to the population"; but there is nothing +in the world more uncertain than "It is estimated." It is frequently +estimated, for instance, that nine out of ten of our college students +use tobacco; and yet by the statistics of the last graduating class +at Cambridge it appears that it is used by only thirty-one out of +seventy-six. I am satisfied that the extent of the practice is often +exaggerated. In a gymnastic club of young men, for instance, where I +have had opportunity to take the statistics, it is found that less +than one-quarter use it, though there has never been any agitation or +discussion of the matter. These things indicate that it can no longer +be claimed, as Molière asserted two centuries ago, that he who lives +without tobacco is not worthy to live. + +And as there has been some exaggeration in describing the extent to +which Tobacco is King, so there has doubtless been some overstatement +as to the cruelty of his despotism. Enough, however, remains to condemn +him. The present writer, at least, has the firmest conviction, from +personal observation and experience, that the imagined benefits of +tobacco-using (which have never, perhaps, been better stated than in an +essay which appeared in this magazine, in August, 1860) are ordinarily +an illusion, and its evils a far more solid reality,--that it stimulates +only to enervate, soothes only to depress,--that it neither permanently +calms the nerves nor softens the temper nor enlightens the brain, but +that in the end its tendencies are precisely the opposites of +these, beside the undoubted incidental objections of costliness and +uncleanness. When men can find any other instance of a poisonous drug +which is suitable for daily consumption, they will be more consistent +in using this. When it is admitted to be innocuous to those who are in +training for athletic feats, it may be possible to suppose it beneficial +to those who are out of training. Meanwhile there seems no ground for +its supporters except that to which the famous Robert Hall was reduced, +as he says, by "the Society of Doctors of Divinity." He sent a message +to Dr. Clarke, in return for a pamphlet against tobacco, that he could +not possibly refute his arguments and could not possibly give up +smoking. + + * * * * * + + +THE WOLVES. + + + Ye who listen to stories told, + When hearths are cheery and nights are cold, + + Of the lone wood-side, and the hungry pack + That howls on the fainting traveller's track,-- + + Flame-red eyeballs that waylay, + By the wintry moon, the belated sleigh,-- + + The lost child sought in the dismal wood, + The little shoes and the stains of blood + + On the trampled snow,--O ye that hear, + With thrills of pity or chills of fear, + + Wishing some angel had been sent + To shield the hapless and innocent,-- + + Know ye the fiend that is crueller far + Than the gaunt gray herds of the forest are? + + Swiftly vanish the wild fleet tracks + Before the rifle and woodman's axe: + + But hark to the coming of unseen feet, + Pattering by night through the city street! + + Each wolf that dies in the woodland brown + Lives a spectre and haunts the town. + + By square and market they slink and prowl, + In lane and alley they leap and howl. + + All night they snuff and snarl before + The poor patched window and broken door. + + They paw the clapboards and claw the latch, + At every crevice they whine and scratch. + + Their tongues are subtle and long and thin, + And they lap the living blood within. + + Icy keen are the teeth that tear, + Red as ruin the eyes that glare. + + Children crouched in corners cold + Shiver in tattered garments old, + + And start from sleep with bitter pangs + At the touch of the phantoms' viewless fangs. + + Weary the mother and worn with strife, + Still she watches and fights for life. + + But her hand is feeble, and weapon small: + One little needle against them all! + + In evil hour the daughter fled + From her poor shelter and wretched bed. + + Through the city's pitiless solitude + To the door of sin the wolves pursued. + + Fierce the father and grim with want, + His heart is gnawed by the spectres gaunt. + + Frenzied stealing forth by night, + With whetted knife, to the desperate fight, + + He thought to strike the spectres dead, + But he smites his brother man instead. + + O you that listen to stories told, + When hearths are cheery and nights are cold, + + Weep no more at the tales you hear, + The danger is close and the wolves are near. + + Shudder not at the murderer's name, + Marvel not at the maiden's shame. + + Pass not by with averted eye + The door where the stricken children cry. + + But when the beat of the unseen feet + Sounds by night through the stormy street, + + Follow thou where the spectres glide; + Stand like Hope by the mother's side; + + And be thyself the angel sent + To shield the hapless and innocent. + + He gives but little who gives his tears, + He gives his best who aids and cheers. + + He does well in the forest wild + Who slays the monster and saves the child; + + But he does better, and merits more, + Who drives the wolf from the poor man's door. + + * * * * * + + +A STORY OF TO-DAY. + + +PART III. + + +Now that I have come to the love part of my story, I am suddenly +conscious of dingy common colors on the palette with which I have been +painting. I wish I had some brilliant dyes. I wish, with all my heart, I +could take you back to that "Once upon a time" in which the souls of our +grandmothers delighted,--the time which Dr. Johnson sat up all night to +read about in "Evelina,"--the time when all the celestial virtues, all +the earthly graces were revealed in a condensed state to man through the +blue eyes and sumptuous linens of some Belinda Portman or Lord Mortimer. +None of your good-hearted, sorely-tempted villains then! It made your +hair stand on end only to read of them,--dyed at their birth clear +through with Pluto's blackest poison, going about perpetually seeking +innocent maidens and unsophisticated old men to devour. That was the +time for holding up virtue and vice; no trouble then in seeing which +were sheep and which were goats! A person could write a story with a +moral to it, then, I should hope! People that were born in those days +had no fancy for going through the world with half-and-half characters, +such as we put up with; so Nature turned out complete specimens of each +class, with all the appendages of dress, fortune, _et cetera_, chording +decently. At least, so those veracious histories say. The heroine, for +instance, glides into life full-charged with rank, virtues, a name +three-syllabled, and a white dress that never needs washing, ready to +sail through dangers dire into a triumphant haven of matrimony;--all +the aristocrats have high foreheads and cold blue eyes; all the +peasants are old women, miraculously grateful, in neat check aprons, or +sullen-browed insurgents planning revolts in caves. + +Of course, I do not mean that these times are gone: they are alive (in +a modern fashion) in many places in the world; some of my friends have +described them in prose and verse. I only mean to say that I never was +there; I was born unlucky. I am willing to do my best, but I live in +the commonplace. Once or twice I have rashly tried my hand at dark +conspiracies, and women rare and radiant in Italian bowers; but I have a +friend who is sure to say, "Try and tell us about the butcher next door, +my dear." If I look up from my paper now, I shall be just as apt to see +our dog and his kennel as the white sky stained with blood and Tyrian +purple. I never saw a full-blooded saint or sinner in my life. The +coldest villain I ever knew was the only son of his mother, and she a +widow,--and a kinder son never lived. I have known people capable of a +love terrible in its strength; but I never knew such a case that some +one did not consider its expediency as "a match" in the light of dollars +and cents. As for heroines, of course I know beautiful women, and good +as fair. The most beautiful is delicate and pure enough for a type of +the Madonna, and has a heart almost as warm and holy as hers who was +blessed among women. (Very pure blood is in her veins, too, if you care +about blood.) But at home they call her Tode for a nickname; all we can +do, she will sing, and sing through her nose; and on washing-days she +often cooks the dinner, and scolds wholesomely, if the tea-napkins are +not in order. Now, what is anybody to do with a heroine like that? I +have known old maids in abundance, with pathos and sunshine in their +lives; but the old maid of novels I never have met, who abandoned +her soul to gossip,--nor yet the other type, a lifelong martyr of +unselfishness. They are mixed generally, and are not unlike their +married sisters, so far as I can see. Then as to men, certainly I know +heroes. One man, I knew, as high a chevalier in heart as any Bayard of +them all; one of those souls simple and gentle as a woman, tender in +knightly honor. He was an old man, with a rusty brown coat and rustier +wig, who spent his life in a dingy village office. You poets would have +laughed at him. Well, well, his history never will be written. The kind, +sad, blue eyes are shut now. There is a little farm-graveyard overgrown +with privet and wild grape-vines, and a flattened grave where he was +laid to rest; and only a few who knew him when they were children care +to go there, and think of what he was to them. But it was not in the far +days of Chivalry alone, I think, that true and tender souls have stood +in the world unwelcome, and, hurt to the quick, have turned away and +dumbly died. Let it be. Their lives are not lost, thank God! + +I meant only to ask you, How can I help it, if the people in my story +seem coarse to you,--if the hero, unlike all other heroes, stopped to +count the cost before he fell in love,--if it made his fingers thrill +with pleasure to touch a full pocket-book as well as his mistress's +hand,--not being withal, this Stephen Holmes, a man to be despised? A +hero, rather, of a peculiar type,--a man, more than other men: the very +mould of man, doubt it who will, that women love longest and most madly. +Of course, if I could, I would have blotted out every meanness or +flaw before I showed him to you; I would have given you Margaret an +impetuous, whole-souled woman, glad to throw her life down for her +father without one bitter thought of the wife and mother she might have +been; I would have painted her mother tender as she was, forgetting how +pettish she grew on busy days: but what can I do? I must show you men +and women as they are in that especial State of the Union where I live. +In all the others, of course, it is very different. Now, being prepared +for disappointment, will you see my hero? + +He had sauntered out from the city for a morning walk,--not through +the hills, as Margaret went, going home, but on the other side, to +the river, over which you could see the Prairie. We are in Indiana, +remember. The sunlight was pure that morning, powerful, tintless, the +true wine of life for body or spirit. Stephen Holmes knew that, being a +man of delicate animal instincts, and so used it, just as he had used +the dumb-bells in the morning. All things were made for man, weren't +they? He was leaning against the door of the school-house,--a red, +flaunting house, the daub on the landscape: but, having his back to +it, he could not see it, so through his half-shut eyes he suffered the +beauty of the scene to act on him. Suffered: in a man, according to his +creed, the will being dominant, and all influences, such as beauty, +pain, religion, permitted to act under orders. Of course. + +It was a peculiar landscape,--like the man who looked at it, of a +thoroughly American type. A range of sharp, dark hills, with a sombre +depth of green shadow in the clefts, and on the sides massed forests of +scarlet and flame and crimson. Above, the sharp peaks of stone rose into +the wan blue, wan and pale themselves, and wearing a certain air of +fixed calm, the type of an eternal quiet. At the base of the hills lay +the city, a dirty mass of bricks and smoke and dust, and at its far edge +flowed the Wabash,--deep here, tinted with green, writhing and gurgling +and curdling on the banks over shelving ledges of lichen and mud-covered +rock. Beyond it yawned the opening to the great West,--the Prairies. +Not the dreary deadness here, as farther west. A plain dark russet in +hue,--for the grass was sun-scorched,--stretching away into the vague +distance, intolerable, silent, broken by hillocks and puny streams that +only made the vastness and silence more wide and heavy. Its limitless +torpor weighed on the brain; the eyes ached, stretching to find some +break before the dull russet faded into the amber of the horizon and was +lost. An American landscape: of few features, simple, grand in outline +as a face of one of the early gods. It lay utterly motionless before +him, not a fleck of cloud in the pure blue above, even where the mist +rose from the river; it only had glorified the clear blue into clearer +violet. + +Holmes stood quietly looking; he could have created a picture like +this, if he never had seen one; therefore he was able to recognize it, +accepted it into his soul, and let it do what it would there. + +Suddenly a low wind from the far Pacific coast struck from the amber +line where the sun went down. A faint tremble passed over the great +hills, the broad sweeps of color darkened from base to summit, then +flashed again,--while below, the prairie rose and fell like a dun sea, +and rolled in long, slow, solemn waves. + +The wind struck so broad and fiercely in Holmes's face that he caught +his breath. It was a savage freedom, he thought, in the West there, +whose breath blew on him,--the freedom of the primitive man, the untamed +animal man, self-reliant and self-assertant, having conquered Nature. +Well, this fierce masterful freedom was good for the soul, sometimes, +doubtless. It was old Knowles's vital air. He wondered if the old man +would succeed in his hobby, if he could make the slavish beggars and +thieves in the alleys yonder comprehend this fierce freedom. They craved +leave to live on sufferance now, not knowing their possible divinity. +It was a desperate remedy, this sense of unchecked liberty; but their +disease was desperate. As for himself, he did not need it; that element +was not lacking. In a mere bodily sense, to be sure. He felt his arm. +Yes, the cold rigor of this new life had already worn off much of the +clogging weight of flesh, strengthened the muscles. Six months more in +the West would toughen the fibres to iron. He raised an iron weight that +lay on the steps, carelessly testing them. For the rest, he was going +back here; something of the cold, loose freshness got into his brain, +he believed. In the two years of absence his power of concentration had +been stronger, his perceptions more free from prejudice, gaining every +day delicate point, acuteness of analysis. He drew a long breath of +the icy air, coarse with the wild perfume of the prairie. No, his +temperament needed a subtiler atmosphere than this, rarer essence than +mere brutal freedom. The East, the Old World, was his proper sphere for +self-development. He would go as soon as he could command the means, +leaving all clogs behind. _All_? His idle thought balked here, suddenly; +the sallow forehead contracted sharply, and his gray eyes grew in an +instant shallow, careless, formal, as a man who holds back his thought. +There was a fierce warring in his brain for a moment. Then he brushed +his Kossuth hat with his arm, and put it on, looking out at the +landscape again. Somehow its meaning was dulled to him. Just then a +muddy terrier came up, and rubbed itself against his knee. "Why, Tige, +old boy!" he said, stooping to pat it kindly. The hard, shallow look +faded out, and he half smiled, looking in the dog's eyes. A curious +smile, unspeakably tender and sad. It was the idiosyncrasy of the man's +face, rarely seen there. He might have looked with it at a criminal, +condemning him to death. But he would have condemned him, and, if no +hangman could be found, would have put the rope on with his own hands, +and then most probably would have sat down pale and trembling, and +analyzed his sensations on paper,--being sincere in all. + +He sat down on the school-house step, which the boys had hacked and +whittled rough, and waited; for he was there by appointment, to meet Dr. +Knowles. + +Knowles had gone out early in the morning to look at the ground he was +going to buy for his Phalanstery, or whatever he chose to call it. He +was to bring the deed of sale of the mill out with him for Holmes. The +next day it was to be signed. Holmes saw him at last lumbering across +the prairie, wiping the perspiration from his forehead. Summer or +winter, he contrived to be always hot. There was a cart drawn by an old +donkey coming along beside him. Knowles was talking to the driver. +The old man clapped his hands as stage-coachmen do, and drew in long +draughts of air, as if there were keen life and promise in every breath. +They came up at last, the cart empty, and drying for the day's work +after its morning's scrubbing, Lois's pock-marked face all in a glow +with trying to keep Barney awake. She grew quite red with pleasure +at seeing Holmes, but went on quickly as the men began to talk. Tige +followed her, of course; but when she had gone a little way across +the prairie, they saw her stop, and presently the dog came back with +something in his mouth, which he laid down beside his master, and bolted +off. It was only a rough wicker-basket which she had filled with damp +plushy moss, and half-buried in it clusters of plumy fern, delicate +brown and ashen lichens, masses of forest-leaves all shaded green with a +few crimson tints. It had a clear woody smell, like far-off myrrh. The +Doctor laughed as Holmes took it up. + +"An artist's gift, if it is from a mulatto," he said. "A born colorist." + +The men were not at ease, for some reason; they seized on every trifle +to keep off the subject which had brought them together. + +"That girl's artist-sense is pure, and her religion, down under the +perversion and ignorance of her brain. Curious, eh?" + +"Look at the top of her head, when you see her," said Holmes. "It is +necessity for such brains to worship. They let the fire lick their +blood, if they happen to be born Parsees. This girl, if she had been a +Jew when Christ was born, would have known him as Simeon did." + +Knowles said nothing,--only glanced at the massive head of the speaker, +with its overhanging brow, square development at the sides, and lowered +crown, and smiled significantly. + +"Exactly," laughed Holmes, putting his hand on his head. "Crippled there +by my Yorkshire blood,--my mother. Never mind; outside of this life, +blood or circumstance matters nothing." + +They walked on slowly towards town. Surely there was nothing in the +bill-of-sale which the old man had in his pocket but a mere matter of +business; yet they were strangely silent about it, as if it brought +shame to some one. There was an embarrassed pause. The Doctor went back +to Lois for relief. + +"I think it is the pain and want of such as she that makes them +susceptible to religion. The self in them is so starved and humbled that +it cannot obscure their eyes; they see God clearly." + +"Say rather," said Holmes, "that the soul is so starved and blind that +it cannot recognize itself as God." + +The Doctor's intolerant eye kindled. + +"Humph! So that's your creed! Not Pantheism. _Ego sum_. Of course you go +on with the conjugation: _I have been, I shall be_. I,--that covers the +whole ground, creation, redemption, and commands the hereafter?" + +"It does so," said Holmes, coolly. + +"And this wretched huckster carries her deity about her,--her +self-existent soul? How, in God's name, is her life to set it free?" + +Holmes said nothing. The coarse sneer could not be answered. Men with +pale faces and heavy jaws like his do not carry their religion on +their tongue's end; their creeds leave them only in the slow oozing +life-blood, false as the creeds may be. + +Knowles went on hotly, half to himself, seizing on the new idea +fiercely, as men and women do who are yet groping for the truth of life. + +"What is it your Novalis says? 'The true Shechinah is man.' You know no +higher God? Pooh! the idea is old enough; it began with Eve. It works +slowly, Holmes. In six thousand years, taking humanity as one, this +self-existent soul should have clothed itself with a freer, royaller +garment than poor Lois's body,--or mine," he added, bitterly. + +"It works slowly," said the other, quietly. "Faster soon, in America. +There are yet many ills of life for the divinity within to conquer." + +"And Lois and the swarming mass yonder in those dens? It is late for +them to begin the fight?" + +"Endurance is enough for them here. Their religions teach them that they +could not bear the truth. One does not put a weapon into the hands of a +man dying of the fetor and hunger of the siege." + +"But what will this life, or the lives to come, give to you champions +who know the truth?" + +"Nothing but victory," he said, in a low tone, looking away. + +Knowles looked at the pale strength of the iron face. + +"God help you, Stephen!" he broke out, his shallow jeering falling off. +"For there _is_ a God higher than we. The ills of life you mean to +conquer will teach it to you, Holmes. You'll find the Something above +yourself, if it's only to curse Him and die." + +Holmes did not smile at the old man's heat,--walked gravely, steadily. + +There was a short silence. The old man put his hand gently on the +other's arm. + +"Stephen," he hesitated, "you're a stronger man than I. I know what you +are; I've watched you from a boy. But you're wrong here. I'm an old man. +There's not much I know in life,--enough to madden me. But I do know +there's something stronger,--some God outside of the mean devil they +call 'Me.' You'll learn it, boy. There's an old story of a man like you +and the rest of your sect, and of the vile, mean, crawling things that +God sent to bring him down. There are such things yet. Mean passions in +your divine soul, low, selfish things, that will get the better of you, +show you what you are. You'll do all that man can do. But they are +coming, Stephen Holmes! they're coming!" + +He stopped, startled. For Holmes had turned abruptly, glancing over at +the city with a strange wistfulness. It was over in a moment. He resumed +the slow, controlling walk beside him. They went on in silence into +town, and when they did speak, it was on indifferent subjects, not +referring to the last. The Doctor's heat, as it usually did, boiled out +in spasms on trifles. Once he stumped his toe, and, I am sorry to say, +swore roundly about it, just as he would have done in the new Arcadia, +if one of the jail-birds comprising that colony had been ungrateful for +his advantages. Philanthropists, for some curious reason, are not the +most amiable members of small families. + +He gave Holmes the roll of parchment he had in his pocket, looking +keenly at him, as he did so, but only saying, that, if he meant to sign +it, it would be done to-morrow. As Holmes took it, they stopped at the +great door of the factory. He went in alone, Knowles going down the +street. One trifle, strange in its way, he remembered afterwards. +Holding the roll of paper in his hand that would make the mill his, he +went, in his slow, grave way, down the long passage to the loom-rooms. +There was a crowd of porters and firemen there, as usual, and he thought +one of them hastily passed him in the dark passage, hiding behind an +engine. As the shadow fell on him, his teeth chattered with a chilly +shudder. He smiled, thinking how superstitious people would say that +some one trod on his grave just then, or that Death looked at him, and +went on. Afterwards he thought of it. Going through the office, the fat +old book-keeper, Huff, stopped him with a story he had been keeping for +him all day. He liked to tell a story to Holmes; he could see into a +joke; it did a man good to hear a fellow laugh like that. Holmes did +laugh, for the story was a good one, and stood a moment, then went in, +leaving the old fellow chuckling over his desk. Huff did not know how, +lately, after every laugh, this man felt a vague scorn of himself, as if +jokes and laughter belonged to a self that ought to have been dead long +ago. Perhaps, if the fat old book-keeper had known it, he would have +said that the man was better than he knew. But then,--poor Huff! He +passed slowly through the long alleys between the great looms. Overhead +the ceiling looked like a heavy maze of iron cylinders and black +swinging bars and wheels, all in swift, ponderous motion. It was enough +to make a brain dizzy with the clanging thunder of the engines, the +whizzing spindles of red and yellow, and the hot daylight glaring over +all. The looms were watched by women, most of them bold, tawdry girls +of fifteen or sixteen, or lean-jawed women from the hills, wives of the +coal-diggers. There was a breathless odor of copperas. As he went from +one room to another up through the ascending stories, he had a vague +sensation of being followed. Some shadow lurked at times behind the +engines, or stole after him in the dark entries. Were there ghosts, +then, in mills in broad daylight? None but the ghosts of Want and Hunger +and Crime, he might have known, that do not wait for night to walk our +streets: the ghosts that poor old Knowles hoped to lay forever. + +Holmes had a room fitted up in the mill, where he slept. He went up +to it slowly, holding the paper tightly in one hand, glancing at the +operatives, the work, through his furtive half-shut eye. Nothing escaped +him. Passing the windows, he did not once look out at the prophetic +dream of beauty he had left without. In the mill he was of the mill. +Yet he went slowly, as if he shrank from the task waiting for him. +Why should he? It was a simple matter of business, this transfer of +Knowles's share in the mill to himself; to-day he was to decide whether +he would conclude the bargain. If any dark history of wrong lay +underneath, if this simple decision of his was to be the struggle for +life and death with him, his cold, firm face told nothing of it. Let us +be just to him, stand by him, if we can, in the midst of his desolate +home and desolate life, and look through his cold, sorrowful eyes at +the deed he was going to do. Dreary enough he looked, going through the +great mill, despite the power in his quiet face. A man who had strength +to be alone; yet, I think, with all his strength and power, his mother +could not have borne to look back from the dead that day, to see her boy +so utterly alone. The day was the crisis of his life, looked forward to +for years; he held in his hand a sure passport to fortune. Yet he thrust +the hour off, perversely, trifling with idle fancies, pushing from him +the one question which all the years past and to come had left for this +day to decide. + +Some such idle fancy it may have been that made the man turn from the +usual way down a narrow passage into which opened doors from small +offices. Margaret Howth, he had learned to-day, was in the first one. He +hesitated before he did it, his sallow face turning a trifle paler; then +he went on in his hard, grave way, wondering dimly if she remembered his +step, if she cared to see him now. She used to know it,--she was the +only one in the world who ever had cared to know it,--silly child! +Doubtless she was wiser now. He remembered he used to think, that, when +this woman loved, it would be as he himself would love, with a simple +trust which the wrong of years could not touch. And once he had +thought--Well, well, he was mistaken. Poor Margaret! Better as it was. +They were nothing to each other. She had put him from her, and he had +suffered himself to be put away. Why, he would have given up every +prospect of life, if he had done otherwise! Yet he wondered bitterly if +she had thought him selfish,--if she thought it was money he cared for, +as the others did. It mattered nothing what they thought, but it wounded +him intolerably that she should wrong him. Yet, with all this, whenever +he looked forward to death, it was with the certainty that he should +find her there beyond. There would be no secrets then; she would know +then how he had loved her always. Loved her? Yes; he need not hide it +from himself, surely. + +He was now by the door of the office;--she was within. Little Margaret, +poor little Margaret! struggling there day after day for the old father +and mother. What a pale, cold little child she used to be! such a child! +yet kindling at his look or touch, as if her veins were filled with +subtile flame. Her soul was like his own, he thought. He knew what it +was,--he only. Even now he glowed with a man's triumph to know he held +the secret life of this woman bare in his hand. No other human power +could ever come near her; he was secure in possession. She had put him +from her;--it was better for both, perhaps. Their paths were separate +here; for she had some unreal notions of duty, and he had too much to do +in the world to clog himself with cares, or to idle an hour in the rare +ecstasy of even love like this. + +He passed the office, not pausing in his slow step. Some sudden impulse +made him put his hand on the door as he brushed against it: just a +quick, light touch; but it had all the fierce passion of a caress. He +drew it back as quickly, and went on, wiping a clammy sweat from his +face. + +The room he had fitted up for himself was whitewashed and barely +furnished; it made one's bones ache to look at the iron bedstead and +chairs. Holmes's natural taste was more glowing, however smothered, than +that of any saffron-robed Sybarite. It needed correction, he knew, and +this was the discipline. Besides, he had set apart the coming three or +four years of his life to make money in, enough for the time to come. He +would devote his whole strength to that work, and so be sooner done with +it. Money, or place, or even power, was nothing but means to him: other +men valued them because of their influence on others. As his work in the +world was only the development of himself, it was different, of course. +What would it matter to his soul the day after death, if millions called +his name aloud in blame or praise? Would he hear or answer then? What +would it matter to him then, if he had starved with them or ruled over +them? People talked of benevolence. What would it matter to him then, +the misery or happiness of those yet working in this paltry life of +ours? In so far as the exercise of kindly emotions or self-denial +developed the higher part of his nature, it was to be commended; as +for its effect on others, that he had nothing to do with. He practised +self-denial constantly to strengthen the benevolent instincts. That +very morning he had given his last dollar to Joe Byers, a half-starved +cripple. "Chucked it at me," Joe said, "like as he'd give a bone to a +dog, and be damned to him! Who thanks him?" To tell the truth, you will +find no fairer exponent than this Stephen Holmes of the great idea of +American sociology,--that the object of life is _to grow_. Circumstances +had forced it on him, partly. Sitting now in his room, where he was +counting the cost of becoming a merchant prince, he could look back to +the time of a boyhood passed in the depths of ignorance and vice. He +knew what this Self within him was; he knew how it had forced him to +grope his way up, to give this hungry, insatiate soul air and freedom +and knowledge. All men around him were doing the same,--thrusting and +jostling and struggling, up, up. It was the American motto, Go ahead; +mothers taught it to their children; the whole system was a scale of +glittering prizes. He at least saw the higher meaning of the truth; he +had no low ambitions. To lift this self up into a higher range of +being when it had done with the uses of this,--that was his work. +Self-salvation, self-elevation,--the ideas that give birth to, and +destroy half of our Christianity, half of our philanthropy! Sometimes +sleeping instincts in the man struggled up to assert a divinity more +terrible than this growing self-existent soul that he purified and +analyzed day by day: a depth of tender pity for outer pain; a fierce +longing for rest, on something, in something, he cared not what. He +stifled such rebellious promptings,--called them morbid. He called it +morbid, too, the passion now that chilled his strong blood, and wrung +out these clammy drops on his forehead, at the mere thought of this girl +below. + +He shut the door of his room tightly: he had no time to-day for lounging +visitors. + +For Holmes, quiet and steady, was sought for, if not popular, even in +the free-and-easy West; one of those men who are unwillingly masters +among men. Just and mild, always; with a peculiar gift that made men +talk their best thoughts to him, knowing they would be understood; if +any core of eternal flint lay under the simple, truthful manner of the +man, nobody saw it. + +He laid the bill of sale on the table; it was an altogether practical +matter on which he sat in judgment, but he was going to do nothing +rashly. A plain business document: he took Dr. Knowles's share in the +factory; the payments made with short intervals; John Herne was to be +his indorser: it needed only the names to make it valid. Plain enough; +no hint there of the tacit understanding that the purchase-money was a +wedding dowry; even between Herne and himself it never was openly put +into words. If he did not marry Miss Herne, the mill was her father's; +that of course must be spoken of, arranged to-morrow. If he took it, +then? if he married her? Holmes had been poor, was miserably poor yet, +with the position and habits of a man of refinement. God knows it was +not to gratify those tastes that he clutched at this money. All the slow +years of work trailed up before him, that were gone,--of hard, wearing +work for daily bread, when his brain had been starving for knowledge, +and his soul dulled, debased with sordid trading. Was this to be always? +Were these few golden moments of life to be traded for the bread and +meat he ate? To eat and drink,--was that what he was here for? + +As he paced the floor mechanically, some vague recollection crossed his +brain of a childish story of the man standing where the two great roads +of life parted. They were open before him now. Money, money,--he took +the word into his heart as a miser might do. With it, he was free from +these carking cares that were making his mind foul and muddy. If he had +money! Slow, cool visions of triumphs rose before him outlined on the +years to come, practical, if Utopian. Slow and sure successes of science +and art, where his brain could work, helpful and growing. Far off, yet +surely to come,--surely for him,--a day to come when a pure social +system should be universal, should have thrust out its fibres of light +knitting into one the nations of the earth, when the lowest slave should +find its true place and rightful work, and stand up, knowing itself +divine. "To insure to every man the freest development of his +faculties": he said over the hackneyed dogma again and again, while the +heavy, hateful years of poverty rose before him that had trampled him +down. "To insure to him the freest development," he did not need to wait +for St. Simon, or the golden year, he thought with a dreary gibe; money +was enough, and--Miss Herne. + +It was curious, that, when this woman, whom he saw every day, came up in +his mind, it was always in one posture, one costume. You have noticed +that peculiarity in your remembrance of some persons? Perhaps you would +find, if you looked closely, that in that look or indelible gesture +which your memory has caught there lies some subtile hint of the tie +between your soul and theirs. Now, when Holmes had resolved coolly +to weigh this woman, brain, heart, and flesh, to know how much of a +hindrance she would be, he could only see her, with his artist's sense, +as delicate a bloom of coloring as eye could crave, in one immovable +posture,--as he had seen her once in some masquerade or _tableau +vivant_. June, I think it was, she chose to represent that evening,--and +with her usual success; for no woman ever knew more thoroughly her +material of shape or color, or how to work it up. Not an ill-chosen +fancy, either, that of the moist, warm month. Some tranced summer's day +might have drowsed down into such a human form by a dank pool, or on the +thick grass-crusted meadows. There was the full contour of the limbs hid +under warm green folds, the white flesh that glowed when you touched it +as if some smothered heat lay beneath, the sleeping face, the amber hair +uncoiled in a languid quiet, while yellow jasmines deepened its hue into +molten sunshine, and a great tiger-lily laid its sultry head on her +breast. June? Could June become incarnate with higher poetic meaning +than that which this woman gave it? Mr. Kitts, the artist I told you +of, thought not, and fell in love with June and her on the spot, which +passion became quite unbearable after she had graciously permitted him +to sketch her,--for the benefit of Art. Three medical students and one +attorney Miss Herne numbered as having been driven into a state +of dogged despair on that triumphal occasion. Mr. Holmes may have +quarrelled with the rendering, doubting to himself if her lip were not +too thick, her eye too brassy and pale a blue for the queen of months; +though I do not believe he thought at all about it. Yet the picture +clung to his memory. + +As he slowly paced the room to-day, thinking of this woman as his +wife, light blue eyes and yellow hair and the unclean sweetness of +jasmine-flowers mixed with the hot sunshine and smells of the mill. He +could think of her in no other light. He might have done so; for the +poor girl had her other sides for view. She had one of those sharp, +tawdry intellects whose possessors are always reckoned "brilliant women, +fine talkers." She was (aside from the necessary sarcasm to keep up this +reputation) a good-humored soul enough,--when no one stood in her way. +But if her shallow virtues or vices were palpable at all to him to-day, +they became one with the torpid beauty of the oppressive summer day, +and weighed on him alike with a vague disgust. The woman luxuriated in +perfume; some heavy odor always hung about her. Holmes, thinking of her +now, fancied he felt it stifling the air, and opened the window for +breath. Patchouli or copperas,--what was the difference? The mill and +his future wife came to him together; it was scarcely his fault, if he +thought of them as one, or muttered, "Damnable clog!" as he sat down to +write, his cold eye growing colder. But he did not argue the question +any longer; decision had come keenly in one moment, fixed, unalterable. + +If, through the long day, the starved heart of the man called feebly for +its natural food, he called it a paltry weakness; or if the old thought +of the quiet, pure little girl in the office below came back to him, +he--he wished her well, he hoped she might succeed in her work, he +would always be ready to lend her a helping hand. So many years (he was +ashamed to think how many) he had built the thought of this girl as his +wife into the future, put his soul's strength into the hope, as if love +and the homely duties of husband and father were what life was given +for! A boyish fancy, he thought. He had not learned then that all dreams +must yield to self-reverence and self-growth. As for taking up this life +of poverty and soul-starvation for the sake of a little love, it would +be an ignoble martyrdom, the sacrifice of a grand unmeasured life to a +shallow pleasure. He was no longer a young man now; he had no time to +waste. Poor Margaret! he wondered if it hurt her now. + +He left the writing in the slow, quiet way natural to him, and after +a while stooped to pat the dog softly, who was trying to lick his +hand,--with the hard fingers shaking a little, and a smothered +fierceness in the half-closed eye, like a man who is tortured and alone. + +There is a miserable drama acted in other homes than the Tuileries, when +men have found a woman's heart in their way to success, and trampled +it down under an iron heel. Men like Napoleon must live out the law of +their natures, I suppose,--on a throne or in a mill. + +So many trifles that day roused the under-current of old thoughts and +old hopes that taunted him,--trifles, too, that he would not have heeded +at another time. Pike came in on business, a bunch of bills in his hand. +A wily, keen eye he had, looking over them,--a lean face, emphasized +only by cunning. No wonder Dr. Knowles cursed him for a "slippery +customer," and was cheated by him the next hour. While he and Holmes +were counting out the bills, a little white-headed girl crept shyly +in at the door, and came up to the table,--oddly dressed, in an +old-fashioned frock fastened with great horn buttons, and with an +old-fashioned anxious pair of eyes, the color of blue Delft. Holmes +smoothed her hair, as she stood beside them; for he never could help +caressing children or dogs. Pike looked up sharply,--then half smiled, +as he went on counting. + +"Ninety, ninety-five, _and_ one hundred, all right,"--tying a bit of +tape about the papers. "My Sophy, Mr. Holmes. Good girl, Sophy is. Bring +her up to the mill sometimes," he said, apologetically, "on 'count of +not leaving her alone. She gets lonesome at th' house." + +Holmes glanced at Pike's felt hat lying on the table: there was a rusty +strip of crape on it. + +"Yes," said Pike, in a lower tone, "I'm father and mother, both, to +Sophy now." + +"I had not heard," said Holmes, kindly. "How about the boys, now?" + +"Pete and John's both gone West," the man said, his eyes kindling +eagerly. "'S fine boys as ever turned out of Indiana. Good eddications I +give 'em both. I've felt the want of that all my life. Good eddications. +Says I, 'Now, boys, you've got your fortunes, nothing to hinder your +bein' President. Let's see what stuff's in ye,' says I. So they're doin' +well. Wrote fur me to come out in the fall. But I'd rather scratch on, +and gather up a little for Sophy here, before I stop work." + +He patted Sophy's tanned little hand on the table, as if beating some +soft tune. Holmes folded up the bills. Even this man could spare time +out of his hard, stingy life to love, and be loved, and to be generous! +But then he had no higher aim, knew nothing better. + +"Well," said Pike, rising, "in case you take th' mill, Mr. Holmes, +I hope we'll be agreeable. I'll strive to do my best,"--in the old +fawning manner, to which Holmes nodded a curt reply. + +The man stopped for Sophy to gather up her bits of broken China with +which she was making a tea-party on the table, and went down-stairs. + +Towards evening Holmes went out,--not going through the narrow passage +that led to the offices, but avoiding it by a circuitous route. If it +cost him any pain to think why he did it, he showed none in his calm, +observant face. Buttoning up his coat as he went: the October sunset +looked as if it ought to be warm, but he was deathly cold. On the street +the young doctor beset him again, with bows and news: Cox was his name, +I believe; the one, you remember, who had such a Talleyrand nose for +ferreting out successful men. He had to bear with him but for a few +moments, however. They met a crowd of workmen at the corner, one of +whom, an old man freshly washed, with honest eyes looking out of +horn spectacles, waited for them by a fire-plug. It was Polston, the +coal-digger,--an acquaintance, a far-off kinsman of Holmes, in fact. + +"Curious person making signs to you, yonder," said Cox; "hand, I +presume." + +"My cousin Polston. If you do not know him, you'll excuse me?" + +Cox sniffed the air down the street, and twirled his rattan, as he went. +The coal-digger was abrupt and distant in his greeting, going straight +to business. + +"I will keep yoh only a minute, Mr. Holmes"---- + +"Stephen," corrected Holmes. + +The old man's face warmed. + +"Stephen, then," holding out his hand, "sence old times dawn't shame +yoh, Stephen. That's hearty, now. It's only a wured I want, but it's +immediate. Concernin' Joe Yare,--Lois's father, yoh know? He's back." + +"Back? I saw him to-day, following me in the mill. His hair is gray? I +think it was he." + +"No doubt. Yes, he's aged fast, down in the lock-up; goin' fast to the +end. Feeble, pore-like. It's a bad life, Joe Yare's; I wish 'n' 't would +be better to the end"---- + +He stopped with a wistful look at Holmes, who stood outwardly attentive, +but with little thought to waste on Joe Yare. The old coal-digger +drummed on the fire-plug uneasily. + +"Myself, 't was for Lois's sake I thowt on it. To speak plain,--yoh'll +mind that Stokes affair, th' note Yare brought? Yes? Ther's none knows +o' that but yoh an' me. He's safe, Yare is, only fur yoh an' me. Yoh +speak the wured an' back he goes to the lock-up. Fur life. D' yoh see?" + +"I see." + +"He's tryin' to do right, Yare is." + +The old man went on, trying not to be eager, and watching Holmes's face. + +"He's tryin'. Sendin' him back--yoh know how _that_ 'll end. Seems like +as we'd his soul in our hands. S'pose,--what d' yoh think, if we give +him a chance? It's yoh he fears. I see him a-watchin' yoh; what d' yoh +think, if we give him a chance?" catching Holmes's sleeve. "He's old, +an' he's tryin'. Heh?" + +Holmes smiled. + +"We didn't make the law he broke. Justice before mercy. Haven't I heard +you talk to Sam in that way, long ago?" + +The old man loosened his hold of Holmes's arm, looked up and down the +street, uncertain, disappointed. + +"The law. Yes. That's right! Yoh're a just man, Stephen Holmes." + +"And yet?"---- + +"Yes. I dun'no'. Law's right, but Yare's had a bad chance, an' he's +tryin'. An' we're sendin' him to hell. Somethin's wrong. But I think +yoh're a just man," looking keenly in Holmes's face. + +"A hard one, people say," said Holmes, after a pause, as they walked on. + +He had spoken half to himself, and received no answer. Some blacker +shadow troubled him than old Yare's fate. + +"My mother was a hard woman,--you knew her?" he said, abruptly. + +"She was just, like yoh. She was one o' th' elect, she said. Mercy's fur +them,--an' outside, justice. It's a narrer showin', I'm thinkin'." + +"My father was outside," said Holmes, some old bitterness rising up in +his tone, his gray eye lighting with some unrevenged wrong. + +Polston did not speak for a moment. + +"Dunnot bear malice agin her. They're dead, now. It wasn't left fur her +to judge him out yonder. Yoh've yer father's eyes, Stephen, 'times. +Hungry, pitiful, like women's. His got desper't' 't th' last. Drunk +hard,--died of't, yoh know. But _she_ killed him,--th' sin was writ down +fur her. Never was a boy I loved like him, when we was boys." + +There was a short silence. + +"Yoh're like yer mother," said Polston, striving for a lighter tone. +"Here,"--motioning to the heavy iron jaws. "She never--let go. Somehow, +too, she'd the law on her side in outward showin', an' th' right. But I +hated religion, knowin' her. Well, ther's a day of makin' things clear, +comin'." + +They had reached the corner now, and Polston turned down the lane. + +"Yoh'll think o' Yare's case?" he said. + +"Yes. But how can I help it," Holmes said, lightly, "if I am like my +mother here?"--putting his hand to his mouth. + +"God help us, how can yoh? It's harrd to think father and mother leave +their souls fightin' in their childern, cos th' love was wantin' to make +them one here." + +Something glittered along the street as he spoke: the silver mountings +of a low-hung phaëton drawn by a pair of Mexican ponies. One or two +gentlemen on horseback were alongside, attendant on a lady within. She +turned her fair face, and pale, greedy eyes, as she passed, and lifted +her hand languidly in recognition of Holmes. Polston's face colored. + +"I've heered," he said, holding out his grimy hand. "I wish yoh well, +Stephen, boy. So'll the old 'oman. Yoh'll come an' see us, soon? Ye 'r' +lookin' fagged, an' yer eyes is gettin' more like yer father's. I'm glad +things is takin' a good turn with yoh; an' yoh'll never be like him, +starvin' fur th' kind wured, an' havin' to die without it. I'm glad +yoh've got true love. She'd a fair face, I think. I wish yoh well, +Stephen." + +Holmes shook the grimy hand, and then stood a moment looking back to +the mill, from which the hands were just coming, and then down at the +phaëton moving idly down the road. How cold it was growing! People +passing by had a sickly look, as if they were struck by the plague. He +pushed the damp hair back, wiping his forehead, with another glance at +the mill-women coming out of the gate, and then followed the phaëton +down the hill. + + * * * * * + + +HEALTH IN THE HOSPITAL. + + +In preparing to do the duty of society towards the wounded or sick +soldier, the first consideration is, What is a Military Hospital? No two +nations seem to have answered this question in the same way; yet it is a +point of the first importance to them all. + +When England went to war last time, after a peace of forty years, the +only idea in the minds of her military surgeons was of Regimental +Hospitals. There was to be a place provided as an infirmary for a +certain number of soldiers; a certain number of orderlies were to be +appointed as nurses; and the regimental doctor and hospital-sergeant +were to have the charge of the inmates. In each of these Regimental +Hospitals there might be patients ill of a great variety of disorders, +from the gravest to the lightest, all to be treated by the same doctor +or doctors. These doctors had to make out statements of all the diets, +as well as all the medicines required by their patients, and send in +their requisitions; and it might be said that arrangements had to be +separately made for every individual patient in the whole army. The +doctors went to work each in his own way, even in the case of epidemics. +There was no knowing, except by guess, what diseases were the most to be +apprehended in particular places or circumstances; nor what remarkable +phenomena of disease were showing themselves on any extended scale; nor +what improvements could be suggested in the treatment. There was no +possibility of such systematic cleanliness and such absolute regularity +of management as can be secured by organization on a large scale. Yet +the medical officers preferred the plan to any other. One plea was, that +the medical officers and the patients were acquainted with and attached +to each other: and this was very true. Another consideration was, that +each surgeon liked to have his field of duty to himself, and found it an +advantage to have a large variety of ailments to treat, to the constant +improvement of his experience. They said that doctors and patients and +nurses all liked the Regimental Hospital best, and this was clear proof +that it was the best. They could at that time say also, that every +soldier and every doctor had a horror of General Hospitals, where the +mortality was so excessive during the Peninsular War that being carried +to the General Hospital was considered the same thing as being sentenced +to death. + +Such being the state of opinion and feeling in the profession, it +naturally happened that British army-surgeons stuck to their Regimental +Hospitals as long as they could, and, when compelled to cooperate in a +General Hospital, made the institution as like as possible to a group +of Regimental Hospitals,--resisting all effective organization, and +baffling all the aims of the larger institution. + +In busy times, no two Regimental Hospitals were alike in their +management, because the scheme was not capable of expansion. The surgeon +and his hospital-sergeant managed everything. The surgeon saw and +treated the cases, and made out his lists of articles wanted. It was his +proper business to keep the books,--to record the admissions, and make +the returns, and keep the accounts, and post up all the documents: but +professional men do not like this sort of work, when they want to be +treating disease; and the books were too often turned over to the +hospital-sergeant. His indispensable business was to superintend the +wards, and the attendance on the patients, the giving them their +medicines, etc., which most of us would think enough for one man: but he +had besides to keep up the military discipline in the establishment,--to +prepare the materials for the surgeon's duty at the desk,--to take +charge of all the orders for the diet of all the patients, and see them +fulfilled,--to keep the record of all the provisions ordered and used +in every department,--and to take charge of the washing, the hospital +stores, the furniture, the surgery, and the dispensary. In short, the +hospital-sergeant had to be at once ward-master, steward, dispenser, +sergeant, clerk, and purveyor; and, as no man can be a six-sided +official, more or fewer of his duties were deputed to the orderly, or to +anybody within call. + +Nobody could dispute the superior economy and comfort of having a +concentration of patients arranged in the wards according to their +ailments, with a general kitchen, a general laundry, a dispensary and +surgery, and a staff of officials, each with his own distinct business, +instead of as many jacks-of-all-trades, each doing a little of +everything. Yet the obstinacy of the fight made by the surgeons for the +system of Regimental Hospitals was almost insuperable. There was no +desire on any hand to abolish their hospitals, which must always be +needed for slight, and also for immediately pressing cases. What was +asked of them was to give way when epidemics, or a sudden influx of +wounded, or protracted cases put a greater strain upon the system than +it would bear. + +The French, meantime, had three sorts of hospitals,--the Divisional ones +coming between the Regimental and the General. Only the very slightest +cases ever enter their Regimental Hospital; those which may last weeks +are referred to the Divisional; and those which may last months, with +prospect of recovery, to the General Hospital. The Sardinian plan was +nearly the same. The Russians had Divisional Hospitals at various +stations; and all cases were carried to them. + +The Regimental Hospitals are wherever the regiments are. The advantage +is, that aid can be immediately rendered,--not only in case of wounds, +but of cholera, in which it is desirable to lay a patient down in the +nearest bed to which he can be conveyed. The disadvantages are the +hap-hazard quality of the site, the absence of quiet and seclusion, and +the liability of being near the scene of conflict. These things cause +the French to prefer the Divisional Hospital, which, while still within +reach, is set farther back from the force, in a picked situation, and +managed on a large scale and with nicer exactitude. + +The General Hospital is understood to be at the base of operations: and +this supposes, as a part of its organization, a system of transport, not +only good of its kind, but adequate to any demands consequent on a +great battle, or the spread of an epidemic in the camp. The nearer the +hospital is to the active force, the better, of course; but there are +conditions to be fulfilled first. It must be safe from the enemy. It +must be placed in a permanent station. It must be on a good road, and +within immediate reach of markets. It ought also to be on the way home, +for the sake of the incurable or the incapacitated who must be sent +home. + +In the Regimental Hospital, the surgeon may be seen going from the man +who has lost a finger to a fever patient,--and then to one who has +ophthalmia,--passing on to a fellow raving in delirium tremens,--next to +whom is a sufferer under bronchitis, who will not be allowed to go out +of doors for weeks to come; and if half a dozen are brought in with +cholera in the course of the day, the officials do not know which way to +turn. It is possible that the surgeon may be found making starch over +the kitchen fire, because there is nobody at hand who understands how to +make starched bandages; or he may be at the desk, casting up columns of +figures, or writing returns, when he is urgently wanted at the bedside. +Such things can hardly happen now; but they have happened within ten +years. The Russians, meantime, would be carrying all manner of patients +to one of their hospital-stations,--each sufferer to the hospital of his +own division. The French would leave the men with scratches and slight +diarrhea and delirium tremens in the Regimental Hospital,--would send +the fever and bronchitis and scorbutic patients to the Divisional,--and +any gravely wounded, or rheumatic, or other very long cases to the +General Hospital at the base of operations. + +Such arrangements, however, are of no use, if the last be not so +organized as to render it fit to supply what the others cannot give, and +to answer purposes which the others cannot even propose. + +When doctors and soldiers alike shuddered at the mention of the General +Hospital as a necessary institution at or near the seat of war, they +were thinking of what they had seen or heard of during the Peninsular +Campaigns. There were such infirmaries wherever there was a line of +march in Spain; and they seemed to be all alike. Hospital gangrene set +in among the wounded, and fever among the sick, so that the soldiers +said, "To send a poor fellow to the hospital is to send him to death." +Yet there was nothing else to be done; for it was impossible to treat +the seriously sick and wounded at the spot where they fell. During that +war, nearly twice the number which composed the army passed through the +hospitals every year; and of these there were known deaths to the amount +of thirteen thousand five hundred; and thousands more were never the +same men again. When the case was better understood,--as during the last +year in the Crimea,--the mortality in the hospitals barely exceeded that +of the Guards in their barracks at home! Recovery had become the rule, +and death a remarkable event. General Hospitals had come to surpass all +other means of curing patients, while fulfilling their own peculiar +service to society through new generations. + +What are the functions of General Hospitals, besides curing the sick and +wounded? some readers may ask, who have never particularly attended to +the subject. + +The first business of such institutions is undoubtedly to restore as +many as possible of the sufferers brought into them: and this includes +the duty of bringing in the patients in the most favorable way, +receiving them in an orderly and quiet manner, doctoring, nursing, +feeding, clothing, and cleaning them, keeping their minds composed and +cheerful, and their manners creditable, promoting their convalescence, +and dismissing them in a state of comfort as to equipment. This is the +first duty, in its many subdivisions. The next is to obviate, as far as +possible, future disease in any army. The third grows out of this. It is +to improve the science of the existing generation by a full use of the +peculiar opportunities of observation afforded by the crop of sickness +and wounds yielded by an army in action. To take these in their reverse +order. + +There must be much to learn from any great assemblage of sickness, under +circumstances which can be fully ascertained, even at home,--and much +more in a foreign climate. The medical body of every nation has very +imperfect knowledge of classes and modifications of diseases; so that +one of the strongest desires of the most learned physicians is for +an improved classification and constantly improving nomenclature of +diseases; and hospital-records afford the most direct way to this +knowledge. Thus, while the phenomena are frittered away among +Regimental or unorganized General Hospitals, a well-kept record in each +well-organized hospital will do more than all other means to promote the +scientific understanding of disease. + +The statistics of disease in armies, the ascertainment of the numbers +who sicken and who die of particular diseases, would save more lives +in future generations than can be now appreciated; but what can the +regimental surgeon do towards furnishing any trustworthy materials to +such an inquiry? A dozen doctors, with each his smattering of patients, +can learn and teach but little while they work apart: whereas a regular +system of inquiry and record, in action where the sick are brought in in +battalions, is the best possible agency. Not only are these objects lost +when surgeons are allowed to make the great hospital a mere receptacle +for a cluster of small and desultory hospitals, but the advantages of a +broad study of diseases and their treatment are lost. Inestimable facts +of treatment are learned by watching, at the same time and in the same +place, a ward full of patients ill of the same disease. People of all +countries know this by the special learning which their physicians +obtain in large civil hospitals: and the same thing happens in military +hospitals, with the additional advantage that the information and +improved art tend to the special safety of the future soldiery, in +whatever climate they may be called on to serve. + +There has long been some general notion of the duty of army-surgeons +to record what they saw in foreign campaigns; but no benefit has been +reaped till of late. The works of French field-surgeons have long been +justly celebrated; but I do not know that in the statistics and the +nomenclature of disease they have done much more than others. The +English surgeons carried or sent home in 1810 a mass of papers about the +Walcheren fever, and afterwards of the diseases of the Peninsular force: +but the Director General of the Medical Department considered such a +bulk of records troublesome, and ordered them to be burnt! Such an +act will never be perpetrated again; but directors will have a more +manageable mass of documents to deal with henceforth. With a regular +system of record, at a central station of observation, much more may be +done with much less fatigue to all parties. + +But how is it to be done? may well be asked. In the hurry and confusion +of a war, and amidst the pressure of hundreds of new cases in a day, +what can the surgeons of the hospital be expected to do for science, or +even for the improvement of medical and surgical practice?--The answer +is seen in the new arrangements in England, where a statistical branch +has been established in the Army Medical Department. Of course, no one +but the practising surgeon or physician can furnish the pathological +facts in each individual case; but this is what every active and earnest +practitioner does always and everywhere, when he sees reason for it. +His note-book or hospital-journal provides that raw material which the +statistical department is to arrange and utilize. The result will be +that a flood of light will be cast on matters affecting the health and +life of soldiers and other men, in regard to which we might have gone on +groping for centuries among the confusion of regimental records, without +getting what we wanted. As to the method of proceeding, I may have +something to say farther on. Meantime, we must turn to the primary +object of the institution of the Military Hospital,--the cure of the +wounded and sick of the army. + +In the case of active war, foreign or civil, the General Hospital is +usually an extemporized establishment, the building a makeshift, and +the arrangements such as the building will admit. In Spain, the British +obtained any houses they could get; and the soldiers were sometimes +crowded into half a dozen of them in one town. In the last war, the +great buildings at Scutari were engaged three months before they were +wanted for extensive use; so that there was plenty of time for making +them clean, airy, warm, and commodious, and for storing them with all +conveniences. This was not done; and the failure and its consequences +afford a lesson by which every people engaged in war should profit. A +mere outline of what was not done at Scutari may be an indication of +what should be done with all convenient speed elsewhere. + +There was a catgut manufactory close at hand, which filled the +neighborhood with stench. Half a dozen dead dogs festered under the +windows in the sun; and a dead horse lay in the aqueduct for six weeks. +The drain-pipes within the building were obstructed and had burst, +spreading their contents over the floors and walls. The sloping boarded +divans in the wards, used for sleeping-places, were found, after the +building became crowded, to be a cover for a vast accumulation of dead +rats, old rags, and the dust of years. Like all large stone buildings in +the East, it was intolerably cold in winter, with its stagnant air, +its filthy damps, and its vaultings and chill floors. This wonderful +building was very grandly reported of to England, for its size and +capacity, its imposing character, and so forth; and the English +congratulated themselves on the luck of the wounded in having such a +hospital. Yet, in the next January, fourteen hundred and eighty were +carried out dead. + +It appears that nobody knew how to go to work. Everybody writes to +somebody else to advise them to "observe"; and there are so many +assurances that everybody means to "observe," that there seems to have +been no leisure to effect anything. One thinks that this, that, or the +other should be attended to; and another states that the matter is +under consideration. It was some weeks before anybody got so far in +definiteness as to propose whitewash. Somebody understood that somebody +else was intending to have the corridors scoured; and representations +were to be made to the Turkish authorities about getting the drain-pipes +mended. The Turkish authorities wished to employ their own workmen in +putting in the stoves; and on the 18th of December the responsible +British officer hoped the stoves would be put up immediately, but could +not be certain, as Turkish workmen were in question. This was a month +after large companies of wounded and sick had been sent in from the seat +of war. Even then, nothing had been done for ventilation, or, on any +sufficient scale, for putting the poor sufferers comfortably to bed. + +These things confirm the necessity of a regulated cooperation between +the sanitary, the medical, and the military officers of an army. The +sanitary officer should be secure of the services of engineers enough to +render the hospital, as well as the camp, safely habitable. As soon as +any building is taken possession of for a hospital, men and their tools +should be at command for exploring the drains and making new ones,--for +covering or filling up ditches,--for clearing and purifying the +water-courses, and leading in more water, if needed,--for removing all +nuisances for a sufficient distance round,--and for improving to the +utmost the means of access to the house. There must be ventilating +spaces in the roof, and in the upper part of all the wards and passages. +Every vaulted space, or other receptacle of stagnant air, should have a +current established through it. All decaying wood in the building should +be removed, and any portion ingrained with dirt should be planed clean. +A due water-supply should be carried up to every story, and provided +for the bathrooms, the wash-houses, and the kitchen. Every edifice in +America is likely to be already furnished with means of warmth; and +the soldiers are probably in no danger of shivering over the uncertain +promise of stoves on the 18th of December. + +Next comes the consideration of store-place, which can be going forward +while busy hands are cleaning every inch of ceiling, walls, floors, +and windows within. There must be sheds and stables for the transport +service; and a surgery and dispensary planned with a view to the utmost +saving of time and trouble, so that medicines and utensils may be +within reach and view, and the freest access allowed to applicants. The +kitchens must have the best stoves and boilers, dressers and scales, and +apparatus of every kind that is known to the time; for more lives depend +on perfect food being administered with absolute punctuality than +upon any medical treatment. There must be large and abundant and airy +store-places for the provisions, and also for such stocks of linen and +bedding as perhaps nobody ever dreamed of before the Crimean War. + +The fatal notions of Regimental Hospital management caused infinite +misery at Scutari. In entering the Regimental Hospital, the soldier +carries his kit, or can step into his quarters for it: and the +regulations, therefore, suppose him to be supplied with shirts and +stockings, towel and soap, brushes and comb. This supposition was +obstinately persevered in, at Scutari, till private charity had shamed +the authorities into providing for the men's wants. When the wounded +were brought from the Alma, embarked on crowded transports straight from +the battle-field, how could they bring their kits? Miss Nightingale, +and benevolent visitors from England, bought up at Constantinople, +and obtained from home, vast supplies of body- and bed-linen, towels, +basins, and water-cans; and till they did so, the poor patients lay on +a single blanket or coarse canvas sheet, in their one shirt, perhaps +soaked in blood and dirt. There were some stores in the hospital, though +not enough; and endless difficulty was made about granting them, lest +any man should have brought his kit, and thus have a double supply. +Amidst the emergencies of active war, it seems to be an obvious +provision that every General Hospital should have in store, with ample +bedding, body-linen enough for as many patients as can occupy the +beds,--the consideration being kept in view, that, where the sick and +wounded are congregated, more frequent changes of linen are necessary +than under any other circumstances. + +The excellent and devoted managers of the hospitals of the Union army +need no teaching as to the daily administration of the affairs of +the wards. They will never have to do and dare the things that Miss +Nightingale had to decide upon, because they have happily had the +privilege of arranging their hospitals on their own principles. They +will not know the exasperation of seeing sufferers crowded together on a +wooden divan (with an under-stratum of dead rats and rotting rags) while +there is an out-house full of bedsteads laid up in store under lock and +key. Not being disposed to acquiesce in such a state of things, and +failing in all attempts to get at the authority which had charge of the +locked door, Miss Nightingale called to an orderly or two, and commanded +them to break open the door. They stared; but she said she assumed the +responsibility; and presently there were as many men in bed as there +were bedsteads. Her doctrine and practice have always been,--instant +and silent obedience to medical and disciplinary orders, without any +qualification whatever; and by her example and teaching in this respect +she at length overcame the jealousy and prejudices of authorities, +medical and military: but in such a case as the actual presence of +necessaries for the sick, sent out by Government or by private charity +for their use, she claimed the benefit, and helped her patients to it, +when there was no other obstruction in the way than forms and rules +never meant to apply to the case. + +What the jealousy was appeared through very small incidents. A leading +medical officer declared, in giving evidence, that the reason why the +patients' meals were sometimes served late and cold, or half-cooked, +was, that Miss Nightingale and her nurses were forever in the way in the +general kitchen, keeping the cooks from the fire: whereas the fact was, +that neither Miss Nightingale nor any nurse had ever entered the general +kitchen, on any occasion whatever. Their way was to have a kitchen of +their own. The very idea of that kitchen was savory in the wards; for +out of it came, always at the right moment, arrowroot, hot and of the +pleasantest consistence,--rice puddings, neither hard on the one hand +nor clammy on the other,--cool lemonade for the feverish, cans full of +hot tea for the weary, and good coffee for the faint. When the sinking +sufferer was lying with closed eyes, too feeble to make moan or sign, +the hospital spoon was put between his lips, with the mouthful of strong +broth or hot wine which rallied him till the watchful nurse came round +again. The meat from that kitchen was tenderer than any other; the +beef-tea was more savory. One thing that came out of it was a lesson on +the saving of good cookery. The mere circumstance of the boiling water +being really boiling there made a difference of two ounces of rice in +every four puddings, and of more than half the arrowroot used. The same +quantity of arrowroot which made a pint, thin and poor, in the general +kitchen, made two pints, thick and good, in Miss Nightingale's. + +Then there was the difference in readiness and punctuality. Owing +to cumbrous forms and awkward rules, the orderlies charged with the +business were running round almost all day about the food for their +wards; and the patients were disgusted with it at last. There were +endless orders and details, whenever the monotonous regular diet was +departed from; whereas the establishment of several regular diets, +according to the classifications in the wards, would have simplified +matters exceedingly. When everything for dysentery patients, or for +fever patients, or for certain classes of wounded was called "extra +diet," there were special forms to be gone through, and orders and +contradictions given, which threw everything into confusion, under +the name of discipline. The authority of the ward would allow some +extra,--butter, for instance; and then a higher authority, seeing the +butter, and not knowing how it came there, would throw it out of the +window, as "spoiling the men." Between getting the orders, and getting +the meat and extras, and the mutual crowding of the messengers, some +of the dinners were not put on the fire till an hour or two after the +fainting patient should have had his meal: and then, of course, he could +not take it. The cold mutton-chop with its opaque fat, the beef with its +caked gravy, the arrowroot stiff and glazed, all untouched, might be +seen by the bedsides in the afternoons, while the patients were lying +back, sinking for want of support. Probably the dinners had been brought +up on a tray, cooling all the way up-stairs and along the corridors; and +when brought in, there was the cutting up, in full view of the intended +eaters,--sometimes on the orderly's own bed, when the tables were +occupied. Under such a system, what must it have been to see the quick +and quiet nurses enter, as the clock struck, with their hot-water tins, +hot morsels ready-cut, hot plates, bright knife and fork and spoon,--and +all ready for instant eating! This was a strong lesson to those who +would learn; and in a short time there was a great change for the +better. The patients who were able to sit at table were encouraged to +rise, and dress, and dine in cheerful company, and at the proper hour. +It was discovered, that, if an alternation was provided of soups, +puddings, fish, poultry, and vegetables, with the regular beef dinner, +the great mass of trouble about extras was swept away at once; for these +varieties met every case in hospital except the small number which +required slops and cordials, or something very unusual. By this +clearance, time was saved to such an extent that punctuality became +possible, and the refusal of food almost ceased. + +All these details point to the essential badness of the system of +requisitions. In the old days, when war was altogether a mass of +formalities,--and in peace times, when soldiers and their guardians had +not enough to do, and it was made an object and employment to save the +national property by hedging round all expenditure of that property with +difficulties, the system of requisitions might suit the period and the +parties. Amidst the rapid action and sharp emergencies of war it is +out of place. It was found intolerable that nothing whatever could be +had,--not a dose of medicine, nor a candle, nor a sheet, nor a spoon or +dish, nor a bit of soap,--without a series of permits, and applications, +and orders, and vouchers, which frittered away the precious hours, +depressed the sick, worried their nurses, and wasted more of money's +worth in official time, paper, and expensive cross-purposes than could +possibly have been saved by all the ostentatious vigilance of the +method. The deck-loads of vegetables at Balaklava, thrown overboard +because they were rotten before they were drawn, were not the only +stores wasted for want of being asked for. When the Scutari hospitals +had become healthy and comfortable, there was a thorough opening-out of +all the stores which had before been made inaccessible by forms. No +more bedsteads, no more lime-juice, no more rice, no more beer, no +more precious medicines were then locked away, out of the reach or the +knowledge of those who were dying, or seeing others die, for want of +them. + +One miserable consequence of the cumbrous method was, that there was no +certainty at any hour of some essential commodity not falling short. It +would have been a dismal day for the most suffering of the patients when +there was not fuel enough to cook "extras," if Miss Nightingale had not +providently bought four boat-loads of wood to meet such a contingency. +It was a dreadful night in the hospital, when, as cholera patients were +brought in by the score, the surgeons found there were no candles to be +had. In that disease, of all maladies, they had to tend their patients +in the dark all night; and a more shocking scene can scarcely be +conceived. + +Every great influx of patients was terrible, whether from an epidemic +or after a battle; but experience and devotedness made even this +comparatively easy before the troops turned homewards. The arrival of +a transport was, perhaps, the first intimation of the earlier battles. +Then all was hurry-skurry in the hospitals; everybody was willing to +help, but the effectual organization was not yet ready. + +Of every hundred on board the transport, an average of ten had died +since leaving the Crimea. The names and causes of death of these men +ought to be recorded; but the surgeons of the transport are wholly +occupied in despatching their living charge to the hospital; and the +surgeons there have enough to do in receiving them. Attempts are made to +obtain the number and names and injuries of the new patients: there may +or may not be a list furnished from the ship; and the hospital surgeons +inquire from bed to bed: but in such a scene mistakes are sure to arise; +and it was found, in fact, that there was always more or less variation +between the numbers recorded as received or dead and the proper number. +No one could wonder at this who had for a moment looked upon the scene. +The poor fellows just arrived had perhaps not had their clothes off +since they were wounded or were seized with cholera, and they were +steeped in blood and filth, and swarming with vermin. To obtain shirts +and towels was hard work, because it had to be proved that they brought +none with them. They were laid on the floor in the corridors, as close +as they could be packed, thus breathing and contaminating the air which +was to have refreshed the wards within. If laid upon so-called sheets, +they entreated that the sheets might be taken away; for they were of +coarse canvas, intolerable to the skin. Before the miserable company +could be fed, made clean, and treated by the surgeons, many were dead; +and a too large proportion were never to leave the place more, though +struggling for a time with death. It was amidst such a scene that +Florence Nightingale refused to despair of five men so desperately +wounded as to be set aside by the surgeons. The surgeons were right. As +they said, their time was but too little for the cases which were not +hopeless. And Florence Nightingale was right in finding time, if she +could, to see whether there was really no chance. She ascertained that +these five were absolutely given over; and she and her assistants +managed to attend to them through the night. She cleaned and comforted +them, and had spoonfuls of nourishment ready whenever they could be +swallowed. By the morning round of the surgeons, these men were ready to +be operated upon; and they were all saved. + +It would have been easier work at a later period. Before many months +were over, the place was ready for any number to be received in peace +and quietness. Instead of being carried from one place to another, +because too many had been sent to one hospital and too few to another, +the poor fellows were borne in the shortest and easiest way from the +boat to their beds. They were found eager for cleanliness; and presently +they were clean accordingly, and lying on a good bed, between clean, +soft sheets. They did not come in scorbutic, like their predecessors; +and they had no reason to dread hospital gangrene or fever. Every floor +and every pane in the windows was clean; and the air came in pure from +the wide, empty corridors. There was a change of linen whenever it was +desired; and the shirts came back from the wash perfectly sweet and +fresh. The cleaning of the wards was done in the mornings, punctually, +quickly, quietly, and thoroughly. The doctors came round, attended by +a nurse who received the orders, and was afterwards steady in the +fulfilment of them. The tables of the medicines of the day were hung up +in the ward; and the nurse went round to administer them with her own +hand. Where she was, there was order and quietness all day, and the +orderlies were worth twice as much as before the women came. Their +manners were better; and they gave their minds more to their business. +The nurse found time to suit each patient who wished it with a book or a +newspaper, when gifts of that sort arrived from England. Kind visitors +sat by the beds to write letters for the patients, undertaking to see +the epistles forwarded to England. When the invalids became able to rise +for dinner, it was a turning-point in their case; and they were soon +getting into the apartment where there were games and books and meetings +of old comrades. As I have said before, those who died at these +hospitals were finally scarcely more than those who died in--not the +hospitals--but the barracks of the Guards at home. + +What were the changes in organization needed to produce such a +regeneration as this? + +They were such as must appear to Americans very simple and easy. The +wonder will be rather that they were necessary at last than that they +should have been effected with any difficulty. But Americans have never +known what it is to have a standing army as a long-established and +prominent national institution; and they can therefore hardly conceive +of the strength of the class-spirit which grows up in the various +departments of the military organization. This jealousy, egotism, and +stiffness of prejudice were much aggravated by the long peace, in which +a great rusting of the apparatus of the system took place, without at +all impairing the complacency of those who formed a part of it. The old +medical officers were incapable, pedantic, and jealous; and no proper +relation had ever been established between them and the military +authorities. The imbecility of the system cost the lives of others than +the soldiers who died in hospital. Brave men arose, as in all such +crises, to bear the consequences of other men's mistakes, and the burden +of exposing them; and several physicians and surgeons died, far from +home, in the effort to ameliorate a system which they found unworkable. +The greatest benefactor in exhibiting evils and suggesting remedies, Dr. +Alexander, lived to return home, and instigate reforms, and receive the +honors which were his due; but he soon sank under the consequences of +his labors. So did Lord Herbert, the Secretary of War, to whom, in +conjunction with Miss Nightingale, the British army, at home, in India, +and everywhere, owes its redemption from special sickness and undue +mortality. In America the advantages may be enjoyed without tax or +drawback. The citizens are accustomed to organize themselves for action +of all sorts; and no stiff-necked classes stand in the way of good +management. The difficulty in America must rather be to understand how +anything so perverse as the management of British military hospitals ten +years ago can have existed to so late a date. + +It was supposed, ten years since, that there must be nine separate +departments in every Military General Hospital, and the officials +bore titles accordingly; but there was such an odd confusion in their +functions that every one of the nine was often seen doing the business +of some other. The medical officers were drawing corks and tasting wines +and inspecting provisions, when they should have been by the bedside. +The purveyor was counting the soldiers' money, and noting its amount, +when he should have been marketing, or ordering the giving out of the +provisions for the day. The paymaster could scarcely find time to +discharge the bills, so much was his day filled up with doing eternal +sums about the stoppages in the pay of the patients. There were thirteen +kinds of stoppages in the army, three of which were for the sick in +hospital: the paymaster could never be quite certain that he had +reckoned rightly with every man to the last penny; the men were never +satisfied; and the confusion was endless. The commissariat, the +purveyor, and the paymaster were all kept waiting to get their books +made up, while soldiers were working the sums,--being called from their +proper business to help about the daily task of the stoppages. Why there +should not be one uniform stoppage out of the pay of men in hospital no +person of modern ideas could see; and the paymaster's toils would +have been lessened by more than one-half, if he had had to reckon the +deduction from the patients' pay at threepence or fourpence each, all +round, instead of having to deal with thousands per day individually, +under three kinds of charge upon the pay. + +The commandant's post was the hardest,--he being supposed to control +every province, and have every official under his orders, and yet being +powerless in regard to two or three departments, the business of which +he did not understand. The officers of those departments went each his +own way; and all unity of action in the establishment was lost. This is +enough to say of the old methods. + +In the place of them, a far simpler system was proposed at the end of +the war. The eternal dispute as to whether the commandant should be +military or medical, a soldier or a civilian, was set aside by the +decision that he should be simply the ablest administrator that could +be found, and be called the Governor, to avoid the military title. Why +there should be any military management of men who are sick as men, and +not as soldiers, it is difficult to see; and when the patients are about +to leave the hospital, a stated supervision from the adjutant-general's +department is all that can be required. Thus is all the jealousy between +military and medical authority got rid of. The Governor's authority must +be supreme, like that of the commandant of a fortress, or the commander +of a ship. He will not want to meddle in the doctors' professional +business; and in all else he is to be paramount,--being himself +responsible to the War-Office. The office, as thus declared, is +equivalent to three of the nine old ones, namely, the Commandant, the +Adjutant-General, and the Quartermaster-General. + +Next to the Governor, the Chief Medical Officer must be the most +important man in the establishment. He is to be concerned with +professional business only, and to see that all under him are to be +devoted in the same way. For this purpose there must be an end to the +system of requisitions. There must be a Steward, taking his orders from +the Governor alone, and administering a simple and liberal system +of diets and appliances of all sorts. It is his business to provide +everything for the consumption of the establishment, and to keep the +contractors up to their duty. The Treasurer's function speaks for +itself. All the accounts and payments under the Governor's warrant are +in his charge. + +There is one more office, rendered necessary by the various and active +service always going on,--the superintendent of that service, or Captain +of the Wards. He is to have the oversight of the orderlies, cooks, +washers, and storekeepers; he is to keep order throughout the house; and +he is to be referred to in regard to everything that is wanted in the +wards, except what belongs to the department of the medical officers or +the steward. + +As for the medical department, there is now a training provided for such +soldiers as wish to qualify themselves for hospital duty. Formerly, the +hospital was served by such men as the military officers thought fit to +spare for the purpose; and they naturally did not send the best. These +men knew nothing of either cleaning wards or nursing patients. Their +awkwardness in sweeping and scouring and making beds was extreme; and +they were helpless in case of anything being wanted to a blister or a +sore. One was found, one day, earnestly endeavoring to persuade his +patient to eat his poultice. It is otherwise now. The women, where +there are any, ought to have the entire charge of the sweeping and +cleaning,--the housemaid's work of the wards; and as to the rest, the +men of the medical-staff corps have the means of learning how to dress +a blister, and poultice a sore, and apply plasters, lint, and bandages, +and administer medicine, and how to aid the sick in their ablutions, in +getting their meals with the least fatigue, and so on. + +Of female nurses it is not necessary to say much in America, any more +than in England or France. They are not admissible into Regimental +Hospitals, in a general way; but in great military and civil hospitals +they are a priceless treasure. + +The questions in regard to them are two. Shall their office be confined +to the care of the linen and stores, and the supplying of extra diets +and comforts? If admitted to officiate in the wards, how far shall that +function extend? + +In England, there seems to be a strong persuasion that some time must +elapse, and perhaps a generation of doctors must pass away, before the +ministration of female nurses in military hospitals can become a custom, +or even an unquestioned good. No rational person can doubt what a +blessing it would be to the patients to have such nurses administer +nourishment, when the rough orderlies would not have discernment or +patience to give the frequent spoonful when the very life may hang upon +it. Nobody doubts that wounds would be cleansed which otherwise go +uncleansed,--that much irritation and suffering would be relieved which +there are otherwise no hands to undertake. Nobody doubts that many lives +would be saved in every great hospital from the time that fevered frames +and the flickerings of struggling vitality were put under the charge of +the nurses whom Nature made. But the difficulties and risks are great. +On the whole, it seems to be concluded by those who know best, that +only a few female nurses should be admitted into military and naval +hospitals: that they should be women of mature age and ascertained good +sense, thoroughly trained to their business: that they should be +the women who have been, or who would be, the head nurses in other +hospitals, and that they should be paid on that scale: that they should +have no responsibility,--being wholly subject to the surgeons in +ward affairs, and to their own superintendent in all others: that no +enthusiasts or religious devotees should be admitted,--because that very +qualification shows that they do not understand the business of nursing: +that everything that can be as well done by men should be done by +trained orderlies: that convalescents should, generally speaking, be +attended on by men,--and if not, that each female nurse of convalescents +should have a hundred or so in her charge, whereas of the graver cases +forty or fifty are as many as one nurse can manage, with any amount +of help from orderlies. These proposals give some idea of what is +contemplated with regard to the ordinary nurses in a General Military +Hospital. The superintendent of the nurses in each institution must be a +woman of high quality and large experience. And she will show her good +sense, in the first place, by insisting on a precise definition of her +province, that there maybe no avoidable ill-will on the part of the +medical officers, and no cause of contention with the captain of +service, or whatever the administrator of the interior may be called. +She must have a decisive voice in the choice of her nurses; and she +will choose them for their qualifications as nurses only, after being +satisfied as to their character, health, and temper. + +No good nurse can endure any fuss about her work and her merits. +Enthusiasts and devotees find immediately that they are altogether out +of place in a hospital,--or, as we may now say, they would find this, if +they were ever to enter a hospital: for, in fact, they never now arrive +there. The preparation brings them to a knowledge of themselves; and the +two sorts of women who really and permanently become nurses are those +who desire to make a living by a useful and valued and well-paid +occupation, and those who benevolently desire to save life and mitigate +suffering, with such a temper of sobriety and moderation as causes them +to endure hardship and ill-usage with firmness, and to dislike praise +and celebrity at least as much as hostility and evil construction. +The best nurses are foremost in perceiving the absurdity and +disagreeableness of such heroines of romance as flourished in the press +seven years ago,--young ladies disappointed in love, who went out to +the East, found their lovers in hospital, and went off with them, to +be happy ever after, without any anxiety or shame at deserting their +patients in the wards without leave or notice. Not of this order was +Florence Nightingale, whose practical hard work, personal reserve, and +singular administrative power have placed her as high above impeachment +for feminine weaknesses as above the ridicule which commonly attends the +striking out of a new course by man or woman. Those who most honor her, +and most desire to follow her example, are those who most steadily bring +their understandings and their hearts to bear upon the work which +she began. Her ill-health has withdrawn her from active nursing and +administration; but she has probably done more towards the saving of +life by working in connection with the War-Office in private than by her +best-known deeds in her days of health. Through her, mainly, it is that +every nation has already studied with some success the all-important +subject of Health in the Camp and in the Hospital. It now lies in the +way of American women to take up the office, and, we may trust, to +"better the instruction." + + * * * * * + + +A STORY OF THANKSGIVING-TIME. + + +Old Jacob Newell sat despondent beside his sitting-room fire. +Gray-haired and venerable, with a hundred hard lines, telling of the +work of time and struggle and misfortune, furrowing his pale face, he +looked the incarnation of silent sorrow and hopelessness, waiting in +quiet meekness for the advent of the King of Terrors: waiting, but not +hoping, for his coming; without desire to die, but with no dread of +death. + +At a short distance from him, in an ancient straight-backed +rocking-chair, dark with age, and clumsy in its antique carvings, sat +his wife. Stiffly upright, and with an almost painful primness in dress +and figure, she sat knitting rapidly and with closed eyes. Her face was +rigid as a mask; the motion in her fingers, as she plied her needles, +was spasmodic and machine-like; the figure, though quiet, wore an air of +iron repose that was most uneasy and unnatural. Still, through the mask +and from the figure there stole the aspect and air of one who had within +her deep wells of sweetness and love which only strong training or power +of education had thus covered up and obscured. She looked of that stern +Puritanical stock whose iron will conquered the severity of New England +winters and overcame the stubbornness of its granite hills, and whose +idea of a perfect life consisted in the rigorous discharge of all +Christian duties, and the banishment, forever and at all times, of the +levity of pleasure and the folly of amusement. She could have walked, +if need were, with composure to the stake; but she could neither have +joined in a game at cards, nor have entered into a romp with little +children. All this was plainly to be seen in the stern repose of her +countenance and the stiff harshness of her figure. + +Upon the stained deal table, standing a little in the rear and partially +between the two, reposed an open Bible. Between its leaves lay a pair of +large, old-fashioned, silver-bowed spectacles, which the husband had but +recently laid there, after reading the usual daily chapter of Holy Writ. +He had ceased but a moment before, and had laid them down with a heavy +sigh, for his heart to-day was sorely oppressed; and no wonder; for, +following his gaze around the room, we find upon the otherwise bare +walls five sad mementos of those who had "gone before,"--five coarse and +unartistic, but loving tributes to the dead. + +There they hang, framed in black, each with its white tomb and +overhanging willow, and severally inscribed to the memories of Mark, +John, James, Martha, and Mary Newell. All their flock. None left to +honor and obey, none to cheer, none to lighten the labor or soothe the +cares. All gone, and these two left behind to travel hand in hand, but +desolate, though together, to the end of their earthly pilgrimage. + +There had, indeed, been one other, but for him there hung no loving +memorial. He was the youngest of all, and such a noble, strong, and +lusty infant, that the father, in the pride of his heart, and with his +fondness for Scriptural names, had christened him Samson. He, too, had +gone; but in the dread gallery that hung about the room there was no +framed funereal picture "To the Memory of Samson Newell." If in the tomb +of his father's or mother's heart he lay buried, no outward token gave +note thereof. + +So the old couple sat alone before the sitting-room fire. It was not +often used, this room,--scarcely ever now, except upon Sunday, or on +those two grave holidays that the Newells kept,--Thanksgiving- and +Fast-Day. This was Thanksgiving-Day. The snow without was falling thick +and fast. It came in great eddies and white whirls, obscuring the +prospect from the windows and scudding madly around the corners. It lay +in great drifts against the fences, and one large pile before the middle +front-window had gathered volume till it reached half up the second row +of panes; for it had snowed all night and half the day before. The roads +were so blocked by it that they would have been rendered impassable but +for the sturdy efforts of the farmers' boys, who drove teams of four and +five yokes of oxen through the drifts with heavily laden sleds, breaking +out the ways. The sidewalks in the little village were shovelled and +swept clean as fast as the snow fell; for, though all business was +suspended, according to the suggestion in the Governor's proclamation, +and in conformity to old usage, still they liked to keep the paths open +on Thanksgiving-Day,--the paths and the roads; for nearly half the +families in the place expected sons and daughters from far away to +arrive on the train which should have been at the railroad-station on +the previous evening, but had been kept back by the snow. + +But Jacob and Ruth Newell had neither son nor daughter, grandchild, +cousin, relation of any nearness or remoteness, to expect; for the white +snow covered with a cold mantle scores of mounds in many graveyards +where lay their dead. And they sat this day and thought of all their +kindred who had perished untimely,--all save one. + +Whether he lived, or whether he had died,--where he lay buried, if +buried he were,--or where he rioted, if still in the land of the living, +they had no notion. And why should they care? + +He had been a strong-willed and wild lad. He had disobeyed the +injunctions of his parents while yet a boy. He had not loved the stiff, +sad Sabbaths, nor the gloomy Saturday nights. He had rebelled against +the austerities of Fast- and Thanksgiving-Days. He had learned to play +at cards and to roll tenpins with the village boys. He had smoked in the +tavern bar-room of evenings. In vain had his father tried to coerce him +into better ways; in vain had his mother used all the persuasions of +a maternal pride and fondness that showed themselves only, of all her +children, to this brave, handsome, and reckless boy. He had gone from +worse to worse, after the first outbreaking from the strict home rules, +until he had become at length a by-word in the village, and anxious +mothers warned their sons against companionship with wicked Samson +Newell,--and this when he was only seventeen years of age. + +Perhaps mildness might have worked well with the self-willed boy, but +his father knew nothing but stern command and prompt obedience in family +management; and so the son daily fell away, until came the inevitable +day when his wrong-doing reached a climax and he left his father's roof +forever. + +It was on a Thanksgiving-Day, fifteen years ago, that the boy Samson, +then seventeen years old, was brought home drunk and bleeding. He had +passed the previous night at a ball at the tavern, against the express +command of his father, who would have gone to fetch him away, but that +he could not bear to enter upon a scene he thought so wicked, and +especially upon such an errand. When the dance was over, the boy had +lingered at the bar, drinking glass after glass, until he got into a +fight with the bully of the village, whom he thrashed within an inch +of his life, and then he had sat down in a small side-room with a few +choice spirits, with the avowed purpose of getting drunk over his +victory. He had got drunk, "gloriously drunk" his friends at the tavern +styled it, and had been carried in that state home. + +Oh, the bitterness of the misery of that Thanksgiving-Day to Jacob +Newell! He may live a hundred years and never know such another. + +The next day Samson awoke from a wretched stupor to find himself weak, +nervous, and suffering from a blinding headache. In this condition his +father forced him to the barn, and there, with a heavy raw-hide, flogged +him without mercy. That night Samson Newell disappeared, and was +thenceforward seen no more in the village. + +The same night one of the village stores was entered, the door of an +ancient safe wrenched open, and something over a hundred dollars in +specie taken therefrom. So that on Samson Newell's head rested the crime +of filial disobedience, and the suspicion, amounting, with nearly all, +to a certainty, that he had added burglary to his other wrong-doing. + +His name was published in the papers throughout the county, together +with a personal description and the offer of a reward for his arrest and +return. But as he was never brought back nor heard of more, the matter +gradually died away and was forgotten by most in the village; the more +so as, from respect and pity for Jacob Newell, it was scarce ever +mentioned, except privately. + +Eight years elapsed from the time of his flight and supposed crime, when +the fellow he had thrashed at the tavern was arrested, tried, +convicted, and sentenced to death for a murder committed in a midnight +tavern-brawl. In a confession that he made he exonerated Samson Newell +from any participation in or knowledge of the burglary for which his +reputation had so long suffered, stating in what manner he had himself +committed the deed. So the memory of the erring son of Jacob Newell was +relieved from the great shadow that had darkened it. Still he was never +mentioned by father or mother; and seven years more rolled wearily on, +till they sit, to-day, alone and childless, by the flickering November +fire. + +Sore trouble had fallen on them since their youngest son had +disappeared. One by one, the elder children had passed away, each +winter's snow for five years covered a fresh grave, till the new +afflictions that were in store for them scarcely seemed to affect them +otherwise than by cutting yet deeper into the sunken cheeks the deep +lines of sorrow and regret. + +Jacob Newell had been known for years as a "forehanded man" in the rural +neighborhood. His lands were extensive, and he had pursued a liberal +system of cultivation, putting into the soil in rich manures more in +strength than he took from it, until his farm became the model one of +the county, and his profits were large and ever increasing. Particularly +in orchards of choice fruit did he excel his neighbors, and his apples, +pears, and quinces always commanded the best price in the market. So he +amassed wealth, and prospered. + +But, unfortunately, after death had taken away his children, and the +work in the fields was all done by hired hands, the old man became +impatient of the dulness of life, and a spirit of speculation seized +him. Just at that time, railroad-stock was in high favor throughout the +country. Steam-drawn carriages were to do away with all other modes of +public travel, (as, indeed, they generally have done,) and the fortunate +owners of railroad-stock were to grow rich without trouble in a short +time. In particular, a certain line of railroad, to run through the +village where he lived, was to make Jacob Newell and all his neighbors +rich. It would bring a market to their doors, and greatly increase the +value of all they produced; but above all, those who took stock in it +would be insured a large permanent income. Better the twenty and thirty +per cent. that must accrue from this source than to loan spare cash at +six per cent., or invest their surplus in farm improvements. So said +a very fluent and agreeable gentleman from Boston, who addressed the +people on the subject at a "Railroad Meeting" held in the town-hall; +and incautious Jacob Newell (hitherto most prudent throughout his life) +believed. + +Only twenty per cent. was to be paid down; no more, said the circular +issued by the directors, might be required for years; perhaps there +would never be any further call: but that would depend very materially +on how generously the farmers through whose lands the road would pass +should give up claims for land-damages. Jacob Newell needed excitement +of some sort, and it took the form of speculation. He believed in the +railroad, and subscribed for two hundred shares of the stock, for which +he paid four thousand dollars down. He also gave the company the right +of way where the track crossed his farm. + +In six months he was called upon for two thousand dollars more; three +months afterwards another two thousand was wanted; and so it ran till he +was obliged to mortgage his farm, and finally to sell the greater part +of it, to meet his subscription. In vain he begged for mercy, and +pleaded the statement that only twenty per cent. would be needed. A new +set of directors laughed him, and others like him, to scorn. He would +have sold his stock, but he found it quoted at only twenty-five cents on +the dollar, and that price he could not prevail upon himself to take. + +So he sat on this drear Thanksgiving-Day despondent beside his hearth. +With a hundred hard lines furrowing his pale face, telling of the work +of time and struggle and misfortune, he looked the incarnation of silent +sorrow and hopelessness, waiting in quiet meekness for the coming of +Death,--without desire, but without dread. + +It was not strange that on this day there should come into the hearts of +both Jacob and Ruth, his wife, sad and dismal memories. Still his gaze +wandered silently about the room, and she plied unceasingly her stiff, +bright knitting-needles. One would have thought her a figure of stone, +sitting so pale and bolt upright, but for the activity of the patiently +industrious fingers. + +Presently Jacob spoke. + +"Ruth," he said, "it is a bitter time for us, and we are sore oppressed; +but what does the Psalmist say to such poor, worn-out creatures as we +are? 'The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth +in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the +Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet +have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' +Wife, we are not forsaken of the Lord, although all earthly things seem +to go wrong with us." + +She made no verbal reply; but there was a nervous flutter in the poor, +wan fingers, as she still plied the needles, and two large tears rolled +silently down her checks and fell upon the white kerchief she wore over +her shoulders. + +"We have still a house over our heads," continued Jacob, "and +wherewithal to keep ourselves fed and clothed and warmed; we have but a +few years more to live; let us thank God for what blessings He has yet +vouchsafed us." + +She arose without a word, stiff, angular, ungainly, and they knelt +together on the floor. + +Meanwhile the snow fell thicker and faster without, and blew in fierce +clouds against the windows. The wind was rising and gaining power, and +it whistled wrathfully about the house, howling as in bitter mockery at +the scene within. Sometimes it swelled into wild laughter, and again +dropped into low and plaintive wailings. It was very dismal out in the +cold, and hardly more cheerful in the warm sitting-room, where those two +jaded souls knelt in earnest prayer. + + * * * * * + +A railway-train was fast in a snow-bank. There it had stuck, unable +to move either backward or forward, since nine o'clock on Wednesday +evening; it was now Thursday morning, the snow was still falling, and +still seemed likely to fall, blocking up more and more the passage +of the unfortunate train. There were two locomotives, with a huge +snow-plough on the forward one, a baggage and express-car, and four cars +filled with passengers. Two hundred people, all anxious, most of them +grumbling, were detained there prisoners, snow-bound and helpless. It +was a hard case, for they were more than two miles distant--with three +feet depth of snow between--from the nearest house. The nearest village +was five miles away at least. + +It was Thanksgiving-Day, too, and they had almost all of them "lotted" +upon a New-England Thanksgiving-dinner with old friends, brothers, +fathers, mothers, and grandparents. And there they were, without so much +as a ration of crackers and cheese. + +It was noticeable that the women on the train--and there were quite +a number, and most of them with children in their arms or by their +sides--made, as a general rule, less disturbance and confusion than the +men. The children, however, were getting very hungry and noisy by this +Thanksgiving-morning. + +In one of the cars were clustered as fine a family-group as the eye +would desire to rest upon. It consisted of a somewhat large and florid, +but firmly and compactly built man of thirty years or thereabout, +a woman, evidently his wife and apparently some two or three years +younger, and three beautiful children. + +The man was large in frame, without being coarse, with a chest broad and +ample as a gymnast's, and with arms whose muscular power was evident at +every movement. His hair and beard (which latter he wore full, as was +just beginning to be the custom) were dark brown in color, and thick and +strong almost to coarseness in texture; his eye was a clear hazel, full, +quick, and commanding, sometimes almost fierce; while an aquiline nose, +full, round forehead, and a complexion bronzed by long exposure to all +sorts of weather, gave him an aspect to be noted in any throng he might +be thrown into. There was a constant air of pride and determination +about the man, which softened, however, whenever his glance fell upon +wife or children. At such times his face lighted up with a smile of +peculiar beauty and sweetness. + +The woman was of middle size, with fair hair, inclining towards auburn, +blue eyes, and a clear red and white complexion. Her expression was +one of habitual sweetness and good-humor, while a continual half-smile +played about her rosy mouth. She was plump, good-natured, and +cozy,--altogether a most lovable and delicious woman. + +This pair, with their bright-looking children, occupied two seats +near the stove, and were in constant pleasant converse, save when an +occasional anxious and impatient shadow flitted across the face of +the husband and father. On the rack over their heads reposed a small +travelling-bag, which the day before had been filled with luncheon for +the children. Upon its bottom was painted in small white letters the +name, "Samson Newell." + +It was, indeed, the long-lost son, returning on this day to answer, so +much as in him lay, the prayers repeated for fifteen years by his father +and mother,--returning to see his former home once more, and here, +nearly on the threshold, stopped by a snow-storm almost unprecedented at +that season. There was occasional bitterness in his impatience at the +wearying detention, but he controlled it as well as he was able. + +During the night the passengers had been quiet and uncomplaining. Wood +taken from the tenders of the two locomotives in small quantities, and, +when the engineers stopped the supplies in that quarter, rails torn from +neighboring fences and broken up for firewood, kept them warm; but +after the day had dawned, when the little treasures of luncheon were +exhausted, and all began to feel the real pangs of hunger, things +assumed a more serious aspect. Children in all the cars were crying for +breakfast, and even the older passengers began to feel cross and jaded. + +One pleasant fellow, with an apparently inexhaustible flask of whiskey +in his pocket, and good-humor oozing from every pore of his jolly +countenance, passed from car to car, retailing a hundred jokes to every +fresh batch of listeners. But presently the passengers began to tire of +his witticisms, and one after another "poohed" and "pshawed" at him as +he approached. Then with infinite good-nature and philosophy he retired +to one of the saloons and peacefully fell asleep. + +Almost equally amusing was a wizened, bent, and thin old man, draped +from head to foot in coarse butternut-colored homespun, and called "Old +Woollen" by the funny fellow, who walked from car to car bewailing his +hard lot. + +"I've left the old woman to home," he whined, "with all the things on +her hands, an' more 'n fifty of our folks comin' to eat dinner with +us to-day; an' I've got a note of a hundred an' fifty dollars to +pay,--to-morrow's the last day of grace,--an' I've been sixty-five mile +to get the money to pay it. Now look here!" suddenly and sharply to the +Funny Man, "what do _you_ think o' _that_?" + +"Old Woollen," said the Funny Man, with a tremulous voice and tears in +his eyes, "it's a hard case!" + +"So't is! That's a fact! Call an' see us, when you come round our way!" + +And the old gentleman, greatly mollified by the sympathy of his new +friend, moved on to find fresh auditors for his tale of woe. + +It came to be nine o'clock on the morning of Thanksgiving-Day, and still +the snow fell with unabated violence, and still drifts piled higher and +higher about the captive train. The conductor and one of the firemen had +started off on foot at early dawn in search of food for the passengers, +and now there arrived, ploughing nearly breast-high through the snow, a +convoy from one of the nearest farm-houses carefully guarding a valuable +treasure of bread, cheese, bacon, eggs, and pumpkin-pies; but so many +were the mouths to fill that it scarcely gave a bite apiece to the men, +after the women and children had been cared for. + +Then the passengers began to grow clamorous. Even the Funny Man had his +woes, for some rogue entered the saloon where he slept and stole the +whiskey-flask from his pocket. When he awoke and discovered his loss, he +remarked that he knew where there was more of the same sort, and turned +over to sleep again. But all were not so philosophical as he. Some +cursed the railroad company, some cursed the fate that had placed them +there, some cursed their folly in leaving comfortable quarters in order +to fast in the snow on Thanksgiving-Day. + +Presently the impatiently-pulled-out watches showed ten o'clock, and +still it snowed. Then a rumor ran through the train that there were +a couple of barrels of chickens, ready-dressed for market, in the +express-car, and a general rush in that direction followed. One of the +first to hear of it, and one of the first to be on the spot, was Samson +Newell. + +"Stand back, gentlemen," he cried to the foremost of the throng that +poured eagerly into the car,--"stand back a moment. This poultry is in +charge of the express messenger, and we have no right to take it without +his license." + +As he spoke, he placed himself beside the messenger. There was a +determination in his eye and manner that held the crowd back for a short +time. + +"The chickens are mine," the messenger said; "I bought them on +speculation; they will spoil before I can get anywhere with them, and +they are now too late for Thanksgiving. You may have them for what I +gave." + +"I will give five dollars towards paying for them"; and Samson Newell +drew out his pocket-book. + +"Here's a dollar!" "I'll give a half!" "Count me in for two dollars!" +cried the crowd, favorably struck with the notion of paying for their +provender. + +But one hulking fellow, with a large mock diamond in his shirt-front, +and clumsy rings on his coarse and dirty fingers, stepped forward and +said that he was a hungry man, that he had lost money by the---- +company already, waiting a day and a night in that blamed snow-bank, +and that he was going to have a chicken,--or two chickens, if he wanted +them,--and he was decidedly of the opinion that there was no express +messenger on the train who would see the color of _his_ money in the +transaction. + +Samson Newell was evidently a man of few words in a case of emergency. +He paused for only an instant to assure himself that the man was in +earnest, then he slid open one of the side-doors of the express-car, and +stretched forth a hand whose clutch was like the closing of a claw of +steel. He seized the bejewelled stranger by the coat-collar, shook him +for an instant, and dropped him,--dropped him into a soft snow-drift +whose top was level with the car-floor. Whether the unfortunate worked +a subterranean passage to one of the passenger-cars and there buried +himself in the privacy of a saloon is not known; he certainly was not +seen again till after relief came to the imprisoned train. + +There was neither noise nor confusion in the matter of paying for and +dividing the poultry. Samson Newell had already made himself prominent +among the captive travellers. He had eaten nothing himself, that he +might the better provide, so far as his limited provision went, for his +wife and children; he had even gone through the cars with his scanty +luncheon of cakes and apples, and economically fed other people's little +ones, besides administering to the wants of an invalid lady upon the +train, who was journeying alone. He was, therefore, a favorite with all +on board. His action, enforcing payment for the provision that would +very likely, but for him, have been taken by force, caused the +passengers to defer to him as a leader whose strength and courage fitted +him for the post, and so he presided at the distribution of the chickens +without dispute. + +The fuel in the stoves was replenished, and quite a large space was +cleared to the leeward of the locomotive, where a fire was built from +the neighboring fences, so that in an hour's time from the finding of +the poultry the entire body of passengers were busy picking the bones of +roasted and broiled fowls. It was not so bad a dinner! To be sure, it +was rather chilly, now and then, when the opening of a car-door, to +let in a half-frozen gentleman with a half-cooked chicken in his hand, +admitted with him a snow-laden blast from without; and then the viands +were not served _à la Soyer_, but there was an appetite for sauce and a +certain gypsy-like feeling of being at a picnic that served as a relish. +And so, in the year of our Lord 18--, two hundred strangers sat down +together at a most extraordinary Thanksgiving-dinner, of which no +account has hitherto been published, if I except a vote of thanks, +"together with an exceedingly chaste and richly chased silver goblet," +(so the newspaper description read,) which were presented to the +conductor by "the surviving passengers," after he had procured help and +rescued them from their perplexing predicament. + +But dinners end. Twelve o'clock came, and still the snow was falling +thick and fast, and still the white plain about them mounted slowly and +surely towards the skies. Then the passengers became yet more weary and +unhappy. Old Woollen, the unfortunate, detailed his woes to more and +more appreciative audiences. Even the Funny Man--with a fresh flask of +whiskey--sighed almost dismally between frequent uneasy "cat-naps." And +Samson Newell, first seeing his wife comfortably settled, and his little +ones safely disposed about her, strode up and down, from car to car, +with a gloom of disappointment on his face that was almost ferocious. +"Too bad!" he muttered, "too bad! too bad! too bad!" + +One o'clock came, and the snow held up! At first the passengers noticed +that the flakes fell less thickly. Then, gradually and ever slowly +decreasing, they finally ceased falling altogether. The clouds drifted +from before the face of the heavens, and the sun came out. It shone over +a broad surface of glistening snow, with here and there a fence-post +obtruding into notice, but otherwhere a cold, blank expanse of +whiteness. One or two remote farm-houses, with blue smoke rising in +thin, straight columns from their chimneys, a wide stretch of woodland +to the right, distant hills bounding all the prospect,--and everywhere +snow. No fences, no roads, no paths,--but only snow! + +The passengers gazed out of the windows or stood upon the +platforms,--drawn thither by the warmth of the sun,--with feelings +almost akin to despair. Presently it was proposed to make for the +farm-houses, and fifteen of the more adventurous started. A few struggled +through and arrived in something over an hour at the nearest house, +wet to the skin with melted snow, and too much fatigued to think of +returning,--but most of them gave out at the end of the first half-mile, +and came back to the train. + +So the prisoners sat down and whiled away the time as best they might, +in the relation of anecdotes, telling stories, and grumbling. A few +slept, and a large number tried to do so, without success. + +The slow hand of Time, moving more slowly for them than they remembered +it to have ever moved before, crept on to three o'clock, and still there +was no prospect of relief and no incident of note save the arrival +through the snow of a dozen men sent by the conductor. They brought word +that help was approaching from the nearest station where a sufficiently +powerful locomotive could be obtained, and that they would probably be +started on their way during the next forenoon. These messengers also +brought a small supply of provisions and a number of packs of cards, +with the latter of which many of the passengers were soon busy. They now +resigned themselves to another night in the drift. + +But at half after three occurred an incident that restored hope of a +more speedy deliverance to a few of the captives. + +Through the low pine-lands to the right ran a road which was very +thoroughly protected from drifting snow by the overhanging trees, and +along this road there now appeared two pair of oxen. In front of the +oxen were five men armed with wooden snow-shovels, with which they beat +down and scattered the snow. Behind all was a small, square box on +runners. It was very small and contained only one board seat. Three +persons could sit and three stand in it: no more. + +Upon the appearance of this squad of road-breakers with their team, +three hearty cheers went up from the train. They were immediately +answered by the approach of the apparent leader of the expedition. He +was a small, active, spare old fellow, so incrusted with frozen snow, +which hung all over him in tiny white pellets, as to resemble more an +active, but rather diminutive white bear, than anything else known to +Natural History. He scrambled and puffed through the snow till he found +a mounting-place upon an unseen fence, when he arose two or three feet +above the surrounding surface, and spoke,-- + +"There's five on us, an' two yoke." + +A pause. + +"Two yoke yender, an' five on us." + +"Well! supposing there is?" from the train. + +"Five mile to town," continued the White Bear, "an' been sence nine this +mornin' gittin' here. Five times five is twenty-five, but, seein' it's +you, I'll call it twelve 'n' 'arf." + +"Call _what_ 'twelve 'n' 'arf,' Sheep-Shanks?" from the train. + +"_That_ man don't ride, nohow! I've marked _him_! I don't cal'late to +take no sarse _this_ trip! Take any six or eight for twelve dollars an' +fifty cents right straight to the tahvern! Who bids?" + +"I'll give you fifteen dollars, my friend, to take myself, my wife, and +three children to the village." + +It was Samson Newell who spoke. + +"'M offered fifteen," cried the White Bear, pricking up his ears; "goin' +to the tahvern at fifteen; who says fifteen 'n' arf?" + +"I do!" from a pursy passenger with a double chin and a heavy fob-chain. + +He glanced round a little savagely, having made his bid, as who should +say, "And I should like to see the man who will raise it!" + +"'N' 'arf! 'n' 'arf! 'n' 'arf! 'n' 'arf!" cried the White Bear, growing +much excited,--"an' who says sixteen?" + +Samson Newell nodded. + +"Sixteen dollars! sixteen! sixteen! We can't tarry, gentlemen!" + +The White Bear proved the truth of this latter assertion by suddenly +disappearing beneath the snow. He reappeared in an instant and resumed +his outcry. + +"I see the gentleman's sixteen," quoth the man who had called the White +Bear "Sheep-Shanks," "and go fifty cents better!" + +"I see _you_," replied the auctioneer, "an' don't take your bid! Who +says sixteen 'n' 'arf?" + +"I do!" quoth the Double Chin; and he glowered upon his +fellow-passengers wrathfully. + +At this instant appeared Old Woollen on the scene. In one hand he bore +his pocket-book; in the other, a paper covered with calculations. The +latter he studied intently for a moment, then,-- + +"I'll give you sixteen dollars an' sixty-two 'n' a half cents; an' if +you ever come round our way"-- + +The jubilant auctioneer, fairly dancing upon the fence in the energy of +his delight, broke in here,-- + +"Can't take no bids, gentlemen, short of a half-dollar rise, each time!" + +Old Woollen retired, discomfited, and was seen no more. + +From this point the bidding ran up rapidly till it reached twenty-five +dollars, where it stopped, Samson Newell being the successful bidder. + +It was a study to watch the man, now that his chance for reaching home +that day brightened. Instead of being elate, his spirits seemed to fall +as he made his arrival at the village certain. + +"Ah!" he thought, "are my father and mother yet living? How will my +brothers and sisters welcome me home?" + +How, indeed? + + * * * * * + +In the village where dwelt Jacob Newell and his wife, an old man, lame +and totally blind, had been for over thirty years employed by the town +to ring the meetinghouse-bell at noon, and at nine o'clock in the +evening. For this service, the salary fixed generations before was five +dollars, and summer and winter, rain or shine, he was always at his post +at the instant. + +When the old man rang the evening-bell on the Thanksgiving-Day whereof I +write, he aroused Jacob and his wife from deep reverie. + +"Oh, Jacob!" said the latter, "such a waking dream as I have had! I +thought they all stood before me,--all,--every one,--none missing! And +they were little children again, and had come to say their prayers +before going to bed! They were all there, and I could not drive it from +my heart that I loved Samson best!" + +His name had hardly been mentioned between them for fifteen years. + +Jacob Newell, with a strange look, as though he were gazing at some +dimly defined object afar off, slowly spoke,-- + +"I have thought sometimes that I should like to know where he lies, if +he is dead,--or how he lives, if he be living. Shall we meet him? Shall +we meet him? Five goodly spirits await us in heaven; will _he_ be there, +also? Oh, no! he was a bad, bad, bad son, and he broke his father's +heart!" + +"He was a bad son, Jacob, giddy and light-headed, but not wholly bad. +Oh, he was so strong, so handsome, so bright and brave! If he is living, +I pray God that he may come back to see us for a little, before we +follow our other lost ones!" + +"If he should come back," said Jacob, turning very white, but speaking +clearly and distinctly, "I would drive him from my door, and tell him +to be gone forever! A wine-bibber, dissolute, passionate, headstrong, +having no reverence for God or man, no love for his mother, no sense +of duty towards his father; I have disowned him, once and forever, and +utterly cast him out! Let him beware and not come back to tempt me to +curse him!" + +Still from the distance, overpowering and drowning the headlong rush of +passion, came the soft booming of the evening-bell. + +"I hear the church-bell, Jacob: we have not long to hear it. Let us not +die cursing our son in our hearts. God gave him to us; and if Satan led +him astray, we know not how strong the temptation may have been, nor how +he may have fought against it." + +Jacob Newell had nought to say in answer to this, but, from the passion +in his heart, and from that egotism that many good men have whose +religious education has taught them to make their personal godliness a +matter to vaunt over, he spoke, foolishly and little to the point,-- + +"Ruth, did Satan ever lead _me_ astray?" + +"God knows!" she replied. + +There came a rap at the door. + +The melody of the church-bell was fast dying away. The last cadences of +sound, the last quiver in the air, when the ringer had ceased to ring +and the hammer struck the bell no more, lingered still, as a timid and +uncertain tapping fell upon the door. + +"Come in!" said Jacob Newell. + +The door was slowly opened. + +Then there stood within it a tall, muscular man, a stranger in those +parts, with a ruddy face, and a full, brown beard. He stood grasping +the door with all his might, and leaning against it as for support. +Meanwhile his gaze wandered about the room with a strange anxiety, as +though it sought in vain for what should assuredly have been found +there. + +"Good evening, Sir," said Jacob Newell. + +The stranger made no reply, but still stood clinging to the door, with a +strange and horrible expression of mingled wonder and awe in his face. + +"'Tis a lunatic!" whispered Ruth to her husband. + +"Sir," said Jacob, "what do you want here to-night?" + +The stranger found voice at length, but it was weak and timorous as that +of a frightened child. + +"We were on the train, my wife and I, with our three little ones,--on +the train snowed in five miles back,--and we ask, if you will give it, +a night's lodging, it being necessary that we should reach home without +paying for our keeping at the hotel. My wife and children are outside +the door, and nearly frozen, I assure you." + +Then Ruth's warm heart showed itself. + +"Come in," she said. "Keep you?--of course we can. Come in and warm +yourselves." + +A sweet woman, with one child in her arms, and two shivering beside her, +glided by the man into the room. They were immediately the recipients of +the good old lady's hospitality; she dragged them at once, one and all, +to the warmest spot beside the hearth. + +Still the man stood, aimless and uncertain, clutching the door and +swaying to and fro. + +"Why do you stand there at the door? Why not come in?" said Jacob +Newell. "You must be cold and hungry. Ruth--that's my wife, Sir--will +get you and your family some supper." + +Then the man came in and walked with an unsteady step to a chair placed +for him near the fire. After he had seated himself he shook like one in +an ague-fit. + +"I fear you are cold," said Ruth. + +"Oh, no!" he said. + +His voice struggled to his lips with difficulty and came forth +painfully. + +The old lady went to a corner cupboard, and, after a moment's search, +brought forth a black bottle, from which she poured something into a +glass. It smelt like Jamaica rum. With this she advanced towards the +stranger, but she was bluntly stopped by Jacob,-- + +"I am afraid the gentleman has had too much of that already!" + +For an instant, like a red flash of lightning, a flush of anger passed +across his features before the stranger meekly made answer that he had +tasted no liquor that day. Ruth handed him the glass and he drained it +at a gulp. In a moment more he sat quietly upright and proceeded gravely +to divest himself of his heavy shawl and overcoat, after which he +assisted in warming and comforting the children, who were growing sleepy +and cross. + +Ruth bustled about with her preparations for giving the strangers a +comfortable supper, and Jacob and his unexpected guest entered into +conversation. + +"I used to be acquainted hereabout," the stranger began, "and I feel +almost like getting among friends, whenever I visit the place. I rode +over with old Gus Parker to-day, from where the train lies bedded near +the five-mile cut, but I was too busy keeping the children warm to ask +him any questions. I came here because your son Mark Newell and I were +old cronies at school together. I--I don't see him here to-night,"--the +stranger's voice trembled now,--"where is he?" + +"Where we must all follow him, sooner or later,--in the grave!" + +"But he had brothers,--I've heard him say," the stranger +continued,--with an anxiety in his tone that he could by no means +conceal; "I believe he had--let me see--three brothers and two sisters. +Where are _they_?" + +"All gone!" cried Jacob Newell, rising and pacing the room. Then +suddenly facing his singular guest, he continued, speaking rapidly and +bitterly, "You have three children,--I had six! Yours are alive and +hearty; but so were mine; and when I was a young man, like you, I +foolishly thought that I should raise them all, have them clustering +around me in my old age, die before any of them, and so know no +bereavements! To-day I stand here a solitary old man, sinking rapidly +into the grave, and without a relation of any kind, that I know of, on +the face of the earth! Think that such a fate may yet be yours! But the +bitterness of life you will not fully know, unless one of your boys--as +one of mine did--turns out profligate and drunken, leaves your fireside +to associate with the dissolute, and finally deserts his home and all, +forever!" + +"If that son of yours be yet alive, and were ever to return,--suddenly +and without warning, as I have broken in upon you to-night,--if he +should come to you and say, 'Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and +before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son!' what should +you say to him?" + +"I should say, 'For fifteen years you have deserted me without giving +mark or token that you were in the body; now you have come to see me +die, and you may stay to bury me!' I should say that, I think, though +I swore to Ruth but now that I would curse him, if ever he +returned,--curse him and drive him from my door!" + +"But if he came back penitent indeed for past follies and offences, and +only anxious to do well in the future,--if your son should come in that +way, convincing you with tears of his sincerity, you surely would be +more gentle to him than that! You would put away wrath, would you not? I +ask you," the stranger continued, with emotion, "because I find myself +in the position we suppose your son to be placed in. I am going home +after an absence of years, during all which time I have held no +communication with my family. I have sojourned in foreign lands, and now +I come to make my father and my mother happy, if it be not too late for +that! I come half hoping and half fearing; tell me what I am to expect? +Place yourself in my father's position and read me my fate!" + +While he spoke, his wife, sitting silent by the fire, bent low over the +child she held, and a few quiet tears fell upon the little one's frock. + +Ruth Newell, moving back and forth, in the preparation of the stranger's +supper, wore an unquiet and troubled aspect, while the old farmer +himself was agitated in a manner painful to see. It was some seconds +before he broke the silence. When he spoke, his voice was thick and +husky. + +"If I had a son like you,--if those little children were my +grandchildren,--if the sweet lady there was my son's wife,--ah, +then!----But it is too late! Why do you come here to put turbulent, +raging regrets into my heart, that but for you would be beating calmly +as it did yesterday, and the day before, and has for years? Ah! if my +son were indeed here! If Samson were indeed here!" + +The stranger half arose, as though to spring forward, then sank back +into his seat again. + +But the little child sitting in her mother's lap by the fire clapped her +hands and laughed a childish, happy laugh. + +"What pleases my little girl?" asked the mother. + +"Why, '_Samson_'" the child said,--"_that's what you call papa!_" + +Then Ruth, who stood by the table with a pitcher of water in her +hand, staggered backwards like one stricken a violent and sudden +blow!--staggered backwards, dropping the pitcher with a heavy crash as +she retreated, and crossing her hands upon her bosom with quick, short +catchings of the breath! Then crying, "My son! my son!" she threw +herself, with one long, long sob, upon the stranger's neck! + + * * * * * + +The story is told. What lay in his power was done by the returned +prodigal, who did not come back empty-handed to the paternal roof. His +wife and children fostered and petted the old people, till, after the +passage of two or three more Thanksgiving-Days, they became as cheerful +as of old, and they are now considered one of the happiest couples in +the county. Do not, on that account, O too easily influenced youth, +think that happiness for one's self and others is usually secured by +dissolute habits in early life, or by running away from home. Half the +occupants of our jails and alms-houses can tell you to the contrary. + + * * * * * + + +SONG IN A DREAM. + + + Winter rose-leaves, silver-white, + Drifting o'er our darling's bed,-- + He's asleep, withdrawn from sight,-- + All his little prayers are said, + And he droops his shining head. + + Winter rose-leaves, falling still, + Go and waken his sad eyes, + Touch his pillowed rest, until + He shall start with glad surprise, + And from slumber sweet arise! + + * * * * * + + +ENGLAND AND EMANCIPATION. + + +In the British House of Commons, some eighty years ago, two newly chosen +members took their places, each of whom afterwards became distinguished +in the history of that body. They had become acquainted at the +University of Cambridge, were strongly united by friendship, and had +each, on attaining to manhood, formed the deliberate purpose of entering +public life. Of these two, one was William Pitt, the other was William +Wilberforce. + +Neither of these members of Parliament had at this time passed the age +of twenty-one, and the latter was of extremely youthful appearance. +Small of stature and slight in frame, his delicate aspect was redeemed +from effeminacy by a head of classic contour, a penetrating and +melodious voice, an address which always won attention. His superior +social endowments were fully recognized by the companions of his +leisure; nor was his influence lessened by the fact, that by the death +of his father and uncle he had become the only male representative of +his family and the master of a goodly inheritance. He paid from the +first close attention to the business of the House, and, though by +no means anxious to be heard, showed, that, when called out by any +occasion, he was fully competent to meet it. Representing his native +city of Hull, his first public speech was on a topic immediately +connected with her interests. + +The brilliant career of Mr. Pitt commenced, as the reader knows, in +early life. Passing by the mental exploits of his boyhood, we meet him +at his entrance upon the public service. He had no sooner become a +member of the House of Commons than it began to be remarked that in him +appeared to be reproduced those same qualities of statesmanship which +had marked his illustrious father, Lord Chatham. Such powers, evinced +by one who was but just stepping upon the stage of public life, first +excited surprise, which was quickly followed by admiration. That +strength of thought and keenness of analysis, which, seizing upon a +subject, bring out at once its real elements of importance, and present +them in their practical bearings, deducing the course dictated by a wise +policy, had hitherto been regarded, by those who found themselves the +willing auditors of a youth, as the ripened fruits of experience alone. + +England was at this time at war not only with her American colonies, but +with France, Spain, and Holland. Weakened by these prolonged conflicts, +her finances drained, her huge debt increasing every day, her condition +called loudly for a change of policy. The cause of American Independence +was not without its advocates in the House, and among these Mr. Pitt +was soon found, uttering his sentiments without reserve. Probably no +individual of that body exerted a stronger influence than he in securing +for this country the full recognition of her rights. Of the manner in +which he was accustomed to treat of the American War, here is a single +specimen. After speaking of it as "conceived in injustice, brought forth +and nurtured in folly," and continually draining the country of its +vital resources of men and treasure, he proceeds:-- + +"And what had the British nation gained in return? Nothing but a series +of ineffective victories and severe defeats,--victories celebrated only +by a temporary triumph over our brethren, whom we were endeavoring to +trample down and destroy,--which filled the land with mourning for +dear and valuable relatives slain in the vain attempt to enforce +unconditional submission, or with narratives of the glorious exertions +of men struggling under every difficulty and disadvantage in the sacred +cause of liberty. Where was the Englishman, who, on reading the accounts +of these sanguinary and well-fought battles, could refrain from +lamenting the loss of so much British blood spilled in such a contest, +or from weeping, whichever side victory might be declared?" + +It was not unusual for Mr. Pitt, when he addressed the House on a topic +of sufficient magnitude to call forth his powers, to be followed +by plaudits so loud and long-continued that the next speaker found +difficulty in securing quiet in order to be heard. While in the youth +was recognized the sagacity of the late Lord Chatham, it was declared +that the eloquence of the father was exceeded by that of the son. Signal +services to the country were augured, even by his opponents, from one of +such extraordinary abilities and manifest integrity of purpose. He began +to be looked upon as capable of holding the highest trusts, fitted for +the gravest responsibilities. Hardly can history furnish a parallel to +the case of so young a person solicited by his sovereign to take the +lead of his administration, and declining the honor. Yet such, in this +instance, was the fact. + +A change in the Ministry having become necessary, it was proposed that +Mr. Pitt should be appointed First Lord of the Treasury in the place of +Lord Shelburne. That this appointment should be made was known to be +expressly desired by the King. The friends of the young statesman were +delighted. They advised by all means that the offer should at once be +accepted. But, undazzled by his own unprecedented success, he weighed +the matter coolly and deliberately. + +That Mr. Pitt had a due sense of his own powers is evident. Early in his +political life he had expressed his unwillingness to hold office under +circumstances where he must execute measures which had originated in +other minds rather than his own. As this was declining beforehand all +subordinate office, an excessive modesty could hardly have been the +cause of his backwardness at this juncture. It must be sought elsewhere. +It is found in the opinion which he entertained that the Ministry now +about to be formed could never be an efficient one. The union which had +recently taken place between parties whose political enmity had +been extreme indicated to him an equally extreme opposition to the +Government. The coalition between Lord North and Mr. Fox would, he +anticipated, be the occasion of such a tide of hostility in the House of +Commons as he was too wary to be willing to stem. + +It was argued that he was needed; that an exigency had arisen which no +one but himself could adequately meet; the country, in her adverse hour, +must have his services; the King desired them, solicited them. With a +remarkable degree of reticence he declined all these overtures, and in +a letter addressed to his sovereign gave a most respectful, but decided +negative. + +Yet fame still followed him, and honor and office still claimed him +as their rightful recipient. With the lapse of time came changes, and +public affairs presented themselves in new and unexpected aspects. The +vast empire of the East loomed up before the vision of statesmen and +legislators in hitherto unimagined splendors, and with claims +upon attention which could not be set aside. At the India House +considerations of momentous interest had arisen. Mr. Pitt entered deeply +into these affairs, connected as they were with the onward progress of +British rule in Hindostan. A crisis occurred at this time, in which, +having the power, he could serve his country with manifest advantage to +her interests. At this juncture the offer of the King was renewed. It +came now just at the right time, and the young statesman was found as +ready to accept as he had before been prompt to decline. Mr. Pitt became +the Prime-Minister of George III., and henceforth his history is blended +with the movements of the Government. + +Mr. Wilberforce had also at this time taken a strong hold upon public +life. His energies were enlisted in favor of the Governmental party, +of which Mr. Pitt had become the leader. Returning from a journey into +France, which they had made together, these two friends entered +upon their respective duties. With regard to the question at issue, +Yorkshire, the largest county in England, had not yet defined her +position with a sufficient degree of distinctness. Here Mr. Wilberforce +possessed landed estates, and here he was prepared to uphold the +consistency and integrity of the Administration. That peculiar +persuasive power, that silver-toned eloquence, which in after years won +for him so much influence in the House of Commons, here perhaps for the +first time found full play and triumphant success. His power over the +minds of men certainly was brought to a rigorous test. + +It was on a chilly day, amid falling hail, that he addressed a crowd of +people in the castle-yard at York. They had listened already to several +speakers, were weary, and about to separate, when Mr. Wilberforce +appeared on the stand and began to speak. Silence was at once secured, +and so perfectly were they swayed by his words that all signs +of opposition or impatience disappeared. For more than an hour, +notwithstanding unfavorable circumstances, he held their attention, +winning them to harmony with his own political views. This was not all. +Before the assembly dispersed, it was whispered from one to another, "We +must have this man for our county member." The election of a member for +Yorkshire was nigh at hand, and when its results were made known, he +found himself in the influential position of "a representative of the +tenth part of England." + +To this same member for Yorkshire, in conjunction with the +Prime-Minister of England, we are indebted for the first Parliamentary +agitation of a topic which has since been fruitful enough in discussion, +--AFRICAN SLAVERY. + +The introduction of this subject into Parliament, during the +administration of Pitt, was by no means the fruit of a sudden impulse, +but was rather the matured expression of a series of preliminary +efforts. In private circles, the Slave-Trade had been already denounced +and protested against, as unworthy of a civilized, not to say a +Christian people. In certain quarters, too, the press had become the +exponent of these sentiments. Possibly, in their beginnings, no person +did more in the exertion of those means which have wrought into the +heart of the English people such undying hatred to Negro Slavery than +the amiable recluse whose writings can never die so long as lovers of +poetry continue to live. Who has not at times turned away from the +best-loved of the living poets, to regale himself with the compact, +polished, sweetly ringing numbers of Cowper? On the subject of Slavery +he had already given expression to his thoughts in language which at the +present day, in certain portions of the United States, must subject his +works to a strict expurgatorial process. He had exposed to the world the +injustice of the system, and had thrown around his words the magic of +song. + +It would not, of course, be possible to proceed in these reminiscences +without coming at once upon the names of Granville Sharp and Thomas +Clarkson. The clerk who became a law-student, that he might be qualified +to substantiate the truth that a slave could not exist on British +soil, the Cambridge graduate, awakened by the preparation of his own +prize-essay to a sympathy with the slave, which never, during a long +life, flagged for an hour, need not be eulogized to-day. The latter of +these gentlemen repeatedly visited Mr. Wilberforce and conferred with +him upon this subject, imparting to him the fruit of his own careful and +minute investigations. These consisted of certain well-authenticated +items of information and documentary evidence concerning the trade and +the cruelties growing out of it. The public efforts which followed, +though hardly originated by these conferences, were probably hastened +by them. Nor should it be forgotten that a small knot of individuals, +mostly Quakers, had associated themselves under the name of "The London +Committee." This, if not an anti-slavery society, was the nucleus of +what afterwards became one. These hitherto unrecognized efforts were +about to receive fresh encouragement and acquire new efficiency. The +influences which had worked in silence and among a few were about to be +brought out to the light. + +It was on the 5th of May, 1788, that a motion was introduced into the +House of Commons having for its object the abolition of the Slave-Trade. +It was brought forward by Mr. Pitt. He intended to secure its discussion +early in the next session. Mr. Wilberforce, he hoped, would then be +present, whose seat was now vacant by reason of severe illness. He had +been, indeed, at one time, given over by his physicians, but had been +assured by Mr. Pitt, that, even in case of a fatal result of his +disease, the cause of African freedom should not die. + +The idea of possible legislation on this subject was no sooner broached +than it was at once taken up and found able advocates. Here Pitt and Fox +were of one mind, and were supported by the veteran advocate for justice +and right, Edmund Burke. The latter had some years before attempted to +call attention to this very subject. Certain Bristol merchants, +his wealthy constituents, had thus been grievously offended at the +aberrations of the representative of their city. As early as 1780 he had +drawn up an elaborate "Negro Code," of which it may be said, that, had +some of its regulations been heeded, at least one leaf in the world's +history would have presented a different reading from that which it now +bears. Mr. Burke was at this time in the decline of life, and was well +pleased that other and younger advocates were enlisted in the same great +cause. + +A bill was brought forward at this session, by one of the friends of the +cause, Sir W. Dolben, for lessening immediately the cruelties of the +trade. It will be remembered that up to this time slave-ships had sailed +up the Thames all unmolested, were accustomed to fit out for their +voyages, and, having disposed of their cargoes, to return. A vessel of +this description had arrived at the port of London. The subject of the +traffic having become invested with interest, a portion of the members +of the House paid a visit to the ill-starred craft. The deplorably +narrow quarters where hundreds of human beings were to be stowed away +during the weeks that might be necessary to make their passage produced +upon the minds of these gentlemen a most unfavorable impression. The +various insignia of the trade did not tend to lessen this, but rather +changed disgust into horror. Something must be done for the reformation +of these abuses, and that immediately. The bill for regulating the trade +passed both Houses, notwithstanding a vigorous opposition, and became +a law. By the provisions of this bill the trade was so restricted that +owners and officers of vessels were forbidden by law to receive such +excessive cargoes as they had hitherto done. The number of slaves should +henceforth be limited and regulated by the tonnage of the ship. This was +something gained. But the anti-slavery party, though in its infancy, had +already begun to show the features of its maturer days. Its strenuous +and uncompromising nature began to manifest itself. The law for +regulating the trade displeased the members who sought its abolition. +They were, however, pacified by the assurance that this was by no means +regarded as a remedy for the evil, but simply as a check upon its +outrages. + +In the spring of the following year, in pursuance of Mr. Pitt's motion, +the subject was again brought forward. Mr. Wilberforce was now ready for +the occasion, and on the 12th of May, 1789, in a speech of three hours +and a half, he held the attention of the House, while he unfolded the +African Slave-Trade in its several points of view,--its nature, being +founded in injustice, its cruelties, the terrible mortality of the +slave-ship, the demoralizing influence of the trade upon British +sailors, and the astonishing waste of life among them, as well as among +the captive negroes. + +The speech was declared to be one of the ablest ever delivered before +the House. The speaker was also well sustained by Pitt and Fox. Mr. +Burke said of this performance,--"The House, the nation, and Europe are +under great and serious obligations to the honorable gentleman, for +having brought forward the subject in a manner the most masterly, +impressive, and eloquent." "It was," said Bishop Porteus, who was +present, "a glorious night for this country." + +The subject was now fairly afloat. The anti-slavery agitation had sprung +to a vigorous life. The "irrepressible conflict" was begun. Nor can it +be denied that its beginning was highly respectable. If there be any +good in elevated social rank joined to distinguished ability, if there +be any advantage in the favor of honorable and right-minded men, any +dignity in British halls of legislation, the advocate of anti-slavery +doctrines may claim alliance with them all. + +One inevitable effect of the interest thus awakened was to render those +enlisted in favor of the trade aware of their position, and alert to +prevent any interference on the part of the Government. The alarm +spread. The merchants of Liverpool and Bristol must maintain their +ground. In various quarters were set forth the advantages of the trade. +It was no injustice to the negro, but rather a benefit. The trader was +no robber or oppressor; he was a benefactor, in that by his means the +native African was taken from a heathen land and brought to live among +Christians. At home, he was the victim of savage warfare; by the +slave-ship his life was prolonged and his salvation rendered possible. + +Witnesses on both sides were now summoned for examination before +Parliamentary committees. The premises from which conclusions had been +drawn must be thoroughly sifted. The evidence collected was manifold; +to dispose of it required time, and with time the opponents of the +Abolition Bill gathered strength. The next year and the following +its advocates still maintained its claims. The third year of its +presentation opened with high hopes of its success. Its friends had +increased in number, and so marked was the inferiority of their +opponents in talents and influence, at this time, that the contest was +known as "The War of the Pigmies against the Giants." But the pigmies, +being numerous, gained the vote, and it only remained for the giants to +return with renewed vigor to the contest in the following year. + +In 1792 the debate began with spirit. During this discussion Mr. Pitt +was most prominent. The great subject of the Resources of Africa had +recently engaged his attention. This subject, then an almost untried +theme, seems not unlikely in our day to take precedence of all others +in connection with the fate of the negro. It has been argued, and that +wisely, that only by strengthening the African at home can he ever be +respected abroad. In the productions of his native soil lie materials +for trade vastly better than the buying and selling of men, women, and +children. The fomenting of wars, whereby captives may be secured, +may well be superseded by the culture of the coffee-tree and the +cotton-plant. + +Mr. Clarkson, who left no effort untried which might in any manner +promote the interests of the cause, regarded as one important means +to this end the diffusion of knowledge concerning that unknown and +mysterious region. He had therefore procured from Africa specimens of +some of the actual products of the country, to which he called the +attention of the Premier. The specimens of ivory and gold, of ebony and +mahogany, of valuable gums and cotton cloth, awoke a new vein of thought +in the mind of the statesman. The resources of such a country should be +brought into use for her own benefit and for the promotion of commerce. +When his turn came to address the House, he presented this view, +pursuing it at some length, and attacking on this ground the trade in +slaves. That exuberant imagination which he was accustomed to rein in, +yet which well knew how to sport itself in its own airy realm, was +here suffered to take wing. He pictured to his enraptured audience the +civilization and glory of Africa, when, in coming years, delivered +from the curse of the Slave-Trade, she should take her place among the +nations. + +Wilberforce, in writing to one of his friends concerning this speech, +after mentioning the admiration expressed by one who was no friend to +Pitt, adds,--"For the last twenty minutes he seemed really inspired." + +A bill was introduced at this time for putting an end to the whole +business in a certain number of years. The year 1800 was named as the +extreme limit of the continuance of the traffic, that department of it +by which British vessels supplied foreign nations being abandoned at +once. + +The bill for gradual abolition displeased those who were most deeply +interested in the matter. The clear-headed sagacity of Pitt, the +patriotism of Fox, and the moral sense of Wilberforce led them to the +expression of the same view. There could be no compromise between right +and wrong; that which required redress some years hence required it now. +It was, moreover, they were certain, in some minds only a pretext for +delay, as the event proved. + +If the advocates of the discontinuance of the Slave-Trade had in the +beginning anticipated an easy victory, they had before this become +convinced of their mistake. The prospect, which had looked bright +and hopeful, pointing to a happy consummation, after a period of +encouragement again grew dark and doubtful. Instead of a speedy +adjustment, they found themselves involved in a long contest. Opponents +increased in strength and activity. Wars and convulsions, rending the +nations of Europe, engrossed the thoughts of public men. As years passed +on, the Abolition Bill became a sort of fixture. It grew into a saying, +that "only the eloquence of Pitt and Wilberforce" made the House willing +to endure its mention at all. The amount of documentary evidence became +formidable in quantity and tedious in detail. For collecting this +evidence Mr. Clarkson had now the most ample means, in the persons of +those who, whether as sailors, soldiers, or scientific men, had become +acquainted with Western Africa. In the work of reducing these masses of +facts to a system, making them available for purposes of public debate, +a most efficient aid was found in Mr. Zachary Macaulay. The father of +the celebrated historian was most unrelaxing in his zeal for Abolition, +and, possessing a memory of singular tenacity, he came to be +regarded, in this peculiar department of knowledge, as a very perfect +encyclopedia. Nor, in mentioning the advocates of the suppression of the +monster evil, should we ever forget one who to an overflowing goodness +of heart added an inimitable richness and delicacy of humor,--James +Stephen. His influence in Parliament was always given in favor of +Abolition, and he was also the author of several able pamphlets on the +subject. He had been at one period of his life a resident in the West +India Colonies, and the hatred of the slave-system which he there +imbibed remained unchanged through life. + +While, as has been seen, these labors were becoming complicated and +arduous, the opposition was growing not only strong, but violent. +Anti-slavery petitions, intended for presentation in Parliament, must be +sent in strong boxes, addressed, not to the leaders of the cause, but +to private persons, lest they should be opened and their contents +destroyed. Mr. Wilberforce is requested, when writing to a friend +in Liverpool, not to frank his own letter, lest it should never be +received. Correspondence on this subject must be carried on anonymously, +and addressed to persons not known to be interested. This was not the +worst. To random words of defiant opposition were added threats +of personal violence. For a space of two years the friends of Mr. +Wilberforce were annoyed by a desperate man who had declared that he +would take the life of the Yorkshire member. But, to do justice to the +advocates of the trade, there was one form of violence which they appear +never to have contemplated:--secession. The injured slave-merchants of +that time never thought of conspiring against the government under which +they lived. That was reserved for a later day. + +Yet, while appearances were so dark, the cause was actually gaining +ground. The moral sense of the nation was becoming aroused. The +scattered sympathies of the religious classes were concentrating. +Already public sentiment in certain quarters was outgrowing the +movements of Parliament, and the impatient friends of the negro declared +that the leaders of the cause had given up! + +In rebutting this charge, Mr. Wilberforce took high ground. He declared +that for himself his aim in this thing was the service of God, and, that +having committed himself to this enterprise, he was not at liberty to go +back. Believing that these efforts on behalf of an injured people were +in accordance with the will of the Almighty, he expressed himself +confident that the divine attributes were enlisted in the work and sure +of the ultimate success of the cause. Of his sincerity and honesty in +this matter we need not speak. By common consent he takes place among +those who in this world have been permitted to illustrate on an extended +scale the power and beauty of the Christian life. As a reformer of the +abuses of society he is often cited as a model, uniting to a singular +purity and sweetness of spirit an immovable firmness of will. To these +blended and diverse qualities was owing, in a great measure, the final +success of the long-contested Abolition Bill. Seldom, indeed, has the +patience of an advocate been put to a severer test than during the +protracted period that the bill for the suppression of the Slave-Trade +was before the House. To push it forward when there was an opening, +and to withdraw when effort was useless or worse than useless, was the +course pursued for a series of years. The subject, meanwhile, was never +lost sight of; when nothing more could be done, the House were reminded +that it was still in reserve. + +Early in the present century a favorable conjuncture of events led to +vigorous efforts for the attainment of the long desired object. The +antagonistic policy was now rather to hinder the progress of the +Abolition Bill than to oppose the ultimate extinction of the trade. Of +the supporters of this policy it was remarked by Mr. Pitt, that "they +who wished to protract the season of conflict, whatever might be their +professions, really wished to uphold the system." + +Notwithstanding certain covert efforts on the part of the opposition, +the prospect gradually brightened. Several new and influential members +were added to the London Society,--among them Henry Brougham. The Irish +members, who, in consequence of the completed union with England, took +their seats in Parliament, were almost to a man in favor of Abolition. +In 1805 success seemed about to be obtained. But before the final +passage of the Abolition Bill came sorrow of heart to its friends. Mr. +Pitt, having run a political career whose unexampled brilliancy and +usefulness had well fulfilled his early promise, died in the very prime +of life. A year had hardly passed, when his great political rival, Mr. +Fox, was no more. Both of these distinguished men had been, as we have +seen, from the beginning of the contest, the friends of Abolition. +Said Mr. Fox, on his death-bed,--"Two things I wish earnestly to see +accomplished: peace with Europe, and the abolition of the Slave-Trade; +but of the two I wish the latter." + +Notwithstanding the death of its friends, the Abolition Bill was +steadily making its way. The "vexed question" of near twenty years was +about to be set at rest. Opposition had grown feeble, and in May, 1807, +the bill which made the Slave-Trade a crime wherever the British rule +extended passed both Houses and became a law. + +It was a day of triumphant joy. This was felt by the friends of +Abolition at large, and especially by its advocates. These received +everywhere the warmest congratulations. Mr. Wilberforce, on entering the +House of Commons just before the passage of the bill, was greeted with +rounds of applause. + +That Slavery had received its death-blow was fully believed at this +time. Africa being delivered from the traffic, the institution itself, +its supplies being cut off, must necessarily wither and die. This was +the common view of the matter; and the more effectually to secure this +result, negotiations were entered into with other European governments +for the suppression of the trade in their dominions. In America, the +Congress of the United States passed a law prohibiting the African +Slave-Trade after the year 1808, the period indicated in the +Constitution,--the law taking effect a few years later. Napoleon, +restored from his first banishment, and once more wielding the sceptre +of power, caused a law to be passed forbidding the trade in the French +Colonies. The friends of the negro were everywhere high in hope that the +days of Slavery were numbered. Starved out, the monster must inevitably +die. So sure were they of this result, that in England their efforts had +all along been directed against the trade. The institution itself had +been comparatively untouched. + +A few years passed, and it began to be evident to those who had been +active in the great conflict that the law against the Slave-Trade was +less effectual than had been anticipated. The ocean was wide, the +African coast a thousand miles long, and desperate men were not wanting +who were disposed to elude the statute for the sake of large gains. +Nor need they fail to secure suitable markets for the sale of their +ill-gotten cargoes. But into this part of our subject it may not be well +to pry too closely. + +If the friends of the African cause had supposed their work +accomplished, when their first success was attained, their error was +soon corrected. It was pleasant to repose upon the laurels so dearly +won; but another battle must be fought, and this necessity soon became +apparent. But a few years elapsed and the negro was again made the +subject of legislative consideration. Mr. Wilberforce was still a member +of the House, though most of those with whom he had been associated at +the beginning of his public life were dead. Forty years had passed since +he first took his seat, but he was ready once more to take up the cause +of the defenceless. The abuses perpetrated against the West Indian negro +called loudly for Governmental interference. + +Since 1807 little had been done save the passage of the Registry Bill, +which had been secured by Mr. Wilberforce in 1816. This was of the +nature of an investigation into the actual state of the West India +Colonies with respect to the illicit commerce in slaves. Mild as this +measure appeared, it proved the opening wedge of much that followed. It +was in fact the first of a series of movements which issued in momentous +events, even the emancipation of all the slaves in the British Colonies. +The passage of this bill was followed by an increased expression of +interest in the matter of Negro Slavery; this was evinced in a number of +valuable publications issued at this time,--able pamphlets from the pens +of Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Stephen, and others. The labors of the London +Society have already been noticed; and after the passage of the law of +1807 we find in existence the "African Institution," under which name +the friends of the negro were associated for the purpose of watching +over his interests, more particularly with regard to the operation +of the law. But during the period of repose which followed the first +anti-slavery triumph, a portion of this body, losing its original +activity, had become comparatively supine. + +In 1818, Thomas Fowell Buxton, whose Quaker mother had instilled into +him a hatred of African Slavery, became a member of Parliament. Having +soon after joined himself to the African Institution, he became somewhat +mortified at the apathy of the friends of the slave, as here embodied. +He was frank and outspoken, and gave expression to his indignant feeling +without reserve. The next day the young member for Weymouth found +himself addressed by Wilberforce, for whom he entertained a high +veneration, and warmly thanked for the earnest utterance of his +sentiments the evening before. + +After this Mr. Wilberforce conferred freely with Mr. Buxton upon the +subject of Slavery in its manifold details. In a letter written not far +from this time he unfolded the matter concerning the negroes of the West +Indian plantations, the cruelties to which they were subjected, and the +abuses which grew out of the system. Something must be done. Measures +must be taken of a protective character at least, and the work must be +prosecuted with vigor. Such was the view presented by Mr. Wilberforce. +Warned by age and infirmity that the period of his retirement from +public life could not be far distant, he wished that the cause which +had been with him a paramount one might be passed to able and faithful +hands. + +How Mr. Buxton responded to this call the subsequent history of the +anti-slavery cause unfolds. He had already shown, that, as a member of +the House, he was to make no light impression, whatever might be the +objects which should enlist his efforts. + +At this juncture there was formed in London a new anti-slavery society. +Its object was explicitly stated to be "the mitigation and gradual +abolition of Slavery throughout the British dominions." In looking over +the names of its officers and leading members, we find not those of the +early Abolitionists alone: by the side of Zachary Macaulay we find the +name of his more distinguished son, and that of Wilberforce is similarly +followed. + +In behalf of the African there existed a somewhat widely spread public +sympathy, the fruit of the previous long-continued presentation of +the subject, and at this time it seemed about to be aroused. Several +petitions, having reference to Slavery, were sent into the House of +Commons. The first of these came from the Quakers, and Mr. Wilberforce, +on presenting it, took occasion to make an address to the House. In +place of Mr. Pitt now stood Mr. Canning, who inquired of Mr. Wilberforce +if he intended to found upon his remarks any motion. He replied,--"No; +but that such was the intention of an esteemed friend of his." Mr. +Buxton then announced his intention of submitting to the House a +motion that the state of Slavery in the British Colonies be taken into +consideration. + +On the 15th of May, 1823, the expected debate took place. Mr. Buxton +began by moving a resolution, "That the state of Slavery is repugnant +to the principles of the British Constitution and of the Christian +Religion, and that it ought to be gradually abolished throughout the +British Colonies, with as much expedition as may be found consistent +with a due regard to the well-being of the parties concerned." + +A lively debate followed, and certain resolutions drawn up by Mr. +Canning were finally carried. These articles, as well as Mr. Buxton's +motion, had in view a gradual improvement in the condition and character +of the slaves. In pursuance of the object to be attained, circular +letters were addressed to the Colonial authorities, recommending, with +regard to the negroes, certain enlargements of privileges. These +letters were extremely moderate in their tone. The reforms were simply +recommended, not authoritatively enjoined; in the language of Mr. +Canning, the movement was such a one "as should be compatible with the +well-being of the slaves themselves, with the safety of the Colonies, +and with a fair and equitable consideration of the rights of private +property." + +Moderate as were the measures first set on foot for the improvement +of the social state of the slaves, the authors were not by that means +secured from opposition. This was accompanied, on the part of the West +India planters, by such an extreme violence as was hardly expected, at +least by the Premier, who had so favorably met the introduction of the +subject, if he had not actually committed himself to the work. The +leaders of the movement, who had but just now been borne onward by the +wave of public approval, found themselves fiercely denounced. Here is a +brief paragraph which appeared at that time in a Jamaica newspaper:-- + +"We pray the imperial Parliament to amend their origin, which is +bribery; to cleanse their consciences, which are corrupt; to throw +off their disguise, which is hypocrisy; to break off with their false +allies, who are the saints; and finally, to banish from among them the +purchased rogues, who are three-fourths of their number." + +Among the reforms recommended to the Colonists, by the circular letters +of the Government, was one which had reference to the indecent flogging +of the female slaves, and also a suggestive restraint upon corporal +punishment in general. This called forth in a Colonial paper +the following, which certainly has the merit of being entirely +unambiguous:-- + +"We did and do declare the whip to be essential to West India +discipline, ay, as essential, my Lord Calthorpe, as the freedom of the +press and the trial by jury to the liberty of the subject in Britain, +and to be justified on equally legitimate ground. The comfort, welfare, +and happiness of our laboring classes cannot subsist without it." + +These specimens of the fierceness of abuse with which the Government +was assailed may perhaps prepare the reader for that last resort of +indignant discontent on the part of the governed,--the threat of +secession! Yes; Jamaica will break away from the tyranny of which she is +the much abused object, she will free herself from the oppression of the +mother country, and then,--what next?--she will seek for friendship and +protection from the United States! How soon this threat, if persisted in +and carried out into action, would have been silenced by the thunder of +British cannon, we need not stay to consider. + +To this clamor of the opposition the more timid of the Anti-Slavery +party were disposed to yield, at least for a season. The Government +showed little disposition to press the improvements which it had +recommended. Mr. Canning seemed apprehensive that he had committed +himself too far, and was inclined to postpone, to wait for a season, to +give the West Indians time for reflection, before legislating further. +The chief advocate of the slave began to realize, that, of those who +had encouraged and coöperated with him, but few, in a moment of real +difficulty, could be relied upon. But he was not to be baffled. "Good, +honest Buxton" had made up his mind that the world should be somewhat +the better for his having lived in it, and he had chosen as the object +of his beneficent labors the very lowest of his fellow-subjects,--the +negro slave of the West Indies. He was, moreover, a vigorous thinker +and an invincible debater, and, once embarked in this cause, he had no +thought of drawing back. So exclusive was his zeal, that at one time Mr. +O'Connell, vexed that the claims of his constituents were set aside, +electrified the House by exclaiming, "Oh! I wish we were blacks!" The +Irish orator had all along supported the Abolition cause, and spoken +words of good cheer to Mr. Buxton; but now his impatient patriotism +finds vent in exclaiming,--"If the Irish people were but black, we +should have the honorable member from Weymouth coming down as large as +life, supported by all the 'friends of humanity' in the back rows, to +advocate their cause." + +There was truth here, as well as wit, showing not only Mr. Buxton's +absorption in the cause which he had espoused, but his inspiring +influence on other minds. His indomitable energy was always sure to grow +stronger after defeat, and the strength of his own belief in the justice +of his cause of itself increased the faith of its friends. + +In the onward course of events the violence of the West Indians assumed +different phases, and one of the most memorable of these had respect to +the religious teachers of the slaves. They had been sent out by various +bodies of Christians in England, commencing nearly a hundred years +before these anti-slavery efforts. The object of the missionary was a +definite one, to christianize the negroes. He knew well, before engaging +in his work, that those who might come under his instruction were +slaves, and because they were slaves the call was all the louder upon +his compassion. Yet his path of duty lay wide enough from any attempt +to render the objects of his Christian efforts other than they were in +their civil relations. Such were the instructions which the missionaries +were accustomed to receive, on leaving England for a residence among the +Colonists. Nor was there ever, from the beginning to the ending of this +stirring chapter in the history of Slavery, reason to believe that these +instructions had been disobeyed. Their labors had in some instances been +encouraged by the planters, and their influence acknowledged to be a +valuable aid in the management of the negroes. But in these days +of excitement and insubordination the missionaries were accused of +encouraging disobedience in the slaves. When outbreaks occurred, the +guilt was laid to the charge of the Christian teachers. Upon a mere +suspicion, without a shadow of evidence, they were seized and thrown +into prison. One of the most melancholy instances of this was that of +the Rev. J. Smith, who was sentenced to be hanged, but died in prison, +through hardships endured, before the day of execution arrived. He was +only one of several who suffered at the hands of the West Indians the +grossest injustice. The case of Mr. Shrewsbury was at one time brought +before the House. Mr. Canning made reference to him as "a gentleman in +whose conduct there did not appear to be the slightest ground of blame +or suspicion." He was a Wesleyan missionary at Barbadoes, and, having +fallen under suspicion, was also condemned to die. Among other charges, +he was accused of having corresponded with Mr. Buxton. Said the latter, +in an address to the House,--"I never wrote to him a single letter, +nor did I know that such a man existed, till I happened to take up a +newspaper, and there read, with some astonishment, that _he was going to +be hanged for corresponding with me!_" + +If Englishmen and Christian ministers were condemned to death on such +allegations, adduced at mock trials, it is not strange that negroes +sometimes lost their lives on similar grounds. After a rising among +these people, several having been executed, the evidence of the guilt of +a certain portion was reviewed in the House of Commons. The witness was +asked whether he had found guns among the insurgents. He replied, "No; +but he was shown a place where guns had been"! Had he found bayonets? +"No; but he was shown a basket where bayonets had been"! Unfortunately, +the victims of this species of evidence were already hung when the +review of the trial took place. + +This last incident brings us to another feature of those times, the +actual insurrections which took place among the slaves. Passing by the +lesser excitements of Barbadoes and Demerara, we come to the great +rising in Jamaica in 1832. A servile war is generally represented as +displaying at every point its banners of flame, plashing its feet +meanwhile in the blood of women and children. But the great insurrection +of 1832, which, as it spread, included fifty thousand negroes in its +train, was in the beginning simply a refusal to work. + +Fiercely discussed by the masters, emancipation began to be spoken of +among the slaves. Necessarily they must know something about it; but, in +their distorted and erroneous impressions, they believed that "the +Great King of England" had set them free, and the masters were wilfully +withholding the boon. + +There was one, a negro slave, whose dark glittering eye fascinated +his fellows, and whose wondrous powers of speech drew them, despite +themselves, into the conspiracy. But he planned no murders, designed no +house-burnings; to those who, under solemn pledge of secrecy, joined +him, he propounded a single idea. It was this. If we, the negroes, who +are as five to one, compared to the white men, refuse to work any more +until freedom is given, we shall have it. There will be some resistance, +and a few of us will be killed; but that we must expect. This, in +substance, was the ground taken by Sharpe, who, as a slave, had +always been a favorite both with his master and others. This was the +commencement of the great insurrection. Its leader had not counted upon +the excitable spirit of the slaves when once aroused. Holding as sacred +the property of his master, he believed his followers would do the same, +until the light of burning barns and out-houses revealed the mischief +which had begun to work. Yet, in the sanguinary struggle which followed, +it is to be remembered that the excesses which were committed, the +wanton waste of life, were on the part of the white residents, who meted +out vengeance with an unsparing hand,--not on the part of the negroes. + +One effect of this uprising of the slaves was, in England, to deepen the +impression of the evils of the system under which they were held. If the +mere discussion of Slavery were fraught with such terrible consequences, +how could safety ever consist with the thing itself? By discussion they +had but exercised their own rights as Englishmen. Of what use to them +was Magna Charta, if they must seal their lips in silence when a public +abuse required to be corrected, a gigantic wrong to be righted? Must +they give up the ocean and the land to the dominion of the slave-owner +and slave-trader, hushing the word of remonstrance, lest it should lead +to war and bloodshed? No; they would not do this. The thing itself which +had caused these commotions must perish. + +Here was a decided gain for the friends of the slave in Parliament. +Mr. Buxton, in alluding to the fearful aspect of the times, asks the +pertinent question, "How is the Government prepared to act in case of a +general insurrection among the slaves?" We give the closing paragraphs +of his speech at this crisis. + +"I will refer the House to the sentiments of Mr. Jefferson, the +President of the United States. Mr. Jefferson was himself a slave-owner, +and full of the prejudices of slave-owners; yet he left this memorable +memorial to his country: 'I do, indeed, tremble for my country when I +remember that God is just, and that His justice may not sleep forever. A +revolution is among possible events; the Almighty has no attribute which +would side with us in such a struggle.' + +"This is the point which weighs most heavily with me. The Almighty has +no attribute that will side with us in such a struggle. A war with an +overwhelming physical force, a war with a climate fatal to the European +constitution, a war in which the heart of the people of England would +lean toward the enemy: it is hazarding all these terrible evils; but all +are light and trivial, compared with the conviction I feel that in such +a warfare it is not possible to ask nor can we expect the countenance of +Heaven." + +While events tended to bring the whole system of Slavery into odium, the +leaders of the Abolition party were themselves changing their ground. +They had begun with the hope of mitigating the hardships of the slave's +lot,--to place him upon the line of progression, and so ultimately to +fit him for freedom. But they had found themselves occupying a false +position. Slowly they came to the conclusion that for the slave little +could be accomplished in the way of improvement, so long as he remained +a slave. The complete extinction of the system was now the object aimed +at. At a crowded Anti-Slavery meeting held in May, 1830, Mr. Wilberforce +presided. The first resolution, moved by Mr. Buxton, was this,--"That no +proper or practicable means be left unattempted for effecting, at the +earliest period, the entire abolition of Slavery throughout the British +dominions." At a meeting held in Edinburgh similar language was used by +Lord Jeffrey. Said Dr. Andrew Thomson, one of the most influential of +the Scottish clergy,--"We ought to tell the legislature, plainly and +strongly, that no man has a right to property in man,--that there +are eight hundred thousand individuals sighing in bondage, under the +intolerable evils of West Indian Slavery, who have as good a right to be +free as we ourselves have,--that they ought to be free, and that they +_must_ be made free!" + +Another element at this time wrought in favor of the Abolitionists. Of +the missionaries who had suffered persecution in the Colonies, numbers +had returned to England. These religious teachers, while plying their +vocation in the West Indies, had acted in obedience to the instructions +received from the societies which employed them. Necessarily, while in a +slave country, they had been silent upon the subject of Slavery. But in +truth they liked the institution as little as Mr. Buxton himself. Once +in England, the seal of silence melted from their lips. Everywhere +in public and in private they made known the evils and cruelties of +Slavery. Some of these persons had been examined by Parliamentary +committees, and being acquitted of every suspicion of mis-statement, +their testimony received this additional sanction. The tale of wrong +which they revealed was not told in vain. Each returned missionary +exerted an influence upon the religious body which he represented. The +aggregate of this influence was great. + +If, in the latter stages of the Emancipation effort, the backwardness of +the Administration was an evil omen, making final success a difficult +achievement, this was balanced by reform in Parliament. At the recent +elections, anti-slavery sentiments in the candidate were in some +quarters requisite to success. A story is told of a gentleman who had +spent some time canvassing and found abundant evidence of this. At an +obscure village he had been hailed with the question, whether he was +trying to get into the Lords or Commons. "But," added the simple +questioners, "whichever you do get into, you must vote for the poor +slaves." + +To the aid of the Emancipation leaders there came now a new element, a +power so strong that it required no small share of skill to hold it in, +that it might work no evil in contributing to the desired end. + +Since the commencement of efforts for the slave a considerable period +had passed. These efforts extended, in fact, over nearly half a century. +During that time, pamphlet after pamphlet and volume after volume had +set forth the evils and abominations of Slavery, forcing the subject +upon the public attention. The leaven had worked slowly, and for a +portion of the time in comparative silence; but the work was done. The +British people were aroused. The great heart of the nation was beating +in response to the appeals for justice and right which were made in +their ears. The world can scarce furnish a parallel to this spectacle of +moral sublimity. It was the voice of a people, calling, in tones that +must be heard, for justice and freedom,--and that not for themselves, +but for a distant, a defenceless race. + +The publication of a circular inviting Anti-Slavery delegates to London, +a movement made by the leaders of the cause, in its results took the +most enthusiastic by surprise. More than three hundred appeared in +answer to the call. Mr. Buxton met them in Exeter Hall. With a rampant +freedom of opinion, there was little prospect of harmony of action being +attained, however desirable it might be. Through the influence of Mr. +Buxton and his coadjutors, these men of conflicting theories were +brought into such a degree of harmonious action that an address was +drawn up embodying their sentiments and laid before Lord Althorp, at +that time the head of the Administration. The strong outside pressure of +the nation at large upon the Government was evident. The strength of the +Emancipationists in Parliament, also, had been carefully estimated, and +success could no longer be doubted. + +The fourteenth of May, 1833, witnessed an animated debate in the House. +While the advocates of Emancipation desired for the negro unconditional +freedom, they found the measure fettered by the proposal of Mr. Stanley, +the Colonial Secretary, that he be placed for a number of years in a +state of apprenticeship. Twelve years of this restricted freedom was, +by the influence of Mr. Buxton, reduced to seven, and the sum of twenty +millions of pounds sterling being granted to the slave-owners, the bill +for the abolition of Negro Slavery passed the House of Commons. With +some delay it went through the Upper House, and on the 28th of August, +receiving the royal assent, it became a law. The apprenticeship system +was but short-lived, its evil-working leading to its abolition in its +fourth year. + + * * * * * + +It has been often said, with how much of truth it is not our purpose +here to inquire, that in this country the mention of the evils of +Slavery is and must be fraught with most evil consequences. Yet the +agitation of this subject, whether for good or evil, in the United +States, is intimately connected with the whole movement in England. In +the earlier stages of the measures directed against the trade, a hearty +response was awakened here; nor could the subsequent act of emancipation +fail to produce an impression everywhere, and most of all among +ourselves. United to the English nation by strong affinities, one with +them in language and literature, yet cleaving still to the institution +which England had so energetically striven to destroy, could it be +otherwise than that such a movement on her part should awaken an eager +interest among us? Could such an event as the release from slavery +of eight hundred thousand negroes in the British Colonies pass by +unnoticed? To suppose this is preposterous. It is not too much to say, +that the effect of British emancipation was, at the time it took place, +to give in certain portions of the United States an increased degree of +life to the anti-slavery sentiment. No words could have been uttered, +which, reaching the shores of America, would have been half so emphatic +as this one act of the British nation. Among the causes which have +nourished and strengthened the anti-slavery sentiment among us this, has +its place. Verily, if England gave us the poison, she has not been slow +to proffer to us the antidote. + + * * * * * + +Concerning the actual fruits of Emancipation, it may be asked, What have +they been? The world looked on inquiringly as to how the enfranchised +negroes would demean themselves. One fact has never been disputed. This +momentous change in the social state of near a million of people took +place without a single act of violence on the part of the liberated +slaves. Neither did the measure carry violence in its train. So far the +act was successful. But that all which the friends of Emancipation hoped +for has been attained, no one will assert. When, however, we hear of the +financial ruin of the Islands, as a consequence of that measure, it may +be well to inquire into their condition previous to its taking place. +That the West India Colonies were trembling on the brink of ruin at the +close of the last century is evident from their repeated petitions +to the mother country to take some measures to save them from utter +bankruptcy. This can hardly be laid to the extinction of Slavery, for +both Slavery and the Slave-Trade were at that time in the height of +successful operation. + +Again, if the West Indian negro is not to-day all that might be wished, +or even all that, under the influence of freedom, he had been expected +to become, there may possibly be a complication of causes which has +prevented his elevation. He has been allowed instruction, indeed, to +some extent; the continued labors of those who contended for his freedom +have secured to him the schoolmaster and the missionary. But this is not +enough. Has he been taught the use of improved methods of agriculture, +the application of machinery to the production of required results? Has +he been encouraged to works of skill, to manufacturing arts even of the +ruder kind? Has he not rather been subjected to the same policy which, +before the Revolution, discountenanced manufactures among ourselves, +and has caused the fabrics of the East Indies to be disused, and the +factories of Ireland to stand still? + +These questions need not be pursued. Yet, amid the conflicting voices of +the evil days upon which we are fallen, now and then we hear lifted up a +plea for Emancipation, an entreaty for the removal of the accursed thing +which has plunged the happiest nation upon earth into the direst of +calamities. + +Of the causes which have affected the success of Emancipation in the +case before us, it may be remarked, that, so far as their action has +been pernicious, they would operate among ourselves less than in any +colony of Great Britain, abundantly less than in the West Indies. The +greater variety of employments with which the Maryland or Kentucky negro +is familiar, his more frequent proficiency in mechanical pursuits, +combined with other circumstances, render him decidedly a more eligible +subject for freedom than the negro of Jamaica. + +The changes which may issue in this country from the present commotions +it were vain to predict. It may not, however, be unwise, in considering, +as we have done, an achievement nobly conceived and generously +accomplished, to examine carefully into the causes which may have +rendered it otherwise than completely successful in its results. + + * * * * * + + +UNION AND LIBERTY. + + + Flag of the heroes who left us their glory, + Borne through their battle-fields' thunder and flame, + Blazoned in song and illumined in story, + Wave o'er us all who inherit their fame! + Up with our banner bright, + Sprinkled with starry light, + Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, + While through the sounding sky + Loud rings the Nation's cry,-- + UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE! + + Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation, + Pride of her children, and honored afar, + Let the wide beams of thy full constellation + Scatter each cloud that would darken a star! + Up with our banner bright, etc. + + Empire unsceptred! what foe shall assail thee, + Bearing the standard of Liberty's van? + Think not the God of thy fathers shall fail thee, + Striving with men for the birthright of man! + Up with our banner bright, etc. + Yet if, by madness and treachery blighted, + Dawns the dark hour when the sword thou must draw, + Then, with the arms of thy millions united, + Smite the bold traitors to Freedom and Law! + Up with our banner bright, etc. + + Lord of the Universe! shield us and guide us, + Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun! + Thou, hast united us: who shall divide us? + Keep us, O, keep us, the MANY IN ONE! + Up with our banner bright, + Sprinkled with starry light, + Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, + While through the sounding sky + Loud rings the Nation's cry,-- + UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE! + + * * * * * + + + +HOW TO ROUGH IT. + + +"Life has few things better than this," said Dr. Johnson, on feeling +himself settled in a coach, and rolling along the road. We cannot agree +with the great man. Times have changed since the Doctor and Mr. Boswell +travelled for pleasure; and we much prefer an expedition to Moosehead, +or a tramp in the Adirondack, to being boxed up in a four-wheeled ark +and made "comfortable," according to the Doctor's idea of felicity. + +Francis Galton, Explorer, and Secretary to the Royal Geographical +Society, we thank you sincerely for teaching us how to travel! Few +persons know the important secrets of how to walk, how to run, how to +ride, how to cook, how to defend, how to ford rivers, how to make rafts, +how to fish, how to hunt, in short, how to do the essential things that +every traveller, soldier, sportsman, emigrant, and missionary should +be conversant with. The world is full of deserts, prairies, bushes, +jungles, swamps, rivers, and oceans. How to "get round" the dangers of +the land and the sea in the best possible way, how to shift and contrive +so as to come out all right, are secrets well worth knowing, and Mr. +Galton has found the key. In this brief article we shall frequently +avail ourselves of the information he imparts, confident that in these +war-days his wise directions are better than fine gold to a man who is +obliged to rough it over the world, no matter where his feet may wander, +his horse may travel, or his boat may sail. + +Wherewithal shall a man be clothed? We begin at the beginning with +flannel always. Experience has taught us that flannel next the skin is +indispensable for health to a traveller, and the sick- and dead-lists +always include largely the names of those who neglect this material. +Cotton stands Number Two on the list, and linen nowhere. Only last +summer jolly Tom Bowers got his _quietus_ for the season by getting hot +and wet and cold in one of his splendid Paris linen shirts, and now he +wears calico ones whenever he wishes to "appear proper" at Nahant or +Newport. + +"The hotter the ground the thicker your socks," was the advice of an old +traveller who once went a thirty-days' tramp at our side through the +Alp country in summer. We have seen many a city bumpkin start for a +White-Mountain walk in the thinnest of cotton foot-coverings, but we +never knew one to try them a second time. + +Stout shoes are preferable to boots always, and a wise traveller never +omits to grease well his leather before and during his journey. Don't +forget to put a pair of old slippers into your knapsack. After a hard +day's toil, they are like magic, under foot. Let us remind the traveller +whose feet are tender at starting that a capital remedy for blistered +feet is to rub them at night with spirits mixed with tallow dropped +from a candle. An old friend of ours thought it a good plan to soap the +inside of the stocking before setting out, and we have seen him break a +raw egg into his shoes before putting them on, saying it softened the +leather and made him "all right" for the day. + +Touching coat, waistcoat, and trousers, there can be but one choice. +Coarse tweed does the best business on a small capital. Cheap and +strong, we have always found it the most "paying" article in our +travelling-wardrobe. Avoid that tailor-hem so common at the bottom +of your pantaloons which retains water and does no good to anybody. +Waistcoats would be counted as superfluous, were it not for the +convenience of the pockets they carry. Take along an old dressing-gown, +if you want solid comfort in camp or elsewhere after sunset. + +Gordon Cumming recommends a wide-awake hat, and he is good authority on +that head. A man "_clothed_ in his right mind" is a noble object; but +six persons out of every ten who start on a journey wear the wrong +apparel. The writer of these pages has seen four individuals at once +standing up to their middles in a trout-stream, all adorned with black +silk tiles, newly imported from the Rue St. Honoré. It was a sight to +make Daniel Boone and Izaak Walton smile in their celestial abodes. + +A light water-proof outside-coat and a thick pea-jacket are a proper +span for a roving trip. Don't forget that a couple of good blankets also +go a long way toward a traveller's paradise. + +We will not presume that an immortal being at this stage of the +nineteenth century would make the mistake, when he had occasion to tuck +up his shirt-sleeves, of turning them outwards, so that every five +minutes they would be tumbling down with a crash of anathemas from the +wearer. The supposition that any sane son of Adam would tuck up his +sleeves inside out involves a suspicion, to say the least, that his wits +had been overrated by doting relatives. + +"Grease and dirt are the savage's wearing-apparel," says the Swedish +proverb. No comment is necessary in speaking with a Christian on this +point, for cold water is one of civilization's closest allies. Avoid the +bath, and the genius of disease and crime stalks in. "Cleanliness is +next to godliness," remember. + +In packing your knapsack, keep in mind that sixteen or twenty pounds are +weight enough, till, by practice, you can get pluck and energy into your +back to increase that amount. + +_Roughing it_ has various meanings, and the phrase is oftentimes +ludicrously mistaken by many individuals. A friend with whom we once +travelled thought he was roughing it daily for the space of three +weeks, because he was obliged to lunch on _cold_ chicken and _un-iced_ +Champagne, and when it rained he was forced to seek shelter inside very +inelegant hotels on the road. To rough it, in the best sense of that +term, is to lie down every night with the ground for a mattress, a +bundle of fagots for a pillow, and the stars for a coverlet. To sleep in +a tent is semi-luxury, and tainted with too much effeminacy to suit the +ardor of a first-rate "Rough." Parkyns, Taylor, Gumming, Fremont, and +Kane have told us how much superior are two trunks of trees, rolled +together for a bed, under the open sky, to that soft heating apparatus +called a bed in the best chamber. Every man to his taste,--of course, +but there come occasions in life when a man must look about him and +arrange for himself, _somehow_. The traveller who has never slept in the +woods has missed an enjoyable sensation. A clump of trees makes a +fine leafy post-bedstead, and to awake in the morning amid a grove of +sheltering nodding oaks is lung-inspiring. It was the good thought of a +wanderer to say, "The forest is the poor man's jacket." Napoleon had a +high opinion of the bivouac style of life, and on the score of health +gave it the preference over tent-sleeping. Free circulation is a great +blessing, albeit we think its eulogy rather strongly expressed by the +Walden-Pondist, when he says, "I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have +it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. I would rather +ride on earth in an ox-cart with a free circulation, than go to heaven +in the fancy car of an excursion-train, and breathe a _malaria_ all the +way." The only objection to out-door slumber is dampness; but it is easy +to protect one's self in wet weather from the unhealthy ground by boughs +or India-rubber blankets. + +One of the great precautions requisite for a tramp is to provide against +thirst. Want of water overtakes the traveller sometimes in the most +annoying manner, and it is well to know how to fight off the dry fiend. +Sir James Alexander cautions all who rough it to drink well before +starting in the morning, and drink nothing all day till the halt,--and +to keep the lips shut as much as possible. Another good authority +recommends a pebble or leaf to be held in the mouth. Habit, however, +does much in this case as in every other, and we have known a man, who +had been accustomed at home to drink at every meal four tumblers of +water, by force of will bring his necessity down to a pint of liquid per +day, during a long tramp through the forest. One of the many excellent +things which Plutarch tells of Socrates is this noteworthy incident of +his power of abstinence. He says, whenever Socrates returned from any +exercise, though he might be extremely dry, he refrained nevertheless +from drinking till he had thrown away the first bucket of water he had +drawn, that he might exercise himself to patience, and accustom his +appetite to wait the leisure of reason. + +From water to fire is a natural transition. How to get a blaze just when +you want it puzzles the will sometimes hugely. Every traveller should +provide himself with a good handy steel, proper flint, and unfailing +tinder, because lucifers are liable to many accidents. Pliny recommended +the wood of mulberry, bay-laurel, and ivy, as good material to be rubbed +together in order to procure a fire; but Pliny is behind the times, and +must not be trusted to make rules for General McLellan's boys. Of course +no one would omit to take lucifers on a tramp; but steel, flint, and +tinder are three warm friends that in an emergency will always come up +to the strike. To find firewood is a knack, and it ought to be well +cultivated. Don't despise bits of dry moss, fine grass, and slips of +bark, if you come across them. Twenty fires are failures in the open air +for one that succeeds, unless the operator knows his business. A novice +will use matches, wood, wind, time, and violent language enough to burn +down a city, and never get any satisfaction out of all the expenditure; +while a knowing hand will, out of the stump of an old, half-rotten tree, +bring you such magnificent, permanent heat, that your heart and your +tea-kettle will sing together for joy over it. In making a fire, depend +upon it, there is something more than _luck_,--there is always talent +in it. We once saw Charles Lever (Harry Lorrequer's father) build up a +towering blaze in a woody nook out of just nothing but what he scraped +up from the ground, and his rare ability. You remember Mr. Opie the +painter's answer to a student who asked him what he mixed his colors +with. "Brains, Sir," was the artist's prompt, gruff, and right reply. It +takes brains to make a fire in a rainy night out in the woods; but it +can be done,--if you only know how to begin. We have seen a hearth made +of logs on a deep snow sending out a cheerful glow, while the rain +dripped and froze all about the merry party assembled. + +A traveller ought to be a good swimmer. There are plenty of watery +crossings to be got over, and often there are no means at hand but what +Nature has provided in legs and arms. But one of the easiest things in +the world to make is a raft. Inflatable India-rubber boats also are now +used in every climate, and a full-sized one weighs only forty pounds. +General Fremont and Dr. Livingstone have tested their excellent +qualities, and commend them as capable of standing a wonderful amount +of wear and tear. But a boat can be made out of almost anything, if one +have the skill to put it together. A party of sailors whose boat had +been stolen put out to sea and were eighteen hours afloat in a crazy +craft made out of a large basket woven with boughs such as they could +pick up, and covered with their canvas tent, the inside being plastered +with clay to keep out as much of the water as possible. + +In fording streams, it is well, if the water be deep and swift, to carry +heavy stones in the hands, in order to resist being borne away by the +current. Fords should not be deeper than three feet for men, or four +feet for horses. + +Among the small conveniences, a good strong pocket-knife, a small "hard +chisel," and a file should not be forgotten. A great deal of real work +can be done with very few tools. One of Colt's rifles is a companion +which should be specially cared for, and a water-proof cover should +always be taken to protect the lock during showers. There is one rule +among hunters which ought always to be remembered, namely,--"Look at +the gun, but never let the gun look at you, or at your companions." +Travellers are always more or less exposed to the careless handling of +fire-arms, and numerous accidents occur by carrying the piece with the +cock down on the nipple. Three-fourths of all the gun accidents are +owing to this cause; for a blow on the back of the cock is almost sure +to explode the cap, while a gun at half-cock is comparatively safe. + +Don't carry too many eatables on your expeditions. Dr. Kane says his +party learned to modify and reduce their travelling-gear, and found that +in direct proportion to its simplicity and to their apparent privation +of articles of supposed necessity were their actual comfort and +practical efficiency. Step by step, as long as their Arctic service +continued, they went on reducing their sledging-outfit, until they at +last came to the Esquimaux ultimatum of simplicity,--_raw meat and a fur +bag_. Salt and pepper are needful condiments. Nearly all the rest are +out of place on a roughing expedition. Among the most portable kinds of +solid food are pemmican, jerked meat, wheat flour, barley, peas, cheese, +and biscuit. Salt meat is a disappointing dish, and apt to be sadly +uncertain. Somebody once said that water had tasted of sinners ever +since the flood, and salted meat sometimes has a taint full as vivid. +Twenty-eight ounces of real nutriment _per diem_ for a man in rough +work as a traveller will be all that he requires; if he perform severe +tramping, thirty ounces. + +The French say, _C'est la soupe qui fait le soldat_, and we have always +found on a tramping expedition nothing so life-restoring after fatigue +and hunger as the portable soup now so easily obtained at places where +prepared food is put up for travellers' uses. Spirituous liquors are no +help in roughing it. On the contrary, they invite sunstroke, and various +other unpleasant visitors incident to the life of a traveller. Habitual +brandy-drinkers give out sooner than cold-water men, and we have seen +fainting red noses by the score succumb to the weather, when boys +addicted to water would crow like chanticleer through a long storm of +sleet and snow on the freezing Alps. + +It is not well to lose your way; but in case this unpleasant luck befall +you, set _systematically_ to work to find it. Throw terror to the idiots +who always flutter and flounder, and so go wrong inevitably. Galton the +Plucky says,--and he has as much cool wisdom to impart as a traveller +needs,--when you make the unlively discovery that you are lost, ask +yourself the three following questions:-- + +1. What is the least distance that I can with certainty specify, within +which the path, the river, the sea-shore, etc., that I wish to regain, +lies? + +2. What is the direction, in a vague, general way, in which the path or +river runs, or the sea-coast tends? + +3. When I last left the path, etc., did I turn to the left or to the +right? + +As regards the first, calculate deliberately how long you have been +riding or walking, and at what pace, since you left your party; subtract +for stoppages and well-recollected zigzags; allow a mile and a half per +hour as the pace when you have been loitering on foot, and three and a +half when you have been walking fast. Occasional running makes an almost +inappreciable difference. A man is always much nearer the lost path than +he is inclined to fear. + +As regards the second, if you recollect the third, and also know the +course of the path within eight points of the compass, (or one-fourth +of the whole horizon,) it is a great gain; or even if you know your +direction within twelve points, or one-third of the whole horizon, that +knowledge is worth something. Don't hurry, if you get bewildered. Stop +and think. Then arrange matters, and you are safe. When Napoleon was +once caught in a fog, while riding with his staff across a shallow arm +of the Gulf of Suez, he _thought_, as usual. His way was utterly lost, +and going forward he found himself in deeper water. So he ordered his +staff to ride from him in radiating lines in all directions, and such +of them as should find shallow water to shout out. If Napoleon had been +alone on that occasion, he would have set his five wits to the task of +finding the right way, and he would have found it. + +Finally, cheerfulness in large doses is the best medicine one can take +along in his out-door tramps. We once had the good-luck to hear old +Christopher North try his lungs in the open air in Scotland. Such +laughter and such hill-shaking merry-heartedness we may never listen to +again among the Lochs, but the lesson of the hour (how it rained that +black night!) is stamped for life upon our remembrance. "Clap your back +against the cliff," he shouted, "and never mind the deluge!" Rest, +glorious Christopher, under the turf you trod with such a gallant +bearing! Few mortals knew how to rough it like you! + + * * * * * + + +SELF-POSSESSION vs. PREPOSSESSION. + + +Timoleon, a man prosperous in all his undertakings, was wont to ascribe +his successes to good-luck; but that he did not mean to give credit to +any blind Goddess of Fortune is evident from his having built an altar +to a certain divine something which he called Automatia, signifying +Spontaneousness, or a happy promptitude in following the dictates of his +own genius. The Liberator of Sicily, to be sure, did not live in an age +of newspapers, and was not liable at every turn to have his elbow jogged +by Public Opinion; but it is plain that his notion of a man fit to lead +was, that he should be one who never waited to seize Opportunity from +behind, and who knew that events become the masters of him who is slow +to make them his servants. + +Thus far nothing has been more remarkable in the history of our civil +war than that its signal opportunities have failed to produce on either +side any leader who has proved himself to be gifted with this happy +faculty. Even our statesmen seem not to have felt the kindling +inspiration of a great occasion. The country is going through a +trial more crucial, if possible, than that of the Revolution; but no +state-paper has thus far appeared, comparable in anything but quantity +to the documents of our heroic period. Even Mr. Seward seems to have +laid aside his splendid art of generalization, or to have found out the +danger of those specious boomerangs of eloquence, which, launched from +the platform with the most graceful curves of rhetoric, come back not +seldom to deal an untimely blow to him who sets them flying. The people +begin to show signs of impatience that the curtain should be so slow to +rise and show them the great actor in our national tragedy. They are so +used to having a gigantic bubble of notoriety blown for them in a week +by the newspapers, though it burst in a day or two, leaving but a drop +of muddy suds behind it, that they have almost learned to think the +making of a great character as simple a matter as that of a great +reputation. Bewildered as they have been with a mob of statesmen, +generals, orators, poets, and what not, all of them the foremost of this +or any other age, they seem to expect a truly great man on equally easy +terms with these cheap miracles of the press,--grown as rapidly, to be +forgotten as soon, as the prize cauliflower of a county show. We have +improvised an army; we have conjured a navy out of nothing so rapidly +that pines the jay screamed in last summer may be even now listening for +the hum of the hostile shot from Sumter; why not give another rub at our +Aladdin's lamp and improvise a genius and a hero? + +This is, perhaps, very natural, but it is nevertheless unreasonable. +Heroes and geniuses are never to be had ready-made, nor was a tolerable +specimen of either ever produced at six months' notice. Dearly do +nations pay for such secular births; still more dearly for their +training. They are commonly rather the slow result than the conscious +cause of revolutions in thought or polity. It is no imputation on +democratic forms of government, it is the unexampled prosperity of +nearly half a century that is in fault, if a sudden and unforewarned +danger finds us without a leader, whether civil or military, whom the +people are willing to trust implicitly, and who can in some sense +control events by the prestige of a great name. Carlyle and others have +for years been laying to the charge of representative and parliamentary +government the same evils whose germ certain British critics, as +ignorant of our national character as of our geography, are so kindly +ready to find in our democracy. Mr. Stuart Mill, in his essay on +"Liberty," has convinced us that even the tyranny of Public Opinion is +not, as we had hastily supposed, a peculiarly American institution, but +is to the full as stringent and as fertile of commonplace in intellect +and character under a limited as under a universal system of suffrage. + +The truth is, that it is not in our institutions, but in our history, +that we are to look for the causes of much that is superficially +distasteful and sometimes unpleasantly disappointing in our national +habits,--we would not too hastily say in our national character. Our +most incorrigible blackguards, and the class of voters who are at the +mercy of venal politicians, have had their training, such as it is, +under forms of government and amid a social order very unlike ours. +Disgust at the general dirtiness and corruption of our politics, we are +told, keeps all our leading men out of public life. This appears to us, +we confess, a rather shallow misconception. Our politics are no dirtier +or more corrupt than those of our neighbors. The famous _Quam parvâ +sapientiâ regitur mundus_ was not said in scorn by the minister of a +republic, but in sober sadness by one whose dealings had been lifelong +with the courts and statesmen of princes. The real disgust lies in the +selfish passions that are called into play by the strife of party and +the small ambitions of public men, and not in any mere coarseness in the +expression of them. We are not an elegant people: rather less so, on the +whole, even in the aristocratic South than in the democratic North. In +this past year of our Lord eighteen hundred sixty-one, we have no doubt, +and we shudder to think of it, that by far the larger proportion of +our fellow-citizens shovelled their green-peas into their mouths with +uncanonical knife-blades, just as Sir Philip Sidney did in a darker age, +when yet the "Times" and the silver fork were not. Nay, let us make a +clean breast of all these horrors at once, it is probably true that +myriads of fair salmon were contaminated with the brutal touch of +steel in scenes of unhallowed family-festival. The only mitigating +circumstance is that such luxuries are within the reach of ten Americans +where one European sees them any nearer than through the windows of the +victualler. No, we must yield the point. We are not an elegant people, +least of all in our politics; but we do not believe it is this which +keeps our first-rate men out of political life, or that it is the result +of our democratic system. + +It has been our good-fortune hitherto that our annals have been of that +happy kind which write themselves on the face of a continent and in the +general well-being of a people, rather than in those more striking and +commonly more disastrous events which attract the historian. We have +been busy, thriving, and consequently, except to some few thoughtful +people like De Tocqueville, profoundly uninteresting. We have been +housekeeping; and why does the novelist always make his bow to the hero +and heroine at the church-door, unless because he knows, that, if they +are well off, nothing more is to be made of them? Prosperity is the +forcing-house of mediocrity; and if we have ceased to produce great men, +it is because we have not, since we became a nation, been forced to pay +the terrible price at which alone they can be bought. Great men are +excellent things for a nation to have had; but a normal condition that +should give a constant succession of them would be the most wretched +possible for the mass of mankind. We have had and still have honest and +capable men in public life, brave and able officers in our army and +navy; but there has been nothing either in our civil or military history +for many years to develop any latent qualities of greatness that may +have been in them. It is only first-rate events that call for and mould +first-rate characters. If there has been less stimulus for the more +showy and striking kinds of ambition, if the rewards of a public career +have been less brilliant than in other countries, yet we have shown, +(and this is a legitimate result of democracy,) perhaps beyond the +measure of other nations, that plebeian genius for the useful which has +been chiefly demanded by our circumstances, and which does more than war +or state-craft to increase the well-being and therefore the true glory +of nations. Few great soldiers or great ministers have done so much for +their country as Whitney's cotton-gin and McCormick's reaper have done +for ours. We do not believe that our country has degenerated under +democracy, but our position as a people has been such as to turn our +energy, capacity, and accomplishment into prosaic channels. Physicians +call certain remedies, to be administered only in desperate cases, +_heroic_, and Providence reserves heroes for similar crises in the body +politic. They are not sent but in times of agony and peril. If we have +lacked the thing, it is because we have lacked the occasion for it. +And even where truly splendid qualities have been displayed, as by our +sailors in the War of 1812, and by our soldiers in Mexico, they have +been either on so small a scale as to means, or on a scene so remote +from European interests, that they have failed of anything like +cosmopolitan appreciation. Our great actors have been confined to what, +so far as Europe is concerned, has been a provincial theatre; and an +obscure stage is often as fatal to fame as the want of a poet. + +But meanwhile has not this been very much the case with our critics +themselves? Leading British statesmen may be more accomplished scholars +than ours, Parliament may be more elegantly bored than Congress; but we +have a rooted conviction that commonplace thought and shallow principles +do not change their nature, even though disguised in the English of +Addison himself. Mr. Gladstone knows vastly more Greek than Mr. Chase, +but we may be allowed to doubt if he have shown himself an abler +finance-minister. Since the beginning of the present century it is safe +to say that England has produced no statesmen whom her own historians +will pronounce to be more than second- or third-rate men. The Crimean +War found her, if her own journalists were to be believed, without a +single great captain whether on land or sea, with incompetence in every +department, civil and military, and driven to every shift, even to +foreign enlistment and subsidy, to put on foot an army of a hundred +thousand men. What an opportunity for sermonizing on the failure of +representative government! In that war England lost much of her old +prestige in the eyes of the world, and felt that she had lost it. But +nothing would have been more unphilosophical than to have assumed that +England was degenerate or decrepit. It was only that her training had +been for so long exclusively mechanical and peaceful. The terrible, but +glorious, experience of the Indian Rebellion showed that Englishmen +still possessed in as full measure as ever those noble characteristics +on which they justly pride themselves, and of which a nation of kindred +blood would be the last to deny them the praise. When the heroic +qualities found their occasion, they were not wanting. + +We do not say this as unduly sensitive to the unfriendly, often +insulting and always unwise, criticisms of a large proportion of the +press and the public men of England. In ordinary times we could afford +to receive them with a good-natured smile. The zeal of certain new +converts to Adam Smith in behalf of the free-trade principles whose +cross they have assumed, their hatred and contempt for all heretics to +what is their doxy and therefore according to Dean Swift orthodoxy, and +the _naïve_ unconsciousness with which they measure and weigh the +moral qualities of other nations by the yards of cotton or tons of +manufactured iron which they consume for the benefit of Manchester and +Sheffield, are certainly as comic as anything in Aristophanes. The +madness of the philosopher who deemed himself personally answerable for +the obliquity of the ecliptic has more than its match in the sense of +responsibility shown by British journalists for the good conduct of the +rest of mankind. All other kingdoms, potentates, and powers would seem +to be minors or lunatics, and they the divinely appointed guardians +under bonds to see that their unhappy wards do no harm to themselves or +others. We confess, that, in reading the "Times," we have been sometimes +unable to suppress a feeling of humorous pity for the young man who +_does_ the leading articles, and who finds himself, fresh from Oxford +or Cambridge and the writing of Latin verses, called suddenly to the +autocracy of the Universe. We must pardon a little to the _imperii +novitas_, to the necessity of having universal misinformation always on +tap in his inkstand. He summons emperors, kings, ministers, even whole +nations, to the inexorable blackboard. His is the great normal school of +philosophy, statesmanship, political economy, taste, and deportment. He +must help Cavour to a knowledge of Italy, teach Napoleon to appreciate +the peculiarities of French character, interpret the American +Constitution for Mr. Lincoln. He holds himself directly accountable to +heaven and earth, alike for the right solution of the Papal Question +and for the costume of his countrymen in foreign parts. Theology or +trousers, he is infallible in both. Gregory the Seventh's wildest +dream of a universal popedom is more than fulfilled in him. He is the +unapproachable model of quack advertisers. He pats Italy on the head and +cries, "Study constitutional government as exemplified in England, and +try Mechi's razor-strops." For France he prescribes a reduction of army +and navy, and an increased demand for Manchester prints. America he +warns against military despotism, advises a tonic of English iron, and a +compress of British cotton, as sovereign against internal rupture. What +a weight for the shoulders of our poor Johannes Factotum! He is the +_commissionnaire_ of mankind, their guide, philosopher, and friend, +ready with a disinterested opinion in matters of art or _virtù_, and +eager to furnish anything, from a counterfeit Buddhist idol to a +poisoned pickle, for a commission, varying according to circumstances. + +But whatever one may think of the wisdom or the disinterestedness of the +organs of English commercial sentiment, it cannot be denied that it is +of great importance to us that the public opinion of England should be +enlightened in regard to our affairs. It would be idle to complain that +her policy is selfish; for the policy of nations is always so. It would +be foolish to forget that the sympathy of the British people has always +declared itself, sooner or later, in favor of free institutions, and of +a manly and upright policy toward other nations, or that this sympathy +has been on the whole more outspoken and enduring among Englishmen +than in any other nation of the Old World. We may justly complain that +England should see no difference between a rebel confederacy and a +nation to which she was bound by treaties and with which she had so long +been on terms of amity gradually ripening to friendship. But do not +let us be so childish as to wish for the suppression of the "Times +Correspondent," a shrewd, practised, and, for a foreigner, singularly +accurate observer, to whom we are indebted for the only authentic +intelligence from Secessia since the outbreak of the Rebellion, and +whose strictures, (however we may smile at his speculations,) if rightly +taken, may do us infinite service. Did he tell us anything about the +shameful rout of Bull Run which could not have been predicted beforehand +of raw troops, or which, indeed, General Scott himself had not +foreboded? That was not an especially American disgrace. Every +nationality under heaven was represented there, and an alarm among the +workmen on the Plains of Shinar that the foundations of the Tower +of Babel were settling could not have set in motion a more polyglot +_stampede_. The way to blot out Bull Run is as our brave Massachusetts +and Pennsylvania men did at Ball's Bluff, with their own blood, poured +only too lavishly. To our minds, the finest and most characteristic +piece of English literature, more inspiring even than Henry's speech +to his soldiers on the eve of Agincourt, is Nelson's signal, "England +expects every man to do his duty." When we have risen to that level and +are content to stand there, with no thought of self, but only of our +country and what we owe her, we need wince at no hostile sneer nor dread +any foreign combination. Granted that we have been a little boyish and +braggart, as was perhaps not unnatural in a nation hardly out of its +teens, our present trial is likely to make men of us, and to leave us, +like our British cousins, content with the pleasing consciousness +that we are the supreme of creation and under no necessity of forever +proclaiming it. Our present experience, also, of the unsoundness of +English judgment and the narrowness of English views concerning our +policy and character may have the good result of making our independence +in matters of thought and criticism as complete as our political +emancipation. + +Those who have watched the tendencies of opinion among educated +Englishmen during the last ten or fifteen years could hardly be +surprised, that, when the question was presented to them as being +between aristocratic and democratic ideas, between a race of gentlemen +and a mob of shopkeepers and snobs, they should have been inclined to +sympathize with the South. There have been unmistakable symptoms of +a reaction in England, since 1848 especially, against liberalism in +politics and in favor of things as they are. We are not to wonder that +Englishmen did not stop to examine too closely the escutcheon and +pedigree of this self-patented nobility. With one or two not very +striking exceptions, like Lord Fairfax and Washington, (who was of kin +to one of the few British peers that have enjoyed the distinction of +being hanged,) the entire population of America is descended from the +middle and lower classes in the old countries. The difference has been, +that the man at the South who raised cotton and sold it has gradually +grown to consider himself a superior being by comparison with his own +negroes, while the man at the North who raised potatoes and sold them +has been content with the old Saxon notion that he was as good as his +neighbors. The descendant of the Huguenot tradesman or artisan, if in +Boston, builds Faneuil Hall or founds Bowdoin College; if in Charleston, +he deals in negroes and persuades himself that he is sprung from the +loins of Baldwin, King of Jerusalem. The mass of the population at the +South is more intensely democratic, so far as white men are concerned, +than the same class at the North. + +There is a little inconsistency in the English oracles in this respect; +for, while they cannot conceal a kind of sympathy with the Southern +Rebels in what is supposed to be their war upon democratic institutions, +they tell us that they would heartily espouse our cause, if we would but +proclaim a crusade against Slavery. Suppose the Squires of England had +got up a rebellion because societies had been formed for the abolition +of the Corn-Laws; which would the "Times" have gone for putting down +first, the rebellion or the laws? England professes not to be able to +understand the principles of this wicked, this unholy war, as she calls +it. Yet she was not so slow to understand the necessity of putting down +the Irish Insurrection of 1848, or the Indian Rebellion ten years later. +She thinks it impossible for the Government of the United States to +subdue and hold provinces so vast as the Cotton States of America; yet +she neither foreboded nor as yet has found any impracticability in +renewing and retaining her hold on the vaster provinces of British +India,--provinces inhabited, all of them, by races alien in blood, +religion, and manners, and many by a population greatly exceeding that +of our Southern States, brave, warlike, and, to some extent, trained in +European tactics. To have abandoned India would have been to surrender +the greatness of England. English writers and speakers, in discussing +our affairs, overlook wholly the fact that a rebellion may be crushed by +anything except force of arms. Among a people of the same lineage and +the same language, but yesterday contented under the same Constitution, +and in an age when a victory in the stock-market is of more consequence +than successes in the field, political and economical necessities may be +safely reckoned on as slow, but effective, allies of the old order of +things. The people of this country are too much used to sudden and +seemingly unaccountable political revolutions not to be able to forfeit +their consistency without any loss of self-respect; and the rapidity +with which the Southern Rebellion was forced up to its present +formidable proportions, mainly by party management, is not unlikely to +find its parallel in suddenness of collapse. But whether this prove to +be the fact or not, nay, even if the reëstablishment of the Union had +been hopeless from the first, a government which should have abandoned +its capital, which should have flinched from the first and plainest duty +of self-preservation, which should have admitted by a cowardly surrender +that force was law, that treason was constitutional, and fraud +honorable, would have deserved and received the contempt of all +civilized nations, of England among the first. + +There is no such profound and universal alienation, still less such an +antagonism in political theory, between the people of the Northern and +Southern parts of the Union, as some English journals would infer from +the foolish talk of a few conceited persons in South Carolina and +Virginia. There is no question between landholders on the one side and +manufacturers and merchants on the other. The bulk of the population, +North and South, are holders of land, while the average size of the +holdings of land under cultivation is probably greater in the Free than +in the Slave States. The largest single estate in the country is, we +believe, in Illinois. Generalizations are commonly unsafe in proportion +as they are tempting; and this, together with its pretty twin-brother +about Cavaliers and Roundheads, would seem to have been hatched from the +same egg and in the same mare's-nest. If we should take the statements +of Dr. Cullen and Mr. Smith O'Brien for our premises, instead of the +manifest facts of the case, our conclusion in regard to Ireland would +be an anachronism which no Englishman would allow to be within half +a century of the actual condition of things. And yet could the Irish +revolutionists of thirteen years ago have had the advantage of a +ministry like that of Mr. Buchanan,--had every Irish officer and soldier +been false to his honor and his allegiance,--had Ireland been supplied +and England stripped of arms and munitions of war by the connivance +of the Government,--the riot of 1848 might have become a rebellion as +formidable as our own in everything but territorial proportions. Equally +untrue is the theory that our Tariff is the moving cause of Southern +discontent. Louisiana certainly would hardly urge this as the reason of +her secession; and if the Rebel States could succeed in establishing +their independence, they would find more difficulty in raising a +national revenue by direct taxes than the North, and would be driven +probably to a tariff more stringent than that of the present United +States. If we are to generalize at all, it must be on broader and +safer grounds. Prejudices and class-interests may occasion temporary +disturbances in the current of human affairs, but they do not +permanently change the course of the channel. That is governed by +natural and lasting causes, and commerce, in spite of Southern +Commercial Conventions, will no more flow up-hill than water. It is +possible, we will not say probable, that our present difficulties may +result to the advantage both of England and America: to England, by +giving her a real hold upon India as the source of her cotton-supply, +and to America by making the North the best customer for the staple of +the South. + +We believe the immediate cause of the Southern Rebellion to be something +far deeper than any social prejudice or political theory on the part of +slaveholders, or any general apprehension of danger to their peculiar +property. That cause is a moral one, and is to be found in the +recklessness, the conceit, the sophistry, the selfishness, which are +necessarily engendered by Slavery itself. A generation of men educated +to justify a crime against the Law of Nature because it is profitable, +will hardly be restrained long by any merely political obligation, when +they have been persuaded to see their advantage in the breach of it. Why +not, then, at once lay the axe to the root of the mischief? Why did not +England attack Irish Catholicism in 1848? Why does not Louis Napoleon +settle the Papal Question with a stroke of his pen? Because the action +of a constitutional government is limited by constitutional obligations. +Because every government, even if despotic, must be guided by policy +rather than abstract right or reason. Because, in our own case, so much +pains have been taken to persuade the people of some peculiar sanctity +in human property, and to teach them the duty of yielding their moral +instincts to their duty as citizens, that even the Free States are by no +means ripe for a crusade. The single and simple duty of the Government +is to put down resistance to its legitimate authority; it meddles, +and can meddle, with no claim of right except the monstrous one of +rebellion. An absolute ruler in advance of his people has been more +than once obliged to abandon his reforms to save his throne; a popular +government which should put itself in the same position might endanger +not only its own hold upon power, (a minor consideration,) but, in such +a crisis as ours, the very frame of society itself. We must admit +that the administration of Mr. Lincoln has sometimes seemed to us +over-cautious; that, while it has not scrupled, and wisely has not +scrupled, to go behind the letter of the law to its spirit, in dealing +with open abettors of treason in the Free States, because they were +perverting private right to public wrong, it has been as scrupulous of +meddling with a rebel's legal right in man, though that man were being +used for a weapon or a tool against itself, as if to touch it were +anathema. The divinity, which is only a hedge about a king, becomes a +wall of triple brass about a slaveholder. + +But while we should prefer a more daring, or at least a more definite +policy on the part of the Government, we do not think the time has come +for turning the war into a crusade. The example of saints, martyrs, +and heroes, who could disregard consequences because the consequences +concerned only themselves and their own life, is for the private man, +and not for the statesman who is responsible for the complex life of the +commonwealth. To carry on a war we must have money, to get money we must +have the confidence of the money-holders, who would not advance a dollar +on a pledge of the finest sentiments in the world. There is something +instructive in the fate of that mob of enthusiasts who followed the +banner of Walter the Penniless, a name of evil omen. It saves trouble to +say that we must fight the Devil with fire; though, when the Devil is +incarnate in human beings, that policy has never been very successful +at Smithfield or elsewhere. But in trying the fiery cure of a servile +insurrection, we should run the risk of converting the whole white +population of the South into devils of the most desperate sort, with +whom any kind of reconciliation, even truce, would be impossible. + +We hope and believe that the end of this war will see the snake of +Slavery scotched, if not killed. Events move,--slowly, to be sure, but +they move,--and the thought of the people moves with them unconsciously +to fulfil the purposes of God. Government can do little, perhaps, in +controlling them; but it has no right to the power it holds, if it has +not the insight and the courage to make use of them at the right moment. +If the supreme question should arise of submitting to rebellion or of +crushing it in a common ruin with the wrong that engendered it, we +believe neither the Government nor the people would falter. The time for +answering that question may be nearer than we dream; but meanwhile +we would not hasten what would at best be a terrible necessity, and +justifiable only as such. We believe this war is to prepare the way for +the extinction of Slavery by the action of economical causes, and we +should prefer that solution to one of fire and blood. Already the system +has received a death-blow in Maryland and Missouri. In Western Virginia +it is practically extinct. If the war is carried on with vigor, it +may become so before long in East Tennessee. Texas should be taken +possession of and held at any cost, and a territory capable of supplying +the world with cotton to any conceivable amount thrown open to free +labor. + +However regarded, this war into which we have been driven is, in fact, a +war against Slavery. But emancipation is not and could not be the object +of the war. It will be time enough to consider the question as one of +military necessity when our armies advance. To proclaim freedom from the +banks of the Potomac to an unarmed, subject, and dispirited race, when +the whole white population is in arms, would be as futile as impolitic. +Till we can equip our own army, it is idle to talk of arming the slaves; +and to incite them to insurrection without arms, and without the +certainty of support at first and protection afterward, would be merely +sacrificing them to no good end. It is true, the war may lack the ardent +stimulus that would for a time be imparted to it by a direct and obvious +moral purpose. But we doubt whether the impulse thus gained would hold +out long against the immense practical obstacles with which it would be +confronted and the chill of disappointment which is sure to follow an +attempt to realize ideal good by material means. Nor would our gain in +this respect more than compensate for the strength which would be added +to the rebels by despair. It is a question we have hardly the heart to +discuss, where our wishes, our hopes, almost our faith in God, are on +one side, our understanding and experience on the other. + +Nor are we among those who would censure the Government for undue +leniency. If democracy has made us a good-natured people, it is a strong +argument in its favor, and we need have no fear that the evil passions +of men will ever be buried beyond hope of resurrection. We would not +have this war end without signal and bitter retribution, and especially +for all who have been guilty of deliberate treachery; for that is a kind +of baseness that should be extirpated at any cost. If, in moments of +impatience, we have wished for something like the rough kingship +of Jackson, cooler judgment has convinced us that the strength of +democratic institutions will be more triumphantly vindicated by success +under an honest Chief Magistrate of average capacity than under a man +exceptional, whether by force of character or contempt of precedent. + +Is this, then, to be a commonplace war, a prosaic and peddling quarrel +about Cotton? Shall there be nothing to enlist enthusiasm or kindle +fanaticism? Are we to have no Cause like that for which our English +republican ancestors died so gladly on the field, with such dignity +on the scaffold?--no Cause that shall give us a hero, who knows but a +Cromwell? To our minds, though it may be obscure to Englishmen who look +on Lancashire as the centre of the universe, no army was ever enlisted +for a nobler service than ours. Not only is it national life and a +foremost place among nations that is at stake, but the vital principle +of Law itself, the august foundation on which the very possibility of +government, above all of self-government, rests as in the hollow of +God's own hand. If democracy shall prove itself capable of having +raised twenty millions of people to a level of thought where they can +appreciate this cardinal truth, and can believe no sacrifice too great +for its defence and establishment, then democracy will have vindicated +itself beyond all chance of future cavil. Here, we think, is a Cause the +experience of whose vicissitudes and the grandeur of whose triumph +will be able to give us heroes and statesmen. The Slave-Power must be +humbled, must be punished,--so humbled and so punished as to be a +warning forever; but Slavery is an evil transient in its cause and its +consequences, compared with those which would result from unsettling the +faith of a nation in its own manhood, and setting a whole generation of +men hopelessly adrift in the formless void of anarchy. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Armies of Europe: Comprising Descriptions in Detail of the Military +Systems of England, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sardinia, +adapting their Advantages to all Arms of the United States Service; and +embodying the Report of Observations in Europe during the Crimean War, +as Military Commissioner from the United Stales Government in 1855-56_. +By GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Major-General U.S. Army. Originally published +under the Direction of the War Department, by Order of Congress. +Illustrated with a Fine Steel Portrait and Several Hundred Engravings. +Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 8vo. + +It is an interesting study to examine into the causes or motives which +have produced military books of the higher order; for we are thus +vouchsafed an insight into the writer's genius, and an intelligence of +the circumstances amidst which he wrote, and of which he was often an +important controller. The Archduke Charles wrote his "Grundsätze der +Strategie," etc., as a vindication of his splendid movements in 1796, +against the French armies of the Rhine and the Sambre-et-Meuse; and +it has remained at once a monument to his achievements and a standard +text-book in military science. Marmont, the Marshal Duke of Ragusa, +collecting the principles of the art of war from "long and frequent +conversations with Napoleon, twenty campaigns, and more than half a +century of experience," has given us, in his "Esprit des Institutions +Militaires," a condensed view of his own military life, as complete, if +not as pleasantly diffuse, as his large volumes of "Mémoires." Jomini, +from an extended experience, and a study of the genius of Napoleon, +which his Russian position could never induce him to undervalue, +has produced those standard works which must always remain the +treasure-houses of military knowledge. We admire veracity, but let no +soldier confess that he has not read the "Vie Politique et Militaire," +and the "Précis de l'Art de la Guerre." But, in all these cases, the +_litera scripta_ has been but the closing act,--the signing of the name +to History's bead-roll of passing greatness,--the _testamentum_ of the +old soldier whose _personalty_ is worth bequeathing to the world. + +The work before us, although of great value and present importance, is +of a very different character; as a glance at the circumstances +which produced it will show. It has, however, we would fondly hope, +anticipated for its youthful author a greater success. + +In 1855, Mr. Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, sent a military +commission to Europe, composed of Major Delafield of the Engineers, +Major Mordecai of the Ordnance, and Captain McClellan, just promoted +from a Lieutenancy of Engineers to a Captaincy in the Cavalry. Major +Delafield was charged with the special subject of Engineering; Major +Mordecai with Ordnance and Gunnery; and to Captain McClellan was +assigned the duty of a general report upon the Organization of Armies, +with a special hearing upon the formation of Infantry and Cavalry. Each +of these gentlemen has written a book, and that of McClellan, originally +published as a Report to the Secretary of War,--in unmanageable quarto, +and at a more unmanageable price,--is now issued, in the volume before +us, with the very appropriate title, "The Armies of Europe," and in a +convenient form for the eye and the purse. + +Whatever of technical value the other reports may have,--and they +are, we doubt not, excellent,--McClellan's is the only one of popular +interest, the only one of rounded proportions and general importance; +and if it also contain much addressed to the professional soldier, it +must be remembered that the country is now being educated up to the +intelligent perusal of such books. + +Travelling in all the principal countries of Europe,--Montesquieu's +assertion is now verified, that "only great nations can have large +armies,"--the commission met everywhere proper facilities for +observation. McClellan made full notes upon the spot, procured all the +books of Tactics, Regulations, Military Laws, etc., and provided himself +with such models of arms, equipments, saddles, bridles, tents, etc., +as were easily transported. Operations of a difficult and laborious +character, such as carrying horses on shipboard, are fully demonstrated +with diagrams. Marches, manoeuvres, detachments, battles, are fully +disclosed. Such investigations, when the French, Italian, or German +language was the medium, were comparatively easy; but in order to give a +proper comparative view, he was obliged also to study Russian, which he +did successfully; by this means he has given us a masterly summary +of the Russian system, with its immense battalions, its thousands of +military schools, and its Cossack skirmishers, of wonderful endurance +and formidable fierceness. + +The volume is a complete description in detail of the principal armies, +and of wider scope than would be expected; for, while the author has +been very full upon the special topics assigned him, which did not +include the duties of Engineers and Engineer Troops, it is easy to see +everywhere that these latter would intrude themselves with the siren +charms of a first love, and nothing but the record could dissolve the +spell. Indeed, he urgently recommends to the Government the organization +of Engineer troops, specifying their equipments, points of instruction, +and duties. In this department, his description of Military Bridges is +of great value. Incident to the faithful descriptions contained in the +Report, and by far the most valuable feature of the work, we would +specify his comments upon all that he saw. They are manly and bold, but +_raisonnés_ and just. They give token of that originality of thought +which we call genius. The opening chapter on the Crimean War is the only +fair critique of that gallant, but mismanaged campaign we remember to +have seen. The author's object is to exhibit the movements of both +Allies and Russians + + "As truth will paint them, and as bards will + not." + +When MeClellan's work first appeared, the "Athenaeum" took up spear +and shield; but, _selon conseil_, McClellan declined to reply, and the +champion fought the air, without injuring the record. + +A prime interest attaches to this work, because, unconsciously, the +author has given us, in advance, his repertory of instruments and +principles. From the written word we may anticipate the brilliant +achievement, while in every case the action may be tested by a reference +to the recorded principle. + +The retirement of Scott places McClellan in a position where he will +have neither partner nor censor in his plans and movements. The graceful +and appropriate manner in which the old veteran leaves the field, which +age and infirmity will no longer allow him to command, is but a fitting +prelude to the military rule of one upon whose brow the dew of youth +still rests, and who brings to his responsible task the highest +qualities, combined with a veneration for the noble virtues and an +emulation of the magnanimous career of his predecessor, at once +honorable and inspiring. + + +_Spare Hours_. By JOHN BROWN, M.D., Author of "Rab and his Friends." +Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. + +It has not yet been satisfactorily explained why doctors are such shrewd +and genial men, and, when they appear in the literary field, such +charming writers. This is one of the curious problems of the day, and +undoubtedly holds its own answer in solution, but has not yet seen fit +to make an observable precipitate. Perhaps this is because the times are +stirring, and the facts cannot settle. A delightful exhibition is made +of something extremely good to take, which we swallow unscrupulously: +in other words, we can only guess how many scruples, and of what, this +blessed medicine for the mind contains. As it is eminently fit for every +American to have an hypothesis upon every subject, we might now, with +proper recklessness, rush into print with a few unhesitating suggestions +upon this singular phenomenon of doctors gifted and graceful with the +pen. + +We observe, at any rate, that it is something independent of climate and +locality, and not at all endemic. Otherwise it might be true that the +restless and inquisitive climate of the Atlantic coast, which wears the +ordinary Yankee to leanness, and "establishes a raw" upon the nervous +system, does soften to acuteness, mobility, and racy corrugation in the +breast of its natural ally, the Doctor. For autocratic tempers are bland +towards each other, and murderous characteristics can mutually impart +something homologous to the refining interchange of beautiful souls. +Therefore we do not yet know how much our climate is indebted to our +doctors. It may be suspected that they understand each other, as the +quack and the fool do, whose interests are identical. + +But this will not account for the literary talent of the doctors. For +they write books in England and Scotland, in France and temperate +Germany, in every latitude and _with_ a good deal; they are, however, +defective in longitude, which is remarkable, when we consider how they +will protract their cases. With their pens they are prompt, clean, +humane in the matter of ink, their first intention almost always +successful, their thought expelled by natural cerebral contraction +without stimulus, (we speak of ergot, but of "old rye" we know nothing,) +their passion running to its crisis in the minimum of time, and their +affections altogether pleasanter than anything of the kind they accuse +us of having, as well as less lingering. But with their pills--well, we +all know how our ills are nursed by medicine. Is it a relief that their +precept is less tedious than their practice? It is good policy for us, +perhaps, if our minds are to be under treatment from their books,--and +it grows plainer every day that no person of mind can well escape from +them,--that our bodies should continue subject to their boluses. Thus +we may die daily, but our incorporeal part is better acclimated in the +invisible world of truths and realities. + +No,--the doctors owe nothing to climate or race. The intelligent ones +are everywhere broad, acute, tender, and religious. They uniformly see +what is natural and what is morbid, what is fact and what is fancy, what +is cutaneous and what is vital, in men and women. They stand on unreal, +conventional terms with nothing. They know healthy from inflamed +tissues, and run down, grab, and give one dexterous fatal shake to a +tissue of lies. One of Dr. Brown's terriers is not more swift, exact, +and uncompromising after vermin. This excellent sense for unvarnished +realities has been attributed by some to their habit of visiting so many +interiors--of men and of their houses--whose swell-fronts are pervious +to the sincerity of pain. We never see a doctor's chaise anchored at a +door but we imagine the doctor taking in freight up-stairs. In these +days he is beginning to receive more than he gives. Let no sarcastic +person allude to doctors' fees. We mean that the physician, whose +humanity and intelligence are broad diplomas, on presenting which the +doors of hearts and houses open with a welcome, enters into the choicest +field of his education and research, where his tender observation walks +the wards of thought, feeling, and motive, to amass the facts of health +and suffering, to be refined at the true drama of pathos, to be ennobled +by the spectacle of fair and lofty spiritual traits, to be advised of +the weaknesses which he learns to touch lightly with his caustic, while +his knowing and friendly look deprecates all excess of pain. It is a +school of shrewdness, gentleness, and faith. + +But a rich subject is here, altogether too wide for a book-notice, and +worthy of deliberate, but enthusiastic treatment. Dr. John Brown of +Edinburgh has consulted his own interior, and frequented those of +his diocese, to some purpose. The pieces in this volume, which the +publishers have selected from the two volumes of "Horae Subsecivae," +omitting the more professional papers, are full of humor, tenderness, +and common sense. They betray only occasionally, in a technical way, +that the author is a disciple, as well as admirer, of Sydenham, and his +own countryman, Cullen. But they overflow with the best specifics of the +healing art, shrewdness, independence, nice observation; they have a +woman's kindness and a man's sturdiness. They honor human nature not the +less because the writer knows how to manage it, to raise a smile at its +absurdities, to rally, pique, and guide it into health and good-humor. +He is very clever with the edge-tools in his surgeon's-case; he whips +you out an excrescence before you are quite aware that he meditated +an operation, and you find that he had chloroformed you with a shrewd +writer's best anaesthetic, a humorous and genial temper. + +There is a great deal of nice writing here. Happy words come at a call +and occupy their inevitable places. Now and then a Scotch word, with a +real terrier phiz and the best qualities of "black and tan," gives the +page a local flavor which we should not like to miss. But the writing +is not provincial. There is Scotch character everywhere: the keenness, +intensity, reverence, shaggy humor, sly fun, and just a touch of the +intolerance. The somewhat literal regard for Scripture, the awe, and the +unquestioning, childlike way of being religious, with the independence +of Kirk and Sessions and National Establishments, all belong to the best +intelligence of Edinburgh. But the literary felicity, the scholarship, +the various reading, the cultivated appreciation of books, men, and +systems, while they make us admire--as a good many bright volumes +printed in Edinburgh have done before--the mental power and refinement +which that most picturesque of Northern cities nourishes, do still +belong to the great commonwealth of letters, remind us not of wynds and +closes, and run away from the littleness of time and place. + +If the reader would understand the difference between the sentimental +and the pathetic treatment of a subject, let him see in "Rab and his +Friends" how the pen of Dr. Brown follows the essential lines of that +most pure and tender of all stories. In doing so he has given us a new +creation in Ailie Noble. Not a line can be effectively added to that +ideal narrative of a true history, not a word can be pushed from its +place. The whole treatment is at once delicate, incisive, tender, +reserved, and dramatic. And after reading it,--with or without tears, +according to your capacity for dogged resistance to a distended +lachrymal duct,--you will be conscious of bearing away a sweet and +subduing impression, like that which a rare friend can sometimes give, +which lingers many days. + +Let nobody omit to read the "Letter to John Cairns, D.D.," because he +does not care for J.C. or know who he is. It contains some reminiscences +by Dr. Brown of his father, a noted clergyman, of whose life and +character Dr. Cairns had prepared a memoir. In this, and in the Essay +upon Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Brown shows his capacity to observe and +portray human moods and characteristics. There are his usual literary +excellences, brought to the service of a keen and faithfully reporting +eye, and his fine humane qualities, his tenderness, reverence, and +humor. + +This volume is one of the best ventures of the literary year. + + +_Cecil Dreeme_. By THEODORE WINTHROP. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. + +In the death of Major Winthrop, at the promising commencement of his +military career, the nation lost one of its purest, noblest, and most +capable spirits. His industry, sagacity, and intrepidity all rested on a +firm basis of fixed principle and deep enthusiasm; and had he lived, we +have little doubt that both his moral and practical power would have +been felt among the palpable forces of the country. In the articles he +contributed to this magazine, describing his brief military experience, +every reader must have recognized the singular brightness of his mind +and the singular joyousness of his courage. Powers which, in meditation, +worked at the bidding of pensive or melancholy sentiments, seemed to +be braced by action into unwonted healthiness and hilarity; and had he +survived the experience of the present war, there can be little doubt +that his intellect and imagination would, by contact with events, have +been developed to their full capacity, and found expression in literary +works of remarkable power. + +"Cecil Dreeme" is one of several novels he wrote before the war broke +out, and it conveys a striking impression of his genius and disposition. +The utmost sensitiveness and delicacy of moral sense were combined in +him with a rough delight in all the manifestations of manly strength; +and these two tendencies of his nature are fitly embodied and +exquisitely harmonized in the characters of Cecil Dreeme and Robert +Byng. They are opposites which by their very nature are necessarily +attracted to each other. The obstacle to their mental and moral union +is found in a third person, Densdeth, in whom manly strength and genius +have been corrupted by selfishness and sensuality into the worst form +of spiritual evil. This person is simply abhorred by Cecil, while Byng +finds in him something which tempts appetite, piques curiosity, develops +sensuous feeling, and provokes pride, as well as something which excites +moral disgust and loathing. Byng's distrustful love for Emma Denman +admirably represents this stage of his moral experience. + +Densdeth is undoubtedly the central character of the book. It proves +its creator to be a true spiritual as well as physical descendant of +President Edwards; and not even his ancestor has shown more vividly the +"exceeding sinfulness of sin." Densdeth is one of those evil natures +in whom delight in evil pleasures has subsided into a delight in evil +itself, and a desire to communicate it to others. He has the diabolical +power of calling out the latent evil in all natures with whom his own +comes in contact, and he corrupts, not so much by example, as by a +direct communication of the corrupt spiritual life of his individual +being. He is an accomplished devil, wearing the guise of a New-York man +of fashion and fortune,--a devil such as tempts every person thrown into +the vortex of our daily commonplace life. Every pure sentiment, noble +aspiration, and manly instinct, every natural affection, gentle feeling, +and religious principle, is tainted by his contaminating companionship. +He infuses a subtle skepticism of the reality of goodness by the mere +magnetism of his evil presence. Persons who have been guarded against +the usual contrivances by which the conventional Devil works his wonders +find themselves impotent before the fascinations of Densdeth. They +follow while they detest him, and are at once his victims and his +accomplices. In those whose goodness, like that of Cecil Dreeme, is +founded on purity of sentiment and strength of principle, he excites +unmitigated abhorrence and strenuous opposition; but on all those whose +excellence is "respectable" rather than vital, who are good by the +felicity of their circumstances rather than the force of their +conscience, he exercises a fascination almost irresistible. To +everybody, indeed, who has in him any latent evil not overbalanced by +the habitual performance of positive duties, Densdeth's companionship +is morally blighting. The character, fearful in its way as the +Mephistopheles of Goethe, is represented with considerable artistic +skill. + +Though the most really prominent person in the drama, he is, in the +representation, kept in the background,--a cynical, sneering, brilliant +demi-devil, who appears only when some plot against innocence is +beginning its wiles or approaching its consummation. + +The incidents of the novel occur in some of the best-known localities +of New York. Nobody can mistake Chuzzlewit Hotel and Chrysalis College. +Every traveller has put up at the first and visited some literary +or artistic friend at the second. Indeed, Winthrop seems to have +deliberately chosen the localities of his story with the special +purpose of showing that passions almost as terrible as those which are +celebrated in the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles may rage in the +ordinary lodging-houses of New York. He has succeeded in throwing an +atmosphere of mystery over places which are essentially commonplace; +and he has done it by the intensity with which he has conceived and +represented the internal thoughts, struggles, and emotions of the men +and women by whom these edifices of brick and stone are inhabited. + +Though a clear narrator, when the story required clear narration, +Winthrop perfectly understood the art of narrating by implication and +allusion. He paints distinctly and minutely, not omitting a single +detail, when the occasion demands such faithful representation of real +facts and localities; but he has also the power of flashing his meaning +by suggestive hints which the most labored description and explication +could not make more effective. He makes the mind of the reader work +sympathetically with his own in building up the idea he seeks to convey. +Crimes which are nameless are mutually understood by this refined +communion between author and reader. The mystery of the plot is not +directly explained, but each party seems to bring, as in private +conversation, his individual sagacity to bear upon the right +interpretation. + +The style of the book is admirable. It is brief almost to abruptness. +The words are few, and are crammed with all the meaning they can hold. +There is not a page which does not show that the writer is an economist +of expression, and desirous of conveying his matter with the slightest +possible expenditure of ink. Charles Reade himself does not condense +with a more fretful impatience of all circumlocution and a profounder +reliance on the absolute import of single words. + +We might easily refer to particular scenes from this book, illustrative +of the author's descriptive and representative powers. Among many which +might be noticed, we will allude to only two,--that in which Cecil is +revived from his "sleep of death," and that in the opera-house, where +Byng is apprised of the guilt of Emma Denman. Nobody can read either +without feeling that in the disastrous fight of Great Bethel we lost a +great novelist as well as a chivalrous soldier and a noble man. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Gypsy's Prophecy. A Tale of Real Life. By Mrs. Emma D.E.N. +Southworth. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 455. +$1.25. + +The Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. Illustrated from +Drawings by F.O.C. Darley and John Gilbert. Great Expectations. 2 vols. +New York. James G. Gregory. 16mo. pp. 336, 334. $1.50. + +The Silver Cord. A Novel. By Shirley Brooks. With Illustrations by John +Tenniel. New York. Harper & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 268. $1.00. + +Astoria; or, Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. By +Washington Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New York. G.P. Putnam. 8vo. +pp. viii., 519. $1.50. + +Revised Regulations for the Army of the United States, 1861. With a Full +Index. By Authority of the War Department. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott +& Co. 8vo. pp. 559. $2.00. + +Manual of Internal Rules and Regulations for Men-of-War. By Captain U.P. +Levy, U.S.N., late Flag-Officer commanding United States Naval Forces in +the Mediterranean; Originator of the Abolition of Corporal Punishment in +the United States Navy. New York. D. Van Nostrand. 18mo. pp. 70. 30 cts. + +The Rejected Stone: or, Insurrection _vs._ Resurrection in America. By a +Native of Virginia. Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. 16mo. pp. 132. 50 cts. + +Sermons preached in the Chapel of Harvard College. By James Walker, D.D. +Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. vi., 397. $1.50. + +Lady Maud, the Wonder of Kingswood Chase; or, Earl Gower; or, The +Secret Marriage. By Pierce Egan. Only Complete and Unabridged Edition. +Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 365. $1.25. + +The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, and +Lord High Chancellor of England. Collected and edited by James Spedding, +M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge; Robert Leslie Ellis, M.A., +late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Douglas Denon Heath, +Barrister-at-Law, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Vol. II. +Boston. Brown & Taggard. 12mo. pp. 503. $1.50. + +Cecil Dreeme. By Theodore Winthrop. With a Biographical Introduction by +George William Curtis. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 360. $1.00. + +Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada. From the Manuscripts of Fray +Antonio Agapida. By Washington Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New +York. G.P. Putnam. 12mo. pp. 548. $1.50. + +Woman's Rights under the Law. In Three Lectures, delivered in Boston, +January, 1861. By Caroline H. Dall, Author of "Woman's Right to Labor," +"Historical Pictures Retouched," etc., etc. Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. +16mo. pp. xx., 165. 50 cts. + +Eugénie Grandet; or, The Miser's Daughter. From the French of Honoré de +Balzac. Translated by O.W. Wight and F.B. Goodrich. New York. Rudd & +Carleton. 12mo. pp. 309. $1.00. + +Record of an Obscure Man. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 216. 75 +cts. + +Essays. By the late George Brimley, M.A., Librarian of Trinity College, +Cambridge. With an Introduction by R.H. Stoddard. New York. Rudd & +Carleton. 12mo. pp. 409. $1.25. + +The Cloister and the Hearth; or, Maid, Wife, and Widow. A Matter-of-Fact +Romance. By Charles Reade. New York. Rudd & Carleton. 8vo. pp. 256. +$1.00. + +The Last Travels of Ida Pfeiffer: Inclusive of a Visit to Madagascar. +With an Autobiographical Introduction. Translated by H.W. Dulcken. New +York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 281. $1.25. + +Patriotic and Heroic Eloquence: A Book for the Patriot, Statesman, and +Student. New York. J.G. Gregory. 12mo. pp. 264. 75 cts. + +Great Expectations. By Charles Dickens. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & +Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. 108. 25 cts. + +Deep-Sea Soundings and Explorations of the Bottom: or, The Ultimate +Analysis of Human Knowledge. By A.B. Johnson. Printed for Private +Distribution. 16mo. pp. 78. + +The Armies of Europe: Comprising Descriptions in Detail of the Military +Systems of England, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sardinia, +adapting their Advantages to all Arms of the United States Service; and +embodying the Report of Observations in Europe during the Crimean War, +as Military Commissioner from the United States Government in 1835-56. +By George B. McClellan, Major-General United States Army. Originally +published under the Direction of the War Department, by Order of +Congress. Illustrated with Several Hundred Engravings. Philadelphia, +J.B. Lippincott & Co. 8vo. pp. 499. $3.00. + +Tales of a Grandfather. History of Scotland. By Sir Walter Scott, Bart. +With Notes. In Six Volumes. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. Vols. I. and +II. pp. xii., 301; vi., 301. per vol. 75 cts. + +The Okavango River. A Narrative of Travel, Exploration, and Adventure. +By Charles John Andersson. With Maps and Illustrations. New York. Harper +& Brothers. 8vo. pp. 414. $2.00. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 50, +December, 1861, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NO. 50 *** + +***** This file should be named 11524-8.txt or 11524-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/5/2/11524/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 50, December, 1861 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 9, 2004 [EBook #11524] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, NO. 50 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VIII--DECEMBER, 1861.--NO. L. + + + + +THE HOME OF LAFAYETTE. + + +After General Lafayette's visit to the United States, in 1824, every +American who went to France went with a firm conviction that he had +a right to take as much as he chose of the old gentleman's time and +hospitality, at his own estimate of their value. Fortunately, the number +of travellers was not great in those days, although a week seldom passed +without bringing two or three new faces to the Rue d'Anjou or La Grange. +It was well both for the purse and the patience of the kind-hearted old +man that ocean steamers were still a doubtful problem, and first-class +packets rarely over five hundred tons. + +It could hardly be expected that a boy of sixteen should have more +discretion than his elders; and following the universal example of my +countrymen, the first use that I made of a Parisian cabriolet was to +drive to No. 6, Rue d'Anjou. The _porte cochere_ was open, and the +porter in his lodge,--a brisk little Frenchman, somewhat past middle +age, with just bows enough to prove his nationality, and very expressive +gestures, which I understood much better than I did his words; for they +said, or seemed to say,--"The General is out, and I will take charge +of your letter and card." There was nothing else for me to do, and +so, handing over my credentials, I gave the rest of the morning to +sightseeing, and, being a novice at it and alone, soon got tired and +returned to my hotel. + +I don't know how that hotel would look to me now; but to my untrained +eyes of that day it looked wonderfully fine. I liked the name,--the +Petit Hotel Montmorenci,--for I knew enough of French history to know +that Montmorenci had always been a great name in France. Then it was the +favorite resort of Americans; and although I was learning the phrases +in Blagdon as fast as I could, I still found English by far the most +agreeable means of communication for everything beyond an appeal to the +waiter for more wood or a clean towel. Table d'Hote, too, brought us +all together, with an abundant, if not a rich, harvest of personal +experiences gathered during the day from every quarter of the teeming +city. Bradford was there with his handsome face and fine figure,--an old +resident, as it then seemed to me; for he had been abroad two years, and +could speak what sounded to my ears as French-like as any French I had +ever heard. Poor fellow! scarce three years had passed when he laid him +down to his last sleep in a convent of Jerusalem, without a friend to +smooth his pillow or listen to his last wishes. Of most of the others +the names have escaped me; but I shall never forget how wide I opened +my eyes, one evening, at the assertion of a new-comer, that he had done +more for the enlightenment of France than any man living or dead. The +incomparable gravity with which the assertion was made drew every eye to +the speaker, who, after enjoying our astonishment for a while, told us +that he had been the first to send out a whaler from Havre, and had +secured almost a monopoly of the oil-trade. Some years afterwards I made +a passage with his brother, and learned from him the history of +this Yankee enterprise, which had filled two capacious purses, and +substituted the harpoon for the pruning-knife, the whale-ship for the +olive-orchard, in the very stronghold of the emblem of peace; and now +the collier with his pickaxe has driven them both from the field. But +the Petit Hotel Montmorenci did not wait for the change. Its broad court +was never enlivened by gas. Its tables and mantels were decked to the +last hour with the alabaster whiteness of those pure wax tapers which +shed such a soft light upon your book, and grew up into such formidable +items in your bills. A long passage--one of those luxuries of rainy, +muddy Paris, lined with stores that you cannot help lingering over, if +for nothing else, to wonder at the fertility of the human brain when it +makes itself the willing minister of human caprice--covers the whole +space which the hotel stood on, and unites the Neuve St. Marc with the +once distant Boulevard. + +As I passed the porter's lodge, he handed me a letter. The hand was one +that I had never seen before; the address was in French; and the seal, +red wax thinly spread, but something which had been put on it before it +was cool had entirely effaced the impress: as I afterwards learned, it +was the profile of Washington. I opened it, and judge my surprise and +delight on reading the following words:-- + +"Paris, Thursday. + +"I am very sorry not to have had the pleasure to see you when you have +called this morning, my dear Sir. My stay in town will be short. But you +will find me to-morrow from nine in the morning until twelve. I hope we +shall see you soon at La Grange, which I beg of you to consider as +your home, being that of your grandfather's most intimate friend and +brother-in-arms. + +"LAFAYETTE." + +It was nearly eleven when I reached the Rue d'Anjou and began for +the first time to mount the broad stairway of a Parisian palace. The +General's apartments were on the entresol, with a separate staircase +from the first landing of the principal one; for his lameness made +it difficult for him to go up-stairs, and the entresol, a half-story +between the ground floor and the first story, when, as was the case +here, high enough in the ceiling, is one of the freest and pleasantest +parts of a French house. His apartments comprised five rooms on a +line,--an antechamber, a dining-room, two parlors, and a bed-room, +with windows on the street,--and the same number of smaller rooms on a +parallel line, with their windows on the court-yard, which served for +his secretary and servants. The furniture throughout was neat and plain: +the usual comfortable arm-chairs and sofas, the indispensable clock and +mirror over the mantelpiece, and in each fireplace a cheerful wood-fire. +There were two or three servants in the antechamber, well-dressed, but +not in livery; and in the parlor, into which I was shown on handing my +card, two or three persons waiting for an audience. Fortunately for me, +they were there on business, and the business was soon despatched; and +passing, in turn, into the reception parlor, I found myself in the +presence of the friend of Washington and my grandfather. + +He received me so cordially, with such kind inquiries into the object +and cause of my journey, such a fatherly interest in my plans and aims, +such an earnest repetition of the invitation he had given me in his note +to look upon La Grange as my home, that I felt at once that I was no +longer without a guide and protector in a foreign land. It was some time +before I could observe him closely enough to get a just idea of his +appearance; for I had never before been consciously in the presence of +a man who had filled so many pages of real history, and of the history +which above all others I was most interested in. I felt as if a veil had +been suddenly lifted, and the great men I had read of and dreamed of +were passing before me. There were the features which, though changed, +had so often called up a smile of welcome to the lips of Washington; +there was the man who had shared with my grandfather the perils of the +Brandywine and Monmouth, the long winter encampment, and the wearisome +summer march; the man whom Napoleon had tried all the fascinations of +his art upon, and failed to lure him from his devotion to the cause of +freedom; whom Marat and Robespierre had marked out for destruction, and +kings and emperors leagued against in hatred and fear. It was more like +a dream than a reality, and for the first twenty minutes I was almost +afraid to stir for fear I might wake up and find the vision gone. But +when I began to look at him as a being of real flesh and blood, I found +that Ary Scheffer's portrait had not deceived me. Features, expression, +carriage, all were just as it had taught me to expect them, and it +seemed to me as if I had always known him. The moment I felt this I +began to feel at my ease; and though I never entirely lost the feeling +that I had a living chapter of history before me, I soon learned to look +upon him as a father. + +As I was rising to go, a lady entered the room, and, without waiting for +an introduction, held out her hand so cordially that I knew it must be +one of his daughters. It was Madame de Lasteyrie, who, like her mother +and sister, had shared his dungeon at Olmuetz. Her English, though +perfectly intelligible, was not as fluent as her father's, but she had +no difficulty in saying some pleasant things about family friendship +which made me very happy. She lived in the same street, though not in +the same house with the General, and that morning my good-fortune had +brought the whole family together at No. 6. + +The occasion was a singular one. One of those heartless speculators to +whom our Government has too often given free scope among the Indian +tribes of our borders had brought to France a party of Osages, on +an embassy, as he gave them to understand, but in reality with the +intention of exhibiting them, very much as Van Amburgh exhibits his wild +beasts. General Lafayette was determined, if possible, to counteract +this abominable scheme; but as, unfortunately, there was no one who +could interpret for him but the speculator himself, he found it +difficult to make the poor Indians understand their real position. He +had already seen and talked with them, and was feeling very badly at not +being able to do more. This morning he was to receive them at his house, +and his own family, with one or two personal friends, had been invited +to witness the interview. + +Madame de Lasteyrie was soon followed by her daughters, and in a few +moments I found myself shaking some very pretty hands, and smiled upon +by some very pretty faces. It was something of a trial for one who had +never been in a full drawing-room in his life, and whom Nature had +predestined to _mauvaise honte_ to the end of his days. Still I made the +best of it, and as there is nothing so dreadful, after all, in a bright +eye and rosy lip, and the General's invitation to look upon his house as +my home was so evidently to be taken in its literal interpretation, I +soon began to feel at my ease. + +The rooms gradually filled. Madame de Maubourg came in soon after her +sister, and, as I was talking to one of the young ladies, a gentleman +with a countenance not altogether unlike the General's, though nearly +bald, and with what was left of his hair perfectly gray, came up and +introduced himself to me as George Lafayette. It was the last link in +the chain. The last letter that my grandfather ever wrote to General +Lafayette had been about a project which they had formed at the close +of the war, to bring up their sons--"the two George Washingtons" +--together; and as soon after General Greene's death as the necessary +arrangement could be made, my poor uncle was sent to France and placed +under the General's care. It was of him that General Washington had +written to Colonel Wadsworth, "But should it turn out differently, and +Mrs. Greene, yourself, and Mr. Rutledge" (General Greene's executors) +"should think proper to intrust my namesake, G.W. Greene, to my care, +I will give him as good an education as this country (I mean North +America) will afford, and will bring him up to either of the genteel +professions that his friends may choose or his own inclination shall +lead him to pursue, at my own cost and charge." "He is a lively boy," +wrote General Knox to Washington, on returning from putting him on board +the French packet, "and, with a good education, will probably be an +honor to the name of his father and the pride of his friends." + +I may be pardoned for dwelling a moment on the scanty memorials of one +whose name is often mentioned in the letters of Washington, and whose +early promise awakened the fondest expectations. He was a beautiful boy, +if the exquisite little miniature before me may be trusted, blending +sweetly the more characteristic traits of his father and mother in his +face, in a way that must have made him very dear to both. With the +officers and soldiers he was a great favorite, and it cost his father a +hard effort to deny himself the gratification of having him always with +him at camp during the winter. But the sense of paternal duty prevailed, +and as soon as he was thought old enough to profit by it, he was put +under the charge of Dr. Witherspoon at Princeton. "I cannot omit +informing you," writes General Washington, in 1783, "that I let no +opportunity slip to inquire after your son George at Princeton, and +that it is with pleasure I hear he enjoys good health, and is a fine, +promising boy." He remained in France till 1792, when his mother's +anxiety for his safety overcame her desire for the completion of his +studies, and she wrote to Gouverneur Morris, who was then in France, to +send him home. "Mr. Jefferson," reads the autograph before me, "presents +his most respectful compliments to Mrs. Greene, and will with great +pleasure write to Mr. Morris on the subject of her son's return, +forwarding her letter at the same time. He thinks Mrs. Greene concluded +that he should return by the way of London. If he is mistaken, she will +be so good as to correct him, as his letter to Mr. Morris will otherwise +be on that supposition." He returned a large, vigorous, athletic man, +full of the scenes he had witnessed, and ready to engage in active life +with the ardor of his age and the high hopes which his name authorized; +for it was in the days of Washington and Hamilton and Knox, men who +extended to the son the love they had borne to the father. But his first +winter was to be given to his home, to his mother and sisters; and +there, while pursuing too eagerly his favorite sport of duck-shooting +from a canoe on the Savannah, his boat was overset, and, though his +companion escaped by clinging to the canoe, he was borne down by the +weight of his accoutrements and drowned. The next day the body was +recovered, and the vault which but six years before had prematurely +opened its doors to receive the remains of the father was opened again +for the son. Not long after, his family removed to Cumberland Island and +ceased to look upon Savannah as their burial-place; and when, for the +first time, after the lapse of more than thirty years, and at the +approach of Lafayette on his last memorable visit to the United States, +a people awoke from their lethargy and asked where the bones of the hero +of the South had been laid, there was no one to point out their +resting-place. Happy, if what the poet tells us be true, and "still in our +ashes live their wonted fires," that they have long since mingled +irrevocably with the soil of the land that he saved, and can never become +associated with a movement that has been disgraced by the vile flag of +Secession! + +But to return to the Rue d'Anjou. A loud noise in the street announced +the approach of the Indians, whose appearance in an open carriage had +drawn together a dense crowd of sight-loving Parisians; and in a few +moments they entered, decked out in characteristic finery, but without +any of that natural grace and dignity which I had been taught to look +for in the natives of the forest. The General received them with the +dignified affability which was the distinctive characteristic of his +manner under all circumstances; and although there was nothing in the +occasion to justify it, I could not help recalling Madame de Stael's +comment upon his appearance at Versailles, on the fearful fifth of +October:--"M. de la Fayette was perfectly calm; nobody ever saw him +otherwise." Withdrawing with them into an inner room, he did his best, +as he afterwards told me, to prevail upon them to return home, though +not without serious doubts of the honesty of their interpreter. It was +while this private conference was going on that I got my first sight of +Cooper,--completing my morning's experience by exchanging a few words +with the man, of all others among my countrymen, whom I had most wished +to know. Meanwhile the table in the dining-room was spread with cakes +and preserves, and before the company withdrew, they had a good +opportunity of convincing themselves, that, if the American Indian had +made but little progress in the other arts of civilization, he had +attained to a full appreciation of the virtues of sweetmeats and pastry. + +I cannot close this portion of my story without relating my second +interview with my aboriginal countrymen, not quite so satisfactory as +the first, but at least with its amusing, or rather its laughable side. +I was living in Siena, a quiet old Tuscan town, with barely fifteen +thousand inhabitants to occupy a circuit of wall that had once held +fifty,--but with all the remains of its former greatness about it, noble +palaces, a cathedral second in beauty to that of Milan alone, churches +filled with fine pictures, an excellent public library, (God's blessing +be upon it, for it was in one of its dreamy alcoves that I first read +Dante,) a good opera in the summer, and good society all the year round. +Month was gliding after month in happy succession. I had dropped readily +into the tranquil round of the daily life, had formed many acquaintances +and two or three intimate ones, and, though reminded from time to time +of the General by a paternal letter, had altogether forgotten the +specimens of the children of the forest whom I had seen under his roof. +One evening--I do not remember the month, though I think it was late in +the autumn--I had made up my mind to stay at home and study, and was +just sitting down to my books, when a friend came in with the air of a +man who had something very interesting to say. + +"Quick, quick! shut your book, and come with me to the theatre." + +"Impossible! I'm tired, and, moreover, have something to do which I must +do to-night." + +"To-morrow night will do just as well for that, but not for the +theatre." + +"Why?" + +"Because there are some of your countrymen here who are going to be +exhibited on the stage, and the Countess P---- and all your friends want +you to come and interpret for them." + +"Infinitely obliged. And pray, what do you mean by saying that some of +my countrymen are to be exhibited on the stage? Do you take Americans +for mountebanks?" + +"No, I don't mean that; but it is just as I tell you. Some Americans +will appear on the stage to-night and make a speech in American, and you +must come and explain it to us." + +I must confess, that, at first, my dignity was a little hurt at the idea +of an exhibition of Americans; but a moment's reflection convinced me +that I had no grounds for offence, and all of a sudden it occurred to +me that the "Americans" might be my friends of the Rue d'Anjou, whose +"guide and interpreter," though hardly their "friend," had got them +down as far as Siena on the general embassy. I was resolved to see, and +accordingly exchanging my dressing-gown and slippers for a dress-box +costume, I accompanied my friend to the theatre. My appearance at the +pit-door was the signal for nods and beckonings from a dozen boxes; but +as no one could dispute the superior claims of the Countess P----, I soon +found myself seated in the front of her Ladyship's box, and the chief +object of attention till the curtain rose. + +"And now, my dear G----, tell us all about these strange countrymen +of yours,--how they live,--whether it is true that they eat one +another,--what kind of houses they have,--how they treat their +women,--and everything else that we ought to know." + +Two or three years later, when Cooper began to be translated, they would +have known better; but now nothing could convince them that I was not +perfectly qualified to answer all their questions and stand interpreter +between my countrymen and the audience. Fortunately, I had read Irving's +beautiful paper in the "Sketch-Book," and knew "The Last of the +Mohicans" by heart; and putting together, as well as I could, the ideas +of Indian life I had gained from these sources, I accomplished my task +to the entire satisfaction of my interrogators. At last the curtain +rose, and, though reduced in number, and evidently much the worse for +their protracted stay in the land of civilization and brandy, there +they were, the very Osages I had seen at the good old General's. The +interpreter came forward and told his story, making them chiefs of rank +on a tour of pleasure. And a burly-looking fellow, walking up and down +the stage with an air that gave the lie to every assertion of the +interpreter, made a speech in deep gutturals to the great delight of +the listeners. Fortunately for me, the Italian love of sound kept my +companions still till the speech was ended, and then, just as they were +turning to me for a translation, the interpreter announced his intention +of translating it for them himself. Nothing else, I verily believe, +could have saved my reputation, and enabled me to retain my place as a +native-born American. When the exhibition was over,--and even with the +ludicrousness of my part of it, to me it was a sad one,--I went behind +the scenes to take a nearer view of these poor victims of avarice. They +were sitting round a warming-pan, looking jaded and worn, brutalized +beyond even what I had first imagined. It was my last sight of them, and +I was glad of it; how far they went, and how many of them found their +way back to their native land, I never was able to learn. + +Before I left the Rue d'Anjou, it was arranged, that, as soon as I had +seen a little more of Paris, I should go to La Grange. "One of the young +ladies will teach you French," said the General, "and you can make your +plans for the winter at your leisure." + + +LA GRANGE. + + +It was on a bright autumn morning that I started for the little village +of Rosay,--some two leagues from Paris, and the nearest point by +_diligence_ to La Grange. A railroad passes almost equally near to +it now, and the French _diligence_, like its English and American +counterpart, the stage-coach, has long since been shorn of its honors. +Yet it was a pleasant mode of travelling, taking you from place to place +in a way to give you a good general idea of the country you were +passing through, and bringing you into much closer relations with your +fellow-travellers than you can form in a rail-car. There was the crowd +at the door of the post-house where you stopped to change horses, and +the little troop of wooden-shoed children that followed you up the +hill, drawling out in unison, "_Un peu de charite, s'il vous plait_," +gradually quickening their pace as the horses began to trot, and +breaking all off together and tumbling in a heap as they scrambled for +the _sous_ that were thrown out to them. + +For a light, airy people, the French have a wonderful facility in making +clumsy-looking vehicles. To look at a _diligence_, you would say that it +was impossible to guide it through a narrow street, or turn it into a +gate. The only thing an American would think of likening it to would be +three carriages of different shapes fastened together. First came the +_Coupe_, in shape like an old-fashioned chariot, with a seat for three +persons, and glass windows in front and at the sides that gave you a +full view of everything on the road. This was the post of honor, higher +in price, and, on long journeys, always secured a day or two beforehand. +Not the least of its advantages was the amusement it afforded you in +watching the postilion and his horses,--a never-failing source of +merriment; and what to those who know how important it is, in a set of +hungry travellers, to secure a good seat at table, the important +fact that the _coupe_-door was the first door opened, and the +_coupe_-passengers received as the most distinguished personages of the +party. The _Interieur_ came next: somewhat larger than our common coach, +with seats for six, face to face, two good windows at the sides, and +netting above for parcels of every kind and size: a comfortable place, +less exposed to jolts than the _coupe_ even, and much to be desired, if +you could but make sure of a back-corner and an accommodating companion +opposite to you. Last of all was the _Rotonde_, with its entrance from +the rear, its seats length-wise, room for six, and compensating in part +for its comparative inferiority in other respects by leaving you free +to get in and out as you chose, without consulting the conductor. This, +however, was but the first story, or the rooms of state of this castle +on wheels. On a covered dicky, directly above the _coupe_, and thus on +the very top of the whole machine, was another row of passengers, with +the conductor in front, looking down through the dust upon the world +beneath them, not very comfortable when the sun was hot, still less +comfortable of a rainy day, but just in the place which of all others +a real traveller would wish to be in at morning or evening or of a +moonlight night. The remainder of the top was reserved for the baggage, +carefully packed and covered up securely from dust and rain. + +I had taken the precaution to engage a seat in the _coupe_ the day +before I set out. Of my companions, I am sorry to say, I have not the +slightest recollection. But the road was good,--bordered, as so many +French roads are, with trees, and filled with a thousand objects full of +interest to a young traveller. There was the _roulage_: an immense cart +filled with goods of all descriptions, and drawn by four or five horses, +ranged one before another, each decked with a merry string of bells, and +generally rising in graduated proportions from the full-sized leader +to the enormous thill horse, who bore the heat and burden of the day. +Sometimes half a dozen of them would pass in a row, the drivers walking +together and whiling away the time with stories and songs. Now and then +a post-chaise would whirl by with a clattering of wheels and cracking of +whip that were generally redoubled as it came nearer to the _diligence_, +and sank again, when it was passed, into comparative moderation both of +noise and speed. There were foot travellers, too, in abundance; and as +I saw them walking along under the shade of the long line of trees +that bordered the road, I could not help thinking that this thoughtful +provision for the protection of the traveller was the most pleasing +indication I had yet seen of a country long settled. + +While I was thus looking and wondering, and drawing perhaps the hasty +comparisons of a novice, I saw a gentleman coming towards us with a +firm, quick step, his blue surtout buttoned tight over his breast, a +light walking-stick in his hand, and with the abstracted air of a man +who saw something beyond the reach of the bodily eye. It was Cooper, +just returning from a visit to the General, and dreaming perhaps of +his forest-paths or the ocean. His carriage with his family was coming +slowly on behind. A day earlier and I should have found them all at La +Grange. + +It was evident that the good people of Rosay were accustomed to the +sight of travellers on their way to La Grange with a very small stock of +French; for I had hardly named the place, when a brisk little fellow, +announcing himself as the guide of all the _Messieurs Americains_, +swung my portmanteau upon his back and set out before me at the regular +jog-trot of a well-trained porter. The distance was but a mile, the +country level, and we soon came in sight of the castle. Castle, indeed, +it was, with its pointed Norman towers, its massive walls, and broad +moat,--memorials of other days,--and already gray with age before the +first roof-tree was laid in the land which its owner had helped to build +up to a great nation. On a hill-side its appearance would have been +grand. As it was, it was impressive, and particularly as first seen +from the road. The portcullis was gone, but the arched gateway still +remained, flanked by towers that looked sombre and stern, even amidst +the deep green of the ivy which covered the left tower almost to the +battlements. I was afterwards told that the ivy itself had a special +significance,--having been planted by Charles Fox, during a visit to La +Grange not long before his death. And Fox, it will be remembered, had +exerted all his eloquence to induce the English Government to demand the +liberation of Lafayette from Olmuetz,--an act which called down upon him +at the time the bitterest invectives of party rhetoric, but which the +historian of England now records as a bright page in the life of one of +her greatest men. Ah, how different would our record be, if we could +always follow our instinct of immortality, and in all our actions look +thoughtfully forward to the judgment of the future! + +Passing under the massive arch, I found myself in the castle court. +Three sides of the edifice were still standing, darkened, indeed, and +distained by the winds and rains of centuries, but with an air of modern +comfort and neatness about the doors and windows that seemed more in +keeping than the moat and towers with the habits of the present day. +The other curtain had been thrown down years before,--how or why nobody +could tell me, but not improbably in some of the domestic wars which +fill and defile the annals of mediaeval Europe. In those days the loss +of it must have been a serious one; but for the modern occupant it was a +real gain,--letting in the air and sunlight, and opening a pleasant view +of green plantations from every window of the court. + +A servant met me at the main entrance, a broad stairway directly +opposite the gate, and, taking my card, led me up to a spacious hall, +where he asked me to wait while he went to announce my arrival to +the General. The hall was a large oblong room, plainly, but neatly +furnished, with a piano at one end, its tessellated oaken floor highly +polished, and communicating by folding-doors with an inner room, in +which I caught a glimpse of a bright wood-fire, and a portrait of Bailly +over the mantel. On the wall, to the left of the folding-doors, was +suspended an American flag with its blue field of stars and its red and +white stripes looking down upon me in a way that made my American veins +tingle. + +But I had barely time to look around me before I heard a heavy step on +the stairs, and the next moment the General entered. This time he gave +me a French greeting, pressing me in his arms and kissing me on both +cheeks. "We were expecting you," said he, "and you are in good season +for dinner. Let me show you your room." + +If I had had my choice of all the rooms in the castle, I should have +chosen the very one that had been assigned me. It was on the first--not +the ground--floor, at the end of a long vaulted gallery and in a tower. +There was a deep alcove from the bed,--a window looking down upon the +calm waters of the moat, and giving glimpses, through the trees, of +fields and woods beyond,--a fireplace with a cheerful fire, which had +evidently been kindled the moment my arrival was known,--the tessellated +floor with its waxen gloss,--and the usual furniture of a French +bed-room, a good table and comfortable chairs. A sugar-bowl filled +with sparkling beet sugar, and a decanter of fresh water, on the +mantel-piece, would have shown me, if there had been nothing else to +show it, that I was in France. The General looked round the room to make +sure that all was comfortably arranged for me, and then renewing his +welcome, and telling me that the castle-bell would ring for dinner in +about half an hour, left me to take possession of my quarters and change +my dress. + +If I had not been afraid of getting belated, I should have sat down +awhile to collect my thoughts and endeavor to realize where I was. But +as it was, I could do little more than unpack my trunk, arrange my books +and writing-materials on the table, and change my dusty clothes, before +the bell rang. Oh, how that bell sounded through the long corridor from +its watch-tower over the gateway! And how I shrank back when I found +myself on the threshold of the hall and saw the inner room full! The +General must have divined my feelings; for, the moment he saw me, he +came forward to meet me, and, taking me by the arm, presented me to all +the elders of the party in turn. He apparently supposed, that, with +the start I had had in the Rue d'Anjou, I should make my way among the +younger ones myself. + +It was a family circle covering three generations: the General, his son +and daughter-in-law and two daughters, and ten grandchildren,--among +whom I was glad to see some of both sexes sufficiently near my own age +to open a very pleasant prospect for me whenever I should have learnt +French enough to feel at home among them. Nor was the domestic character +of the group broken by the presence of a son of Casimir Perier, who was +soon to marry George Lafayette's eldest daughter, the Count de Segur, +the General's uncle, though but a month or two his elder, and the Count +de Tracy, father of Madame George de Lafayette, and founder of the +French school of Ideology, companions, both of them, of the General's +youth, and, at this serene close of a life of strange vicissitudes and +bitter trials, still his friends. Levasseur, his secretary, who had +accompanied him in his visit to the United States, with his German wife, +a young gentleman whose name I have forgotten, but who was the private +tutor of young Jules de Lasteyrie, and Major Frye, an English half-pay +officer, of whom I shall have a good deal more to say by-and-by, +completed the circle. We formed a long procession to the dining-room, +and I shall never forget how awkward I felt on finding myself walking, +with the General's arm in mine, at the head of it. There was a certain +air of high breeding, of respect for others founded on self-respect, and +a perfect familiarity with all the forms of society, which relieved +me from much of my embarrassment by making me feel instinctively that +nobody would take unpleasant notice of it. Still, that first dinner was +a trial to my nerves, though I do not remember that the trial interfered +with my appetite. It was served, of course, in courses, beginning with +soup and ending with fruit. Most of the dishes, as I afterwards learned, +were the produce of the farm, and they certainly bore good witness to +the farmer's judgment and skill. The General was a hearty eater, as most +Frenchmen are; but he loved to season his food with conversation, and, +much as he relished his meals, he seemed to relish the pleasant +talk between the courses still more. As I was unable to follow the +conversation of the table, I came in for a large share of the General's +attention, who would turn to me every now and then with something +pleasant to say. He had had the consideration, too, to place one of the +young ladies next to me, directly on my right, as I was on his; and her +English, though not perfectly fluent, was fluent enough to enable us to +keep up a lively interlude. + +On returning to the drawing-room, the General led me up to a portrait of +my grandfather, and indulged himself for a while in endeavoring to trace +a resemblance between us. I say indulged; for he often, down to the last +time that I ever saw him, came back to this subject, and seemed to +take a peculiar pleasure in it. He had been warmly attached to General +Greene, and the attachment which both of them bore to Washington served +to strengthen their attachment to each other. This portrait, a copy +from Peale, had been one of the fruits of his last visit to the United +States, and hung, with those of some other personal friends,--great men +all of them,--on the drawing-room wall. His Washington was a bronze from +Houdon's bust, and stood opposite the mantel-piece on a marble pedestal. +Conversation and music filled up the rest of the evening, and before +I withdrew for the night it had been arranged that I should begin my +French the next morning, with one of the young ladies for teacher. And +thus ended my first day at La Grange. + + +EVERY-DAY LIFE AT LA GRANGE. + + +The daily life at La Grange was necessarily systematic. The General's +position compelled him to see a great deal of company and exposed him to +constant interruptions. He kept a kind of open table, at which part +of the faces seemed to be changing every day. Then there were his own +children, with claims upon his attention which he was not disposed to +deny, and a large family of grandchildren to educate, upon all of whose +minds he wished to leave personal impressions of their intercourse with +him which should make them feel how much he loved and cherished them +all. Fortunately, the size of the castle made it easy to keep the family +rooms distant from the rooms of the guests; and a judicious division +of time enabled him to preserve a degree of freedom in the midst of +constraint, which, though the rule in Europe, American hosts in town or +country have very little conception of. + +Every one rose at his own hour, and was master of his time till eleven. +If he wanted an early breakfast, he could have a cup of coffee +or chocolate or milk in his room for the asking. But the family +breakfast-hour was at eleven, a true French breakfast, and attended with +all the forms of dinner except in dress. The castle-bell was rung; the +household collected in the parlor; and all descended in one order to the +dining-room. It was pleasant to see this morning gathering. The General +was almost always among the first to come in and take his stand by +the fireplace, with a cordial greeting for each guest in turn. As his +grandchildren entered, they went up to offer their morning salutations +to him first of all, and there was the paternal kiss on the forehead and +a pleasant word for each. His son and daughters generally saw him in his +own room before they came down. + +Breakfast was a cheerful meal, served in courses like dinner, and +seasoned with conversation, in which every one was free to take a part +or listen, as he felt disposed. There was no hurry, no confusion about +it; all sat down and rose at the same time; and as every one that worked +at all had evidently done part of his day's work before he came to +table, all came with good appetites. Then came the family walk, all +starting out in a group, but always sure to break up into smaller groups +as they went on: the natural law of affinities never failing to make +itself felt, and they who found most pleasure in each other's society +generally ending their walk together. Sometimes the General would come a +little way with us, but soon turned off to the farm, or dropped behind +and went back to his books and letters. An hour in the grounds passed +quickly,--too quickly, I often used to think; and then, unless, as +occasionally happened, there was an excursion on foot which all were +to take part in, the members of the family withdrew to their own +apartments, and the guests were left free to fill up the time till +dinner as they chose. With books, papers, and visits from room to room, +or strolls about the grounds, the hours never lagged; and much as one +day seemed like another, there was always something of its own to +remember it by. Of course, this regularity was not the result of +chance. Behind the visible curtain was the invisible spirit guiding +and directing all. It was no easy task to provide abundantly, and yet +judiciously, for a family always large, but which might at any moment +be almost doubled without an hour's notice. The farm, as I have already +said, furnished a full proportion of the daily supplies, and the General +was the farmer. But the daily task of distribution and arrangement fell +to the young ladies, each of whom took her week of housekeeping in turn. +The very first morning I was admitted behind the scenes. "If you want +anything before breakfast," said one of the young ladies, as the evening +circle was breaking up, "come down into the butler's room and get it." +And to the butler's room I went; and there, in a calico fitted as neatly +as the rich silk of the evening before, with no papers in her hair, with +nothing but a richer glow to distinguish the morning from the evening +face, with laughing eyes and busy hands, issuing orders and inspecting +dishes, stood the very girl with whom I was to begin at nine my +initiation into the mysteries of French. There must have been something +peculiar in the grass which the cows fed on at La Grange; for I used to +go regularly every morning for my cup of milk, and it never disagreed +with me. + + +MY FRENCH. + + +Oh, that lesson of French! Two seats at the snug little writing-table, +and only one witness of my blunders; for nobody ever thought of coming +into the drawing-room before the breakfast-bell. Unfortunately for me, +Ollendorff had not yet published his thefts from Manesca; and instead of +that brisk little war of question and answer, which loosens the tongue +so readily to strange sounds and forms the memory so promptly to the +combinations of a new idiom, I had to struggle on through the scanty +rules and multitudinous exceptions of grammar, and pick my way with the +help of a dictionary through the harmonious sentences of "Telemaque." +And never had sentences seemed so harmonious to my ears before; and +never, I fear, before had my young friend's patience been so sorely +tried, or her love of fun put under so unnatural a restraint. "_Calypso +ne pouvait se consoler_," over and over and over again, her rosy lips +moving slowly in order to give distinctness to every articulation, and +her blue eyes fairly dancing with repressed laughter at my awkward +imitation. If my teacher's patience could have given me a good +pronunciation, mine would have been perfect. Day after day she came back +to her task, and ever as the clock told nine would meet me at the door +with the same genial smile. + +Nearly twenty years afterwards I found myself once more in Paris, and at +a large party at the house of the American Minister, the late Mr. King. +As I was wandering through the rooms, looking at group after group of +unknown faces, my eye fell upon one that I should have recognized at +once as that of my first teacher of French, if it had not seemed to me +impossible that twenty years could have passed over it so lightly. + +"Who is that lady?" I asked of a gentleman near me, whom it was +impossible not to set down at once for an American. + +"Why, that is Madame de ----, a grand-daughter of General Lafayette." + +I can hardly account, at this quiet moment, for the sudden impulse that +seized me; but resist it I could not; and walking directly up to her, I +made my lowest bow, and, without giving her time to look me well in +the face, repeated, with all the gravity I could command, "_Calypso ne +pouvait se consoler du depart d'Ulysse_." + +"O! Monsieur Greene," said she, holding out both her hands, "it must be +you!" + + +THE GENERAL. + + +General Lafayette had just entered his seventy-first year. In his +childhood he had been troubled by a weakness of the chest which gave his +friends some anxiety. But his constitution was naturally good, and air, +exercise, and exposure gradually wore away every trace of his original +debility. In person he was tall and strongly built, with broad +shoulders, large limbs, and a general air of strength, which was rather +increased than diminished by an evident tending towards corpulency. +While still a young man, his right leg--the same, I believe, that had +been wounded in rallying our broken troops at the Brandywine--was +fractured by a fall on the ice, leaving him lame for the rest of his +days. This did not prevent him, however, from walking about his farm, +though it cut him off from the use of the saddle, and gave a halt to his +gait, which but for his dignity of carriage would have approached to +awkwardness. Indeed, he had more dignity of bearing than any man I ever +saw. And it was not merely the dignity of self-possession, which early +familiarity with society and early habits of command may give even to +an ordinary man, but that elevation of manner which springs from an +habitual elevation of thought, bearing witness to the purity of its +source, as a clear eye and ruddy cheek bear witness to the purity of the +air you daily breathe. In some respects he was the mercurial Frenchman +to the last day of his life; yet his general bearing, that in which +he comes oftenest to my memory, was of calm earnestness, tempered and +mellowed by quick sympathies. + +His method of life was very regular,--the regularity of thirty years +of comparative retirement, following close upon fifteen years of active +public life, begun at twenty in the army of Washington, and ending in a +Prussian and Austrian dungeon at thirty-five. + +His private apartments consisted of two rooms on the second floor. The +first was his bed-room, a cheerful, though not a large room, nearly +square, with a comfortable fireplace, and a window looking out upon the +lawn and woods behind the castle. Just outside of the bed-room, and the +first object that struck your eye on approaching it from the gallery, +was a picture by one of his daughters, representing the burly turnkey +of Olmuetz in the act of unlocking his dungeon-door. "It is a good +likeness," said the General to me, the first time that he took me to his +rooms,--"a very good likeness. I remember the features well." From the +bed-room a door opened into a large turret-room, well lighted and airy, +and which, taking its shape from the tower in which it stood, was +almost a perfect circle. This was the General's library. The books were +arranged in open cases, filling the walls from floor to ceiling, and +with a neatness and order which revealed an artistic appreciation of +their effect. It was lighted by two windows, one opening on the lawn, +the other on the farm-yards, and both, from the thickness of the +walls, looking like deep recesses. In the window that looked upon the +farm-yards was the General's writing-table and seat. A spy-glass lay +within reach, enabling him to overlook the yard-work without rising from +his chair; and on the table were his farm-books, with the record of +crops and improvements entered in regular order with his own hand. +Charles Sumner, who visited La Grange last summer, tells me that they +lie there still. + +The library was miscellaneous, many of the books being +presentation-copies, and most of them neatly bound. Its predominant +character, as nearly as I can recollect, was historical; the history in +which he had borne so important a part naturally coming in for a full +share. Though not a scholar from choice, General Lafayette loved books, +and was well read. His Latin had stood him in stead at Olmuetz for his +brief communication with his surgeon; and I have a distinct impression, +though I cannot vouch for the correctness of it, that he never dropped +it altogether. His associations were too much among men of thought as +well as men of action, and the responsibilities that weighed upon him +were too grave, to permit so conscientious a man to neglect the aid of +books. Of the historians of our Revolution, he preferred Ramsay, who +had, as he said, put everything into his two volumes, and abridged as +well as Eutropius. It was, perhaps, the presence of something of the +same quality that led him to give the preference, among the numerous +histories of the French Revolution, to Mignet, though, in putting +him into my hands, he cautioned me against that dangerous spirit +of fatalism, which, making man the unconscious instrument of an +irresistible necessity, leaves him no real responsibility for evil or +for good. + +It was in this room that he passed the greater part of the time that was +not given to his farm or his guests. I never entered it without finding +him at his desk, with his pen or a book in hand. His correspondence was +so extensive that he was always obliged to keep a secretary, though a +large portion of his letters were written with his own hand. He wrote +rapidly in fact, though not rapidly to the eye; and you were surprised, +in seeing his hand move over the paper, to find how soon it reached the +bottom of the sheet, and how closely it filled it up. His handwriting +was clear and distinct, neither decidedly French nor decidedly +English,--like all his habits and opinions, formed early and never +changed. I have letters of his to my grandfather, written during the +Revolution, and letters of his to myself, written fifty years after it, +in which it is almost impossible to trace the difference between the old +man and the young one. English he seemed to write as readily as French, +although a strong Gallicism would every now and then slip from his pen, +as it slipped from his tongue. "I had to learn in a hurry," said he, +giving me one day the history of his English studies. "I began on my +passage out, as soon as I got over my sea-sickness, and picked up the +rest in camp. I was compelled to write and talk, and so I learned to +write and talk. The officers were very kind and never laughed at me. +After the peace, Colonel Tarleton came over to Paris, and was presented +to the King one day when I happened to be at Court. The King asked him +how I spoke English. 'I cannot say how he speaks it, Sire,' said the +Colonel, 'but I occasionally had the good-luck to pick up some of his +letters that were going the wrong way, and I can assure your Majesty +that they were very well written.'" + +His valet was an old soldier, who had served through the Peninsular War, +and who moved about with the orderly gait and quiet air of a man who had +passed his heyday under the forming influences of camp discipline. +He was a most respectable-looking man, as well as a most respectful +servant; and it was impossible to see him busying himself about the +General at his morning toilet, and watch his delicate handling of the +lather-brush and razor, without feeling, that, however true the old +proverb may have been in other cases, Bastien's master was a hero to +him. + +The General's dress was always simple, though studiously neat. His +republicanism was of the school of Washington, and would have shrunk +from a public display of a bare neck and shirt-sleeves. Blue was his +usual winter color; a frock-coat in the morning, and a dress-coat for +dinner, and both near enough to the prevailing fashion to escape remark. +He had begun serious life too early to have ever been anything of a +dandy, even if Nature had seen fit to contradict herself so far as to +have intended him for one. + +Jewelry I never saw him wear; but there was one little compartment in +his library filled with what in a certain sense might be called jewelry, +and of a kind that he had good reason to be proud of. In one of the +drawers was a sword made out of a key of the Bastile, and presented to +him by the city of Paris. The other key he sent to Washington. When he +was a young man the Bastile was a reality, and those keys still plied +their dismal work at the bidding of a power as insensible to the +suffering it caused as the steel of which they were made. Of the +hundreds who with sinking hearts had heard them turn in their massive +wards, how few had ever come back to tell the tale of their misery! +Lafayette himself, but for the quick wit of a servant-maid, might have +passed there some of the youthful days that he passed at the side of +Washington, and gazed dimly, as at a dream, in the Bastile, at what he +could look back upon as a proud reality in Olmuetz. Another of his relics +was a civic crown, oak-leaf wrought in gold, the gift of the city of +Lyons; but this belonged to a later period, his last visit to Auvergne, +the summer before the Revolution of July, and which called forth as +enthusiastic a display of popular affection as that which had greeted +his last visit to America. But the one which he seemed to prize most was +a very plain pair of eye-glasses, in a simple horn case, if my memory +does not deceive me, but which, in his estimation, neither gold nor +jewels could have replaced, for they had once belonged to Washington. +"He gave them to me," said the General, "on my last visit to Mount +Vernon." + +He was an early riser, and his work began the moment he left his pillow. +First came his letters, always a heavy drain upon his time; for he had +been so long a public man that everybody felt free to consult him, and +everybody that consulted him was sure of a polite answer. Then his +personal friends had their claims, some of them running back to youth, +some the gradual accession of later years, and all of them cherished +with that genial and confiding expansiveness which was the great charm +of his private life, and the chief source, when he did err, of his +errors as a public man. Like all the men of Washington's school, he +was systematically industrious; and by dint of system and industry his +immense correspondence was seldom allowed to get the start of him. +Important letters were answered as they came, and minutes or copies of +the answers kept for reference. He seemed to love his pen, and to write +without effort,--never aiming, it is true, at the higher graces of +style, somewhat diffuse, too, both in French and in English, but +easy, natural, idiomatic, and lucid, with the distinctness of clear +conceptions rather than the precision of vigorous conceptions, and a +warmth which in his public letters sometimes rose to eloquence, and in +his private letters often made you feel as if you were listening instead +of reading. + +He was fond of anecdote, and told his stories with the fluency of a man +accustomed to public speaking, and the animation and point of a man +accustomed to the society of men of wit as well as of men of action. +His recollections were wonderfully distinct, and it always gave me a +peculiar thrill to hear him talk about the great men he had lived and +acted with in both hemispheres, as familiarly as if he had parted from +them only an hour before. It was bringing history very close to me, and +peopling it with living beings,--beings of flesh and blood, who ate and +drank and slept and wore clothes as we do; for here was one of them, the +friend and companion of the greatest among them all, whom I had known +through books, as I knew them long before I knew him in actual life, +and every one of whose words and gestures seemed to give me a clearer +conception of what they, too, must have been. + +Still he never appeared to live in the recollections of his youth, as +most old men do. His life was too active a one for this, and the +great principles he had consecrated it to were too far-reaching and +comprehensive, too full of living, actual interest, too fresh and +vigorous in their vitality, to allow a man of his sanguine and active +temperament to forget himself in the past when there was so much to do +in the present. This gave a peculiar charm to his conversation; for, +no matter what the subject might be, he always talked like a man who +believed what he said, and whose faith, a living principle of thought +and action, was constantly kept in a genial glow by the quickness +and depth of his sympathies. His smile told this; for it was full of +sweetness and gentleness, though with a dash of earnestness about it, an +under-current of serious thought, that made you feel as if you wanted to +look behind it, and reminded you, at times, of a landscape at sunset, +when there is just light enough to show you how many things there are +in it that you would gladly dwell upon, if the day were only a little +longer. + +His intercourse with his children was affectionate and confiding,--that +with his daughters touchingly so. They had shared with him two years of +his captivity at Olmuetz, and he seemed never to look at them without +remembering it. They had been his companions when he most needed +companionship, and had learnt to enter into his feelings and study his +happiness at an age when most girls are absorbed in themselves. The +effect of this early discipline was never lost. They had found happiness +where few seek it, in self-denial and self-control, a religious +cultivation of domestic affections, and a thoughtful development +of their minds as sources of strength and enjoyment. They were +happy,--happy in what they had done and in what they were +doing,--entering cheerfully upon the serene evening of lives consecrated +to duty, with children around them to love them as they had loved their +father and mother, and that father still with them to tell them that +they had never deceived him. + + + + +A FIELD NIGHT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. + + +To an intelligent American visiting London for the first time, few +places of interest will present stronger attractions than the House of +Commons during an animated debate. Commencing its existence with the +first crude ideas of popular liberty in England, steadily advancing in +influence and importance with the increasing wealth and intelligence of +the middling class, until it came to hold the purse and successfully +defend the rights of the people, illustrated for many generations by the +eloquence and the statesmanship of the kingdom, and to-day wielding the +power and directing the destinies of the foremost nation in the world, +it is not strange that an American, speaking the same language, and +proud of the same ancestry, should visit with the deepest interest the +scene of so many and so important transactions. Especially will this be +the case, if by experience or observation he has become familiar with +the course of proceedings in our own legislative assemblies. For, +although the English House of Commons is the parent of all similar +deliberative bodies in the civilized world, yet its rules and +regulations are in many respects essentially unique. + +Assuming that many of my readers have never enjoyed the opportunity of +"sitting out a debate" in Parliament, I have ventured to hope that a +description of some of the distinctive features which are peculiar to +the House of Commons, and a sketch of some of its prominent members, +might not be unwelcome. + +In 1840 the corner-stone of the New Palace of Westminster was laid, and +at the commencement of the session of 1852 the first official occupation +of the House of Commons took place. The House of Peers was first used in +1847. It is not consistent with the object of this article to speak of +the dimensions and general appearance of this magnificent structure. It +is sufficient to say, that in its architectural design, in its interior +decorations, and in its perfect adaptation to the purposes for which it +was erected, it is alike creditable to the public spirit of the nation, +and to the improved condition of the fine and useful arts in the present +century. + +The entrance to the House of Commons is through Westminster Hall. What +wealth of historical recollections is suggested by this name! As, +however, we are dealing with the present, we dare not even touch upon so +fruitful a theme, but must hasten through the grand old hall, remarking +only in passing that it is supposed to have been originally built +in 1097, and was rebuilt by Richard II. in 1398. With a single +exception,--the Hall of Justice in Padua,--it is the largest apartment +unsupported by pillars in the world. Reluctantly leaving this historical +ground, we enter St. Stephen's Hall. This room, rich in architectural +ornaments and most graceful in its proportions, is still further adorned +with statues of "men who rose to eminence by the eloquence and abilities +they displayed in the House of Commons." Who will dispute their claims +to this distinction? The names selected for such honorable immortality +are Selden, Hampden, Falkland, Lord Clarendon, Lord Somers, Sir Robert +Walpole, Lord Chatham, Lord Mansfield, Burke, Fox, Pitt, and Grattan. + +We have now reached the Great Central Hall, out of which open two +corridors, one of which leads to the lobby of the House of Lords. +Passing through the other, we find ourselves in the lobby of the House +of Commons. Here we must pause and look about us. We are in a large +apartment brilliantly lighted and richly decorated. As we stand with our +backs to the Great Central Hall, the passage-way to the right conducts +to the library and refreshment rooms, that on the left is the private +entrance of the members through the old cloisters, of Stephen's, that in +front is the main entrance to the floor of the House. In the corner on +our right is a small table, garnished with all the materials for a +cold lunch for the use of those members who have no time for a more +substantial meal in the dining-room. Stimulants of various kinds are +not wanting; but the habits of Englishmen and the presence of vigilant +policemen prevent any abuse of this privilege. The refreshments thus +provided are open to all, and in this qualified sense I may say that I +have lunched with Disraeli, Lord John Russell, and Lord Palmerston. + +But the hour has nearly come for opening the debate; members are rapidly +arriving and taking their seats, and we shall do well to decide upon the +best mode of gaining admission to the House. There are a few benches +on the floor reserved, as of right, for peers and their sons, and, +by courtesy, for gentlemen introduced by them. I may be pardoned for +presuming that this high privilege is beyond our reach. Our only +alternative, then, is the galleries. These are, the Speaker's Gallery, +on the south side of the House, and directly opposite the Speaker's +chair, affording room for between twenty and thirty, and the Strangers' +Gallery, behind this, with seats for about sixty. Visitors have only +these limited accommodations. The arrangement deprives members of all +temptation to "speak to the galleries," and is consistent with the +English theory, that all debates in the House should be strictly of a +business character. And as to anything like applause on the part of the +spectators, what punishment known to any criminal code among civilized +nations would be too severe for such an offence? + +The American Minister (and of course every representative of a foreign +power) has the right to give two cards of admission, entitling the +bearer of each to a seat in the Speaker's Gallery. But these cards admit +only on a specified evening, and if not used then, are worthless. If +you have called on our distinguished representative at the Court of St. +James, you have probably discovered that his list is full for the next +fortnight at least, and, although the Secretary of Legation politely +asks your name, and promises you the earliest opportunity, you retire +with a natural feeling of disappointment. Many Americans, having only a +few days to spend in London, leave the city without making any further +effort to visit the House of Commons. It would certainly have been well +to forward, in advance of your arrival in London, a written application +to the Minister; but as this has not been done, what remains? Ask your +banker for a note of introduction to some member of the House, and, +armed with this epistle, make your appearance in the lobby. Give the +note, with your card, to that grave, clerical-looking man in a little +box on the left of the main entrance, and patiently await the approach +of the "honorable gentleman." If the Speaker's Gallery is not full, he +will have no difficulty in procuring for you the desired admission; and +if at leisure, he will undoubtedly spend a few moments in pointing out +the distinguished men who may chance to be in attendance. Be sure and +carry an opera-glass. Without this precaution, you will not be able to +study to your satisfaction the faces of the members, for the House is by +no means brilliantly illuminated. If for any reason this last expedient +does not succeed, must we despair for this evening? We are on the +ground, and our engagements may not leave another so good opportunity. I +have alluded to the presence of policemen in the lobby. Do I dream, or +has it been whispered to me, that half a crown, opportunely and adroitly +invested, may be of substantial advantage to the waiting stranger? But +by all means insist on the Speaker's Gallery. The Strangers' Gallery is +less desirable for many reasons, and, being open to everybody who has a +member's order, is almost invariably crowded. At all events, it should +be reserved as a dernier resort. As an illustration of the kindly +feeling towards Americans, I may mention, parenthetically, that I have +known gentlemen admitted to the Speaker's Gallery on their simple +statement to the door-keeper that they were from the United States. On +one of these occasions, the official, a civil personage, but usually +grave to the verge of solemnity,--the very last man you would have +selected as capable of waggery,--assumed a comical counterfeit of +terror, and said,--"Bless me! we must be obliging to Americans, or who +knows what may come of it?" + +It should be observed, however, that on a "field night" not one of +the modes of admission which I have described will be of any service. +Nothing will avail you then but a place on the Speaker's list, and even +in that case you must be promptly at your post, for "First come first +served" is the rule. + +But we have lingered long enough in the Lobby. Let us take our places +in the Speaker's Gallery,--for the essayist has hardly less power than, +according to Sydney Smith, has the novelist, and a few strokes of the +pen shall show you what many have in vain longed to see. + +Once there, our attention is instantly attracted by observing that +almost every member, who is not speaking, wears his hat. This, although +customary, is not compulsory. Parliamentary etiquette only insists +that a member while speaking, or moving from place to place, shall be +uncovered. The gallery opposite the one in which we are seated is for +the use of the reporters. That ornamental brass trellis in the rear +of the reporters, half concealing a party of ladies, is a curious +compromise between what is due to traditional Parliamentary regulations +and the courtesy to which the fair sex is entitled. This relaxation of +the old rules dates only from the erection of the new building. + +The perfect order which prevails among members is another marked feature +during the debates. The bewigged and berobed Speaker, seated in his +imposing high-backed chair, seems rather to be retained in his place out +of due deference to time-honored custom than because a presiding officer +is necessary to preserve proper decorum. To be sure, demonstrations +of applause at a good bit, or of discontent with a prosy speaker, are +common, but anything approaching disorder is of rare occurrence. + +The adherence to forms and precedents is not a little amusing. Take, for +example, a "division," which corresponds to a call for the Ayes and Noes +with us. To select an instance at random,--there happens this evening to +be a good deal of excitement about some documents which it is alleged +the Ministry dare not produce; so the minority, who oppose the bill +under debate, make a great show of demanding the papers, and, not being +gratified, move to adjourn the debate, with the design of postponing the +passage of the obnoxious measure. + +"I move that the debate be adjourned." + +"Who seconds?" + +"I do." + +"Those in the affirmative," etc., etc. + +Feeble "Aye." + +Most emphatic "No." + +"The noes have it." + +"No!" "No!" + +"Aye!" "Aye!" + +"Divide!" "Divide!" in a perfect Babel of orderly confusion. + +(Speaker, very solemnly and decidedly,)-- + +"Strangers must withdraw!" + +Is the gallery immediately cleared? Not a bit of it. Every man retains +his place. Some even seem, to my fancy, to look a sort of grim defiance +at the Speaker, as a bold Briton should. It is simply a form, which +many years ago had some meaning, and, having once been used, cannot be +discontinued without putting the Constitution in jeopardy. Five times +this evening, the minority, intent on postponing the debate, call for +a division,--and as many times are strangers gravely admonished to +withdraw. + +There are two modes of adjourning the House,--by vote of the members, +and by want of a quorum. The method of procedure in the latter case is +somewhat peculiar, and has, of course, the sanction of many generations. +Suppose that a dull debate on an unimportant measure, numerous +dinner-parties, a fashionable opera, and other causes, have combined to +reduce the number of members in attendance to a dozen. It certainly +is not difficult to decide at a glance that a quorum (forty) is not +present, and I presume you are every instant expecting, in your +innocence, to hear, "Mr. Speaker, I move," etc. Pause a moment, my +impatient friend, too long accustomed to the reckless haste of our +Republican assemblies. Do not, even in thought, tamper with the +Constitution. "The wisdom of our ancestors" has bequeathed another and +undoubtedly a better mode of arriving at the same result. Some member +quietly intimates to the Speaker that forty members are not present. +That dignified official then rises, and, using his cocked hat as an +index or pointer, deliberately counts the members. Discovering, as the +apparent result of careful examination, that there really is no +quorum, he declares the House adjourned and sits down; whereupon the +Sergeant-at-Arms seizes the mace, shoulders it, and marches out, +followed by the Speaker. Then, and not until then, is the ceremony +complete and the House duly adjourned. + +This respect for traditional usage admits of almost endless +illustration. One more example must suffice. When the Speaker discovers +symptoms of disorder in the House, he rises in his place and says with +all suitable solemnity, "Unless Honorable Members preserve order, I +shall name names!" and quiet is instantly restored. What mysterious and +appalling consequences would result from persistent disobedience, nobody +in or out of the House has ever known, or probably ever will know,--at +any rate, no Speaker in Parliamentary annals has been compelled to adopt +the dreaded alternative. Shall I be thought wanting in patriotism, if +I venture to doubt whether so simple an expedient would reduce to +submission an insubordinate House of Representatives at Washington? + +Like everything else thoroughly English, speaking in the House of +Commons is eminently practical. "The bias of the nation," says Mr. +Emerson, "is a passion for utility." Conceive of a company of gentlemen +agreeing to devote, gratuitously, a certain portion of each year to the +consideration of any questions which may concern the public welfare, and +you have the theory and the practice of the House of Commons. Of course +there are exceptions to this general statement. There are not wanting +constituencies represented by unfit men; but such members are not +allowed to consume the time which belongs of right to men of capacity +and tried ability. The test is sternly, almost despotically applied. A +fair trial is given to a new member. If he is "up to his work," his +name goes on the list of men whom the House will hear. If, however, +his maiden speech is a failure, "farewell, a long farewell" to all his +political aspirations. Few men have risen from such a fall. Now and +then, as in the well-known instances of Sheridan, Disraeli, and some +less prominent names, real genius, aided by dogged determination, has +forced its way upward in spite of early ill-success; but such cases are +very rare. The rule may work occasional injustice, but is it after all +so very unreasonable? "Talking," they contend, "must be done by those +who have something to say." + +Everything one sees in the House partakes of this practical tendency. +There are no conveniences for writing. A member who should attempt to +read a manuscript speech would never get beyond the first sentence. Nor +does anybody ever dream of writing out his address and committing it +to memory. In fact, nothing can be more informal than their manner in +debate. You see a member rising with his hat in one hand, and his gloves +and cane in the other. It is as if he had just said to his neighbor, "I +have taken a good deal of interest in the subject under discussion, and +have been at some pains to understand it. I am inclined to tell the +House what I think of it." So you find him on the floor, or "on his +legs," in parliamentary phrase, carrying this intention into effect in +a simple, business-like, straightforward way. But if our friend is very +long, or threatens to be tedious, I fear that unequivocal and increasing +indications of discontent will oblige him to resume his seat in +undignified haste. + +Perhaps no feature of the debates in the House of Commons deserves more +honorable mention than the high-toned courtesy which regulates the +intercourse of members. + +Englishmen have never been charged with a want of spirit; on the +contrary, they are proverbially "plucky," and yet the House is never +disgraced by those shameful brawls which have given to our legislative +assemblies, state and national, so unenviable a reputation throughout +the civilized world. How does this happen? To Englishmen it does not +seem a very difficult matter to manage. If one member charges another +with ungentlemanly or criminal conduct, he must follow up his charge +and prove it,--in which case the culprit is no longer recognized as a +gentleman; or if he fails to make good his accusation, and neglects +to atone for his offence by ample and satisfactory apologies, he is +promptly "sent to Coventry" as a convicted calumniator. No matter how +high his social position may have been, whether nobleman or commoner, +he shall not escape the disgrace he has deserved. And to forfeit one's +standing among English gentlemen is a punishment hardly less severe +than to lose caste in India. In such a community, what need of duels to +vindicate wounded honor or establish a reputation for courage? + +The members of the present House of Commons were elected in the spring +of 1859. Among their number are several men who, in point of capacity, +eloquence, and political experience, will compare not unfavorably with +the ablest statesmen whom England has known for generations. I +have thought that some description of their appearance and mental +characteristics might not be unacceptable to American readers. As the +best mode of accomplishing this object, I shall select an occasion, +which, from the importance of the question under discussion, the deep +interest which it awakened, and the ability with which it was treated, +certainly presented as favorable an opportunity as could ever occur to +form a correct opinion of the best speaking talent in the kingdom. The +debate to which I allude took place early in the month of July, 1860. + +My name being fortunately on the first list for the Speaker's Gallery, +I had no difficulty in taking my place the moment the door was open. It +will be readily believed that every seat was soon filled. In front of +the Speaker's Gallery is a single row of seats designed for foreign +ambassadors and peers. The first man to enter it was Mr. Dallas, and he +was presently followed by other members of the diplomatic corps, and +several distinguished noblemen. + +It was very interesting to an American that almost the first business of +the evening concerned his own country. Some member of the House asked +Lord John Russell, then Secretary for Foreign Affairs, if he had +received any recent despatches from the United States relating to the +San Juan difficulty. It will be remembered, or would be, but for the +rapid march of more momentous events, that only a short time before, +news had reached England that General Harney, violating the explicit +instructions of General Scott, so wisely and opportunely issued, had +claimed for the United States exclusive jurisdiction over the island +of San Juan. Lord John replied by stating what had been the highly +honorable and judicious policy of General Scott, and the unwarrantable +steps subsequently taken by General Harney,--that Lord Lyons had +communicated information of the conduct of General Harney to President +Buchanan, who had recalled that officer, and had forwarded instructions +to his successor to continue in the course marked out by General Scott. +This gratifying announcement was greeted in the House with hearty +cheers,--a spontaneous demonstration of delight, which proved not only +that the position of affairs on this question was thought to be serious, +but also the genuine desire of Englishmen to remain in amicable +relations with the United States. + +To this brief business succeeded the great debate of the session. Let me +endeavor, at the risk of being tedious, to explain the exact question +before the House. Mr. Gladstone, in his speech on the Budget, had +pledged the Ministry to a considerable reduction of the taxes for the +coming year. In fulfilment of this pledge, it had been decided to remit +the duty on paper, thereby abandoning about L1,500,000 of revenue. A +bill to carry this plan into effect passed to its second reading by a +majority of fifty-three. To defeat the measure the Opposition devoted +all its energies, and with such success that the bill passed to its +third reading by the greatly reduced majority of nine. Emboldened by +this almost victory, the Conservatives determined to give the measure +its _coup de grace_ in the House of Lords. The Opposition leaders, Lord +Derby, Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Ellenborough, and others, attacked the bill, +and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, its acknowledged author, with as +much bitterness and severity as are ever considered compatible with the +dignified decorum of that aristocratic body; all the Conservative forces +were rallied, and, what with the votes actually given and the proxies, +the Opposition majority was immense. + +Now all this was very easily and very quickly done. The Conservatives +were exultant, and even seemed sanguine enough to believe that the +Ministry had received a fatal blow. But they forgot, in the first flush +of victory, that they were treading on dangerous ground,--that they were +meddling with what had been regarded for centuries as the exclusive +privilege of the House of Commons. English Parliamentary history teaches +no clearer lesson than that the right to pass "Money Bills," without +interference from the House of Lords, has been claimed and exercised by +the House of Commons for several generations. The public was not slow to +take the alarm. To be sure, several causes conspired to lessen somewhat +the popular indignation. Among these were the inevitable expenses of +the Chinese War, the certainty of an increased income tax, if the bill +became a law, and the very small majority which the measure finally +received in the House of Commons. + +Nevertheless, the public mind was deeply moved. The perils of such +a precedent were evident enough to any thinking man. Although the +unwearied exertions of Bright, Roebuck, and other leading Radicals, +could not arouse the people to that state of unreasoning excitement in +which these demagogues delight, yet the tone of the press and the spirit +of the public meetings gave proof that the importance of the crisis +was not wholly underrated. These meetings were frequent and largely +attended; inflammatory speeches were made, strong resolutions passed, +and many petitions numerously signed, protesting against the recent +conduct of the Lords, were presented to the popular branch of +Parliament. + +In the House of Commons the action was prompt and decided. A committee +was immediately appointed to search for precedents, and ascertain if +such a proceeding was justified by Parliamentary history. The result of +this investigation was anxiously awaited both by the Commons and the +nation. To the disappointment of everybody, the committee, after patient +and protracted research, submitted a report, giving no opinion whatever +on the question, but merely reciting all the precedents that bore on the +subject. + +It must be confessed that the condition of affairs was not a little +critical. Both the strength of the Ministry and the dignity of the House +of Commons were involved in the final decision. But, unfortunately, the +Ministerial party was far from being a unit on the question. Bright and +the "Manchester School" demanded an uncompromising and defiant attitude +towards the Lords. Lord Palmerston was for asserting the rights and +privileges of the Commons, but for avoiding a collision. Where Mr. +Gladstone would be found could not be precisely predicted; but he was +understood to be deeply chagrined at the defeat of his favorite measure, +and to look upon the action of the Peers as almost a personal insult. +Lord John Russell was supposed to occupy a position somewhere between +the Premier and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. If the leaders were +thus divided in opinion, there was no less diversity of views among +their followers. Some did not at all appreciate the nature or magnitude +of the question, a few sympathized with the Conservatives, and very many +were satisfied that a mistake had been made in sacrificing so large a +source of revenue at a time when the immediate prospect of war with +China and the condition of the national defences rendered it important +to increase, rather than diminish the available funds in the treasury. +The Opposition, of course, were ready to take advantage of any weak +points in the position of their adversaries, and were even hoping that +the Ministerial dissensions might lead to a Ministerial defeat. + +It was under these circumstances that Lord Palmerston rose to define +the position of the Ministry, to vindicate the honor and dignity of the +Commons, to avert a collision with the House of Lords, and, in general, +to extricate the councils of the nation from an embarrassing and +dangerous dilemma. + +A word about the _personnel_ of the Premier, and a glance at some of his +political antecedents. His Lordship has been for so many years in +public life, and a marked man among English statesmen, that, either by +engraving, photograph, or personal observation, his face is familiar to +many Americans. And, certainly, there is nothing in his features or in +the expression of his countenance to indicate genius or even ability. +He is simply a burly Englishman, of middling height, with an air of +constant good-humor and a very pleasant understanding with himself. +Perhaps the first thing about him which impresses an American, +accustomed at home to dyspeptic politicians and statesmen prematurely +old, is his physical activity. Fancy a man of seventy-six, who has been +in most incessant political life for more than fifty years, sitting out +a debate of ten hours without flinching, and then walking to his house +in Piccadilly, not less than two miles. And his body is not more active +than his mind. He does something more than sit out a debate. Not a word +escapes him when a prominent man is on his legs. Do not be deceived by +his lazy attitude, or his sleepy expression. Not a man in the House +has his wits more thoroughly about him. Ever ready to extricate +his colleagues from an awkward difficulty, to evade a dangerous +question,--making, with an air of transparent candor, a reply in +which nothing is answered,--to disarm an angry opponent with a few +conciliatory or complimentary words, or to demolish him with a little +good-humored raillery which sets the House in a roar; equally skilful +in attack and retreat: such, in a word, is the bearing of this gay and +gallant veteran, from the beginning to the end of each debate, during +the entire session of Parliament. He seems absolutely insensible to +fatigue. "I happened," said a member of the House, writing to a friend, +last summer, "to follow Lord Palmerston, as he left the cloak-room, the +other morning, after a late sitting, and, as I was going his way, I +thought I might as well see how he got over the ground. At first he +seemed a little stiff in the legs; but when he warmed to his work he +began to pull out, and before he got a third of the way he bowled along +splendidly, so that he put me to it to keep him in view. Perhaps in a +few hours after that long sitting and that walk home, and the brief +sleep that followed, the Premier might have been seen standing bolt +upright at one end of a great table in Cambridge House, receiving a +deputation from the country, listening with patient and courteous +attention to some tedious spokesman, or astonishing his hearers by +his knowledge of their affairs and his intimacy with their trade or +business." On a previous night, I had seen Lord Palmerston in his seat +in the House from 4 P.M. until about 2 A.M., during a dull debate, and +was considerably amused when he rose at that late or early hour, and +"begged to suggest to honorable gentlemen," that, although he was +perfectly willing to sit there until daylight, yet he thought something +was due to the Speaker, (a hale, hearty man, sixteen years his junior,) +and as there was to be a session at noon of that day, he hoped the +debate would be adjourned. The same suggestion had been fruitlessly made +half a dozen times before; but the Premier's manner was irresistible, +and amid great laughter the motion prevailed. The Speaker, with a +grateful smile to the member for Tiverton, immediately and gladly +retired, but the indefatigable leader remained at his post an hour +longer, while the House was sitting in Committee on Supplies. + +But his Parliamentary duties by no means fill up the measure of his +public labors. Deputations representing all sorts of interests wait +on him almost daily, his presence is indispensable at all Cabinet +consultations, and as Prime Minister he gives tone and direction to +the domestic and foreign policy of the English government. How much is +implied in these duties and responsibilities must be apparent to all who +speak the English language. + +Now what is the secret of this vigorous old age, after a life spent in +such arduous avocations? Simply this, that a constitution robust by +nature has been preserved in its strength by regular habits and out-door +exercise. If I were to repeat the stories I have heard, and seen +stated in English newspapers, of the feats, pedestrian and equestrian, +performed by Lord Palmerston from early manhood down to the present +writing, I fear I should be suspected by some of my readers of offering +an insult to their understanding. I must therefore content myself with +saying that very few young men of our day and country could follow him +in the field or keep up with him on the road. + +A word about Lord Palmerston's political antecedents. Beginning as +Junior Lord of the Admiralty in the Duke of Portland's Ministry, +in 1808, he has since been once Secretary of War, five times Prime +Minister, and once Secretary of State. From 1811 to 1831 he represented +Cambridge University. Since 1835 he has represented Tiverton. It may be +safely asserted that no man now living in England has been so long or +so prominently in public office, and probably no man presents a more +correct type of the Liberal, although not Radical, sentiment of England. + +It may be well to state that on this evening there was an unusually +large attendance of members. Not only were all the benches on the floor +of the House filled, but the rare spectacle was presented of members +occupying seats in the east and west galleries. These unfortunates +belonged to that class who are seldom seen in their places, but who are +sometimes whipped in by zealous partisans, when important questions are +under consideration, and a close vote may be expected. Their listless +faces and sprawling attitudes proved clearly enough that they were +reluctant and bored spectators of the scene. It deserves to be +mentioned, also, that, although there are six hundred and fifty-six +actual members of the House, the final vote on the question showed, +that, even on that eventful night, only four hundred and sixty-two were +present. The average attendance is about three hundred. + +At half-past four, the Premier rose to address the House. He had already +given due notice that he should introduce three resolutions, which, +considering the importance of the subject, I make no apology for giving +in full. + +"1. That the right of granting aids and supplies to the Crown is in +the Commons alone as an essential part of their Constitution, and the +limitation of all such grants, as to the matter, manner, measure, and +time, is only in them. + +"2. That, although the Lords have exercised the power of rejecting bills +of several descriptions relating to taxation by negativing the whole, +yet the exercise of that power by them has not been frequent, and is +justly regarded by this House with peculiar jealousy, as affecting the +right of the Commons to grant the supplies and to provide the ways and +means for the service of the year. + +"3. That, to guard for the future against an undue exercise of that +power by the Lords, and to secure to the Commons their rightful control +over taxation and supply, this House has in its own hands the power so +to impose and remit taxes, and to frame Bills of Supply, that the right +of the Commons as to the matter, manner, measure, and time may be +maintained inviolate." + +The burden of the speech by which the Premier supported these +resolutions was this. The assent of both Houses is necessary to a bill, +and each branch possesses the power of rejection. But in regard to +certain bills, to wit, Money Bills, the House claims, as its peculiar +and exclusive privilege, the right of originating, altering, or amending +them. As the Lords have, however, the right and power of assenting, they +have also the right and power of rejecting. He admitted that they had +frequently exercised this right of rejection. Yet it must be observed, +that, when they had done so, it had been in the case of bills involving +taxes of small amount, or connected with questions of commercial +protection. No case had ever occurred precisely like this, where a bill +providing for the repeal of a tax of large amount, and on the face of it +unmixed with any other question, had been rejected by the Lords. + +"But, in point of fact," he continued, "was there not another question +involved? Was it not clear, that, the bill having passed by a majority +greatly reduced since its second reading, the Lords may have thought +that it would be well to give the Commons further time to reflect? +Indeed, was there not abundant reason to believe that the Lords were not +really initiating a new and dangerous policy, that of claiming to be +partners with the House in originating and disposing of Money Bills? +Therefore, would it not be sufficient for the House firmly to assert its +rights, and to intimate the jealous care with which it intended to guard +against their infringement?" + +Of course, this brief and imperfect abstract of an hour's speech can +do no sort of justice to its merits. It is much easier to describe its +effect upon the House. From the moment when the Premier uttered his +opening sentence, "I rise upon an occasion which will undoubtedly rank +as one of the first in importance among those which have occurred in +regard to our Parliamentary proceedings," he commanded the closest +attention of the House. And yet he was neither eloquent, impressive, nor +even earnest. There was not the slightest attempt at declamation. His +voice rarely rose above a conversational tone, and his gestures were not +so numerous or so decided as are usual in animated dialogue. His air and +manner were rather those of a plain, well-informed man of business, not +unaccustomed to public speaking, who had some views on the subject under +discussion which he desired to present, and asked the ear of the House +for a short hour while he defined his position. + +No one who did not appreciate the man and the occasion would have +dreamed that he was confronting a crisis which might lead to a change +in the Ministry, and might array the two Houses of Parliament in angry +hostility against each other. But here lay the consummate skill of the +Premier. He was playing a most difficult role, and he played it to +perfection. He could not rely on the support of the Radicals. He must +therefore make amends for their possible defection by drawing largely +on the Conservative strength. The great danger was, that, while +conciliating the Conservatives by a show of concession, he should +alienate his own party by seeming to concede too much. Now, that the +effect which he aimed to produce excluded all declamation, all attempt +at eloquence, anything like flights of oratory or striking figures of +rhetoric, nobody understood better than Lord Palmerston. + +In view of all these circumstances, the adroitness, the ability, the +sagacity, and the success of his speech were most wonderful. Gladstone +was more philosophical, statesmanlike, and eloquent; Whiteside more +impassioned and vehement; Disraeli more witty, sarcastic, and telling; +but Lord Palmerston displayed more of those qualities without which no +one can be a successful leader of the House of Commons. The result was, +that two of the resolutions passed without a division, and the third was +carried by an immense majority. The Prime Minister had understood the +temper of the House, and had shaped his course accordingly. As we have +seen, he succeeded to a marvel. But was it such a triumph as a great and +far-reaching statesman would have desired? And this brings us to the +other side of the picture. + +Dexterous, facile, adroit, politic, versatile,--as Lord Palmerston +certainly is,--fertile in resources, prompt to seize and use to the +utmost every advantage, endowed with unusual popular gifts, and blessed +with imperturbable good-humor, it cannot be denied that in many of the +best and noblest attributes of a statesman he is sadly deficient. His +fondness for political power and his anxiety to achieve immediate +success inevitably lead him to resort to temporary and often unworthy +expedients. A manly reliance on general principles, and a firm faith in +the ultimate triumph of right and justice, constitute no part of his +character. He lives only in the present. That he is making history seems +never to occur to him. He does not aspire to direct, but only aims to +follow, or at best to keep pace with public opinion. What course he will +pursue on a given question can never be safely predicted, until you +ascertain, as correctly as he can, what is the prevailing temper of the +House or the nation. That he will try to "make things pleasant," to +conciliate the Opposition without weakening the strength of his own +party, you may be sure; but for, any further clue to his policy you must +consult the press, study the spirit of Parliament, and hear the voice of +the people. I know no better illustration to prove the justice of this +view of the Premier's political failing than his bearing in the debate +which I am attempting to describe. Here was a grave constitutional +question. The issue was a simple and clear one. Had the Lords the +right to reject a Money Bill which had passed the House? If historical +precedents settled the question clearly, then there was no difficulty +in determining the matter at once, and almost without discussion. If, +however, there were no precedents bearing precisely on this case, then +it was all the more important that this should be made the occasion of a +settlement of the question so unequivocal and positive as effectually +to guard against future complication and embarrassment. Now how did the +Premier deal with this issue? He disregarded the homely wisdom contained +in the pithy bull of Sir Boyle Roche, that "the best way to avoid a +dilemma is to meet it plump." He dodged the dilemma. His resolutions, +worded with ingenious obscurity, skilfully evaded the important aspect +of the controversy, and two of them, the second and third, gave equal +consolation to the Liberals and the Conservatives. So that, in fact, it +is reserved for some future Parliament, in which it cannot be doubted +that the Radical element will be more numerous and more powerful, to +determine what should have been decided on this very evening. It was +cleverly done, certainly, and extorted from all parties and members of +every shade of political opinion that admiration which the successful +performance of a difficult and critical task must always elicit. But was +it statesmanlike, or in any high sense patriotic or manly? + +The Premier was followed by R.P. Collier, representing Plymouth. He had +been on the committee to search for precedents, and he devoted an hour +to showing that there was not, in all Parliamentary history, a single +precedent justifying the action of the Lords. His argument was clear and +convincing, and the result of it was, that no bill simply imposing or +remitting a tax had ever in a single instance been rejected by the Upper +House. In all the thirty-six cases relied on by the Opposition there +was always some other principle involved, which furnished plausible +justification for the course adopted by the Lords. + +To this speech I observed that Mr. Gladstone paid strict attention, +occasionally indicating his assent by an approving nod, or by an +encouraging "Hear! Hear!" It is rare, indeed, that any speaker in the +House secures the marked attention or catches the eye of the Chancellor +of the Exchequer. + +To Collier succeeded Coningham, member for Brighton. Now as this +honorable member was prosy and commonplace, not to say stupid, I +should not detain my readers with any allusion to his speech, but as +illustrating a prominent and very creditable feature of the debates +in the House. That time is of some value, and that no remarks can be +tolerated, unless they are intelligent and pertinent, are cardinal +doctrines of debate, and are quite rigidly enforced. At the same time +mere dulness is often overlooked, as soon as it appears that the speaker +has something to say which deserves to be heard. But there is one +species of oratory which is never tolerated for a moment, and that +is the sort of declamation which is designed merely or mainly for +home-consumption,--speaking for Buncombe, as we call it. The instant, +therefore, that it was evident that Mr. Coningham was addressing, +not the House of Commons, but his constituents at Brighton, he was +interrupted by derisive cheers and contemptuous groans. Again and again +did the indignant orator attempt to make his voice heard above the +confusion, but in vain; and when, losing all presence of mind, he made +the fatal admission,--"I can tell Honorable Gentlemen that I have just +returned from visiting my constituents, and I can assure the House that +more intelligent"--the tumult became so great, that the remainder of the +sentence was entirely lost. Seeing his mistake, Mr. Coningham changed +his ground. "I appeal to the courtesy of Honorable Members; I do not +often trespass upon the House; I implore them to give me a patient +and candid hearing." This appeal to the love of "fair play," so +characteristic of Englishmen, produced immediately the desired effect, +and the member concluded without further interruption. + +Mr. Edwin James was the next prominent speaker. He has won a wide +reputation as a barrister, chiefly in the management of desperate +criminal cases, culminating in his defence of Dr. Barnard, charged with +being accessory to the attempted assassination of Louis Napoleon. The +idol of the populace, he was elected by a large majority in May, 1859, +as an extreme Liberal or Radical, to represent Marylebone in the present +Parliament. His warmest admirers will hardly contend that since his +election he has done anything to distinguish himself, or even to sustain +the reputation which his success as an advocate had earned for him. +The expensive vices to which he has long been addicted have left him +bankrupt in character and fortune. His large professional income has +been for some years received by trustees, who have made him a liberal +allowance for his personal expenses, and have applied the remainder +toward the payment of his debts. His recent disgraceful flight from +England, and the prompt action of his legal brethren in view of his +conduct, render it highly improbable that he will ever return to the +scene of his former triumphs and excesses. Besides its brevity, which +was commendable, his speech this evening presented no point worthy of +comment. + +Since the opening remarks of Lord Palmerston, five Radicals had +addressed the House. Without exception they had denounced the action of +the Lords, and more than one had savagely attacked the Opposition for +supporting the proceedings of the Upper House. They had contended that +the Commons were becoming contemptible in the eyes of the nation by +their failure to take a manly position in defence of their rights. To +a man, they had assailed the resolutions of the Premier as falling far +short of the dignity of the occasion and the importance of the crisis, +or, at best, as intentionally ambiguous. Thus far then the Radicals. +The Opposition had listened to them in unbroken and often contemptuous +silence, enjoying the difference of opinion in the Ministerial party, +but reserving themselves for some foeman worthy of their steel. Nor +was there, beyond a vague rumor, any clue to the real position of the +Cabinet on the whole question. Only one member had spoken for the +Government, and it was more than suspected that he did not quite +correctly represent the views of the Ministry. + +If any one of my readers had been in the Speaker's Gallery on that +evening, his attention would have been arrested by a member on the +Ministerial benches, a little to the right of Lord Palmerston. His face +is the most striking in the House,--grave, thoughtful, almost stern, +but lighting up with wonderful beauty when he smiles. Usually, his air +is rather abstracted,--not, indeed, the manner of one whose thoughts +are wandering from the business under debate, but rather of one who is +thinking deeply upon what is passing around him. His attitude is not +graceful: lolling at full length, his head resting on the back of the +seat, and his legs stretched out before him. He is always neatly, but +never carefully dressed, and his bearing is unmistakably that of a +scholar. Once or twice since we have been watching him, he has scratched +a few hasty memoranda on the back of an envelope, and now, amid the +silence of general expectation, the full, clear tones of his voice are +heard. He has not spoken five minutes before members who have taken +advantage of the dulness of recent debaters to dine, or to fortify +themselves in a less formal way for the night's work before them, begin +to flock to their seats. Not an eye wanders from the speaker, and the +attention which he commands is of the kind paid in the House only to +merit and ability of the highest order. And, certainly, the orator is +not unworthy of this silent, but most respectful tribute to his talents. +His manner is earnest and animated, his enunciation is beautifully +clear and distinct, the tones of his voice are singularly pleasing and +persuasive, stealing their way into the hearts of men, and charming them +into assent to his propositions. One can easily understand why he is +called the "golden-tongued." + +This is Mr. Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer, by right of +eloquence, statesmanship, and scholarly attainments, the foremost man in +England. I cannot hope to give a satisfactory description of his speech, +nor of its effect upon the House. His eloquence is of that quality to +which no sketch, however accurate, can do justice. Read any one of +his speeches, as reported with astonishing correctness in the London +"Times," and you will appreciate the clear, philosophical statement of +political truth,--the dignified, elevated, statesmanlike tone,--the rare +felicity of expression,--the rhetorical beauty of style, never usurping +the place of argument, though often concealing the sharp angles of his +relentless logic,--the marvellous ease with which he makes the +dry details of finance not only instructive, but positively +fascinating,--his adroitness in retrieving a mistake, or his sagacity +in abandoning, in season, an indefensible position,--the lofty and +indignant scorn with which he sometimes condescends to annihilate an +insolent adversary, or the royal courtesy of his occasional compliments. +But who shall be able to describe those attributes of his eloquence +which address themselves only to the ear and eye: that clear, resonant +voice, never sinking into an inaudible whisper, and never rising into an +ear-piercing scream, its tones always exactly adapted to the spirit of +the words,--that spare form, wasted by the severe study of many years, +which but a moment before was stretched in languid ease on the Treasury +benches, now dilated with emotion,--that careworn countenance inspired +with great thoughts: what pen or pencil can do justice to these? + +If any one of that waiting audience has been impatiently expectant of +some words equal to this crisis, some fearless and manly statement +of the real question at issue, his wish shall be soon and most fully +gratified. Listen to his opening sentence, which contains the key-note +to his whole speech:--"It appears to be the determination of one moiety +of this House that there shall be no debate upon the constitutional +principles which are involved in this question; and I must say, that, +considering that gentlemen opposite are upon this occasion the partisans +of a gigantic innovation,--the most gigantic and the most dangerous that +has been attempted in modern times,--I may compliment them upon the +prudence they show in resolving to be its silent partisans." After this +emphatic exordium, which electrified the House, and was followed by +such a tempest of applause as for some time to drown the voice of the +speaker, he proceeded at once to demonstrate the utter folly and error +of contending that the action of the Lords was supported or justified +by any precedent. Of course, as a member of the Cabinet, he gave his +adhesion to the resolutions before the House, and indorsed the speech +of the Premier. But, from first to last, he treated the question as its +importance demanded, as critical and emergent, not to be passed by in +silence, nor yet to be encountered with plausible and conciliatory +expedients. He reserved to himself "entire freedom to adopt any mode +which might have the slightest hope of success, for vindicating by +action the rights of the House." + +In fact, he alone of all the speakers of the evening rose to "the height +of the great argument." He alone seemed to feel that the temporary +success of this or that party or faction was as nothing compared with +the duty of settling definitely and for all posterity this conflict of +rights between the two Houses. Surveying the question from this high +vantage-ground, what wonder that in dignity and grandeur he towered +above his fellows? Here was a great mind grappling with a great +subject,--a mind above temporary expedients for present success, +superior to the fear of possible defeat. To denounce the Conservatives +for not attacking the Ministerial resolutions may have been indiscreet. +He may have been guilty of an apparent breach of Parliamentary +etiquette, when he practically condemned the passive policy of the +Cabinet, of which he was himself a leading member. But may we not pardon +the natural irritation produced by the defeat of his favorite measure, +in view of the noble and patriotic sentiments of his closing sentences? + +"I regard the whole rights of the House of Commons, as they have been +handed down to us, as constituting a sacred inheritance, upon which I, +for my part, will never voluntarily permit any intrusion or plunder to +be made. I think that the very first of our duties, anterior to the duty +of dealing with any legislative measure, and higher and more sacred than +any such duties, high and sacred though they may be, is to maintain +intact that precious deposit." + +The effect of this speech was indescribable. The applause with which he +was frequently interrupted, and which greeted him as he took his seat, +was such as I have never heard in a deliberative assembly. And not the +least striking feature of this display of enthusiasm was that it mainly +proceeded from the extreme Liberal wing of the Ministerial party, with +which Mr. Gladstone, representing that most conservative of all English +constituencies, Oxford University, had hitherto been by no means +popular. For several days the rumor was rife that the Chancellor of the +Exchequer would resign his place in the Cabinet, and be the leader +of the Radicals! But Mr. Gladstone had other views of his duty, and +probably he was never more firmly intrenched in the confidence of the +nation, and more influential in the councils of the Government, than he +is at this moment. + +Mr. Gladstone had hardly taken his seat, when the long and significant +silence of the Opposition was broken by Mr. Whiteside. This gentleman +represents Dublin University, has been Attorney-General and +Solicitor-General for Ireland, and was one of the most able and eloquent +defenders of O'Connell and his friends in 1842. He is said to be the +only Irishman in public life who holds the traditions of the great Irish +orators,--the Grattans, the Currans, and the Sheridans. I will not +detain my readers with even a brief sketch of his speech. It was very +severe upon Mr. Gladstone, very funny at the expense of the Radicals, +and very complimentary to Lord Palmerston. As a whole, it was an +admirable specimen of Irish oratory. In the _elan_ with which the +speaker leaped to his feet and dashed at once into his subject, full of +spirit and eager for the fray, in his fierce and vehement invective and +the occasional ferocity of his attacks, in the fluency and fitness of +his language and the rapidity of his utterance, in the unstudied grace +and sustained energy of his manner, it was easy to recognize the +elements of that irresistible eloquence by which so many of his gifted +countrymen have achieved such brilliant triumphs at the forum and in the +halls of the debate. + +It might perhaps heighten the effect of the picture, if I were to +describe the appearance of Mr. Gladstone during the delivery of this +fierce Philippic,--the contracted brow, the compressed lip, the uneasy +motion from side to side, and all the other customary manifestations of +anger, mortification, and conscious defeat. But if my sketch be dull, +it shall at least have the homely merit of being truthful. In point of +fact, the whole harangue was lost upon Mr. Gladstone; for he left the +House immediately after making his own speech, and did not return until +some time after Mr. Whiteside had finished. In all probability he did +not know how unmercifully he had been handled until he read his "Times" +the next morning. + +Six more speeches on the Liberal side, loud in praise of the Chancellor +of the Exchequer, bitter in denunciation of the Conservatives, and by +no means sparing the policy of the Prime Minister, followed in quick +succession. They were all brief, pertinent, and spirited; with which +comprehensive criticism I must dismiss them. Their delivery occupied +about two hours, and many members availed themselves of this opportunity +to leave the House for a while. Some sauntered on the broad stone +terrace which lines the Thames. Not a few regaled themselves with the +popular Parliamentary beverage,--sherry and soda-water; and others, +who had resolutely kept their seats since the opening of the debate, +rewarded their devotion to the interests of the public by a more +elaborate repast. Now and then a member in full evening dress would +lounge into the House, with that air of perfect self-satisfaction +which tells of a good dinner by no means conducted on total-abstinence +principles. + +It was midnight when Mr. Disraeli rose to address the House. For years +the pencil of "Punch" has seemed to take particular delight in sketching +for the public amusement the features of this well-known novelist, +orator, and statesman. After making due allowance for the conceded +license of caricature, we must admit that the likeness is in the main +correct, and any one familiar with the pages of "Punch" would recognize +him at a glance. The impression which he leaves on one who studies his +features and watches his bearing is not agreeable. Tall, thin, and quite +erect, always dressed with scrupulous care, distant and reserved in +manner, his eye dull, his lips wearing habitually a half-scornful, +half-contemptuous expression, one can readily believe him to be a man +addicted to bitter enmities, but incapable of warm friendships. + +He had been sitting, as his manner is, very quietly during the evening, +never moving a muscle of his face, save when he smiled coldly once +or twice at the sharp sallies of Whiteside, or spoke, as he did very +rarely, to some member near him. A stranger to his manner would have +supposed him utterly indifferent to what was going on about him. Yet it +is probable that no member of the House was more thoroughly absorbed in +the debate or watched its progress with deeper interest. Excepting his +political ambition, Mr. Disraeli is actuated by no stronger passion than +hatred of Mr. Gladstone. To have been a warm admirer and _protege_ of +Sir Robert Peel would have laid a sufficient foundation for intense +personal dislike. But Mr. Disraeli has other and greater grievances to +complain of. This is not the place to enter at large into the history of +the political rivalry between these eminent men. Enough to say, that +in the spring of 1852 Mr. Disraeli realized the dream of his lifelong +ambition by being appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the Ministry +of Lord Derby. Late in the same year he brought forward his Budget, +which he defended at great length and with all his ability. This Budget, +and the arguments by which it was supported, Mr. Gladstone--who had +already refused to take the place in the Derby Cabinet--attacked in a +speech of extraordinary power, demolishing one by one the positions +of his opponent, rebuking with dignified severity the license of +his language, and calling upon the House to condemn the man and his +measures. Such was the effect of this speech that the Government was +defeated by a decided majority. Thus dethroned, Mr. Disraeli had the +additional mortification of seeing his victorious opponent seated in his +vacant chair. For, in the Ministry of Lord Aberdeen, which immediately +succeeded, Mr. Gladstone accepted the appointment of Chancellor of +the Exchequer. The Budget brought forward by the new Minister took by +surprise even those who had already formed the highest estimate of his +capacity; and the speech in which he defended and enforced it received +the approval of Lord John Russell, in the well-known and well-merited +compliment, that "it contained the ablest expositions of the true +principles of finance ever delivered by an English statesman." Since +that memorable defeat, Disraeli has lost no opportunity of attacking the +member for Oxford University. To weaken his wonderful ascendency over +the House has seemed to be the wish nearest his heart, and the signal +failure which has thus far attended all his efforts only gives a keener +edge to his sarcasm and increases the bitterness of his spirit. That +persistent and inflexible determination which, from a fashionable +novelist, has raised him to the dignity of leader of the Conservative +party in the House of Commons, that unsparing and cold-blooded malignity +which poisoned the last days of Sir Robert Peel, and those powers of wit +and ridicule which make him so formidable an adversary, have all been +impressed into this service. + +His speech this evening was only a further illustration of his +controlling desire to enjoy an ample and adequate revenge for past +defeats; and, undoubtedly, Mr. Disraeli displayed a great deal of a +certain kind of power. He was witty, pungent, caustic, full of telling +hits which repeatedly convulsed the House with laughter, and he showed +singular dexterity in discovering and assailing the weak points in his +adversary's argument. Still, it was a painful exhibition, bad in temper, +tone, and manner. It was too plainly the attempt of an unscrupulous +partisan to damage a personal enemy, rather than the effort of a +statesman to enlighten and convince the House and the nation. It was +unfair, uncandid, and logically weak. Its only possible effect was to +irritate the Liberals, without materially strengthening the position of +the Conservatives. When "Dizzy" had finished, the floor was claimed +by Lord John Russell and Mr. Bright. It was sufficiently evident that +members, without distinction of party, desired to hear the last-named +gentleman, for cries of "Bright," "Bright," came from all parts of the +House. The member for Birmingham is stout, bluff, and hearty, looking +very much like a prosperous, well-dressed English yeoman. He is +acknowledged to be the best declaimer in the House. Piquant, racy, and +entertaining, he is always listened to with interest and pleasure; but +somehow he labors under the prevalent suspicion of being insincere, and +beyond a small circle of devoted admirers has no influence whatever in +Parliament. + +To the manifest discontent of the House, the Speaker decided that the +Honorable Secretary for Foreign Affairs was entitled to the floor. Lord +John Russell deserves a more extended historical and personal notice +than the legitimate limits of this article will allow. But, as his +recent elevation to the peerage has led the English press to give a +review of his political antecedents, and as these articles have been +copied quite generally into our own leading newspapers, it may be +fairly presumed that most of my readers are familiar with the prominent +incidents in his long and honorable public career. As a speaker he is +decidedly prosy, with a hesitating utterance, a monotonous voice, and an +uninteresting manner. Yet he is always heard with respectful attention +by the House, in consideration of his valuable public services, his +intrinsic good sense, and his unselfish patriotism. On the question at +issue, he took ground midway between Lord Palmerston and Mr. Gladstone. + +It was now about two, A.M. Since the commencement of the debate eighteen +members had addressed the House. At this point a motion prevailed to +adjourn until noon of the same day. + +On the reopening of the debate at that hour, Mr. Bright and a few other +members gave their views upon the resolutions of the Premier, and the +final vote was then taken with the result already indicated. + + + + +A LEGEND OF THE LAKE. + + + Should you go to Centre-Harbor, + As haply you some time may, + Sailing up the Winnipisauke, + From the hills of Alton Bay,-- + + Into the heart of the highlands, + Into the north-wind free, + Through the rising and vanishing islands, + Over the mountain sea,-- + + To the little hamlet lying + White in its mountain-fold, + Asleep by the lake, and dreaming + A dream that is never told,-- + + And in the Red Hill's shadow + Your pilgrim home you make, + Where the chambers open to sunrise, + The mountains and the lake,-- + + If the pleasant picture wearies, + As the fairest sometimes will, + And the weight of the hills lies on you, + And the water is all too still,-- + + If in vain the peaks of Gunstock + Redden with sunrise fire, + And the sky and the purple mountains + And the sunset islands tire,-- + + If you turn from the in-door thrumming + And clatter of bowls without, + And the folly that goes on its travels + Bearing the city about,-- + + And the cares you left behind you + Come hunting along your track, + As Blue-Cap in German fable + Rode on the traveller's pack,-- + + Let me tell you a tender story + Of one who is now no more, + A tale to haunt like a spirit + The Winnipisauke shore,-- + + Of one who was brave and gentle, + And strong for manly strife, + Riding with cheering and music + Into the tourney of life. + + Faltering and falling midway + In the Tempter's subtle snare, + The chains of an evil habit + He bowed himself to bear. + + Over his fresh, young manhood + The bestial veil was flung,-- + The curse of the wine of Circe, + The spell her weavers sung. + + Yearly did hill- and lake-side + Their summer idyls frame; + Alone in his darkened dwelling, + He hid his face for shame. + + The music of life's great marches + Sounded for him in vain; + The voices of human duty + Smote on his ear like pain. + + In vain over island and water + The curtains of sunset swung; + In vain on the beautiful mountains + The pictures of God were hung. + + The wretched years crept onward, + Each sadder than the last; + All the bloom of life fell from him, + All the freshness and greenness passed. + + But deep in his heart forever + And unprofaned he kept + The love of his saintly Mother, + Who in the grave-yard slept. + + His house had no pleasant pictures; + Its comfortless walls were bare; + But the riches of earth and ocean + Could not purchase his Mother's Chair,-- + + The old chair, quaintly carven, + With oaken arms outspread, + Whereby, in the long gone twilights, + His childish prayers were said. + + For thence, in his lone night-watches, + By moon or starlight dim, + A face full of love and pity + And tenderness looked on him. + And oft, as the grieving presence + Sat in his mother's chair, + The groan of his self-upbraiding + Grew into wordless prayer. + + At last, in the moonless midnight, + The summoning angel came, + Severe in his pity, touching + The house with fingers of flame. + + The red light flashed from its windows + And flared from its sinking roof; + And baffled and awed before it, + The villagers stood aloof. + + They shrank from the falling rafters, + They turned from the furnace-glare; + But its tenant cried, "God help me! + I must save my mother's chair." + + Under the blazing portal, + Over the floor of fire, + He seemed, in the terrible splendor, + A martyr on his pyre! + + In his face the mad flames smote him + And stung him on either side; + But he clung to the sacred relic,-- + By his mother's chair he died! + + O mother, with human yearnings! + O saint, by the altar-stairs! + Shall not the dear God give thee + The child of thy many prayers? + + O Christ! by whom the loving, + Though erring, are forgiven, + Hast Thou for him no refuge, + No quiet place in heaven? + + Give palms to Thy strong martyrs, + And crown Thy saints with gold, + But let the mother welcome + Her lost one to Thy fold! + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO. + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +ELSIE PUSHES HER SCHEME. + + +The good Father Antonio returned from his conference with the cavalier +with many subjects for grave pondering. This man, as he conjectured, so +far from being an enemy either of Church or State, was in fact in many +respects in the same position with his revered master,--as nearly so as +the position of a layman was likely to resemble that of an ecclesiastic. +His denial of the Visible Church, as represented by the Pope and +Cardinals, sprang not from an irreverent, but from a reverent spirit. To +accept _them_ as exponents of Christ and Christianity was to blaspheme +and traduce both, and therefore he only could be counted in the highest +degree Christian who stood most completely opposed to them in spirit and +practice. + +His kind and fatherly heart was interested in the brave young nobleman. +He sympathized fully with the situation in which he stood, and he even +wished success to his love; but then how was he to help him with Agnes, +and above all with her old grandmother, without entering on the awful +task of condemning and exposing that sacred authority which all the +Church had so many years been taught to regard as infallibly inspired? +Long had all the truly spiritual members of the Church who gave ear to +the teachings of Savonarola felt that the nearer they followed Christ +the more open was their growing antagonism to the Pope and the +Cardinals; but still they hung back from the responsibility of inviting +the people to an open revolt. + +Father Antonio felt his soul deeply stirred with the news of the +excommunication of his saintly master; and he marvelled, as he tossed +on his restless bed through the night, how he was to meet the storm. He +might have known, had he been able to look into a crowded assembly in +Florence about this time, when the unterrified monk thus met the news of +his excommunication:-- + +"There have come decrees from Rome, have there? They call me a son of +perdition. Well, thus may you answer:--He to whom you give this name +hath neither favorites nor concubines, but gives himself solely to +preaching Christ. His spiritual sons and daughters, those who listen +to his doctrine, do not pass their time in infamous practices. They +confess, they receive the communion, they live honestly. This man gives +himself up to exalt the Church of Christ: you to destroy it. The time +approaches for opening the secret chamber: we will give but one turn of +the key, and there will come out thence such an infection, such a +stench of this city of Rome, that the odor shall spread through all +Christendom, and all the world shall be sickened." + +But Father Antonio was of himself wholly unable to come to such a +courageous result, though capable of following to the death the master +who should do it for him. His was the true artist nature, as unfit to +deal with rough human forces as a bird that flies through the air is +unfitted to a hand-to-hand grapple with the armed forces of the lower +world. There is strength in these artist natures. Curious computations +have been made of the immense muscular power that is brought into +exercise when a swallow skims so smoothly through the blue sky; but the +strength is of a kind unadapted to mundane uses, and needs the ether for +its display. Father Antonio could create the beautiful; he could warm, +could elevate, could comfort; and when a stronger nature went before +him, he could follow with an unquestioning tenderness of devotion: but +he wanted the sharp, downright power of mind that could cut and cleave +its way through the rubbish of the past, when its institutions, instead +of a commodious dwelling, had come to be a loathsome prison. Besides, +the true artist has ever an enchanted island of his own; and when this +world perplexes and wearies him, he can sail far away and lay his soul +down to rest, as Cytherea bore the sleeping Ascanius far from the din of +battle, to sleep on flowers and breathe the odor of a hundred undying +altars to Beauty. + +Therefore, after a restless night, the good monk arose in the first +purple of the dawn, and instinctively betook him to a review of his +drawings for the shrine, as a refuge from troubled thought. He took his +sketch of the Madonna and Child into the morning twilight and began +meditating thereon, while the clouds that lined the horizon were glowing +rosy purple and violet with the approaching day. + +"See there!" he said to himself, "yonder clouds have exactly the rosy +purple of the cyclamen which my little Agnes loves so much;--yes, I am +resolved that this cloud on which our Mother standeth shall be of a +cyclamen color. And there is that star, like as it looked yesterday +evening, when I mused upon it. Methought I could see our Lady's clear +brow, and the radiance of her face, and I prayed that some little power +might be given to show forth that which transports me." + +And as the monk plied his pencil, touching here and there, and +elaborating the outlines of his drawing, he sang,-- + + "Ave, Maris Stella, + Dei mater alma, + Atque semper virgo, + Felix coeli porta! + + "Virgo singularis, + Inter omnes mitis, + Nos culpis solutos + Mites fac et castos! + + "Vitam praesta puram, + Iter para tutum, + Ut videntes Jesum + Semper collaetemur!"[A] + +[Footnote A: + + Hail, thou Star of Ocean, + Thou forever virgin + Mother of the Lord! + Blessed gate of Heaven, + Take our heart's devotion! + + Virgin one and only, + Meekest 'mid them all, + From our sins set free, + Make us pure like thee, + Freed from passion's thrall! + + Grant that in pure living, + Through safe paths below, + Forever seeing Jesus, + Rejoicing we may go! +] + +As the monk sang, Agnes soon appeared at the door. + +"Ah, my little bird, you are there!" he said, looking up. + +"Yes," said Agnes, coming forward, and looking over his shoulder at his +work. + +"Did you find that young sculptor?" she asked. + +"That I did,--a brave boy, too, who will row down the coast and dig us +marble from an old heathen temple, which we will baptize into the name +of Christ and his Mother." + +"Pietro was always a good boy," said Agnes. + +"Stay," said the monk, stepping into his little sleeping-room; "he sent +you this lily; see, I have kept it in water all night." + +"Poor Pietro, that was good of him!" said Agnes. "I would thank him, if +I could. But, uncle," she added, in a hesitating voice, "did you see +anything of that--other one?" + +"That I did, child,--and talked long with him." + +"Ah, uncle, is there any hope for him?" + +"Yes, there is hope,--great hope. In fact, he has promised to receive me +again, and I have hopes of leading him to the sacrament of confession, +and after that"---- + +"And then the Pope will forgive him!" said Agnes, joyfully. + +The face of the monk suddenly fell; he was silent, and went on +retouching his drawing. + +"Do you not think he will?" said Agnes, earnestly. "You said the Church +was ever ready to receive the repentant." + +"The True Church will receive him," said the monk, evasively; "yes, my +little one, there is no doubt of it." + +"And it is not true that he is captain of a band of robbers in the +mountains?" said Agnes. "May I tell Father Francesco that it is not so?" + +"Child, this young man hath suffered a grievous wrong and injustice; for +he is lord of an ancient and noble estate, out of which he hath been +driven by the cruel injustice of a most wicked and abominable man, the +Duke di Valentinos,[B] who hath caused the death of his brothers and +sisters, and ravaged the country around with fire and sword, so that he +hath been driven with his retainers to a fortress in the mountains." + +[Footnote B: Caesar Borgia was created Duc de Valentinois by Louis XII. +of France.] + +"But," said Agnes, with flushed cheeks, "why does not our blessed Father +excommunicate this wicked duke? Surely this knight hath erred; instead +of taking refuge in the mountains, he ought to have fled with his +followers to Rome, where the dear Father of the Church hath a house for +all the oppressed. It must be so lovely to be the father of all men, and +to take in and comfort all those who are distressed and sorrowful, and +to right the wrongs of all that are oppressed, as our dear Father at +Rome doth!" + +The monk looked up at Agnes's clear glowing face with a sort of +wondering pity. + +"Dear little child," he said, "there is a Jerusalem above which is +mother of us all, and these things are done there. + + 'Coelestis urbs Jerusalem, + Beata pacis visio, + Quae celsa de viventibus + Saxis ad astra tolleris, + Sponsaeque ritu cingeris + Mille angelorum millibus!'" + +The face of the monk glowed as he repeated this ancient hymn of the +Church,[C] as if the remembrance of that general assembly and church of +the first-born gave him comfort in his depression. + +[Footnote C: This very ancient hymn is the fountainhead from which +through various languages have trickled the various hymns of the +Celestial City, such as-- + +"Jerusalem, my happy home!" + +and Quarles's-- + +"O mother dear, Jerusalem!"] + +Agnes felt perplexed, and looked earnestly at her uncle as he stooped +over his drawing, and saw that there were deep lines of anxiety on his +usually clear, placid face,--a look as of one who struggles mentally +with some untold trouble. + +"Uncle," she said, hesitatingly, "may I tell Father Francesco what you +have been telling me of this young man?" + +"No, my little one,--it were not best. In fact, dear child, there be +many things in his case impossible to explain, even to you;--but he is +not so altogether hopeless as you thought; in truth, I have great hopes +of him. I have admonished him to come here no more, but I shall see him +again this evening." + +Agnes wondered at the heaviness of her own little heart, as her kind +old uncle spoke of his coming there no more. Awhile ago she dreaded his +visits as a most fearful temptation, and thought perhaps he might come +at any hour; now she was sure he would not, and it was astonishing what +a weight fell upon her. + +"Why am I not thankful?" she asked herself. "Why am I not joyful? Why +should I wish to see him again, when I should only be tempted to sinful +thoughts, and when my dear uncle, who can do so much for him, has his +soul in charge? And what is this which is so strange in his case? There +is some mystery, after all,--something, perhaps, which I ought not to +wish to know. Ah, how little can we know of this great wicked world, and +of the reasons which our superiors give for their conduct! It is ours +humbly to obey, without a question or a doubt. Holy Mother, may I not +sin through a vain curiosity or self-will! May I ever say, as thou +didst, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord! be it unto me according to His +word!'" + +And Agnes went about her morning devotions with fervent zeal, and did +not see the monk as he dropped the pencil, and, covering his face with +his robe, seemed to wrestle in some agony of prayer. + +"Shepherd of Israel," he said, "why hast Thou forgotten this vine of Thy +planting? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, the wild beast of the +field doth devour it. Dogs have encompassed Thy beloved; the assembly of +the violent have surrounded him. How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost +Thou not judge and avenge?" + +"Now, really, brother," said Elsie, coming towards him, and interrupting +his meditations in her bustling, business way, yet speaking in a low +tone that Agnes should not hear,--"I want you to help me with this child +in a good common-sense fashion: none of your high-flying notions about +saints and angels, but a little good common talk for every-day people +that have their bread and salt to look after. The fact is, brother, this +girl must be married. I went last night to talk with Antonio's mother, +and the way is all open as well as any living girl could desire. Antonio +is a trifle slow, and the high-flying hussies call him stupid; but his +mother says a better son never breathed, and he is as obedient to all +her orders now as when he was three years old. And she has laid up +plenty of household stuff for him, and good hard gold pieces to boot: +she let me count them myself, and I showed her that which I had scraped +together, and she counted it, and we agreed that the children that come +of such a marriage would come into the world with something to stand on. +Now Agnes is fond of you, brother, and perhaps it would be well for you +to broach the subject. The fact is, when I begin to talk, she gets her +arms round my old neck and falls to weeping and kissing me at such a +rate as makes a fool of me. If the child would only be rebellious, one +could do something; but this love takes all the stiffness out of one's +joints; and she tells me she never wants a husband, and she will be +content to live with me all her life. The saints know it isn't for my +happiness to put her out of my old arms; but I can't last forever,--my +old back grows weaker every year; and Antonio has strong arms to defend +her from all these roystering fellows who fear neither God nor man, and +swoop up young maids as kites do chickens. And then he is as gentle and +manageable as a this-year ox; Agnes can lead him by the horn,--she will +be a perfect queen over him; for he has been brought up to mind the +women." + +"Well, sister," said the monk, "hath our little maid any acquaintance +with this man? Have they ever spoken together?" + +"Not much. I have never brought them to a very close acquaintance; and +that is what is to be done. Antonio is not much of a talker; to tell the +truth, he does not know as much to say as our Agnes: but the man's place +is not to say fine things, but to do the hard work that shall support +the household." + +"Then Agnes hath not even seen him?" + +"Yes, at different times I have bid her regard him, and said to her, +'There goes a proper man and a good Christian,--a man who minds his work +and is obedient to his old mother: such a man will make a right good +husband for some girl some day.'" + +"And did you ever see that her eye followed him with pleasure?" + +"No, neither him nor any other man, for my little Agnes hath no thought +of that kind; but, once married, she will like him fast enough. All +I want is to have you begin the subject, and get it into her head a +little." + +Father Antonio was puzzled how to meet this direct urgency of his +sister. He could not explain to her his own private reasons for +believing that any such attempt would be utterly vain, and only bring +needless distress on his little favorite. He therefore answered,-- + +"My good sister, all such thoughts lie so far out of the sphere of us +monks, that you could not choose a worse person for such an errand. I +have never had any communings with the child than touching the beautiful +things of my art, and concerning hymns and prayers and the lovely +world of saints and angels, where they neither marry nor are given in +marriage; and so I should only spoil your enterprise, if I should put my +unskilful hand to it." + +"At any rate," said Elsie, "don't you approve of my plan?" + +"I should approve of anything that would make our dear little one safe +and happy, but I would not force the matter against her inclinations. +You will always regret it, if you make so good a child shed one needless +tear. After all, sister, what need of haste? 'Tis a young bird yet. Why +push it out of the nest? When once it is gone, you will never get it +back. Let the pretty one have her little day to play and sing and be +happy. Does she not make this garden a sort of Paradise with her little +ways and her sweet words? Now, my sister, these all belong to you; but, +once she is given to another, there is no saying what may come. One +thing only may you count on with certainty: that these dear days, when +she is all day by your side and sleeps in your bosom all night, are +over,--she will belong to you no more, but to a strange man who hath +neither toiled nor wrought for her, and all her pretty ways and dutiful +thoughts must be for him." + +"I know it, I know it," said Elsie, with a sudden wrench of that jealous +love which is ever natural to strong, passionate natures. "I'm sure it +isn't for my own sake I urge this. I grudge him the girl. After all, +he is but a stupid head. What has he ever done, that such good-fortune +should befall him? He ought to fall down and kiss the dust of my shoes +for such a gift, and I doubt me much if he will ever think to do it. +These men think nothing too good for them. I believe, if one of the +crowned saints in heaven were offered them to wife, they would think it +all quite natural, and not a whit less than their requirings." + +"Well, then, sister," said the monk, soothingly, "why press this matter? +why hurry? The poor little child is young; let her frisk like a lamb, +and dance like a butterfly, and sing her hymns every day like a bright +bird. Surely the Apostle saith, 'He that giveth his maid in marriage +doeth well, but he that giveth her not doeth better.'" + +"But I have opened the subject already to old Meta," said Elsie; "and +if I don't pursue it, she will take it into her head that her son is +lightly regarded, and then her back will be up, and one may lose the +chance; and on the whole, considering the money and the fellow, I don't +know a safer way to settle the girl." + +"Well, sister, as I have remarked," said the monk, "I could not order +my speech to propose anything of this kind to a young maid; I should so +bungle that I might spoil all. You must even propose it yourself." + +"I would not have undertaken it," said Elsie, "had I not been frightened +by that hook-nosed old kite of a cavalier that has been sailing and +perching round. We are two lone women here, and the times are unsettled, +and one never knows, that hath so fair a prize, but she may be carried +off, and then no redress from any quarter." + +"You might lodge her in the convent," said the monk. + +"Yes, and then, the first thing I should know, they would have got her +away from me entirely. I have been well pleased to have her much with +the sisters hitherto, because it kept her from hearing the foolish talk +of girls and gallants,--and such a flower would have had every wasp and +bee buzzing round it. But now the time is coming to marry her, I much +doubt these nuns. There's old Jocunda is a sensible woman, who knew +something of the world before she went there,--but the Mother Theresa +knows no more than a baby; and they would take her in, and make her as +white and as thin as that moon yonder now the sun has risen; and little +good should I have of her, for I have no vocation for the convent,--it +would kill me in a week. No,--she has seen enough of the convent for the +present. I will even take the risk of watching her myself. Little has +this gallant seen of her, though he has tried hard enough! But to-day I +may venture to take her down with me." + +Father Antonio felt a little conscience-smitten in listening to these +triumphant assertions of old Elsie; for he knew that she would pour all +her vials of wrath on his head, did she know, that, owing to his absence +from his little charge, the dreaded invader had managed to have two +interviews with her grandchild, on the very spot that Elsie deemed the +fortress of security; but he wisely kept his own counsel, believing in +the eternal value of silence. In truth, the gentle monk lived so much +in the unreal and celestial world of Beauty, that he was by no means +a skilful guide for the passes of common life. Love, other than that +ethereal kind which aspires towards Paradise, was a stranger to his +thoughts, and he constantly erred in attributing to other people natures +and purposes as unworldly and spiritual as his own. Thus had he fallen, +in his utter simplicity, into the attitude of a go-between protecting +the advances of a young lover with the shadow of his monk's gown, and +he became awkwardly conscious, that, if Elsie should find out the whole +truth, there would be no possibility of convincing her that what had +been done in such sacred simplicity on all sides was not the basest +manoeuvring. + +Elsie took Agnes down with her to the old stand in the gateway of the +town. On their way, as had probably been arranged, Antonio met them. +We may have introduced him to the reader before, who likely enough has +forgotten by this time our portraiture; so we shall say again, that the +man was past thirty, tall, straight, well-made, even to the tapering of +his well-formed limbs, as are the generality of the peasantry of that +favored region. His teeth were white as sea-pearl; his cheek, though +swarthy, had a deep, healthy flash; and his great velvet black eyes +looked straight out from under their long silky lashes, just as do the +eyes of the beautiful oxen of his country, with a languid, changeless +tranquillity, betokening a good digestion, and a well-fed, kindly animal +nature. He was evidently a creature that had been nourished on sweet +juices and developed in fair pastures, under genial influences of sun +and weather,--one that would draw patiently in harness, if required, +without troubling his handsome head how he came there, and, his labor +being done, would stretch his healthy body to rumination, and rest with +serene, even unreflecting quietude. + +He had been duly lectured by his mother, this morning, on the propriety +of commencing his wooing, and was coming towards them with a bouquet in +his hand. + +"See there," said Elsie,--"there is our young neighbor Antonio coming +towards us. There is a youth whom I am willing you should speak +to,--none of your ruffling gallants, but steady as an ox at his work, +and as kind at the crib. Happy will the girl be that gets him for a +husband!" + +Agnes was somewhat troubled and saddened this morning, and absorbed in +cares quite new to her life before; but her nature was ever kindly +and social, and it had been laid under so many restrictions by her +grandmother's close method of bringing up, that it was always ready to +rebound in favor of anybody to whom she allowed her to show kindness. +So, when the young man stopped and shyly reached forth to her a knot +of scarlet poppies intermingled with bright vetches and wild blue +larkspurs, she took it graciously, and, frankly beaming a smile into his +face, said,-- + +"Thank you, my good Antonio!" Then fastening them in the front of her +bodice,--"There, they are beautiful!" she said, looking up with the +simple satisfaction of a child. + +"They are not half so beautiful as you are," said the young peasant; +"everybody likes you." + +"You are very kind, I am sure," said Agnes. "I like everybody, as far as +grandmamma thinks it best." + +"I am glad of that," said Antonio, "because then I hope you will like +me." + +"Oh, yes, certainly, I do; grandmamma says you are very good, and I like +all good people." + +"Well, then, pretty Agnes," said the young man, "let me carry your +basket." + +"Oh, you don't need to; it does not tire me." + +"But I should like to do something for you," insisted the young man, +blushing deeply. + +"Well, you may, then," said Agnes, who began to wonder at the length +of time her grandmother allowed this conversation to go on without +interrupting it, as she generally had done when a young man was in the +case. Quite to her astonishment, her venerable relative, instead of +sticking as close to her as her shadow, was walking forward very fast +without looking behind. + +"Now, Holy Mother," said that excellent matron, "do help this young man +to bring this affair out straight, and give an old woman, who has had a +world of troubles, a little peace in her old age!" + +Agnes found herself, therefore, quite unusually situated, alone in the +company of a handsome young man, and apparently with the consent of her +grandmother. Some girls might have felt emotions of embarrassment, +or even alarm, at this new situation; but the sacred loneliness and +seclusion in which Agnes had been educated had given her a confiding +fearlessness, such as voyagers have found in the birds of bright foreign +islands which have never been invaded by man. She looked up at Antonio +with a pleased, admiring smile,--much such as she would have given, if +a great handsome stag, or other sylvan companion, had stepped from the +forest and looked a friendship at her through his large liquid eyes. She +seemed, in an innocent, frank way, to like to have him walking by her, +and thought him very good to carry her basket,--though, as she told him, +he need not do it, it did not tire her in the least. + +"Nor does it tire me, pretty Agnes," said he, with an embarrassed laugh. +"See what a great fellow I am,--how strong! Look,--I can bend an iron +bar in my hands! I am as strong as an ox,--and I should like always to +use my strength for you." + +"Should you? How very kind of you! It is very Christian to use one's +strength for others, like the good Saint Christopher." + +"But I would use my strength for you because--I love you, gentle Agnes!" + +"That is right, too," replied Agnes. "We must all love one another, my +good Antonio." + +"You must know what I mean," said the young man. "I mean that I want to +marry you." + +"I am sorry for that, Antonio," replied Agnes, gravely; "because I do +not want to marry you. I am never going to marry anybody." + +"Ah, girls always talk so, my mother told me; but nobody ever heard of +a girl that did not want a husband; that is impossible," said Antonio, +with simplicity. + +"I believe girls generally do, Antonio; but I do not: my desire is to go +to the convent." + +"To the convent, pretty Agnes? Of all things, what should you want to +go to the convent for? You never had any trouble. You are young, and +handsome, and healthy, and almost any of the fellows would think himself +fortunate to get you." + +"I would go there to live for God and pray for souls," said Agnes. + +"But your grandmother will never let you; she means you shall marry me. +I heard her and my mother talking about it last night; and my mother +bade me come on, for she said it was all settled." + +"I never heard anything of it," said Agnes, now for the first time +feeling troubled. "But, my good Antonio, if you really do like me and +wish me well, you will not want to distress me?" + +"Certainly not." + +"Well, it _will_ distress me very, very much, if you persist in wanting +to marry me, and if you say any more on the subject." + +"Is that really so?" said Antonio, fixing his great velvet eyes with an +honest stare on Agnes. + +"Yes, it is so, Antonio; you may rely upon it." + +"But look here, Agnes, are you quite sure? Mother says girls do not +always know their mind." + +"But I know mine, Antonio. Now you really will distress and trouble me +very much, if you say anything more of this sort." + +"I declare, I am sorry for it," said the young man. "Look ye, Agnes,--I +did not care half as much about it this morning as I do now. Mother +has been saying this great while that I must have a wife, that she was +getting old; and this morning she told me to speak to you. I thought you +would be all ready,--indeed I did." + +"My good Antonio, there are a great many very handsome girls who would +be glad, I suppose, to marry you. I believe other girls do not feel as I +do. Giulietta used to laugh and tell me so." + +"That Giulietta was a splendid girl," said Antonio. "She used to make +great eyes at me, and try to make me play the fool; but my mother would +not hear of her. Now she has gone off with a fellow to the mountains." + +"Giulietta gone?" + +"Yes, haven't you heard of it? She's gone with one of the fellows of +that dashing young robber-captain that has been round our town so much +lately. All the girls are wild after these mountain fellows. A good, +honest boy like me, that hammers away at his trade, they think nothing +of; whereas one of these fellows with a feather in his cap has only to +twinkle his finger at them, and they are off like a bird." + +The blood rose in Agnes's cheeks at this very unconscious remark; but +she walked along for some time with a countenance of grave reflection. + +They had now gained the street of the city, where old Elsie stood at a +little distance waiting for them. + +"Well, Agnes," said Antonio, "so you really are in earnest?" + +"Certainly I am." + +"Well, then, let us be good friends, at any rate," said the young man. + +"Oh, to be sure, I will," said Agnes, smiling with all the brightness +her lovely face was capable of. "You are a kind, good man, and I like +you very much. I will always remember you kindly." + +"Well, good-bye, then," said Antonio, offering his hand. + +"Good-bye," said Agnes, cheerfully giving hers. + +Elsie, beholding the cordiality of this parting, comforted herself that +all was right, and ruffled all her feathers with the satisfied pride of +a matron whose family plans are succeeding. + +"After all," she said to herself, "brother was right,--best let young +folks settle these matters themselves. Now see the advantage of such an +education as I have given Agnes! Instead of being betrothed to a good, +honest, forehanded fellow, she might have been losing her poor silly +heart to some of these lords or gallants who throw away a girl as one +does an orange when they have sucked it. Who knows what mischief this +cavalier might have done, if I had not been so watchful? Now let him +come prying and spying about, she will have a husband to defend her. A +smith's hammer is better than an old woman's spindle, any day." + +Agnes took her seat with her usual air of thoughtful gravity, her +mind seeming to be intensely preoccupied, and her grandmother, though +secretly exulting in the supposed cause, resolved not to open the +subject with her till they were at home or alone at night. + +"I have my defence to make to Father Francesco, too," she said to +herself, "for hurrying on this betrothal against his advice; but one +must manage a little with these priests,--the saints forgive me! I +really think sometimes, because they can't marry themselves, they would +rather see every pretty girl in a convent than with a husband. It's +natural enough, too. Father Francesco will be like the rest of the +world: when he can't help a thing, he will see the will of the Lord in +it." + +Thus prosperously the world seemed to go with old Elsie. Meantime, when +her back was turned, as she was kneeling over her basket, sorting out +lemons, Agnes happened to look up, and there, just under the arch of the +gateway, where she had seen him the first time, sat the cavalier on a +splendid horse, with a white feather streaming backward from his black +riding-hat and dark curls. + +He bowed low and kissed his hand to her, and before she knew it her eyes +met his, which seemed to flash light and sunshine all through her; and +then he turned his horse and was gone through the gate, while she, +filled with self-reproach, was taking her little heart to task for the +instantaneous throb of happiness which had passed through her whole +being at that sight. She had not turned away her head, nor said a +prayer, as Father Francesco told her to do, because the whole thing had +been sudden as a flash; but now it was gone, she prayed, "My God, help +me not to love him!--let me love Thee alone!" But many times in the +course of the day, as she twisted her flax, she found herself wondering +whither he could be going. Had he really gone to that enchanted +cloud-land, in the old purple Apennines, whither he wanted to carry +her,--gone, perhaps, never to return? That was best. But was he +reconciled with the Church? Was that great, splendid soul that looked +out of those eyes to be forever lost, or would the pious exhortations of +her uncle avail? And then she thought he had said to her, that, if she +would go with him, he would confess and take the sacrament, and be +reconciled with the Church, and so his soul be saved. + +She resolved to tell this to Father Francesco. Perhaps he +would----No,--she shivered as she remembered the severe, withering look +with which the holy father had spoken of him, and the awfulness of his +manner,--he would never consent. And then her grandmother----No, there +was no possibility. + +Meanwhile Agnes's good old uncle sat in the orange-shaded garden, busily +perfecting his sketches; but his mind was distracted, and his thoughts +wandered,--and often he rose, and, leaving his drawings, would pace up +and down the little place, absorbed in earnest prayer. The thought of +his master's position was hourly growing upon him. The real world with +its hungry and angry tide was each hour washing higher and higher up on +the airy shore of the ideal, and bearing the pearls and enchanted shells +of fancy out into its salt and muddy waters. + +"Oh, my master, my father!" he said, "is the martyr's crown of fire +indeed waiting thee? Will God desert His own? But was not Christ +crucified?--and the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant +above his lord. But surely Florence will not consent. The whole city +will make a stand for him;--they are ready, if need be, to pluck out +their eyes and give them to him. Florence will certainly be a refuge +for him. But why do I put confidence in man? In the Lord alone have I +righteousness and strength." + +And the old monk raised the psalm, "_Quare fremunt gentes_," and his +voice rose and fell through the flowery recesses and dripping grottoes +of the old gorge, sad and earnest like the protest of the few and feeble +of Christ's own against the rushing legions of the world. Yet, as +he sang, courage and holy hope came into his soul from the sacred +words,--just such courage as they afterwards brought to Luther, and to +the Puritans in later times. + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE MONK'S DEPARTURE. + + +The three inhabitants of the little dovecot were sitting in their garden +after supper, enjoying the cool freshness. The place was perfumed with +the smell of orange-blossoms, brought out by gentle showers that had +fallen during the latter part of the afternoon, and all three felt the +tranquillizing effects of the sweet evening air. The monk sat bending +over his drawings, resting the frame on which they lay on the mossy +garden-wall, so as to get the latest advantage of the rich golden +twilight which now twinkled through the sky. Agnes sat by him on the +same wall,--now glancing over his shoulder at his work, and now leaning +thoughtfully on her elbow, gazing pensively down into the deep shadows +of the gorge, or out where the golden light of evening streamed under +the arches of the old Roman bridge, to the wide, bright sea beyond. + +Old Elsie bustled about with unusual content in the lines of her keen +wrinkled face. Already her thoughts were running on household furnishing +and bridal finery. She unlocked an old chest which from its heavy quaint +carvings of dark wood must have been some relic of the fortunes of her +better days, and, taking out of a little till of the same a string of +fine silvery pearls, held them up admiringly to the evening light. +A splendid pair of pearl ear-rings also was produced from the same +receptacle. + +She sighed at first, as she looked at these things, and then smiled with +rather an air of triumph, and, coming to where Agnes reclined on the +wall, held them up playfully before her. + +"See here, little one!" she said. + +"Oh, what pretty things!--where did they come from?" said Agnes, +innocently. + +"Where did they? Sure enough! Little did you or any one else know old +Elsie had things like these! But she meant her little Agnes should hold +up her head with the best. No girl in Sorrento will have such wedding +finery as this?" + +"Wedding finery, grandmamma," said Agnes, faintly,--"what does that +mean?" + +"What does that mean, sly-boots? Ah, you know well enough! What were you +and Antonio talking about all the time this morning? Did he not ask you +to marry him?" + +"Yes, grandmamma; but I told him I was not going to marry. You promised +me, dear grandmother, right here, the other night, that I should not +marry till I was willing; and I told Antonio I was not willing." + +"The girl says but true, sister," said the monk; "you remember you gave +her your word that she should not be married till she gave her consent +willingly." + +"But, Agnes, my pretty one, what can be the objection?" said old Elsie, +coaxingly. "Where will you find a better-made man, or more honest, or +more kind?--and he is handsome;--and you will have a home that all the +girls will envy." + +"Grandmamma, remember, you promised me,--you _promised_ me," said Agnes, +looking distressed, and speaking earnestly. + +"Well, well, child! but can't I ask a civil question, if I did? What is +your objection to Antonio?" + +"Only that I don't want to be married." + +"Now you know, child," said Elsie, "I never will consent to your going +to a convent. You might as well put a knife through my old heart as talk +to me of that. And if you don't go, you must marry somebody; and who +could be better than Antonio?" + +"Oh, grandmamma, am I not a good girl? What have I done, that you are +so anxious to get me away from you?" said Agnes. "I like Antonio well +enough, but I like you ten thousand times better. Why cannot we live +together just as we do now? I am strong. I can work a great deal harder +than I do. You ought to let me work more, so that you need not work so +hard and tire yourself,--let me carry the heavy basket, and dig round +the trees." + +"Pooh! a pretty story!" said Elsie. "We are two lone women, and the +times are unsettled; there are robbers and loose fellows about, and we +want a protector." + +"And is not the good Lord our protector?--has He not always kept us, +grandmother?" said Agnes. + +"Oh, that's well enough to say, but folks can't always get along +so;--it's far better trusting the Lord with a good strong man +about,--like Antonio, for instance. I should like to see the man that +would dare be uncivil to _his_ wife. But go your ways,--it's no use +toiling away one's life for children, who, after all, won't turn their +little finger for you." + +"Now, dear grandmother," said Agnes, "have I not said I would do +everything for you, and work hard for you? Ask me to do anything else +in the world, grandmamma; I will do anything to make you happy, except +marry this man,--that I cannot." + +"And that is the only thing I want you to do. Well, I suppose I may as +well lock up these things; I see my gifts are not cared for." + +And the old soul turned and went in quite testily, leaving Agnes with a +grieved heart, sitting still by her uncle. + +"Never weep, little one," said the kind old monk, when he saw the silent +tears falling one after another; "your grandmother loves you, after all, +and will come out of this, if we are quiet." + +"This is such a beautiful world," said Agnes, "who would think it would +be such a hard one to live in?--such battles and conflicts as people +have here!" + +"You say well, little heart; but great is the glory to be revealed; so +let us have courage." + +"Dear uncle, have you heard any ill-tidings of late?" asked Agnes. "I +noticed this morning you were cast down, and to-night you look so tired +and sad." + +"Yes, dear child,--heavy tidings have indeed come. My dear master at +Florence is hard beset by wicked men, and in great danger,--in danger, +perhaps, of falling a martyr to his holy zeal for the blessed Jesus and +his Church." + +"But cannot our holy father, the Pope, protect him? You should go to +Rome directly and lay the case before him." + +"It is not always possible to be protected by the Pope," said Father +Antonio, evasively. "But I grieve much, dear child, that I can be with +you no longer. I must gird up my loins and set out for Florence, to see +with my own eyes how the battle is going for my holy master." + +"Ah, must I lose you, too, my dear, best friend?" said Agnes. "What +shall I do?" + +"Thou hast the same Lord Jesus, and the same dear Mother, when I am +gone. Have faith in God, and cease not to pray for His Church,--and for +me, too." + +"That I will, dear uncle! I will pray for you more than ever,--for +prayer now will be all my comfort. But," she added, with hesitation, +"oh, uncle, you promised to visit _him_!" + +"Never fear, little Agnes,--I will do that. I go to him this very +night,--now, even,--for the daylight waxes too scant for me to work +longer." + +"But you will come back and stay with us to-night, uncle?" + +"Yes, I will,--but to-morrow morning I must be up and away with the +birds; and I have labored hard all day to finish the drawings for the +lad who shall carve the shrine, that he may busy himself thereon in my +absence." + +"Then you will come back?" + +"Certainly, dear heart, I will come back; of that be assured. Pray God +it be before long, too." + +So saying, the good monk drew his cowl over his head, and, putting his +portfolio of drawings under his arm, began to wend his way towards the +old town. + +Agnes watched him departing, her heart in a strange flutter of eagerness +and solicitude. What were these dreadful troubles which were coming upon +her good uncle?--who those enemies of the Church that beset that saintly +teacher he so much looked up to? And why was lawless violence allowed +to run such riot in Italy, as it had in the case of the unfortunate +cavalier? As she thought things over, she was burning with a repressed +desire to _do_ something herself to abate these troubles. + +"I am not a knight," she said to herself, "and I cannot fight for the +good cause. I am not a priest, and I cannot argue for it. I cannot +preach and convert sinners. What, then, can I do? I can pray. Suppose I +should make a pilgrimage? Yes,--that would be a good work, and I will. +I will walk to Rome, praying at every shrine and holy place; and then, +when I come to the Holy City, whose very dust is made precious with +the blood of the martyrs and saints, I will seek the house of our dear +father, the Pope, and entreat his forgiveness for this poor soul. He +will not scorn me, for he is in the place of the blessed Jesus, and the +richest princess and the poorest maiden are equal in his sight. Ah, that +will be beautiful! Holy Mother," she said, falling on her knees before +the shrine, "here I vow and promise that I will go praying to the Holy +City. Smile on me and help me!" + +And by the twinkle of the flickering lamp which threw its light upon the +picture, Agnes thought surely the placid face brightened to a tender +maternal smile, and her enthusiastic imagination saw in this an omen of +success. + +Old Elsie was moody and silent this evening,--vexed at the thwarting +of her schemes. It was the first time that the idea had ever gained a +foothold in her mind, that her docile and tractable grandchild could +really have for any serious length of time a will opposed to her own, +and she found it even now difficult to believe it. Hitherto she had +shaped her life as easily as she could mould a biscuit, and it was all +plain sailing before her. The force and decision of this young will rose +as suddenly upon her as the one rock in the middle of the ocean which a +voyager unexpectedly discovered by striking on it. + +But Elsie by no means regarded the game as lost. She mentally went over +the field, considering here and there what was yet to be done. + +The subject had fairly been broached. Agnes had listened to it, and +parted in friendship from Antonio. Now his old mother must be soothed +and pacified; and Antonio must be made to persevere. + +"What is a girl worth that can be won at the first asking?" quoth Elsie. +"Depend upon it, she will fall to thinking of him, and the next time she +sees him she will give him a good look. The girl never knew what it was +to have a lover. No wonder she doesn't take to it at first; there's +where her bringing up comes in, so different from other girls'. Courage, +Elsie! Nature will speak in its own time." + +Thus soliloquizing, she prepared to go a few steps from their dwelling, +to the cottage of Meta and Antonio, which was situated at no great +distance. + +"Nobody will think of coming here this time o' night," she said, "and +the girl is in for a good hour at least with her prayers, and so I think +I may venture. I don't really like to leave her, but it's not a great +way, and I shall be back in a few moments. I want just to put a word +into old Meta's ear, that she may teach Antonio how to demean himself." + +And so the old soul took her spinning and away she went, leaving Agnes +absorbed in her devotions. + +The solemn starry night looked down steadfastly on the little garden. +The evening wind creeping with gentle stir among the orange-leaves, and +the falling waters of the fountain dripping their distant, solitary way +down from rock to rock through the lonely gorge, were the only sounds +that broke the stillness. + +The monk was the first of the two to return; for those accustomed to +the habits of elderly cronies on a gossiping expedition of any domestic +importance will not be surprised that Elsie's few moments of projected +talk lengthened imperceptibly into hours. + +Agnes came forward anxiously to meet her uncle. He seemed wan and +haggard, and trembling with some recent emotion. + +"What is the matter with you, dear uncle?" she asked. "Has anything +happened?" + +"Nothing, child, nothing. I have only been talking on painful subjects, +deep perplexities, out of which I can scarcely see my way. Would to God +this night of life were past, and I could see morning on the mountains!" + +"My uncle, have you not, then, succeeded in bringing this young man to +the bosom of the True Church?" + +"Child, the way is hedged up, and made almost impassable by difficulties +you little wot of. They cannot be told to you; they are enough to +destroy the faith of the very elect." + +Agnes's heart sank within her; and the monk, sitting down on the wall +of the garden, clasped his hands over one knee and gazed fixedly before +him. + +The sight of her uncle,--generally so cheerful, so elastic, so full of +bright thoughts and beautiful words,--so utterly cast down, was both a +mystery and a terror to Agnes. + +"Oh, my uncle," she said, "it is hard that I must not know, and that I +can do nothing, when I feel ready to die for this cause! What is one +little life? Ah, if I had a thousand to give, I could melt them all into +it, like little drops of rain in the sea! Be not utterly cast down, good +uncle! Does not our dear Lord and Saviour reign in the heavens yet?" + +"Sweet little nightingale!" said the monk, stretching his hand towards +her. "Well did my master say that he gained strength to his soul always +by talking with Christ's little children!" + +"And all the dear saints and angels, they are not dead or idle either," +said Agnes, her face kindling; "they are busy all around us. I know not +what this trouble is you speak of; but let us think what legions of +bright angels and holy men and women are caring for us." + +"Well said, well said, dear child! There is, thank God, a Church +Triumphant,--a crowned queen, a glorious bride; and the poor, +struggling Church Militant shall rise to join her! What matter, then, +though our way lie through dungeon and chains, through fire and sword, +if we may attain to that glory at last?" + +"Uncle, are there such dreadful things really before you?" + +"There may be, child. I say of my master, as did the holy Apostles: 'Let +us also go, that we may die with him.' I feel a heavy presage. But I +must not trouble you, child. Early in the morning I will be up and away. +I go with this youth, whose pathway lies a certain distance along mine, +and whose company I seek for his good as well as my pleasure." + +"You go with _him_?" said Agnes, with a start of surprise. + +"Yes; his refuge in the mountains lies between here and Rome, and he +hath kindly offered to bring me on my way faster than I can go on +foot; and I would fain see our beautiful Florence as soon as may be. O +Florence, Florence, Lily of Italy! wilt thou let thy prophet perish?" + +"But, uncle, if he die for the faith, he will be a blessed martyr. That +crown is worth dying for," said Agnes. + +"You say well, little one,--you say well! '_Ex oribus parvulorum._' +But one shrinks from that in the person of a friend which one could +cheerfully welcome for one's self. Oh, the blessed cross! never is it +welcome to the flesh, and yet how joyfully the spirit may walk under +it!" + +"Dear uncle, I have made a solemn vow before our Holy Mother this +night," said Agnes, "to go on a pilgrimage to Rome, and at every shrine +and holy place to pray that these great afflictions which beset all of +you may have a happy issue." + +"My sweet heart, what have you done? Have you considered the unsettled +roads, the wild, unruly men that are abroad, the robbers with which the +mountains are filled?" + +"These are all Christ's children and my brothers," said Agnes; "for them +was the most holy blood shed, as well as for me. They cannot harm one +who prays for them." + +"But, dear heart of mine, these ungodly brawlers think little of prayer; +and this beautiful, innocent little face will but move the vilest and +most brutal thoughts and deeds." + +"Saint Agnes still lives, dear uncle,--and He who kept her in worse +trial. I shall walk through them all pure as snow,--I am assured I +shall. The star which led the wise men and stood over the young child +and his mother will lead me, too." + +"But your grandmother?" + +"The Lord will incline her heart to go with me. Dear uncle, it does +not beseem a child to reflect on its elders, yet I cannot but see that +grandmamma loves this world and me too well for her soul's good. This +journey will be for her eternal repose." + +"Well, well, dear one, I cannot now advise. Take advice of your +confessor, and the blessed Lord and his holy Mother be with you! But +come now, I would soothe myself to sleep; for I have need of good rest +to-night. Let us sing together our dear master's hymn of the Cross." + +And the monk and the maiden sang together:-- + + "Iesu, sommo conforto, + Tu sei tutto il mio amore + E 'l mio beato porto, + E santo Redentore. + O gran bonta, + Dolce pieta, + Felice quel che teco unito sta! + + "Deh, quante volte offeso + T' ha l' alma e 'l cor meschino, + E tu sei in croce steso + Per salvar me, tapino! + + "Iesu, fuss' io confitto + Sopra quel duro ligno, + Dove ti vedo afflitto, + Iesu, Signor benigno! + + "O croce, fammi loco, + E le mie membra prendi, + Che del tuo dolce foco + Il cor e l' alma accendi! + + "Infiamma il mio cor tanto + Dell' amor tuo divino, + Ch' io arda tutto quanto, + Che paia un serafino! + + "La croce e 'l Crocifisso + Sia nel mio cor scolpito, + Ed io sia sempre affisso + In gloria ov' egli e ito!"[D] + +[Footnote D: + + Jesus, best comfort of my soul, + Be thou my only love, + My sacred saviour from my sins, + My door to heaven above! + O lofty goodness, love divine, + Blest is the soul made one with thine! + + Alas, how oft this sordid heart + Hath wounded thy pure eye! + Yet for this heart upon the cross + Thou gav'st thyself to die! + + Ah, would I were extended there, + Upon that cold, hard tree, + Where I have seen thee, gracious Lord, + Breathe out thy life for me! + + Cross of my Lord, give room! give room! + To thee my flesh be given! + Cleansed in thy fires of love and pain, + My soul rise pure to heaven! + + Burn in my heart, celestial flame, + With memories of him, + Till, from earth's dross refined, I rise + To join the seraphim! + + Ah, vanish each unworthy trace + Of earthly care or pride, + Leave only, graven on my heart, + The Cross, the Crucified! +] + +As the monk sang, his soul seemed to fuse itself into the sentiment with +that natural grace peculiar to his nation. He walked up and down the +little garden, apparently forgetful of Agnes or of any earthly presence, +and in the last verses stretched his hands towards heaven with streaming +tears and a fervor of utterance indescribable. + +The soft and passionate tenderness of the Italian words must exhale in +an English translation, but enough may remain to show that the hymns +with which Savonarola at this time sowed the mind of Italy often +mingled the Moravian quaintness and energy with the Wesleyan purity and +tenderness. One of the great means of popular reform which he proposed +was the supplanting of the obscene and licentious songs, which at that +time so generally defiled the minds of the young, by religious words and +melodies. The children and young people brought up under his influence +were sedulously stored with treasures of sacred melody, as the safest +companions of leisure hours, and the surest guard against temptation. + +"Come now, my little one," said the monk, after they had ceased singing, +as he laid his hand on Agnes's head. "I am strong now; I know where I +stand. And you, my little one, you are one of my master's 'Children of +the Cross.' You must sing the hymns of our dear master, that I have +taught you, when I am far away. A hymn is a singing angel, and goes +walking through the earth, scattering the devils before it. Therefore he +who creates hymns imitates the most excellent and lovely works of our +Lord God, who made the angels. These hymns watch our chamber-door, they +sit upon our pillow, they sing to us when we awake; and therefore our +master was resolved to sow the minds of his young people with them, as +our lovely Italy is sown with the seeds of all colored flowers. How +lovely has it often been to me, as I sat at my work in Florence, to hear +the little children go by, chanting of Jesus and Mary,--and young men +singing to young maidens, not vain flatteries of their beauty, but the +praises of the One only Beautiful, whose smile sows heaven with stars +like flowers! Ah, in my day I have seen blessed times in Florence! Truly +was she worthy to be called the Lily City!--for all her care seemed to +be to make white her garments to receive her Lord and Bridegroom. Yes, +though she had sinned like the Magdalen, yet she loved much, like her. +She washed His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her +head. Oh, my beautiful Florence, be true to thy vows, be true to thy +Lord and Governor, Jesus Christ, and all shall be well!" + +"Amen, dear uncle!" said Agnes. "I will not fail to pray day and night, +that thus it may be. And now, if you must travel so far, you must go +to rest. Grandmamma has gone long ago. I saw her steal by as we were +singing." + +"And is there any message from my little Agnes to this young man?" asked +the monk. + +"Yes. Say to him that Agnes prays daily that he may be a worthy son and +soldier of the Lord Jesus." + +"Amen, sweet heart! Jesu and His sweet Mother bless thee!" + + * * * * * + + +A NEW COUNTERBLAST + + +"He that taketh tobacco saith he cannot leave it, it doth bewitch +him."--KING JAMES'S COUNTERBLAST TO TOBACCO. + +America is especially responsible to the whole world for tobacco, since +the two are twin-sisters, born to the globe in a day. The sailors first +sent on shore by Columbus came back with news of a new continent and +a new condiment. There was solid land, and there was a novel perfume, +which rolled in clouds from the lips of the natives. The fame of the two +great discoveries instantly began to overspread the world; but the smoke +travelled fastest, as is its nature. There are many races which have not +yet heard of America: there are very few which have not yet tasted of +tobacco. A plant which was originally the amusement of a few savage +tribes has become in a few centuries the fancied necessary of life to +the most enlightened nations of the earth, and it is probable that there +is nothing cultivated by man which is now so universally employed. + +And the plant owes this width of celebrity to a combination of natural +qualities so remarkable as to yield great diversities of good and evil +fame. It was first heralded as a medical panacea, "the most sovereign +and precious weed that ever the earth tendered to the use of man," and +was seldom mentioned, in the sixteenth century, without some reverential +epithet. It was a plant divine, a canonized vegetable. Each nation +had its own pious name to bestow upon it. The French called it +_herbe sainte, herbe sacree, herbe propre a tous maux, panacee +antarctique_,--the Italians, _herba santa croce_,--the Germans, _heilig +wundkraut_. Botanists soberly classified it as _herba panacea_ and +_herba sancta_, and Gerard in his "Herbal" fixed its name finally +as _sana sancta Indorum_, by which title it commonly appears in the +professional recipes of the time. Spenser, in his "Faerie Queene," +bids the lovely Belphoebe gather it as "divine tobacco," and Lilly the +Euphuist calls it "our holy herb Nicotian," ranking it between violets +and honey. It was cultivated in France for medicinal purposes solely, +for half a century before any one there used it for pleasure, and till +within the last hundred years it was familiarly prescribed, all over +Europe, for asthma, gout, catarrh, consumption, headache; and, in short, +was credited with curing more diseases than even the eighty-seven which +Dr. Shew now charges it with producing. + +So vast were the results of all this sanitary enthusiasm, that the use +of tobacco in Europe probably reached its climax in a century or two, +and has since rather diminished than increased, in proportion to the +population. It probably appeared in England in 1586, being first used in +the Indian fashion, by handing one pipe from man to man throughout the +company; the medium of communication being a silver tube for the higher +classes, and a straw and walnut-shell for the baser sort. Paul Hentzner, +who travelled in England in 1598, and Monsieur Misson, who wrote +precisely a century later, note almost in the same words "a perpetual +use of tobacco"; and the latter suspects that this is what makes "the +generality of Englishmen so taciturn, so thoughtful, and so melancholy." +In Queen Elizabeth's time, the ladies of the court "would not scruple +to blow a pipe together very socially." In 1614 it was asserted that +tobacco was sold openly in more than seven thousand places in London, +some of these being already attended by that patient Indian who still +stands seductive at tobacconists' doors. It was also estimated that the +annual receipts of these establishments amounted to more than three +hundred thousand pounds. Elegant ladies had their pictures painted, at +least one in 1650 did, with pipe and box in hand. Rochefort, a rather +apocryphal French traveller in 1672, reported it to be the general +custom in English homes to set pipes on the table in the evening for +the females as well as males of the family, and to provide children's +luncheon-baskets with a well-filled pipe, to be smoked at school, under +the directing eye of the master. In 1703, Lawrence Spooner wrote that +"the sin of the kingdom in the intemperate use of tobacco swelleth and +increaseth so daily that I can compare it to nothing but the waters of +Noah, that swelled fifteen cubits above the highest mountains." The +deluge reached its height in England--so thinks the amusing and +indefatigable Mr. Fairholt, author of "Tobacco and its Associations"--in +the reign of Queen Anne. Steele, in the "Spectator," (1711,) describes +the snuff-box as a rival to the fan among ladies; and Goldsmith pictures +the belles at Bath as entering the water in full bathing costume, each +provided with a small floating basket, to hold a snuff-box, a kerchief, +and a nosegay. And finally, in 1797, Dr. Clarke complains of the handing +about of the snuff-box in churches during worship, "to the great scandal +of religious people,"--adding, that kneeling in prayer was prevented by +the large quantity of saliva ejected in all directions. In view of such +formidable statements as these, it is hardly possible to believe +that the present generation surpasses or even equals the past in the +consumption of tobacco. + +And all this sudden popularity was in spite of a vast persecution which +sought to unite all Europe against this indulgence, in the seventeenth +century. In Russia, its use was punishable with amputation of the +nose; in Berne, it ranked next to adultery among offences; Sandys, the +traveller, saw a Turk led through the streets of Constantinople mounted +backward on an ass with a tobacco-pipe thrust through his nose. Pope +Urban VIII., in 1624, excommunicated those who should use it in +churches, and Innocent XII., in 1690, echoed the same anathema. Yet +within a few years afterwards travellers reported that same free use +of snuff in Romish worship which still astonishes spectators. To see +a priest, during the momentous ceremonial of High Mass, enliven the +occasion by a voluptuous pinch, is a sight even more astonishing, though +perhaps less disagreeable, than the well-used spittoon which decorates +so many Protestant pulpits. + +But the Protestant pulpits did their full share in fighting the habit, +for a time at least. Among the Puritans, no man could use tobacco +publicly, on penalty of a fine of two and sixpence, or in a private +dwelling, if strangers were present; and no two could use it together. +That iron pipe of Miles Standish, still preserved at Plymouth, must have +been smoked in solitude or not at all. This strictness was gradually +relaxed, however, as the clergy took up the habit of smoking; and I +have seen an old painting, on the panels of an ancient parsonage in +Newburyport, representing a jovial circle of portly divines sitting pipe +in hand around a table, with the Latin motto, "In essentials unity, in +non-essentials liberty, in all things charity." Apparently the tobacco +was one of the essentials, since there was unity respecting that. +Furthermore, Captain Underhill, hero of the Pequot War, boasted to the +saints of having received his assurance of salvation "while enjoying a +pipe of that good creature, tobacco," "since when he had never doubted +it, though he should fall into sin." But it is melancholy to relate +that this fall did presently take place, in a very flagrant manner, and +brought discredit upon tobacco conversions, as being liable to end in +smoke. + +Indeed, some of the most royal wills that ever lived in the world have +measured themselves against the tobacco-plant and been defeated. Charles +I. attempted to banish it, and in return the soldiers of Cromwell puffed +their smoke contemptuously in his face, as he sat a prisoner in the +guard-chamber. Cromwell himself undertook it, and Evelyn says that the +troopers smoked in triumph at his funeral. Wellington tried it, and +the artists caricatured him on a pipe's head with a soldier behind him +defying with a whiff that imperial nose. Louis Napoleon is said to +be now attempting it, and probably finds his subjects more ready to +surrender the freedom of the press than of the pipe. + +The more recent efforts against tobacco, like most arguments in which +morals and physiology are mingled, have lost much of their effect +through exaggeration. On both sides there has been enlisted much loose +statement, with some bad logic. It is, for instance, unreasonable to +hold up the tobacco-plant to general indignation because Linnaeus +classed it with the natural order _Luridae_,--since he attributed the +luridness only to the color of those plants, not to their character. It +is absurd to denounce it as belonging to the poisonous nightshade tribe, +when the potato and the tomato also appertain to that perilous domestic +circle. It is hardly fair even to complain of it for yielding a +poisonous oil, when these two virtuous plants--to say nothing of the +peach and the almond--will under sufficient chemical provocation do the +same thing. Two drops of nicotine will, indeed, kill a rabbit; but so, +it is said, will two drops of solanine. Great are the resources of +chemistry, and a well-regulated scientific mind can detect something +deadly almost anywhere. + +Nor is it safe to assume, as many do, that tobacco predisposes very +powerfully to more dangerous dissipations. The non-smoking Saxons were +probably far more intemperate in drinking than the modern English; and +Lane, the best authority, points out that wine is now far less used by +the Orientals than at the time of the "Arabian Nights," when tobacco +had not been introduced. And in respect to yet more perilous sensual +excesses, tobacco is now admitted, both by friends and foes, to be quite +as much a sedative as a stimulant. + +The point of objection on the ground of inordinate expense is doubtless +better taken, and can be met only by substantial proof that the enormous +outlay is a wise one. Tobacco may be "the anodyne of poverty," as +somebody has said, but it certainly promotes poverty. This narcotic +lulls to sleep all pecuniary economy. Every pipe may not, indeed, cost +so much as that jewelled one seen by Dibdin in Vienna, which was valued +at a thousand pounds; or even as the German meerschaum which was passed +from mouth to mouth through a whole regiment of soldiers till it was +colored to perfection, having never been allowed to cool,--a bill of one +hundred pounds being ultimately rendered for the tobacco consumed. But +how heedlessly men squander money on this pet luxury! By the report of +the English University Commissioners, some ten years ago, a student's +annual tobacco-bill often amounts to forty pounds. Dr. Solly puts thirty +pounds as the lowest annual expenditure of an English smoker, and knows +many who spend one hundred and twenty pounds, and one three hundred +pounds a year, on tobacco alone. In this country the facts are hard to +obtain, but many a man smokes twelve four-cent cigars a day, and many +a man four twelve-cent cigars,--spending in either case about half +a dollar a day and not far from two hundred dollars per annum. An +industrious mechanic earns his two dollars and fifty cents a day or +a clerk his eight hundred dollars a year, spends a quarter of it on +tobacco, and the rest on his wife, children, and miscellaneous expenses. + +But the impotency which marks some of the stock arguments against +tobacco extends to most of those in favor of it. My friend assures me +that every one needs some narcotic, that the American brain is too +active, and that the influence of tobacco is quieting,--great is the +enjoyment of a comfortable pipe after dinner. I grant, on observing him +at that period, that it appears so. But I also observe, that, when the +placid hour has passed away, his nervous system is more susceptible, his +hand more tremulous, his temper more irritable on slight occasions, than +during the days when the comfortable pipe chances to be omitted. The +only effect of the narcotic appears, therefore, to be a demand for +another narcotic; and there seems no decided advantage over the life +of the birds and bees, who appear to keep their nervous systems in +tolerably healthy condition with no narcotic at all. + +The argument drawn from a comparison of races is no better. Germans are +vigorous and Turks are long-lived, and they are all great smokers. But +certainly the Germans do not appear so vivacious, nor the Turks so +energetic, as to afford triumphant demonstrations in behalf of the +sacred weed. Moreover, the Eastern tobacco is as much milder than ours +as are the Continental wines than even those semi-alcoholic mixtures +which prevail at scrupulous communion-tables. And as for German health, +Dr. Schneider declares, in the London "Lancet," that it is because of +smoke that all his educated countrymen wear spectacles, that an immense +amount of consumption is produced in Germany by tobacco, and that +English insurance companies are proverbially cautious in insuring German +lives. Dr. Carlyon gives much the same as his observation in Holland. +These facts may be overstated, but they are at least as good as those +which they answer. + +Not much better is the excuse alleged in the social and genial +influences of tobacco. It certainly seems a singular way of opening +the lips for conversation by closing them on a pipe-stem, and it would +rather appear as if Fate designed to gag the smokers and let the +non-smokers talk. But supposing it otherwise, does it not mark a +condition of extreme juvenility in our social development, if no +resources of intellect can enable a half-dozen intelligent men to be +agreeable to each other, without applying the forcing process, by +turning the room into an imperfectly organized chimney? Brilliant women +can be brilliant without either wine or tobacco, and Napoleon always +maintained that without an admixture of feminine wit conversation grew +tame. Are all male beings so much stupider by nature than the other +sex, that men require stimulants and narcotics to make them mutually +endurable? + +And as the conversational superiorities of woman disprove the supposed +social inspirations of tobacco, so do her more refined perceptions yet +more emphatically pronounce its doom. Though belles of the less mature +description, eulogistic of sophomores, may stoutly profess that they +dote on the Virginian perfume, yet cultivated womanhood barely tolerates +the choicest tobacco-smoke, even in its freshness, and utterly recoils +from the stale suggestions of yesterday. By whatever enthusiasm misled, +she finds something abhorrent in the very nature of the thing. In vain +did loyal Frenchmen baptize the weed as the queen's own favorite, _Herba +Catherinae Medicae_; it is easier to admit that Catherine de' Medici was +not feminine than that tobacco is. Man also recognizes the antagonism; +there is scarcely a husband in America who would not be converted from +smoking, if his wife resolutely demanded her right of moiety in the +cigar-box. No Lady Mary, no loveliest Marquise, could make snuff-taking +beauty otherwise than repugnant to this generation. Rustic females +who habitually chew even pitch or spruce-gum are rendered thereby so +repulsive that the fancy refuses to pursue the horror farther and +imagine it tobacco; and all the charms of the veil and the fan can +scarcely reconcile the most fumacious American to the _cigarrito_ of +the Spanish fair. How strange seems Parton's picture of General Jackson +puffing his long clay pipe on one side of the fireplace and Mrs. Jackson +puffing hers on the other! No doubt, to the heart of the chivalrous +backwoodsman those smoke-dried lips were yet the altar of early +passion,--as that rather ungrammatical tongue was still the music of +the spheres; but the unattractiveness of that conjugal counterblast is +Nature's own protest against smoking. + +The use of tobacco must, therefore, be held to mark a rather coarse and +childish epoch in our civilization, if nothing worse. Its most ardent +admirer hardly paints it into his picture of the Golden Age. It is +difficult to associate it with one's fancies of the noblest manhood, +and Miss Muloch reasonably defies the human imagination to portray +Shakspeare or Dante with pipe in mouth. Goethe detested it; so did +Napoleon, save in the form of snuff, which he apparently used on +Talleyrand's principle, that diplomacy was impossible without it. Bacon +said, "Tobacco-smoking is a secret delight serving only to steal away +men's brains." Newton abstained from it: the contrary is often claimed, +but thus says his biographer, Brewster,--saying that "he would make no +necessities to himself." Franklin says he never used it, and never met +with one of its votaries who advised him to follow the example. +John Quincy Adams used it in early youth, and after thirty years of +abstinence said, that, if every one would try abstinence for three +months, it would annihilate the practice, and add five years to the +average length of human life. + +In attempting to go beyond these general charges of waste and +foolishness, and to examine the physiological results of the use of +tobacco, one is met by the contradictions and perplexities which haunt +all such inquiries. Doctors, of course, disagree, and the special cases +cited triumphantly by either side are ruled out as exceptional by the +other. It is like the question of the precise degree of injury done by +alcoholic drinks. To-day's newspaper writes the eulogy of A.B., who +recently died at the age of ninety-nine, without ever tasting ardent +spirits; to-morrow's will add the epitaph of C.D., aged one hundred, who +has imbibed a quart of rum a day since reaching the age of indiscretion; +and yet, after all, both editors have to admit that the drinking usages +of society are growing decidedly more decent. It is the same with the +tobacco argument. Individual cases prove nothing either way; there is +such a range of vital vigor in different individuals, that one may +withstand a life of error, and another perish in spite of prudence. The +question is of the general tendency. It is not enough to know that Dr. +Parr smoked twenty pipes in an evening, and lived to be seventy-eight; +that Thomas Hobbes smoked thirteen, and survived to ninety-two; that +Brissiac of Trieste died at one hundred and sixteen, with a pipe in his +mouth; and that Henry Hartz of Schleswig used tobacco steadily from the +age of sixteen to one hundred and forty-two; nor would any accumulation +of such healthy old sinners prove anything satisfactory. It seems +rather overwhelming, to be sure, when Mr. Fairholt assures us that his +respected father "died at the age of seventy-two: he had been twelve +hours a day in a tobacco-manufactory for nearly fifty years; and he both +smoked and chewed while busy in the labors of the workshop, sometimes in +a dense cloud of steam from drying the damp tobacco over the stoves; and +his health and appetite were perfect to the day of his death: he was a +model of muscular and stomachic energy; in which his son, who neither +smokes, snuffs, nor chews, by no means rivals him." But until we know +precisely what capital of health the venerable tobacconist inherited +from his fathers, and in what condition he transmitted it to his sons, +the statement certainly has two edges. + +For there are facts equally notorious on the other side. It is not +denied that it is found necessary to exclude tobacco, as a general +rule, from insane asylums, or that it produces, in extreme cases, among +perfectly sober persons, effects akin to delirium tremens. Nor is it +denied that terrible local diseases follow it,--as, for instance, +cancer of the mouth, which has become, according to the eminent surgeon, +Brouisson, the disease most dreaded in the French hospitals. He has +performed sixty-eight operations for this, within fourteen years, in the +Hospital St. Eloi, and traces it entirely to the use of tobacco. Such +facts are chiefly valuable as showing the tendency of the thing. Where +the evils of excess are so glaring, the advantages of even moderate use +are questionable. Where weak persons are made insane, there is room for +suspicion that the strong may suffer unconsciously. You may say that +the victims must have been constitutionally nervous; but where is the +native-born American who is not? + +In France and England the recent inquiries into the effects of tobacco +seem to have been a little more systematic than our own. In the former +country, the newspapers state, the attention of the Emperor was called +to the fact that those pupils of the Polytechnic School who used this +indulgence were decidedly inferior in average attainments to the rest. +This is stated to have led to its prohibition in the school, and to the +forming of an anti-tobacco organization, which is said to be making +great progress in France. I cannot, however, obtain from any of our +medical libraries any satisfactory information as to the French +agitation, and am led by private advices to believe that even these +general statements are hardly trustworthy. The recent English +discussions are, however, more easy of access. + +"The Great Tobacco Question," as the controversy in England was called, +originated in a Clinical Lecture on Paralysis, by Mr. Solly, Surgeon of +St. Thomas's Hospital, which was published in the "Lancet," December 13, +1856. He incidentally spoke of tobacco as an important source of this +disease, and went on to say,--"I know of no single vice which does so +much harm as smoking. It is a snare and a delusion. It soothes the +excited nervous system at the time, to render it more irritable and +feeble ultimately. It is like opium in this respect; and if you want to +know all the wretchedness which this drug can produce, you should +read the 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.'" This statement was +presently echoed by J. Ranald Martin, an eminent surgeon, "whose Eastern +experience rendered his opinion of immense value," and who used language +almost identical with that of Mr. Solly:--"I can state of my own +observation, that the miseries, mental and bodily, which I have +witnessed from the abuse of cigar-smoking, far exceed anything detailed +in the 'Confessions of an Opium-Eater.'" + +This led off a controversy which continued for several months in the +columns of the "Lancet,"--a controversy conducted in a wonderfully +good-natured spirit, considering that more than fifty physicians took +part in it, and that these were almost equally divided. The debate took +a wide range, and some interesting facts were elicited: as that Lord +Raglan, General Markham, and Admirals Dundas and Napier always abandoned +tobacco from the moment when they were ordered on actual service; that +nine-tenths of the first-class men at the Universities were non-smokers; +that two Indian chiefs told Power, the actor, that "those Indians who +smoked gave out soonest in the chase"; and so on. There were also +American examples, rather loosely gathered: thus, a remark of the +venerable Dr. Waterhouse, made many years ago, was cited as the +contemporary opinion of "the Medical Professor in Harvard University"; +also it was mentioned, as an acknowledged fact, that the American +_physique_ was rapidly deteriorating because of tobacco, and that +coroners' verdicts were constantly being thus pronounced on American +youths: "Died of excessive smoking." On the other hand, that eminent +citizen of our Union, General Thomas Thumb, was about that time +professionally examined in London, and his verdict on tobacco was quoted +to be, that it was "one of his chief comforts"; also mention was made of +a hapless quack who announced himself as coming from Boston, and who, +to keep up the Yankee reputation, issued a combined advertisement of +"medical advice gratis" and "prime cigars." + +But these stray American instances were of course quite outnumbered +by the English, and there is scarcely an ill which was not in this +controversy charged upon tobacco by its enemies, nor a physical or moral +benefit which was not claimed for it by its friends. According to these, +it prevents dissension and dyspnoea, inflammation and insanity, saves +the waste of tissue and of time, blunts the edge of grief and lightens +pain. "No man was ever in a passion with a pipe in his mouth." There are +more female lunatics chiefly because the fumigatory education of the +fair sex has been neglected. Yet it is important to notice that these +same advocates almost outdo its opponents in admitting its liability +to misuse, and the perilous consequences. "The injurious effects +of excessive smoking,"--"there is no more pitiable object than +the inveterate smoker,"--"sedentary life is incompatible with +smoking,"--highly pernicious,--general debility,--secretions all +wrong,--cerebral softening,--partial paralysis,--trembling of +the hand,--enervation and depression,--great irritability,--neuralgia, +--narcotism of the heart: this Chamber of Horrors forms a part of the +very Temple of Tobacco, as builded, not by foes, but by worshippers. +"All men of observation and experience," they admit, "must be able to +point to instances of disease and derangement from the abuse of this +luxury." Yet they advocate it, as the same men advocate intoxicating +drinks; not meeting the question, in either case, whether it be wise, +or even generous, for the strong to continue an indulgence which is +thus confessedly ruinous to the weak. + +The controversy had its course, and ended, like most controversies, +without establishing anything. The editor of the "Lancet," to be sure, +summed up the evidence very fairly, and it is worth while to quote +him:--"It is almost unnecessary to make a separate inquiry into the +pathological conditions which follow upon excessive smoking. Abundant +evidence has been adduced of the gigantic evils which attend the abuse +of tobacco. Let it be granted at once that there is such a thing as +moderate smoking, and let it be admitted that we cannot accuse tobacco +of being guilty of the whole of Cullen's 'Nosology'; it still remains +that there is a long catalogue of frightful penalties attached to its +abuse." He then proceeds to consider what is to be called abuse: as, for +instance, smoking more than one or two cigars or pipes daily,--smoking +too early in the day or too early in life,--and in general, the use of +tobacco by those with whom it does not agree,--which rather reminds one +of the early temperance pledges, which bound a man to drink no more rum +than he found to be good for him. But the Chief Justice of the Medical +Court finally instructs his jury of readers that young men should +give up a dubious pleasure for a certain good, and abandon +tobacco altogether:--"Shun the habit of smoking as you would shun +self-destruction. As you value your physical and moral well-being, avoid +a habit which for you can offer no advantage to compare with the dangers +you incur." + +Yet, after all, neither he nor his witnesses seem fairly to have hit +upon what seem to this present writer the two incontrovertible arguments +against tobacco; one being drawn from theory, and the other from +practice. + +First, as to the theory of the thing. The laws of Nature warn every man +who uses tobacco for the first time, that he is dealing with a poison. +Nobody denies this attribute of the plant; it is "a narcotic poison of +the most active class." It is not merely that a poison can by chemical +process be extracted from it, but it is a poison in its simplest form. +Its mere application to the skin has often produced uncontrollable +nausea and prostration. Children have in several cases been killed by +the mere application of tobacco ointment to the head. Soldiers have +simulated sickness by placing it beneath the armpits,--though in most +cases our regiments would probably consider this a mistaken application +of the treasure. Tobacco, then, is simply and absolutely a poison. + +Now to say that a substance is a poison is not to say that it inevitably +kills; it may be apparently innocuous, if not incidentally beneficial. +King Mithridates, it is said, learned habitually to consume these +dangerous commodities; and the scarcely less mythical Du Chaillu, after +the fatigues of his gorilla warfare, found decided benefit from two +ounces of arsenic. But to say that a substance is a poison is to say +at least that it is a noxious drug,--that it is a medicine, not an +aliment,--that its effects are pathological, not physiological,--and +that its use should therefore be exceptional, not habitual. Not tending +to the preservation of a normal state, but at best to the correction of +some abnormal one, its whole value, if it have any, lies in the rarity +of its application. To apply a powerful drug at a certain hour every day +is like a schoolmaster's whipping his pupil at a certain hour every day: +the victim may become inured, but undoubtedly the specific value of the +remedy must vanish with the repetition. + +Thus much would be true, were it proved that tobacco is in some cases +apparently beneficial. No drug is beneficial, when constantly employed. +But, furthermore, if not beneficial, it then is injurious. As Dr. Holmes +has so forcibly expounded, every medicine is in itself hurtful. All +noxious agents, according to him, cost a patient, on an average, five +per cent. of his vital power; that is, twenty times as much would kill +him. It is believed that they are sometimes indirectly useful; it is +known that they are always directly hurtful. That is, I have a neighbor +on one side who takes tobacco to cure his dyspepsia, and a neighbor on +the other side who takes blue pill for his infirmities generally. The +profit of the operation may be sure or doubtful; the outlay is certain, +and to be deducted in any event. I have no doubt, my dear Madam, that +your interesting son has learned to smoke, as he states, in order to +check that very distressing toothache which so hindered his studies; but +I sincerely think it would be better to have the affliction removed by +a dentist at a cost of fifty cents than by a drug at an expense of five +per cent. of vital power. + +Fortunately, when it comes to the practical test, the whole position is +conceded to our hands, and the very devotees of tobacco are false to +their idol. It is not merely that the most fumigatory parent dissuades +his sons from the practice; but there is a more remarkable instance. +If any two classes can be singled out in the community as the largest +habitual consumers of tobacco, it must be the college students and the +city "roughs" or "rowdies," or whatever the latest slang name is,--for +these roysterers, like oysters, incline to names with an _r_ in. Now the +"rough," when brought to a physical climax, becomes the prize-fighter; +and the college student is seen in his highest condition as the +prize-oarsman; and both these representative men, under such +circumstances of ambition, straightway abandon tobacco. Such a +concession, from such a quarter, is worth all the denunciations of good +Mr. Trask. Appeal, O anxious mother! from Philip smoking to Philip +training. What your progeny will not do for any considerations of ethics +or economy, to save his sisters' olfactories or the atmosphere of +the family altar,--that he does unflinchingly at one word from the +stroke-oar or the commodore. In so doing, he surrenders every inch +of the ground, and owns unequivocally that he is in better condition +without tobacco. The old traditions of training are in some other +respects being softened: strawberries are no longer contraband, and the +last agonies of thirst are no longer a part of the prescription; but +training and tobacco are still incompatible. There is not a regatta or a +prize-fight in which the betting would not be seriously affected by the +discovery that either party used the beguiling weed. + +The argument is irresistible,--or rather, it is not so much an argument +as a plea of guilty under the indictment. The prime devotees of tobacco +voluntarily abstain from it, like Lord Raglan and Admiral Napier, when +they wish to be in their best condition. But are we ever, any of us, in +too good condition? Have all the sanitary conventions yet succeeded in +detecting one man, in our high-pressure America, who finds himself too +well? If a man goes into training for the mimic contest, why not for the +actual one? If he needs steady nerves and a cool head for the play of +life,--and even prize-fighting is called "sporting,"--why not for its +earnest? Here we are all croaking that we are not in the health in which +our twentieth birthday found us, and yet we will not condescend to the +wise abstinence which even twenty practises. Moderate training is simply +a rational and healthful life. + +So palpable is this, that there is strong reason to believe that the +increased attention to physical training is operating against tobacco. +If we may trust literature, as has been shown, its use is not now so +great as formerly, in spite of the vague guesses of alarmists. "It is +estimated," says Mr. Coles, "that the consumption of tobacco in this +country is eight times as great as in France and three times as great as +in England, in proportion to the population"; but there is nothing +in the world more uncertain than "It is estimated." It is frequently +estimated, for instance, that nine out of ten of our college students +use tobacco; and yet by the statistics of the last graduating class +at Cambridge it appears that it is used by only thirty-one out of +seventy-six. I am satisfied that the extent of the practice is often +exaggerated. In a gymnastic club of young men, for instance, where I +have had opportunity to take the statistics, it is found that less +than one-quarter use it, though there has never been any agitation or +discussion of the matter. These things indicate that it can no longer +be claimed, as Moliere asserted two centuries ago, that he who lives +without tobacco is not worthy to live. + +And as there has been some exaggeration in describing the extent to +which Tobacco is King, so there has doubtless been some overstatement +as to the cruelty of his despotism. Enough, however, remains to condemn +him. The present writer, at least, has the firmest conviction, from +personal observation and experience, that the imagined benefits of +tobacco-using (which have never, perhaps, been better stated than in an +essay which appeared in this magazine, in August, 1860) are ordinarily +an illusion, and its evils a far more solid reality,--that it stimulates +only to enervate, soothes only to depress,--that it neither permanently +calms the nerves nor softens the temper nor enlightens the brain, but +that in the end its tendencies are precisely the opposites of +these, beside the undoubted incidental objections of costliness and +uncleanness. When men can find any other instance of a poisonous drug +which is suitable for daily consumption, they will be more consistent +in using this. When it is admitted to be innocuous to those who are in +training for athletic feats, it may be possible to suppose it beneficial +to those who are out of training. Meanwhile there seems no ground for +its supporters except that to which the famous Robert Hall was reduced, +as he says, by "the Society of Doctors of Divinity." He sent a message +to Dr. Clarke, in return for a pamphlet against tobacco, that he could +not possibly refute his arguments and could not possibly give up +smoking. + + * * * * * + + +THE WOLVES. + + + Ye who listen to stories told, + When hearths are cheery and nights are cold, + + Of the lone wood-side, and the hungry pack + That howls on the fainting traveller's track,-- + + Flame-red eyeballs that waylay, + By the wintry moon, the belated sleigh,-- + + The lost child sought in the dismal wood, + The little shoes and the stains of blood + + On the trampled snow,--O ye that hear, + With thrills of pity or chills of fear, + + Wishing some angel had been sent + To shield the hapless and innocent,-- + + Know ye the fiend that is crueller far + Than the gaunt gray herds of the forest are? + + Swiftly vanish the wild fleet tracks + Before the rifle and woodman's axe: + + But hark to the coming of unseen feet, + Pattering by night through the city street! + + Each wolf that dies in the woodland brown + Lives a spectre and haunts the town. + + By square and market they slink and prowl, + In lane and alley they leap and howl. + + All night they snuff and snarl before + The poor patched window and broken door. + + They paw the clapboards and claw the latch, + At every crevice they whine and scratch. + + Their tongues are subtle and long and thin, + And they lap the living blood within. + + Icy keen are the teeth that tear, + Red as ruin the eyes that glare. + + Children crouched in corners cold + Shiver in tattered garments old, + + And start from sleep with bitter pangs + At the touch of the phantoms' viewless fangs. + + Weary the mother and worn with strife, + Still she watches and fights for life. + + But her hand is feeble, and weapon small: + One little needle against them all! + + In evil hour the daughter fled + From her poor shelter and wretched bed. + + Through the city's pitiless solitude + To the door of sin the wolves pursued. + + Fierce the father and grim with want, + His heart is gnawed by the spectres gaunt. + + Frenzied stealing forth by night, + With whetted knife, to the desperate fight, + + He thought to strike the spectres dead, + But he smites his brother man instead. + + O you that listen to stories told, + When hearths are cheery and nights are cold, + + Weep no more at the tales you hear, + The danger is close and the wolves are near. + + Shudder not at the murderer's name, + Marvel not at the maiden's shame. + + Pass not by with averted eye + The door where the stricken children cry. + + But when the beat of the unseen feet + Sounds by night through the stormy street, + + Follow thou where the spectres glide; + Stand like Hope by the mother's side; + + And be thyself the angel sent + To shield the hapless and innocent. + + He gives but little who gives his tears, + He gives his best who aids and cheers. + + He does well in the forest wild + Who slays the monster and saves the child; + + But he does better, and merits more, + Who drives the wolf from the poor man's door. + + * * * * * + + +A STORY OF TO-DAY. + + +PART III. + + +Now that I have come to the love part of my story, I am suddenly +conscious of dingy common colors on the palette with which I have been +painting. I wish I had some brilliant dyes. I wish, with all my heart, I +could take you back to that "Once upon a time" in which the souls of our +grandmothers delighted,--the time which Dr. Johnson sat up all night to +read about in "Evelina,"--the time when all the celestial virtues, all +the earthly graces were revealed in a condensed state to man through the +blue eyes and sumptuous linens of some Belinda Portman or Lord Mortimer. +None of your good-hearted, sorely-tempted villains then! It made your +hair stand on end only to read of them,--dyed at their birth clear +through with Pluto's blackest poison, going about perpetually seeking +innocent maidens and unsophisticated old men to devour. That was the +time for holding up virtue and vice; no trouble then in seeing which +were sheep and which were goats! A person could write a story with a +moral to it, then, I should hope! People that were born in those days +had no fancy for going through the world with half-and-half characters, +such as we put up with; so Nature turned out complete specimens of each +class, with all the appendages of dress, fortune, _et cetera_, chording +decently. At least, so those veracious histories say. The heroine, for +instance, glides into life full-charged with rank, virtues, a name +three-syllabled, and a white dress that never needs washing, ready to +sail through dangers dire into a triumphant haven of matrimony;--all +the aristocrats have high foreheads and cold blue eyes; all the +peasants are old women, miraculously grateful, in neat check aprons, or +sullen-browed insurgents planning revolts in caves. + +Of course, I do not mean that these times are gone: they are alive (in +a modern fashion) in many places in the world; some of my friends have +described them in prose and verse. I only mean to say that I never was +there; I was born unlucky. I am willing to do my best, but I live in +the commonplace. Once or twice I have rashly tried my hand at dark +conspiracies, and women rare and radiant in Italian bowers; but I have a +friend who is sure to say, "Try and tell us about the butcher next door, +my dear." If I look up from my paper now, I shall be just as apt to see +our dog and his kennel as the white sky stained with blood and Tyrian +purple. I never saw a full-blooded saint or sinner in my life. The +coldest villain I ever knew was the only son of his mother, and she a +widow,--and a kinder son never lived. I have known people capable of a +love terrible in its strength; but I never knew such a case that some +one did not consider its expediency as "a match" in the light of dollars +and cents. As for heroines, of course I know beautiful women, and good +as fair. The most beautiful is delicate and pure enough for a type of +the Madonna, and has a heart almost as warm and holy as hers who was +blessed among women. (Very pure blood is in her veins, too, if you care +about blood.) But at home they call her Tode for a nickname; all we can +do, she will sing, and sing through her nose; and on washing-days she +often cooks the dinner, and scolds wholesomely, if the tea-napkins are +not in order. Now, what is anybody to do with a heroine like that? I +have known old maids in abundance, with pathos and sunshine in their +lives; but the old maid of novels I never have met, who abandoned +her soul to gossip,--nor yet the other type, a lifelong martyr of +unselfishness. They are mixed generally, and are not unlike their +married sisters, so far as I can see. Then as to men, certainly I know +heroes. One man, I knew, as high a chevalier in heart as any Bayard of +them all; one of those souls simple and gentle as a woman, tender in +knightly honor. He was an old man, with a rusty brown coat and rustier +wig, who spent his life in a dingy village office. You poets would have +laughed at him. Well, well, his history never will be written. The kind, +sad, blue eyes are shut now. There is a little farm-graveyard overgrown +with privet and wild grape-vines, and a flattened grave where he was +laid to rest; and only a few who knew him when they were children care +to go there, and think of what he was to them. But it was not in the far +days of Chivalry alone, I think, that true and tender souls have stood +in the world unwelcome, and, hurt to the quick, have turned away and +dumbly died. Let it be. Their lives are not lost, thank God! + +I meant only to ask you, How can I help it, if the people in my story +seem coarse to you,--if the hero, unlike all other heroes, stopped to +count the cost before he fell in love,--if it made his fingers thrill +with pleasure to touch a full pocket-book as well as his mistress's +hand,--not being withal, this Stephen Holmes, a man to be despised? A +hero, rather, of a peculiar type,--a man, more than other men: the very +mould of man, doubt it who will, that women love longest and most madly. +Of course, if I could, I would have blotted out every meanness or +flaw before I showed him to you; I would have given you Margaret an +impetuous, whole-souled woman, glad to throw her life down for her +father without one bitter thought of the wife and mother she might have +been; I would have painted her mother tender as she was, forgetting how +pettish she grew on busy days: but what can I do? I must show you men +and women as they are in that especial State of the Union where I live. +In all the others, of course, it is very different. Now, being prepared +for disappointment, will you see my hero? + +He had sauntered out from the city for a morning walk,--not through +the hills, as Margaret went, going home, but on the other side, to +the river, over which you could see the Prairie. We are in Indiana, +remember. The sunlight was pure that morning, powerful, tintless, the +true wine of life for body or spirit. Stephen Holmes knew that, being a +man of delicate animal instincts, and so used it, just as he had used +the dumb-bells in the morning. All things were made for man, weren't +they? He was leaning against the door of the school-house,--a red, +flaunting house, the daub on the landscape: but, having his back to +it, he could not see it, so through his half-shut eyes he suffered the +beauty of the scene to act on him. Suffered: in a man, according to his +creed, the will being dominant, and all influences, such as beauty, +pain, religion, permitted to act under orders. Of course. + +It was a peculiar landscape,--like the man who looked at it, of a +thoroughly American type. A range of sharp, dark hills, with a sombre +depth of green shadow in the clefts, and on the sides massed forests of +scarlet and flame and crimson. Above, the sharp peaks of stone rose into +the wan blue, wan and pale themselves, and wearing a certain air of +fixed calm, the type of an eternal quiet. At the base of the hills lay +the city, a dirty mass of bricks and smoke and dust, and at its far edge +flowed the Wabash,--deep here, tinted with green, writhing and gurgling +and curdling on the banks over shelving ledges of lichen and mud-covered +rock. Beyond it yawned the opening to the great West,--the Prairies. +Not the dreary deadness here, as farther west. A plain dark russet in +hue,--for the grass was sun-scorched,--stretching away into the vague +distance, intolerable, silent, broken by hillocks and puny streams that +only made the vastness and silence more wide and heavy. Its limitless +torpor weighed on the brain; the eyes ached, stretching to find some +break before the dull russet faded into the amber of the horizon and was +lost. An American landscape: of few features, simple, grand in outline +as a face of one of the early gods. It lay utterly motionless before +him, not a fleck of cloud in the pure blue above, even where the mist +rose from the river; it only had glorified the clear blue into clearer +violet. + +Holmes stood quietly looking; he could have created a picture like +this, if he never had seen one; therefore he was able to recognize it, +accepted it into his soul, and let it do what it would there. + +Suddenly a low wind from the far Pacific coast struck from the amber +line where the sun went down. A faint tremble passed over the great +hills, the broad sweeps of color darkened from base to summit, then +flashed again,--while below, the prairie rose and fell like a dun sea, +and rolled in long, slow, solemn waves. + +The wind struck so broad and fiercely in Holmes's face that he caught +his breath. It was a savage freedom, he thought, in the West there, +whose breath blew on him,--the freedom of the primitive man, the untamed +animal man, self-reliant and self-assertant, having conquered Nature. +Well, this fierce masterful freedom was good for the soul, sometimes, +doubtless. It was old Knowles's vital air. He wondered if the old man +would succeed in his hobby, if he could make the slavish beggars and +thieves in the alleys yonder comprehend this fierce freedom. They craved +leave to live on sufferance now, not knowing their possible divinity. +It was a desperate remedy, this sense of unchecked liberty; but their +disease was desperate. As for himself, he did not need it; that element +was not lacking. In a mere bodily sense, to be sure. He felt his arm. +Yes, the cold rigor of this new life had already worn off much of the +clogging weight of flesh, strengthened the muscles. Six months more in +the West would toughen the fibres to iron. He raised an iron weight that +lay on the steps, carelessly testing them. For the rest, he was going +back here; something of the cold, loose freshness got into his brain, +he believed. In the two years of absence his power of concentration had +been stronger, his perceptions more free from prejudice, gaining every +day delicate point, acuteness of analysis. He drew a long breath of +the icy air, coarse with the wild perfume of the prairie. No, his +temperament needed a subtiler atmosphere than this, rarer essence than +mere brutal freedom. The East, the Old World, was his proper sphere for +self-development. He would go as soon as he could command the means, +leaving all clogs behind. _All_? His idle thought balked here, suddenly; +the sallow forehead contracted sharply, and his gray eyes grew in an +instant shallow, careless, formal, as a man who holds back his thought. +There was a fierce warring in his brain for a moment. Then he brushed +his Kossuth hat with his arm, and put it on, looking out at the +landscape again. Somehow its meaning was dulled to him. Just then a +muddy terrier came up, and rubbed itself against his knee. "Why, Tige, +old boy!" he said, stooping to pat it kindly. The hard, shallow look +faded out, and he half smiled, looking in the dog's eyes. A curious +smile, unspeakably tender and sad. It was the idiosyncrasy of the man's +face, rarely seen there. He might have looked with it at a criminal, +condemning him to death. But he would have condemned him, and, if no +hangman could be found, would have put the rope on with his own hands, +and then most probably would have sat down pale and trembling, and +analyzed his sensations on paper,--being sincere in all. + +He sat down on the school-house step, which the boys had hacked and +whittled rough, and waited; for he was there by appointment, to meet Dr. +Knowles. + +Knowles had gone out early in the morning to look at the ground he was +going to buy for his Phalanstery, or whatever he chose to call it. He +was to bring the deed of sale of the mill out with him for Holmes. The +next day it was to be signed. Holmes saw him at last lumbering across +the prairie, wiping the perspiration from his forehead. Summer or +winter, he contrived to be always hot. There was a cart drawn by an old +donkey coming along beside him. Knowles was talking to the driver. +The old man clapped his hands as stage-coachmen do, and drew in long +draughts of air, as if there were keen life and promise in every breath. +They came up at last, the cart empty, and drying for the day's work +after its morning's scrubbing, Lois's pock-marked face all in a glow +with trying to keep Barney awake. She grew quite red with pleasure +at seeing Holmes, but went on quickly as the men began to talk. Tige +followed her, of course; but when she had gone a little way across +the prairie, they saw her stop, and presently the dog came back with +something in his mouth, which he laid down beside his master, and bolted +off. It was only a rough wicker-basket which she had filled with damp +plushy moss, and half-buried in it clusters of plumy fern, delicate +brown and ashen lichens, masses of forest-leaves all shaded green with a +few crimson tints. It had a clear woody smell, like far-off myrrh. The +Doctor laughed as Holmes took it up. + +"An artist's gift, if it is from a mulatto," he said. "A born colorist." + +The men were not at ease, for some reason; they seized on every trifle +to keep off the subject which had brought them together. + +"That girl's artist-sense is pure, and her religion, down under the +perversion and ignorance of her brain. Curious, eh?" + +"Look at the top of her head, when you see her," said Holmes. "It is +necessity for such brains to worship. They let the fire lick their +blood, if they happen to be born Parsees. This girl, if she had been a +Jew when Christ was born, would have known him as Simeon did." + +Knowles said nothing,--only glanced at the massive head of the speaker, +with its overhanging brow, square development at the sides, and lowered +crown, and smiled significantly. + +"Exactly," laughed Holmes, putting his hand on his head. "Crippled there +by my Yorkshire blood,--my mother. Never mind; outside of this life, +blood or circumstance matters nothing." + +They walked on slowly towards town. Surely there was nothing in the +bill-of-sale which the old man had in his pocket but a mere matter of +business; yet they were strangely silent about it, as if it brought +shame to some one. There was an embarrassed pause. The Doctor went back +to Lois for relief. + +"I think it is the pain and want of such as she that makes them +susceptible to religion. The self in them is so starved and humbled that +it cannot obscure their eyes; they see God clearly." + +"Say rather," said Holmes, "that the soul is so starved and blind that +it cannot recognize itself as God." + +The Doctor's intolerant eye kindled. + +"Humph! So that's your creed! Not Pantheism. _Ego sum_. Of course you go +on with the conjugation: _I have been, I shall be_. I,--that covers the +whole ground, creation, redemption, and commands the hereafter?" + +"It does so," said Holmes, coolly. + +"And this wretched huckster carries her deity about her,--her +self-existent soul? How, in God's name, is her life to set it free?" + +Holmes said nothing. The coarse sneer could not be answered. Men with +pale faces and heavy jaws like his do not carry their religion on +their tongue's end; their creeds leave them only in the slow oozing +life-blood, false as the creeds may be. + +Knowles went on hotly, half to himself, seizing on the new idea +fiercely, as men and women do who are yet groping for the truth of life. + +"What is it your Novalis says? 'The true Shechinah is man.' You know no +higher God? Pooh! the idea is old enough; it began with Eve. It works +slowly, Holmes. In six thousand years, taking humanity as one, this +self-existent soul should have clothed itself with a freer, royaller +garment than poor Lois's body,--or mine," he added, bitterly. + +"It works slowly," said the other, quietly. "Faster soon, in America. +There are yet many ills of life for the divinity within to conquer." + +"And Lois and the swarming mass yonder in those dens? It is late for +them to begin the fight?" + +"Endurance is enough for them here. Their religions teach them that they +could not bear the truth. One does not put a weapon into the hands of a +man dying of the fetor and hunger of the siege." + +"But what will this life, or the lives to come, give to you champions +who know the truth?" + +"Nothing but victory," he said, in a low tone, looking away. + +Knowles looked at the pale strength of the iron face. + +"God help you, Stephen!" he broke out, his shallow jeering falling off. +"For there _is_ a God higher than we. The ills of life you mean to +conquer will teach it to you, Holmes. You'll find the Something above +yourself, if it's only to curse Him and die." + +Holmes did not smile at the old man's heat,--walked gravely, steadily. + +There was a short silence. The old man put his hand gently on the +other's arm. + +"Stephen," he hesitated, "you're a stronger man than I. I know what you +are; I've watched you from a boy. But you're wrong here. I'm an old man. +There's not much I know in life,--enough to madden me. But I do know +there's something stronger,--some God outside of the mean devil they +call 'Me.' You'll learn it, boy. There's an old story of a man like you +and the rest of your sect, and of the vile, mean, crawling things that +God sent to bring him down. There are such things yet. Mean passions in +your divine soul, low, selfish things, that will get the better of you, +show you what you are. You'll do all that man can do. But they are +coming, Stephen Holmes! they're coming!" + +He stopped, startled. For Holmes had turned abruptly, glancing over at +the city with a strange wistfulness. It was over in a moment. He resumed +the slow, controlling walk beside him. They went on in silence into +town, and when they did speak, it was on indifferent subjects, not +referring to the last. The Doctor's heat, as it usually did, boiled out +in spasms on trifles. Once he stumped his toe, and, I am sorry to say, +swore roundly about it, just as he would have done in the new Arcadia, +if one of the jail-birds comprising that colony had been ungrateful for +his advantages. Philanthropists, for some curious reason, are not the +most amiable members of small families. + +He gave Holmes the roll of parchment he had in his pocket, looking +keenly at him, as he did so, but only saying, that, if he meant to sign +it, it would be done to-morrow. As Holmes took it, they stopped at the +great door of the factory. He went in alone, Knowles going down the +street. One trifle, strange in its way, he remembered afterwards. +Holding the roll of paper in his hand that would make the mill his, he +went, in his slow, grave way, down the long passage to the loom-rooms. +There was a crowd of porters and firemen there, as usual, and he thought +one of them hastily passed him in the dark passage, hiding behind an +engine. As the shadow fell on him, his teeth chattered with a chilly +shudder. He smiled, thinking how superstitious people would say that +some one trod on his grave just then, or that Death looked at him, and +went on. Afterwards he thought of it. Going through the office, the fat +old book-keeper, Huff, stopped him with a story he had been keeping for +him all day. He liked to tell a story to Holmes; he could see into a +joke; it did a man good to hear a fellow laugh like that. Holmes did +laugh, for the story was a good one, and stood a moment, then went in, +leaving the old fellow chuckling over his desk. Huff did not know how, +lately, after every laugh, this man felt a vague scorn of himself, as if +jokes and laughter belonged to a self that ought to have been dead long +ago. Perhaps, if the fat old book-keeper had known it, he would have +said that the man was better than he knew. But then,--poor Huff! He +passed slowly through the long alleys between the great looms. Overhead +the ceiling looked like a heavy maze of iron cylinders and black +swinging bars and wheels, all in swift, ponderous motion. It was enough +to make a brain dizzy with the clanging thunder of the engines, the +whizzing spindles of red and yellow, and the hot daylight glaring over +all. The looms were watched by women, most of them bold, tawdry girls +of fifteen or sixteen, or lean-jawed women from the hills, wives of the +coal-diggers. There was a breathless odor of copperas. As he went from +one room to another up through the ascending stories, he had a vague +sensation of being followed. Some shadow lurked at times behind the +engines, or stole after him in the dark entries. Were there ghosts, +then, in mills in broad daylight? None but the ghosts of Want and Hunger +and Crime, he might have known, that do not wait for night to walk our +streets: the ghosts that poor old Knowles hoped to lay forever. + +Holmes had a room fitted up in the mill, where he slept. He went up +to it slowly, holding the paper tightly in one hand, glancing at the +operatives, the work, through his furtive half-shut eye. Nothing escaped +him. Passing the windows, he did not once look out at the prophetic +dream of beauty he had left without. In the mill he was of the mill. +Yet he went slowly, as if he shrank from the task waiting for him. +Why should he? It was a simple matter of business, this transfer of +Knowles's share in the mill to himself; to-day he was to decide whether +he would conclude the bargain. If any dark history of wrong lay +underneath, if this simple decision of his was to be the struggle for +life and death with him, his cold, firm face told nothing of it. Let us +be just to him, stand by him, if we can, in the midst of his desolate +home and desolate life, and look through his cold, sorrowful eyes at +the deed he was going to do. Dreary enough he looked, going through the +great mill, despite the power in his quiet face. A man who had strength +to be alone; yet, I think, with all his strength and power, his mother +could not have borne to look back from the dead that day, to see her boy +so utterly alone. The day was the crisis of his life, looked forward to +for years; he held in his hand a sure passport to fortune. Yet he thrust +the hour off, perversely, trifling with idle fancies, pushing from him +the one question which all the years past and to come had left for this +day to decide. + +Some such idle fancy it may have been that made the man turn from the +usual way down a narrow passage into which opened doors from small +offices. Margaret Howth, he had learned to-day, was in the first one. He +hesitated before he did it, his sallow face turning a trifle paler; then +he went on in his hard, grave way, wondering dimly if she remembered his +step, if she cared to see him now. She used to know it,--she was the +only one in the world who ever had cared to know it,--silly child! +Doubtless she was wiser now. He remembered he used to think, that, when +this woman loved, it would be as he himself would love, with a simple +trust which the wrong of years could not touch. And once he had +thought--Well, well, he was mistaken. Poor Margaret! Better as it was. +They were nothing to each other. She had put him from her, and he had +suffered himself to be put away. Why, he would have given up every +prospect of life, if he had done otherwise! Yet he wondered bitterly if +she had thought him selfish,--if she thought it was money he cared for, +as the others did. It mattered nothing what they thought, but it wounded +him intolerably that she should wrong him. Yet, with all this, whenever +he looked forward to death, it was with the certainty that he should +find her there beyond. There would be no secrets then; she would know +then how he had loved her always. Loved her? Yes; he need not hide it +from himself, surely. + +He was now by the door of the office;--she was within. Little Margaret, +poor little Margaret! struggling there day after day for the old father +and mother. What a pale, cold little child she used to be! such a child! +yet kindling at his look or touch, as if her veins were filled with +subtile flame. Her soul was like his own, he thought. He knew what it +was,--he only. Even now he glowed with a man's triumph to know he held +the secret life of this woman bare in his hand. No other human power +could ever come near her; he was secure in possession. She had put him +from her;--it was better for both, perhaps. Their paths were separate +here; for she had some unreal notions of duty, and he had too much to do +in the world to clog himself with cares, or to idle an hour in the rare +ecstasy of even love like this. + +He passed the office, not pausing in his slow step. Some sudden impulse +made him put his hand on the door as he brushed against it: just a +quick, light touch; but it had all the fierce passion of a caress. He +drew it back as quickly, and went on, wiping a clammy sweat from his +face. + +The room he had fitted up for himself was whitewashed and barely +furnished; it made one's bones ache to look at the iron bedstead and +chairs. Holmes's natural taste was more glowing, however smothered, than +that of any saffron-robed Sybarite. It needed correction, he knew, and +this was the discipline. Besides, he had set apart the coming three or +four years of his life to make money in, enough for the time to come. He +would devote his whole strength to that work, and so be sooner done with +it. Money, or place, or even power, was nothing but means to him: other +men valued them because of their influence on others. As his work in the +world was only the development of himself, it was different, of course. +What would it matter to his soul the day after death, if millions called +his name aloud in blame or praise? Would he hear or answer then? What +would it matter to him then, if he had starved with them or ruled over +them? People talked of benevolence. What would it matter to him then, +the misery or happiness of those yet working in this paltry life of +ours? In so far as the exercise of kindly emotions or self-denial +developed the higher part of his nature, it was to be commended; as +for its effect on others, that he had nothing to do with. He practised +self-denial constantly to strengthen the benevolent instincts. That +very morning he had given his last dollar to Joe Byers, a half-starved +cripple. "Chucked it at me," Joe said, "like as he'd give a bone to a +dog, and be damned to him! Who thanks him?" To tell the truth, you will +find no fairer exponent than this Stephen Holmes of the great idea of +American sociology,--that the object of life is _to grow_. Circumstances +had forced it on him, partly. Sitting now in his room, where he was +counting the cost of becoming a merchant prince, he could look back to +the time of a boyhood passed in the depths of ignorance and vice. He +knew what this Self within him was; he knew how it had forced him to +grope his way up, to give this hungry, insatiate soul air and freedom +and knowledge. All men around him were doing the same,--thrusting and +jostling and struggling, up, up. It was the American motto, Go ahead; +mothers taught it to their children; the whole system was a scale of +glittering prizes. He at least saw the higher meaning of the truth; he +had no low ambitions. To lift this self up into a higher range of +being when it had done with the uses of this,--that was his work. +Self-salvation, self-elevation,--the ideas that give birth to, and +destroy half of our Christianity, half of our philanthropy! Sometimes +sleeping instincts in the man struggled up to assert a divinity more +terrible than this growing self-existent soul that he purified and +analyzed day by day: a depth of tender pity for outer pain; a fierce +longing for rest, on something, in something, he cared not what. He +stifled such rebellious promptings,--called them morbid. He called it +morbid, too, the passion now that chilled his strong blood, and wrung +out these clammy drops on his forehead, at the mere thought of this girl +below. + +He shut the door of his room tightly: he had no time to-day for lounging +visitors. + +For Holmes, quiet and steady, was sought for, if not popular, even in +the free-and-easy West; one of those men who are unwillingly masters +among men. Just and mild, always; with a peculiar gift that made men +talk their best thoughts to him, knowing they would be understood; if +any core of eternal flint lay under the simple, truthful manner of the +man, nobody saw it. + +He laid the bill of sale on the table; it was an altogether practical +matter on which he sat in judgment, but he was going to do nothing +rashly. A plain business document: he took Dr. Knowles's share in the +factory; the payments made with short intervals; John Herne was to be +his indorser: it needed only the names to make it valid. Plain enough; +no hint there of the tacit understanding that the purchase-money was a +wedding dowry; even between Herne and himself it never was openly put +into words. If he did not marry Miss Herne, the mill was her father's; +that of course must be spoken of, arranged to-morrow. If he took it, +then? if he married her? Holmes had been poor, was miserably poor yet, +with the position and habits of a man of refinement. God knows it was +not to gratify those tastes that he clutched at this money. All the slow +years of work trailed up before him, that were gone,--of hard, wearing +work for daily bread, when his brain had been starving for knowledge, +and his soul dulled, debased with sordid trading. Was this to be always? +Were these few golden moments of life to be traded for the bread and +meat he ate? To eat and drink,--was that what he was here for? + +As he paced the floor mechanically, some vague recollection crossed his +brain of a childish story of the man standing where the two great roads +of life parted. They were open before him now. Money, money,--he took +the word into his heart as a miser might do. With it, he was free from +these carking cares that were making his mind foul and muddy. If he had +money! Slow, cool visions of triumphs rose before him outlined on the +years to come, practical, if Utopian. Slow and sure successes of science +and art, where his brain could work, helpful and growing. Far off, yet +surely to come,--surely for him,--a day to come when a pure social +system should be universal, should have thrust out its fibres of light +knitting into one the nations of the earth, when the lowest slave should +find its true place and rightful work, and stand up, knowing itself +divine. "To insure to every man the freest development of his +faculties": he said over the hackneyed dogma again and again, while the +heavy, hateful years of poverty rose before him that had trampled him +down. "To insure to him the freest development," he did not need to wait +for St. Simon, or the golden year, he thought with a dreary gibe; money +was enough, and--Miss Herne. + +It was curious, that, when this woman, whom he saw every day, came up in +his mind, it was always in one posture, one costume. You have noticed +that peculiarity in your remembrance of some persons? Perhaps you would +find, if you looked closely, that in that look or indelible gesture +which your memory has caught there lies some subtile hint of the tie +between your soul and theirs. Now, when Holmes had resolved coolly +to weigh this woman, brain, heart, and flesh, to know how much of a +hindrance she would be, he could only see her, with his artist's sense, +as delicate a bloom of coloring as eye could crave, in one immovable +posture,--as he had seen her once in some masquerade or _tableau +vivant_. June, I think it was, she chose to represent that evening,--and +with her usual success; for no woman ever knew more thoroughly her +material of shape or color, or how to work it up. Not an ill-chosen +fancy, either, that of the moist, warm month. Some tranced summer's day +might have drowsed down into such a human form by a dank pool, or on the +thick grass-crusted meadows. There was the full contour of the limbs hid +under warm green folds, the white flesh that glowed when you touched it +as if some smothered heat lay beneath, the sleeping face, the amber hair +uncoiled in a languid quiet, while yellow jasmines deepened its hue into +molten sunshine, and a great tiger-lily laid its sultry head on her +breast. June? Could June become incarnate with higher poetic meaning +than that which this woman gave it? Mr. Kitts, the artist I told you +of, thought not, and fell in love with June and her on the spot, which +passion became quite unbearable after she had graciously permitted him +to sketch her,--for the benefit of Art. Three medical students and one +attorney Miss Herne numbered as having been driven into a state +of dogged despair on that triumphal occasion. Mr. Holmes may have +quarrelled with the rendering, doubting to himself if her lip were not +too thick, her eye too brassy and pale a blue for the queen of months; +though I do not believe he thought at all about it. Yet the picture +clung to his memory. + +As he slowly paced the room to-day, thinking of this woman as his +wife, light blue eyes and yellow hair and the unclean sweetness of +jasmine-flowers mixed with the hot sunshine and smells of the mill. He +could think of her in no other light. He might have done so; for the +poor girl had her other sides for view. She had one of those sharp, +tawdry intellects whose possessors are always reckoned "brilliant women, +fine talkers." She was (aside from the necessary sarcasm to keep up this +reputation) a good-humored soul enough,--when no one stood in her way. +But if her shallow virtues or vices were palpable at all to him to-day, +they became one with the torpid beauty of the oppressive summer day, +and weighed on him alike with a vague disgust. The woman luxuriated in +perfume; some heavy odor always hung about her. Holmes, thinking of her +now, fancied he felt it stifling the air, and opened the window for +breath. Patchouli or copperas,--what was the difference? The mill and +his future wife came to him together; it was scarcely his fault, if he +thought of them as one, or muttered, "Damnable clog!" as he sat down to +write, his cold eye growing colder. But he did not argue the question +any longer; decision had come keenly in one moment, fixed, unalterable. + +If, through the long day, the starved heart of the man called feebly for +its natural food, he called it a paltry weakness; or if the old thought +of the quiet, pure little girl in the office below came back to him, +he--he wished her well, he hoped she might succeed in her work, he +would always be ready to lend her a helping hand. So many years (he was +ashamed to think how many) he had built the thought of this girl as his +wife into the future, put his soul's strength into the hope, as if love +and the homely duties of husband and father were what life was given +for! A boyish fancy, he thought. He had not learned then that all dreams +must yield to self-reverence and self-growth. As for taking up this life +of poverty and soul-starvation for the sake of a little love, it would +be an ignoble martyrdom, the sacrifice of a grand unmeasured life to a +shallow pleasure. He was no longer a young man now; he had no time to +waste. Poor Margaret! he wondered if it hurt her now. + +He left the writing in the slow, quiet way natural to him, and after +a while stooped to pat the dog softly, who was trying to lick his +hand,--with the hard fingers shaking a little, and a smothered +fierceness in the half-closed eye, like a man who is tortured and alone. + +There is a miserable drama acted in other homes than the Tuileries, when +men have found a woman's heart in their way to success, and trampled +it down under an iron heel. Men like Napoleon must live out the law of +their natures, I suppose,--on a throne or in a mill. + +So many trifles that day roused the under-current of old thoughts and +old hopes that taunted him,--trifles, too, that he would not have heeded +at another time. Pike came in on business, a bunch of bills in his hand. +A wily, keen eye he had, looking over them,--a lean face, emphasized +only by cunning. No wonder Dr. Knowles cursed him for a "slippery +customer," and was cheated by him the next hour. While he and Holmes +were counting out the bills, a little white-headed girl crept shyly +in at the door, and came up to the table,--oddly dressed, in an +old-fashioned frock fastened with great horn buttons, and with an +old-fashioned anxious pair of eyes, the color of blue Delft. Holmes +smoothed her hair, as she stood beside them; for he never could help +caressing children or dogs. Pike looked up sharply,--then half smiled, +as he went on counting. + +"Ninety, ninety-five, _and_ one hundred, all right,"--tying a bit of +tape about the papers. "My Sophy, Mr. Holmes. Good girl, Sophy is. Bring +her up to the mill sometimes," he said, apologetically, "on 'count of +not leaving her alone. She gets lonesome at th' house." + +Holmes glanced at Pike's felt hat lying on the table: there was a rusty +strip of crape on it. + +"Yes," said Pike, in a lower tone, "I'm father and mother, both, to +Sophy now." + +"I had not heard," said Holmes, kindly. "How about the boys, now?" + +"Pete and John's both gone West," the man said, his eyes kindling +eagerly. "'S fine boys as ever turned out of Indiana. Good eddications I +give 'em both. I've felt the want of that all my life. Good eddications. +Says I, 'Now, boys, you've got your fortunes, nothing to hinder your +bein' President. Let's see what stuff's in ye,' says I. So they're doin' +well. Wrote fur me to come out in the fall. But I'd rather scratch on, +and gather up a little for Sophy here, before I stop work." + +He patted Sophy's tanned little hand on the table, as if beating some +soft tune. Holmes folded up the bills. Even this man could spare time +out of his hard, stingy life to love, and be loved, and to be generous! +But then he had no higher aim, knew nothing better. + +"Well," said Pike, rising, "in case you take th' mill, Mr. Holmes, +I hope we'll be agreeable. I'll strive to do my best,"--in the old +fawning manner, to which Holmes nodded a curt reply. + +The man stopped for Sophy to gather up her bits of broken China with +which she was making a tea-party on the table, and went down-stairs. + +Towards evening Holmes went out,--not going through the narrow passage +that led to the offices, but avoiding it by a circuitous route. If it +cost him any pain to think why he did it, he showed none in his calm, +observant face. Buttoning up his coat as he went: the October sunset +looked as if it ought to be warm, but he was deathly cold. On the street +the young doctor beset him again, with bows and news: Cox was his name, +I believe; the one, you remember, who had such a Talleyrand nose for +ferreting out successful men. He had to bear with him but for a few +moments, however. They met a crowd of workmen at the corner, one of +whom, an old man freshly washed, with honest eyes looking out of +horn spectacles, waited for them by a fire-plug. It was Polston, the +coal-digger,--an acquaintance, a far-off kinsman of Holmes, in fact. + +"Curious person making signs to you, yonder," said Cox; "hand, I +presume." + +"My cousin Polston. If you do not know him, you'll excuse me?" + +Cox sniffed the air down the street, and twirled his rattan, as he went. +The coal-digger was abrupt and distant in his greeting, going straight +to business. + +"I will keep yoh only a minute, Mr. Holmes"---- + +"Stephen," corrected Holmes. + +The old man's face warmed. + +"Stephen, then," holding out his hand, "sence old times dawn't shame +yoh, Stephen. That's hearty, now. It's only a wured I want, but it's +immediate. Concernin' Joe Yare,--Lois's father, yoh know? He's back." + +"Back? I saw him to-day, following me in the mill. His hair is gray? I +think it was he." + +"No doubt. Yes, he's aged fast, down in the lock-up; goin' fast to the +end. Feeble, pore-like. It's a bad life, Joe Yare's; I wish 'n' 't would +be better to the end"---- + +He stopped with a wistful look at Holmes, who stood outwardly attentive, +but with little thought to waste on Joe Yare. The old coal-digger +drummed on the fire-plug uneasily. + +"Myself, 't was for Lois's sake I thowt on it. To speak plain,--yoh'll +mind that Stokes affair, th' note Yare brought? Yes? Ther's none knows +o' that but yoh an' me. He's safe, Yare is, only fur yoh an' me. Yoh +speak the wured an' back he goes to the lock-up. Fur life. D' yoh see?" + +"I see." + +"He's tryin' to do right, Yare is." + +The old man went on, trying not to be eager, and watching Holmes's face. + +"He's tryin'. Sendin' him back--yoh know how _that_ 'll end. Seems like +as we'd his soul in our hands. S'pose,--what d' yoh think, if we give +him a chance? It's yoh he fears. I see him a-watchin' yoh; what d' yoh +think, if we give him a chance?" catching Holmes's sleeve. "He's old, +an' he's tryin'. Heh?" + +Holmes smiled. + +"We didn't make the law he broke. Justice before mercy. Haven't I heard +you talk to Sam in that way, long ago?" + +The old man loosened his hold of Holmes's arm, looked up and down the +street, uncertain, disappointed. + +"The law. Yes. That's right! Yoh're a just man, Stephen Holmes." + +"And yet?"---- + +"Yes. I dun'no'. Law's right, but Yare's had a bad chance, an' he's +tryin'. An' we're sendin' him to hell. Somethin's wrong. But I think +yoh're a just man," looking keenly in Holmes's face. + +"A hard one, people say," said Holmes, after a pause, as they walked on. + +He had spoken half to himself, and received no answer. Some blacker +shadow troubled him than old Yare's fate. + +"My mother was a hard woman,--you knew her?" he said, abruptly. + +"She was just, like yoh. She was one o' th' elect, she said. Mercy's fur +them,--an' outside, justice. It's a narrer showin', I'm thinkin'." + +"My father was outside," said Holmes, some old bitterness rising up in +his tone, his gray eye lighting with some unrevenged wrong. + +Polston did not speak for a moment. + +"Dunnot bear malice agin her. They're dead, now. It wasn't left fur her +to judge him out yonder. Yoh've yer father's eyes, Stephen, 'times. +Hungry, pitiful, like women's. His got desper't' 't th' last. Drunk +hard,--died of't, yoh know. But _she_ killed him,--th' sin was writ down +fur her. Never was a boy I loved like him, when we was boys." + +There was a short silence. + +"Yoh're like yer mother," said Polston, striving for a lighter tone. +"Here,"--motioning to the heavy iron jaws. "She never--let go. Somehow, +too, she'd the law on her side in outward showin', an' th' right. But I +hated religion, knowin' her. Well, ther's a day of makin' things clear, +comin'." + +They had reached the corner now, and Polston turned down the lane. + +"Yoh'll think o' Yare's case?" he said. + +"Yes. But how can I help it," Holmes said, lightly, "if I am like my +mother here?"--putting his hand to his mouth. + +"God help us, how can yoh? It's harrd to think father and mother leave +their souls fightin' in their childern, cos th' love was wantin' to make +them one here." + +Something glittered along the street as he spoke: the silver mountings +of a low-hung phaeton drawn by a pair of Mexican ponies. One or two +gentlemen on horseback were alongside, attendant on a lady within. She +turned her fair face, and pale, greedy eyes, as she passed, and lifted +her hand languidly in recognition of Holmes. Polston's face colored. + +"I've heered," he said, holding out his grimy hand. "I wish yoh well, +Stephen, boy. So'll the old 'oman. Yoh'll come an' see us, soon? Ye 'r' +lookin' fagged, an' yer eyes is gettin' more like yer father's. I'm glad +things is takin' a good turn with yoh; an' yoh'll never be like him, +starvin' fur th' kind wured, an' havin' to die without it. I'm glad +yoh've got true love. She'd a fair face, I think. I wish yoh well, +Stephen." + +Holmes shook the grimy hand, and then stood a moment looking back to +the mill, from which the hands were just coming, and then down at the +phaeton moving idly down the road. How cold it was growing! People +passing by had a sickly look, as if they were struck by the plague. He +pushed the damp hair back, wiping his forehead, with another glance at +the mill-women coming out of the gate, and then followed the phaeton +down the hill. + + * * * * * + + +HEALTH IN THE HOSPITAL. + + +In preparing to do the duty of society towards the wounded or sick +soldier, the first consideration is, What is a Military Hospital? No two +nations seem to have answered this question in the same way; yet it is a +point of the first importance to them all. + +When England went to war last time, after a peace of forty years, the +only idea in the minds of her military surgeons was of Regimental +Hospitals. There was to be a place provided as an infirmary for a +certain number of soldiers; a certain number of orderlies were to be +appointed as nurses; and the regimental doctor and hospital-sergeant +were to have the charge of the inmates. In each of these Regimental +Hospitals there might be patients ill of a great variety of disorders, +from the gravest to the lightest, all to be treated by the same doctor +or doctors. These doctors had to make out statements of all the diets, +as well as all the medicines required by their patients, and send in +their requisitions; and it might be said that arrangements had to be +separately made for every individual patient in the whole army. The +doctors went to work each in his own way, even in the case of epidemics. +There was no knowing, except by guess, what diseases were the most to be +apprehended in particular places or circumstances; nor what remarkable +phenomena of disease were showing themselves on any extended scale; nor +what improvements could be suggested in the treatment. There was no +possibility of such systematic cleanliness and such absolute regularity +of management as can be secured by organization on a large scale. Yet +the medical officers preferred the plan to any other. One plea was, that +the medical officers and the patients were acquainted with and attached +to each other: and this was very true. Another consideration was, that +each surgeon liked to have his field of duty to himself, and found it an +advantage to have a large variety of ailments to treat, to the constant +improvement of his experience. They said that doctors and patients and +nurses all liked the Regimental Hospital best, and this was clear proof +that it was the best. They could at that time say also, that every +soldier and every doctor had a horror of General Hospitals, where the +mortality was so excessive during the Peninsular War that being carried +to the General Hospital was considered the same thing as being sentenced +to death. + +Such being the state of opinion and feeling in the profession, it +naturally happened that British army-surgeons stuck to their Regimental +Hospitals as long as they could, and, when compelled to cooperate in a +General Hospital, made the institution as like as possible to a group +of Regimental Hospitals,--resisting all effective organization, and +baffling all the aims of the larger institution. + +In busy times, no two Regimental Hospitals were alike in their +management, because the scheme was not capable of expansion. The surgeon +and his hospital-sergeant managed everything. The surgeon saw and +treated the cases, and made out his lists of articles wanted. It was his +proper business to keep the books,--to record the admissions, and make +the returns, and keep the accounts, and post up all the documents: but +professional men do not like this sort of work, when they want to be +treating disease; and the books were too often turned over to the +hospital-sergeant. His indispensable business was to superintend the +wards, and the attendance on the patients, the giving them their +medicines, etc., which most of us would think enough for one man: but he +had besides to keep up the military discipline in the establishment,--to +prepare the materials for the surgeon's duty at the desk,--to take +charge of all the orders for the diet of all the patients, and see them +fulfilled,--to keep the record of all the provisions ordered and used +in every department,--and to take charge of the washing, the hospital +stores, the furniture, the surgery, and the dispensary. In short, the +hospital-sergeant had to be at once ward-master, steward, dispenser, +sergeant, clerk, and purveyor; and, as no man can be a six-sided +official, more or fewer of his duties were deputed to the orderly, or to +anybody within call. + +Nobody could dispute the superior economy and comfort of having a +concentration of patients arranged in the wards according to their +ailments, with a general kitchen, a general laundry, a dispensary and +surgery, and a staff of officials, each with his own distinct business, +instead of as many jacks-of-all-trades, each doing a little of +everything. Yet the obstinacy of the fight made by the surgeons for the +system of Regimental Hospitals was almost insuperable. There was no +desire on any hand to abolish their hospitals, which must always be +needed for slight, and also for immediately pressing cases. What was +asked of them was to give way when epidemics, or a sudden influx of +wounded, or protracted cases put a greater strain upon the system than +it would bear. + +The French, meantime, had three sorts of hospitals,--the Divisional ones +coming between the Regimental and the General. Only the very slightest +cases ever enter their Regimental Hospital; those which may last weeks +are referred to the Divisional; and those which may last months, with +prospect of recovery, to the General Hospital. The Sardinian plan was +nearly the same. The Russians had Divisional Hospitals at various +stations; and all cases were carried to them. + +The Regimental Hospitals are wherever the regiments are. The advantage +is, that aid can be immediately rendered,--not only in case of wounds, +but of cholera, in which it is desirable to lay a patient down in the +nearest bed to which he can be conveyed. The disadvantages are the +hap-hazard quality of the site, the absence of quiet and seclusion, and +the liability of being near the scene of conflict. These things cause +the French to prefer the Divisional Hospital, which, while still within +reach, is set farther back from the force, in a picked situation, and +managed on a large scale and with nicer exactitude. + +The General Hospital is understood to be at the base of operations: and +this supposes, as a part of its organization, a system of transport, not +only good of its kind, but adequate to any demands consequent on a +great battle, or the spread of an epidemic in the camp. The nearer the +hospital is to the active force, the better, of course; but there are +conditions to be fulfilled first. It must be safe from the enemy. It +must be placed in a permanent station. It must be on a good road, and +within immediate reach of markets. It ought also to be on the way home, +for the sake of the incurable or the incapacitated who must be sent +home. + +In the Regimental Hospital, the surgeon may be seen going from the man +who has lost a finger to a fever patient,--and then to one who has +ophthalmia,--passing on to a fellow raving in delirium tremens,--next to +whom is a sufferer under bronchitis, who will not be allowed to go out +of doors for weeks to come; and if half a dozen are brought in with +cholera in the course of the day, the officials do not know which way to +turn. It is possible that the surgeon may be found making starch over +the kitchen fire, because there is nobody at hand who understands how to +make starched bandages; or he may be at the desk, casting up columns of +figures, or writing returns, when he is urgently wanted at the bedside. +Such things can hardly happen now; but they have happened within ten +years. The Russians, meantime, would be carrying all manner of patients +to one of their hospital-stations,--each sufferer to the hospital of his +own division. The French would leave the men with scratches and slight +diarrhea and delirium tremens in the Regimental Hospital,--would send +the fever and bronchitis and scorbutic patients to the Divisional,--and +any gravely wounded, or rheumatic, or other very long cases to the +General Hospital at the base of operations. + +Such arrangements, however, are of no use, if the last be not so +organized as to render it fit to supply what the others cannot give, and +to answer purposes which the others cannot even propose. + +When doctors and soldiers alike shuddered at the mention of the General +Hospital as a necessary institution at or near the seat of war, they +were thinking of what they had seen or heard of during the Peninsular +Campaigns. There were such infirmaries wherever there was a line of +march in Spain; and they seemed to be all alike. Hospital gangrene set +in among the wounded, and fever among the sick, so that the soldiers +said, "To send a poor fellow to the hospital is to send him to death." +Yet there was nothing else to be done; for it was impossible to treat +the seriously sick and wounded at the spot where they fell. During that +war, nearly twice the number which composed the army passed through the +hospitals every year; and of these there were known deaths to the amount +of thirteen thousand five hundred; and thousands more were never the +same men again. When the case was better understood,--as during the last +year in the Crimea,--the mortality in the hospitals barely exceeded that +of the Guards in their barracks at home! Recovery had become the rule, +and death a remarkable event. General Hospitals had come to surpass all +other means of curing patients, while fulfilling their own peculiar +service to society through new generations. + +What are the functions of General Hospitals, besides curing the sick and +wounded? some readers may ask, who have never particularly attended to +the subject. + +The first business of such institutions is undoubtedly to restore as +many as possible of the sufferers brought into them: and this includes +the duty of bringing in the patients in the most favorable way, +receiving them in an orderly and quiet manner, doctoring, nursing, +feeding, clothing, and cleaning them, keeping their minds composed and +cheerful, and their manners creditable, promoting their convalescence, +and dismissing them in a state of comfort as to equipment. This is the +first duty, in its many subdivisions. The next is to obviate, as far as +possible, future disease in any army. The third grows out of this. It is +to improve the science of the existing generation by a full use of the +peculiar opportunities of observation afforded by the crop of sickness +and wounds yielded by an army in action. To take these in their reverse +order. + +There must be much to learn from any great assemblage of sickness, under +circumstances which can be fully ascertained, even at home,--and much +more in a foreign climate. The medical body of every nation has very +imperfect knowledge of classes and modifications of diseases; so that +one of the strongest desires of the most learned physicians is for +an improved classification and constantly improving nomenclature of +diseases; and hospital-records afford the most direct way to this +knowledge. Thus, while the phenomena are frittered away among +Regimental or unorganized General Hospitals, a well-kept record in each +well-organized hospital will do more than all other means to promote the +scientific understanding of disease. + +The statistics of disease in armies, the ascertainment of the numbers +who sicken and who die of particular diseases, would save more lives +in future generations than can be now appreciated; but what can the +regimental surgeon do towards furnishing any trustworthy materials to +such an inquiry? A dozen doctors, with each his smattering of patients, +can learn and teach but little while they work apart: whereas a regular +system of inquiry and record, in action where the sick are brought in in +battalions, is the best possible agency. Not only are these objects lost +when surgeons are allowed to make the great hospital a mere receptacle +for a cluster of small and desultory hospitals, but the advantages of a +broad study of diseases and their treatment are lost. Inestimable facts +of treatment are learned by watching, at the same time and in the same +place, a ward full of patients ill of the same disease. People of all +countries know this by the special learning which their physicians +obtain in large civil hospitals: and the same thing happens in military +hospitals, with the additional advantage that the information and +improved art tend to the special safety of the future soldiery, in +whatever climate they may be called on to serve. + +There has long been some general notion of the duty of army-surgeons +to record what they saw in foreign campaigns; but no benefit has been +reaped till of late. The works of French field-surgeons have long been +justly celebrated; but I do not know that in the statistics and the +nomenclature of disease they have done much more than others. The +English surgeons carried or sent home in 1810 a mass of papers about the +Walcheren fever, and afterwards of the diseases of the Peninsular force: +but the Director General of the Medical Department considered such a +bulk of records troublesome, and ordered them to be burnt! Such an +act will never be perpetrated again; but directors will have a more +manageable mass of documents to deal with henceforth. With a regular +system of record, at a central station of observation, much more may be +done with much less fatigue to all parties. + +But how is it to be done? may well be asked. In the hurry and confusion +of a war, and amidst the pressure of hundreds of new cases in a day, +what can the surgeons of the hospital be expected to do for science, or +even for the improvement of medical and surgical practice?--The answer +is seen in the new arrangements in England, where a statistical branch +has been established in the Army Medical Department. Of course, no one +but the practising surgeon or physician can furnish the pathological +facts in each individual case; but this is what every active and earnest +practitioner does always and everywhere, when he sees reason for it. +His note-book or hospital-journal provides that raw material which the +statistical department is to arrange and utilize. The result will be +that a flood of light will be cast on matters affecting the health and +life of soldiers and other men, in regard to which we might have gone on +groping for centuries among the confusion of regimental records, without +getting what we wanted. As to the method of proceeding, I may have +something to say farther on. Meantime, we must turn to the primary +object of the institution of the Military Hospital,--the cure of the +wounded and sick of the army. + +In the case of active war, foreign or civil, the General Hospital is +usually an extemporized establishment, the building a makeshift, and +the arrangements such as the building will admit. In Spain, the British +obtained any houses they could get; and the soldiers were sometimes +crowded into half a dozen of them in one town. In the last war, the +great buildings at Scutari were engaged three months before they were +wanted for extensive use; so that there was plenty of time for making +them clean, airy, warm, and commodious, and for storing them with all +conveniences. This was not done; and the failure and its consequences +afford a lesson by which every people engaged in war should profit. A +mere outline of what was not done at Scutari may be an indication of +what should be done with all convenient speed elsewhere. + +There was a catgut manufactory close at hand, which filled the +neighborhood with stench. Half a dozen dead dogs festered under the +windows in the sun; and a dead horse lay in the aqueduct for six weeks. +The drain-pipes within the building were obstructed and had burst, +spreading their contents over the floors and walls. The sloping boarded +divans in the wards, used for sleeping-places, were found, after the +building became crowded, to be a cover for a vast accumulation of dead +rats, old rags, and the dust of years. Like all large stone buildings in +the East, it was intolerably cold in winter, with its stagnant air, +its filthy damps, and its vaultings and chill floors. This wonderful +building was very grandly reported of to England, for its size and +capacity, its imposing character, and so forth; and the English +congratulated themselves on the luck of the wounded in having such a +hospital. Yet, in the next January, fourteen hundred and eighty were +carried out dead. + +It appears that nobody knew how to go to work. Everybody writes to +somebody else to advise them to "observe"; and there are so many +assurances that everybody means to "observe," that there seems to have +been no leisure to effect anything. One thinks that this, that, or the +other should be attended to; and another states that the matter is +under consideration. It was some weeks before anybody got so far in +definiteness as to propose whitewash. Somebody understood that somebody +else was intending to have the corridors scoured; and representations +were to be made to the Turkish authorities about getting the drain-pipes +mended. The Turkish authorities wished to employ their own workmen in +putting in the stoves; and on the 18th of December the responsible +British officer hoped the stoves would be put up immediately, but could +not be certain, as Turkish workmen were in question. This was a month +after large companies of wounded and sick had been sent in from the seat +of war. Even then, nothing had been done for ventilation, or, on any +sufficient scale, for putting the poor sufferers comfortably to bed. + +These things confirm the necessity of a regulated cooperation between +the sanitary, the medical, and the military officers of an army. The +sanitary officer should be secure of the services of engineers enough to +render the hospital, as well as the camp, safely habitable. As soon as +any building is taken possession of for a hospital, men and their tools +should be at command for exploring the drains and making new ones,--for +covering or filling up ditches,--for clearing and purifying the +water-courses, and leading in more water, if needed,--for removing all +nuisances for a sufficient distance round,--and for improving to the +utmost the means of access to the house. There must be ventilating +spaces in the roof, and in the upper part of all the wards and passages. +Every vaulted space, or other receptacle of stagnant air, should have a +current established through it. All decaying wood in the building should +be removed, and any portion ingrained with dirt should be planed clean. +A due water-supply should be carried up to every story, and provided +for the bathrooms, the wash-houses, and the kitchen. Every edifice in +America is likely to be already furnished with means of warmth; and +the soldiers are probably in no danger of shivering over the uncertain +promise of stoves on the 18th of December. + +Next comes the consideration of store-place, which can be going forward +while busy hands are cleaning every inch of ceiling, walls, floors, +and windows within. There must be sheds and stables for the transport +service; and a surgery and dispensary planned with a view to the utmost +saving of time and trouble, so that medicines and utensils may be +within reach and view, and the freest access allowed to applicants. The +kitchens must have the best stoves and boilers, dressers and scales, and +apparatus of every kind that is known to the time; for more lives depend +on perfect food being administered with absolute punctuality than +upon any medical treatment. There must be large and abundant and airy +store-places for the provisions, and also for such stocks of linen and +bedding as perhaps nobody ever dreamed of before the Crimean War. + +The fatal notions of Regimental Hospital management caused infinite +misery at Scutari. In entering the Regimental Hospital, the soldier +carries his kit, or can step into his quarters for it: and the +regulations, therefore, suppose him to be supplied with shirts and +stockings, towel and soap, brushes and comb. This supposition was +obstinately persevered in, at Scutari, till private charity had shamed +the authorities into providing for the men's wants. When the wounded +were brought from the Alma, embarked on crowded transports straight from +the battle-field, how could they bring their kits? Miss Nightingale, +and benevolent visitors from England, bought up at Constantinople, +and obtained from home, vast supplies of body- and bed-linen, towels, +basins, and water-cans; and till they did so, the poor patients lay on +a single blanket or coarse canvas sheet, in their one shirt, perhaps +soaked in blood and dirt. There were some stores in the hospital, though +not enough; and endless difficulty was made about granting them, lest +any man should have brought his kit, and thus have a double supply. +Amidst the emergencies of active war, it seems to be an obvious +provision that every General Hospital should have in store, with ample +bedding, body-linen enough for as many patients as can occupy the +beds,--the consideration being kept in view, that, where the sick and +wounded are congregated, more frequent changes of linen are necessary +than under any other circumstances. + +The excellent and devoted managers of the hospitals of the Union army +need no teaching as to the daily administration of the affairs of +the wards. They will never have to do and dare the things that Miss +Nightingale had to decide upon, because they have happily had the +privilege of arranging their hospitals on their own principles. They +will not know the exasperation of seeing sufferers crowded together on a +wooden divan (with an under-stratum of dead rats and rotting rags) while +there is an out-house full of bedsteads laid up in store under lock and +key. Not being disposed to acquiesce in such a state of things, and +failing in all attempts to get at the authority which had charge of the +locked door, Miss Nightingale called to an orderly or two, and commanded +them to break open the door. They stared; but she said she assumed the +responsibility; and presently there were as many men in bed as there +were bedsteads. Her doctrine and practice have always been,--instant +and silent obedience to medical and disciplinary orders, without any +qualification whatever; and by her example and teaching in this respect +she at length overcame the jealousy and prejudices of authorities, +medical and military: but in such a case as the actual presence of +necessaries for the sick, sent out by Government or by private charity +for their use, she claimed the benefit, and helped her patients to it, +when there was no other obstruction in the way than forms and rules +never meant to apply to the case. + +What the jealousy was appeared through very small incidents. A leading +medical officer declared, in giving evidence, that the reason why the +patients' meals were sometimes served late and cold, or half-cooked, +was, that Miss Nightingale and her nurses were forever in the way in the +general kitchen, keeping the cooks from the fire: whereas the fact was, +that neither Miss Nightingale nor any nurse had ever entered the general +kitchen, on any occasion whatever. Their way was to have a kitchen of +their own. The very idea of that kitchen was savory in the wards; for +out of it came, always at the right moment, arrowroot, hot and of the +pleasantest consistence,--rice puddings, neither hard on the one hand +nor clammy on the other,--cool lemonade for the feverish, cans full of +hot tea for the weary, and good coffee for the faint. When the sinking +sufferer was lying with closed eyes, too feeble to make moan or sign, +the hospital spoon was put between his lips, with the mouthful of strong +broth or hot wine which rallied him till the watchful nurse came round +again. The meat from that kitchen was tenderer than any other; the +beef-tea was more savory. One thing that came out of it was a lesson on +the saving of good cookery. The mere circumstance of the boiling water +being really boiling there made a difference of two ounces of rice in +every four puddings, and of more than half the arrowroot used. The same +quantity of arrowroot which made a pint, thin and poor, in the general +kitchen, made two pints, thick and good, in Miss Nightingale's. + +Then there was the difference in readiness and punctuality. Owing +to cumbrous forms and awkward rules, the orderlies charged with the +business were running round almost all day about the food for their +wards; and the patients were disgusted with it at last. There were +endless orders and details, whenever the monotonous regular diet was +departed from; whereas the establishment of several regular diets, +according to the classifications in the wards, would have simplified +matters exceedingly. When everything for dysentery patients, or for +fever patients, or for certain classes of wounded was called "extra +diet," there were special forms to be gone through, and orders and +contradictions given, which threw everything into confusion, under +the name of discipline. The authority of the ward would allow some +extra,--butter, for instance; and then a higher authority, seeing the +butter, and not knowing how it came there, would throw it out of the +window, as "spoiling the men." Between getting the orders, and getting +the meat and extras, and the mutual crowding of the messengers, some +of the dinners were not put on the fire till an hour or two after the +fainting patient should have had his meal: and then, of course, he could +not take it. The cold mutton-chop with its opaque fat, the beef with its +caked gravy, the arrowroot stiff and glazed, all untouched, might be +seen by the bedsides in the afternoons, while the patients were lying +back, sinking for want of support. Probably the dinners had been brought +up on a tray, cooling all the way up-stairs and along the corridors; and +when brought in, there was the cutting up, in full view of the intended +eaters,--sometimes on the orderly's own bed, when the tables were +occupied. Under such a system, what must it have been to see the quick +and quiet nurses enter, as the clock struck, with their hot-water tins, +hot morsels ready-cut, hot plates, bright knife and fork and spoon,--and +all ready for instant eating! This was a strong lesson to those who +would learn; and in a short time there was a great change for the +better. The patients who were able to sit at table were encouraged to +rise, and dress, and dine in cheerful company, and at the proper hour. +It was discovered, that, if an alternation was provided of soups, +puddings, fish, poultry, and vegetables, with the regular beef dinner, +the great mass of trouble about extras was swept away at once; for these +varieties met every case in hospital except the small number which +required slops and cordials, or something very unusual. By this +clearance, time was saved to such an extent that punctuality became +possible, and the refusal of food almost ceased. + +All these details point to the essential badness of the system of +requisitions. In the old days, when war was altogether a mass of +formalities,--and in peace times, when soldiers and their guardians had +not enough to do, and it was made an object and employment to save the +national property by hedging round all expenditure of that property with +difficulties, the system of requisitions might suit the period and the +parties. Amidst the rapid action and sharp emergencies of war it is +out of place. It was found intolerable that nothing whatever could be +had,--not a dose of medicine, nor a candle, nor a sheet, nor a spoon or +dish, nor a bit of soap,--without a series of permits, and applications, +and orders, and vouchers, which frittered away the precious hours, +depressed the sick, worried their nurses, and wasted more of money's +worth in official time, paper, and expensive cross-purposes than could +possibly have been saved by all the ostentatious vigilance of the +method. The deck-loads of vegetables at Balaklava, thrown overboard +because they were rotten before they were drawn, were not the only +stores wasted for want of being asked for. When the Scutari hospitals +had become healthy and comfortable, there was a thorough opening-out of +all the stores which had before been made inaccessible by forms. No +more bedsteads, no more lime-juice, no more rice, no more beer, no +more precious medicines were then locked away, out of the reach or the +knowledge of those who were dying, or seeing others die, for want of +them. + +One miserable consequence of the cumbrous method was, that there was no +certainty at any hour of some essential commodity not falling short. It +would have been a dismal day for the most suffering of the patients when +there was not fuel enough to cook "extras," if Miss Nightingale had not +providently bought four boat-loads of wood to meet such a contingency. +It was a dreadful night in the hospital, when, as cholera patients were +brought in by the score, the surgeons found there were no candles to be +had. In that disease, of all maladies, they had to tend their patients +in the dark all night; and a more shocking scene can scarcely be +conceived. + +Every great influx of patients was terrible, whether from an epidemic +or after a battle; but experience and devotedness made even this +comparatively easy before the troops turned homewards. The arrival of +a transport was, perhaps, the first intimation of the earlier battles. +Then all was hurry-skurry in the hospitals; everybody was willing to +help, but the effectual organization was not yet ready. + +Of every hundred on board the transport, an average of ten had died +since leaving the Crimea. The names and causes of death of these men +ought to be recorded; but the surgeons of the transport are wholly +occupied in despatching their living charge to the hospital; and the +surgeons there have enough to do in receiving them. Attempts are made to +obtain the number and names and injuries of the new patients: there may +or may not be a list furnished from the ship; and the hospital surgeons +inquire from bed to bed: but in such a scene mistakes are sure to arise; +and it was found, in fact, that there was always more or less variation +between the numbers recorded as received or dead and the proper number. +No one could wonder at this who had for a moment looked upon the scene. +The poor fellows just arrived had perhaps not had their clothes off +since they were wounded or were seized with cholera, and they were +steeped in blood and filth, and swarming with vermin. To obtain shirts +and towels was hard work, because it had to be proved that they brought +none with them. They were laid on the floor in the corridors, as close +as they could be packed, thus breathing and contaminating the air which +was to have refreshed the wards within. If laid upon so-called sheets, +they entreated that the sheets might be taken away; for they were of +coarse canvas, intolerable to the skin. Before the miserable company +could be fed, made clean, and treated by the surgeons, many were dead; +and a too large proportion were never to leave the place more, though +struggling for a time with death. It was amidst such a scene that +Florence Nightingale refused to despair of five men so desperately +wounded as to be set aside by the surgeons. The surgeons were right. As +they said, their time was but too little for the cases which were not +hopeless. And Florence Nightingale was right in finding time, if she +could, to see whether there was really no chance. She ascertained that +these five were absolutely given over; and she and her assistants +managed to attend to them through the night. She cleaned and comforted +them, and had spoonfuls of nourishment ready whenever they could be +swallowed. By the morning round of the surgeons, these men were ready to +be operated upon; and they were all saved. + +It would have been easier work at a later period. Before many months +were over, the place was ready for any number to be received in peace +and quietness. Instead of being carried from one place to another, +because too many had been sent to one hospital and too few to another, +the poor fellows were borne in the shortest and easiest way from the +boat to their beds. They were found eager for cleanliness; and presently +they were clean accordingly, and lying on a good bed, between clean, +soft sheets. They did not come in scorbutic, like their predecessors; +and they had no reason to dread hospital gangrene or fever. Every floor +and every pane in the windows was clean; and the air came in pure from +the wide, empty corridors. There was a change of linen whenever it was +desired; and the shirts came back from the wash perfectly sweet and +fresh. The cleaning of the wards was done in the mornings, punctually, +quickly, quietly, and thoroughly. The doctors came round, attended by +a nurse who received the orders, and was afterwards steady in the +fulfilment of them. The tables of the medicines of the day were hung up +in the ward; and the nurse went round to administer them with her own +hand. Where she was, there was order and quietness all day, and the +orderlies were worth twice as much as before the women came. Their +manners were better; and they gave their minds more to their business. +The nurse found time to suit each patient who wished it with a book or a +newspaper, when gifts of that sort arrived from England. Kind visitors +sat by the beds to write letters for the patients, undertaking to see +the epistles forwarded to England. When the invalids became able to rise +for dinner, it was a turning-point in their case; and they were soon +getting into the apartment where there were games and books and meetings +of old comrades. As I have said before, those who died at these +hospitals were finally scarcely more than those who died in--not the +hospitals--but the barracks of the Guards at home. + +What were the changes in organization needed to produce such a +regeneration as this? + +They were such as must appear to Americans very simple and easy. The +wonder will be rather that they were necessary at last than that they +should have been effected with any difficulty. But Americans have never +known what it is to have a standing army as a long-established and +prominent national institution; and they can therefore hardly conceive +of the strength of the class-spirit which grows up in the various +departments of the military organization. This jealousy, egotism, and +stiffness of prejudice were much aggravated by the long peace, in which +a great rusting of the apparatus of the system took place, without at +all impairing the complacency of those who formed a part of it. The old +medical officers were incapable, pedantic, and jealous; and no proper +relation had ever been established between them and the military +authorities. The imbecility of the system cost the lives of others than +the soldiers who died in hospital. Brave men arose, as in all such +crises, to bear the consequences of other men's mistakes, and the burden +of exposing them; and several physicians and surgeons died, far from +home, in the effort to ameliorate a system which they found unworkable. +The greatest benefactor in exhibiting evils and suggesting remedies, Dr. +Alexander, lived to return home, and instigate reforms, and receive the +honors which were his due; but he soon sank under the consequences of +his labors. So did Lord Herbert, the Secretary of War, to whom, in +conjunction with Miss Nightingale, the British army, at home, in India, +and everywhere, owes its redemption from special sickness and undue +mortality. In America the advantages may be enjoyed without tax or +drawback. The citizens are accustomed to organize themselves for action +of all sorts; and no stiff-necked classes stand in the way of good +management. The difficulty in America must rather be to understand how +anything so perverse as the management of British military hospitals ten +years ago can have existed to so late a date. + +It was supposed, ten years since, that there must be nine separate +departments in every Military General Hospital, and the officials +bore titles accordingly; but there was such an odd confusion in their +functions that every one of the nine was often seen doing the business +of some other. The medical officers were drawing corks and tasting wines +and inspecting provisions, when they should have been by the bedside. +The purveyor was counting the soldiers' money, and noting its amount, +when he should have been marketing, or ordering the giving out of the +provisions for the day. The paymaster could scarcely find time to +discharge the bills, so much was his day filled up with doing eternal +sums about the stoppages in the pay of the patients. There were thirteen +kinds of stoppages in the army, three of which were for the sick in +hospital: the paymaster could never be quite certain that he had +reckoned rightly with every man to the last penny; the men were never +satisfied; and the confusion was endless. The commissariat, the +purveyor, and the paymaster were all kept waiting to get their books +made up, while soldiers were working the sums,--being called from their +proper business to help about the daily task of the stoppages. Why there +should not be one uniform stoppage out of the pay of men in hospital no +person of modern ideas could see; and the paymaster's toils would +have been lessened by more than one-half, if he had had to reckon the +deduction from the patients' pay at threepence or fourpence each, all +round, instead of having to deal with thousands per day individually, +under three kinds of charge upon the pay. + +The commandant's post was the hardest,--he being supposed to control +every province, and have every official under his orders, and yet being +powerless in regard to two or three departments, the business of which +he did not understand. The officers of those departments went each his +own way; and all unity of action in the establishment was lost. This is +enough to say of the old methods. + +In the place of them, a far simpler system was proposed at the end of +the war. The eternal dispute as to whether the commandant should be +military or medical, a soldier or a civilian, was set aside by the +decision that he should be simply the ablest administrator that could +be found, and be called the Governor, to avoid the military title. Why +there should be any military management of men who are sick as men, and +not as soldiers, it is difficult to see; and when the patients are about +to leave the hospital, a stated supervision from the adjutant-general's +department is all that can be required. Thus is all the jealousy between +military and medical authority got rid of. The Governor's authority must +be supreme, like that of the commandant of a fortress, or the commander +of a ship. He will not want to meddle in the doctors' professional +business; and in all else he is to be paramount,--being himself +responsible to the War-Office. The office, as thus declared, is +equivalent to three of the nine old ones, namely, the Commandant, the +Adjutant-General, and the Quartermaster-General. + +Next to the Governor, the Chief Medical Officer must be the most +important man in the establishment. He is to be concerned with +professional business only, and to see that all under him are to be +devoted in the same way. For this purpose there must be an end to the +system of requisitions. There must be a Steward, taking his orders from +the Governor alone, and administering a simple and liberal system +of diets and appliances of all sorts. It is his business to provide +everything for the consumption of the establishment, and to keep the +contractors up to their duty. The Treasurer's function speaks for +itself. All the accounts and payments under the Governor's warrant are +in his charge. + +There is one more office, rendered necessary by the various and active +service always going on,--the superintendent of that service, or Captain +of the Wards. He is to have the oversight of the orderlies, cooks, +washers, and storekeepers; he is to keep order throughout the house; and +he is to be referred to in regard to everything that is wanted in the +wards, except what belongs to the department of the medical officers or +the steward. + +As for the medical department, there is now a training provided for such +soldiers as wish to qualify themselves for hospital duty. Formerly, the +hospital was served by such men as the military officers thought fit to +spare for the purpose; and they naturally did not send the best. These +men knew nothing of either cleaning wards or nursing patients. Their +awkwardness in sweeping and scouring and making beds was extreme; and +they were helpless in case of anything being wanted to a blister or a +sore. One was found, one day, earnestly endeavoring to persuade his +patient to eat his poultice. It is otherwise now. The women, where +there are any, ought to have the entire charge of the sweeping and +cleaning,--the housemaid's work of the wards; and as to the rest, the +men of the medical-staff corps have the means of learning how to dress +a blister, and poultice a sore, and apply plasters, lint, and bandages, +and administer medicine, and how to aid the sick in their ablutions, in +getting their meals with the least fatigue, and so on. + +Of female nurses it is not necessary to say much in America, any more +than in England or France. They are not admissible into Regimental +Hospitals, in a general way; but in great military and civil hospitals +they are a priceless treasure. + +The questions in regard to them are two. Shall their office be confined +to the care of the linen and stores, and the supplying of extra diets +and comforts? If admitted to officiate in the wards, how far shall that +function extend? + +In England, there seems to be a strong persuasion that some time must +elapse, and perhaps a generation of doctors must pass away, before the +ministration of female nurses in military hospitals can become a custom, +or even an unquestioned good. No rational person can doubt what a +blessing it would be to the patients to have such nurses administer +nourishment, when the rough orderlies would not have discernment or +patience to give the frequent spoonful when the very life may hang upon +it. Nobody doubts that wounds would be cleansed which otherwise go +uncleansed,--that much irritation and suffering would be relieved which +there are otherwise no hands to undertake. Nobody doubts that many lives +would be saved in every great hospital from the time that fevered frames +and the flickerings of struggling vitality were put under the charge of +the nurses whom Nature made. But the difficulties and risks are great. +On the whole, it seems to be concluded by those who know best, that +only a few female nurses should be admitted into military and naval +hospitals: that they should be women of mature age and ascertained good +sense, thoroughly trained to their business: that they should be +the women who have been, or who would be, the head nurses in other +hospitals, and that they should be paid on that scale: that they should +have no responsibility,--being wholly subject to the surgeons in +ward affairs, and to their own superintendent in all others: that no +enthusiasts or religious devotees should be admitted,--because that very +qualification shows that they do not understand the business of nursing: +that everything that can be as well done by men should be done by +trained orderlies: that convalescents should, generally speaking, be +attended on by men,--and if not, that each female nurse of convalescents +should have a hundred or so in her charge, whereas of the graver cases +forty or fifty are as many as one nurse can manage, with any amount +of help from orderlies. These proposals give some idea of what is +contemplated with regard to the ordinary nurses in a General Military +Hospital. The superintendent of the nurses in each institution must be a +woman of high quality and large experience. And she will show her good +sense, in the first place, by insisting on a precise definition of her +province, that there maybe no avoidable ill-will on the part of the +medical officers, and no cause of contention with the captain of +service, or whatever the administrator of the interior may be called. +She must have a decisive voice in the choice of her nurses; and she +will choose them for their qualifications as nurses only, after being +satisfied as to their character, health, and temper. + +No good nurse can endure any fuss about her work and her merits. +Enthusiasts and devotees find immediately that they are altogether out +of place in a hospital,--or, as we may now say, they would find this, if +they were ever to enter a hospital: for, in fact, they never now arrive +there. The preparation brings them to a knowledge of themselves; and the +two sorts of women who really and permanently become nurses are those +who desire to make a living by a useful and valued and well-paid +occupation, and those who benevolently desire to save life and mitigate +suffering, with such a temper of sobriety and moderation as causes them +to endure hardship and ill-usage with firmness, and to dislike praise +and celebrity at least as much as hostility and evil construction. +The best nurses are foremost in perceiving the absurdity and +disagreeableness of such heroines of romance as flourished in the press +seven years ago,--young ladies disappointed in love, who went out to +the East, found their lovers in hospital, and went off with them, to +be happy ever after, without any anxiety or shame at deserting their +patients in the wards without leave or notice. Not of this order was +Florence Nightingale, whose practical hard work, personal reserve, and +singular administrative power have placed her as high above impeachment +for feminine weaknesses as above the ridicule which commonly attends the +striking out of a new course by man or woman. Those who most honor her, +and most desire to follow her example, are those who most steadily bring +their understandings and their hearts to bear upon the work which +she began. Her ill-health has withdrawn her from active nursing and +administration; but she has probably done more towards the saving of +life by working in connection with the War-Office in private than by her +best-known deeds in her days of health. Through her, mainly, it is that +every nation has already studied with some success the all-important +subject of Health in the Camp and in the Hospital. It now lies in the +way of American women to take up the office, and, we may trust, to +"better the instruction." + + * * * * * + + +A STORY OF THANKSGIVING-TIME. + + +Old Jacob Newell sat despondent beside his sitting-room fire. +Gray-haired and venerable, with a hundred hard lines, telling of the +work of time and struggle and misfortune, furrowing his pale face, he +looked the incarnation of silent sorrow and hopelessness, waiting in +quiet meekness for the advent of the King of Terrors: waiting, but not +hoping, for his coming; without desire to die, but with no dread of +death. + +At a short distance from him, in an ancient straight-backed +rocking-chair, dark with age, and clumsy in its antique carvings, sat +his wife. Stiffly upright, and with an almost painful primness in dress +and figure, she sat knitting rapidly and with closed eyes. Her face was +rigid as a mask; the motion in her fingers, as she plied her needles, +was spasmodic and machine-like; the figure, though quiet, wore an air of +iron repose that was most uneasy and unnatural. Still, through the mask +and from the figure there stole the aspect and air of one who had within +her deep wells of sweetness and love which only strong training or power +of education had thus covered up and obscured. She looked of that stern +Puritanical stock whose iron will conquered the severity of New England +winters and overcame the stubbornness of its granite hills, and whose +idea of a perfect life consisted in the rigorous discharge of all +Christian duties, and the banishment, forever and at all times, of the +levity of pleasure and the folly of amusement. She could have walked, +if need were, with composure to the stake; but she could neither have +joined in a game at cards, nor have entered into a romp with little +children. All this was plainly to be seen in the stern repose of her +countenance and the stiff harshness of her figure. + +Upon the stained deal table, standing a little in the rear and partially +between the two, reposed an open Bible. Between its leaves lay a pair of +large, old-fashioned, silver-bowed spectacles, which the husband had but +recently laid there, after reading the usual daily chapter of Holy Writ. +He had ceased but a moment before, and had laid them down with a heavy +sigh, for his heart to-day was sorely oppressed; and no wonder; for, +following his gaze around the room, we find upon the otherwise bare +walls five sad mementos of those who had "gone before,"--five coarse and +unartistic, but loving tributes to the dead. + +There they hang, framed in black, each with its white tomb and +overhanging willow, and severally inscribed to the memories of Mark, +John, James, Martha, and Mary Newell. All their flock. None left to +honor and obey, none to cheer, none to lighten the labor or soothe the +cares. All gone, and these two left behind to travel hand in hand, but +desolate, though together, to the end of their earthly pilgrimage. + +There had, indeed, been one other, but for him there hung no loving +memorial. He was the youngest of all, and such a noble, strong, and +lusty infant, that the father, in the pride of his heart, and with his +fondness for Scriptural names, had christened him Samson. He, too, had +gone; but in the dread gallery that hung about the room there was no +framed funereal picture "To the Memory of Samson Newell." If in the tomb +of his father's or mother's heart he lay buried, no outward token gave +note thereof. + +So the old couple sat alone before the sitting-room fire. It was not +often used, this room,--scarcely ever now, except upon Sunday, or on +those two grave holidays that the Newells kept,--Thanksgiving- and +Fast-Day. This was Thanksgiving-Day. The snow without was falling thick +and fast. It came in great eddies and white whirls, obscuring the +prospect from the windows and scudding madly around the corners. It lay +in great drifts against the fences, and one large pile before the middle +front-window had gathered volume till it reached half up the second row +of panes; for it had snowed all night and half the day before. The roads +were so blocked by it that they would have been rendered impassable but +for the sturdy efforts of the farmers' boys, who drove teams of four and +five yokes of oxen through the drifts with heavily laden sleds, breaking +out the ways. The sidewalks in the little village were shovelled and +swept clean as fast as the snow fell; for, though all business was +suspended, according to the suggestion in the Governor's proclamation, +and in conformity to old usage, still they liked to keep the paths open +on Thanksgiving-Day,--the paths and the roads; for nearly half the +families in the place expected sons and daughters from far away to +arrive on the train which should have been at the railroad-station on +the previous evening, but had been kept back by the snow. + +But Jacob and Ruth Newell had neither son nor daughter, grandchild, +cousin, relation of any nearness or remoteness, to expect; for the white +snow covered with a cold mantle scores of mounds in many graveyards +where lay their dead. And they sat this day and thought of all their +kindred who had perished untimely,--all save one. + +Whether he lived, or whether he had died,--where he lay buried, if +buried he were,--or where he rioted, if still in the land of the living, +they had no notion. And why should they care? + +He had been a strong-willed and wild lad. He had disobeyed the +injunctions of his parents while yet a boy. He had not loved the stiff, +sad Sabbaths, nor the gloomy Saturday nights. He had rebelled against +the austerities of Fast- and Thanksgiving-Days. He had learned to play +at cards and to roll tenpins with the village boys. He had smoked in the +tavern bar-room of evenings. In vain had his father tried to coerce him +into better ways; in vain had his mother used all the persuasions of +a maternal pride and fondness that showed themselves only, of all her +children, to this brave, handsome, and reckless boy. He had gone from +worse to worse, after the first outbreaking from the strict home rules, +until he had become at length a by-word in the village, and anxious +mothers warned their sons against companionship with wicked Samson +Newell,--and this when he was only seventeen years of age. + +Perhaps mildness might have worked well with the self-willed boy, but +his father knew nothing but stern command and prompt obedience in family +management; and so the son daily fell away, until came the inevitable +day when his wrong-doing reached a climax and he left his father's roof +forever. + +It was on a Thanksgiving-Day, fifteen years ago, that the boy Samson, +then seventeen years old, was brought home drunk and bleeding. He had +passed the previous night at a ball at the tavern, against the express +command of his father, who would have gone to fetch him away, but that +he could not bear to enter upon a scene he thought so wicked, and +especially upon such an errand. When the dance was over, the boy had +lingered at the bar, drinking glass after glass, until he got into a +fight with the bully of the village, whom he thrashed within an inch +of his life, and then he had sat down in a small side-room with a few +choice spirits, with the avowed purpose of getting drunk over his +victory. He had got drunk, "gloriously drunk" his friends at the tavern +styled it, and had been carried in that state home. + +Oh, the bitterness of the misery of that Thanksgiving-Day to Jacob +Newell! He may live a hundred years and never know such another. + +The next day Samson awoke from a wretched stupor to find himself weak, +nervous, and suffering from a blinding headache. In this condition his +father forced him to the barn, and there, with a heavy raw-hide, flogged +him without mercy. That night Samson Newell disappeared, and was +thenceforward seen no more in the village. + +The same night one of the village stores was entered, the door of an +ancient safe wrenched open, and something over a hundred dollars in +specie taken therefrom. So that on Samson Newell's head rested the crime +of filial disobedience, and the suspicion, amounting, with nearly all, +to a certainty, that he had added burglary to his other wrong-doing. + +His name was published in the papers throughout the county, together +with a personal description and the offer of a reward for his arrest and +return. But as he was never brought back nor heard of more, the matter +gradually died away and was forgotten by most in the village; the more +so as, from respect and pity for Jacob Newell, it was scarce ever +mentioned, except privately. + +Eight years elapsed from the time of his flight and supposed crime, when +the fellow he had thrashed at the tavern was arrested, tried, +convicted, and sentenced to death for a murder committed in a midnight +tavern-brawl. In a confession that he made he exonerated Samson Newell +from any participation in or knowledge of the burglary for which his +reputation had so long suffered, stating in what manner he had himself +committed the deed. So the memory of the erring son of Jacob Newell was +relieved from the great shadow that had darkened it. Still he was never +mentioned by father or mother; and seven years more rolled wearily on, +till they sit, to-day, alone and childless, by the flickering November +fire. + +Sore trouble had fallen on them since their youngest son had +disappeared. One by one, the elder children had passed away, each +winter's snow for five years covered a fresh grave, till the new +afflictions that were in store for them scarcely seemed to affect them +otherwise than by cutting yet deeper into the sunken cheeks the deep +lines of sorrow and regret. + +Jacob Newell had been known for years as a "forehanded man" in the rural +neighborhood. His lands were extensive, and he had pursued a liberal +system of cultivation, putting into the soil in rich manures more in +strength than he took from it, until his farm became the model one of +the county, and his profits were large and ever increasing. Particularly +in orchards of choice fruit did he excel his neighbors, and his apples, +pears, and quinces always commanded the best price in the market. So he +amassed wealth, and prospered. + +But, unfortunately, after death had taken away his children, and the +work in the fields was all done by hired hands, the old man became +impatient of the dulness of life, and a spirit of speculation seized +him. Just at that time, railroad-stock was in high favor throughout the +country. Steam-drawn carriages were to do away with all other modes of +public travel, (as, indeed, they generally have done,) and the fortunate +owners of railroad-stock were to grow rich without trouble in a short +time. In particular, a certain line of railroad, to run through the +village where he lived, was to make Jacob Newell and all his neighbors +rich. It would bring a market to their doors, and greatly increase the +value of all they produced; but above all, those who took stock in it +would be insured a large permanent income. Better the twenty and thirty +per cent. that must accrue from this source than to loan spare cash at +six per cent., or invest their surplus in farm improvements. So said +a very fluent and agreeable gentleman from Boston, who addressed the +people on the subject at a "Railroad Meeting" held in the town-hall; +and incautious Jacob Newell (hitherto most prudent throughout his life) +believed. + +Only twenty per cent. was to be paid down; no more, said the circular +issued by the directors, might be required for years; perhaps there +would never be any further call: but that would depend very materially +on how generously the farmers through whose lands the road would pass +should give up claims for land-damages. Jacob Newell needed excitement +of some sort, and it took the form of speculation. He believed in the +railroad, and subscribed for two hundred shares of the stock, for which +he paid four thousand dollars down. He also gave the company the right +of way where the track crossed his farm. + +In six months he was called upon for two thousand dollars more; three +months afterwards another two thousand was wanted; and so it ran till he +was obliged to mortgage his farm, and finally to sell the greater part +of it, to meet his subscription. In vain he begged for mercy, and +pleaded the statement that only twenty per cent. would be needed. A new +set of directors laughed him, and others like him, to scorn. He would +have sold his stock, but he found it quoted at only twenty-five cents on +the dollar, and that price he could not prevail upon himself to take. + +So he sat on this drear Thanksgiving-Day despondent beside his hearth. +With a hundred hard lines furrowing his pale face, telling of the work +of time and struggle and misfortune, he looked the incarnation of silent +sorrow and hopelessness, waiting in quiet meekness for the coming of +Death,--without desire, but without dread. + +It was not strange that on this day there should come into the hearts of +both Jacob and Ruth, his wife, sad and dismal memories. Still his gaze +wandered silently about the room, and she plied unceasingly her stiff, +bright knitting-needles. One would have thought her a figure of stone, +sitting so pale and bolt upright, but for the activity of the patiently +industrious fingers. + +Presently Jacob spoke. + +"Ruth," he said, "it is a bitter time for us, and we are sore oppressed; +but what does the Psalmist say to such poor, worn-out creatures as we +are? 'The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth +in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the +Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet +have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' +Wife, we are not forsaken of the Lord, although all earthly things seem +to go wrong with us." + +She made no verbal reply; but there was a nervous flutter in the poor, +wan fingers, as she still plied the needles, and two large tears rolled +silently down her checks and fell upon the white kerchief she wore over +her shoulders. + +"We have still a house over our heads," continued Jacob, "and +wherewithal to keep ourselves fed and clothed and warmed; we have but a +few years more to live; let us thank God for what blessings He has yet +vouchsafed us." + +She arose without a word, stiff, angular, ungainly, and they knelt +together on the floor. + +Meanwhile the snow fell thicker and faster without, and blew in fierce +clouds against the windows. The wind was rising and gaining power, and +it whistled wrathfully about the house, howling as in bitter mockery at +the scene within. Sometimes it swelled into wild laughter, and again +dropped into low and plaintive wailings. It was very dismal out in the +cold, and hardly more cheerful in the warm sitting-room, where those two +jaded souls knelt in earnest prayer. + + * * * * * + +A railway-train was fast in a snow-bank. There it had stuck, unable +to move either backward or forward, since nine o'clock on Wednesday +evening; it was now Thursday morning, the snow was still falling, and +still seemed likely to fall, blocking up more and more the passage +of the unfortunate train. There were two locomotives, with a huge +snow-plough on the forward one, a baggage and express-car, and four cars +filled with passengers. Two hundred people, all anxious, most of them +grumbling, were detained there prisoners, snow-bound and helpless. It +was a hard case, for they were more than two miles distant--with three +feet depth of snow between--from the nearest house. The nearest village +was five miles away at least. + +It was Thanksgiving-Day, too, and they had almost all of them "lotted" +upon a New-England Thanksgiving-dinner with old friends, brothers, +fathers, mothers, and grandparents. And there they were, without so much +as a ration of crackers and cheese. + +It was noticeable that the women on the train--and there were quite +a number, and most of them with children in their arms or by their +sides--made, as a general rule, less disturbance and confusion than the +men. The children, however, were getting very hungry and noisy by this +Thanksgiving-morning. + +In one of the cars were clustered as fine a family-group as the eye +would desire to rest upon. It consisted of a somewhat large and florid, +but firmly and compactly built man of thirty years or thereabout, +a woman, evidently his wife and apparently some two or three years +younger, and three beautiful children. + +The man was large in frame, without being coarse, with a chest broad and +ample as a gymnast's, and with arms whose muscular power was evident at +every movement. His hair and beard (which latter he wore full, as was +just beginning to be the custom) were dark brown in color, and thick and +strong almost to coarseness in texture; his eye was a clear hazel, full, +quick, and commanding, sometimes almost fierce; while an aquiline nose, +full, round forehead, and a complexion bronzed by long exposure to all +sorts of weather, gave him an aspect to be noted in any throng he might +be thrown into. There was a constant air of pride and determination +about the man, which softened, however, whenever his glance fell upon +wife or children. At such times his face lighted up with a smile of +peculiar beauty and sweetness. + +The woman was of middle size, with fair hair, inclining towards auburn, +blue eyes, and a clear red and white complexion. Her expression was +one of habitual sweetness and good-humor, while a continual half-smile +played about her rosy mouth. She was plump, good-natured, and +cozy,--altogether a most lovable and delicious woman. + +This pair, with their bright-looking children, occupied two seats +near the stove, and were in constant pleasant converse, save when an +occasional anxious and impatient shadow flitted across the face of +the husband and father. On the rack over their heads reposed a small +travelling-bag, which the day before had been filled with luncheon for +the children. Upon its bottom was painted in small white letters the +name, "Samson Newell." + +It was, indeed, the long-lost son, returning on this day to answer, so +much as in him lay, the prayers repeated for fifteen years by his father +and mother,--returning to see his former home once more, and here, +nearly on the threshold, stopped by a snow-storm almost unprecedented at +that season. There was occasional bitterness in his impatience at the +wearying detention, but he controlled it as well as he was able. + +During the night the passengers had been quiet and uncomplaining. Wood +taken from the tenders of the two locomotives in small quantities, and, +when the engineers stopped the supplies in that quarter, rails torn from +neighboring fences and broken up for firewood, kept them warm; but +after the day had dawned, when the little treasures of luncheon were +exhausted, and all began to feel the real pangs of hunger, things +assumed a more serious aspect. Children in all the cars were crying for +breakfast, and even the older passengers began to feel cross and jaded. + +One pleasant fellow, with an apparently inexhaustible flask of whiskey +in his pocket, and good-humor oozing from every pore of his jolly +countenance, passed from car to car, retailing a hundred jokes to every +fresh batch of listeners. But presently the passengers began to tire of +his witticisms, and one after another "poohed" and "pshawed" at him as +he approached. Then with infinite good-nature and philosophy he retired +to one of the saloons and peacefully fell asleep. + +Almost equally amusing was a wizened, bent, and thin old man, draped +from head to foot in coarse butternut-colored homespun, and called "Old +Woollen" by the funny fellow, who walked from car to car bewailing his +hard lot. + +"I've left the old woman to home," he whined, "with all the things on +her hands, an' more 'n fifty of our folks comin' to eat dinner with +us to-day; an' I've got a note of a hundred an' fifty dollars to +pay,--to-morrow's the last day of grace,--an' I've been sixty-five mile +to get the money to pay it. Now look here!" suddenly and sharply to the +Funny Man, "what do _you_ think o' _that_?" + +"Old Woollen," said the Funny Man, with a tremulous voice and tears in +his eyes, "it's a hard case!" + +"So't is! That's a fact! Call an' see us, when you come round our way!" + +And the old gentleman, greatly mollified by the sympathy of his new +friend, moved on to find fresh auditors for his tale of woe. + +It came to be nine o'clock on the morning of Thanksgiving-Day, and still +the snow fell with unabated violence, and still drifts piled higher and +higher about the captive train. The conductor and one of the firemen had +started off on foot at early dawn in search of food for the passengers, +and now there arrived, ploughing nearly breast-high through the snow, a +convoy from one of the nearest farm-houses carefully guarding a valuable +treasure of bread, cheese, bacon, eggs, and pumpkin-pies; but so many +were the mouths to fill that it scarcely gave a bite apiece to the men, +after the women and children had been cared for. + +Then the passengers began to grow clamorous. Even the Funny Man had his +woes, for some rogue entered the saloon where he slept and stole the +whiskey-flask from his pocket. When he awoke and discovered his loss, he +remarked that he knew where there was more of the same sort, and turned +over to sleep again. But all were not so philosophical as he. Some +cursed the railroad company, some cursed the fate that had placed them +there, some cursed their folly in leaving comfortable quarters in order +to fast in the snow on Thanksgiving-Day. + +Presently the impatiently-pulled-out watches showed ten o'clock, and +still it snowed. Then a rumor ran through the train that there were +a couple of barrels of chickens, ready-dressed for market, in the +express-car, and a general rush in that direction followed. One of the +first to hear of it, and one of the first to be on the spot, was Samson +Newell. + +"Stand back, gentlemen," he cried to the foremost of the throng that +poured eagerly into the car,--"stand back a moment. This poultry is in +charge of the express messenger, and we have no right to take it without +his license." + +As he spoke, he placed himself beside the messenger. There was a +determination in his eye and manner that held the crowd back for a short +time. + +"The chickens are mine," the messenger said; "I bought them on +speculation; they will spoil before I can get anywhere with them, and +they are now too late for Thanksgiving. You may have them for what I +gave." + +"I will give five dollars towards paying for them"; and Samson Newell +drew out his pocket-book. + +"Here's a dollar!" "I'll give a half!" "Count me in for two dollars!" +cried the crowd, favorably struck with the notion of paying for their +provender. + +But one hulking fellow, with a large mock diamond in his shirt-front, +and clumsy rings on his coarse and dirty fingers, stepped forward and +said that he was a hungry man, that he had lost money by the---- +company already, waiting a day and a night in that blamed snow-bank, +and that he was going to have a chicken,--or two chickens, if he wanted +them,--and he was decidedly of the opinion that there was no express +messenger on the train who would see the color of _his_ money in the +transaction. + +Samson Newell was evidently a man of few words in a case of emergency. +He paused for only an instant to assure himself that the man was in +earnest, then he slid open one of the side-doors of the express-car, and +stretched forth a hand whose clutch was like the closing of a claw of +steel. He seized the bejewelled stranger by the coat-collar, shook him +for an instant, and dropped him,--dropped him into a soft snow-drift +whose top was level with the car-floor. Whether the unfortunate worked +a subterranean passage to one of the passenger-cars and there buried +himself in the privacy of a saloon is not known; he certainly was not +seen again till after relief came to the imprisoned train. + +There was neither noise nor confusion in the matter of paying for and +dividing the poultry. Samson Newell had already made himself prominent +among the captive travellers. He had eaten nothing himself, that he +might the better provide, so far as his limited provision went, for his +wife and children; he had even gone through the cars with his scanty +luncheon of cakes and apples, and economically fed other people's little +ones, besides administering to the wants of an invalid lady upon the +train, who was journeying alone. He was, therefore, a favorite with all +on board. His action, enforcing payment for the provision that would +very likely, but for him, have been taken by force, caused the +passengers to defer to him as a leader whose strength and courage fitted +him for the post, and so he presided at the distribution of the chickens +without dispute. + +The fuel in the stoves was replenished, and quite a large space was +cleared to the leeward of the locomotive, where a fire was built from +the neighboring fences, so that in an hour's time from the finding of +the poultry the entire body of passengers were busy picking the bones of +roasted and broiled fowls. It was not so bad a dinner! To be sure, it +was rather chilly, now and then, when the opening of a car-door, to +let in a half-frozen gentleman with a half-cooked chicken in his hand, +admitted with him a snow-laden blast from without; and then the viands +were not served _a la Soyer_, but there was an appetite for sauce and a +certain gypsy-like feeling of being at a picnic that served as a relish. +And so, in the year of our Lord 18--, two hundred strangers sat down +together at a most extraordinary Thanksgiving-dinner, of which no +account has hitherto been published, if I except a vote of thanks, +"together with an exceedingly chaste and richly chased silver goblet," +(so the newspaper description read,) which were presented to the +conductor by "the surviving passengers," after he had procured help and +rescued them from their perplexing predicament. + +But dinners end. Twelve o'clock came, and still the snow was falling +thick and fast, and still the white plain about them mounted slowly and +surely towards the skies. Then the passengers became yet more weary and +unhappy. Old Woollen, the unfortunate, detailed his woes to more and +more appreciative audiences. Even the Funny Man--with a fresh flask of +whiskey--sighed almost dismally between frequent uneasy "cat-naps." And +Samson Newell, first seeing his wife comfortably settled, and his little +ones safely disposed about her, strode up and down, from car to car, +with a gloom of disappointment on his face that was almost ferocious. +"Too bad!" he muttered, "too bad! too bad! too bad!" + +One o'clock came, and the snow held up! At first the passengers noticed +that the flakes fell less thickly. Then, gradually and ever slowly +decreasing, they finally ceased falling altogether. The clouds drifted +from before the face of the heavens, and the sun came out. It shone over +a broad surface of glistening snow, with here and there a fence-post +obtruding into notice, but otherwhere a cold, blank expanse of +whiteness. One or two remote farm-houses, with blue smoke rising in +thin, straight columns from their chimneys, a wide stretch of woodland +to the right, distant hills bounding all the prospect,--and everywhere +snow. No fences, no roads, no paths,--but only snow! + +The passengers gazed out of the windows or stood upon the +platforms,--drawn thither by the warmth of the sun,--with feelings +almost akin to despair. Presently it was proposed to make for the +farm-houses, and fifteen of the more adventurous started. A few struggled +through and arrived in something over an hour at the nearest house, +wet to the skin with melted snow, and too much fatigued to think of +returning,--but most of them gave out at the end of the first half-mile, +and came back to the train. + +So the prisoners sat down and whiled away the time as best they might, +in the relation of anecdotes, telling stories, and grumbling. A few +slept, and a large number tried to do so, without success. + +The slow hand of Time, moving more slowly for them than they remembered +it to have ever moved before, crept on to three o'clock, and still there +was no prospect of relief and no incident of note save the arrival +through the snow of a dozen men sent by the conductor. They brought word +that help was approaching from the nearest station where a sufficiently +powerful locomotive could be obtained, and that they would probably be +started on their way during the next forenoon. These messengers also +brought a small supply of provisions and a number of packs of cards, +with the latter of which many of the passengers were soon busy. They now +resigned themselves to another night in the drift. + +But at half after three occurred an incident that restored hope of a +more speedy deliverance to a few of the captives. + +Through the low pine-lands to the right ran a road which was very +thoroughly protected from drifting snow by the overhanging trees, and +along this road there now appeared two pair of oxen. In front of the +oxen were five men armed with wooden snow-shovels, with which they beat +down and scattered the snow. Behind all was a small, square box on +runners. It was very small and contained only one board seat. Three +persons could sit and three stand in it: no more. + +Upon the appearance of this squad of road-breakers with their team, +three hearty cheers went up from the train. They were immediately +answered by the approach of the apparent leader of the expedition. He +was a small, active, spare old fellow, so incrusted with frozen snow, +which hung all over him in tiny white pellets, as to resemble more an +active, but rather diminutive white bear, than anything else known to +Natural History. He scrambled and puffed through the snow till he found +a mounting-place upon an unseen fence, when he arose two or three feet +above the surrounding surface, and spoke,-- + +"There's five on us, an' two yoke." + +A pause. + +"Two yoke yender, an' five on us." + +"Well! supposing there is?" from the train. + +"Five mile to town," continued the White Bear, "an' been sence nine this +mornin' gittin' here. Five times five is twenty-five, but, seein' it's +you, I'll call it twelve 'n' 'arf." + +"Call _what_ 'twelve 'n' 'arf,' Sheep-Shanks?" from the train. + +"_That_ man don't ride, nohow! I've marked _him_! I don't cal'late to +take no sarse _this_ trip! Take any six or eight for twelve dollars an' +fifty cents right straight to the tahvern! Who bids?" + +"I'll give you fifteen dollars, my friend, to take myself, my wife, and +three children to the village." + +It was Samson Newell who spoke. + +"'M offered fifteen," cried the White Bear, pricking up his ears; "goin' +to the tahvern at fifteen; who says fifteen 'n' arf?" + +"I do!" from a pursy passenger with a double chin and a heavy fob-chain. + +He glanced round a little savagely, having made his bid, as who should +say, "And I should like to see the man who will raise it!" + +"'N' 'arf! 'n' 'arf! 'n' 'arf! 'n' 'arf!" cried the White Bear, growing +much excited,--"an' who says sixteen?" + +Samson Newell nodded. + +"Sixteen dollars! sixteen! sixteen! We can't tarry, gentlemen!" + +The White Bear proved the truth of this latter assertion by suddenly +disappearing beneath the snow. He reappeared in an instant and resumed +his outcry. + +"I see the gentleman's sixteen," quoth the man who had called the White +Bear "Sheep-Shanks," "and go fifty cents better!" + +"I see _you_," replied the auctioneer, "an' don't take your bid! Who +says sixteen 'n' 'arf?" + +"I do!" quoth the Double Chin; and he glowered upon his +fellow-passengers wrathfully. + +At this instant appeared Old Woollen on the scene. In one hand he bore +his pocket-book; in the other, a paper covered with calculations. The +latter he studied intently for a moment, then,-- + +"I'll give you sixteen dollars an' sixty-two 'n' a half cents; an' if +you ever come round our way"-- + +The jubilant auctioneer, fairly dancing upon the fence in the energy of +his delight, broke in here,-- + +"Can't take no bids, gentlemen, short of a half-dollar rise, each time!" + +Old Woollen retired, discomfited, and was seen no more. + +From this point the bidding ran up rapidly till it reached twenty-five +dollars, where it stopped, Samson Newell being the successful bidder. + +It was a study to watch the man, now that his chance for reaching home +that day brightened. Instead of being elate, his spirits seemed to fall +as he made his arrival at the village certain. + +"Ah!" he thought, "are my father and mother yet living? How will my +brothers and sisters welcome me home?" + +How, indeed? + + * * * * * + +In the village where dwelt Jacob Newell and his wife, an old man, lame +and totally blind, had been for over thirty years employed by the town +to ring the meetinghouse-bell at noon, and at nine o'clock in the +evening. For this service, the salary fixed generations before was five +dollars, and summer and winter, rain or shine, he was always at his post +at the instant. + +When the old man rang the evening-bell on the Thanksgiving-Day whereof I +write, he aroused Jacob and his wife from deep reverie. + +"Oh, Jacob!" said the latter, "such a waking dream as I have had! I +thought they all stood before me,--all,--every one,--none missing! And +they were little children again, and had come to say their prayers +before going to bed! They were all there, and I could not drive it from +my heart that I loved Samson best!" + +His name had hardly been mentioned between them for fifteen years. + +Jacob Newell, with a strange look, as though he were gazing at some +dimly defined object afar off, slowly spoke,-- + +"I have thought sometimes that I should like to know where he lies, if +he is dead,--or how he lives, if he be living. Shall we meet him? Shall +we meet him? Five goodly spirits await us in heaven; will _he_ be there, +also? Oh, no! he was a bad, bad, bad son, and he broke his father's +heart!" + +"He was a bad son, Jacob, giddy and light-headed, but not wholly bad. +Oh, he was so strong, so handsome, so bright and brave! If he is living, +I pray God that he may come back to see us for a little, before we +follow our other lost ones!" + +"If he should come back," said Jacob, turning very white, but speaking +clearly and distinctly, "I would drive him from my door, and tell him +to be gone forever! A wine-bibber, dissolute, passionate, headstrong, +having no reverence for God or man, no love for his mother, no sense +of duty towards his father; I have disowned him, once and forever, and +utterly cast him out! Let him beware and not come back to tempt me to +curse him!" + +Still from the distance, overpowering and drowning the headlong rush of +passion, came the soft booming of the evening-bell. + +"I hear the church-bell, Jacob: we have not long to hear it. Let us not +die cursing our son in our hearts. God gave him to us; and if Satan led +him astray, we know not how strong the temptation may have been, nor how +he may have fought against it." + +Jacob Newell had nought to say in answer to this, but, from the passion +in his heart, and from that egotism that many good men have whose +religious education has taught them to make their personal godliness a +matter to vaunt over, he spoke, foolishly and little to the point,-- + +"Ruth, did Satan ever lead _me_ astray?" + +"God knows!" she replied. + +There came a rap at the door. + +The melody of the church-bell was fast dying away. The last cadences of +sound, the last quiver in the air, when the ringer had ceased to ring +and the hammer struck the bell no more, lingered still, as a timid and +uncertain tapping fell upon the door. + +"Come in!" said Jacob Newell. + +The door was slowly opened. + +Then there stood within it a tall, muscular man, a stranger in those +parts, with a ruddy face, and a full, brown beard. He stood grasping +the door with all his might, and leaning against it as for support. +Meanwhile his gaze wandered about the room with a strange anxiety, as +though it sought in vain for what should assuredly have been found +there. + +"Good evening, Sir," said Jacob Newell. + +The stranger made no reply, but still stood clinging to the door, with a +strange and horrible expression of mingled wonder and awe in his face. + +"'Tis a lunatic!" whispered Ruth to her husband. + +"Sir," said Jacob, "what do you want here to-night?" + +The stranger found voice at length, but it was weak and timorous as that +of a frightened child. + +"We were on the train, my wife and I, with our three little ones,--on +the train snowed in five miles back,--and we ask, if you will give it, +a night's lodging, it being necessary that we should reach home without +paying for our keeping at the hotel. My wife and children are outside +the door, and nearly frozen, I assure you." + +Then Ruth's warm heart showed itself. + +"Come in," she said. "Keep you?--of course we can. Come in and warm +yourselves." + +A sweet woman, with one child in her arms, and two shivering beside her, +glided by the man into the room. They were immediately the recipients of +the good old lady's hospitality; she dragged them at once, one and all, +to the warmest spot beside the hearth. + +Still the man stood, aimless and uncertain, clutching the door and +swaying to and fro. + +"Why do you stand there at the door? Why not come in?" said Jacob +Newell. "You must be cold and hungry. Ruth--that's my wife, Sir--will +get you and your family some supper." + +Then the man came in and walked with an unsteady step to a chair placed +for him near the fire. After he had seated himself he shook like one in +an ague-fit. + +"I fear you are cold," said Ruth. + +"Oh, no!" he said. + +His voice struggled to his lips with difficulty and came forth +painfully. + +The old lady went to a corner cupboard, and, after a moment's search, +brought forth a black bottle, from which she poured something into a +glass. It smelt like Jamaica rum. With this she advanced towards the +stranger, but she was bluntly stopped by Jacob,-- + +"I am afraid the gentleman has had too much of that already!" + +For an instant, like a red flash of lightning, a flush of anger passed +across his features before the stranger meekly made answer that he had +tasted no liquor that day. Ruth handed him the glass and he drained it +at a gulp. In a moment more he sat quietly upright and proceeded gravely +to divest himself of his heavy shawl and overcoat, after which he +assisted in warming and comforting the children, who were growing sleepy +and cross. + +Ruth bustled about with her preparations for giving the strangers a +comfortable supper, and Jacob and his unexpected guest entered into +conversation. + +"I used to be acquainted hereabout," the stranger began, "and I feel +almost like getting among friends, whenever I visit the place. I rode +over with old Gus Parker to-day, from where the train lies bedded near +the five-mile cut, but I was too busy keeping the children warm to ask +him any questions. I came here because your son Mark Newell and I were +old cronies at school together. I--I don't see him here to-night,"--the +stranger's voice trembled now,--"where is he?" + +"Where we must all follow him, sooner or later,--in the grave!" + +"But he had brothers,--I've heard him say," the stranger +continued,--with an anxiety in his tone that he could by no means +conceal; "I believe he had--let me see--three brothers and two sisters. +Where are _they_?" + +"All gone!" cried Jacob Newell, rising and pacing the room. Then +suddenly facing his singular guest, he continued, speaking rapidly and +bitterly, "You have three children,--I had six! Yours are alive and +hearty; but so were mine; and when I was a young man, like you, I +foolishly thought that I should raise them all, have them clustering +around me in my old age, die before any of them, and so know no +bereavements! To-day I stand here a solitary old man, sinking rapidly +into the grave, and without a relation of any kind, that I know of, on +the face of the earth! Think that such a fate may yet be yours! But the +bitterness of life you will not fully know, unless one of your boys--as +one of mine did--turns out profligate and drunken, leaves your fireside +to associate with the dissolute, and finally deserts his home and all, +forever!" + +"If that son of yours be yet alive, and were ever to return,--suddenly +and without warning, as I have broken in upon you to-night,--if he +should come to you and say, 'Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and +before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son!' what should +you say to him?" + +"I should say, 'For fifteen years you have deserted me without giving +mark or token that you were in the body; now you have come to see me +die, and you may stay to bury me!' I should say that, I think, though +I swore to Ruth but now that I would curse him, if ever he +returned,--curse him and drive him from my door!" + +"But if he came back penitent indeed for past follies and offences, and +only anxious to do well in the future,--if your son should come in that +way, convincing you with tears of his sincerity, you surely would be +more gentle to him than that! You would put away wrath, would you not? I +ask you," the stranger continued, with emotion, "because I find myself +in the position we suppose your son to be placed in. I am going home +after an absence of years, during all which time I have held no +communication with my family. I have sojourned in foreign lands, and now +I come to make my father and my mother happy, if it be not too late for +that! I come half hoping and half fearing; tell me what I am to expect? +Place yourself in my father's position and read me my fate!" + +While he spoke, his wife, sitting silent by the fire, bent low over the +child she held, and a few quiet tears fell upon the little one's frock. + +Ruth Newell, moving back and forth, in the preparation of the stranger's +supper, wore an unquiet and troubled aspect, while the old farmer +himself was agitated in a manner painful to see. It was some seconds +before he broke the silence. When he spoke, his voice was thick and +husky. + +"If I had a son like you,--if those little children were my +grandchildren,--if the sweet lady there was my son's wife,--ah, +then!----But it is too late! Why do you come here to put turbulent, +raging regrets into my heart, that but for you would be beating calmly +as it did yesterday, and the day before, and has for years? Ah! if my +son were indeed here! If Samson were indeed here!" + +The stranger half arose, as though to spring forward, then sank back +into his seat again. + +But the little child sitting in her mother's lap by the fire clapped her +hands and laughed a childish, happy laugh. + +"What pleases my little girl?" asked the mother. + +"Why, '_Samson_'" the child said,--"_that's what you call papa!_" + +Then Ruth, who stood by the table with a pitcher of water in her +hand, staggered backwards like one stricken a violent and sudden +blow!--staggered backwards, dropping the pitcher with a heavy crash as +she retreated, and crossing her hands upon her bosom with quick, short +catchings of the breath! Then crying, "My son! my son!" she threw +herself, with one long, long sob, upon the stranger's neck! + + * * * * * + +The story is told. What lay in his power was done by the returned +prodigal, who did not come back empty-handed to the paternal roof. His +wife and children fostered and petted the old people, till, after the +passage of two or three more Thanksgiving-Days, they became as cheerful +as of old, and they are now considered one of the happiest couples in +the county. Do not, on that account, O too easily influenced youth, +think that happiness for one's self and others is usually secured by +dissolute habits in early life, or by running away from home. Half the +occupants of our jails and alms-houses can tell you to the contrary. + + * * * * * + + +SONG IN A DREAM. + + + Winter rose-leaves, silver-white, + Drifting o'er our darling's bed,-- + He's asleep, withdrawn from sight,-- + All his little prayers are said, + And he droops his shining head. + + Winter rose-leaves, falling still, + Go and waken his sad eyes, + Touch his pillowed rest, until + He shall start with glad surprise, + And from slumber sweet arise! + + * * * * * + + +ENGLAND AND EMANCIPATION. + + +In the British House of Commons, some eighty years ago, two newly chosen +members took their places, each of whom afterwards became distinguished +in the history of that body. They had become acquainted at the +University of Cambridge, were strongly united by friendship, and had +each, on attaining to manhood, formed the deliberate purpose of entering +public life. Of these two, one was William Pitt, the other was William +Wilberforce. + +Neither of these members of Parliament had at this time passed the age +of twenty-one, and the latter was of extremely youthful appearance. +Small of stature and slight in frame, his delicate aspect was redeemed +from effeminacy by a head of classic contour, a penetrating and +melodious voice, an address which always won attention. His superior +social endowments were fully recognized by the companions of his +leisure; nor was his influence lessened by the fact, that by the death +of his father and uncle he had become the only male representative of +his family and the master of a goodly inheritance. He paid from the +first close attention to the business of the House, and, though by +no means anxious to be heard, showed, that, when called out by any +occasion, he was fully competent to meet it. Representing his native +city of Hull, his first public speech was on a topic immediately +connected with her interests. + +The brilliant career of Mr. Pitt commenced, as the reader knows, in +early life. Passing by the mental exploits of his boyhood, we meet him +at his entrance upon the public service. He had no sooner become a +member of the House of Commons than it began to be remarked that in him +appeared to be reproduced those same qualities of statesmanship which +had marked his illustrious father, Lord Chatham. Such powers, evinced +by one who was but just stepping upon the stage of public life, first +excited surprise, which was quickly followed by admiration. That +strength of thought and keenness of analysis, which, seizing upon a +subject, bring out at once its real elements of importance, and present +them in their practical bearings, deducing the course dictated by a wise +policy, had hitherto been regarded, by those who found themselves the +willing auditors of a youth, as the ripened fruits of experience alone. + +England was at this time at war not only with her American colonies, but +with France, Spain, and Holland. Weakened by these prolonged conflicts, +her finances drained, her huge debt increasing every day, her condition +called loudly for a change of policy. The cause of American Independence +was not without its advocates in the House, and among these Mr. Pitt +was soon found, uttering his sentiments without reserve. Probably no +individual of that body exerted a stronger influence than he in securing +for this country the full recognition of her rights. Of the manner in +which he was accustomed to treat of the American War, here is a single +specimen. After speaking of it as "conceived in injustice, brought forth +and nurtured in folly," and continually draining the country of its +vital resources of men and treasure, he proceeds:-- + +"And what had the British nation gained in return? Nothing but a series +of ineffective victories and severe defeats,--victories celebrated only +by a temporary triumph over our brethren, whom we were endeavoring to +trample down and destroy,--which filled the land with mourning for +dear and valuable relatives slain in the vain attempt to enforce +unconditional submission, or with narratives of the glorious exertions +of men struggling under every difficulty and disadvantage in the sacred +cause of liberty. Where was the Englishman, who, on reading the accounts +of these sanguinary and well-fought battles, could refrain from +lamenting the loss of so much British blood spilled in such a contest, +or from weeping, whichever side victory might be declared?" + +It was not unusual for Mr. Pitt, when he addressed the House on a topic +of sufficient magnitude to call forth his powers, to be followed +by plaudits so loud and long-continued that the next speaker found +difficulty in securing quiet in order to be heard. While in the youth +was recognized the sagacity of the late Lord Chatham, it was declared +that the eloquence of the father was exceeded by that of the son. Signal +services to the country were augured, even by his opponents, from one of +such extraordinary abilities and manifest integrity of purpose. He began +to be looked upon as capable of holding the highest trusts, fitted for +the gravest responsibilities. Hardly can history furnish a parallel to +the case of so young a person solicited by his sovereign to take the +lead of his administration, and declining the honor. Yet such, in this +instance, was the fact. + +A change in the Ministry having become necessary, it was proposed that +Mr. Pitt should be appointed First Lord of the Treasury in the place of +Lord Shelburne. That this appointment should be made was known to be +expressly desired by the King. The friends of the young statesman were +delighted. They advised by all means that the offer should at once be +accepted. But, undazzled by his own unprecedented success, he weighed +the matter coolly and deliberately. + +That Mr. Pitt had a due sense of his own powers is evident. Early in his +political life he had expressed his unwillingness to hold office under +circumstances where he must execute measures which had originated in +other minds rather than his own. As this was declining beforehand all +subordinate office, an excessive modesty could hardly have been the +cause of his backwardness at this juncture. It must be sought elsewhere. +It is found in the opinion which he entertained that the Ministry now +about to be formed could never be an efficient one. The union which had +recently taken place between parties whose political enmity had +been extreme indicated to him an equally extreme opposition to the +Government. The coalition between Lord North and Mr. Fox would, he +anticipated, be the occasion of such a tide of hostility in the House of +Commons as he was too wary to be willing to stem. + +It was argued that he was needed; that an exigency had arisen which no +one but himself could adequately meet; the country, in her adverse hour, +must have his services; the King desired them, solicited them. With a +remarkable degree of reticence he declined all these overtures, and in +a letter addressed to his sovereign gave a most respectful, but decided +negative. + +Yet fame still followed him, and honor and office still claimed him +as their rightful recipient. With the lapse of time came changes, and +public affairs presented themselves in new and unexpected aspects. The +vast empire of the East loomed up before the vision of statesmen and +legislators in hitherto unimagined splendors, and with claims +upon attention which could not be set aside. At the India House +considerations of momentous interest had arisen. Mr. Pitt entered deeply +into these affairs, connected as they were with the onward progress of +British rule in Hindostan. A crisis occurred at this time, in which, +having the power, he could serve his country with manifest advantage to +her interests. At this juncture the offer of the King was renewed. It +came now just at the right time, and the young statesman was found as +ready to accept as he had before been prompt to decline. Mr. Pitt became +the Prime-Minister of George III., and henceforth his history is blended +with the movements of the Government. + +Mr. Wilberforce had also at this time taken a strong hold upon public +life. His energies were enlisted in favor of the Governmental party, +of which Mr. Pitt had become the leader. Returning from a journey into +France, which they had made together, these two friends entered +upon their respective duties. With regard to the question at issue, +Yorkshire, the largest county in England, had not yet defined her +position with a sufficient degree of distinctness. Here Mr. Wilberforce +possessed landed estates, and here he was prepared to uphold the +consistency and integrity of the Administration. That peculiar +persuasive power, that silver-toned eloquence, which in after years won +for him so much influence in the House of Commons, here perhaps for the +first time found full play and triumphant success. His power over the +minds of men certainly was brought to a rigorous test. + +It was on a chilly day, amid falling hail, that he addressed a crowd of +people in the castle-yard at York. They had listened already to several +speakers, were weary, and about to separate, when Mr. Wilberforce +appeared on the stand and began to speak. Silence was at once secured, +and so perfectly were they swayed by his words that all signs +of opposition or impatience disappeared. For more than an hour, +notwithstanding unfavorable circumstances, he held their attention, +winning them to harmony with his own political views. This was not all. +Before the assembly dispersed, it was whispered from one to another, "We +must have this man for our county member." The election of a member for +Yorkshire was nigh at hand, and when its results were made known, he +found himself in the influential position of "a representative of the +tenth part of England." + +To this same member for Yorkshire, in conjunction with the +Prime-Minister of England, we are indebted for the first Parliamentary +agitation of a topic which has since been fruitful enough in discussion, +--AFRICAN SLAVERY. + +The introduction of this subject into Parliament, during the +administration of Pitt, was by no means the fruit of a sudden impulse, +but was rather the matured expression of a series of preliminary +efforts. In private circles, the Slave-Trade had been already denounced +and protested against, as unworthy of a civilized, not to say a +Christian people. In certain quarters, too, the press had become the +exponent of these sentiments. Possibly, in their beginnings, no person +did more in the exertion of those means which have wrought into the +heart of the English people such undying hatred to Negro Slavery than +the amiable recluse whose writings can never die so long as lovers of +poetry continue to live. Who has not at times turned away from the +best-loved of the living poets, to regale himself with the compact, +polished, sweetly ringing numbers of Cowper? On the subject of Slavery +he had already given expression to his thoughts in language which at the +present day, in certain portions of the United States, must subject his +works to a strict expurgatorial process. He had exposed to the world the +injustice of the system, and had thrown around his words the magic of +song. + +It would not, of course, be possible to proceed in these reminiscences +without coming at once upon the names of Granville Sharp and Thomas +Clarkson. The clerk who became a law-student, that he might be qualified +to substantiate the truth that a slave could not exist on British +soil, the Cambridge graduate, awakened by the preparation of his own +prize-essay to a sympathy with the slave, which never, during a long +life, flagged for an hour, need not be eulogized to-day. The latter of +these gentlemen repeatedly visited Mr. Wilberforce and conferred with +him upon this subject, imparting to him the fruit of his own careful and +minute investigations. These consisted of certain well-authenticated +items of information and documentary evidence concerning the trade and +the cruelties growing out of it. The public efforts which followed, +though hardly originated by these conferences, were probably hastened +by them. Nor should it be forgotten that a small knot of individuals, +mostly Quakers, had associated themselves under the name of "The London +Committee." This, if not an anti-slavery society, was the nucleus of +what afterwards became one. These hitherto unrecognized efforts were +about to receive fresh encouragement and acquire new efficiency. The +influences which had worked in silence and among a few were about to be +brought out to the light. + +It was on the 5th of May, 1788, that a motion was introduced into the +House of Commons having for its object the abolition of the Slave-Trade. +It was brought forward by Mr. Pitt. He intended to secure its discussion +early in the next session. Mr. Wilberforce, he hoped, would then be +present, whose seat was now vacant by reason of severe illness. He had +been, indeed, at one time, given over by his physicians, but had been +assured by Mr. Pitt, that, even in case of a fatal result of his +disease, the cause of African freedom should not die. + +The idea of possible legislation on this subject was no sooner broached +than it was at once taken up and found able advocates. Here Pitt and Fox +were of one mind, and were supported by the veteran advocate for justice +and right, Edmund Burke. The latter had some years before attempted to +call attention to this very subject. Certain Bristol merchants, +his wealthy constituents, had thus been grievously offended at the +aberrations of the representative of their city. As early as 1780 he had +drawn up an elaborate "Negro Code," of which it may be said, that, had +some of its regulations been heeded, at least one leaf in the world's +history would have presented a different reading from that which it now +bears. Mr. Burke was at this time in the decline of life, and was well +pleased that other and younger advocates were enlisted in the same great +cause. + +A bill was brought forward at this session, by one of the friends of the +cause, Sir W. Dolben, for lessening immediately the cruelties of the +trade. It will be remembered that up to this time slave-ships had sailed +up the Thames all unmolested, were accustomed to fit out for their +voyages, and, having disposed of their cargoes, to return. A vessel of +this description had arrived at the port of London. The subject of the +traffic having become invested with interest, a portion of the members +of the House paid a visit to the ill-starred craft. The deplorably +narrow quarters where hundreds of human beings were to be stowed away +during the weeks that might be necessary to make their passage produced +upon the minds of these gentlemen a most unfavorable impression. The +various insignia of the trade did not tend to lessen this, but rather +changed disgust into horror. Something must be done for the reformation +of these abuses, and that immediately. The bill for regulating the trade +passed both Houses, notwithstanding a vigorous opposition, and became +a law. By the provisions of this bill the trade was so restricted that +owners and officers of vessels were forbidden by law to receive such +excessive cargoes as they had hitherto done. The number of slaves should +henceforth be limited and regulated by the tonnage of the ship. This was +something gained. But the anti-slavery party, though in its infancy, had +already begun to show the features of its maturer days. Its strenuous +and uncompromising nature began to manifest itself. The law for +regulating the trade displeased the members who sought its abolition. +They were, however, pacified by the assurance that this was by no means +regarded as a remedy for the evil, but simply as a check upon its +outrages. + +In the spring of the following year, in pursuance of Mr. Pitt's motion, +the subject was again brought forward. Mr. Wilberforce was now ready for +the occasion, and on the 12th of May, 1789, in a speech of three hours +and a half, he held the attention of the House, while he unfolded the +African Slave-Trade in its several points of view,--its nature, being +founded in injustice, its cruelties, the terrible mortality of the +slave-ship, the demoralizing influence of the trade upon British +sailors, and the astonishing waste of life among them, as well as among +the captive negroes. + +The speech was declared to be one of the ablest ever delivered before +the House. The speaker was also well sustained by Pitt and Fox. Mr. +Burke said of this performance,--"The House, the nation, and Europe are +under great and serious obligations to the honorable gentleman, for +having brought forward the subject in a manner the most masterly, +impressive, and eloquent." "It was," said Bishop Porteus, who was +present, "a glorious night for this country." + +The subject was now fairly afloat. The anti-slavery agitation had sprung +to a vigorous life. The "irrepressible conflict" was begun. Nor can it +be denied that its beginning was highly respectable. If there be any +good in elevated social rank joined to distinguished ability, if there +be any advantage in the favor of honorable and right-minded men, any +dignity in British halls of legislation, the advocate of anti-slavery +doctrines may claim alliance with them all. + +One inevitable effect of the interest thus awakened was to render those +enlisted in favor of the trade aware of their position, and alert to +prevent any interference on the part of the Government. The alarm +spread. The merchants of Liverpool and Bristol must maintain their +ground. In various quarters were set forth the advantages of the trade. +It was no injustice to the negro, but rather a benefit. The trader was +no robber or oppressor; he was a benefactor, in that by his means the +native African was taken from a heathen land and brought to live among +Christians. At home, he was the victim of savage warfare; by the +slave-ship his life was prolonged and his salvation rendered possible. + +Witnesses on both sides were now summoned for examination before +Parliamentary committees. The premises from which conclusions had been +drawn must be thoroughly sifted. The evidence collected was manifold; +to dispose of it required time, and with time the opponents of the +Abolition Bill gathered strength. The next year and the following +its advocates still maintained its claims. The third year of its +presentation opened with high hopes of its success. Its friends had +increased in number, and so marked was the inferiority of their +opponents in talents and influence, at this time, that the contest was +known as "The War of the Pigmies against the Giants." But the pigmies, +being numerous, gained the vote, and it only remained for the giants to +return with renewed vigor to the contest in the following year. + +In 1792 the debate began with spirit. During this discussion Mr. Pitt +was most prominent. The great subject of the Resources of Africa had +recently engaged his attention. This subject, then an almost untried +theme, seems not unlikely in our day to take precedence of all others +in connection with the fate of the negro. It has been argued, and that +wisely, that only by strengthening the African at home can he ever be +respected abroad. In the productions of his native soil lie materials +for trade vastly better than the buying and selling of men, women, and +children. The fomenting of wars, whereby captives may be secured, +may well be superseded by the culture of the coffee-tree and the +cotton-plant. + +Mr. Clarkson, who left no effort untried which might in any manner +promote the interests of the cause, regarded as one important means +to this end the diffusion of knowledge concerning that unknown and +mysterious region. He had therefore procured from Africa specimens of +some of the actual products of the country, to which he called the +attention of the Premier. The specimens of ivory and gold, of ebony and +mahogany, of valuable gums and cotton cloth, awoke a new vein of thought +in the mind of the statesman. The resources of such a country should be +brought into use for her own benefit and for the promotion of commerce. +When his turn came to address the House, he presented this view, +pursuing it at some length, and attacking on this ground the trade in +slaves. That exuberant imagination which he was accustomed to rein in, +yet which well knew how to sport itself in its own airy realm, was +here suffered to take wing. He pictured to his enraptured audience the +civilization and glory of Africa, when, in coming years, delivered +from the curse of the Slave-Trade, she should take her place among the +nations. + +Wilberforce, in writing to one of his friends concerning this speech, +after mentioning the admiration expressed by one who was no friend to +Pitt, adds,--"For the last twenty minutes he seemed really inspired." + +A bill was introduced at this time for putting an end to the whole +business in a certain number of years. The year 1800 was named as the +extreme limit of the continuance of the traffic, that department of it +by which British vessels supplied foreign nations being abandoned at +once. + +The bill for gradual abolition displeased those who were most deeply +interested in the matter. The clear-headed sagacity of Pitt, the +patriotism of Fox, and the moral sense of Wilberforce led them to the +expression of the same view. There could be no compromise between right +and wrong; that which required redress some years hence required it now. +It was, moreover, they were certain, in some minds only a pretext for +delay, as the event proved. + +If the advocates of the discontinuance of the Slave-Trade had in the +beginning anticipated an easy victory, they had before this become +convinced of their mistake. The prospect, which had looked bright +and hopeful, pointing to a happy consummation, after a period of +encouragement again grew dark and doubtful. Instead of a speedy +adjustment, they found themselves involved in a long contest. Opponents +increased in strength and activity. Wars and convulsions, rending the +nations of Europe, engrossed the thoughts of public men. As years passed +on, the Abolition Bill became a sort of fixture. It grew into a saying, +that "only the eloquence of Pitt and Wilberforce" made the House willing +to endure its mention at all. The amount of documentary evidence became +formidable in quantity and tedious in detail. For collecting this +evidence Mr. Clarkson had now the most ample means, in the persons of +those who, whether as sailors, soldiers, or scientific men, had become +acquainted with Western Africa. In the work of reducing these masses of +facts to a system, making them available for purposes of public debate, +a most efficient aid was found in Mr. Zachary Macaulay. The father of +the celebrated historian was most unrelaxing in his zeal for Abolition, +and, possessing a memory of singular tenacity, he came to be +regarded, in this peculiar department of knowledge, as a very perfect +encyclopedia. Nor, in mentioning the advocates of the suppression of the +monster evil, should we ever forget one who to an overflowing goodness +of heart added an inimitable richness and delicacy of humor,--James +Stephen. His influence in Parliament was always given in favor of +Abolition, and he was also the author of several able pamphlets on the +subject. He had been at one period of his life a resident in the West +India Colonies, and the hatred of the slave-system which he there +imbibed remained unchanged through life. + +While, as has been seen, these labors were becoming complicated and +arduous, the opposition was growing not only strong, but violent. +Anti-slavery petitions, intended for presentation in Parliament, must be +sent in strong boxes, addressed, not to the leaders of the cause, but +to private persons, lest they should be opened and their contents +destroyed. Mr. Wilberforce is requested, when writing to a friend +in Liverpool, not to frank his own letter, lest it should never be +received. Correspondence on this subject must be carried on anonymously, +and addressed to persons not known to be interested. This was not the +worst. To random words of defiant opposition were added threats +of personal violence. For a space of two years the friends of Mr. +Wilberforce were annoyed by a desperate man who had declared that he +would take the life of the Yorkshire member. But, to do justice to the +advocates of the trade, there was one form of violence which they appear +never to have contemplated:--secession. The injured slave-merchants of +that time never thought of conspiring against the government under which +they lived. That was reserved for a later day. + +Yet, while appearances were so dark, the cause was actually gaining +ground. The moral sense of the nation was becoming aroused. The +scattered sympathies of the religious classes were concentrating. +Already public sentiment in certain quarters was outgrowing the +movements of Parliament, and the impatient friends of the negro declared +that the leaders of the cause had given up! + +In rebutting this charge, Mr. Wilberforce took high ground. He declared +that for himself his aim in this thing was the service of God, and, that +having committed himself to this enterprise, he was not at liberty to go +back. Believing that these efforts on behalf of an injured people were +in accordance with the will of the Almighty, he expressed himself +confident that the divine attributes were enlisted in the work and sure +of the ultimate success of the cause. Of his sincerity and honesty in +this matter we need not speak. By common consent he takes place among +those who in this world have been permitted to illustrate on an extended +scale the power and beauty of the Christian life. As a reformer of the +abuses of society he is often cited as a model, uniting to a singular +purity and sweetness of spirit an immovable firmness of will. To these +blended and diverse qualities was owing, in a great measure, the final +success of the long-contested Abolition Bill. Seldom, indeed, has the +patience of an advocate been put to a severer test than during the +protracted period that the bill for the suppression of the Slave-Trade +was before the House. To push it forward when there was an opening, +and to withdraw when effort was useless or worse than useless, was the +course pursued for a series of years. The subject, meanwhile, was never +lost sight of; when nothing more could be done, the House were reminded +that it was still in reserve. + +Early in the present century a favorable conjuncture of events led to +vigorous efforts for the attainment of the long desired object. The +antagonistic policy was now rather to hinder the progress of the +Abolition Bill than to oppose the ultimate extinction of the trade. Of +the supporters of this policy it was remarked by Mr. Pitt, that "they +who wished to protract the season of conflict, whatever might be their +professions, really wished to uphold the system." + +Notwithstanding certain covert efforts on the part of the opposition, +the prospect gradually brightened. Several new and influential members +were added to the London Society,--among them Henry Brougham. The Irish +members, who, in consequence of the completed union with England, took +their seats in Parliament, were almost to a man in favor of Abolition. +In 1805 success seemed about to be obtained. But before the final +passage of the Abolition Bill came sorrow of heart to its friends. Mr. +Pitt, having run a political career whose unexampled brilliancy and +usefulness had well fulfilled his early promise, died in the very prime +of life. A year had hardly passed, when his great political rival, Mr. +Fox, was no more. Both of these distinguished men had been, as we have +seen, from the beginning of the contest, the friends of Abolition. +Said Mr. Fox, on his death-bed,--"Two things I wish earnestly to see +accomplished: peace with Europe, and the abolition of the Slave-Trade; +but of the two I wish the latter." + +Notwithstanding the death of its friends, the Abolition Bill was +steadily making its way. The "vexed question" of near twenty years was +about to be set at rest. Opposition had grown feeble, and in May, 1807, +the bill which made the Slave-Trade a crime wherever the British rule +extended passed both Houses and became a law. + +It was a day of triumphant joy. This was felt by the friends of +Abolition at large, and especially by its advocates. These received +everywhere the warmest congratulations. Mr. Wilberforce, on entering the +House of Commons just before the passage of the bill, was greeted with +rounds of applause. + +That Slavery had received its death-blow was fully believed at this +time. Africa being delivered from the traffic, the institution itself, +its supplies being cut off, must necessarily wither and die. This was +the common view of the matter; and the more effectually to secure this +result, negotiations were entered into with other European governments +for the suppression of the trade in their dominions. In America, the +Congress of the United States passed a law prohibiting the African +Slave-Trade after the year 1808, the period indicated in the +Constitution,--the law taking effect a few years later. Napoleon, +restored from his first banishment, and once more wielding the sceptre +of power, caused a law to be passed forbidding the trade in the French +Colonies. The friends of the negro were everywhere high in hope that the +days of Slavery were numbered. Starved out, the monster must inevitably +die. So sure were they of this result, that in England their efforts had +all along been directed against the trade. The institution itself had +been comparatively untouched. + +A few years passed, and it began to be evident to those who had been +active in the great conflict that the law against the Slave-Trade was +less effectual than had been anticipated. The ocean was wide, the +African coast a thousand miles long, and desperate men were not wanting +who were disposed to elude the statute for the sake of large gains. +Nor need they fail to secure suitable markets for the sale of their +ill-gotten cargoes. But into this part of our subject it may not be well +to pry too closely. + +If the friends of the African cause had supposed their work +accomplished, when their first success was attained, their error was +soon corrected. It was pleasant to repose upon the laurels so dearly +won; but another battle must be fought, and this necessity soon became +apparent. But a few years elapsed and the negro was again made the +subject of legislative consideration. Mr. Wilberforce was still a member +of the House, though most of those with whom he had been associated at +the beginning of his public life were dead. Forty years had passed since +he first took his seat, but he was ready once more to take up the cause +of the defenceless. The abuses perpetrated against the West Indian negro +called loudly for Governmental interference. + +Since 1807 little had been done save the passage of the Registry Bill, +which had been secured by Mr. Wilberforce in 1816. This was of the +nature of an investigation into the actual state of the West India +Colonies with respect to the illicit commerce in slaves. Mild as this +measure appeared, it proved the opening wedge of much that followed. It +was in fact the first of a series of movements which issued in momentous +events, even the emancipation of all the slaves in the British Colonies. +The passage of this bill was followed by an increased expression of +interest in the matter of Negro Slavery; this was evinced in a number of +valuable publications issued at this time,--able pamphlets from the pens +of Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Stephen, and others. The labors of the London +Society have already been noticed; and after the passage of the law of +1807 we find in existence the "African Institution," under which name +the friends of the negro were associated for the purpose of watching +over his interests, more particularly with regard to the operation +of the law. But during the period of repose which followed the first +anti-slavery triumph, a portion of this body, losing its original +activity, had become comparatively supine. + +In 1818, Thomas Fowell Buxton, whose Quaker mother had instilled into +him a hatred of African Slavery, became a member of Parliament. Having +soon after joined himself to the African Institution, he became somewhat +mortified at the apathy of the friends of the slave, as here embodied. +He was frank and outspoken, and gave expression to his indignant feeling +without reserve. The next day the young member for Weymouth found +himself addressed by Wilberforce, for whom he entertained a high +veneration, and warmly thanked for the earnest utterance of his +sentiments the evening before. + +After this Mr. Wilberforce conferred freely with Mr. Buxton upon the +subject of Slavery in its manifold details. In a letter written not far +from this time he unfolded the matter concerning the negroes of the West +Indian plantations, the cruelties to which they were subjected, and the +abuses which grew out of the system. Something must be done. Measures +must be taken of a protective character at least, and the work must be +prosecuted with vigor. Such was the view presented by Mr. Wilberforce. +Warned by age and infirmity that the period of his retirement from +public life could not be far distant, he wished that the cause which +had been with him a paramount one might be passed to able and faithful +hands. + +How Mr. Buxton responded to this call the subsequent history of the +anti-slavery cause unfolds. He had already shown, that, as a member of +the House, he was to make no light impression, whatever might be the +objects which should enlist his efforts. + +At this juncture there was formed in London a new anti-slavery society. +Its object was explicitly stated to be "the mitigation and gradual +abolition of Slavery throughout the British dominions." In looking over +the names of its officers and leading members, we find not those of the +early Abolitionists alone: by the side of Zachary Macaulay we find the +name of his more distinguished son, and that of Wilberforce is similarly +followed. + +In behalf of the African there existed a somewhat widely spread public +sympathy, the fruit of the previous long-continued presentation of +the subject, and at this time it seemed about to be aroused. Several +petitions, having reference to Slavery, were sent into the House of +Commons. The first of these came from the Quakers, and Mr. Wilberforce, +on presenting it, took occasion to make an address to the House. In +place of Mr. Pitt now stood Mr. Canning, who inquired of Mr. Wilberforce +if he intended to found upon his remarks any motion. He replied,--"No; +but that such was the intention of an esteemed friend of his." Mr. +Buxton then announced his intention of submitting to the House a +motion that the state of Slavery in the British Colonies be taken into +consideration. + +On the 15th of May, 1823, the expected debate took place. Mr. Buxton +began by moving a resolution, "That the state of Slavery is repugnant +to the principles of the British Constitution and of the Christian +Religion, and that it ought to be gradually abolished throughout the +British Colonies, with as much expedition as may be found consistent +with a due regard to the well-being of the parties concerned." + +A lively debate followed, and certain resolutions drawn up by Mr. +Canning were finally carried. These articles, as well as Mr. Buxton's +motion, had in view a gradual improvement in the condition and character +of the slaves. In pursuance of the object to be attained, circular +letters were addressed to the Colonial authorities, recommending, with +regard to the negroes, certain enlargements of privileges. These +letters were extremely moderate in their tone. The reforms were simply +recommended, not authoritatively enjoined; in the language of Mr. +Canning, the movement was such a one "as should be compatible with the +well-being of the slaves themselves, with the safety of the Colonies, +and with a fair and equitable consideration of the rights of private +property." + +Moderate as were the measures first set on foot for the improvement +of the social state of the slaves, the authors were not by that means +secured from opposition. This was accompanied, on the part of the West +India planters, by such an extreme violence as was hardly expected, at +least by the Premier, who had so favorably met the introduction of the +subject, if he had not actually committed himself to the work. The +leaders of the movement, who had but just now been borne onward by the +wave of public approval, found themselves fiercely denounced. Here is a +brief paragraph which appeared at that time in a Jamaica newspaper:-- + +"We pray the imperial Parliament to amend their origin, which is +bribery; to cleanse their consciences, which are corrupt; to throw +off their disguise, which is hypocrisy; to break off with their false +allies, who are the saints; and finally, to banish from among them the +purchased rogues, who are three-fourths of their number." + +Among the reforms recommended to the Colonists, by the circular letters +of the Government, was one which had reference to the indecent flogging +of the female slaves, and also a suggestive restraint upon corporal +punishment in general. This called forth in a Colonial paper +the following, which certainly has the merit of being entirely +unambiguous:-- + +"We did and do declare the whip to be essential to West India +discipline, ay, as essential, my Lord Calthorpe, as the freedom of the +press and the trial by jury to the liberty of the subject in Britain, +and to be justified on equally legitimate ground. The comfort, welfare, +and happiness of our laboring classes cannot subsist without it." + +These specimens of the fierceness of abuse with which the Government +was assailed may perhaps prepare the reader for that last resort of +indignant discontent on the part of the governed,--the threat of +secession! Yes; Jamaica will break away from the tyranny of which she is +the much abused object, she will free herself from the oppression of the +mother country, and then,--what next?--she will seek for friendship and +protection from the United States! How soon this threat, if persisted in +and carried out into action, would have been silenced by the thunder of +British cannon, we need not stay to consider. + +To this clamor of the opposition the more timid of the Anti-Slavery +party were disposed to yield, at least for a season. The Government +showed little disposition to press the improvements which it had +recommended. Mr. Canning seemed apprehensive that he had committed +himself too far, and was inclined to postpone, to wait for a season, to +give the West Indians time for reflection, before legislating further. +The chief advocate of the slave began to realize, that, of those who +had encouraged and cooeperated with him, but few, in a moment of real +difficulty, could be relied upon. But he was not to be baffled. "Good, +honest Buxton" had made up his mind that the world should be somewhat +the better for his having lived in it, and he had chosen as the object +of his beneficent labors the very lowest of his fellow-subjects,--the +negro slave of the West Indies. He was, moreover, a vigorous thinker +and an invincible debater, and, once embarked in this cause, he had no +thought of drawing back. So exclusive was his zeal, that at one time Mr. +O'Connell, vexed that the claims of his constituents were set aside, +electrified the House by exclaiming, "Oh! I wish we were blacks!" The +Irish orator had all along supported the Abolition cause, and spoken +words of good cheer to Mr. Buxton; but now his impatient patriotism +finds vent in exclaiming,--"If the Irish people were but black, we +should have the honorable member from Weymouth coming down as large as +life, supported by all the 'friends of humanity' in the back rows, to +advocate their cause." + +There was truth here, as well as wit, showing not only Mr. Buxton's +absorption in the cause which he had espoused, but his inspiring +influence on other minds. His indomitable energy was always sure to grow +stronger after defeat, and the strength of his own belief in the justice +of his cause of itself increased the faith of its friends. + +In the onward course of events the violence of the West Indians assumed +different phases, and one of the most memorable of these had respect to +the religious teachers of the slaves. They had been sent out by various +bodies of Christians in England, commencing nearly a hundred years +before these anti-slavery efforts. The object of the missionary was a +definite one, to christianize the negroes. He knew well, before engaging +in his work, that those who might come under his instruction were +slaves, and because they were slaves the call was all the louder upon +his compassion. Yet his path of duty lay wide enough from any attempt +to render the objects of his Christian efforts other than they were in +their civil relations. Such were the instructions which the missionaries +were accustomed to receive, on leaving England for a residence among the +Colonists. Nor was there ever, from the beginning to the ending of this +stirring chapter in the history of Slavery, reason to believe that these +instructions had been disobeyed. Their labors had in some instances been +encouraged by the planters, and their influence acknowledged to be a +valuable aid in the management of the negroes. But in these days +of excitement and insubordination the missionaries were accused of +encouraging disobedience in the slaves. When outbreaks occurred, the +guilt was laid to the charge of the Christian teachers. Upon a mere +suspicion, without a shadow of evidence, they were seized and thrown +into prison. One of the most melancholy instances of this was that of +the Rev. J. Smith, who was sentenced to be hanged, but died in prison, +through hardships endured, before the day of execution arrived. He was +only one of several who suffered at the hands of the West Indians the +grossest injustice. The case of Mr. Shrewsbury was at one time brought +before the House. Mr. Canning made reference to him as "a gentleman in +whose conduct there did not appear to be the slightest ground of blame +or suspicion." He was a Wesleyan missionary at Barbadoes, and, having +fallen under suspicion, was also condemned to die. Among other charges, +he was accused of having corresponded with Mr. Buxton. Said the latter, +in an address to the House,--"I never wrote to him a single letter, +nor did I know that such a man existed, till I happened to take up a +newspaper, and there read, with some astonishment, that _he was going to +be hanged for corresponding with me!_" + +If Englishmen and Christian ministers were condemned to death on such +allegations, adduced at mock trials, it is not strange that negroes +sometimes lost their lives on similar grounds. After a rising among +these people, several having been executed, the evidence of the guilt of +a certain portion was reviewed in the House of Commons. The witness was +asked whether he had found guns among the insurgents. He replied, "No; +but he was shown a place where guns had been"! Had he found bayonets? +"No; but he was shown a basket where bayonets had been"! Unfortunately, +the victims of this species of evidence were already hung when the +review of the trial took place. + +This last incident brings us to another feature of those times, the +actual insurrections which took place among the slaves. Passing by the +lesser excitements of Barbadoes and Demerara, we come to the great +rising in Jamaica in 1832. A servile war is generally represented as +displaying at every point its banners of flame, plashing its feet +meanwhile in the blood of women and children. But the great insurrection +of 1832, which, as it spread, included fifty thousand negroes in its +train, was in the beginning simply a refusal to work. + +Fiercely discussed by the masters, emancipation began to be spoken of +among the slaves. Necessarily they must know something about it; but, in +their distorted and erroneous impressions, they believed that "the +Great King of England" had set them free, and the masters were wilfully +withholding the boon. + +There was one, a negro slave, whose dark glittering eye fascinated +his fellows, and whose wondrous powers of speech drew them, despite +themselves, into the conspiracy. But he planned no murders, designed no +house-burnings; to those who, under solemn pledge of secrecy, joined +him, he propounded a single idea. It was this. If we, the negroes, who +are as five to one, compared to the white men, refuse to work any more +until freedom is given, we shall have it. There will be some resistance, +and a few of us will be killed; but that we must expect. This, in +substance, was the ground taken by Sharpe, who, as a slave, had +always been a favorite both with his master and others. This was the +commencement of the great insurrection. Its leader had not counted upon +the excitable spirit of the slaves when once aroused. Holding as sacred +the property of his master, he believed his followers would do the same, +until the light of burning barns and out-houses revealed the mischief +which had begun to work. Yet, in the sanguinary struggle which followed, +it is to be remembered that the excesses which were committed, the +wanton waste of life, were on the part of the white residents, who meted +out vengeance with an unsparing hand,--not on the part of the negroes. + +One effect of this uprising of the slaves was, in England, to deepen the +impression of the evils of the system under which they were held. If the +mere discussion of Slavery were fraught with such terrible consequences, +how could safety ever consist with the thing itself? By discussion they +had but exercised their own rights as Englishmen. Of what use to them +was Magna Charta, if they must seal their lips in silence when a public +abuse required to be corrected, a gigantic wrong to be righted? Must +they give up the ocean and the land to the dominion of the slave-owner +and slave-trader, hushing the word of remonstrance, lest it should lead +to war and bloodshed? No; they would not do this. The thing itself which +had caused these commotions must perish. + +Here was a decided gain for the friends of the slave in Parliament. +Mr. Buxton, in alluding to the fearful aspect of the times, asks the +pertinent question, "How is the Government prepared to act in case of a +general insurrection among the slaves?" We give the closing paragraphs +of his speech at this crisis. + +"I will refer the House to the sentiments of Mr. Jefferson, the +President of the United States. Mr. Jefferson was himself a slave-owner, +and full of the prejudices of slave-owners; yet he left this memorable +memorial to his country: 'I do, indeed, tremble for my country when I +remember that God is just, and that His justice may not sleep forever. A +revolution is among possible events; the Almighty has no attribute which +would side with us in such a struggle.' + +"This is the point which weighs most heavily with me. The Almighty has +no attribute that will side with us in such a struggle. A war with an +overwhelming physical force, a war with a climate fatal to the European +constitution, a war in which the heart of the people of England would +lean toward the enemy: it is hazarding all these terrible evils; but all +are light and trivial, compared with the conviction I feel that in such +a warfare it is not possible to ask nor can we expect the countenance of +Heaven." + +While events tended to bring the whole system of Slavery into odium, the +leaders of the Abolition party were themselves changing their ground. +They had begun with the hope of mitigating the hardships of the slave's +lot,--to place him upon the line of progression, and so ultimately to +fit him for freedom. But they had found themselves occupying a false +position. Slowly they came to the conclusion that for the slave little +could be accomplished in the way of improvement, so long as he remained +a slave. The complete extinction of the system was now the object aimed +at. At a crowded Anti-Slavery meeting held in May, 1830, Mr. Wilberforce +presided. The first resolution, moved by Mr. Buxton, was this,--"That no +proper or practicable means be left unattempted for effecting, at the +earliest period, the entire abolition of Slavery throughout the British +dominions." At a meeting held in Edinburgh similar language was used by +Lord Jeffrey. Said Dr. Andrew Thomson, one of the most influential of +the Scottish clergy,--"We ought to tell the legislature, plainly and +strongly, that no man has a right to property in man,--that there +are eight hundred thousand individuals sighing in bondage, under the +intolerable evils of West Indian Slavery, who have as good a right to be +free as we ourselves have,--that they ought to be free, and that they +_must_ be made free!" + +Another element at this time wrought in favor of the Abolitionists. Of +the missionaries who had suffered persecution in the Colonies, numbers +had returned to England. These religious teachers, while plying their +vocation in the West Indies, had acted in obedience to the instructions +received from the societies which employed them. Necessarily, while in a +slave country, they had been silent upon the subject of Slavery. But in +truth they liked the institution as little as Mr. Buxton himself. Once +in England, the seal of silence melted from their lips. Everywhere +in public and in private they made known the evils and cruelties of +Slavery. Some of these persons had been examined by Parliamentary +committees, and being acquitted of every suspicion of mis-statement, +their testimony received this additional sanction. The tale of wrong +which they revealed was not told in vain. Each returned missionary +exerted an influence upon the religious body which he represented. The +aggregate of this influence was great. + +If, in the latter stages of the Emancipation effort, the backwardness of +the Administration was an evil omen, making final success a difficult +achievement, this was balanced by reform in Parliament. At the recent +elections, anti-slavery sentiments in the candidate were in some +quarters requisite to success. A story is told of a gentleman who had +spent some time canvassing and found abundant evidence of this. At an +obscure village he had been hailed with the question, whether he was +trying to get into the Lords or Commons. "But," added the simple +questioners, "whichever you do get into, you must vote for the poor +slaves." + +To the aid of the Emancipation leaders there came now a new element, a +power so strong that it required no small share of skill to hold it in, +that it might work no evil in contributing to the desired end. + +Since the commencement of efforts for the slave a considerable period +had passed. These efforts extended, in fact, over nearly half a century. +During that time, pamphlet after pamphlet and volume after volume had +set forth the evils and abominations of Slavery, forcing the subject +upon the public attention. The leaven had worked slowly, and for a +portion of the time in comparative silence; but the work was done. The +British people were aroused. The great heart of the nation was beating +in response to the appeals for justice and right which were made in +their ears. The world can scarce furnish a parallel to this spectacle of +moral sublimity. It was the voice of a people, calling, in tones that +must be heard, for justice and freedom,--and that not for themselves, +but for a distant, a defenceless race. + +The publication of a circular inviting Anti-Slavery delegates to London, +a movement made by the leaders of the cause, in its results took the +most enthusiastic by surprise. More than three hundred appeared in +answer to the call. Mr. Buxton met them in Exeter Hall. With a rampant +freedom of opinion, there was little prospect of harmony of action being +attained, however desirable it might be. Through the influence of Mr. +Buxton and his coadjutors, these men of conflicting theories were +brought into such a degree of harmonious action that an address was +drawn up embodying their sentiments and laid before Lord Althorp, at +that time the head of the Administration. The strong outside pressure of +the nation at large upon the Government was evident. The strength of the +Emancipationists in Parliament, also, had been carefully estimated, and +success could no longer be doubted. + +The fourteenth of May, 1833, witnessed an animated debate in the House. +While the advocates of Emancipation desired for the negro unconditional +freedom, they found the measure fettered by the proposal of Mr. Stanley, +the Colonial Secretary, that he be placed for a number of years in a +state of apprenticeship. Twelve years of this restricted freedom was, +by the influence of Mr. Buxton, reduced to seven, and the sum of twenty +millions of pounds sterling being granted to the slave-owners, the bill +for the abolition of Negro Slavery passed the House of Commons. With +some delay it went through the Upper House, and on the 28th of August, +receiving the royal assent, it became a law. The apprenticeship system +was but short-lived, its evil-working leading to its abolition in its +fourth year. + + * * * * * + +It has been often said, with how much of truth it is not our purpose +here to inquire, that in this country the mention of the evils of +Slavery is and must be fraught with most evil consequences. Yet the +agitation of this subject, whether for good or evil, in the United +States, is intimately connected with the whole movement in England. In +the earlier stages of the measures directed against the trade, a hearty +response was awakened here; nor could the subsequent act of emancipation +fail to produce an impression everywhere, and most of all among +ourselves. United to the English nation by strong affinities, one with +them in language and literature, yet cleaving still to the institution +which England had so energetically striven to destroy, could it be +otherwise than that such a movement on her part should awaken an eager +interest among us? Could such an event as the release from slavery +of eight hundred thousand negroes in the British Colonies pass by +unnoticed? To suppose this is preposterous. It is not too much to say, +that the effect of British emancipation was, at the time it took place, +to give in certain portions of the United States an increased degree of +life to the anti-slavery sentiment. No words could have been uttered, +which, reaching the shores of America, would have been half so emphatic +as this one act of the British nation. Among the causes which have +nourished and strengthened the anti-slavery sentiment among us this, has +its place. Verily, if England gave us the poison, she has not been slow +to proffer to us the antidote. + + * * * * * + +Concerning the actual fruits of Emancipation, it may be asked, What have +they been? The world looked on inquiringly as to how the enfranchised +negroes would demean themselves. One fact has never been disputed. This +momentous change in the social state of near a million of people took +place without a single act of violence on the part of the liberated +slaves. Neither did the measure carry violence in its train. So far the +act was successful. But that all which the friends of Emancipation hoped +for has been attained, no one will assert. When, however, we hear of the +financial ruin of the Islands, as a consequence of that measure, it may +be well to inquire into their condition previous to its taking place. +That the West India Colonies were trembling on the brink of ruin at the +close of the last century is evident from their repeated petitions +to the mother country to take some measures to save them from utter +bankruptcy. This can hardly be laid to the extinction of Slavery, for +both Slavery and the Slave-Trade were at that time in the height of +successful operation. + +Again, if the West Indian negro is not to-day all that might be wished, +or even all that, under the influence of freedom, he had been expected +to become, there may possibly be a complication of causes which has +prevented his elevation. He has been allowed instruction, indeed, to +some extent; the continued labors of those who contended for his freedom +have secured to him the schoolmaster and the missionary. But this is not +enough. Has he been taught the use of improved methods of agriculture, +the application of machinery to the production of required results? Has +he been encouraged to works of skill, to manufacturing arts even of the +ruder kind? Has he not rather been subjected to the same policy which, +before the Revolution, discountenanced manufactures among ourselves, +and has caused the fabrics of the East Indies to be disused, and the +factories of Ireland to stand still? + +These questions need not be pursued. Yet, amid the conflicting voices of +the evil days upon which we are fallen, now and then we hear lifted up a +plea for Emancipation, an entreaty for the removal of the accursed thing +which has plunged the happiest nation upon earth into the direst of +calamities. + +Of the causes which have affected the success of Emancipation in the +case before us, it may be remarked, that, so far as their action has +been pernicious, they would operate among ourselves less than in any +colony of Great Britain, abundantly less than in the West Indies. The +greater variety of employments with which the Maryland or Kentucky negro +is familiar, his more frequent proficiency in mechanical pursuits, +combined with other circumstances, render him decidedly a more eligible +subject for freedom than the negro of Jamaica. + +The changes which may issue in this country from the present commotions +it were vain to predict. It may not, however, be unwise, in considering, +as we have done, an achievement nobly conceived and generously +accomplished, to examine carefully into the causes which may have +rendered it otherwise than completely successful in its results. + + * * * * * + + +UNION AND LIBERTY. + + + Flag of the heroes who left us their glory, + Borne through their battle-fields' thunder and flame, + Blazoned in song and illumined in story, + Wave o'er us all who inherit their fame! + Up with our banner bright, + Sprinkled with starry light, + Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, + While through the sounding sky + Loud rings the Nation's cry,-- + UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE! + + Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation, + Pride of her children, and honored afar, + Let the wide beams of thy full constellation + Scatter each cloud that would darken a star! + Up with our banner bright, etc. + + Empire unsceptred! what foe shall assail thee, + Bearing the standard of Liberty's van? + Think not the God of thy fathers shall fail thee, + Striving with men for the birthright of man! + Up with our banner bright, etc. + Yet if, by madness and treachery blighted, + Dawns the dark hour when the sword thou must draw, + Then, with the arms of thy millions united, + Smite the bold traitors to Freedom and Law! + Up with our banner bright, etc. + + Lord of the Universe! shield us and guide us, + Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun! + Thou, hast united us: who shall divide us? + Keep us, O, keep us, the MANY IN ONE! + Up with our banner bright, + Sprinkled with starry light, + Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, + While through the sounding sky + Loud rings the Nation's cry,-- + UNION AND LIBERTY! ONE EVERMORE! + + * * * * * + + + +HOW TO ROUGH IT. + + +"Life has few things better than this," said Dr. Johnson, on feeling +himself settled in a coach, and rolling along the road. We cannot agree +with the great man. Times have changed since the Doctor and Mr. Boswell +travelled for pleasure; and we much prefer an expedition to Moosehead, +or a tramp in the Adirondack, to being boxed up in a four-wheeled ark +and made "comfortable," according to the Doctor's idea of felicity. + +Francis Galton, Explorer, and Secretary to the Royal Geographical +Society, we thank you sincerely for teaching us how to travel! Few +persons know the important secrets of how to walk, how to run, how to +ride, how to cook, how to defend, how to ford rivers, how to make rafts, +how to fish, how to hunt, in short, how to do the essential things that +every traveller, soldier, sportsman, emigrant, and missionary should +be conversant with. The world is full of deserts, prairies, bushes, +jungles, swamps, rivers, and oceans. How to "get round" the dangers of +the land and the sea in the best possible way, how to shift and contrive +so as to come out all right, are secrets well worth knowing, and Mr. +Galton has found the key. In this brief article we shall frequently +avail ourselves of the information he imparts, confident that in these +war-days his wise directions are better than fine gold to a man who is +obliged to rough it over the world, no matter where his feet may wander, +his horse may travel, or his boat may sail. + +Wherewithal shall a man be clothed? We begin at the beginning with +flannel always. Experience has taught us that flannel next the skin is +indispensable for health to a traveller, and the sick- and dead-lists +always include largely the names of those who neglect this material. +Cotton stands Number Two on the list, and linen nowhere. Only last +summer jolly Tom Bowers got his _quietus_ for the season by getting hot +and wet and cold in one of his splendid Paris linen shirts, and now he +wears calico ones whenever he wishes to "appear proper" at Nahant or +Newport. + +"The hotter the ground the thicker your socks," was the advice of an old +traveller who once went a thirty-days' tramp at our side through the +Alp country in summer. We have seen many a city bumpkin start for a +White-Mountain walk in the thinnest of cotton foot-coverings, but we +never knew one to try them a second time. + +Stout shoes are preferable to boots always, and a wise traveller never +omits to grease well his leather before and during his journey. Don't +forget to put a pair of old slippers into your knapsack. After a hard +day's toil, they are like magic, under foot. Let us remind the traveller +whose feet are tender at starting that a capital remedy for blistered +feet is to rub them at night with spirits mixed with tallow dropped +from a candle. An old friend of ours thought it a good plan to soap the +inside of the stocking before setting out, and we have seen him break a +raw egg into his shoes before putting them on, saying it softened the +leather and made him "all right" for the day. + +Touching coat, waistcoat, and trousers, there can be but one choice. +Coarse tweed does the best business on a small capital. Cheap and +strong, we have always found it the most "paying" article in our +travelling-wardrobe. Avoid that tailor-hem so common at the bottom +of your pantaloons which retains water and does no good to anybody. +Waistcoats would be counted as superfluous, were it not for the +convenience of the pockets they carry. Take along an old dressing-gown, +if you want solid comfort in camp or elsewhere after sunset. + +Gordon Cumming recommends a wide-awake hat, and he is good authority on +that head. A man "_clothed_ in his right mind" is a noble object; but +six persons out of every ten who start on a journey wear the wrong +apparel. The writer of these pages has seen four individuals at once +standing up to their middles in a trout-stream, all adorned with black +silk tiles, newly imported from the Rue St. Honore. It was a sight to +make Daniel Boone and Izaak Walton smile in their celestial abodes. + +A light water-proof outside-coat and a thick pea-jacket are a proper +span for a roving trip. Don't forget that a couple of good blankets also +go a long way toward a traveller's paradise. + +We will not presume that an immortal being at this stage of the +nineteenth century would make the mistake, when he had occasion to tuck +up his shirt-sleeves, of turning them outwards, so that every five +minutes they would be tumbling down with a crash of anathemas from the +wearer. The supposition that any sane son of Adam would tuck up his +sleeves inside out involves a suspicion, to say the least, that his wits +had been overrated by doting relatives. + +"Grease and dirt are the savage's wearing-apparel," says the Swedish +proverb. No comment is necessary in speaking with a Christian on this +point, for cold water is one of civilization's closest allies. Avoid the +bath, and the genius of disease and crime stalks in. "Cleanliness is +next to godliness," remember. + +In packing your knapsack, keep in mind that sixteen or twenty pounds are +weight enough, till, by practice, you can get pluck and energy into your +back to increase that amount. + +_Roughing it_ has various meanings, and the phrase is oftentimes +ludicrously mistaken by many individuals. A friend with whom we once +travelled thought he was roughing it daily for the space of three +weeks, because he was obliged to lunch on _cold_ chicken and _un-iced_ +Champagne, and when it rained he was forced to seek shelter inside very +inelegant hotels on the road. To rough it, in the best sense of that +term, is to lie down every night with the ground for a mattress, a +bundle of fagots for a pillow, and the stars for a coverlet. To sleep in +a tent is semi-luxury, and tainted with too much effeminacy to suit the +ardor of a first-rate "Rough." Parkyns, Taylor, Gumming, Fremont, and +Kane have told us how much superior are two trunks of trees, rolled +together for a bed, under the open sky, to that soft heating apparatus +called a bed in the best chamber. Every man to his taste,--of course, +but there come occasions in life when a man must look about him and +arrange for himself, _somehow_. The traveller who has never slept in the +woods has missed an enjoyable sensation. A clump of trees makes a +fine leafy post-bedstead, and to awake in the morning amid a grove of +sheltering nodding oaks is lung-inspiring. It was the good thought of a +wanderer to say, "The forest is the poor man's jacket." Napoleon had a +high opinion of the bivouac style of life, and on the score of health +gave it the preference over tent-sleeping. Free circulation is a great +blessing, albeit we think its eulogy rather strongly expressed by the +Walden-Pondist, when he says, "I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have +it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. I would rather +ride on earth in an ox-cart with a free circulation, than go to heaven +in the fancy car of an excursion-train, and breathe a _malaria_ all the +way." The only objection to out-door slumber is dampness; but it is easy +to protect one's self in wet weather from the unhealthy ground by boughs +or India-rubber blankets. + +One of the great precautions requisite for a tramp is to provide against +thirst. Want of water overtakes the traveller sometimes in the most +annoying manner, and it is well to know how to fight off the dry fiend. +Sir James Alexander cautions all who rough it to drink well before +starting in the morning, and drink nothing all day till the halt,--and +to keep the lips shut as much as possible. Another good authority +recommends a pebble or leaf to be held in the mouth. Habit, however, +does much in this case as in every other, and we have known a man, who +had been accustomed at home to drink at every meal four tumblers of +water, by force of will bring his necessity down to a pint of liquid per +day, during a long tramp through the forest. One of the many excellent +things which Plutarch tells of Socrates is this noteworthy incident of +his power of abstinence. He says, whenever Socrates returned from any +exercise, though he might be extremely dry, he refrained nevertheless +from drinking till he had thrown away the first bucket of water he had +drawn, that he might exercise himself to patience, and accustom his +appetite to wait the leisure of reason. + +From water to fire is a natural transition. How to get a blaze just when +you want it puzzles the will sometimes hugely. Every traveller should +provide himself with a good handy steel, proper flint, and unfailing +tinder, because lucifers are liable to many accidents. Pliny recommended +the wood of mulberry, bay-laurel, and ivy, as good material to be rubbed +together in order to procure a fire; but Pliny is behind the times, and +must not be trusted to make rules for General McLellan's boys. Of course +no one would omit to take lucifers on a tramp; but steel, flint, and +tinder are three warm friends that in an emergency will always come up +to the strike. To find firewood is a knack, and it ought to be well +cultivated. Don't despise bits of dry moss, fine grass, and slips of +bark, if you come across them. Twenty fires are failures in the open air +for one that succeeds, unless the operator knows his business. A novice +will use matches, wood, wind, time, and violent language enough to burn +down a city, and never get any satisfaction out of all the expenditure; +while a knowing hand will, out of the stump of an old, half-rotten tree, +bring you such magnificent, permanent heat, that your heart and your +tea-kettle will sing together for joy over it. In making a fire, depend +upon it, there is something more than _luck_,--there is always talent +in it. We once saw Charles Lever (Harry Lorrequer's father) build up a +towering blaze in a woody nook out of just nothing but what he scraped +up from the ground, and his rare ability. You remember Mr. Opie the +painter's answer to a student who asked him what he mixed his colors +with. "Brains, Sir," was the artist's prompt, gruff, and right reply. It +takes brains to make a fire in a rainy night out in the woods; but it +can be done,--if you only know how to begin. We have seen a hearth made +of logs on a deep snow sending out a cheerful glow, while the rain +dripped and froze all about the merry party assembled. + +A traveller ought to be a good swimmer. There are plenty of watery +crossings to be got over, and often there are no means at hand but what +Nature has provided in legs and arms. But one of the easiest things in +the world to make is a raft. Inflatable India-rubber boats also are now +used in every climate, and a full-sized one weighs only forty pounds. +General Fremont and Dr. Livingstone have tested their excellent +qualities, and commend them as capable of standing a wonderful amount +of wear and tear. But a boat can be made out of almost anything, if one +have the skill to put it together. A party of sailors whose boat had +been stolen put out to sea and were eighteen hours afloat in a crazy +craft made out of a large basket woven with boughs such as they could +pick up, and covered with their canvas tent, the inside being plastered +with clay to keep out as much of the water as possible. + +In fording streams, it is well, if the water be deep and swift, to carry +heavy stones in the hands, in order to resist being borne away by the +current. Fords should not be deeper than three feet for men, or four +feet for horses. + +Among the small conveniences, a good strong pocket-knife, a small "hard +chisel," and a file should not be forgotten. A great deal of real work +can be done with very few tools. One of Colt's rifles is a companion +which should be specially cared for, and a water-proof cover should +always be taken to protect the lock during showers. There is one rule +among hunters which ought always to be remembered, namely,--"Look at +the gun, but never let the gun look at you, or at your companions." +Travellers are always more or less exposed to the careless handling of +fire-arms, and numerous accidents occur by carrying the piece with the +cock down on the nipple. Three-fourths of all the gun accidents are +owing to this cause; for a blow on the back of the cock is almost sure +to explode the cap, while a gun at half-cock is comparatively safe. + +Don't carry too many eatables on your expeditions. Dr. Kane says his +party learned to modify and reduce their travelling-gear, and found that +in direct proportion to its simplicity and to their apparent privation +of articles of supposed necessity were their actual comfort and +practical efficiency. Step by step, as long as their Arctic service +continued, they went on reducing their sledging-outfit, until they at +last came to the Esquimaux ultimatum of simplicity,--_raw meat and a fur +bag_. Salt and pepper are needful condiments. Nearly all the rest are +out of place on a roughing expedition. Among the most portable kinds of +solid food are pemmican, jerked meat, wheat flour, barley, peas, cheese, +and biscuit. Salt meat is a disappointing dish, and apt to be sadly +uncertain. Somebody once said that water had tasted of sinners ever +since the flood, and salted meat sometimes has a taint full as vivid. +Twenty-eight ounces of real nutriment _per diem_ for a man in rough +work as a traveller will be all that he requires; if he perform severe +tramping, thirty ounces. + +The French say, _C'est la soupe qui fait le soldat_, and we have always +found on a tramping expedition nothing so life-restoring after fatigue +and hunger as the portable soup now so easily obtained at places where +prepared food is put up for travellers' uses. Spirituous liquors are no +help in roughing it. On the contrary, they invite sunstroke, and various +other unpleasant visitors incident to the life of a traveller. Habitual +brandy-drinkers give out sooner than cold-water men, and we have seen +fainting red noses by the score succumb to the weather, when boys +addicted to water would crow like chanticleer through a long storm of +sleet and snow on the freezing Alps. + +It is not well to lose your way; but in case this unpleasant luck befall +you, set _systematically_ to work to find it. Throw terror to the idiots +who always flutter and flounder, and so go wrong inevitably. Galton the +Plucky says,--and he has as much cool wisdom to impart as a traveller +needs,--when you make the unlively discovery that you are lost, ask +yourself the three following questions:-- + +1. What is the least distance that I can with certainty specify, within +which the path, the river, the sea-shore, etc., that I wish to regain, +lies? + +2. What is the direction, in a vague, general way, in which the path or +river runs, or the sea-coast tends? + +3. When I last left the path, etc., did I turn to the left or to the +right? + +As regards the first, calculate deliberately how long you have been +riding or walking, and at what pace, since you left your party; subtract +for stoppages and well-recollected zigzags; allow a mile and a half per +hour as the pace when you have been loitering on foot, and three and a +half when you have been walking fast. Occasional running makes an almost +inappreciable difference. A man is always much nearer the lost path than +he is inclined to fear. + +As regards the second, if you recollect the third, and also know the +course of the path within eight points of the compass, (or one-fourth +of the whole horizon,) it is a great gain; or even if you know your +direction within twelve points, or one-third of the whole horizon, that +knowledge is worth something. Don't hurry, if you get bewildered. Stop +and think. Then arrange matters, and you are safe. When Napoleon was +once caught in a fog, while riding with his staff across a shallow arm +of the Gulf of Suez, he _thought_, as usual. His way was utterly lost, +and going forward he found himself in deeper water. So he ordered his +staff to ride from him in radiating lines in all directions, and such +of them as should find shallow water to shout out. If Napoleon had been +alone on that occasion, he would have set his five wits to the task of +finding the right way, and he would have found it. + +Finally, cheerfulness in large doses is the best medicine one can take +along in his out-door tramps. We once had the good-luck to hear old +Christopher North try his lungs in the open air in Scotland. Such +laughter and such hill-shaking merry-heartedness we may never listen to +again among the Lochs, but the lesson of the hour (how it rained that +black night!) is stamped for life upon our remembrance. "Clap your back +against the cliff," he shouted, "and never mind the deluge!" Rest, +glorious Christopher, under the turf you trod with such a gallant +bearing! Few mortals knew how to rough it like you! + + * * * * * + + +SELF-POSSESSION vs. PREPOSSESSION. + + +Timoleon, a man prosperous in all his undertakings, was wont to ascribe +his successes to good-luck; but that he did not mean to give credit to +any blind Goddess of Fortune is evident from his having built an altar +to a certain divine something which he called Automatia, signifying +Spontaneousness, or a happy promptitude in following the dictates of his +own genius. The Liberator of Sicily, to be sure, did not live in an age +of newspapers, and was not liable at every turn to have his elbow jogged +by Public Opinion; but it is plain that his notion of a man fit to lead +was, that he should be one who never waited to seize Opportunity from +behind, and who knew that events become the masters of him who is slow +to make them his servants. + +Thus far nothing has been more remarkable in the history of our civil +war than that its signal opportunities have failed to produce on either +side any leader who has proved himself to be gifted with this happy +faculty. Even our statesmen seem not to have felt the kindling +inspiration of a great occasion. The country is going through a +trial more crucial, if possible, than that of the Revolution; but no +state-paper has thus far appeared, comparable in anything but quantity +to the documents of our heroic period. Even Mr. Seward seems to have +laid aside his splendid art of generalization, or to have found out the +danger of those specious boomerangs of eloquence, which, launched from +the platform with the most graceful curves of rhetoric, come back not +seldom to deal an untimely blow to him who sets them flying. The people +begin to show signs of impatience that the curtain should be so slow to +rise and show them the great actor in our national tragedy. They are so +used to having a gigantic bubble of notoriety blown for them in a week +by the newspapers, though it burst in a day or two, leaving but a drop +of muddy suds behind it, that they have almost learned to think the +making of a great character as simple a matter as that of a great +reputation. Bewildered as they have been with a mob of statesmen, +generals, orators, poets, and what not, all of them the foremost of this +or any other age, they seem to expect a truly great man on equally easy +terms with these cheap miracles of the press,--grown as rapidly, to be +forgotten as soon, as the prize cauliflower of a county show. We have +improvised an army; we have conjured a navy out of nothing so rapidly +that pines the jay screamed in last summer may be even now listening for +the hum of the hostile shot from Sumter; why not give another rub at our +Aladdin's lamp and improvise a genius and a hero? + +This is, perhaps, very natural, but it is nevertheless unreasonable. +Heroes and geniuses are never to be had ready-made, nor was a tolerable +specimen of either ever produced at six months' notice. Dearly do +nations pay for such secular births; still more dearly for their +training. They are commonly rather the slow result than the conscious +cause of revolutions in thought or polity. It is no imputation on +democratic forms of government, it is the unexampled prosperity of +nearly half a century that is in fault, if a sudden and unforewarned +danger finds us without a leader, whether civil or military, whom the +people are willing to trust implicitly, and who can in some sense +control events by the prestige of a great name. Carlyle and others have +for years been laying to the charge of representative and parliamentary +government the same evils whose germ certain British critics, as +ignorant of our national character as of our geography, are so kindly +ready to find in our democracy. Mr. Stuart Mill, in his essay on +"Liberty," has convinced us that even the tyranny of Public Opinion is +not, as we had hastily supposed, a peculiarly American institution, but +is to the full as stringent and as fertile of commonplace in intellect +and character under a limited as under a universal system of suffrage. + +The truth is, that it is not in our institutions, but in our history, +that we are to look for the causes of much that is superficially +distasteful and sometimes unpleasantly disappointing in our national +habits,--we would not too hastily say in our national character. Our +most incorrigible blackguards, and the class of voters who are at the +mercy of venal politicians, have had their training, such as it is, +under forms of government and amid a social order very unlike ours. +Disgust at the general dirtiness and corruption of our politics, we are +told, keeps all our leading men out of public life. This appears to us, +we confess, a rather shallow misconception. Our politics are no dirtier +or more corrupt than those of our neighbors. The famous _Quam parva +sapientia regitur mundus_ was not said in scorn by the minister of a +republic, but in sober sadness by one whose dealings had been lifelong +with the courts and statesmen of princes. The real disgust lies in the +selfish passions that are called into play by the strife of party and +the small ambitions of public men, and not in any mere coarseness in the +expression of them. We are not an elegant people: rather less so, on the +whole, even in the aristocratic South than in the democratic North. In +this past year of our Lord eighteen hundred sixty-one, we have no doubt, +and we shudder to think of it, that by far the larger proportion of +our fellow-citizens shovelled their green-peas into their mouths with +uncanonical knife-blades, just as Sir Philip Sidney did in a darker age, +when yet the "Times" and the silver fork were not. Nay, let us make a +clean breast of all these horrors at once, it is probably true that +myriads of fair salmon were contaminated with the brutal touch of +steel in scenes of unhallowed family-festival. The only mitigating +circumstance is that such luxuries are within the reach of ten Americans +where one European sees them any nearer than through the windows of the +victualler. No, we must yield the point. We are not an elegant people, +least of all in our politics; but we do not believe it is this which +keeps our first-rate men out of political life, or that it is the result +of our democratic system. + +It has been our good-fortune hitherto that our annals have been of that +happy kind which write themselves on the face of a continent and in the +general well-being of a people, rather than in those more striking and +commonly more disastrous events which attract the historian. We have +been busy, thriving, and consequently, except to some few thoughtful +people like De Tocqueville, profoundly uninteresting. We have been +housekeeping; and why does the novelist always make his bow to the hero +and heroine at the church-door, unless because he knows, that, if they +are well off, nothing more is to be made of them? Prosperity is the +forcing-house of mediocrity; and if we have ceased to produce great men, +it is because we have not, since we became a nation, been forced to pay +the terrible price at which alone they can be bought. Great men are +excellent things for a nation to have had; but a normal condition that +should give a constant succession of them would be the most wretched +possible for the mass of mankind. We have had and still have honest and +capable men in public life, brave and able officers in our army and +navy; but there has been nothing either in our civil or military history +for many years to develop any latent qualities of greatness that may +have been in them. It is only first-rate events that call for and mould +first-rate characters. If there has been less stimulus for the more +showy and striking kinds of ambition, if the rewards of a public career +have been less brilliant than in other countries, yet we have shown, +(and this is a legitimate result of democracy,) perhaps beyond the +measure of other nations, that plebeian genius for the useful which has +been chiefly demanded by our circumstances, and which does more than war +or state-craft to increase the well-being and therefore the true glory +of nations. Few great soldiers or great ministers have done so much for +their country as Whitney's cotton-gin and McCormick's reaper have done +for ours. We do not believe that our country has degenerated under +democracy, but our position as a people has been such as to turn our +energy, capacity, and accomplishment into prosaic channels. Physicians +call certain remedies, to be administered only in desperate cases, +_heroic_, and Providence reserves heroes for similar crises in the body +politic. They are not sent but in times of agony and peril. If we have +lacked the thing, it is because we have lacked the occasion for it. +And even where truly splendid qualities have been displayed, as by our +sailors in the War of 1812, and by our soldiers in Mexico, they have +been either on so small a scale as to means, or on a scene so remote +from European interests, that they have failed of anything like +cosmopolitan appreciation. Our great actors have been confined to what, +so far as Europe is concerned, has been a provincial theatre; and an +obscure stage is often as fatal to fame as the want of a poet. + +But meanwhile has not this been very much the case with our critics +themselves? Leading British statesmen may be more accomplished scholars +than ours, Parliament may be more elegantly bored than Congress; but we +have a rooted conviction that commonplace thought and shallow principles +do not change their nature, even though disguised in the English of +Addison himself. Mr. Gladstone knows vastly more Greek than Mr. Chase, +but we may be allowed to doubt if he have shown himself an abler +finance-minister. Since the beginning of the present century it is safe +to say that England has produced no statesmen whom her own historians +will pronounce to be more than second- or third-rate men. The Crimean +War found her, if her own journalists were to be believed, without a +single great captain whether on land or sea, with incompetence in every +department, civil and military, and driven to every shift, even to +foreign enlistment and subsidy, to put on foot an army of a hundred +thousand men. What an opportunity for sermonizing on the failure of +representative government! In that war England lost much of her old +prestige in the eyes of the world, and felt that she had lost it. But +nothing would have been more unphilosophical than to have assumed that +England was degenerate or decrepit. It was only that her training had +been for so long exclusively mechanical and peaceful. The terrible, but +glorious, experience of the Indian Rebellion showed that Englishmen +still possessed in as full measure as ever those noble characteristics +on which they justly pride themselves, and of which a nation of kindred +blood would be the last to deny them the praise. When the heroic +qualities found their occasion, they were not wanting. + +We do not say this as unduly sensitive to the unfriendly, often +insulting and always unwise, criticisms of a large proportion of the +press and the public men of England. In ordinary times we could afford +to receive them with a good-natured smile. The zeal of certain new +converts to Adam Smith in behalf of the free-trade principles whose +cross they have assumed, their hatred and contempt for all heretics to +what is their doxy and therefore according to Dean Swift orthodoxy, and +the _naive_ unconsciousness with which they measure and weigh the +moral qualities of other nations by the yards of cotton or tons of +manufactured iron which they consume for the benefit of Manchester and +Sheffield, are certainly as comic as anything in Aristophanes. The +madness of the philosopher who deemed himself personally answerable for +the obliquity of the ecliptic has more than its match in the sense of +responsibility shown by British journalists for the good conduct of the +rest of mankind. All other kingdoms, potentates, and powers would seem +to be minors or lunatics, and they the divinely appointed guardians +under bonds to see that their unhappy wards do no harm to themselves or +others. We confess, that, in reading the "Times," we have been sometimes +unable to suppress a feeling of humorous pity for the young man who +_does_ the leading articles, and who finds himself, fresh from Oxford +or Cambridge and the writing of Latin verses, called suddenly to the +autocracy of the Universe. We must pardon a little to the _imperii +novitas_, to the necessity of having universal misinformation always on +tap in his inkstand. He summons emperors, kings, ministers, even whole +nations, to the inexorable blackboard. His is the great normal school of +philosophy, statesmanship, political economy, taste, and deportment. He +must help Cavour to a knowledge of Italy, teach Napoleon to appreciate +the peculiarities of French character, interpret the American +Constitution for Mr. Lincoln. He holds himself directly accountable to +heaven and earth, alike for the right solution of the Papal Question +and for the costume of his countrymen in foreign parts. Theology or +trousers, he is infallible in both. Gregory the Seventh's wildest +dream of a universal popedom is more than fulfilled in him. He is the +unapproachable model of quack advertisers. He pats Italy on the head and +cries, "Study constitutional government as exemplified in England, and +try Mechi's razor-strops." For France he prescribes a reduction of army +and navy, and an increased demand for Manchester prints. America he +warns against military despotism, advises a tonic of English iron, and a +compress of British cotton, as sovereign against internal rupture. What +a weight for the shoulders of our poor Johannes Factotum! He is the +_commissionnaire_ of mankind, their guide, philosopher, and friend, +ready with a disinterested opinion in matters of art or _virtu_, and +eager to furnish anything, from a counterfeit Buddhist idol to a +poisoned pickle, for a commission, varying according to circumstances. + +But whatever one may think of the wisdom or the disinterestedness of the +organs of English commercial sentiment, it cannot be denied that it is +of great importance to us that the public opinion of England should be +enlightened in regard to our affairs. It would be idle to complain that +her policy is selfish; for the policy of nations is always so. It would +be foolish to forget that the sympathy of the British people has always +declared itself, sooner or later, in favor of free institutions, and of +a manly and upright policy toward other nations, or that this sympathy +has been on the whole more outspoken and enduring among Englishmen +than in any other nation of the Old World. We may justly complain that +England should see no difference between a rebel confederacy and a +nation to which she was bound by treaties and with which she had so long +been on terms of amity gradually ripening to friendship. But do not +let us be so childish as to wish for the suppression of the "Times +Correspondent," a shrewd, practised, and, for a foreigner, singularly +accurate observer, to whom we are indebted for the only authentic +intelligence from Secessia since the outbreak of the Rebellion, and +whose strictures, (however we may smile at his speculations,) if rightly +taken, may do us infinite service. Did he tell us anything about the +shameful rout of Bull Run which could not have been predicted beforehand +of raw troops, or which, indeed, General Scott himself had not +foreboded? That was not an especially American disgrace. Every +nationality under heaven was represented there, and an alarm among the +workmen on the Plains of Shinar that the foundations of the Tower +of Babel were settling could not have set in motion a more polyglot +_stampede_. The way to blot out Bull Run is as our brave Massachusetts +and Pennsylvania men did at Ball's Bluff, with their own blood, poured +only too lavishly. To our minds, the finest and most characteristic +piece of English literature, more inspiring even than Henry's speech +to his soldiers on the eve of Agincourt, is Nelson's signal, "England +expects every man to do his duty." When we have risen to that level and +are content to stand there, with no thought of self, but only of our +country and what we owe her, we need wince at no hostile sneer nor dread +any foreign combination. Granted that we have been a little boyish and +braggart, as was perhaps not unnatural in a nation hardly out of its +teens, our present trial is likely to make men of us, and to leave us, +like our British cousins, content with the pleasing consciousness +that we are the supreme of creation and under no necessity of forever +proclaiming it. Our present experience, also, of the unsoundness of +English judgment and the narrowness of English views concerning our +policy and character may have the good result of making our independence +in matters of thought and criticism as complete as our political +emancipation. + +Those who have watched the tendencies of opinion among educated +Englishmen during the last ten or fifteen years could hardly be +surprised, that, when the question was presented to them as being +between aristocratic and democratic ideas, between a race of gentlemen +and a mob of shopkeepers and snobs, they should have been inclined to +sympathize with the South. There have been unmistakable symptoms of +a reaction in England, since 1848 especially, against liberalism in +politics and in favor of things as they are. We are not to wonder that +Englishmen did not stop to examine too closely the escutcheon and +pedigree of this self-patented nobility. With one or two not very +striking exceptions, like Lord Fairfax and Washington, (who was of kin +to one of the few British peers that have enjoyed the distinction of +being hanged,) the entire population of America is descended from the +middle and lower classes in the old countries. The difference has been, +that the man at the South who raised cotton and sold it has gradually +grown to consider himself a superior being by comparison with his own +negroes, while the man at the North who raised potatoes and sold them +has been content with the old Saxon notion that he was as good as his +neighbors. The descendant of the Huguenot tradesman or artisan, if in +Boston, builds Faneuil Hall or founds Bowdoin College; if in Charleston, +he deals in negroes and persuades himself that he is sprung from the +loins of Baldwin, King of Jerusalem. The mass of the population at the +South is more intensely democratic, so far as white men are concerned, +than the same class at the North. + +There is a little inconsistency in the English oracles in this respect; +for, while they cannot conceal a kind of sympathy with the Southern +Rebels in what is supposed to be their war upon democratic institutions, +they tell us that they would heartily espouse our cause, if we would but +proclaim a crusade against Slavery. Suppose the Squires of England had +got up a rebellion because societies had been formed for the abolition +of the Corn-Laws; which would the "Times" have gone for putting down +first, the rebellion or the laws? England professes not to be able to +understand the principles of this wicked, this unholy war, as she calls +it. Yet she was not so slow to understand the necessity of putting down +the Irish Insurrection of 1848, or the Indian Rebellion ten years later. +She thinks it impossible for the Government of the United States to +subdue and hold provinces so vast as the Cotton States of America; yet +she neither foreboded nor as yet has found any impracticability in +renewing and retaining her hold on the vaster provinces of British +India,--provinces inhabited, all of them, by races alien in blood, +religion, and manners, and many by a population greatly exceeding that +of our Southern States, brave, warlike, and, to some extent, trained in +European tactics. To have abandoned India would have been to surrender +the greatness of England. English writers and speakers, in discussing +our affairs, overlook wholly the fact that a rebellion may be crushed by +anything except force of arms. Among a people of the same lineage and +the same language, but yesterday contented under the same Constitution, +and in an age when a victory in the stock-market is of more consequence +than successes in the field, political and economical necessities may be +safely reckoned on as slow, but effective, allies of the old order of +things. The people of this country are too much used to sudden and +seemingly unaccountable political revolutions not to be able to forfeit +their consistency without any loss of self-respect; and the rapidity +with which the Southern Rebellion was forced up to its present +formidable proportions, mainly by party management, is not unlikely to +find its parallel in suddenness of collapse. But whether this prove to +be the fact or not, nay, even if the reestablishment of the Union had +been hopeless from the first, a government which should have abandoned +its capital, which should have flinched from the first and plainest duty +of self-preservation, which should have admitted by a cowardly surrender +that force was law, that treason was constitutional, and fraud +honorable, would have deserved and received the contempt of all +civilized nations, of England among the first. + +There is no such profound and universal alienation, still less such an +antagonism in political theory, between the people of the Northern and +Southern parts of the Union, as some English journals would infer from +the foolish talk of a few conceited persons in South Carolina and +Virginia. There is no question between landholders on the one side and +manufacturers and merchants on the other. The bulk of the population, +North and South, are holders of land, while the average size of the +holdings of land under cultivation is probably greater in the Free than +in the Slave States. The largest single estate in the country is, we +believe, in Illinois. Generalizations are commonly unsafe in proportion +as they are tempting; and this, together with its pretty twin-brother +about Cavaliers and Roundheads, would seem to have been hatched from the +same egg and in the same mare's-nest. If we should take the statements +of Dr. Cullen and Mr. Smith O'Brien for our premises, instead of the +manifest facts of the case, our conclusion in regard to Ireland would +be an anachronism which no Englishman would allow to be within half +a century of the actual condition of things. And yet could the Irish +revolutionists of thirteen years ago have had the advantage of a +ministry like that of Mr. Buchanan,--had every Irish officer and soldier +been false to his honor and his allegiance,--had Ireland been supplied +and England stripped of arms and munitions of war by the connivance +of the Government,--the riot of 1848 might have become a rebellion as +formidable as our own in everything but territorial proportions. Equally +untrue is the theory that our Tariff is the moving cause of Southern +discontent. Louisiana certainly would hardly urge this as the reason of +her secession; and if the Rebel States could succeed in establishing +their independence, they would find more difficulty in raising a +national revenue by direct taxes than the North, and would be driven +probably to a tariff more stringent than that of the present United +States. If we are to generalize at all, it must be on broader and +safer grounds. Prejudices and class-interests may occasion temporary +disturbances in the current of human affairs, but they do not +permanently change the course of the channel. That is governed by +natural and lasting causes, and commerce, in spite of Southern +Commercial Conventions, will no more flow up-hill than water. It is +possible, we will not say probable, that our present difficulties may +result to the advantage both of England and America: to England, by +giving her a real hold upon India as the source of her cotton-supply, +and to America by making the North the best customer for the staple of +the South. + +We believe the immediate cause of the Southern Rebellion to be something +far deeper than any social prejudice or political theory on the part of +slaveholders, or any general apprehension of danger to their peculiar +property. That cause is a moral one, and is to be found in the +recklessness, the conceit, the sophistry, the selfishness, which are +necessarily engendered by Slavery itself. A generation of men educated +to justify a crime against the Law of Nature because it is profitable, +will hardly be restrained long by any merely political obligation, when +they have been persuaded to see their advantage in the breach of it. Why +not, then, at once lay the axe to the root of the mischief? Why did not +England attack Irish Catholicism in 1848? Why does not Louis Napoleon +settle the Papal Question with a stroke of his pen? Because the action +of a constitutional government is limited by constitutional obligations. +Because every government, even if despotic, must be guided by policy +rather than abstract right or reason. Because, in our own case, so much +pains have been taken to persuade the people of some peculiar sanctity +in human property, and to teach them the duty of yielding their moral +instincts to their duty as citizens, that even the Free States are by no +means ripe for a crusade. The single and simple duty of the Government +is to put down resistance to its legitimate authority; it meddles, +and can meddle, with no claim of right except the monstrous one of +rebellion. An absolute ruler in advance of his people has been more +than once obliged to abandon his reforms to save his throne; a popular +government which should put itself in the same position might endanger +not only its own hold upon power, (a minor consideration,) but, in such +a crisis as ours, the very frame of society itself. We must admit +that the administration of Mr. Lincoln has sometimes seemed to us +over-cautious; that, while it has not scrupled, and wisely has not +scrupled, to go behind the letter of the law to its spirit, in dealing +with open abettors of treason in the Free States, because they were +perverting private right to public wrong, it has been as scrupulous of +meddling with a rebel's legal right in man, though that man were being +used for a weapon or a tool against itself, as if to touch it were +anathema. The divinity, which is only a hedge about a king, becomes a +wall of triple brass about a slaveholder. + +But while we should prefer a more daring, or at least a more definite +policy on the part of the Government, we do not think the time has come +for turning the war into a crusade. The example of saints, martyrs, +and heroes, who could disregard consequences because the consequences +concerned only themselves and their own life, is for the private man, +and not for the statesman who is responsible for the complex life of the +commonwealth. To carry on a war we must have money, to get money we must +have the confidence of the money-holders, who would not advance a dollar +on a pledge of the finest sentiments in the world. There is something +instructive in the fate of that mob of enthusiasts who followed the +banner of Walter the Penniless, a name of evil omen. It saves trouble to +say that we must fight the Devil with fire; though, when the Devil is +incarnate in human beings, that policy has never been very successful +at Smithfield or elsewhere. But in trying the fiery cure of a servile +insurrection, we should run the risk of converting the whole white +population of the South into devils of the most desperate sort, with +whom any kind of reconciliation, even truce, would be impossible. + +We hope and believe that the end of this war will see the snake of +Slavery scotched, if not killed. Events move,--slowly, to be sure, but +they move,--and the thought of the people moves with them unconsciously +to fulfil the purposes of God. Government can do little, perhaps, in +controlling them; but it has no right to the power it holds, if it has +not the insight and the courage to make use of them at the right moment. +If the supreme question should arise of submitting to rebellion or of +crushing it in a common ruin with the wrong that engendered it, we +believe neither the Government nor the people would falter. The time for +answering that question may be nearer than we dream; but meanwhile +we would not hasten what would at best be a terrible necessity, and +justifiable only as such. We believe this war is to prepare the way for +the extinction of Slavery by the action of economical causes, and we +should prefer that solution to one of fire and blood. Already the system +has received a death-blow in Maryland and Missouri. In Western Virginia +it is practically extinct. If the war is carried on with vigor, it +may become so before long in East Tennessee. Texas should be taken +possession of and held at any cost, and a territory capable of supplying +the world with cotton to any conceivable amount thrown open to free +labor. + +However regarded, this war into which we have been driven is, in fact, a +war against Slavery. But emancipation is not and could not be the object +of the war. It will be time enough to consider the question as one of +military necessity when our armies advance. To proclaim freedom from the +banks of the Potomac to an unarmed, subject, and dispirited race, when +the whole white population is in arms, would be as futile as impolitic. +Till we can equip our own army, it is idle to talk of arming the slaves; +and to incite them to insurrection without arms, and without the +certainty of support at first and protection afterward, would be merely +sacrificing them to no good end. It is true, the war may lack the ardent +stimulus that would for a time be imparted to it by a direct and obvious +moral purpose. But we doubt whether the impulse thus gained would hold +out long against the immense practical obstacles with which it would be +confronted and the chill of disappointment which is sure to follow an +attempt to realize ideal good by material means. Nor would our gain in +this respect more than compensate for the strength which would be added +to the rebels by despair. It is a question we have hardly the heart to +discuss, where our wishes, our hopes, almost our faith in God, are on +one side, our understanding and experience on the other. + +Nor are we among those who would censure the Government for undue +leniency. If democracy has made us a good-natured people, it is a strong +argument in its favor, and we need have no fear that the evil passions +of men will ever be buried beyond hope of resurrection. We would not +have this war end without signal and bitter retribution, and especially +for all who have been guilty of deliberate treachery; for that is a kind +of baseness that should be extirpated at any cost. If, in moments of +impatience, we have wished for something like the rough kingship +of Jackson, cooler judgment has convinced us that the strength of +democratic institutions will be more triumphantly vindicated by success +under an honest Chief Magistrate of average capacity than under a man +exceptional, whether by force of character or contempt of precedent. + +Is this, then, to be a commonplace war, a prosaic and peddling quarrel +about Cotton? Shall there be nothing to enlist enthusiasm or kindle +fanaticism? Are we to have no Cause like that for which our English +republican ancestors died so gladly on the field, with such dignity +on the scaffold?--no Cause that shall give us a hero, who knows but a +Cromwell? To our minds, though it may be obscure to Englishmen who look +on Lancashire as the centre of the universe, no army was ever enlisted +for a nobler service than ours. Not only is it national life and a +foremost place among nations that is at stake, but the vital principle +of Law itself, the august foundation on which the very possibility of +government, above all of self-government, rests as in the hollow of +God's own hand. If democracy shall prove itself capable of having +raised twenty millions of people to a level of thought where they can +appreciate this cardinal truth, and can believe no sacrifice too great +for its defence and establishment, then democracy will have vindicated +itself beyond all chance of future cavil. Here, we think, is a Cause the +experience of whose vicissitudes and the grandeur of whose triumph +will be able to give us heroes and statesmen. The Slave-Power must be +humbled, must be punished,--so humbled and so punished as to be a +warning forever; but Slavery is an evil transient in its cause and its +consequences, compared with those which would result from unsettling the +faith of a nation in its own manhood, and setting a whole generation of +men hopelessly adrift in the formless void of anarchy. + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_The Armies of Europe: Comprising Descriptions in Detail of the Military +Systems of England, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sardinia, +adapting their Advantages to all Arms of the United States Service; and +embodying the Report of Observations in Europe during the Crimean War, +as Military Commissioner from the United Stales Government in 1855-56_. +By GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Major-General U.S. Army. Originally published +under the Direction of the War Department, by Order of Congress. +Illustrated with a Fine Steel Portrait and Several Hundred Engravings. +Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. 8vo. + +It is an interesting study to examine into the causes or motives which +have produced military books of the higher order; for we are thus +vouchsafed an insight into the writer's genius, and an intelligence of +the circumstances amidst which he wrote, and of which he was often an +important controller. The Archduke Charles wrote his "Grundsaetze der +Strategie," etc., as a vindication of his splendid movements in 1796, +against the French armies of the Rhine and the Sambre-et-Meuse; and +it has remained at once a monument to his achievements and a standard +text-book in military science. Marmont, the Marshal Duke of Ragusa, +collecting the principles of the art of war from "long and frequent +conversations with Napoleon, twenty campaigns, and more than half a +century of experience," has given us, in his "Esprit des Institutions +Militaires," a condensed view of his own military life, as complete, if +not as pleasantly diffuse, as his large volumes of "Memoires." Jomini, +from an extended experience, and a study of the genius of Napoleon, +which his Russian position could never induce him to undervalue, +has produced those standard works which must always remain the +treasure-houses of military knowledge. We admire veracity, but let no +soldier confess that he has not read the "Vie Politique et Militaire," +and the "Precis de l'Art de la Guerre." But, in all these cases, the +_litera scripta_ has been but the closing act,--the signing of the name +to History's bead-roll of passing greatness,--the _testamentum_ of the +old soldier whose _personalty_ is worth bequeathing to the world. + +The work before us, although of great value and present importance, is +of a very different character; as a glance at the circumstances +which produced it will show. It has, however, we would fondly hope, +anticipated for its youthful author a greater success. + +In 1855, Mr. Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, sent a military +commission to Europe, composed of Major Delafield of the Engineers, +Major Mordecai of the Ordnance, and Captain McClellan, just promoted +from a Lieutenancy of Engineers to a Captaincy in the Cavalry. Major +Delafield was charged with the special subject of Engineering; Major +Mordecai with Ordnance and Gunnery; and to Captain McClellan was +assigned the duty of a general report upon the Organization of Armies, +with a special hearing upon the formation of Infantry and Cavalry. Each +of these gentlemen has written a book, and that of McClellan, originally +published as a Report to the Secretary of War,--in unmanageable quarto, +and at a more unmanageable price,--is now issued, in the volume before +us, with the very appropriate title, "The Armies of Europe," and in a +convenient form for the eye and the purse. + +Whatever of technical value the other reports may have,--and they +are, we doubt not, excellent,--McClellan's is the only one of popular +interest, the only one of rounded proportions and general importance; +and if it also contain much addressed to the professional soldier, it +must be remembered that the country is now being educated up to the +intelligent perusal of such books. + +Travelling in all the principal countries of Europe,--Montesquieu's +assertion is now verified, that "only great nations can have large +armies,"--the commission met everywhere proper facilities for +observation. McClellan made full notes upon the spot, procured all the +books of Tactics, Regulations, Military Laws, etc., and provided himself +with such models of arms, equipments, saddles, bridles, tents, etc., +as were easily transported. Operations of a difficult and laborious +character, such as carrying horses on shipboard, are fully demonstrated +with diagrams. Marches, manoeuvres, detachments, battles, are fully +disclosed. Such investigations, when the French, Italian, or German +language was the medium, were comparatively easy; but in order to give a +proper comparative view, he was obliged also to study Russian, which he +did successfully; by this means he has given us a masterly summary +of the Russian system, with its immense battalions, its thousands of +military schools, and its Cossack skirmishers, of wonderful endurance +and formidable fierceness. + +The volume is a complete description in detail of the principal armies, +and of wider scope than would be expected; for, while the author has +been very full upon the special topics assigned him, which did not +include the duties of Engineers and Engineer Troops, it is easy to see +everywhere that these latter would intrude themselves with the siren +charms of a first love, and nothing but the record could dissolve the +spell. Indeed, he urgently recommends to the Government the organization +of Engineer troops, specifying their equipments, points of instruction, +and duties. In this department, his description of Military Bridges is +of great value. Incident to the faithful descriptions contained in the +Report, and by far the most valuable feature of the work, we would +specify his comments upon all that he saw. They are manly and bold, but +_raisonnes_ and just. They give token of that originality of thought +which we call genius. The opening chapter on the Crimean War is the only +fair critique of that gallant, but mismanaged campaign we remember to +have seen. The author's object is to exhibit the movements of both +Allies and Russians + + "As truth will paint them, and as bards will + not." + +When MeClellan's work first appeared, the "Athenaeum" took up spear +and shield; but, _selon conseil_, McClellan declined to reply, and the +champion fought the air, without injuring the record. + +A prime interest attaches to this work, because, unconsciously, the +author has given us, in advance, his repertory of instruments and +principles. From the written word we may anticipate the brilliant +achievement, while in every case the action may be tested by a reference +to the recorded principle. + +The retirement of Scott places McClellan in a position where he will +have neither partner nor censor in his plans and movements. The graceful +and appropriate manner in which the old veteran leaves the field, which +age and infirmity will no longer allow him to command, is but a fitting +prelude to the military rule of one upon whose brow the dew of youth +still rests, and who brings to his responsible task the highest +qualities, combined with a veneration for the noble virtues and an +emulation of the magnanimous career of his predecessor, at once +honorable and inspiring. + + +_Spare Hours_. By JOHN BROWN, M.D., Author of "Rab and his Friends." +Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. + +It has not yet been satisfactorily explained why doctors are such shrewd +and genial men, and, when they appear in the literary field, such +charming writers. This is one of the curious problems of the day, and +undoubtedly holds its own answer in solution, but has not yet seen fit +to make an observable precipitate. Perhaps this is because the times are +stirring, and the facts cannot settle. A delightful exhibition is made +of something extremely good to take, which we swallow unscrupulously: +in other words, we can only guess how many scruples, and of what, this +blessed medicine for the mind contains. As it is eminently fit for every +American to have an hypothesis upon every subject, we might now, with +proper recklessness, rush into print with a few unhesitating suggestions +upon this singular phenomenon of doctors gifted and graceful with the +pen. + +We observe, at any rate, that it is something independent of climate and +locality, and not at all endemic. Otherwise it might be true that the +restless and inquisitive climate of the Atlantic coast, which wears the +ordinary Yankee to leanness, and "establishes a raw" upon the nervous +system, does soften to acuteness, mobility, and racy corrugation in the +breast of its natural ally, the Doctor. For autocratic tempers are bland +towards each other, and murderous characteristics can mutually impart +something homologous to the refining interchange of beautiful souls. +Therefore we do not yet know how much our climate is indebted to our +doctors. It may be suspected that they understand each other, as the +quack and the fool do, whose interests are identical. + +But this will not account for the literary talent of the doctors. For +they write books in England and Scotland, in France and temperate +Germany, in every latitude and _with_ a good deal; they are, however, +defective in longitude, which is remarkable, when we consider how they +will protract their cases. With their pens they are prompt, clean, +humane in the matter of ink, their first intention almost always +successful, their thought expelled by natural cerebral contraction +without stimulus, (we speak of ergot, but of "old rye" we know nothing,) +their passion running to its crisis in the minimum of time, and their +affections altogether pleasanter than anything of the kind they accuse +us of having, as well as less lingering. But with their pills--well, we +all know how our ills are nursed by medicine. Is it a relief that their +precept is less tedious than their practice? It is good policy for us, +perhaps, if our minds are to be under treatment from their books,--and +it grows plainer every day that no person of mind can well escape from +them,--that our bodies should continue subject to their boluses. Thus +we may die daily, but our incorporeal part is better acclimated in the +invisible world of truths and realities. + +No,--the doctors owe nothing to climate or race. The intelligent ones +are everywhere broad, acute, tender, and religious. They uniformly see +what is natural and what is morbid, what is fact and what is fancy, what +is cutaneous and what is vital, in men and women. They stand on unreal, +conventional terms with nothing. They know healthy from inflamed +tissues, and run down, grab, and give one dexterous fatal shake to a +tissue of lies. One of Dr. Brown's terriers is not more swift, exact, +and uncompromising after vermin. This excellent sense for unvarnished +realities has been attributed by some to their habit of visiting so many +interiors--of men and of their houses--whose swell-fronts are pervious +to the sincerity of pain. We never see a doctor's chaise anchored at a +door but we imagine the doctor taking in freight up-stairs. In these +days he is beginning to receive more than he gives. Let no sarcastic +person allude to doctors' fees. We mean that the physician, whose +humanity and intelligence are broad diplomas, on presenting which the +doors of hearts and houses open with a welcome, enters into the choicest +field of his education and research, where his tender observation walks +the wards of thought, feeling, and motive, to amass the facts of health +and suffering, to be refined at the true drama of pathos, to be ennobled +by the spectacle of fair and lofty spiritual traits, to be advised of +the weaknesses which he learns to touch lightly with his caustic, while +his knowing and friendly look deprecates all excess of pain. It is a +school of shrewdness, gentleness, and faith. + +But a rich subject is here, altogether too wide for a book-notice, and +worthy of deliberate, but enthusiastic treatment. Dr. John Brown of +Edinburgh has consulted his own interior, and frequented those of +his diocese, to some purpose. The pieces in this volume, which the +publishers have selected from the two volumes of "Horae Subsecivae," +omitting the more professional papers, are full of humor, tenderness, +and common sense. They betray only occasionally, in a technical way, +that the author is a disciple, as well as admirer, of Sydenham, and his +own countryman, Cullen. But they overflow with the best specifics of the +healing art, shrewdness, independence, nice observation; they have a +woman's kindness and a man's sturdiness. They honor human nature not the +less because the writer knows how to manage it, to raise a smile at its +absurdities, to rally, pique, and guide it into health and good-humor. +He is very clever with the edge-tools in his surgeon's-case; he whips +you out an excrescence before you are quite aware that he meditated +an operation, and you find that he had chloroformed you with a shrewd +writer's best anaesthetic, a humorous and genial temper. + +There is a great deal of nice writing here. Happy words come at a call +and occupy their inevitable places. Now and then a Scotch word, with a +real terrier phiz and the best qualities of "black and tan," gives the +page a local flavor which we should not like to miss. But the writing +is not provincial. There is Scotch character everywhere: the keenness, +intensity, reverence, shaggy humor, sly fun, and just a touch of the +intolerance. The somewhat literal regard for Scripture, the awe, and the +unquestioning, childlike way of being religious, with the independence +of Kirk and Sessions and National Establishments, all belong to the best +intelligence of Edinburgh. But the literary felicity, the scholarship, +the various reading, the cultivated appreciation of books, men, and +systems, while they make us admire--as a good many bright volumes +printed in Edinburgh have done before--the mental power and refinement +which that most picturesque of Northern cities nourishes, do still +belong to the great commonwealth of letters, remind us not of wynds and +closes, and run away from the littleness of time and place. + +If the reader would understand the difference between the sentimental +and the pathetic treatment of a subject, let him see in "Rab and his +Friends" how the pen of Dr. Brown follows the essential lines of that +most pure and tender of all stories. In doing so he has given us a new +creation in Ailie Noble. Not a line can be effectively added to that +ideal narrative of a true history, not a word can be pushed from its +place. The whole treatment is at once delicate, incisive, tender, +reserved, and dramatic. And after reading it,--with or without tears, +according to your capacity for dogged resistance to a distended +lachrymal duct,--you will be conscious of bearing away a sweet and +subduing impression, like that which a rare friend can sometimes give, +which lingers many days. + +Let nobody omit to read the "Letter to John Cairns, D.D.," because he +does not care for J.C. or know who he is. It contains some reminiscences +by Dr. Brown of his father, a noted clergyman, of whose life and +character Dr. Cairns had prepared a memoir. In this, and in the Essay +upon Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Brown shows his capacity to observe and +portray human moods and characteristics. There are his usual literary +excellences, brought to the service of a keen and faithfully reporting +eye, and his fine humane qualities, his tenderness, reverence, and +humor. + +This volume is one of the best ventures of the literary year. + + +_Cecil Dreeme_. By THEODORE WINTHROP. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. + +In the death of Major Winthrop, at the promising commencement of his +military career, the nation lost one of its purest, noblest, and most +capable spirits. His industry, sagacity, and intrepidity all rested on a +firm basis of fixed principle and deep enthusiasm; and had he lived, we +have little doubt that both his moral and practical power would have +been felt among the palpable forces of the country. In the articles he +contributed to this magazine, describing his brief military experience, +every reader must have recognized the singular brightness of his mind +and the singular joyousness of his courage. Powers which, in meditation, +worked at the bidding of pensive or melancholy sentiments, seemed to +be braced by action into unwonted healthiness and hilarity; and had he +survived the experience of the present war, there can be little doubt +that his intellect and imagination would, by contact with events, have +been developed to their full capacity, and found expression in literary +works of remarkable power. + +"Cecil Dreeme" is one of several novels he wrote before the war broke +out, and it conveys a striking impression of his genius and disposition. +The utmost sensitiveness and delicacy of moral sense were combined in +him with a rough delight in all the manifestations of manly strength; +and these two tendencies of his nature are fitly embodied and +exquisitely harmonized in the characters of Cecil Dreeme and Robert +Byng. They are opposites which by their very nature are necessarily +attracted to each other. The obstacle to their mental and moral union +is found in a third person, Densdeth, in whom manly strength and genius +have been corrupted by selfishness and sensuality into the worst form +of spiritual evil. This person is simply abhorred by Cecil, while Byng +finds in him something which tempts appetite, piques curiosity, develops +sensuous feeling, and provokes pride, as well as something which excites +moral disgust and loathing. Byng's distrustful love for Emma Denman +admirably represents this stage of his moral experience. + +Densdeth is undoubtedly the central character of the book. It proves +its creator to be a true spiritual as well as physical descendant of +President Edwards; and not even his ancestor has shown more vividly the +"exceeding sinfulness of sin." Densdeth is one of those evil natures +in whom delight in evil pleasures has subsided into a delight in evil +itself, and a desire to communicate it to others. He has the diabolical +power of calling out the latent evil in all natures with whom his own +comes in contact, and he corrupts, not so much by example, as by a +direct communication of the corrupt spiritual life of his individual +being. He is an accomplished devil, wearing the guise of a New-York man +of fashion and fortune,--a devil such as tempts every person thrown into +the vortex of our daily commonplace life. Every pure sentiment, noble +aspiration, and manly instinct, every natural affection, gentle feeling, +and religious principle, is tainted by his contaminating companionship. +He infuses a subtle skepticism of the reality of goodness by the mere +magnetism of his evil presence. Persons who have been guarded against +the usual contrivances by which the conventional Devil works his wonders +find themselves impotent before the fascinations of Densdeth. They +follow while they detest him, and are at once his victims and his +accomplices. In those whose goodness, like that of Cecil Dreeme, is +founded on purity of sentiment and strength of principle, he excites +unmitigated abhorrence and strenuous opposition; but on all those whose +excellence is "respectable" rather than vital, who are good by the +felicity of their circumstances rather than the force of their +conscience, he exercises a fascination almost irresistible. To +everybody, indeed, who has in him any latent evil not overbalanced by +the habitual performance of positive duties, Densdeth's companionship +is morally blighting. The character, fearful in its way as the +Mephistopheles of Goethe, is represented with considerable artistic +skill. + +Though the most really prominent person in the drama, he is, in the +representation, kept in the background,--a cynical, sneering, brilliant +demi-devil, who appears only when some plot against innocence is +beginning its wiles or approaching its consummation. + +The incidents of the novel occur in some of the best-known localities +of New York. Nobody can mistake Chuzzlewit Hotel and Chrysalis College. +Every traveller has put up at the first and visited some literary +or artistic friend at the second. Indeed, Winthrop seems to have +deliberately chosen the localities of his story with the special +purpose of showing that passions almost as terrible as those which are +celebrated in the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles may rage in the +ordinary lodging-houses of New York. He has succeeded in throwing an +atmosphere of mystery over places which are essentially commonplace; +and he has done it by the intensity with which he has conceived and +represented the internal thoughts, struggles, and emotions of the men +and women by whom these edifices of brick and stone are inhabited. + +Though a clear narrator, when the story required clear narration, +Winthrop perfectly understood the art of narrating by implication and +allusion. He paints distinctly and minutely, not omitting a single +detail, when the occasion demands such faithful representation of real +facts and localities; but he has also the power of flashing his meaning +by suggestive hints which the most labored description and explication +could not make more effective. He makes the mind of the reader work +sympathetically with his own in building up the idea he seeks to convey. +Crimes which are nameless are mutually understood by this refined +communion between author and reader. The mystery of the plot is not +directly explained, but each party seems to bring, as in private +conversation, his individual sagacity to bear upon the right +interpretation. + +The style of the book is admirable. It is brief almost to abruptness. +The words are few, and are crammed with all the meaning they can hold. +There is not a page which does not show that the writer is an economist +of expression, and desirous of conveying his matter with the slightest +possible expenditure of ink. Charles Reade himself does not condense +with a more fretful impatience of all circumlocution and a profounder +reliance on the absolute import of single words. + +We might easily refer to particular scenes from this book, illustrative +of the author's descriptive and representative powers. Among many which +might be noticed, we will allude to only two,--that in which Cecil is +revived from his "sleep of death," and that in the opera-house, where +Byng is apprised of the guilt of Emma Denman. Nobody can read either +without feeling that in the disastrous fight of Great Bethel we lost a +great novelist as well as a chivalrous soldier and a noble man. + + * * * * * + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Gypsy's Prophecy. A Tale of Real Life. By Mrs. Emma D.E.N. +Southworth. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 455. +$1.25. + +The Works of Charles Dickens. Household Edition. Illustrated from +Drawings by F.O.C. Darley and John Gilbert. Great Expectations. 2 vols. +New York. James G. Gregory. 16mo. pp. 336, 334. $1.50. + +The Silver Cord. A Novel. By Shirley Brooks. With Illustrations by John +Tenniel. New York. Harper & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 268. $1.00. + +Astoria; or, Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. By +Washington Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New York. G.P. Putnam. 8vo. +pp. viii., 519. $1.50. + +Revised Regulations for the Army of the United States, 1861. With a Full +Index. By Authority of the War Department. Philadelphia. J.B. Lippincott +& Co. 8vo. pp. 559. $2.00. + +Manual of Internal Rules and Regulations for Men-of-War. By Captain U.P. +Levy, U.S.N., late Flag-Officer commanding United States Naval Forces in +the Mediterranean; Originator of the Abolition of Corporal Punishment in +the United States Navy. New York. D. Van Nostrand. 18mo. pp. 70. 30 cts. + +The Rejected Stone: or, Insurrection _vs._ Resurrection in America. By a +Native of Virginia. Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. 16mo. pp. 132. 50 cts. + +Sermons preached in the Chapel of Harvard College. By James Walker, D.D. +Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 12mo. pp. vi., 397. $1.50. + +Lady Maud, the Wonder of Kingswood Chase; or, Earl Gower; or, The +Secret Marriage. By Pierce Egan. Only Complete and Unabridged Edition. +Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 365. $1.25. + +The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, and +Lord High Chancellor of England. Collected and edited by James Spedding, +M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge; Robert Leslie Ellis, M.A., +late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Douglas Denon Heath, +Barrister-at-Law, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Vol. II. +Boston. Brown & Taggard. 12mo. pp. 503. $1.50. + +Cecil Dreeme. By Theodore Winthrop. With a Biographical Introduction by +George William Curtis. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 360. $1.00. + +Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada. From the Manuscripts of Fray +Antonio Agapida. By Washington Irving. Author's Revised Edition. New +York. G.P. Putnam. 12mo. pp. 548. $1.50. + +Woman's Rights under the Law. In Three Lectures, delivered in Boston, +January, 1861. By Caroline H. Dall, Author of "Woman's Right to Labor," +"Historical Pictures Retouched," etc., etc. Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. +16mo. pp. xx., 165. 50 cts. + +Eugenie Grandet; or, The Miser's Daughter. From the French of Honore de +Balzac. Translated by O.W. Wight and F.B. Goodrich. New York. Rudd & +Carleton. 12mo. pp. 309. $1.00. + +Record of an Obscure Man. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 216. 75 +cts. + +Essays. By the late George Brimley, M.A., Librarian of Trinity College, +Cambridge. With an Introduction by R.H. Stoddard. New York. Rudd & +Carleton. 12mo. pp. 409. $1.25. + +The Cloister and the Hearth; or, Maid, Wife, and Widow. A Matter-of-Fact +Romance. By Charles Reade. New York. Rudd & Carleton. 8vo. pp. 256. +$1.00. + +The Last Travels of Ida Pfeiffer: Inclusive of a Visit to Madagascar. +With an Autobiographical Introduction. Translated by H.W. Dulcken. New +York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 281. $1.25. + +Patriotic and Heroic Eloquence: A Book for the Patriot, Statesman, and +Student. New York. J.G. Gregory. 12mo. pp. 264. 75 cts. + +Great Expectations. By Charles Dickens. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & +Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. 108. 25 cts. + +Deep-Sea Soundings and Explorations of the Bottom: or, The Ultimate +Analysis of Human Knowledge. By A.B. Johnson. Printed for Private +Distribution. 16mo. pp. 78. + +The Armies of Europe: Comprising Descriptions in Detail of the Military +Systems of England, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sardinia, +adapting their Advantages to all Arms of the United States Service; and +embodying the Report of Observations in Europe during the Crimean War, +as Military Commissioner from the United States Government in 1835-56. +By George B. McClellan, Major-General United States Army. Originally +published under the Direction of the War Department, by Order of +Congress. Illustrated with Several Hundred Engravings. Philadelphia, +J.B. Lippincott & Co. 8vo. pp. 499. $3.00. + +Tales of a Grandfather. History of Scotland. By Sir Walter Scott, Bart. +With Notes. In Six Volumes. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. Vols. I. and +II. pp. xii., 301; vi., 301. per vol. 75 cts. + +The Okavango River. A Narrative of Travel, Exploration, and Adventure. +By Charles John Andersson. 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